Engineering Students Visit Omega for Some Real World Design Lessons

Supporting Our Future Engineers

As part of Omega Design's commitment to workforce development, the company hosted a private learning event for 55 university students on Friday, Sept. 10, 2021.

Omega Design is a mentor and sponsor for the Junior Mechanical Engineering Design Project at the University of Delaware. The company invited these engineering students to its manufacturing facility to observe machine design theory in practice.

Students were divided into small groups for the two-hour event and rotated through five stations. They learned about CAD design and rapid prototyping, and some of the design thinking that went into building a Bottle Unscrambler, a Shrink Bundler, and a serialization solution featuring a collaborative robot. At each station, instructors highlighted how the iterative design process, along with investments in technology, were necessary for Omega to bring its packaging innovation to market.

Throughout the event, Omega repeatedly emphasized the importance of working with other business disciplines, and to always consider design from multiple perspectives. Engineers need to design for manufacturing, but they also need to design for the operators and service personnel who will interact with the result.

As an industry partner, Omega plans to support the university's design teams throughout the 2021-22 school year by serving on an advisory panel and providing additional resources and program support.

To make this event possible, all persons onsite wore masks, group sizes were kept small, and stations were wiped down between group rotations, among other Covid-19 safety protocols. Omega Design is a strong proponent for experiential, real-world learning, and felt that the time was right for a cautious engagement with the community.