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Greenville Tech bachelor’s program gets director

Staff Report //January 24, 2020//

Greenville Tech bachelor’s program gets director

Staff Report //January 24, 2020//

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Greenville Technical College has hired the person who will lead the first bachelor’s degree program offered at a two-year college in the S.C. Technical College System. Philip Caruso is the new academic program director for the Bachelor in Applied Science in Advanced Manufacturing Technology, which was launched last fall, according to a Greenville Tech news release.

South Carolina has joined at least 22 states where policies authorize two-year colleges to offer at least one bachelor’s degree, according to the news release.

Students in Greenville Technical College's bachelor's in advanced manufacturing program include (from left) Christopher Scott, Shawn Hill, David Thacker, William Baker, Jonathan Devall and Vladislav Bondarchuk with (third from left) academic program director Philip M. Caruso and (fourth from left) Greenville Tech President Keith Miller at the Center for Manufacturing Innovation. (Photo/Provided)The degree is technical in focus with a project-based curriculum, according to the news release, and designed so graduates will be ready to assume technical and managerial leadership positions in the growing global manufacturing sector.

Caruso earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Northeastern University, a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Purdue University, and a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering, also from Purdue, according to the news release. He spent 25 years with GE Power and Water, first as principal engineer and later as manager of the Advanced Courses in Engineering program. In 2016, he began work at Greenville Technical College as an assistant professor and department head for the Mechanical Engineering Technology program. Caruso holds several patents for gas turbine components, including sensor packaging for the turbine engine, the release said.

A need for the bachelor’s degree at Greenville Tech was voiced by some of the area’s manufacturing employers, including Michelin, GE and Bosch Rexroth, according to the release.

Ram Iyer has been hired as an instructor for the new bachelor’s degree. Iyer brings 30 years of industrial and educational experience to the position, according to the release. He obtained a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Bombay, India, a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Wisconsin, and an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh. After spending 20 years in industry as a mechanical, manufacturing and project engineer, he started a machine shop making precision parts. He later switched over to business consulting and began teaching.

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