Leveraging Industry Partnerships to Create New Educational Focused Laboratory Facilities

This paper details an innovative partnership between academia and multiple manufacturers, distributors, and vendors within the process control industry leading to the design and installation of new industrial-grade laboratory infrastructure in an undergraduate capstone experience. The multi-year collaboration between academia and industry resulted in the development of a year-long student-driven project centered on the design, development, and installation of new laboratory infrastructure on a scale beyond the budgetary resources of the host institution or any individual industry partner. The resulting installation is a permanent education and demonstration system constructed to industry standards, utilized in the delivery of concepts related to process control, measurement, and communications in undergraduate coursework while also providing a platform for interdisciplinary research within academic schools outside of its engineering technology host program. This paper presents the formation and history of the partnership as well as an overview of initial interactions and planning that lead to a large-scale collaborative effort between academia and industry. Also detailed are the upfront commitments of academia and industry required to launch an open-ended project of this scale and the challenges associated with the dynamic nature of project scope, instructional delivery, timeline and budget. This examination includes a focus on the roles of faculty and industry participants during all stages of the project including preplanning, budgeting, instruction, design, sourcing, procurement, implementation and troubleshooting. Additional reflection includes a summary of the shortand long-term benefits of the experience and resulting infrastructure from the perspectives of both academia and industry participants.