The Department of Industrial Management and Engineering has received major equipment donations from two distinguished alumni to upgrade its automation laboratory. The equipment donations include an ABB five-axis robot system with accessories such as two belt conveyor systems, controllers and sensors from Jeff Bigger, CEO and president of Massman Automation Designs LLC; and six PPT machine vision systems and a DataLogic Vision Sensor from Bob Heller, president of Heller Capital Inc. and former CEO of PPT Vision Inc. 

Jing Shi, associate professor and supervisor of the IME Automation Laboratory, worked to secure the donations. According to Shi, the newly added equipment enhances the instructional capability of the laboratory, enables the department to teach start-of-the-art industrial automation technologies and alleviates the scheduling problem of offering concurrent lab instruction sessions.

“The department is very pleased with the enhancement of our automation laboratory through these donations from alumni. The equipment received will greatly help modernize our programs in industrial and manufacturing engineering,” said Canan Bilen-Green, professor and interim chair.

For more information, contact Shi at jing.shi@ndsu.edu.

NDSU is recognized as one of the nation's top 108 public and private universities by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education.