 |
|
|
| 7/28/2010 11:00:00 AM | PSU receives $150,000 grant for hybrid automotive training
|
by JTB Staff
The department of automotive technology at Pittsburg (Kan.) State University recently was awarded a $150,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to help fund faculty education in the area of hybrid technology.
The two-year grant will provide more training to professors, who will then pass along those tools to students.
Trent Lindbloom and Roger Adams, professors in the automotive department, worked together to pursue the grant, which will help the department during its recertification process with the National Automotive Technical Education Foundation this fall. The Foundation requires schools to recertify every five years and has recently added the area of hybrid technology as a new focus to its standards.
"We've been seeing hybrids on the road more often now and seeing them end up in independent repair facilities, so there's a growing need for our students to know how to work on these vehicles," Lindbloom said in a press release.
Lindbloom said hybrid engines have a different structure than other cars and are more complex. He said dealing with high-voltage batteries, for instance, can be dangerous.
Funds from the grant will begin being distributed in September and will toward purchasing hybrid components for the lab, developing self-learning units, creating new curriculum to enhance the two- and four-year automotive programs, and training faculty. The department currently has three hybrid vehicles that have been donated by industry and are used in the classroom.
|
|
|
|
|
|
SEARCH SPONSORED BY 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
