CANY

CACT/CANY Sponsor Education and Training Programs

One important component of the CANY "Blueprint for the Ceramics and Glass Industry" is already being carried out by the CACT. In keeping with the Blueprint's mission to reach & serve industry, new educational and training initiatives are being developed that will directly benefit New York State's ceramics and glass industries.

Under a grant from New York State Science and Economic Development, NYSCC ceramic engineering and materials science faculty are offering short courses featuring on-site education and training of industrial manufacturing workers. According to Dr. Vasantha Amarakoon, CACT interim director, "Our target in developing these courses is those employees coming right off the manufacturing floor, those who may lack a traditional ceramics background and who will benefit from training specific to particular production issues."

Dr. James S. Reed, who coordinated the CANY "Blueprint" Education and Training Task Force for 1998-99, inaugurated the program with a short course in quality and statistical process control at Heany Industries. Located in Scottsville, NY, Heany Industries is an advanced ceramics manufacturer of wear resistant materials for the textile industry, among other applications.

"In order to efficiently reach the most workers, we've broken the course into two phases," Reed noted. "At the initial meeting in October 1998, we discussed quality manufacturing, teamwork strategies, and technology improvements. Approximately half of the workers attended that presentation, and the other half will attend a second session in January 1999." This same pattern of attendance will be followed later this spring for the second phase of the course, which targets managers and supervisors as well as production workers.

This first short course presented at Heany Industries "nucleates a program that we will expand and carry into other industrial settings," Reed said. Other CACT / CANY short courses under this education and training initiative include fractography, taught by Dr. James Varner, associate professor of ceramic engineering, and process control and optimization, taught by Dr. Wilfred Huang, professor of electrical engineering. Additionally, a summer program built around ceramics instruction for non-ceramists, taught by Dr. Paul Johnson, associate professor of ceramic engineering, promises to attract workers from several New York State industries.

From CACT Advances, Vol. 11, No.1, Winter 1999