GOV. STRICKLAND VISITS MODEL OF INDUSTRY - HIGHER EDUCATION PARTNERSHIP

Sinclair Community College issued the following news release:

Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland toured Tuesday the PDQ Center, a cooperative venture of EMTEC - Edison Materials Technology Center - and Sinclair Community College.

Governor Strickland's visit was part of a celebration of the PDQ Center, a partnership between Sinclair's AIM - Advanced Integrated Manufacturing - Center and EMTEC. The center assists small and medium-sized business in the development of new products. It was awarded a Third Frontier grant from the State of Ohio. The Governor toured the facility and witnessed a demonstration of some of the equipment purchased with state capital funds.

"This is a great model of how industry and higher education can partner to support businesses in ways that encourage innovation and economic growth in Ohio," said Governor Strickland.

The EMTEC - Sinclair partnership began almost three years ago. The PDQ Center provides "intellectual capital" in the form of engineers from EMTEC, student-faculty teams from Sinclair and interns from the University of Dayton to supplement and work with small to medium-sized companies.

"Small and medium-sized companies are the growth engine of our economy," said Frank Svet, EMTEC President and CEO. "They typically grow organically, from within and not from acquisition or massive outside investment. They grow by bootstrapping a scarcity of people, money and ideas into products and services that hopefully fulfill a market and customer need," Svet said he believes that the PDQ Center can be expanded to help realize new products in advanced and alternative energy and he looks forward to working with Governor Strickland and his team in Columbus on this important initiative.

The PDQ Center also provides resources and, in many cases, the use of expensive capital equipment that most small and medium-sized businesses cannot afford to "jump start" their product design. During his tour, Governor Strickland learned how one Piqua, Ohio general aviation company, Hartzell Propeller, has utilized the PDQ Center. In March 2006, they came to the PDQ Center to request its assistance to help develop automation equipment enabling it to economically produce, via automation, composite propeller blades. Prior to that time, all general aviation propellers were aluminum. At the time, Hartzell was competing to win a multi-million dollar order from a customer if they could produce a sufficient quantity and quality of propeller blades.

The EMTEC-Sinclair PDQ team worked with Hartzell engineers to deliver the first of four machines to the company by September 2006. Hartzell subsequently "won" that contract and have since expanded their facility to accommodate the new production capability. It has resulted in the hiring of several new employees, including one of the Sinclair students who worked on the project.

"Our college founder, David A. Sinclair, was fond of saying 'find the need and endeavor to meet it.' That was back in 1887. Today, this partnership between Sinclair Community College, and EMTEC is an excellent example of the important role that this college has daily in real workforce development," said Sinclair President Steven Lee Johnson.

For more information about EMTEC, contact David W. Swenson, Vice President for Business Initiatives at (937) 259-1302. For more information about the PDQ Center at Sinclair, contact David Dilley, Manager of the AIM Center, at (937) 512-2422 or david.dilley@sinclair.edu.