{"id":29742,"date":"2014-04-29T08:57:14","date_gmt":"2014-04-29T12:57:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=29742"},"modified":"2014-04-29T08:59:30","modified_gmt":"2014-04-29T12:59:30","slug":"in-demand-lake-campus-engineering-students-cant-graduate-fast-enough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2014\/04\/29\/in-demand-lake-campus-engineering-students-cant-graduate-fast-enough\/","title":{"rendered":"In demand: Lake Campus engineering students can&#8217;t graduate fast enough"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_29744\" style=\"width: 470px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2014\/04\/29\/in-demand-lake-campus-engineering-students-cant-graduate-fast-enough\/lakecampusengineering\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-29744\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-29744\" class=\"size-large wp-image-29744\" src=\"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/files\/2014\/04\/LakeCampusEngineering-508x338.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"460\" height=\"306\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-29744\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left to right: Lake Campus engineering seniors Chip Lyons, Eric Wuebker, John Will, Aaron Freemen (foreground), John Neiferd (background), Jordon Coffman, and Jared Runyon.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The first class of Wright State University\u2013Lake Campus engineering students won\u2019t have much time to relax after graduation. Each student from the rapidly growing program who wants full-time engineering work already has a job lined up and waiting. Some have already been working full time.<\/p>\n<p>Three will go to work for Crown Equipment, which makes powered industrial forklift trucks. One has been offered a full-time position with Coldwater Machine Company. They build machines for manufacturing operations. Another is already working for New Bremen Machine and Tool. Setex, which makes parts for the front seats of automobiles, hired one. And the seventh wants to focus on engineering research and plans to pursue a master\u2019s and likely a Ph.D. in engineering at the Dayton Campus.<\/p>\n<p>This development is not surprising to those who are familiar with the robust advanced manufacturing engineering segment in Mercer and Auglaize counties and the rocket-like trajectory of this still-fledgling program.<\/p>\n<p>Currently, there are 128 students in the program including seven seniors and there is a relentless demand for more.<\/p>\n<p>Bonnie Mathies, dean of the Lake Campus, attributes the rapid growth of the program to the high demand for skilled engineers in northwest Ohio and the program\u2019s unique blend of theoretical and applied learning. The program focuses on four goals:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Every student participates in a co-op or internship<\/li>\n<li>Every student gets experiential learning<\/li>\n<li>International educational opportunities are available<\/li>\n<li>Senior design projects are in line with industry standards<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cAny student who wants a paid co-op or internship can get one. The demand for our students from local industry seems insatiable,\u201d said Mathies. It\u2019s not just the seniors. Nearly all of the junior class has a co-op or internship and sophomores are getting them too.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe interest is phenomenal. Local manufacturers all wish they could fast-forward and get these students now,\u201d said Jared Ebbing, Mercer County economic development director.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s about 40 major businesses up here,\u201d said Dennis Hance, lecturer and assistant director of Lake Campus engineering programs. \u201cThere\u2019s billions of dollars in annual sales revenue in high-tech products each year, and they need highly trained people with really good work habits, and that\u2019s what we are producing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The students and their persistent work ethic is also driving the success of the engineering program.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019re farming students; they\u2019re small-town students. Some of our students have worked all through high school and at home,\u201d said Hance. \u201cNow they\u2019re in college and they\u2019ve added some technical abilities and they\u2019ve sustained that work ethic. You tie the two together and they are good employees.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mathies also adds that \u201cThe combination of our program goals, 100 percent co-op and internship placement, and students\u2019 frequent use of local equipment to gain hands-on experience add up to success for both employers and students in the region.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>John Will, who\u2019s on his way to joining Coldwater Machine as a mechanical engineer, said the experiential learning he and his classmates gained by working with on-site equipment was the best preparation he could have asked for.<\/p>\n<p>Last summer, students also participated in the program\u2019s first international trip, which allowed them to work with German students to build microprocessors for Battle Bots. Students were challenged to continue the research they started overseas by applying their research to domestic applications back in Ohio.<\/p>\n<p>Many of the students\u2019 senior design projects are already doing just that.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy team\u2019s senior design project consists of developing a police robot for the Grand Lake Regional SWAT team,\u201d said John Neiferd. \u201cWe are developing a product that will actually be used to benefit the entire community by helping to keep people safe. That\u2019s a good feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Community outreach is part of the experience too. Last year, the program hosted the first Lake Campus trebuchet competition for local high schools. Lake Campus engineering students also worked with Dayton Public Schools students to help them build their own battle bot for competition.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat was a positive experience because the students gained so much by sharing what they\u2019ve been learning in their engineering classes,\u201d said Mathies. \u201cWe knew that they were the model students for our new program, but they also learned how important it is to be role models for future engineers too.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This article originally appeared in the <a href=\"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/community\/issue\/spring-2014\/\" target=\"_blank\">spring 2014 issue of the <em>Wright State University Magazine<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Each student from the rapidly growing program who wants full-time engineering work already has a job lined up and waiting. <a href=\"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2014\/04\/29\/in-demand-lake-campus-engineering-students-cant-graduate-fast-enough\/\" class=\"morelink\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":29744,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[722,743,725,731,715],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-engineering-computer-science","category-home-news-sidebar","category-lake-campus","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29742"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29742\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30057,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29742\/revisions\/30057"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}