Four Ohio College Students Chosen for the Defense Metals Technology Center Spring 2010 Co-Op Internship Program

NORTH CANTON, Ohio, Jan. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- The Defense Metals Technology Center (DMTC) has chosen four Ohio college students for its spring 2010 Engineering Co-Op Internship Program, which includes a semester of hands-on experience at the 6,500-acre Picatinny Arsenal in northwest New Jersey.

New interns are Kyle Smith, Stark State College; Joel Warren, The University of Toledo; Sean Ludt, Youngstown State University; and Shawn Bowers, The University of Akron.

They join 15 others who have participated in the special Co-Op Program. Since it began last year, some 120 students have applied for the limited openings.

"The Co-Op Program is a learning model for a practical workforce education and is attracting growing attention from students, educators, government officials, and business leaders," says Charles D. Clark, Executive Director of the DMTC.

"We want to enhance the knowledge of the Co-Op students through their practical use of titanium, hopeful they will use these skills in specialty metals engineering in years to come," adds Clark.

In 2007, Congress funded the DMTC as a U.S. Army Center of Excellence. Part of the DMTC mission is to show how titanium can be used in commercial products. As a result, the DMTC aims to lower the cost of titanium so that it can be increasingly applied to the production of military armor in protecting American soldiers at war.

The DMTC is headquartered in North Canton at Stark State College in the center of what it calls America's Metals Heartland -- Ohio, Pennsylvania, eastern Indiana, southeast Michigan, northern Kentucky, and northern West Virginia.

The Co-Op Program is distinct in that it has two separate tracks - an Associate's Level and a Bachelor's Level. The DMTC subsidizes upwards of $40,000 per student per semester, which includes tuition, housing, travel, and cost-of-living stipends.

The DMTC screens and recommends applicants. The Army then conducts interviews to make the final selections. Background checks are performed upon arrival at Picatinny. To date, Co-Op students have been from Ohio, but the DMTC is encouraging applicants from institutions within the broader Heartland.

The semester is a working experience at the Picatinny Arsenal, where the Army employs 3,000 civilians in armaments research and development. Students are housed nearby in extended stay facilities.

The Bachelor Level is unique. Within its rotation, students are assigned for a semester to the Arsenal and a semester at a defense contractor involved with specialty metals. In both the government and private sector, they perform hands-on manufacturing design work.

The Associate Level is geared toward students at a two-year community or technical college who are interested in manufacturing and design.

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SOURCE Defense Metals Technology Center