Casting Spells with High School Students at Summer Workshop

Last month, IME professor Dr. Sam Ramrattan hosted a weeklong metal-casting workshop for nine high school students from areas around Detroit, Ann Arbor, and Saginaw, Michigan; Cleveland, Parma, and Defiance, Ohio; and Windsor, Ontario. He has been offering the annual hands-on workshops for up to 15 area tenth-through-twelfth-grade students for the last eight summers.

Dr. Sam Ramrattan (right) and Adil Abdelwahab (second from right in back), an IME graduate student, pose with nine high school students who attended the 2007 summer metal casting short course at WMU

During the students’ five-day campus visit, Ramrattan, a technical advisor to the American Foundrymen's Society and a Key Professor for the Foundry Educational Foundation, directs activities in the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Parkview Campus Metal Casting Laboratory.

Workshop topics include metal casting history, trends, and the relationship of manufacturing (molding, melting, filling, and finishing), engineering, quality, purchasing, marketing, and sales of castings. The students explore the use of computers, math, and science in metal casting.

In addition to their lab and course work, the students meet with WMU administrators to discuss university entrance requirements and expectations and with professionals from the foundry industry to review career opportunities in metal casting.

Field trips to metal casting industries provide students with opportunities to see real-world technology and to meet with professionals. This year’s attendees toured Metal Technologies’ Three Rivers Gray Iron Plant, and Contech’s die casting facilities in Dowagiac, MI. They also enjoyed activities in the Kalamazoo / Portage metro area.

Students who attend the program are sponsored by various chapters of the American Foundry Society (AFS) and the North American Die Casting Association (NADCA). Students are selected on the basis of an aptitude for math and science. There is no cost to the students, who stay in WMU dorms and enjoy campus life.

Dr. Sam Ramrattan supervises as two students pour molten aluminum into sand molds that they had prepared. Other high school students, seated behind the protective barrier, took turns donning safety apparel and making their own sand castings.

WMU has had a casting metal program in various engineering curricula since the college opened over 100 years ago. Its most recent accreditation began in 1992 when Ramrattan joined the faculty. It is currently an option in all IME undergraduate programs. “Our goal is to produce hands-on engineers as an integral part of what we do in manufacturing engineering programs,” he said.

Saginaw high school students Steve Trombley (left) and Rollin Carter prepare a sand mold that they will use to create sand castings from molten aluminum.

Ramrattan specializes in material and process improvement emphasizing casting and non-traditional manufacturing processes. For more information, contact him at sam.ramrattan@wmich.edu

ANTEC Offers Fun and Futuristic Visions of the World of Plastic

Five members of WMU’s student chapter of the Society of Plastics Engineering (SPE) attended the society’s Annual Technical Conference (ANTEC) in Cincinnati, OH, in May. WMU Engineering Graphics and Design Technology (EGR) seniors Josh Leyrer, Jim Gabriel, Courtney Rawlings, Lauren Lambert, and Jim Vlieg were accompanied by IME Department Chair Paul Engelmann and Jay Shoemaker, IME adjunct professor and Moldflow, Inc., employee.

ANTEC, the world’s largest plastics conference, included four days of technical presentations covering all concentrations of the plastics engineering field. “I’m really interested in plastics, and this conference was THE conference for plastics,” Lambert said. “We learned about plastics from many perspectives.”

Presentation topics included process optimization methods, overcoating improvements, bioplastics, shear-thickening fluids, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, and nanotechnology. Presenters included university professors, research and industrial professionals from all over the world.

Vlieg enjoyed the “especially interesting” presentation on bioplastics. “With oil prices rising, plastics derived from other sources could be the future of the industry,” he said. Lambert was “wowed” by the presentation on nanocomposities. “I would really like to learn more about them and their potential,” she said.

 

Five WMU students attended ANTEC student activities night, which included two hours of games. At right, WMU students (from left) Jim Gabriel, Jim Vlieg and Lauren Lambert. enjoy virtual bowling. “We had two hours of any game we wanted to play,” Lambert said. In addition Gabriel won a pair of Oakley sunglasses in a raffle.

Students learned about the latest technologies and developments in plastics at Plastics Encounter, an exhibition set up by plastics companies.

 

WMU SPE group enjoy an ANTEC networking social. From left, clockwise: Dr. Paul Engelmann, Lauren Lambert, Josh Leyrer, Jay Shoemaker, Courtney Rawlings, Jim Vlieg, and Jim Gabriel.

 

Evenings included several social events. Formal and informal socials gave the students and professors opportunities to form networking connections with others in the industry. One evening also included a Moldflow-sponsored student activities night at a local gaming center.

Students were selected for the trip based on individual application essays. They wrote formal proposals for travel support to the conference as well as trip reports on their ANTEC activities and professional development upon their return.

"I'm glad that I was given the opportunity to go to this event to further my learning in the plastics field," Rawlings said.

The trip was sponsored in full by a grant for support of lifelong learning and supplied to the school by the Alcoa Foundation, through EPC/Alcoa in Mattawan. The grant supports the professional development and global awareness of students in engineering technology programs.

Dr. Betsy Aller, IME associate professor, is principal investigator of the grant.

Mattawan Math Students Turn Numbers into Goblets

Mattawan High School students enrolled in Nancy Garman’s calculus classes were recently challenged to design a goblet using their math skills. The students’ computational responses were then sent to Dr. Mitchel Keil, an IME professor, who created prototype goblets from the students’ work.

Nancy Garman (standing), a 21-year veteran calculus teacher at Mattawan High School, reviews 16 goblet prototypes made by Dr. Mitchel Keil (seated) on a rapid prototyping machine (shown in the foreground). The prototypes are based on equations prepared by Mattawan High School math students

“This was a little end-of-the-year project to design a goblet,” Garman said. “Making the prototypes added a realistic dimension to the math.”

Garman’s 48 advanced math students were organized into 16 groups of three and required to produce the calculations for a goblet that met two criteria: the goblet had to be made with a specific amount of material and the goblet had to be able to hold a specific amount of liquid. She worked with Mattawan’s drafting teacher and CAD teacher on the project.

“The students had to design a goblet with those specifications using not only this year’s calculus, but also a lot of translations, scale changes, and what they had learned in functions last year,” Garman said.

The students used Pro-E, a computer-aided design software program that creates solid models. They also maintained engineering notebooks about the process they used and prepared a final report.

Although the computations were sent to Keil, he credits Jai Thomas, a Ph.D. graduate assistant, with doing the actual work of making the prototypes.

Thomas used the rapid prototyping machine in the Center for Integrated Design at WMU’s College of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Parkview Campus. The process of making the 16 goblets took about seven hours.

According to Keil, the rapid prototyping machine creates prototypes – made from cornstarch – layer by layer using the computer calculations. “The process of getting the student design files to the machine is actually kind of simple,” he said.

Keil was generally impressed with the prototypes. “Several goblets are very close to meeting the criteria,” he said. “Only one seems a little small and one definitely seems very large.”

The prototype goblets were returned to the students who reviewed their computations and reported on any problems. “We pick apart their mathematics to discover what they did wrong,” Garman said.

Garman, a 21-year veteran math teacher, first used prototypes a year ago when her calculus students completed a similar project as part of a National Science Foundation grant study led by WMU engineering professor Dr. Andrew Kline. His grant project was completed last year, but this year’s advanced math students at Mattawan had heard rave reviews from last year’s students and wanted to do a similar project.

“The kids really liked doing this last year,” Garman said. “They gained a lot of understanding from the actual prototypes.”

The Mattawan Foundation was credited for providing grant funds for this year’s project, and Garman said that if funding is available, she plans to do a similar project next year. “This is very valuable for the students,” she said.

---Story and photos courtesy of Kalamazoo Gazette

Engineering Management Major Selected as IME Presidential Scholar

Melissa Saltzman, an April 2007 graduate of the IME Engineering Management Technology (UEM) program with a minor in Integrated Supply Management, was the IME choice as the 2007 WMU Presidential Scholar and as the 2007 CEAS Dean’s Scholar.

As a Presidential Scholar, Saltzman, who earned a 3.95 GPA, achieved the highest academic honor that can be attained by a WMU student. She is the top 2007 graduating scholar of the Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering Department. “I appreciate the support and encouragement I received from my professors, classmates, and most importantly, my family,” she said.

The Presidential award was presented at the 27th Annual Presidential Scholars Convocation, hosted by WMU Provost Janet Pisaneschi, and the Dean’s award was given at a special luncheon given by CEAS Dean Tim Greene.

For each event, Saltzman selected IME’s Dr. David Lyth as the most supportive faculty member and her choice to celebrate with her.

Saltzman has been an intern at Summit Polymers Engineering since 2005. “Being an intern has helped teach me a lot about the engineering world,” she said. “I feel that experiencing first-hand the fast-paced, high-quality demands of the auto industry has really helped me appreciate the knowledge I’m gaining from school.”

At the 27th Annual Presidential Scholars Convocation (left to right) IME professor David Lyth, Provost Janet Pisaneschi, IME Presidential Scholar Melissa Saltzman, and Faculty Senator John Jellies

For her senior design project, Saltzman and her team mates, Zachary Armstrong and Andrew Nowak, worked on designing a feasibility analysis of mobile incineration to process certain kinds of medical waste in the state of Michigan. Mobile Incinerator New Venture Analysis was presented on April 17 at the Senior Engineering Design Conference held at the Parkview Campus.

A Lee Honors College member from 2003 to 2005, Saltzman also belongs to many honor societies. Her scholarships include the MEAP, Heart of Cook, WMU Academic, George R. Kohrman, and Engineering Week, and she also won the Fall 2006 IEEE Writing Contest. She is a member of the Society of Women Engineers, and she has volunteered as a Glad-Peach Fest Children’s Day Game Designer since 2000.

Saltzman’s future plans include continuing her education at WMU in pursuit of a master’s in engineering management technology with a possible focus on supply chain and perhaps a Ph.D. in operations. “The prospect of being able to help generate plans that will lead to savings in not only time and money, but also precious resources and energy really excites me,” she said. “I look forward to being able to apply what I learn in school to the real world.”

Saltzman would like to remain in Southwest Michigan. “Someday I may also want to consider becoming a college professor,” she said. “I’d like to encourage girls to get involved in the sciences.”

First Book Signing Planned for Troy Place’s First Novel

Troy Place, an IME faculty specialist, will be holding the first local book signing for his debut novel Pizza Pie and Politics: How Mitchell Moon Lost His Childhood at the Barnes and Noble on South Westnedge in Portage on Sat., May 26, from 2 to 4 p.m. The novel – which takes place in Battle Creek, MI, and Chicago – was released in January by Publish America of Baltimore, MD.

Cynthia Halderson, Senior Research Assistant for Science and Mathematics Program Improvement, described Pizza Pie and Politics as “a coming-of-age story of a college graduate and two buddies who decide to spend one last summer in the pizza shop where they’ve worked since high school.” They postpone self-awareness, relationships, and careers in favor of “a few more months of ritualized guy stuff.” She called the novel “a good read – well-crafted, funny as slapstick at times, and faithful to the bumpy road of human understanding.”

Writing has always been one of Place’s goals, and he has already published several pieces. Two of his short stories have been published in literary magazines, one in the Dickinson Review, a Dickinson College publication in Pennsylvania, and one in Xero, a literary magazine in Florida. Three of his poems have also been published.

Place has also written about 10 articles for Salem Press, an encyclopedia company, on a variety of topics including writer Jim Harrison, playwright David Auburn, murder-mystery writer Stuart Woods, Ford Foundation history, the Sydney Harbor Bridge, the Air Force X-20 Dinosaur project (a precursor to the Space Shuttle), and CAD-CAM technology.

Among his other writings are conference proceedings and a journal article about Orwell’s 1984 in Explicator. He recently submitted a journal article to Writing Across the Curriculum. “It’s about getting students to track down original information” and based on what Place had discussed in class.

Inspiration for Pizza Pie and Politics came to him at a wedding reception one summer when he and his friends seemed to be serving as groomsmen on an almost bi-weekly basis. “One of my friend’s dads suggested we hire ourselves out as groomsmen,” he said. He originally planned to write a book of short stories. “I thought that this story would be the fifth in a book of short stories, but once I had completed about fifty pages of it, I realized that I had a novel,” he said.

 

IME faculty specialist Troy Place with a copy of his first novel, Pizza Pie and Politics: How Mitchell Moon Lost His Childhood, a coming-of-age-story that takes place in Battle Creek and Chicago

 

One of his favorite writers is Jim Harrison, the former Sports Illustrated writer of Legends of the Fall. “I’ve read a lot of him since college,” Place said. He also enjoyed Charles Dickens. “I read a lot of Dickens in college and his work has led to my writing about young people,” Place said.

Prior to accepting a full-time position in the IME department in 2003, Place taught writing and communication classes part-time for WMU in the IME and English departments, freshman comp and research writing at Kellogg Community College, and English at Kalamazoo Valley Community College.

Place earned a bachelor’s degree in English and a master’s degree in critical studies in the teaching of English at Michigan State University. He and his wife, Nicole Place, reside in Battle Creek with their two children: Amara, 6, and Colton, 1.

Pizza Pie and Politics can be purchased at Publish America.com. Amazon.com, and Barnes and Noble.com. or ordered at any Barnes and Noble.

Place has not yet started a new novel, but he is considering it. “I’m thinking it will be something related to high school and basketball,” he said. He can be reached via email: troy.place@wmich.edu

Clausing Serves up Another Annual Awards Luncheon for Top IME Scholars

The IME Annual Student Recognition Luncheon paid tribute to IME’s top graduate and undergraduate students, seven professional societies, and three honor societies. Clausing Industrial Inc., which has been supporting IME programs for 54 years, provided the lunch.

Some of IME’s top students: (from left ): Murray Swoish (EGR), Shannon Bowerson (IEN), Meike Pamplone (GEM), J. D. Steinmetz (MFT), Lawrence Pitcher (IEN), Dr. Tim Greene (CEAS dean), Ashley Ford (UEM), Anil Kumar (Ph.D.), Brian Sather (MFEG), and Dr. Paul Engelmann (IME chair).

Several students received multiple honors. UEM senior Melissa Saltzman was IME’s Presidential Scholar and the CEAS dean’s UEM scholar and won two scholarships. Lawrence Pitcher (IEN), Murray Swoish (EGR), and John (J. D.) Steinmetz (MFT) were selected as both the IME and CEAS dean’s outstanding students in their respective programs. Pitcher also shared honors for a first-place IIE Region IV Conference paper.

Shannon Bowerson (IEN) earned an outstanding service award and won two scholarships. Jason Klein (MFT) and Ella Lambrix (IEN) each won two awards. A complete list of award winners follows.

IME Departmental Outstanding Students

Undergraduates    Murray Swoish EGR

                                      Lawrence Pitcher IEN

                                      John (J.D.) Steinmetz MFT

                                      Ashley Ford UEM

Graduates                 Meike Pamplone GEM

                                      Brian Sather MFEG

                                      Nikki Crocker IEG

                                      Anil Kumar IE Ph. D.

Outstanding Service Award       Shannon Bowerson

Dr. Paul Engelmann, the IME chair, called the students “the future,” and told them, “All people have gifts. You are people with a series of gifts that will lead to better products, better services, and hopefully better lives for all the people you will serve.”

Some of the scholarship winners….

Ù Jim Lester, Clausing Industrial’s inside marketing manager, presents the Clausing Scholarship to freshman Cory Barber.

 

Jaymi Gonzalez (left), Kellogg Foundation representative, with scholarship winners Ben Smith, Alisha Hankins, Shannon Bowerson, Ashley Bazzana, Bryan Dopkins, and Ella Lambrix. Ú

IME Offers Future Students a View of College Life in Engineering

IME faculty and students recently provided an IME Open House for several high school students who have been accepted at WMU for the fall semester. All the students have either applied to an IME engineering or technology program or declared no engineering major.

A dozen IME faculty, led by Dr. Betsy Aller and Fred Sitkins and several WMU students who are enrolled in IME programs, answered questions from the high school students and their parents. “It was a fun, interactive day,” Aller said, “We want to encourage them to come to Western.”

Dr. Betsy Aller (center, facing camera), IME professor, and grad assistant Brian Sather discuss college life with Kim Harms and her parents, Nelson and Cheryl Harms from Kalamazoo

The event began with a pizza lunch which led to tours of several IME labs. IME professor Dr. Pavel Ikonomov led a project in the Fabrication Lab that enabled the visiting students to make a personalized metal object using the computer-controlled plasma cutting system. He also provided a hands-on demonstration of how machines can be controlled by virtual reality.

Brandon Spence (center), a senior in IME’s engineering graphics and design technology (EGR) program, discusses the plastics lab.

In the automotive lab, IME instructor Tom Sutton demonstrated how data on a new Ford Mustang is collected while the vehicle is being run on a chassis dynamometer. In the vehicle lab, James Plocinik, a senior in the engineering graphics technology program, presented the Sunseeker ’05, WMU’s solar car entry in the most recent North American Solar Challenge (NASC), a 2,500- mile race from Austin, Texas, to Calgary, Alberta, held two years ago.

In the plastics lab, Brian Sather led a team that demonstrated how plastic bags are made, and students vacuum formed a WMU license plate.

James Plocinik (center, facing camera), a senior in the IME’s engineering graphics and design technology program (EGR), discusses Sunseeker ’05, the WMU solar powered car and design award winner in 2005 NASC race.

The IME department offers four undergraduate programs – industrial engineering (IEN), engineering graphics and design technology (EGR), manufacturing engineering technology (MFT), and engineering management technology (UEM) – three master’s programs – industrial engineering (IEG), manufacturing engineering (MNE), engineering management (GEM) – and a Ph.D. in industrial engineering.

IME students who answered questions and served as tour guides included Lauren Lambert (EGR), Josh Leyrer (EGR), Madeline McAuley (EGR), Ryan Miller (MFT), James Plocinik (EGR), Courtney Rawlings (EGR), Brian Sather (MNE), Anthony Serge (MFT), Brandon Spence (EGR), Dan Switzer (EGR), and Jim Vlieg (EGR).

“I was very gratified to see the level of student support for this event,” Stikins said. “Our students always turn out to be our best ambassadors.”

Other IME faculty who participated included Paul Engelmann, Tycho Fredericks, Tarun Gupta, Mitchel Keil, Joe Petro, Sam Ramrattan, and Tom Swartz.

Carrying tokens of her visit to the IME Open House is Leslie Whitman (center), who came with her parents, Chuck and Sue Whitman from Augusta

Aller and Sitkins were pleased with the enthusiasm of the parents and students. “This was indeed a rewarding event for all,” Sitkins said.

Area Boy Scouts Earn Drafting Badges in WMU Workshop

Boy Scouts from Vicksburg and Schoolcraft went to college to learn about engineering drafting. In two three-hour sessions at WMU’s College of Engineering and Applied Sciences’ Parkview Campus, 14 scouts examined engineering drawing from two perspectives, by hand and with computer-aided design (CAD).

Slobodan Urdarevik (left), the lead engineering graphics faculty member at Western Michigan University’s College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, assists David Pauli, 14, a ninth-grader in Vicksburg Troop 251, with AutoCAD drawing.

WMU’s Slobodan Urdarevik, the lead faculty member in the engineering graphics classes in the IME department, provided the instruction with the help of student teaching assistant volunteers. “Working with these scouts has been very exciting,” he said.

As part of the requirements for the drafting badge, the Scouts, who ranged from 11 to 15 years old, completed a third angle orthographic projection showing the front, top, and right side views of an object. “In order to draw any object either by hand or in CAD, we need to know these three views of a part,” Urdarevik said. “These are basic.”

By hand, the scouts learned to transfer measurements from the part to the drawing, to use symbols, and to show dimensions. They took width, depth, and height measurements of the part and determined the location and diameter of a hole in the part. “We learned drafting a design and a block on paper,” said David Pauli, 14, a ninth-grader in Vicksburg’s Troop 251.

One week later, the scouts returned to a WMU computer lab where they drew the same part they’d drawn the week before except that they used AutoCAD, an electronic drafting program. WMU students Jonathan Zolp, a second-year aeronautical engineering student from Paw Paw; David Schmidt, a second-year civil engineering student from Rochester Hills; and Jaime Rodriguez, a mechanical engineering senior from Three Rivers, volunteered to assist the scouts. All three presently serve as undergraduate teaching assistants (TAs) in the engineering graphics course.

Kris Peck (left, front), 12, a seventh-grader from Vicksburg Troop 251, gets AutoCAD assistance from David Schmidt, a second-year civil engineering student from Rochester Hills, while Logan Pauli, 12, also a seventh-grader from Vicksburg Troop 251, attends to his own drawing. In second row (left to right) are Deric Blanchett, 11, a sixth-grader from the same troop, and Jaime Rodriguez, a mechanical engineering senior from Three Rivers, and Cody Sherman, 12, a seventh-grader from the same troop. In the third row on the left is Andy Lovell (left), 13, from Schoolcraft Troop 254. Standing in the back of the room is Slobodan Urdarevik, the lead engineering graphics faculty member at WMU.

Many scout merit badges are introductions to various careers, and Urdarevik reviewed the Boy Scout merit badge book on drafting to be sure that the sessions would enable the scouts to meet all the badge requirements. “In a very short period of time, they learn many things very quickly,” he said.

“Coming here has been great,” Vicksburg Troop 251 leader Mike Gerry said.

This is the first time Urdarevik has offered the drafting sessions for scouts, but he is interested in providing instruction for other scouts to earn the drafting badge.

“I hope there will be more requests because I think learning about drafting is beneficial for the scouts, and it’s also good for them to come here to the college.” Those interested in scheduling sessions should contact him at slobodan.urdarevik@wmich.edu

---Story and photos courtesy of the Kalamazoo Gazette

WMU Chapter Wins Awards at Regional IIE Conference

The WMU chapter of the Institute of Industrial Engineers [IIE] won several awards last month at the 2007 IIE Region IV Conference held at Ohio State University, in Columbus, OH.

IME professors and IIE advisors Dr. Steven Butt, current IIE Region IV vice president, and Dr. Tycho Fredericks, current IIE Region IV assistant vice president for student development, accompanied 19 WMU students to the event.

Four WMU students won first and third place honors for two papers presented in the technical paper contest.

Seniors John Knapp, Michael Kruse, and Lawrence Pitcher took the top prize for a paper based on their senior design project. "Analysis of Forecasted Capacity Utilization Through a Simulated Environment of an Outpatient Pharmacy."

The paper explores a Southwestern Michigan hospital's outpatient pharmacy and uses work design and a simulated environment to develop models, analyses, and recommendations to improve the workflow and customer wait time.

To complete the project, the students used several exploratory tools to uncover the items that were adversely affecting productivity, efficiency, and customer wait time. The seniors will compete on May 20, 2007, at the national conference in Nashville.

Attending 2007 IIE Region IV Conference, left to right, front row: Benjamin Smith, Ella Lambrix, Alisha Hankins, Aarti Valsadia, and Krisana Gutierrez; second row: John Knapp, Robert Cookingham, Ashley Bazzana, Larry Pitcher, Dr. Steven Butt, Melanie Zaleski, Shannon Bowerson, and Michael Kruse; third row: Dimas Insani, Anthony Moguel, Matthew Pridgeon, Dr. Tycho Fredericks, Bryan Dopkins, Eric Drzewicki, and Jason Saksewski.

Senior Jason R. Saksewski won third place with “Process Design and Improvement: Primary and Finish Broaching Operations,” a paper based on his experiences as an intern.

The WMU group also won awards for having more students in attendance than any other travelling chapter and for travelling farther than any other chapter. “We are very excited about how the conference turned out,” said Shannon Bowerson, president of WMU IIE chapter.

Winning awards in the technical paper contest at the 2007 IIE conference are (left to right) Larry Pitcher, John Knapp, and Michael Kruse, who won first place and the right to compete at the national conference in Nashville in May, and Jason Saksewski, who won third.

Other IIE Region IV universities include Dayton University, Kettering University, Ohio University, Purdue University, University of Louisville, University of Michigan – Ann Arbor, University of Michigan – Dearborn, University of Toledo, Wayne State University, Wright State University, and Youngstown State University.

This year’s regional conference, with its “Think Global” theme, included social networking, team-building events, a panel discussion on post-graduation opportunities, and several prominent speakers including Dr. Deborah J. Nightingale (MIT – Lean Aerospace Initiative), Dr. Scott Sink (VP, MTS Corp.), Dr. Seth Bonder (CEO, VRI), and Ms. Darlene Martin (GM, GE-Aviation) .

First IME Night Offers Information and Fun

The IME department held its first IME Night to showcase IME’s four undergraduate programs: industrial engineering, manufacturing engineering technology, engineering management technology, and engineering graphics and design technology.

Reviewing IME program material are industrial engineering students (left to right) Shannon Bowerson, IE undergrad; Supreeta Amin, IE Ph.D.; Ilgin Acar, IE Ph.D.; and Mike Hoonhorst, IE master’s.

Even though the three-hour event was set for one of the most blustery winter evenings this month, more than 40 IME students and faculty set up tables to showcase IME programs, products, and organizations and to answer questions.

In addition, many Parkview Campus engineering labs were open for guided tours. Participants could also view a computerized image of the pressure points they exert on a chair when they sit down, which is part of ongoing chair research.

Supreeta Amin, IE Ph.D. student, reviews a computer image of the pressure points that Al Reyes Rivera has created in the special chair in which he is sitting. The chair is part of ongoing research by Drs. Tycho Fredericks and Steven Butt.

All undecided engineering majors were invited to meet and discuss careers, school, and anything else with present IME students and faculty and to eat pizza, play games, and win prizes.

Discussing casting products and potential careers are (seated) Jason Klein (baseball cap) and John (J. D.) Steinmetz, IME manufacturing engineering technology seniors.

According to Dr. Steven Butt, an associate professor in the IME department who helped to coordinate the event with the IME department student chapters, several students requested more information about IME programs. “In spite of the weather, it was a very good night,” he said. “The interaction between the students and faculty within the department was great!”

IME professors Joe Petro and Kailash Bafna were two of many IME professors who attended IME Night to meet, greet, and discuss IME programs. Petro is an advisor in IME’s Manufacturing Engineering Technology and Engineering Management Technology programs.

Also pleased with the event was Dr. Paul Engelmann, IME chair. “This was clearly a positive event for our current students, and I, for one, had a good time,” he said.

Plans are in the works to offer IME Night in subsequent semesters.

FEF Conference Offers Students Opportunity to Network in Metal Casting Industry

Six IME students attended the 2006 Foundry Educational Foundation College Industry Conference (FEF CIC) held last November with Dr. Sam Ramrattan, a specialist in material and process and the WMU FEF Key Professor, and Dr. Tim Greene, dean of WMU’s College of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

The 59-year-old conference is held annually in Chicago. The current FEF President is Bill Barrett, president and CEO of Neenah Foundry Co , who was inducted into the CEAS Alumni Excellence Academy in 2006.

The WMU student delegates were Adam Bell (ME), Kyle Manduch (EGR), Ryan Miller (MFT), Charles Ponscheck (MFT), Matthew Rutledge (EGR), and Scott Seckel (MFT).

Ramrattan described the conference as “an exciting event” that actively reaches out to engineering colleges and universities in North America. WMU is one of only 25 in the world to be accredited by this foundation.

Seckel said the conference gave student delegates the opportunity to interact with representatives of companies in the metal casting industry. “There were as many as six delegates from numerous colleges from across the country,” he said. “The information section is structured to connect students to potential employers.”

According to Manduch, an EGR senior, the group spent the first night meeting representatives from a number of companies. “It was a great opportunity not only to meet companies, but to network with others in the metal casting industry,” he said.  “It was a fun night, where we [he and Miller] went out and about in downtown Chicago. We ended up at the Signature Room on the top of the Hancock Center, where we enjoyed the beautiful night lights of Chicago while networking with Honda representatives.” 
A special feature of this year’s event was a fund-raising silent auction held at the awards banquet in which industry leaders competed to purchase Super Bowl XL football tickets. Proceeds from the auction will benefit students in metal casting programs.

Students attend the conference for the opportunity to win scholarships and to network with representatives from industry. “Companies attend this conference to help promote their names and to look at students who could potentially become part of their teams,” Seckel said.

Representing WMU at the 2006 FEF CIC: front row (l-r) Scott Seckel, Dr. Sam Ramrattan, and Adam Bell and back row (l-r) Charles Ponscheck, Ryan Miller, Kyle Manduch, Matt Rutledge, and Dr. Tim Greene

The conference presentations included an update of current work being done by a recent engineering graduate, a review of changes in the industry from an engineer who has spent his life in the metal casting field, and an overview of positions presently available to graduates in the metal casting field. “The last discussion was primarily about the new wave of technology and the future of casting technology,” Manduch said. “After the conferences, we were able to tour the night life of Chicago.”

Manduch described the conference experience as a “very beneficial” one that seemed like a “family reunion” and offered lifelong learning experiences the students would be unable to get in a class.  “It was like a giant metal-casting family,” he said. “Everyone knew everyone else, and I learned stuff I will take with me for the rest of my life.” 

Describing his conference experience as “very valuable,” Seckel said he had his first “very tasty” dinner interview, which led to a second interview and a job offer that he accepted as the Casting Engineering Manager at Blackhawk Foundry in Davenport, IA. “The opportunities presented to students like me are the result of attending industry conferences like this,” he said.