College launches Center for Technology Development

A new center at Purdue University has been designed to work with industry partners to develop and improve technologies that, in turn, will lead to increased competitiveness. The Center for Technology Development, headquartered in the College of Technology, was officially launched Wednesday (January 11) with the signing of a charter by the directors and founding members. The center will involve professors, graduate students and undergraduates from the colleges of Technology and Engineering. The center will be led by Vahid Motevalli, professor of mechanical engineering technology and Henry Zhang, assistant professor of mechanical engineering technology. They will focus on direct problem solving for industry products, high risk research and development, feasibility study for future industry products and scholarly work for academia.

Click the photo to see representatives of the founding industry members of Purdue's Center for Technology Development talk about why they made the decision to be part of the center. Speakers, in order of appearance, are Andrew Benko of John Deere and Company, Andrew Weeks of Eaton Corp. and Glen Steyer of American Axle and Manufacturing.

“Our industry partners will benefit from the cross-disciplinary expertise and interactions with our faculty and students to amplify their technological innovations,” Motevalli said. “The interactions among the industry members and with our faculty and students will provide a unique opportunity to arrive at solutions and approaches that none of us may clearly see within our individual work.”
The founding members of the center are American Axle and Manufacturing, Eaton Corporation and John Deere. Faurecia has signed on at the associate member level. “We are very excited to launch the Center for Technology Development, as it aligns well with our strategic initiative to engage in applied research with business and industry,” said Gary Bertoline, dean of the College of Technology. “We are very pleased to be partnering with companies who are leaders in their respective markets, and we thank them for helping make this center a reality by becoming founding members.”

The core faculty have a range of expertise and can assist with a variety of tasks, from design work to analysis and from testing to reverse engineering. The scope of the center’s work will depend on the needs of its members. They will also address the needs of industry, as identified by the center’s partners: data acquisition, design innovation and system integration. “For product innovation and development, the best approach is minds-on and hands-on, or thinking with our brain and hands. Without this, new ideas could not go far,” said Zhang, director of the center. Center for Technology Development web site.

(Top photo: College of Technology representatives and founding industry partners sign a charter to officially launch Purdue's Center for Technology Development. Picture, from left, are: Henry Zhang (MET), Glen Steyer (AAM), Andrew Weeks (Eaton), Andrew Benko (John Deere), Gary Bertoline (dean), and Vahid Motevalli (MET).)