ERIE, Pa. — Penn State Behrend’s Open Lab approach to learning — where students partner with local business, industry and non-profit organizations, gaining real-world experience — started, in part, with Dave Boyce, a transfer student who arrived at the college in 1998.
Boyce studied mechanical engineering. He was particularly interested in heat-transfer and thermal systems, he said. A conversation at a career fair led to a co-op at Aalborg Energy, one of the first tenants at Behrend’s newly built Knowledge Park. Boyce was the first student to work with the company.
“I helped them move into Knowledge Park,” he said. “I carried some of the boxes.”
At Aalborg, Boyce gained hands-on experience in different engineering disciplines. The co-op included a two-week visit to a job site in north Texas, where the company was installing several custom-built industrial boilers.
“Those things were huge,” he said.
The experience at Aalborg led to an opportunity at Siemens Power. The company hired Boyce before he completed his degree.
“I still had to finish two classes,” he said. “That’s how much value they placed on what I learned during the co-op.”
Today, Boyce is president and CEO of Bloom Engineering Company, which designs high-temperature, low-emissions industrial combustion systems. Penn State News spoke to him during a visit to Behrend, where he was the keynote speaker at the college’s 2025 Fasenmyer Engineering Design Conference.
Q: How did the co-op experience at Aalborg build on what you were learning in class?
Boyce: It was a jump-start. It helped me see the bigger picture.
The author Simon Sinek talks a lot about the “why.” For me, the co-op was a through-line to the “why”: It showed me the application — and, really, the reason behind — all the principles I was I was learning in class. I saw why it mattered.
Q: What was the biggest takeaway?
Boyce: That it’s all about people. Engineers tend to focus on the task or challenge in front of them, but the reality is, everything that is done in a business environment very much depends on your ability to work in teams, and to influence teams.
Q: As your career progressed, you created opportunities for the students who followed behind you, sponsoring senior design projects. Those types of projects, which are at the core of what we now call the Open Lab, benefit students by providing real-world experiences. How do the sponsoring companies benefit?
Boyce: It gives us access to a much better pipeline of talent. The engineers, the procurement team, marketing, sales, all of it —being integrated with the college really improves the quality of what we do. It keeps us on the cutting edge of what is happening in academia, including the newest tools and software.
Companies that have that kind of connection and regularly interact with faculty and students are always going to have a competitive edge.