Kaitlin Wolf Aspires to Design and Develop Medical Plastic Devices

Penn State Behrend engineering student Kaitlin Wolf aspires to design and develop medical plastic devices in the health-care industry. The 21-year-old senior from Buffalo will be among an inaugural class of six Behrend students scheduled to graduate in May with a 14-credit undergraduate certificate in medical plastics. The certificate is the latest component to the school's undergraduate plastics-engineering technology program, which was established in 1989. "To me, it's going to mean a better opportunity for employment,'' Wolf said. "A lot of things actually staying in the U.S. now as far as the big market is the medical sector. As we learn more about it, it opens my opportunities for employment and makes me more marketable. With the state of the economy, I want to have a job.'' Wolf was among more than 100 people who attended ceremonies Wednesday for the opening of Behrend's new Medical Plastics Center of Excellence on the first floor of the Jack Burke Research and Economic Development Center. Officials said the school invested $4.3 million into creating a 1,200-square-foot medical plastics facility, which adjoins an existing 10,500-square-foot plastics processing laboratory. The new center will offer instruction to engineering students in medical-device development, provide faculty research, and support companies in developing new medical devices. "In a traditional sense, research has always been companies would come to a university with a problem and the university would sort of work on that problem,'' said Jason Williams, head of Behrend's Medical Plastics Center. "What we want now is for companies to come on campus and work directly with our faculty and students on research projects,'' he said. "We want direct company involvement.'' The $4.3 million in upgrades includes a $3.7 million donation of 3D Polymer system simulation software from SIGMA Plastic Services Inc., of Schaumburg, Ill. "What we want to do is build and create the university as an open laboratory,'' said Ralph Ford, director of Behrend's school of engineering. "That means we'll be successful when we have students, faculty and people from industry, researchers and engineers in here working with us on projects.'' The new center will house a plastics laboratory that includes an ISO Class 8 clean room, a 55-ton liquid-silicone injection molder, a materials compounding extruder, autoclave sterilization, and injection molding machines that can handle up to 200 tons. The center can also handle impact, moisture, creep and melt index testing, and circuit board prototyping and fabrication. RON LEONARDI can be reached at 870-1680 or by e-mail. Source:goerie.com