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��Ͽ� Polytechnic students support Sierra Space’s lunar testing system

giffeyt — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 14:30:00 +0000

��Ͽ� Polytechnic students support Sierra Space’s lunar testing system giffeyt July 15, 2026

Alum works with engineering students to improve lunar dust testing, bolstering NASA’s return to the moon

Through a collaboration with Sierra Space, a leading defense-tech space company, ��Ͽ� Polytechnic students are validating critical systems that may be part of missions that return humanity to the moon.

Under the mentorship of alumnus Todd Treichel, Ph.D., a principal manufacturing engineer at Sierra Space, students from ��Ͽ� Polytechnic’s Robert F. Cervenka School of Engineering have been developing methods to ensure that high-tech parts can survive in the harsh lunar environment.

The work comes at a time of revived public interest in space travel, thanks in large part to NASA’s successful Artemis II lunar flyby in April. Sierra Space has been actively developing In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) technologies, including developing a system to extract oxygen from lunar soil, as well as efforts to design inflatable space habitats and support activities for an upcoming Moon base.

For several years, ��Ͽ� Polytechnic students have been redesigning and improving a lunar dust testing chamber. The chamber is used to study how gray, gritty moon dust – technically known as “lunar regolith” – could impact components like gears and lighting elements.

��Ͽ� Polytechnic Sierra Space project research team, from left to right: Luke Stanelle, Heidi Benningfield, Sammie Kotek, Dominick Konkel and Todd Treichel.

“It is very encouraging to know that something our team worked on could impact future designs for lunar testing,” said Sammie Kotek, of New Prague, Minnesota, who graduated in May with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. “Todd has given us an opportunity to highlight what we learn here at Stout and apply it to something that will reach very important projects. The redesign and testing of the dust chamber could help better design equipment that is being sent to the moon, and I think that’s pretty cool!”

From lab to lunar environment

On a Friday during the spring semester, Kotek was among several students who joined Treichel in a lab in Fryklund Hall to use the dust chamber to test two headlights intended for a moon rover. Colorado-based Sierra Space developed the lights, which are meant to be used on an unmanned rover.

While images from the Apollo missions may make moon dust appear light and fluffy, it’s anything but. Heidi Benningfield, who graduated in May with a mechanical engineering degree, described the substance as “jagged like a kidney stone.” Unlike dust on Earth, which is smoothed and rounded by wind and rain, lunar dust is like a fine, abrasive ash. It’s also electrically charged, Treichel explained, which means it sticks to things – something Apollo astronauts discovered in the 1960s.

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Over the past two years, a team of ��Ͽ� Polytechnic students have redesigned the lunar testing chamber to make it more functional: For instance, they added variable speeds to the fan that keeps the dust airborne, as well as added a method to keep the dust from settling. Benningfield and Kotek engineered structural components while controls and electrical components were the focus of senior Luke Stanelle, a computer and electrical engineering major from St. Paul; senior Noah Flood Elyafi, a computer and electrical engineering major from Orfordville; and 2025 mechanical engineering graduate Dominick Konkel, who now works at Hewlett Packard Enterprise in Chippewa Falls.

The process had two goals: Measuring how effectively the chamber could coat the headlight lenses with simulated moon dust and assessing how that dust impacts the light output of the lenses. The lenses were coated with a prototype material to prevent dust from accumulating. When compared with an uncoated control piece also placed in the testing chamber, the coating seems to have done its job, Treichel said.

Just as importantly, the chamber that the students designed did its job, too, which will usher in the next phase of the project.

“The ultimate goal would be to take what the students have done and up-scale the chamber size to accommodate larger-sized test articles,” Treichel said. He plans on having several ��Ͽ� Polytechnic students visit Sierra Space’s Madison location this summer to conduct further tests.

Sierra Space Principal Manufacturing Engineer Todd Treichel with the lunar dust testing chamber in a Fryklund Hall lab.

Mentor comes full circle

Treichel, who received his manufacturing engineering degree from ��Ͽ� Polytechnic in 1990, has worked for Sierra Space and its affiliate, Sierra Nevada Corporation, for 18 years. His experience spans manufacturing and design engineering as well as quality, reliability, and environmental testing. He has worked on everything from rocket engines and thrusters to Mars landers, specifically the Phoenix Lander, and payloads sent to the International Space Station.

A few years ago, Treichel was invited to become a member of his alma mater’s Mechanical Engineering Advisory Board. At the encouragement of faculty, he visited ��Ͽ� Polytechnic in the hopes of arranging a project between the university and Sierra Space. He connected with Benningfield, who he described as having an exemplary passion for aerospace, and she interned at Sierra Space and presented at the Wisconsin Space Conference in 2024. Benningfield later completed a three-month paid internship as a SMART Scholar Engineer with the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command.

Last summer, Konkel made a keynote presentation about the lunar dust testing chamber at the conference, which is held annually by the Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium, of which ��Ͽ� Polytechnic is an affiliate member.

Left: Dominick Konkel presents at the Wisconsin Space Conference. Right: Cannisters of lunar and Martian simulants. / Todd Treichel

“Being surrounded by so many brilliant minds and mind-blowing projects and knowing that the work I did earned the keynote spot at the conference was such an amazing achievement,” Konkel said.

“What I learned during this project will contribute to my future career through introducing me to topics that I have grown increasingly eager to explore,” continued Konkel, who plans to pursue a master’s degree in aerospace engineering at the University of Michigan. “These new topics will continue to drive me as I go to grad school and continue to drive deeper into the world of aerospace.”

The lunar dust chamber project grew out of a prototype that was developed about a decade ago, Treichel said. The original chamber prototype had several limitations and was put on pause. However, the launch of the Artemis program and NASA’s desire to return to the moon meant lunar dust testing was once again a relevant topic, and one that Treichel brought to ��Ͽ� Polytechnic students.

“The Stout team really took on an open-ended challenge where they were tasked with providing recommendations for design architecture, presenting them to Sierra Space, gaining approval, and then cut loose to design, build, and test,” Treichel said. The challenge was complex, he noted, involving the synthesis of mechanical and electrical engineering – precisely the interdisciplinary strength of ��Ͽ� Polytechnic’s polytechnic model.

“I found this transition to be most impressive because it represents the real world of aerospace design engineering,” he said. “The amount of electrical engineering was greater than originally planned, but the students figured it out and executed without hesitation.”

The lunar dust testing chamber developed by ��Ͽ� Polytechnic students is shown with containers of simulated lunar and Martian dust.

Kotek, who began working at Scott Equipment Company after graduation, said working on the project not only broadened her horizons but gave her valuable experience working across teams, as the testing chamber was frequently passed between the students as deadlines arrived and new features were added.

She lauded the mentorship Treichel has been able to provide because of his long experience in the aerospace field.

“His knowledge about general engineering and aerospace was highly valuable to my learning experience,” Kotek said. “He taught with a purpose and always wanted us to walk away from a conversation gaining something. He also valued our engineering process and never tried to take our project away from us. When doing projects like this, it’s nice to know that your mentor trusts you to get the job done and does not overstep.”

Treichel said working with students has given him a full-circle experience. “Having graduated from ��Ͽ�, it’s rewarding to work with the next generation of engineers, almost like handing off the baton in a relay race,” he said. “As a polytechnic university, hands-on work coupled with experimentation on prototype hardware really makes this a solid focus on a career-oriented skill that can one day serve the aerospace industry as well as others like it.”

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Student’s research aims at space debris

The Sierra Space project isn’t the only space-related research going on at ��Ͽ� Polytechnic. In April, junior Reese Hufnagel presented her work on addressing the growing problem of space debris during the Research in the Rotunda event at the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison.

Hufnagel, a chemistry major from Anoka, Minnesota, is working with Professor Matthew Ray to mitigate the risk of reentry debris from spacecraft and satellites. Ideally, materials like used rocket stages and old satellites burn up when they fall to earth. However, as stronger carbon-fiber materials have become more common and the number of rocket launches has increased dramatically in recent years, reentry debris has become much more common. To address this growing danger, Hufnagel and Ray have worked to create a catalytic additive that, when integrated into carbon-fiber materials, can cause them to disintegrate when they reach a specific trigger temperature at reentry.

To bolster their work, Hufnagel and Ray have conducted more than 50 interviews with people in the space industry, including experts at NASA, SpaceX and Sierra Space. The pair have also formed a startup to commercialize their work, and Hufnagel has received a research scholarship from the Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium. The pair also recently published an article about their research at The Conversation, an academic outline that rarely publishes work by authors who aren’t faculty members.

Hufnagel will be a panelist in August at the Wisconsin Space Conference this August in Kenosha. In the meantime, however, she will spend the summer as an intern at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.

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��Ͽ� Polytechnic students support Sierra Space’s lunar testing system

Alum works with engineering students to improve lunar dust testing, bolstering NASA’s return to the moon

Ashley, Cadrex, Apogee among companies benefiting from engineering students’ prototypes

Capstone projects demonstrate mechanical, manufacturing know-how, leadership skills

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Hired before graduation at Absolut Manufacturing

Alum works with engineering students to improve lunar dust testing, bolstering NASA’s return to the moon Sierra Space project team checks equipment

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Hero Caption: ��Ͽ� Polytechnic students and recent graduates who worked on a research project for Sierra Space look at their lunar dust testing chamber.

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Ashley, Cadrex, Apogee among companies benefiting from engineering students’ prototypes

giffeyt — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 12:45:05 +0000

Ashley, Cadrex, Apogee among companies benefiting from engineering students’ prototypesgiffeyt June 15, 2026

Capstone projects demonstrate mechanical, manufacturing know-how, leadership skills

Tom Giffey

��Ͽ� Polytechnic mechanical engineering student Dominick Marco faced several challenges when he became team leader for the second semester of a capstone project on behalf of Cadrex Manufacturing Solutions.

In addition to designing and building a prototype that would automatically assemble a plastic latch and a steel bracket into a completed part, Marco had to ensure that his six-member team stayed on track as the project deadline – and graduation – approached.

Marco wasn’t just learning engineering; he was learning leadership.

“I worked on delegating by asking questions rather than directing, and through this and similar techniques, I was able to stay up to date on my team’s progress while helping direct team members to work on important tasks without overstepping or feeling like I was micromanaging,” explained Marco, of Eleva.

“Working on a project like this with a team is a very valuable experience,” Marco continued. “Learning alongside other up-and-coming engineers has been an incredible two semesters.”

Students, faculty and industry representatives examine the prototype for Cadrex after the demonstration.

Such applied learning, which is key to the polytechnic mission that distinguishes ��Ͽ� Polytechnic, was on display in mid-May as mechanical engineering and manufacturing engineering seniors presented their capstone projects to industry leaders, faculty members and peers. These two-semester projects aren’t theoretical exercises. They lead to real, working prototypes designed to solve problems for industrial sponsors. In addition to Cadrex, one of the nation’s largest metal fabricating firms, corporate sponsors included Ashley Furniture, Tomahawk Manufacturing, Apogee Enterprises, Genesis Industries, Frost Inc. and Industrial Heat Transfer.

“This course sequence truly is a capstone on a student’s academic career at ��Ͽ� Polytechnic,” said Assistant Professor Nathan Spike, part of the capstone teaching team. “Over the two semesters, a student completes the transition from engineering student to a full-fledged, career-ready manufacturing or mechanical engineer – or, in some cases, both for students pursuing a dual major. Students can put what they have learned in these courses directly into practice as they transition into their engineering career.”

According to the university’s most recent First Destination Report, 100% of 2024-25 graduates from the manufacturing engineering program reported they were either employed or continuing their education within six months of graduation, with an average starting salary was $76,000. During the same period, mechanical engineering graduates had a 99% employment rate within six months and an average starting salary of $66,000.

A ��Ͽ� Polytechnic student adjusts piston positions in the prototype. / Submitted photo

Process teaches communication skills

At the culmination of the capstone process, second-semester teams offer presentations of their mechanical and manufacturing solutions, then demonstrate them. During their presentation, Marco and his team – fellow seniors Aiden Koepsel, Ben Swift, Will Schlafke, Darren Byle and Josiah Castleberg – described their project scope and how they reached their final design. Originally, they considered a conveyor belt to carry the two parts. However, this was ultimately replaced with static, angled ramps that bring the two pieces together to become the completed part, which ultimately will be used in a battery holder in a data rack enclosure.

Later, the Cadrex group and other capstone teams moved into a nearby lab in Fryklund Hall to demonstrate their projects. The Cadrex prototype, a single workstation on casters, came to life, smoothly combining the pieces into completed latches, which flowed into a plastic bin.

The prototype that students developed for Cadrex Manufacturing Solutions combined these two pieces into one component.

After the demonstration, team members chatted about the prototype with Wayne Greensky, an automation engineer at Cadrex’s Osceola plant, who provided technical input during the project. While the students had solid technical understanding when they began the project, what really grew over the course of two semesters was their communication skills, Greensky said.

“Communication with project stakeholders helps students shake off communication anxiety and prepares them for proper meeting etiquette, structure, and progress update communications, while also dealing with customer dictated deliverables,” Greensky said.

The ��Ͽ� Polytechnic students handled challenges – including bill of materials ordering and issues with electrical schematics – promptly and professionally, he added.

“This type of project is useful for getting engineering students comfortable with solving an unsolved problem,” Greensky explained. “Undergraduate degree curriculums typically do not prepare the students with coursework that does not have a ‘correct’ answer or solution method. This senior design experience fills that gap nicely.”

Students discuss a pallet destacker they designed on behalf of Ashley Furniture.

Efforts aimed at automation

During the spring semester, the Cadrex capstone group was just one of 13 teams composed of 83 students from ��Ͽ� Polytechnic’s Robert F. Cervenka School of Engineering who worked on projects in Fryklund Hall labs.

Senior Sawyer Boigenzahn, a manufacturing engineering major from Mondovi, was the first-semester team lead for a project to create an automated system to wash and dry extruded aluminum window frames for Apogee Enterprises, owner of the Wausau Windows and Walls brand.

The frames, Boigenzahn explained, are processed in a CNC machine and emerge covered in chips, coolant and cutting fluid. Currently, the parts must be washed by hand, which leads to inconsistent cycle times. Automation would improve the quality and consistency of the process, ultimately saving Apogee time and money.

The five-member team – which also included Boigenzahn, Logan Boettcher, Brody Bongaarts, Brooks Brewer, and Joseph Gardner – conceived of a device that operated something like a car wash, but they pondered whether the sprayer or the aluminum part itself should be what moves. Ultimately, Boigenzahn explained, they decided it was easier to move the part through the sprayers than vice versa.

Based on feedback from their end-of-semester presentation, the team will return to build a prototype of their design in the fall semester. “We are at the start of that process, because this is a very difficult process to automate,” he said.

Boigenzahn, who previously worked as a welder, said the capstone project is a reminder that engineering isn’t about a single input inevitably leading to a single output: It’s a practical discipline that involves hands-on craft.

“For us, it’s an experiment in terms of our ability to understand the mechanical and engineering principles that we’ve been taught and actually apply them in the real world,” Boigenzahn said. “And more importantly, when you encounter real world problems – including teamwork issues, design problems, people giving you conflicting advice – how do you try to solve them? The thing about design is that you can’t just plug it into a computer and it spits out the right answer. That is just not the way this works.”

Despite the challenging work involved in the capstone process, Boigenzahn said it’s ultimately a valuable part of the ��Ͽ� Polytechnic experience. “I don’t think Stout would stand out as much if we did not do these things,” he said.

Capstone students cut holes in an electrical box while building their prototype for Cadrex Manufacturing Solutions. / Submitted image

Teamwork connects students, faculty, industry partners

The capstone process is a team effort, and not just among the students: In addition to Spike, instructors include Senior Lecturer Glenn Bushedorf, Lecturer Anwr Albaghdadi, Lecturer Brandon Dick and Lecturer Niloofar Moradian, with technical support from Paul Craig, program director for manufacturing engineering.

And it’s an effort that leads to results for industry sponsors, Spike explained. “The prototypes students develop often serve as a starting point or otherwise inform the direction a company will go with their process or product,” he said.

In addition, two semesters of intensive, iterative capstone work provide invaluable experience for emerging engineers as they enter the job market.

“Getting the chance to be a part of a project like this and create such a cool prototype machine for Cadrex has honestly been one of the best experiences to date,” Marco said. “This is the largest, most expensive project I have ever been a part of, and it makes me emotional seeing it come to a close. I am sad knowing that I will most likely never see it after it ships away, but I am so very happy to have gotten to design, develop and assemble the prototype.”

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��Ͽ� Polytechnic students support Sierra Space’s lunar testing system

Alum works with engineering students to improve lunar dust testing, bolstering NASA’s return to the moon

Ashley, Cadrex, Apogee among companies benefiting from engineering students’ prototypes

Capstone projects demonstrate mechanical, manufacturing know-how, leadership skills

Inspiring Graduate: Thomas Shamla, B.S. Mechanical Engineering

Hired before graduation at Absolut Manufacturing

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Inspiring Graduate: Thomas Shamla, B.S. Mechanical Engineering

giffeyt — Thu, 21 May 2026 15:33:00 +0000

Inspiring Graduate: Thomas Shamla, B.S. Mechanical Engineering giffeyt May 21, 2026

Hired before graduation at Absolut Manufacturing

Inspiring Graduate: Thomas Shamla (’26) 

Hometown: South Range 
Degree: B.S. Mechanical Engineering
Minors: Material Science

��Ͽ� graduate Thomas Shamla can point to specific engineering course work that helped him excel at an industrial internship – an internship that led to a job offer. The connection between learning technical drawing and design software skills in class and then applying those skills to create 3D models for an employer is a prime example of the advantages of a degree at Wisconsin’s Polytechnic University.

“��Ͽ� has prepared me to work in my field by offering extensive exposure to the same equipment and processes used in industry,” said Shamla, who will soon begin as a mechanical engineer at Absolut Manufacturing, a maker of paper converting equipment in Iron River.

B.S. mechanical engineering graduate Thomas Shamla shakes hand with Chancellor Katherine Frank during the ��Ͽ� spring commencement ceremony May 16, 2026.

Even classes outside his major that he was initially skeptical of – such as those in speech and writing – had application in his career, Shamla found.

“I was asked to give two presentations to the senior engineers at the company where I had my internship, and I remember using some of the feedback I received in my speech class years earlier to create a clear, concise presentation,” he said.

Shamla, of South Range, was one of 1,067 Blue Devils who received degrees during the May 16 spring commencement ceremonies. Of this year’s graduates, 77.4% were hired prior to graduation, while 99% of recent graduates were employed or furthering their education within six months of graduation.

“I hope to contribute to my field by bringing my knowledge to the manufacturing industry of northern Wisconsin and by using my acquired skills to offer unique and innovative solutions to problems,” Shamla said.

What brought you to ��Ͽ�?

When I was touring colleges in high school, I was very impressed by ��Ͽ�’s ability to give a hands-on education through its labs. I also think that this campus has a lot of resources dedicated to preparing students for a career after school, and I was interested in taking advantage of those opportunities to help me stand out in my field.

How has ��Ͽ� prepared you to work in your field?

��Ͽ� has prepared me to work in my field by offering extensive exposure to the same equipment and processes used in industry. My internship and senior design experience are two examples of direct exposure to my field that I had as a student. I remember learning a lot about technical drawings and design software in my Communication of Engineering Design class that I took in my second year. I relied heavily on what I learned in that class when I completed my summer internship, which involved converting legacy part and assembly drawings into 3D models.

What were the greatest lessons or projects you were involved in during your internship with Absolut Manufacturing?

I completed my internship at Absolut Manufacturing in the summer of 2025. My role there was to convert legacy drawings of parts and assemblies into 3D models. In addition to modeling the parts and determining the assembly structure, this involved determining appropriate stock for the parts to be made from, categorizing and labeling the parts within the company’s product data management system, and preparing a report on differences between the legacy system and more recent machines produced by Bretting Manufacturing, Absolut’s parent company. Because the way that the parts were modeled and categorized determined their manufacturing method, I learned a lot about how to select the most appropriate and realistic manufacturing process to produce a certain type of part.

What stands out about your ��Ͽ� experience?

What stands out to me about my ��Ͽ� experience is how hands-on learning and small class sizes allow students to get the best understanding of the material being taught. One example of this was in Associate Professor Greg Slupe’s Computer-Aided Manufacturing class. In that class, everyone gets a lot of time using the lab equipment. Greg presents his knowledge on the subject matter clearly and thoroughly, and he is always available to answer questions. That class is a great example of professors providing the resources needed for each individual student to succeed.

How did your campus involvement impact your experience?

During my time at ��Ͽ�, I was involved as a member of StoutCatholic. At the weekly meetings, I met great people and had the opportunity to lead several Bible studies. Leading the studies gave me an opportunity to practice leadership and conversational skills, which are great skills to have in the professional world and in life.

I was also awarded the Rath Foundation academic scholarship, which was an incredible opportunity that helped me cover the cost of attending the university.

What challenges did you face in earning your degree and how did you overcome them?

When I started pursuing my degree, there were some classes in the curriculum that I struggled to connect to practical skills for my career. I didn’t understand how taking certain classes in speech and writing could help me in the future because I believed that they didn’t relate to my future career. Because I didn’t understand the benefits of these classes, it was difficult to motivate myself to put in extra time for them.

Overcoming this challenge happened naturally through experience, as I grew to realize the need for an engineer to have skills in many of these areas. I was asked to give two presentations to the senior engineers at the company where I had my internship, and I remember using some of the feedback I received in my speech class years earlier to create a clear, concise presentation.

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With applied and experiential learning and a career focus, students who attend ��Ͽ� know they will graduate ready to enter the work world.

What are you most proud of as you finish your degree?

As I finish my degree, I am most proud of the knowledge I have that lets me give back to my community. In the professional world and beyond, I am leaving the university with practical skills that will help me be a more valuable employee and solve problems in my day-to-day life. I am proud that I have learned new ways to approach those problems and have practiced solving them creatively. I am also proud of the fact that I was able to maintain a GPA of over 3.9 throughout the challenges I have faced.

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Co-op Q&A: Noah Klenner, Nicolet Plastics and Harley-Davidson

goersab — Tue, 12 May 2026 18:45:00 +0000

Co-op Q&A: Noah Klenner, Nicolet Plastics and Harley-Davidsongoersab May 12, 2026

‘My internships built on the strong foundation Stout has given me by showing me how concepts are used in actual production environments.’

For more than 120 years, Harley-Davidson, headquartered in Milwaukee, has been one of the world’s most recognizable motorcycle brands. Dominating the U.S. market, the heavyweight motorcycles and the signature orange and black shield embody the freedom of the open road.

Just a short ride up the shores of Lake Michigan is Nicolet Plastics, with facilities in Jackson and Mountain, Wisconsin. The custom injection molding company specializes in producing complex plastic parts for industrial, medical and consumer markets. It was recently awarded the Small Business Wisconsin Manufacturer of the Year Award.

Noah Klenner, a dual major in plastics engineering and mechanical engineering, completed two internships this year, one with each of these manufacturers.

“I most enjoyed seeing what it’s like to work in an engineering environment at both a smaller-scale company and a larger, more well-known manufacturing plant. I have a better understanding of how different teams operate, how communication and responsibilities vary, and how engineering work changes depending on the size and structure of the company,” Klenner said.

Klenner, of Slinger, was one of 24 ��Ͽ� students who received the university’s 2026 Outstanding Cooperative Education and Internship Program Student of the Year Award. He will graduate in fall 2028 and is looking to start a role in manufacturing or process engineering, “ideally in an environment where I can continue working on product development, process improvement, and production optimization,” he said.

What were your main roles and projects at Nicolet Plastics?

At Nicolet Plastics, my first internship, was my first real-world engineering role working with injection molding machines in a manufacturing setting. As a plastics engineering intern, I worked closely with the processing team lead on injection molding process support, including helping with mold changes, machine start-ups, and adjusting processing parameters, like injection speed and temperature, to improve part quality and consistency.

Toward the end of this internship, I also helped gather data for production part approval process (PPAP) documentation. Much of my work involved monitoring and adjusting processing parameters, such as injection speed and temperature, to improve part quality and consistency. I also spent time on the production floor troubleshooting issues and working with the team to reduce defects and improve overall efficiency.

What were your main roles and projects at Harley-Davidson?

At Harley-Davidson, as an advanced manufacturing engineering intern, I worked with the new product development group, supporting new parts as they were being prepared for production. One of the main things I worked on was supporting validation efforts for new 2026 police motorcycle parts. A big part of my role was running and supporting validation testing, including ensuring cosmetic quality standards were met and helping with significant production runs (SPRs) to validate that parts and processes were capable of running at production scale.

Toward the end of this internship, I also helped create PPAP documentation for those same parts to support the production approval process. Overall, I was helping make sure parts met quality and production requirements before launch.

What was challenging about your internship, and how did you face those challenges?

One of the most challenging parts was dealing with process issues on the production floor, where there isn’t always a clear or immediate answer. In those situations, I learned to stay organized, ask the right questions, and work closely with experienced operators and engineers to narrow down the root cause. I also found that being patient and methodical, instead of rushing to a fix, made a big difference in solving problems effectively.

How will your courses and experiences at Stout help you make an impact in your career?

My coursework at Stout has given me a strong foundation in manufacturing processes, materials and engineering problem-solving. Hands-on lab work and project-based courses have been especially valuable because they connect theory to real-world applications.

My internships at Nicolet Plastics and Harley-Davidson really built on that by showing me how those concepts are used in actual production environments.

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Career Services’ annual First Destination Report declared that 99.5% of recent plastics engineering and mechanical engineering graduates are employed or furthering their education within six months of graduation, with an average starting salary of $71,500.

This past year, more than 980 students participated in co-ops and internships through Career Services at nearly 600 employers in 28 states and three international locations.

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Engineering seniors design portable toy tractor manufacturing machine to engage kids in making process

goersab — Tue, 05 May 2026 13:45:00 +0000

Engineering seniors design portable toy tractor manufacturing machine to engage kids in making processgoersab May 5, 2026

Capstone concludes three-year professorship, collaboration with Urban Forestry Board

Abbey Goers

While Wisconsin farmers are out in their tractors preparing their fields, engineering students at ��Ͽ� have designed a portable manufacturing cell – a semi-automated assembly machine – to produce wooden toy tractors for area children.

The cross-disciplinary Taft Wooden Toy Assembly System group is made of five mechanical engineering and manufacturing engineering seniors: Owen Coon, of Appleton; Ben Gurka, of Beloit; Kierce Hemauer, of Menomonie; Ryan Kahl, of Menomonie; Aili Klein, of Lakeville, Minnesota; and Dominick Widi, of Stillwater, Minnesota.

Owen Coon, Kierce Hemauer, Ben Gurka, Aili Klein, Ryan Kahl and Dominick Widi

The two-semester-long project concluded their Engineering Technology Capstone 2 course, under the guidance of Assistant Professor Kevin Dietsche. The manufacturing cell is 40 inches wide, 38 inches long and 36 inches tall. Its height makes it accessible to elementary children, as Dietsche plans to transport the machine to area schools to demonstrate the toy manufacturing process. He can also show the cell on campus tours and at industry conferences. The machine is fully enclosed with safety features, allowing Dietsche to pause assembly and talk about the process.

Constructed to be able to fit in the back of Dietsche’s minivan, the two-part portable cell can be easily assembled and disassembled by one person, and its lightweight aluminum extrusion and plexiglass frame meets OSHA’s standards for a two-person lift. It can produce 20 tractors in an hour, including the main body, front and back wheels, and two dowel axles.

On May 1, the group showcased their system to engineering and technology faculty, as well as retired faculty members John Schultz and Professor Emeritus Jerome Johnson and City of Menomonie representative Megan Hines, environmental program coordinator with the Urban Forestry Board.

They presented again on May 4 to faculty, peers, industry partners, family and community members as part of the Senior Design Experience, which blends the university’s polytechnic tenets of applied learning and research, business and industry collaboration, and career-focused experiences.

The wooden toys, ducks and tractors are constructed from ash tree lumber provided by the City of Menomonie’s Urban Forestry Board.

An interactive toy manufacturing experience for kids

Challenges for the Taft Wooden Toy Assembly System group began on day one, as they essentially needed to redesign the previous group’s manufacturing cell from scratch. The previous design had broken and was not usable for testing.

However, this also gave them the opportunity to revamp the design in their own way. Their concept ideas in CAD included updating the sheet metal frame to a stronger aluminum extrusion and plexiglass frame. This was also a durability and safety consideration. The original sheet metal frame had sharp corners and was not as solid – features the group deemed unsafe, since the machine is meant to be accessible to children.

With Dietsche as their project sponsor, the group’s lead capstone instructors were Assistant Professor Nathan Spike and Senior Lecturer Glenn Bushendorf, to whom they presented their initial research and design concept for critique. The group was aided by Instrumentation Coordinator-Instructor Paul Craig and Lecturer Brandon Dick for coding and controls and Lecturer Mike Miller with sensors.

“The build phase brings a spark to see the fully functional machine. Our overall design has changed a lot. It’s two inches bigger and wider than our initial concept. The cell originally had seven doors, but after talking with Paul, we changed it to have one plated door on top. This cut down on the number of safety latches that we needed,” Hemauer said. “The machine also has an emergency stop button, and if the door is opened during production, the machine will stop.”

The wooden tractor components are fed by Dietsche through the top door into 3D-printed gravity-fed chutes. Then, like a mini-Henry Ford assembly line, five actuators – one for the body and one for each wheel – feed the components through the machine.

At first, the group designed the machine to be automated. “But we switched to have the dowels be manually inserted through the wheels, so kids can engage in the making process,” Klein said. “We also included a human-machine interface (HMI) touch screen for kids to give them an industrial feel. The screen shows images to guide kids through the steps of making the tractor.”

It was Hemauer’s idea of a Pez dispenser that evolved into the bolt-action idea of the manual insertion of the dowels, similar to how a ball is launched in a pinball machine. The insertion of the dowels is a press-fit operation, with no glue involved.

In their research, the group found that the pull force of a 6- to 10-year-old child is 22 pounds. They made the pull factor of the wheels 60 pounds for added safety and durability, knowing children would try to remove the wheels. They also imagined children would attempt to sit on and ride the tractor, although it is only 6 inches long and 3 inches high. With extra-strong dowels, made of oak, and chamfered wheels for structural integrity, the tractor can support up to 200 pounds.

A controls box mounted on the front of the machine houses the circuit board. They also added a plaque commemorating the professorship project, as well as ash wood brackets to cover the metal brackets on the exterior casing, giving the machine a warmer appearance.

The group enjoyed the cross-disciplinary project and understands the importance of the experience as they prepare to graduate and enter the workforce. “Working across majors helps you see other people’s point of view and their strengths,” Gurka said. “We’re building communication skills and the confidence to ask each other questions. It’s being able to admit when you don’t know something and being able to fall back on each other for knowledge.”

A collaboration connecting people to people

The project concludes Dietsche’s three-year G.A. Taft Manufacturing Engineering Endowed Professorship, in which various groups of students designed toys with first-graders, created AI rapid prototypes of toys with kindergartners and built a two-wheel toy assembly system to produce a wooden duck, including its body, wings, wheels and dowel axle.

Professor Emeritus Jerome Johnson gives a brief history of the collaboration during the capstone presentation.

The collaboration between the engineering and technology department and the city’s Urban Forestry Board began nearly a decade ago with the support of a Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources grant. As the city’s ash trees were dying and trees were being cut down, the grant funded the cutting, acquiring, milling, and kiln-drying of the ash wood. The repurposed wood was then used in student projects, creating benches for the City of Menomonie parks.

The projects were fostered under the guidance of Johnson and Nancy Schofield, a former ��Ͽ� professor and member of the Urban Forestry Board, who has since passed.

“Students wanted to see something that they built be used out in the city. Students became leaders and produced projects I never imagined possible,” said Johnson, who was honored as Citizen of the Year by the Menomonie Urban Forestry Board in 2021.

Professor Kevin Dietsche presents Environmental Program Coordinator Megan Hines with a toy wooden tractor and duck.

Students produced more than 20 city benches from the repurposed ash wood between 2018 and 2021, when Johnson retired and Dietsche stepped in to take his place. “This project has impacted how I teach. It follows a high-impact practices model (HIPS), which reinforces the importance of partnerships and hands-on activities, creating a whole team of student leaders,” Dietsche said.

“This project is something special. We’re able to take something dead and dying and give back to the city, with an end goal of showing kids the engineering process – from mechanical and technical to packaging. The real key is connecting people to people,” he added.

Dietsche plans to continue similar projects with the addition of artificial intelligence and circular design practices in the research and development, as well as construction and repair processes.

Graduates from ��Ͽ�’s mechanical and manufacturing engineering programs reported 99.5% employment rate within six months of graduation and an average starting salary of more than $70,000, according to the latest university First Destination Report.

��Ͽ�’s Robert F. Cervenka School of Engineering is home to five ABET-accredited programs that also include computer and electrical engineering, engineering technology and plastics engineering, as well as a sixth bachelor’s program in packaging. A master’s in manufacturing engineering is available on campus or online.

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Music to honor a master: Ukulele kits by engineering students are in homage to alum Kuboyama

goersab — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 15:34:32 +0000

Music to honor a master: Ukulele kits by engineering students are in homage to alum Kuboyamagoersab April 13, 2026

Cross-disciplinary groups also design toolless furniture connections, learn valuable customer perceptions

Abbey Goers

A small black case rests atop a filing cabinet in Assistant Professor Kevin Dietsche’s office. He opens the case and begins strumming a ukulele. The soft music fills the office. Dietsche, an engineering technology instructor at ��Ͽ�, built the ukulele 15 years ago under the guidance of Kazukiyo “Jiggs” Kuboyama, a master in his craft who was honored by the Ukulele Guild of Hawaii.

In homage to Kuboyama, Dietsche tasked his own students to develop a process to build ukuleles in his New Product Development course this semester. “For me to do this is in honor of his tradition,” Dietsche said of Kuboyama, who was a 1957 ��Ͽ� industrial arts alum. He taught technology education in Oahu and passed away in 2019.

Professor Kevin Dietsche and Braden Kapitz watch as the CNC machine removes wood to shape a main ukulele jig.

The project grew to also include developing toolless bed connections, with one group expanding their design to work across different furniture types – a solution allowing for flexibility of use.

The engineering technology and mechanical engineering students worked in cross-disciplinary groups to research market trends and materials and to ideate preliminary designs before they were joined by engineers and designers from Ashley Furniture Industries, including industrial and product design alums Caleb Toft and Anna Lindner, as well as Emeritus Professor Jerome Johnson, who viewed the groups’ design presentations and provided insight based on their industry experience.

The groups then began their build process of the ukuleles and toolless connections in the Jarvis Hall Technology Wing Woods Lab.

“These projects are about teaching the students problem solving through the design process. The most difficult part is getting your first draft right. Once you’ve troubleshooted everything, you can build hundreds of models using your programming,” Dietsche said.

Creating ukulele building kits for beginners

The ukulele groups are meeting the challenge of making instrument-building kits more accessible to beginners. Two groups – Andrea Smith, of East Troy, and Brook Derks, of River Falls; and Konnor Kraft, of Plymouth, Minnesota, Alex Ogno, of DeForest, and Braden Kapitz, of Athens – researched ukulele construction methods, dimensions, and kerfing techniques, and how wood type and body shape affects sound quality and buildability.

Konnor Kraft shows a cardboard prototype and a CNCed jig for a ukulele.

“Traditional instrument construction requires a high level of craftsmanship, which can be difficult for those with limited woodworking experience. Our goal is to simplify the process so anyone can successfully build a ukulele using guided methods and fixtures,” Smith said.

The groups designed main jig blocks in SolidWorks to match the size and shape of a ukulele and then, using AI contour construction, they removed the inner material on a CNC machine to make the manufacturing process more consistent and repeatable.

Andrea Smith and Brook Derks discuss their ukulele design.

“We then steamed .08-inch-thick strips of ash wood for 45 minutes to make it malleable and clamped it to the inside of the main jig block for 48 hours to create the exterior curve of the instrument,” Kraft said. “The quality of the wood can affect how it curves, as well as how long it is steamed. We found that 45 minutes in the steamer was optimal for malleability, and that knots will affect the wood’s strength. It will weaken and split at the knot when curved.”

The groups also made kerfing supports (flexible, notched wooden strips glued to the inside of the ukulele body to strengthen the structure). “The top of our ukulele will be made of spruce for sound quality and the neck will be made of cherry wood for its vibrant color,” Kraft said.

Konnor Kraft cuts pieces for a ukulele neck on a bandsaw, assisted by TA Annika Schlueter.

Smith and Derks expect bending the wood sides and achieving consistent kerf cuts to be challenging, since both directly affect the shape and structural integrity of the ukulele. “Designing jigs that ensure accurate alignment and repeatability has also required careful planning. We’re looking forward to testing to see how well our designs perform and what adjustments may be needed,” Smith said.

She’s enjoyed researching everything that goes into making a ukulele and understanding how each component affects the final instrument. “It’s been especially rewarding to take that knowledge and apply my design skills to create something that actually works. Seeing the transition from research to a functional build has been the most satisfying part of the process,” Smith said.

Andrea Smith and Brook Derks ready their ukulele jig block for the CNC machine.

Simple, functional, attractive and mass-manufacturable designs

One of the toolless connections groups – Alex Dill, of Hartland, Aden Story, of Holcombe, and Bethany Winge, of Cottage Grove – first worked to identify ways that toolless assembly works in conjunction with a flatpack bed frame (a bed designed to be deconstructed into individual components). They then compared their drafted ideas to existing market solutions.

“We found that a flatpack frequently involves various methods that have self-aligning or self-maintaining joinery. From there, we began to brainstorm connection methods that involved self-contained components, or single-step customer assembly and disassembly items,” Dill said.

TA Annika Schlueter and Bethany Winge construct a frame for an epoxy mold pour.

From Toft and Johnson’s critiques, the group thought the most interesting was to remember how material affects customer perception and quality of an item. “For example, a nicely finished piece of stainless steel has a much more premium feel than injection molded plastic,” Dill said.

Dietsche required the toolless connection groups to produce their designs with three different manufacturing methods and materials. Dill, Story, and Winge’s thumbscrew and locking head device is intended to work across different furniture types.

Their methods and materials include: 1.) a 3D-printed component, designed in SolidWorks and printed by Story on his home 3D printer; 2.) a poured epoxy component, produced using a two-part casting rubber mix; and 3.) a metal component, based on availability and machinability, such as stainless steel and aluminum, and cut out by Dill on the CNC machine in the Machine and Subtractive Processing Lab in Fryklund Hall.

TA Annika Schlueter and Bethany Winge mix the two-part casting rubber for an epoxy mold pour.

“The epoxy pour makes everything more repeatable in the manufacturing process. And our 3D-printed component is very well designed and thought out. But I think the metal component would sell the best in the real world,” Winge said.

The challenging part is almost always coming up with a design, as it needs to be simple, functional, attractive, and most importantly, mass manufacturable, Dill said. “Professor Dietsche facilitates a phenomenal environment to learn about CNC programming and other shop processes. Being able to go out in the lab and make things while learning how on the fly has proven very fun and interesting.

“More people should take technical manufacturing classes, as they build an appreciation for how the world around us is made,” he added.

Aden Story holds a 3D-printed thumbscrew for toolless furniture assembly.

��Ͽ�’s engineering and technology department offers six undergraduate degrees, including computer and electrical engineering, manufacturing engineering, mechanical engineering, plastics engineering, engineering technology and packaging, as well as four minors and a master’s in manufacturing engineering.

Technology education is offered through the School of Education, which is home to nine undergraduate degrees, five graduate degrees, certificates, certifications and online professional development courses.

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Engineering seniors design portable toy tractor manufacturing machine to engage kids in making process

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Cross-disciplinary groups also design toolless furniture connections, learn valuable customer perceptions

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Cross-disciplinary groups also design toolless furniture connections, learn valuable customer perceptions Ukulele and toolless connections projects, Woods Lab

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All stacked up: Ashley Furniture-sponsored project results in ‘better product’ developed by engineering seniors

goersab — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 13:50:00 +0000

All stacked up: Ashley Furniture-sponsored project results in ‘better product’ developed by engineering seniorsgoersab January 5, 2026

Student team builds functional nonstandard pallet stacker to be implemented, replicated in company’s facilities

Abbey Goers

A team of engineering students at ��Ͽ� designed an innovative nonstandard pallet stacker for Arcadia-based Ashley Furniture, which plans to quickly implement the machine in its facilities.

Within their Senior Design Experience II capstone course, the team was tasked with building a machine that could lift and hold 6-foot-long, 100-pound pallets off the ground until a stack of 12 was collected. Made of quarter-inch steel, the stacker can support 1,800 pounds, a 125% increase of Ashley’s requested 1,400 maximum stack weight.

Once the stack is complete, the system lowers it to the floor for removal with an electric pallet jack. The stacker – which is 10 feet long, 8 feet wide and 4 feet tall – can be operated by a single person and has a maximum cycle time of 40 seconds.

Erik Kramer, Chase Rodewald, Luke Mertens, Riley Stiehl and Zachary Morgan.

The student team is Luke Mertens, a double major in manufacturing and mechanical engineering from Blue Earth, Minnesota; manufacturing engineering major Zachary Morgan of Eau Claire; and mechanical engineering majors Chase Rodewald of Lake City, Minnesota, and Riley Stiehl of Alma.

During the Manufacturing Engineering & Mechanical Engineering Showcase on Dec. 16, they presented a scaled, controls-focused prototype to ��Ͽ� faculty and supporters, as well as Ashley representatives, including Manufacturing Engineer Erik Kramer, the team’s project manager.

“The ��Ͽ� team built a better system, a better product for us. And with a final product price of about $25,000, their solution offers us a cost reduction of about 60%,” Kramer said. “Now, with the team’s documentation, our automation team can replicate their functional design to build six more stackers for our facilities.”

Riley Stiehl (left) and Chase Rodewald (right) present the Ashley Furniture nonstandard pallet stacker.

The team will submit their accompanying documents and the full-size machine, which includes an emergency stop for user safety, to Ashley for integration into the company’s operations. Final assembly will be completed at Ashley, when safety curtains will be installed around the machine as well.

Reverse-engineering to build a better product

The two-semester-long project began last spring, when the team had a site visit to Ashley to meet with Kramer and other staff. Ashley had purchased a stacker from a third party, but there were aspects of the machine that Kramer and staff didn’t like.

“We needed the Stout team to find a way to reverse-engineer the machine to have it function as we needed it to,” Kramer said.

A digital SolidWorks model of the Ashley Furniture nonstandard pallet stacker.

The team developed schematics in SolidWorks software and a small-scale model, which they presented to Ashley in May. Ashley purchased the materials needed to build the prototype as well as the final product.

“We’re no different than a real engineering team. Everyone is working together, but we each have niche roles based on our strengths,” said Mertens, who led the team’s controls and instrumentation. Morgan was the CNC machinist and completed the documentation and organization of project records. Rodewald and Stiehl managed the manual assembly, machining and welding.

While some of the parts were cut and machined at Ashley, the team also completed the machining and welding of parts in ��Ͽ�’s Fryklund Hall labs.

Chase Rodewald (left) and Riley Stiehl (right) assemble the Ashley Furniture nonstandard pallet stacker prototype.

“There’s a lot to be done, so it’s nice to have multiple people working on it together,” Stiehl said. “We relied on Ashley’s industry equipment and experience. Having them cut and machine parts, rather than going to a third source, was a lot more cost-effective and saved a lot of time. And we could also use our own skills right in the labs on campus.”

Electrical and welding breakthroughs

During the first phase of their project, the team’s biggest challenge was how to meet one of the requirements set by Ashley: using electrical power, rather than pneumatics or hydraulics, to lift the pallets.

“Because most electrical motors are rotational based, it limits your options for linear motion, or the straight-line and up-and-down motion we needed for the pallet stacker,” Rodewald said. “We achieved this through a linear actuator, which is a device that converts a motor’s rotational energy into linear motion.”

Luke Mertens works on the controls for the Ashley Furniture nonstandard pallet stacker prototype.

The electrical power matches Ashley’s capabilities and can be implemented immediately on the shop floor by pulling in power from overhead sources, instead of the company having to install tanks to support a fluid power device.

During the project’s second phase, the team was challenged by how to weld some of the individual pieces before final assembly. The gussets – a three-part support structure, for example – needed to self-align at a 90-degree-angle to make it easier for Rodewald and Stiehl when welding the pieces together.

“We devised a self-aligning slot and tab mechanism, so the parts would basically hold themselves in place,” Stiehl said.

A side-by-side comparison of a digital model and a welded gusset.

“Breakthroughs often come just after the moment you feel you’ve exhausted every option,” Mertens added.

Engineering students use a project management methodology called a “stage gate process,” which includes built-in briefs and reviews at key points in the design and build process. It also allows for feedback from their classmates, professors and project sponsors.

“The process is very helpful because it allows you to review the current aspects of your design, so you never get too far down a rabbit hole,” Mertens said. “The feedback allows for a varying array of perspectives from your rough draft to the final draft of your concept.”

Zachary Morgan (left) and Luke Mertens (right) present a prototype of the Ashley Furniture nonstandard pallet stacker.

This fall semester, the Ashley capstone team was just one of a dozen teams composed of about 50 engineering students working on Capstone I and II projects in Fryklund Hall labs.

Mertens, Morgan, Rodewald and Stiehl earned their degrees and crossed the commencement stage on Dec. 20, among a class of 527 Stout Proud graduates.

According to the university’s most recent First Destination Report, 99% of 2023-24 graduates from the mechanical and manufacturing engineering programs reported they were either employed or continuing their education within six months, with an average starting salary of $72,000.

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Hero Caption: Zachary Morgan (left) and Luke Mertens (right) present a prototype of the Ashley Furniture nonstandard pallet stacker.

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Inspiring Graduate: Luke Mertens, B.S. Manufacturing Engineering, B.S. Mechanical Engineering

goersab — Tue, 23 Dec 2025 16:45:00 +0000

Inspiring Graduate: Luke Mertens, B.S. Manufacturing Engineering, B.S. Mechanical Engineeringgoersab December 23, 2025

Hired before graduation as a controls engineer at SMC Ltd.

Inspiring Graduate: Luke Mertens (’25)

Hometown: Blue Earth, Minnesota
Degree: B.S. Manufacturing Engineering; B.S. Mechanical Engineering
Minor: Advanced Automation & Robotics

Luke Mertens chose ��Ͽ� for its polytechnic education and hands-on learning opportunities that would build his skillset through internships and industry-sponsored projects to make him career-ready before graduation.

Luke Mertens earned his manufacturing and mechanical engineering degrees from ��Ͽ� on Dec. 20, 2025.

Mertens earned a double major in manufacturing engineering and mechanical engineering and crossed the commencement stage on Dec. 20 as one of 527 ��Ͽ� graduates. He was hired before graduation as a controls engineer at SMC Ltd., a medical device contract manufacturer in Somerset.

“My main responsibilities will include designing electrical schematics, wiring control panels, and specifying electrical components for machines that will be built by the in-house automation department,” he said.

“I hope to make an impact in my field by contributing to complex problem solving and challenging what is possible in the world of automation.”

How has ��Ͽ� prepared you to work in your field?

��Ͽ� has helped make me an industry-ready undergraduate by offering hands-on learning and teaching me how to identify, break down and solve problems.

Luke Mertens was hired before graduation as a controls engineer at SMC Ltd.

My favorite lab experiences were my Controls and Robotics labs, where I learned all about industrial automation. My favorite internship was at Midwest Manufacturing in Eau Claire, where I worked as a manufacturing engineer and spent my time programming and troubleshooting automation.

I also completed a two-semester, industry-sponsored capstone project with a team of engineering students to build a pallet-lifting machine for Ashley Furniture. The machine can lift and hold 6-foot-long, 100-pound pallets off the ground until a stack of 12 is collected.

All stacked up: Ashley Furniture-sponsored project results in ‘better product’ developed by engineering seniors

Student team builds functional nonstandard pallet stacker to be implemented, replicated in company’s facilities

What stands out about your ��Ͽ� experience?

What stands out to me about the ��Ͽ� experience is how you are not just a number, but rather a person. I have thoroughly enjoyed many of my professors and the professional relationships I formed with them throughout my collegiate journey.

It was nice to take hands-on classes, where I always had resources available to help tailor my learning to what I needed and answer questions that I had.

The only thing that limits your growth at ��Ͽ� is your own individual willingness to learn. You will have all the resources you need to succeed.

Luke Mertens in the Material Removal Lab in Fryklund Hall.

How did your campus involvement impact your experience?

I was an offensive lineman with Blue Devils football for four years and was a part of football’s FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) group for four years.

In the 2024 season, my fourth year, I was a team captain. I was also named to the second-team All-WIAC, with 11 of my teammates; and the National Football Foundation Hampshire Honor Society, with 15 of my teammates.

I have been a part of Stout’s Society of Manufacturing Engineers student organization.

What challenges did you face in earning your degree and how did you overcome them?

I am proud of my personal growth and my ability to adapt and overcome a variety of challenges, including my biggest: time management. Being as involved as I was in extracurricular activities made me prioritize how I spent my time.

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Hired before graduation as a controls engineer at SMC Ltd. Luke Mertens, Fall Commencement 2025

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SMART Scholarship recipient guaranteed employment upon graduation

goersab — Mon, 17 Nov 2025 15:02:19 +0000

SMART Scholarship recipient guaranteed employment upon graduation goersab November 17, 2025

Benningfield, mechanical engineering senior, honored to ‘protect our country’ as federal employee

Abbey Goers

��Ͽ� mechanical engineering senior Heidi Benningfield received more than tuition and an internship through the U.S. military’s SMART Scholarship program: After graduation, she’s guaranteed a job with the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command in Huntsville, Alabama.

The Science, Mathematics, and Research for Transformation (SMART) Scholarship-for-Service Program through the Department of War, previously known as the Department of Defense, covers Benningfield’s full tuition and provides her with an annual stipend for room and board. She recently completed a three-month paid internship as a SMART Scholar Engineer with the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command.

“I have a great respect for our military. To protect our country is an honor,” Benningfield said. “I knew I didn’t want to serve in the military, but I can serve in a different way as a federal DoW employee. Our mission is to support the war-fighter. In that way, I can make an impact to help protect our country.”

Benningfield, of Mokane, Missouri, will graduate in May 2026 and is guaranteed employment with the DoW. Her job will be at the Army’s Redstone Arsenal Space and Missile Defense Technology Center in Huntsville. She hopes to earn her master’s degree and carry out a career in defense systems.

The SMART scholarship program is a combined educational and workforce development opportunity for STEM students. The program’s mission is to attract, recruit, develop, and retain top STEM talent for impactful civilian careers in the DoW, advancing national security and technical superiority through merit-based scholarships for service.

Supporting Space and Missile Defense Command divisions

What interests Benningfield most about engineering is how broad a field it is. “From design to 3D modeling, manufacturing and automation, to system design or sales, the positions are very broad – mechanical engineers do all of that. You can do and be so many things,” she said.

“I’m the type of person who likes to have her hands in every cookie jar. It’s challenging. Nothing is easy or straightforward. But seeing something go from an idea to an actual implemented system is rewarding,” she added.

Defense systems also require all types of engineers, she said, from knowing the parameters of a project to understanding missile geometry for speed and velocity, or target accuracy and radar detection.

At the Space and Missile Defense Command, Benningfield interned in the Concepts and Analysis Lab, with a cohort of eight SMART scholarship recipients and full-time engineers.

She supported the Test Division and the Weapons & Protective Technologies Division. Her projects included building and integrating the systems and working on a test asset – the Finite Element Analysis, or FEA.

She also supported work on a two-stage light gas gun, testing scale models of missiles. “Much of my skills with the different tools we used came from different lab experiences at Stout,” she said.

With her full-time employment upon graduation, Benningfield will support those divisions for two years. After that, if she chooses to remain at the DoW, she may stay with her preferred division.

In summer 2024, Benningfield was a science undergraduate laboratory intern with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado. She also worked on a project with Sierra Space in Madison, an aerospace and space technology company, machining a combustion chamber component.

Benningfield is a mechanical engineering tutor and has served as a lab assistant at ��Ͽ�’s Machine Shop, assisting her peers with projects. “I like the hands-on work in the Machine Shop. Most engineers don’t know how to operate machines. The professors and lab assistants are always willing to help and take their own time to help. The professors want you to succeed,” she said.

She chose ��Ͽ� because it is the only NCAA Division III university that has both a mechanical engineering degree and a gymnastics team. She was on the team for two years and served as a student assistant coach for a year.

“I chose Stout because it felt like home. I felt like I could fit in here,” Benningfield said. “I like the small class sizes and the fact that you can meet one-on-one with professors. I’m grateful for my mentors here and the opportunities and polytechnic experiences Stout gave me.”

��Ͽ�'s Robert F. Cervenka School of Engineering is home to five ABET-accredited programs that also include computer and electrical engineering, engineering technology and plastics engineering, as well as a sixth bachelor’s program in packaging. A master’s in manufacturing engineering is available on campus or online.

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Cirrus Aircraft, Ashley Furniture benefit from ��Ͽ� seniors’ engineering solutions

giffeyt — Wed, 18 Jun 2025 13:00:00 +0000

Cirrus Aircraft, Ashley Furniture benefit from ��Ͽ� seniors’ engineering solutionsgiffeyt June 18, 2025

Capstone projects tackle mechanical, manufacturing challenges

Tom Giffey

After collectively putting thousands of hours into their capstone projects, the moment of truth arrived in May for seniors in University of Wisconsin-Stout’s manufacturing engineering and mechanical engineering programs when they presented their projects to industry leaders, faculty and their peers.

The projects weren’t merely classroom exercises: For seniors in these undergraduate majors, the capstone projects involved creating working prototypes that addressed real-world challenges posed by corporate sponsors that included Cirrus Aircraft, 3M, Ashley Furniture, Nordson EDI, Realityworks, Industrial Heat Transfer and others.

These firms partner with students in ��Ͽ�’s Robert F. Cervenka School of Engineering to address challenges as diverse as creating a system to pressure test heat exchangers to dispensing liquid silicon rubber into manufacturing equipment, and from safely stacking factory pallets to creating an automated system to chemically coat aluminum aircraft parts.

��Ͽ� seniors discuss their capstone project on behalf of Cirrus Aircraft. The automated system behind them was designed to chemically coat machined aircraft parts.

Project called a ‘win-win’

That latter challenge, proposed by Duluth, Minnesota-based Cirrus Aircraft, was in the hard-working hands of a six-member team led in the spring semester by Gabrielle Winstead, a mechanical engineering major from Kennewick, Washington. The goal of the project was to create an automated system to chemically coat machined aircraft parts, which need to be dipped into – and removed from – nine successive tanks.

“It is super gratifying to know that what we worked on all year not only produced a successful working system but will possibly be implemented into a real company,” Winstead said.

Last fall, the student team visited the Cirrus facility to learn about the current manufacturing process, which involved an employee manually dipping the aircraft parts, a repetitive and time-consuming job.

Using the technical and communication skills they’ve gained throughout their ��Ͽ� careers, the capstone students got to work on a project that combined all three of the university’s polytechnic tenets – applied learning and research, business and industry collaboration, and career-focused experiences. The team faced numerous challenges, from creating a machine that could properly move the parts up and down to procuring the right motors.

“We overcame the design challenges and procurement through a lot of brainstorming and prototyping,” said Winstead, who before graduation accepted a position as a field service engineer with Applied Materials in Boise, Idaho. “Additionally, seeking feedback from professors and other knowledgeable individuals was instrumental in refining our approach.”

In addition, size became an issue: There simply wasn’t enough space in the Manufacturing, Material Removal & Metal Forming Lab in Fryklund Hall to build an apparatus with nine full-sized tanks. Instead, the team created a prototype with just two tanks that demonstrated the process using automated, mechanical and pneumatic systems.

Metal parts are lifted from a tub of liquid in a demonstration of a machine developed by ��Ͽ� students in their engineering capstone course.

Antonio Meyer, a mechanical engineering major from Elk Mound who was team lead during the first semester, said consistent communication, real-time problem solving and adaptability were key to overcoming the problems the team encountered.

“I learned that strong teamwork relies on trust, clear communication and flexibility,” Meyer said. “Everyone has different working styles and strengths, and it’s important to recognize and leverage those. I also learned the value of stepping up when the team needs direction but also stepping back and letting others take ownership of their parts.”

The students worked with Cirrus Manufacturing Engineering Manager Marc Wollak to provide project updates, ask questions and receive guidance.

Cirrus chose this engineering challenge because the current manual process required a technician’s undivided attention, Wollak said. Automating the process would save a large amount of time for the operator.

“The final product was well done and provided a solid solution to our problem,” Wollak said. “There will always be modifications through continuous improvements, but the Cirrus team was very excited about the solution provided and the amount of detail that was captured for the process.”

Wollak added that working with ��Ͽ� was a valuable experience for both the students and Cirrus Aircraft. “Stout provides some amazing and talented students thorough their program and its win-win for both sides,” he said.

“The feedback from Cirrus was incredibly valuable,” agreed Meyer who is now a design engineer at Cretex Medical in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. “They helped us stay grounded in real-world applications, offered insights we wouldn't have considered on our own, and kept our design aligned with their operational needs. It elevated the project from a student prototype to something with industrial relevance.”

The Cirrus capstone team also included mechanical engineering majors Tyler Geisenhoff of Chisago City, Minnesota; Nick Roller, of Antigo; and Carter Zaspel, of Gordon; and manufacturing engineering major Prena Rai of Nepal.

��Ͽ� engineering students Luke Mertens, right, and Zachary Morgan demonstrate a wooden model of a machine they engineered for Ashley Furniture as part of their capstone course.

Students face a real-life heavy lift

During the spring semester, the Cirrus capstone group was just one of 14 teams composed of 80 students working on projects in various stages of developing in Fryklund Hall labs.

Among the first-semester capstone teams was one tackling a project on behalf of Arcadia-based Ashley Furniture. That team was tasked with designing a device that could lift and hold 6-foot-long, 100-pound pallets off the ground until a stack of 12 was collected. The biggest challenge was the requirement that they use electrical power, rather than pneumatics or hydraulics, to lift a heavy stack of pallets in one of the company’s warehouses.

Luke Mertens, a double major in manufacturing and mechanical engineering from Easton, Minnesota, said his team overcame these challenges one at a time. “It all comes down to identifying what a functional need is of your design and then brainstorming potential design concepts that can satisfy that need,” he said. “This is a never-ending cycle. It is an unrelenting pursuit of solutions that are justifiable. A lot of it is mindset related. As a team, you must continuously tell yourselves there is a way to solve a given problem within the constraints you are operating in. Breakthroughs often come just after the moment you feel you’ve exhausted every option.”

The Ashley team also includes manufacturing engineering major Zachary Morgan of Eau Claire and mechanical engineering majors Chase Rodewald of Lake City, Minnesota, and Riley Stiehl of Alma.

The challenges that are inherent in the capstone process provided students with opportunities to learn, grow and adapt, Mertens explained. Along the way, he said, the team has been aided by input from representatives from Ashley as well as others who attended an end-of-semester presentation, which featured computer schematics and a small-scale model of what they will build in the fall semester.

“This feedback will be used to diagnose aspects of our design we need to further investigate, improve and validate,” Mertens said, adding he looks forward to presenting Ashley with a functional solution by the end of the year.

��Ͽ� senior Gabrielle Winstead presents her team's capstone project.

Ready to step into industrial roles

The engineering capstone classes are led by Assistant Professor Dan Bee; Assistant Professor Nathan Spike, B.S. mechanical engineering program director; Senior Lecturer Glenn Bushendorf; Lecturer Anwr Al-Baghdadi; and Instrumentation Coordinator-Instructor Paul Craig, B.S. and M.S. manufacturing program director.

Bee said the faculty view themselves as facilitators in an open-ended process where the seniors must undertake their own research and develop their own solutions.

“We’re trying to give a real experience in a safe environment and help them be ready to step into a role like that in industry,” Bee said.

Students use a project management methodology called a “stage gate process,” which includes built-in reviews at key points. Students prepare a report at the end of the first semester, which is updated during the second semester. At that time the sponsor – typically an outside business – purchases the materials the team needs to build its prototype. After their final presentations, students submit what they’ve built and the accompanying documents to the companies for potential integration into manufacturing operations or continued development.

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��Ͽ� seniors discuss their capstone project on behalf of Cirrus Aircraft. ��Ͽ� seniors discuss their capstone project on behalf of Cirrus Aircraft.

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Hero Caption: Luke Mertens, a double major in manufacturing and mechanical engineering, presents his capstone team's plans for a device to lift pallets for Ashley Furniture.

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