HOFFMAN ESTATES, IL—The University of Houston’s Cullen College of Engineering recently unveiled a cutting-edge laboratory donated by the Omron Foundation, the charitable arm of automation technology provider Omron in the United States. Designed for electrical and computer engineering students, the lab includes advanced technologies and equipment donated by Omron.
At the lab’s opening ceremony last week, UH faculty and Omron representatives looked at a variety of senior capstone projects, including a sorting robot and a mobile robotic billboard. The lab contains an area dedicated to senior design projects, which provides real world design experience, which is helpful for gaining employment after graduation.
“Prospective employers will expect them to speak intelligently about what they worked on for their design project so the experience they gain at this stage is very important,” says Len Trombetta, the associate department chair. “This makes our graduates very marketable because these are skills companies want. We’re grateful to Omron for making this possible.” 
Omron Automation Americas President, CEO and COO Robb Black described the importance of preparing today’s students for the latest challenges in engineering and manufacturing. “We want to bring the skills they have learned in school into the manufacturing sector,” says Black. “I think it’s a great way for students to learn real-world technology and apply it once they leave.”
The Omron Foundation has been supporting the Cullen College’s electrical and computer engineering students since 2010, when it established the Omron Scholarship in electrical engineering and sponsored a team of students applying their engineering knowledge to real-world industry problems in the Capstone Design course. Omron also provides one-on-one mentoring to UH engineering students.