As the
most recent example of Rose-Hulman’s 35-year collaboration with Neoteric, the institute’s
popular Operation Catapult summer program brought 30 high school seniors from the
U.S. and other nations to visit Neoteric’s manufacturing facility.
As
Rose-Hulman describes Operation Catapult, “It’s a tasty taco of science,
engineering and math awesomeness, with layers of savory STEM opportunities in a
delicious shell of fun that lets rising high school seniors reach into
robotics, or do cool things like brew biodiesel or make a machine from scratch.”
And that’s
just what the students did - the tour helped them design a working hovercraft!
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Neoteric President Chris Fitzgerald
welcomes the first team of students from Rose-Hulman’s Operation Catapult
program.
|
After the
Neoteric tour, Operation Catapult’s Assistant Director, Professor John Aidoo, reported
that the students found the tour “very
interesting and informative. This is about my 5th visit to the
plant. I always find the workers very professional and helpful toward the high
school kids. I have been impressed
and encouraged by our relationship with Neoteric. We hope that in the near
future we can invite some of your engineers to be guest speakers during
Operation Catapult.”
Professor
Aidoo added, “Operation Catapult is one
of the major recruiting tools used by Rose-Hulman. About 30% of the students in
Operation Catapult attend Rose after graduating from high school.”
 |
Rose-Hulman Professor of Engineering John
Aidoo (left) and Neoteric President Chris Fitzgerald (right) pose with
Operation Catapult students in Neoteric’s hovercraft manufacturing facility.
|
Other
Rose-Hulman professors who have brought students to Neoteric over the years echo
Professor Aidoo’s comments. As one example, Dr. Diane Evans, Professor of
Engineering Management, said this after bringing her Master’s Degree students to
visit Neoteric:
“I
decided that I’d like this seminar to be an opportunity to show the students
some companies that practice quality in the workplace. I had been to Neoteric
before during an American Society of Quality (ASQ) tour and I knew the students
would really appreciate what Chris is doing … This is one of the best
tours on which I’ve taken students. There were so many aspects of the visit
that pertained to what I teach – for example, the Kanban system and the Toyota
Production System process. Chris’ dedication to continued learning and growing
is inspirational.”
Neoteric
is honored to have such a long-standing relationship with Rose-Hulman Institute
of Technology. It began 35 years ago, when Neoteric President
Chris Fitzgerald was selected as Rose-Hulman’s very first Entrepreneur in
Residence. Since then, scores of Rose-Hulman students find internships,
employment and participation in special engineering projects at Neoteric.
We at
Neoteric, as always, enjoyed our visit with the Operation Catapult students,
and we look forward to continuing our valuable relationship with Rose-Hulman
for years to come.
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