Contact: Dave Groves
(248) 370-2759
groves@oakland.edu
For Immediate Release
Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2009
OU, Crittenton partnership exposes future engineers to exercises in efficiency
Rochester, Mich. – An Oakland University partnership with Crittenton Hospital Medical Center in Rochester is giving industrial and systems engineering students an opportunity to complete their senior design projects while helping the hospital create more efficient work processes.
OU was first to partner with Crittenton when the hospital began its internship program in the summer of 2006. Bob Van Til and Sankar Sengupta, industrial and systems engineering professors and working team members of the Pawley Learning Institute at OU, worked with Crittenton personnel to develop the program.
“Our staff loves having interns in their department because they’re there to help,” said Gary Altman, program leader of process engineering at Crittenton Hospital. “They all have an impact on business metrics for the hospital.”
Student interns Jon Polom, Michelle Dick and Adrea Toth are working on a project in the operating rooms, while Pamela Najjar, Robert Tibedeau and Robert Boylan are conducting their project for the Radiology Department.
Typically, all OU engineering majors work on a joint senior design project that focuses on design of a product rather than a system. According to Tibedeau, it’s important for industrial and systems engineering majors to do this type of senior design project – one that’s related to their career choice.
Najjar agreed. “I think it’s more effective for the ISEs to work together on a project like this,” he said.
The internships also help students work on leadership skills. Polom said he is learning how to effectively manage projects.
“The only way you’ll ever really get it down is by doing it,” he explained. Polom added that the most important thing is learning to work with people, as industrial engineering is a very people-oriented field.
Paid summer internships involve work for 40 hours a week on a project with a large scope. Winter and fall internships are for 20 hours a week and students are receive course credit.
“I would definitely recommend it to other students, going out there and doing things that other industrial (and) systems engineers will do in the real world,” Dick said.
For more information about engineering programs at Oakland University, visit
www.oakland.edu/secs. To learn more about the Pawley Learning Institute, visit
www.oakland.edu/lean.
