Chico State CIM program thriving with solid industry support

The Concrete Industry Management, or CIM program at Chico State has been thriving, thanks in large part to solid industry support.

Ray Clark, US Formliner Managing Director, "The great thing is, we're able as partners through CIM, through the association, in this case the National Precast Concrete Association, to help facilitate learning about concrete for students."

One of the big supporters of the program has been US Formliner and earlier this week, Managing Director Ray Clark flew out from Georgia to give a lecture to CIM students and participate in a special lab with them as well.

Clark, "We have a hands on portion that we'll do in actually pouring what we call formalizers, some people might refer to them as molds. They can get exposed to mixing the rubber, why is that important? The mold wax, why is that important? And then finally, making almost like a craft, but at the end of the day they get to see something that they made."

Cesar Rodriguez, CIM Student, "The experience was good, we got to see different aspects of precast, this being architectural precast. We got to see what it takes to make concrete look pretty."

Another added bonus for CIM students this year has been the creation of a class dedicated just to precast concrete, the only course of its kind in the country.

Dillon Kern, CIM Student, "Precast has never really been something I've ever done before and seen, so it's kind of nice to have that as a class, so we can learn about it, so that way we can broaden our knowledge about concrete, and precast is a pretty important aspect of the whole industry."

And more good opportunities appear to be on the horizon, with a new lab on the way for the program that they're hoping will provide many new great learning experiences.

Mohammed Albahttiti, CIM Professor, "Getting more support from NPCA, BCI, these organizations, whether it's for materials or equipment can be a tremendous help. We have this new lab we just go located to us by the university and it would be great if we could fill it with equipment and advanced tools that the students can use, and learn about all these new technologies that are used in the industry."

Overall the program is going strong, and with this kind of support from industry leaders, that will continue to be the case, well into the future.