by Eric Lanke
NFPA CEO
Just had to share this tidbit from the pre-survey we’ve done of the undergraduate engineering students that are participating in the first NFPA Fluid Power Vehicle Challenge this year. The Vehicle Challenge is a workforce development program designed to support teams of undergraduate students (through a senior capstone design project or extracurricularly) as they develop a fluid powered vehicle without the use of chains or belts. By exposing them to hands-on fluid power like this, we hope not only to add fluid power to their engineering toolbox, but to bend them towards the use of fluid power when they enter the workforce.
A very important component in that objective is fluid power industry professionals serving as mentors to the Vehicle Challenge student teams during their final academic year. That’s an opportunity that we’ve extended to all the companies who support the NFPA Foundation’s Pascal Society at the Gold or Silver Level, because those donations are making this program (and others like it) possible. Right now, only seven of the 27 eligible companies have registered mentors in the program, meaning that they are going to have a leg-up on the option of hiring these students.
Our Gold and Silver donors currently include (those with registered mentors marked with an asterisk):
- Afton Chemical
- Bimba Manufacturing
- Bobcat
- Bosch Rexroth
- Chevron*
- Clippard Instrument Laboratory
- CNH*
- Daman Products Company
- Danfoss Power Solutions*
- Deltrol Fluid Products*
- Donaldson Company
- Eaton Corporation
- Enfield Technologies*
- Evonik Oil Additives
- ExxonMobil
- Gates Corporation*
- HYDAC/Schroeder Industries
- Hydra-Power Systems
- Linde Hydraulics
- Lubrizol
- Moog
- Netshape Technologies
- Parker Hannifin*
- Poclain Hydraulics
- Proportion-Air
- Quality Control Corporation
- Woodward HRT
If you’re from one of the eligible companies, please contact Alyssa Burger at alyssa@umn.edu to get someone registered.
If your company is not eligible, but would like to get involved, please contact me at elanke@nfpa.com to learn more about joining the Pascal Society.
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