PORTSMOUTH, Ohio — A recent donation of two injection molding machines from Cincinnati-based industrial technology company Milacron is providing Shawnee State University students with valuable, real-world experience.
Brandon Coburn, a senior Plastics Engineering Technologies major, said the donation excites him because it will help him excel in the field.
“Shawnee has actually inspired me enough to actually want to pursue a Master’s Degree so I can better understand the material science,” says Brandon Coburn, a senior at Shawnee State University. “Understanding how these machines work actually in the industry will help us understand being process engineers, even being technicians on the floor. And being more comfortable with actually touching them and not being so passive.”
Adam Miller is a plastics engineering professor and said SSU draws students from across the Buckeye state. Ohio is one of the nation’s leaders in plastics manufacturing, he said.
“The number of employees in the plastics industry in Ohio is really second in the nation only to Texas. So whenever you consider the size of the state compared to other states, that’s kinda tremendous. And so, really there are fewer than 10 of these programs in the nation,” said Miller.
Whether it’s hands-on learning or analyzing data in the classroom, Coburn said he has high ambitions for the future.
“Be able to work with a facility as a process engineer and be able to see that dream come true, and be actually able to get the harder jobs, being able to work on the harder molds, the harder processes, the challenge is really what gets me up. And being able to see how my professors challenge me to do better and to be better in this program,” said Coburn.
Milacron and Shawnee State University’s partnership includes scholarship opportunities and funding provided by Milacron to the University’s Foundation for Tuition Assistance.
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