Rockland Manufacturing Project Takes First Place Penn State contest lauds student work on meaningful projects

By: Harry Zimbler

Senior Penn State University engineering students Christopher Albright, Shawn Romig, Chris Punshon, Jared Neeper posed with Bo Pratt, kneeling right, engineering manager of Rockland Manufacturing.

Bedford, PA -- An engineering project sponsored by Rockland Manufacturing in Bedford took the top prize at Penn State's annual "Learning Factory Showcase." The project was designed by a team of student engineers at Penn State and built by the staff at Rockland working with the student team.

Dan Shaffer, President and CEO of Rockland was thrilled with the announcement. "Involvement with The Learning Factory has allowed us to move a project forward that we have always wanted to work on, and it really looks as though this idea has real market potential" he said.

"This is great for Rockland," said Bo Pratt, engineering manager. "The students get to choose the project, and get valuable experience working in a real-world situation. We were able to add capacity to conduct research and development that we haven't had available to us before."

Both Pratt and Shaffer agreed that it was an intense and exciting three-to four-month experience.

"I congratulate Rockland on taking first place at the Learning Factory Showcase," said Rick Hoover, director of research and development for the Materials Research Institute at Penn State.  "Such interaction that The Learning Factory provides between students and industry professionals is an extremely valuable component of their education. Rockland should also be congratulated for its participation in our Engineering Entrepreneurship course."

The team of senior students called themselves The Rockman.  The students were Christopher Albright, Shawn Romig, Chris Punshon and Jared Neeper.

 
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