W.L. Gore & Associates, manufacturer of GORE-TEX fabric and thousands of other innovative products, has awarded a $10,000 grant to support Penn State's Quality and Manufacturing Management (QMM) Program, which is administered jointly between the College of Engineering and The Smeal College of Business Administration.
The Gore gift will be used primarily to recruit talented students into the QMM program as W.L. Gore & Associates Fellows through scholarship support. The remaining portion of the grant will be used to support the overall program.
The QMM program integrates business, leadership, communication management, technology and engineering into a two-semester master's degree curriculum, conferring on its graduates a master of manufacturing management (MMM).
"The Gore gift recognizes the strategic importance of preparing tomorrow's manufacturing leaders," said Russell Barton, Smeal professor of supply chain and information systems and co-director of the QMM program. "It provides critically needed resources for strengthening an already strong MMM program. Support for scholarships and program awareness will allow us to attract top candidates, enriching the peer experience for everyone."
By drawing upon the knowledge of an advisory board of industry experts and the expertise of the faculty, the QMM program offers its students the chance to learn about real-world manufacturing issues as well as the latest research and theory related to process improvement.
Perhaps best known for its consumer products like GORE-TEX fabric and ELIXIR guitar strings, Gore is a leading manufacturer of thousands of advanced technology products for the electronics, industrial, fabrics and medical markets. The company is headquartered in Newark, Del., posts sales of approximately $2 billion, and employs almost 8,000 associates at 50 facilities throughout the world.