AISI and AIST Foundation launch “Ferrous Metallurgy Education Today”

Washington, DC— The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) has teamed up with the Association for Iron and Steel Technology Foundation (AIST Foundation) to create the Ferrous Metallurgy Education Today (FeMET) Initiative. Its three goals are to compel more students to choose metallurgy or materials science as their field of study; to recruit more of such graduates into the steel industry and to increase the number of professors knowledgeable in steel in U.S. universities.

“The four-point program set to launch on March 4 and be effective in the fall, 2005 demonstrates the steel industry’s innovativeness and aggressiveness,” Andrew G. Sharkey, III, AISI president and CEO said.

“The steel industry needs to cultivate the next generation of skilled metallurgists who will create the innovative products that will strengthen steel’s position as the material of choice for thousands of industrial and consumer applications,” AIST Executive Director Ron Ashburn said.

The program’s comprehensive strategy includes a scholarship and summer internship program for college juniors and seniors, a design grant program, a curriculum development program and a steel industry-university advisory round table.

Ten recipients of the scholarship and summer internship program will be awarded $5,000 their junior year, a paid summer internship with a North American steel company between their junior and senior year, and $5,000 toward their senior year tuition.

It is the program’s goal that this scholarship and summer internship provides incentive for students to become involved in the steel industry. As a result, students entering the program are ensured a two-year commitment by the program, provided a satisfactory performance by the student both academically and in their internship.

The Design Grant portion of the program will direct a team of students and professors to address an industry problem or “challenge” by working collaboratively to determine how the problem is best solved. Design Grants will be awarded on a competitive basis.

The Curriculum Development program, an important element in the FeMET Initiative, will develop steel-centric course materials and themes to deepen the exposure students receive to ferrous metallurgy and to the steel industry as it functions today.

In order for the program to work successfully, a “Steel-University Advisory Round Table” made up of universities and steel companies in North America, as well as representatives from AISI and the AIST Foundation, will be formed. This group will ensure a close working relationship between its members on critical issues within the FeMET Initiative including relevant curriculum, recruiting and student placement.