Bashir Khoda, NDSU assistant professor of industrial and manufacturing engineering, recently was named the winner of America Makes’ Innovation Sprint: Additive Manufacturing Curricula Challenge.
According to Khoda, additive manufacturing or 3D printing processes are at the core of next-generation manufacturing. The technology is expected to accelerate the manufacturing competitiveness and dominate the factory floor in the foreseeable future.
Manufacturing USA, the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation program was developed to bring together industry, academia and government partners within a growing network of advanced manufacturing institutes. America Makes is the first flagship Institute for this initiative which is based in Youngstown, Ohio.
America Makes is designed to accelerate the nation’s additive manufacturing and 3D printing technology. It is affiliated with the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining. To gather high-quality additive manufacturing curricula and make it available, America Makes created a curricula challenge, where educators and industry professionals submitted original and existing course content about additive manufacturing that were evaluated by industry experts.
For the challenge, Khoda submitted lesson content titled “From carpet cleaning to 3D printing.” The contents were used for the Sunday Academy, part of a National Science Foundation-supported Nurturing American Tribal Undergraduate Research and Education program, known as NATURE. One Sunday each month during the 2016-17 academic year, Khoda visited a local tribal college in North Dakota for a daylong lesson plan that was developed collaboratively by the tribal college faculty. High school students were presented practical problems involving math, physics, chemistry and engineering in an informal atmosphere requiring them to think, analyze and seek solutions. Part of the content also is used for the Governor’s School program.
His award, valued at $15,000, is a one-year silver membership to America Makes. NDSU will have access to additive manufacturing experts, leaders, innovators and other resources. Members also have access to valuable intellectual property, technical presentations and project calls.
“They are working to increase our nation’s global manufacturing competitiveness through research, discovery, creation, innovation and workforce development,” Khoda explained. “Both North Dakota Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, known as ND EPSCoR, and North Dakota’s Science and Technology Plan have identified advanced manufacturing as the major area of economic development in this region. Thus, the membership can provide access to useful resources achieving that goal.”
Khoda earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology. He earned his doctorate in industrial and systems engineering from the State University of New York (SUNY), Buffalo.
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