Pittsburg State gets boost from grant, donation

The giving season must be starting early this year, as Pittsburg State was on the receiving end of a major metallurgy grant and an injection molding machine for plastics.
Students in Pittsburg State University’s metallurgy lab will soon have access to new computers, microscopes and analysis equipment thanks to a $10,000 grant from the Foundry Educational Foundation.
Dr. Russ Rosmait, university professor of engineering technology, wrote the proposal for the grant in September and received the check in October. He said the donation comes with advantages that individual scholarships can’t provide.
“If I can buy equipment that everyone in the class can use, it can affect everyone,” Rosmait said. “That was the approach of the proposal. Scholarships are very useful, but they are limited in how many students they can help at one time. That’s why grants like this are so important.”
PSU also received a donation from ENGEL North America of an e-motion 440/110 injection molding machine. The machine will be utilized by the college's 89 plastics engineering technology students, as well as students in the manufacturing, mechanical, electronics and graduate engineering technology programs.
"I appreciate the new technology that's incorporated in the ENGEL e-motion," Paul Herring, assistant professor in the college of technology, engineering technology, said. "This is a great opportunity to introduce our students to the all-electric machines and new control technologies."
This is the third injection molding machine donation by ENGEL to Pittsburg State.
Herring, who worked in the plastic industry prior to joining PSU, works with a combination of new and used equipment and supplies from a variety of sources.
"Most of our molds, materials and equipment are donated by industry," he said. "ENGEL has been working with PSU since 2001, and this donation gives us a modern piece of equipment to work with for years to come."
As for the metallurgy grant, Pittsburg State University is one of 25 universities accredited by the Foundry Educational Foundation (FEF). FEF provides funding to support metal casting programs and holds a career fair annually in Chicago.
Rosmait said the grant will help all manufacturing students at PSU who take metal casting as their emphasis. Alumni with this emphasis have become process engineers or sometimes even executives of manufacturing companies.
This grant comes in addition to the $12,000 that FEF donates annually in scholarship support.
In regards to the e-motion injection molding machine, Herring said the e-motion will be part of many upcoming programs at PSU.
"Plastics engineering technology covers the entire plastics industry, and we are challenged to fit our training to that broad range of interests," he said.