UC Davis Partners with Two Industry Leaders to Provide Hands-on Industry Experience to Bachelor Degree Students

A modern engineering curriculum must incorporate both practical and theoretical elements in equal proportion by combining theoretical teaching and hands-on commercial and industrial experience. UC Davis College of Engineering at the University of California did just that by teaming with two industry leading companies--- Agilent (News - Alert) Technologies and Indium Corporation.

Indium Corporation is a premier materials manufacturer and supplier to the global electronics, semiconductor, solar, thin-film and thermal management markets. Products include solders, preforms, and fluxes; brazes; sputter targets; indium, gallium, and germanium metals and inorganic compounds; and ReactiveNanoFoil.

Agilent Technologies (News - Alert) is a global company that designs and manufactures electronic and bio-analytical measurement instruments and equipment for measurement and evaluation.

The university teamed up with the two companies to provide real world experiences for UC Davis students enrolled in a dual degree program for a Bachelor of Science in Materials Science and Mechanical Engineering.

The program was designed to give students first-hand experience solving a materials science problem that had not yet been resolved, in this case performing wafer bonding using NanoFoil. The program was intended to introduce the students to real world problems and issues that businesses experience from imperfect situations.

The renowned engineers from both the companies and noted scientists from the university collaborated to design the program. The program designers included Mike Powers, Materials & Engineering scientist at Agilent Technologies; Jacques Matteau, Global Sales manager for NanoFoil and NanoBond at Indium Corporation, and Professor Sabyasachi Sen from UC Davis.

The program allowed the students to use equipment and facilities at the Agilent plant in Santa Clara, CA (News - Alert), supplemented with Indium Corporation's new NanoFoil materials, to learn how to solve an actual materials science issue.

The program gave UC Davis professors an opportunity to teach their students the theoretical principles with the help of practical examples in a business environment.

In addition to the hands-on experience and the classroom activities, Mike Powers and Jacques Matteau were available to provide information and answer questions to help the students work through their assignment.

Few months back, Indium Corporation named GlobalSpec as its Marcom Vendor of the Year for 2011. GlobalSpesc is a provider of digital media solutions designed to connect industrial marketers with their target audience of engineering, technical, industrial, scientific and manufacturing sector professionals.

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