By UNIVERSITY RELATIONS
A grant of $22,000 from Logan’s Dane G. Hansen Foundation provided the final funding piece that enabled the Department of Applied Technology at Fort Hays State University to acquire new industrial robotic arms this spring.
The $62,000 total purchased five ScorBot ER4U educational robots to replace aging Rhino units from the 1980s.
“Small manufacturers throughout central and western Kansas are growing and now are looking for more tech savvy employees,” said Joe Chretien, associate professor of applied technology and the author of the grant.
“Manufacturers in Norton, Phillipsburg, Hays and other towns already use these technologies and are realizing their benefits,” said Chretien. “A different kind of employee is needed to operate, program and maintain these systems.”
The robotic curriculum of the department is not limited to FHSU students. FHSU faculty will also use the bench-top robotic arms to conduct workshops for high school and middle school teachers in regional communities.
“Our own KAMS students already take advantage of these types of curriculum,” said Chretien. Kansas Academy of Mathematics and Science students last spring used the ScorBot platforms for research and presented their findings at the annual Scholarly and Creative Activities Day in April.
He said the department will seek one new school district or two-year institution to form a partnership to conduct the workshops and extend the reach of the training.
“We are pursuing further additions to these systems and the larger industrial robotic systems, also,” said Chretien.
The Hansen Foundation grant was supplemented by funds from the Peter and Pamela Werth STEM initiative account and the FHSU Foundation