/// IntroducIng FluId Power
to Younger StudentS IS one
wa Y to Stave oFF extInctIon
fluid’s future
By Jeff Klingberg,
President/CEO,
Mountain Stream Group, Inc.,
mountainstreamgroup.com
This is the first part of a series of articles looking at how the
fluid power industry can stave off extinction through education.
Fluid power isn’t sexy. That’s the conclu- sion the international fluid power indus- try came to in 2007 as the reason why
there is a shortage of people with fluid power
skills influencing design decisions regarding
which motion control technologies to use.
The fluid power industry isn’t the only industry seeing this image problem. It’s a systemic
crisis that permeates the entire U. S. culture.
A 2008 Harris Interactive study for the
American Society for Quality (ASQ) found
that 44% of kids, ages 8-17, don’t know much
about engineering, and 30% of the respondents want a more exciting profession than
engineering. While 97% of parents stated
they believe that knowledge of math and science will help their children have a successful
career, only 20% encourage/will encourage
their sons or daughters to become engineers.
The study further reports that kids don’t
feel confident enough in their math or science skills (21%) to be good at engineering
– despite the fact that the largest number of
kids ranked math (22%) and science (17%) as
their favorite subjects.
OK. We now know what the problem is, so
how do we fix it?
The U.S. fluid power industry decided to
develop alliances with FIRST (Foundation for
the Inspiration and Recognition of Science
and Technology), Project Lead The Way, and
the SME (Society of Manufacturing Engineers)
Education Foundation to promote fluid power
education in middle schools and high schools.
They’ve created a ‘key school’ program, the
Fluid Power Challenge, and the “Fluid Power:
A Force for Change” video among other initiatives. The Fluid Power Education Foundation
(FPEF) has scholarships for college bound
students who will study fluid power.
I commend the U.S. fluid power industry
for its efforts, but there is shortsightedness
to these educational outreach initiatives that
