Outlook Magazine - Fall 2018

LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS

Top of the line Corporate donations, partnerships improve lab, learning experiences for students

T

he 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, computer networking and engineering technology. Donations in each area are valued at about $500,000. “Students really need state-of-the-art technology. With cutting-edge labs and our extraordinary faculty, graduates can plug right into the workforce,” Chancellor Bob Meyer said. In 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. In the computer networking and information technology program, two Dell EMC employees who are UW-Stout alumni installed about a dozen pieces of high-tech equipment — new computer storage units, servers, fiber channel switches and ethernet switches in the CNIT lab in Fryklund Hall. “It’s such a great opportunity for students. We’re educating the future workforce,” said Michelle Dingwall, a senior development officer with Stout University Foundation, which helped coordinate the Dell gift. “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.” In the engineering technology department labs, which serve students in manufacturing engineering, mechanical engineering and engineering technology, a company that wished to remain anonymous donated two custom-designed robotics machines. The donation was coordinated through the Phillips Medisize facility in Menomonie, which used the machines to make medical device parts. Students in the Fryklund Hall lab will delve into how the machines are designed so they can make similar automated production equipment in their senior design classes and in their careers. “We want our students to be the ones who design this equipment,” said Professor Tom Lacksonen, chair of the engineering and technology department.

Top: Students work with donated machines in the plastics lab; middle: new computer networking hardware donated by Dell EMC is installed in the CNIT lab; bottom: mechanical engineering students Kefa Okoth (left) and Ben Miner look at their prototype designs of a product they plan to produce with donated manufacturing equipment.

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