A recent $245,500 gift from Boeing Co. will help fund a new Product Innovation and Creativity Center (PICC) at UMR.

Boeing representative Robert Feldmann, general manager of the AV-8B (Harrier) and the T45TS Navy Trainer programs, presented this gift to UMR Chancellor Gary Thomas on Tuesday, Nov. 5, on UMR’s campus.

The gift is part of a $645,000 pledge that Boeing made to fund the PICC. This center is designed to help students innovatively design, manufacture and market products. Boeing’s goal is to provide an interdisciplinary environment for students to better prepare them for engineering careers.

Portions of the funds will be used to support laboratories, curriculum in mechanical and other engineering programs, scholarships and student organizations, and to develop programs to help attract pre-college students to engineering and science fields.

"UMR is the largest supplier of bachelor of science graduates to Boeing in Missouri and the sixth-largest to Boeing worldwide. We offer one of their best video Internet distance education graduate programs, which has more than 200 Boeing employees enrolled from all over the United States and some from overseas," says Dr. Robert Mitchell, dean of the school of engineering at UMR.

"We are also working with Boeing engineers in research programs ranging from efficient manufacturing technologies to environmentally safe paint and engines. We are pleased to have this partnership with Boeing and we intend to increase our relationships with them."