WMU President John Dunn (left) and Faculty Senate President John Jellies (right) present IME’s 2009 Presidential Scholar award to Jordan Avery, EGR senior
Avery, an Engineering Graphics and Design Technology (EGR) senior with a minor in automotive systems, is the 2009 Presidential Scholar Award from the Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering (IME).
The award is given each year to the most outstanding senior in each WMU department based on general academic excellence, academic and/or artistic excellence, and intellectual and/or artistic promise.
The 2009 award was presented to only 46 WMU students at the 29th Annual Presidential Scholars Convocation, held earlier this spring. For the event, Avery was joined by IME’s Dr. Mitchel Keil, whom he invited as his most supportive faculty member.
Avery, who is from Jackson and who maintains a 3.95 GPA, received a WMU Academic Scholarship from the Medallion competition and a Dean’s Scholar grant. He also won the Herbert E. Ellinger scholarship for engineering technology students.
Avery’s main academic interest is “design engineering of automotive components and making that process more efficient through the knowledge-based engineering (KBE) process,” he said.
Avery has completed two internships. First, he worked with the chief engineer at the Kalamazoo County Road Commission on project management and the review of local road construction projects. He also designed new plans for county drain culverts for approval through the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ).
For his second internship, he worked for the North American Automotive Experience Interiors Division of Johnson Controls, Inc., (JCI) as part of the KBE team involved with project automation.
“KBE works to assist in the engineering design process and ultimately speeds up the process, making it more efficient and saving the company time and money,” Avery said.
Avery’s responsibilities included building engineering knowledge into computer-aided design (CAD) applications to facilitate a lean approach to engineering. “This involved working with current subject matter technical experts (SMTEs) and building their knowledge into the CATIA CAD software through Knowledgeware programming,” he said. Avery’s professional memberships include the Golden Key International Honour Society and WMU’s Delta Chapter of Tau Alpha Pi Engineering Technology Honor Society, for which he presently serves as treasurer.
While working at JCI last summer, Avery joined the West Michigan CATIA User Group (WMCUG), a group of industry professionals that meet monthly to learn new CATIA functionality to keep their companies lean and efficient.
Outside of school Avery enjoys sports and outdoor activities. In the winter he snowmobiles with his Dad, and in the summer he water skis and wakeboards at his family’s cottage. He recently began mountain biking. “I also have an interest in automobiles, whether it be working on them or trying to keep up with the latest technology in the automotive market,” he said.
After he graduates in December, Avery would like to stay in West Michigan and be involved in “automotive technology to help companies develop a lean approach to engineering in the design phase.” Eventually he plans to pursue a master’s degree in engineering management and get involved in the management side of engineering design.
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