Oakland Community College - IBM Partnership

The IBM-Dassault Higher Education and Training (HEAT) Program was announced in 1997. A description of the HEAT Program was featured in the first issue of this COE electronic newsletter. This article is about one of the "original 7" colleges with CATIA predating the HEAT Program, Oakland Community College.

Oakland Community College (OCC) was founded in 1964, in Auburn Hills, Michigan, about 35 miles northwest of Detroit. Today it is the largest community college in the State of Michigan with more than 30,000 students attending their five campus locations. Excellent programs, community support, and faculty and administration dedication have been the reasons for the success and growth of OCC. Offered in their curriculum are excellent Liberal Arts, Culinary, and Nursing Programs. But the Advanced Technology Center, located in the high-tech "Automation Alley" has one of the country's finest CAD Programs. CATIA has been the main CAD/CAM/CAE software used in their curriculum courses. Other CAD software courses are also offered.

This all started in 1981 with the help of General Motors and IBM, who began CADAM training for the nearby Truck Plant. CATIA courses soon followed, and with the merging of CADAM into CATIA in the late 80's set the stage for the present curriculum. Chrysler Corporation (now DaimlerChrysler) built their new Headquarters and Technology Center literally across the street from OCC in the early 90's. Scores of suppliers moved nearby leading to an explosive growth averaging 7,000 new jobs in Oakland County each year in the mid and late 90's. Most of these companies use CATIA - DaimlerChrysler has 5,700 seats and their extended enterprise supplier network has even more.

IBM and OCC have had a mutually beneficial partnership since 1986. OCC has many other industrial partners such as FANUC, which helps support a complete "Robotics" curriculum at the college. OCC is in an ideal location of high-technology and has responded with "advanced courses" in CATIA such as "Finite Element Modeling" and ""Automotive Body Surfacing". The heavy use of CATIA in the area also provides many experts from industry as part of the adjunct faculty staff teaching at OCC with the latest techniques. Full time faculty develop their skills through training with their industry partners. One of the courses in Computer Aided Manufacturing features CATIA design of a part, programming for CNC machining and rapid prototyping with the STL file. These parts are made on the equipment at the college, giving students hands-on experience. IBM marketing efforts have also used the college machines to produce customer parts designed with CATIA.

IBM also uses Oakland Community College facilities for meetings, classes, and customer events. The local Regional Users Group (RUG) meets bi-monthly at the college since 1995. The "Great Lakes CATIA Operators exchange" (GLACOe) draws an average of 120 attendees to these informative meetings, with attendance reaching 160 users at some meetings. One of the main attractions is the DaimlerChrysler presentations on the latest CATIA system information for their extended enterprise suppliers in attendance. These companies and their people represent a significant customer base for both IBM and Oakland Community College.

OCC has a very active Work Force Development program for special training projects. This program is supported by the state in order to maintain a steady supply of skilled workers that are needed by the high tech companies in the area. To continue their Ieadership role in high-tech education and training, the college has recently completed a new Information Technology Building with the help of a State of Michigan grant of $5 Million. This facility will enable OCC to continue its leading edge curriculum programs for training students in Web technology and e-business courses.

The following classes have been scheduled for eligible HEAT instructors:

CATIA V5 Mechanical Fundamentals
June 25-29 Southfield, Mich.
July 16-20 Woodland Hills, Calif.

To register, please contact Nancy Courtney at 818-675-2003 or by email at nancy_courtney@ds-us.com.