Segway gift has SiMT manager covering campus with ease

FLORENCE — Fred DuBard Jr. had plenty of territory to cover when he was owner of the local Budweiser distributorship, so he felt for Kathy Rogers who has to cover 177,000 square feet as facilities manager of Southeastern Institute of Manufacturing and Technology (SiMT).

DuBard heard Rogers say she had to do a great deal of walking at SiMT, located on the 146-acre campus behind Florence-Darlington Technical College’s main campus on U.S. 52. Being a good Methodist who doesn’t like to see people suffer, DuBard told Rogers he had something in his car for her.

“He told me it was a Segway,” Rogers said Monday as she scooted spryly up to a reporter. “I told him I didn’t know what a Segway is.”
But he pulled it out of the back seat and showed it to her.

“Man, this is nice,” Rogers said eyeing the sleek machine that can travel as far as 24 miles on a single battery charge, depending on terrain.

Although the Segway only has two wheels, it manages to stay upright by itself. It’s been described as “the world’s first self-balancing human transporter.”

Rogers manages the two-story, 177,000-square-foot advanced manufacturing training facility. It houses the Interactive Digital Center, FDTC’s Engineering Technology Department and Continuing Education program, the National Robotics Training Center of Excellence and the Florence County Economic Development Partnership.

Rogers says everybody at SiMT wants to ride the Segway, which is used inside the building. They all start off in Turtle mode, the slowest.

To move forward or backward on the Segway, Rogers just leans slightly forward or backward. To turn left or right, she simply moves the frame left or right.
When Rogers drives the Segway out of her office, she can either stay on the second floor or get on the elevator to go downstairs.

She has plenty of territory to cover. SiMT’s Advanced Manufacturing Center’s (AMC) centerpiece is an 18,000-square-foot manufacturing arena, where machine tool technology students and faculty train.

The facility has several features, including technical labs, classrooms, a conference center and an 800-seat auditorium.

AMC houses the Interactive Digital Center, the college’s Engineering Technology Department and the National Robotics Training Center of Excellence.

The college has partnered with EON Reality Inc., an interactive visual content management software provider, to offer 3D visualization through the institute’s Interactive Digital Center — a first in the state.

The robotics center will develop training courses to teach robot maintenance technicians for the military.

The college dedicated the center in honor of Florence’s long-time state senator, Hugh Leatherman.

“This facility is really devoted to becoming an economic asset to this community,” Florence-Darlington Tech President Dr. Charles Gould said at the 2007 dedication.  “Hugh Leatherman has been extremely important to the economic development of the Pee Dee.”