Middle Tennessee State University receives equipment donation to benefit engineering students
The donation comes from Dexcom and Automation Nth and includes nearly $1 million in equipment and $100,000 in additional supplies and upgrades.
Middle Tennessee State University has received a donation of equipment from Dexcom and a promise to upgrade the equipment from Automation Nth, a major boon to engineering students at the school ahead of the in-progress Applied Engineering Building that should open in 2025.
According to an article on Middle Tennessee State University's website, Dr. Ken Currie, who serves as the chair of the Engineering Technology Department, said the donation “will benefit all students within the engineering and technology programs at MTSU. These are totally integrated workcells with robotics, vision systems and controls that need to be programmed to meet project limitations and constraints… The beauty of these automation workcells is that each subsystem is modular and easily upgraded as machine learning or advancements in controls were to make quantum leaps forward.”
Dexcom is donating 10 FLEXBASE automation work centers, which they bought from Automation Nth. Automation Nth has pledged $100,000 in upgrades and supplies as the machines make their way into the hands of Middle Tennessee State University.
Jeff Buck, who is the co-president of Automation Nth, said of his company’s decision to service and upgrade the machines as part of the donation, “As part of this effort, we would like to assist MTSU by outfitting the FAST Bases with some key building blocks (top plates, pallets, lift and locates, stop assemblies, conveyors and more) for you to use along with some other key hardware including controls hardware, Epson robots and more to help set you up for success.”
The students who will be able to get their hands on the donated machines believe it will help them get a feel for the type of machines they will be using in their future careers.
“It’s an exciting opportunity for engineering students to develop their skills with robotics for real-world industry experience and hands-on educational opportunities. I’m looking forward to the capabilities of our new building and the equipment that will allow us to further understand real-world robotics applications,” said Daniel Wetter, a sophomore mechatronics engineering major.
The eventual home for the new equipment will be the Applied Engineering Building, which is still under construction and is expected to be completed in 2025. The total cost of the new building is more than $74 million and it will be home to the Experimental Vehicles Program and robotics competitions. The building will also feature two labs named for Dexcom and Automation Nth.
Of the two companies that came together to provide the equipment for the engineering students, Currie said, “Together, these two companies will be showcased in our new building with the 2,000-square-foot Dexcom Automation Laboratory and 500-square-foot Automation Nth Vision Systems Lab. Automation Nth is one of the key automation suppliers of solutions to provide clean, reliable, high-quality solutions for Dexcom’s manufacturing needs. We’re extremely excited this partnership came together to benefit our current and future students.”
For more information about Middle Tennessee State University, visit the school’s website.