Outlook Magazine - Fall 2022

S BRIEFS

WHAT THE BUZZ IS ABOUT

GRANT SHINES LIGHT ON PROFESSOR’S ART

A BEST COLLEGE ON THE RISE

A new way to learn Lean manufacturing has created a buzz, thanks to the Manufacturing Outreach Center. Typically, Lean is taught on site using objects, such as Legos, by a trained facilitator. During the pandemic, MOC Engi neer Ted Theyerl wondered if it could be taught virtually. About 1½ years later, with a federal grant and the skills of six game design and development students, Buzz Digital: A Lean Manufactur ing Simulation was born. Users of the soft ware-based programmove along a production line with a touch screen tablet in a game-like experience. Buzz Digital received a thumbs-up from the Wisconsin Center for Manufacturing Pro ductivity and could be deployed to Manu facturing Extension Partnership centers, like UW-Stout’s, around the country.

For more than 20 years, Professor Charles Matson Lume has used light, shadows and everyday objects as the foundation of his thought-provoking art installations. TheAdolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation of New York has shined a light on his work with a $25,000 award, one of 20 artists from around the world out of 705 who applied. A visual artist, Lume’s work highlights the interplay and intersections of light and matter, allowing the matter — or objects that we encounter daily — to speak in a sense. “I noticed the objects I painted could speak. Their ‘thingliness’ and sense of light liberated some thing ineffable and true. Over time, I realized each thing had its own image — its shadow. I didn’t need to paint the thing; it had its own painting it carried around with it,” Lume said.

UW-Stout is a Best College on the rise, based on the prestigious 2023 U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges rankings announced in September. UW-Stout moved up as a: • Public regional university, Midwest: 13th, up two places; top three in the UW System • Regional university, Midwest: 62nd, up seven places • Midwest regional university for veter ans: 27th, up three places; up 21 places in two years; top three in UW System • Undergraduate engineering school nationally, sans doctoral program: 70th, up 22 places; up 40 places in two years; top two in UW System • Best value in Midwest, 63rd, up two places; top four in UW System

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