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American Metal Market
March 4, 2005
Class in Session: Need Competitive Edge
By Scott Robertson
PITTSBURGH, March 4 — The steel industry is looking for a competitive edge against other
North American manufacturers, and two of its leading trade organizations are teaming up to find
that edge in university classrooms.
The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI), Washington, and the Association for Iron and Steel
Technology (AIST) Foundation, Pittsburgh, are combining their efforts to attract new metallurgists and bring more new blood into the steel industry via the creation of the Ferrous
Metallurgy Education Today (FeMET) initiative.
The three goals of the initiative are to persuade more students to choose metallurgy or materials
science as their field of study, to recruit more such graduates into the steel industry and to
increase the number of professors knowledgeable about steel in North American universities.
The program, set for a March 4 kickoff, is intended to be effective this fall. It "demonstrates the
steel industry's innovativeness and aggressiveness," Andrew G. Sharkey, AISI's president, said.
"It provides the industry with not only talented new people, but a competitive edge."
Ron Ashburn, AIST's executive director, said it is essential that the industry attract new people
and new ideas. "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," he said. "This program brings us
one step closer to that goal."
The program's strategy includes a scholarship and summer internship program for college juniors
and seniors, a design grant program, a curriculum development program and a steel industryuniversity
advisory roundtable.
Ten recipients of the scholarship and summer internship program will each be awarded $5,000
their junior year, a paid summer internship with a North American steel company between their
junior and senior years and $5,000 toward their senior year tuition.
The scholarships and summer internships are intended to provide incentives for students to
become involved in the steel industry. Students entering the program are ensured a two-year
commitment by the program, provided students perform satisfactorily both academically and in
their internships.
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 to best solve the
problem. Design grants will be awarded on a competitive basis.
The curriculum development program 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.
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 to
ensure that the program works successfully. The group will seek to encourage a close working
relationship between its members on critical issues within the FeMET initiative, including
relevant curriculum, recruiting and student placement.
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