High-Tech Gift to RIT Helps Train In-demand Packaging Scientists

Students learn packaging design using state-of-the-art technology



Barco Graphics has given software worth $654,000 to Rochester Institute of Technology to help meet the demand for highly skilled engineers in the burgeoning field of packaging science.

ArtiosCAD design, manufacturing and communication software gives students experience with tools they’ll use in packaging industry jobs. "ArtiosCAD software utilizes cutting-edge technology used by 70 percent of the packaging industry," says Fritz Yambrach, associate professor.

The package design and production software offers integrated 3-D design, tooling design and production cost/estimating. It integrates computer design of folding cartons and corrugated boxes with a cutting table. This simplifies prototype design and manufacturing, says Yambrach, instructor of the course, Flexible Containers.

"This gift of cutting-edge packaging-design software to RIT is an investment in the next-generation of packaging-science engineers," says Simon James, Barco Graphics vice president for strategic planning.

The software is used in 50 networked packaging-science lab stations in RIT’s College of Applied Science and Technology. It’s also used for project-based instruction in the course, Advanced Computer Applications, which uses various software programs for conceptual design of packaging, 3-D prototype creation and distribution-environment simulation.

"Student feedback to this addition has been outstanding," says Karen Proctor, program chair, who teaches the course with adjunct instructors from Diamond Packaging. The course, offered in spring quarter, was designed by Deanna Jacobs, associate professor.

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Note: RIT’s packaging science program, one of only seven in the United States, annually graduates about 60 students from undergraduate and graduate enrollment of 245.

Founded in 1829, RIT is internationally recognized as a leader in computing, engineering, imaging, technology, fine and applied arts, and education for the deaf. RIT enrolls 15,000 students in more than 240 undergraduate and graduate programs.

For the past decade, U.S. News & World Report has ranked RIT as one of the nation’s leading comprehensive universities. RIT is also included in Yahoo! Internet Life’s Top 100 Wired Universities, Fisk’s Guide to America’s Best Colleges and Barron’s Best Buys in Education.


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