The University of South Carolina continues to build its technology muscle with new multimillion-dollar partnership at its aerospace center meant to train students better and change the state’s workforce.
Siemens announced Thursday it will provide $628 million in software, hardware and robotics to USC. It’s the Munich-based company’s second largest partnership with a college, only after the University of Maryland, which received $750 million in software in 2013.
At USC, about one-fourth of the Siemens’ grant will go to the school’s McNair Center for Aerospace Innovation and Research for work that includes a “digital factory innovation lab.”
About 240 USC engineering students a year will get to work with Siemens’ technology used by 140,000 companies worldwide to test how products and parts are made and perform. Raj Batra, president of the company’s digital factory division, said Thursday that USC students will learn how to cut down on the time of getting goods to market and how to ramp up production efficiently, which are key needs in many industries today.
Students also will work on developing better composites used to build aircraft and vehicles — significant work in a state with plants from jet manufacturer Boeing and automakers BMW and Mercedes-Benz. These companies already use Siemens technology, university officials said.
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