PARTCIPATION

Business and Corporate Participation

Partnerships, cooperation and support of companies and institutions throughout the State of Ohio (and Northeastern Ohio particularly) will be of great importance to the successful operation and expansion of DICE.  Some CSU partnerships already have been formally established that involve a broad array of regional and state companies, e.g. the Ohio Aerospace Institute, the CSU Bently Center for Rotordynamics, the CSU Center for Sensor Technology, and MAGNET.  Similar company/industrial relationships exist with the Lakewood City School System.  Other relationships have existed for many years with area/regional institutions that lend themselves to design, innovation and entrepreneurial activities, e.g. the Cleveland Clinic (Lerner Research Institute), Akron General Medical Center, Ohio Aerospace Institute.  These relationships and networks will be reviewed and examined from the perspective of establishing a means for companies and institutions to have ready access to DICE for the mutual benefit of both entities. 

Presently, design projects for senior student design teams are already often submitted and proposed by companies and institutions in the Cleveland area, such as Lincoln Electric, Parker Hannifin, FirstEnergy, Morton Salt, General Electric and many others.  This activity will continue, and expand under DICE to include participation and support for design projects requiring more advanced technical development, and of longer duration.  Such projects may require the participation of graduate students or graduate student design teams. 

Currently area companies provide selected use of their facilities to assist in the solution of design problems/projects, and supervision by one or more of their employees.  This practice will be continued and encouraged.  Each situation may require preliminary discussion and formal agreement with respect to intellectual property rights and confidentiality.  Often, the design problems are not of a proprietary nature, however. 

High School Partnerships

It is intended to form educational opportunities, e.g. short courses for interested regional high schools and their students, on a regular basis.  For example, a multi-week summer program might be conducted and presented to different groups of high-school students as part of an on-campus summer program.    Also, varied programs of educational experiences throughout the academic year will be provided to regional high school (and elementary school) students that use innovations and design as a basis to participate and learn about engineering and entrepreneurism. 

The first partnering regional high school system will be with the City of Lakewood.  The CSU College of Engineering already has established a successful relationship via the Lakewood School System’s participation in the Fenn Academy. As part of this partnership the City of Lakewood will provide a facility to its students in which students will be exposed to the design, innovation and entrepreneurial activities of DICE being proposed herein.  

Additional partnerships will be established with (1) Shaker Heights High School, (2) Cleveland East Tech, (3) St. Edwards (Lakewood), (4) St. Joseph Academy (Cleveland) and (2) the Entrepreneurship Preparatory School. The basis for the latter of the partnerships listed in the previous paragraph is that the high school was founded with the express intent of providing an entrepreneurial emphasis to the education of its students.  It also provides further exposure to a predominantly minority student population.  The basis for the first partnership is the cooperative activity and funding that has previously been provided by the CSU Transportation Center to the Shaker Heights physics teaching faculty.  The results at Shaker High School have been educationally exciting and motivating to Shaker students of science and physics.  It is intended to build upon that successful relationship by further introducing design and entrepreneurship to such high school students.  Additional cooperation with area high school students is intended to be developed as the Center’s growth, funding, and personnel level allow it to do so. 

Elementary School Programs

As indicated in the previous section, varied programs (on-campus, off-campus) of educational experiences will be provided to outstanding regional elementary school students that use innovation and design as a basis to participate and learn about engineering and entrepreneurism.