Bosch Partners With MSU College of Engineering to Promote Innovation
EAST LANSING -- The German manufacturing and technology firm Robert Bosch is partnering with Michigan State University's College of Engineering in support of the college's first-year program—the CoRe (Cornerstone and Residential) Experience.
With a $200,000 contribution from the Bosch Community Fund, Bosch becomes a corporate sponsor in the Engineering Theme Partnership program. Bosch joins the Consumers Energy Foundation and GE Transportation as a CoRe Theme Partner.
Through the partnership, Bosch will be involved with both the academic and co-curricular activities of the CoRe Experience. The CoRe Experience is designed to engage engineering students early in their academic careers in experiential learning opportunities both inside and outside the classroom.
Part of the Bosch contribution will be used to renovate a student gathering area in Wilson Hall into an interactive, collaborative space with new equipment, including a smart board. In addition, the contribution will support computer lab equipment, graduate teaching assistants, undergraduate mentors, program costs, and supplies. Other possible programs to engage the students include panel discussions with Bosch engineers and summer internships at Bosch.
The intent of the MSU-Bosch collaboration is to promote innovation and creative thinking and to foster positive interactions between the students and faculty so that students will stay engaged in engineering, and ultimately pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and math disciplines.
"MSU is a key institution for Bosch in our global efforts to attract and retain the best technical talent," said Maximiliane Straub, CFO and executive vice president, Robert Bosch LLC. "The Bosch Community Fund was established in September 2011 with a mission to promote STEM education and advance environmental sustainability initiatives. We believe that providing positive, hands-on, experiential learning throughout a student's life will help foster excitement and commitment to STEM-related careers. The contribution from the Bosch Community Fund is a tangible way to show students that Bosch is eager to establish a relationship and invest in their education. We want to be a partner with the MSU faculty as they help students shape and build their careers. As a company whose diverse product portfolio is centered on our commitment of 'Invented for Life,' we seek to hire engineers who have the ability to think creatively and advance new ideas."
Added S. Patrick Walton, director of the CoRe Experience for MSU: "This relationship with Bosch will allow our students to see firsthand that creativity and innovation, supported by deeply technical engineering understanding, are critical to the mission of one of the world's most successful companies. Corporate partnerships like this are absolutely essential to the success of the students in the CoRe Experience."
Each year, CoRe immerses about 1,200 freshmen in hands-on design projects from Day One, and provides a living-learning environment in Wilson Hall for about 600 of those students. The co-curricular programming of CoRe is open to all engineering students. Learning from each other and through hands-on and co-curricular activities, students discover how to function in a collaborative, team-based, diverse setting.
"This collaboration with a worldwide company such as Bosch is a tremendous asset for our students," said Satish Udpa, dean of MSU's College of Engineering. "Having Bosch and its employees in our classrooms and labs will enable our students to see what they can accomplish with an engineering degree. We thank Bosch for having the vision and the desire to help our students. We believe this program will help reshape engineering education."
Tuesday marked the official kickoff date of the partnership; it is being announced during MSU's Engineering Colloquium for new students.
