Penn State Behrend received a $1.2 million donation for their automation lab on Tuesday.

The donation was given from Behrend’s School of Engineering and the Prischak family.

The lab is equipped with industry-grade collaborative robots, sensors, vision systems and manufacturing control systems.

We talked to the director of the school of engineering to learn how this helps their students.

“The industry has told us for the last couple of years that they want to hire students with experience in robotics and automation, and this is going to be able to be open to all engineering majors. All engineers can get this experience, and when they go out in the industry, they will be prepared to work in the manufacturing field,” said Tim Kurzweg, director of the school of engineering.

The director of the program said the goal is to support local industries with product development.