Students working on a project in the Learning Factory
 

The Bernard M. Gordon Learning Factory

Location, Hours, and Access

The Bernard M. Gordon Learning Factory is a hands-on facility for engineering students to use in conjunction with capstone design and other courses, as well as research projects and student organizations. The Learning Factory provides modern design, prototyping, and manufacturing facilities, including machining (CNC and manual), 3D printing, welding, metrology, and CAD/CAM.

The Learning Factory provides a University-Industry partnership where student design projects benefit clients and industrial sponsors interact with students and faculty to help us create world-class engineers and make a significant difference in engineering education at Penn State. Since its inception, the Learning Factory has completed more than 2,752 projects for more than 620 different sponsors, and nearly 13,000 engineering students at Penn State University Park participated in such a project.

triangle of various functional areas the learning factory supports

Teams of engineering students tackle real-world problems sponsored by clients, challenging students to apply the knowledge and tools acquired during their undergraduate education to help solve engineering problems. The Learning Factory provides a unique opportunity for industry sponsors to partner with Penn State to help educate the next generation of World Class Engineers using state-of-the-art facilities for design, prototyping, and fabrication.


Learning Factory Vending Machine Project


Fa23 Submit a Project

Learning Factory MakerSpace


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Upcoming Events

Submit a Project

  • Project submissions are no longer being accepted for spring 2023.  Check back in July to submit a project for fall 2023.  Contact Matt Parkinson to discuss a project.  mbp11@psu.edu

 
 

About

Our mission is to help bring the real-world into the classroom by providing engineering students with practical hands-on experience through industry-sponsored and client-based capstone design projects. Since its inception, the Learning Factory has completed more than 1,800 projects for more than 500 different sponsors, and nearly 9,000 engineering students at Penn State University Park participated in such a project.

The Learning Factory

The Pennsylvania State University

University Park, PA 16802