Siemens Corp announces major YSU gift

YOUNGSTOWN — Youngstown State University announced this morning a $440 million in kind gift from the Siemens Corp.

The grant will be used to prepare students for advanced manufacturing and engineering jobs through collaboration with the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute.

The grant will specifically go to the YSU College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics to provide its students with state-of-the-art product lifecycle management software and training.

The software will be used to prepare them for careers in additive manufacturing, computer-aided engineering and robotics design for the automotive, defense, energy, high-tech electronics, machinery and aerospace industries.

Martin Abraham, dean of YSU’s STEM College, said the software will help YSU students entering the job market.

“The opportunity to use state-of-the-art software and to learn using the most current technology gives our students a leg up in the job market whether that be through a co-op or an internship or a job,” he said. “This is state-of-the-art software used by leading companies throughout the world. Our students will have the opportunity to learn how to use that technology while they’re students.”

The software sees a product from concept through design and production.

Eric Spiegel, Siemens president and CEO and a Mahoning Valley native, attended this morning’s announcement along with Helmuth Ludwig, CEO of Siemens Industry Sector in North America; U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan; U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson, YSU President Cynthia E. Anderson and Tom Humphries, president and CEO of the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber.

Spiegel is a 1976 graduate of Poland Seminary High School. He earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Harvard University.

After 24 years working as a consultant for Booz & Co., in January 2010, Spiegel became president and CEO of Washington, D.C.-based Siemens, a U.S. division of Siemens AG, a German conglomerate that provides technological products and services for the health-care, energy and industrial sectors.