Minutes from the Manufacturing Engineering Advisory Board Meeting
December 18, 2009
Attending: Glenn Gehring, Andy Myers, Bruno Rahn, Paul Thomas, Jon Breen, Scott Harbarth,
Elizabeth Fuss, Danny Bee, John Dzissah, David Fly, Tom Lacksonen, Andy Pandian, Rich Rothaupt, John
Schultz, Lin Stradins, Jean Price
Guests attending: Charlie Jansen -3M, Mike Roecker and Ron Malles – Hoffman Enclosures
Absent: Cory Cauwels, Don Craighead, Scott Graf, Matt Hafele, Larry Henderson, Bob Meyer, John
Pearson, Dean Schley, Kurt Schnapp, Bob Vytlacil, Rajiv Asthana, Laura McCullough, Don Olson, Marty
Ondrus, Jerry Roiter, Scott Springer, Donna Stewart, Derek Wissmiller, Eileen Zito
(Bold indicates professional in the field)
1. Lin Stradins thanked those who attended the capstone presentations and asked questions.
Your input is appreciated. Lin welcomed everyone and introductions were done.
2. Minutes from the May 8, 2009 advisory board meeting were approved as amended (see below).
(Fly/Thomas)
NWTC approved. Offer program that’s attractive to more students. To be delivered in
Green Bay at NWTC – Associate of Applied Science in Manufacturing Engineering
Technology from NWTC and BS in Manufacturing Engineering from UW-Stout.
3. Program Update – Lin Stradins
There are approximately 213 students in the program this semester. There will be 7 graduates
on Saturday. Applications are good for 2010-11.
4. Recruitment Efforts
FIRST Lego League was held on campus. There were 14 teams in attendance at the regional
competition at Stout. The state competition was held in Osseo with 48 teams attending.
STEPS continues to be a good program. Girls who attend STEPS are 10 times more likely to go
into science/technology fields.
Skills USA – good recruitment tool for high school students.
STEM Career Day – did not have one in the fall but are planning one for the spring.
There have also been a good number of visiting middle and high school student groups coming
to Stout.
Transfer student enrollment is increasing.
Science Olympiad event is hosted on campus every two years.
“Tinkering” is making a comeback. More young people interested in using their hands and
building things.
5. MS Program Update – David Fly
The MS program is offered as on line only. There are 33 students in the program.
David reviewed the proposed program change. The main reasons for the proposed change are:
1) shortage of faculty for advising, 2) helping students formulate their field problem, 3) add
more engineering content and 4) remove automation and control depth due to low demand.
New course proposal – MFGE 707 Field Problem Formulation and Evaluation. A new one hour
webinar and writing course to help students formulate their field problem.
New course proposal - MFGE 775 Special Topics course. Would allow changes in course
content, students could repeat course with different course content, could rotate faculty to
teach grad classes, do special topics on automation.
Danny has 18 students in the SUST 730 Sustainable Futures class.
6. Open Discussion
Stout has not been doing the SME certification test. Is this something we should consider
doing? Some comments were: students should be allowed to take engineering test, from
industry perspective – more have professional engineering certification, at Hormel employees
need to take PE certification test for corporate jobs, should consider black belt, consider SME
lean certification, encourage students to take exam while still an undergraduate student when
material is fresh, encourage students to take grad courses.
ABET visit will be next fall. Lin, Rich and Danny will be writing a self evaluation report due to
ABET by July 1. The board will be asked to have discussion with ABET team.
7. Next Meeting
The next meeting will be Friday, May 14, 2010. Capstone projects will be in the morning with
the meeting starting at noon.