Industry Connections Report | 2019

CONNECTIONS 2019

SHOWCASE: THE IMPACT OF IN-KIND DONAT IONS

The value of hands-on learning, one of the hallmarks of a UW-Stout education, can depend significantly on what exactly students are getting their hands on. Thanks to in-kind equipment donations and industry partnerships in 2017-18 totaling more than $1.5 million, students have new industry- standard equipment in three labs. Plastics engineering Professor, Adam Kramschuster, worked with three leading injection molding equipment companies, Arburg, Engel and Milacron, to secure three new machines on loan in the Jarvis Hall lab. New machines will rotate in every few years. “We have one of the premier labs in the U.S., and it’s because the industry values this program and wants to get information about their equipment in here for our students,” Kramschuster said. Two Dell EMC employees who are UW-Stout alumni installed about a dozen pieces of high-tech equipment in the Computer Networking and Information Technology (CNIT) lab. “This is the most cutting-edge, emerging technology,” said Associate Professor Holly Yuan, CNIT program director. “Dell is really interested in seeing the program develop and grow.” A company that wishes to remain anonymous donated two custom-designed robotics machines for engineering technology department labs, which serves students in the manufacturing engineering, mechanical engineering and engineering technology programs. The donation was coordinated through the Phillips Medisize facility in Menomonie, which used the machines to make medical device parts. “We want our students to be the ones who design this equipment,” said Professor Tom Lacksonen, chair of the engineering and technology department.

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