For students pursuing careers in mechanical engineering and power transmission, the MPMA Foundation Scholarship Program offers a significant opportunity to receive financial support while building connections in the gear and bearing industry.
With the 2026-2027 application deadline set for June 22, 2026, now is the time for aspiring engineers to learn about this program and prepare their applications.
A Legacy of Supporting Engineering Education
The MPMA Foundation, which recently transitioned from the AGMA Foundation following the 2025 merger of the American Gear Manufacturers Association (AGMA) and the American Bearing Manufacturers Association (ABMA) to form the Motion + Power Manufacturers Alliance, has been committed to developing the next generation of gear and bearing industry professionals.
The scholarship program was specifically created to address the growing need for skilled employees in the power transmission sector.
The Foundation’s mission centers on recruiting, educating, and keeping the power transmission workforce current with emerging technology.
Through its scholarship initiative, the organization provides meaningful financial assistance to outstanding engineering students while fostering relationships between academia and industry.
Scholarship Award Levels
The program offers scholarships to students at three educational levels with award amounts scaled to reflect academic progression:
- Graduate and upper-level undergraduate students: Seniors, juniors, and master’s students can receive scholarships up to $5,000 annually. These awards recognize students who have demonstrated commitment to their engineering studies and show promise for careers in the gear and bearing industry.
- Sophomores: Second-year students are eligible for scholarships up to $2,500, providing crucial support as they advance through their engineering curriculum.
- Freshmen: First-year students can receive $1,000 scholarships to help launch their academic careers on solid financial footing.
The program features special named scholarships, including the Linda and Bipin Doshi Memorial Scholarship. Additionally, with the merger of AGMA and ABMA, the MPMA Foundation will now provide the Tedric A. Harris Bearing Industry Scholarship – American Bearing Manufacturers Association. This new scholarship expands the foundation’s reach to support students pursuing careers in the bearing industry.
Proven Track Record of Success
The MPMA Foundation Scholarship Program boasts an impressive success rate. According to recipient follow-up data, more than 80 percent of graduated scholarship recipients are employed in the gear and bearing industry. This demonstrates the program’s effectiveness in both providing financial support and connecting students with career opportunities.
Past recipients have gone on to work at leading companies and maintain ongoing professional relationships with MPMA member organizations.
The scholarship serves as more than financial aid — it opens doors to internships, mentorship, and professional networking that can shape entire careers.
Who Should Apply
The scholarship program welcomes applications from students pursuing degrees in mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, mechatronics, industrial engineering, and related technical fields. Applicants should demonstrate academic excellence, a genuine interest in gear and bearing technology, and the potential to contribute to the industry after graduation.
Students connected to MPMA member companies are encouraged to apply, though such connections are not required for eligibility.
How to Apply
The Scholarship Committee, comprising members of the gear and bearing industry with experience in workforce education, reviews all applications and makes recommendations to the Foundation’s Board of Trustees for final approval.
Applications for the 2026-2027 academic year are available on the MPMA Foundation website at agmafoundation.org. The deadline for submission is June 22, 2026.
For questions, prospective applicants can contact the Foundation at foundation@agma.org or call 703-684-0211. The Foundation’s offices are at 1001 N. Fairfax Street, Suite 500, Alexandria, Virginia, 22314.
For students passionate about engineering and the power transmission industry, the MPMA Foundation Scholarship Program offers both financial support and a pathway to a rewarding career.
With the June 22, 2026, deadline approaching, interested students should begin preparing their applications today.
Upcoming Courses
Basic Training for Gear Manufacturing
April 13-17 | Chicago, Illinois
Learn the fundamentals of gear manufacturing in this hands-on course. Gain an understanding of gearing and nomenclature, principles of inspection, gear-manufacturing methods, and hobbing and shaping. Using manual machines, develop a deeper breadth of perspective and understanding of the process and physics of making a gear as well as the ability to apply this knowledge in working with CNC equipment commonly in use.
A Practical Approach to Managing Gear Noise
May 12-13 | Online
A Practical Approach for Managing Gear Noise combines theory with practical testing and simulation techniques used to manage gear noise. Topics focus on insights into the mechanisms for both whine and rattle, the two most common categories of gear “noise.” The course presents clear explanations relating subjective evaluations of audible noise to objective actions, including troubleshooting and countermeasures. Concepts are supported with a number of sound and movie files. Technical papers supporting certain concepts are cited for the students’ further study.
Advanced Concepts of Bearing Technology
May 18-21 | Schamburg, Illinois
This course builds on the foundations of the Essential Course and challenges the experienced engineer in areas such as internal loading and Hertzian stresses, failure initiation criteria, friction and wear, and fatigue life calculation methods. This is an exceptional course for engineers with 2-3 years work experience in rolling element bearings or past attendees of the Essential Concepts of Bearing Technology. A general knowledge of the basic bearing types and terminology is required.
EV Automotive Transmission System Design
May 19-21 | Schamburg, Illinois
This course will cover all aspects of gearbox concept, development, design, and through the initial stages of analysis as related to product requirements. We will review all the most common EV transaxle architectures, power flow and layout and the “whys” of packaging as such. Independent of the architecture and/or layout, there are many similarities in the functional and operational requirements of an EV transaxle gearbox. We will work through all of those and develop a workable set of requirements that will then be used as the design basis. From a high-level point of view the ‘”big” difference between transaxles for EVs (electric vehicles) and transmissions designed for more traditional manual transmissions (MTs) and/or automatic transmissions (ATs) is the lack of the “noisy” internal combustion engine or ICE motor. An internal combustion engine driving into a typical gearbox provides a great deal of NVH masking. Thus, we obviously need to design quieter gearboxes to reduce the potential of observed gearbox NVH, now potentially unmasked by the lack of the ICE signature and magnitude. However, and moreover, the signature from an ICE is much different than from the electric motor. The new input signature, frequency, and magnitude, cause a shift to higher frequencies and generally lower magnitudes of vibrational energies. That in turn becomes a more significant consideration in terms of gear design and application. We will discuss this and more throughout the course.
Fundamentals of Parallel Axis Gearing
June 2-4 | Clearwater Beach, Florida
Gain a solid and fundamental understanding of gear geometry, types and arrangements, and basic design principles. Starting with the basic definitions of gears, conjugate motion, and the laws of gearing, learn the tools needed to understand the inter-relation and coordinated motion operating within gear pairs and multi-gear trains. Basic gear system design process, gear measurement and inspection techniques will also be explained.
In addition, the fundamentals of understanding the stepwise process of working through the iterative design process required to generate a gear pair will be reviewed. Learn the steps and issues involved in design refinement and some manufacturing considerations.
An explanation of basic gear measurement techniques, how measurement equipment and test machines implement these techniques, and how to interpret the results from these basic measurements will also be covered. Finally, a brief overview of in-service failure modes and causes.
Gear Failure Analysis
June 9-11 | Detroit, Michigan
Explore gear failure analysis in this hands-on seminar where students not only see slides of failed gears but can hold and examine more than 130 specimens with the same failure modes covered in the seminar. Approximately half of the course consists of students in groups identifying failure modes on failed gears and working on a case study. Microscopes are available to examine failed specimens.
Analytical Gear Chart Interpretation
June 23 | Online
This course is an introduction to the methodology of analytical gear inspection and the evaluation and interpretation of the resulting data. The application of this information to identify and correct manufacturing errors will begin to be explored. Additionally, it reviews chart interpretation and applies inspection data to understand the causes and cures of manufacturing errors. Many chart examples are used to understand cause and effect.
