Two prominent USC schools will receive a hefty contribution of hardware and software from German conglomerate Siemens Corporation, as announced Thursday at USC's aerospace education center.
The in-kind grant was announced at USC’s McNAIR Center for Aerospace Innovation and Research Thursday morning with Gov. Henry McMaster, USC President Harris Pastides and dean of the USC College of Engineering and Computing Hossein Haj-Hariri in attendance. Valued at a commercial value of $628 million, the grant will allow USC’s College of Engineering and Computing use of Siemens’ product lifecycle management software and automation and controls hardware inside the McNAIR Center.
“Today’s announcement of a partnership between Siemens and USC advances our state’s growing reputation as a top destination for manufacturing,” said South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster in a Siemens press release. “By demonstrating that South Carolina is home to one of the most highly-skilled engineering and manufacturing workforces in the world, we can attract even more companies who have yet to discover what we all already know — that there is no better place to do business than in South Carolina.”
Founded in 2011, the McNAIR Center is named in honor of Ronald McNair, an astronaut and South Carolina native who died aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger in January 1986. The school is the only one in South Carolina to offer postgraduate degrees in aerospace engineering and engineering management. Recent research topics at McNAIR include the design and manufacture of composite materials and parts and design optimization, in conjunction with partners such as Boeing R&T and Lockheed Martin.
According to the release, Siemens currently employs nearly 500 people in the state of South Carolina.