While still in his sophomore year of the General Engineering degree program at Penn State DuBois, student Robert Powell will have an opportunity that few professionals ever have in their entire careers. Powell has been invited to make a presentation on his current research project at the PowderMET2012 International Conference on Powder Metallurgy and Particulate Materials, to be held in June in Nashville, Tennessee.  What's more, is Powell has also received a $1500.00 grant from the Center for Powder Metallurgy Technology (CPMT) and Axel Madsen Conference Grant Program, which will cover his travel and registration costs for attending the conference. Winning the grant and the chance to present his research on the merit of his work, Powell was chosen as one of only five CPMT grant recipients in the country for 2012. 

A returning adult student and native of Brookville, PA, Powell is working on a project with the St. Marys based company, Abbott Furnace.  Abbott produces furnaces used in the powder metal (PM) industry to bake and cure parts during the production process, in addition to providing services on the fundamental understandings of their products.  Powell is researching ways help the company control lubricants in the material their furnaces bake. 

"A lubricant is a necessary component in the compaction of a powdered metal product," Powell explained.  "This lubricant leaves the part during the early stages of the sintering process that solidifies the part.  The research is based on the reaction the lubricant has inside the furnace," he said, noting that the eventual end result of his research should be an enhanced understanding of lubricant control that can help lead to the discovery of ways to increase the strength and integrity of the parts produced.  

With prior experience as a machinist, Powell decided to continue his education at Penn State DuBois in hopes of furthering his career, and moving on to work in product design.  Penn State DuBois Assistant Professor of Engineering Craig Stringer said Powell is moving in the right direction, by committing to education beyond the lab and classroom.

"He's doing research; he's working with a company to gain real and valuable information.  That's important for students," Stringer said.  "He is very dedicated.  He works hard in class, but also wants more out of his education in addition to his coursework."

Stringer said that the PM industry is coming out of a period of economic hardship and is currently growing. Companies are realizing the need to grow their product portfolios and to look at other potential markets for their products.  He said jobs are plentiful in the field, many of which are located in Central Pennsylvania.  Taking advantage of opportunities like the ones that are now before Powell, Stringer said, will go a long way in getting students the knowledge they need to succeed in the business.

"The idea is to get students involved with national and international leaders in this industry," said Stringer, noting that he strives to help students become involved with real world projects and area companies.  "This shows them where their education plays a role in the development of PM knowledge, and introduces them to a lot of opportunity to be a part of that development."

Powell said he is excited about the opportunities he has had, and looks forward to his future career.  However, he remains humble about his accomplishment, crediting those around him for supporting him in his efforts.  Powell said, "I have to thank my wife, kids, and Dr. Stringer.  My wife has enabled me to do my work at the level that I do, and both she and my kids have sacrificed husband and dad for student. 

"Dr. Stringer has provided me with opportunities and guidance that he was not required to. He does this for all students, and I'm just one of those students." 

Stringer will travel with Powell to the conference in Nashville, along with one other student in the General Engineering degree program, whose conference registration will be covered by campus funds.

Students in the Honors Physics Class at Clearfield Area High School toured the Engineering Lab and Information Science and Technology (IST) Lab at Penn State DuBois on Wednesday. 

In all, 18 students visited the labs, where they learned about the programs and courses that use the facilities.  Specifically, Penn State DuBois offers two and four year engineering degrees, as well as opportunities to complete a two year or four year degree in IST, all of which rely heavily on laboratory facilities.   

Campus faculty members offered demonstrations of equipment that Penn State DuBois students use in their classes, and explained how classroom lessons are applied in the labs.  Offering demonstrations were Assistant Professor of Engineering Craig Stringer, Assistant Professor of Engineering Daudi Waryoba, and IST Instructor Jason Long. 

Penn State DuBois alumnus Dale Simbeck has been awarded the Penn State Alumni Fellow Award. The Alumni Fellow Award is one of the most prestigious awards given by the Penn State Alumni Association. It is given to select alumni who, as leaders in their professional fields, are nominated by an academic college and accept an invitation from the president of the university to return to campus to share their expertise with students, faculty, and administrators. Penn State DuBois nominated Simbeck for the award.

Simbeck is an internationally known expert and consultant on global climate issues.  A 1969 graduate of Penn State, with a degree in chemical engineering, Simbeck is Vice President of Technology and a founding partner of SFA Pacific, Inc., located in Mountain View, California.  His expertise encompasses global climate change issues, CO2 mitigation, and clean energy technologies.

Simbeck's accomplishments include his involvement as a lead author on the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on CO2 Capture and Storage.  This contributed to the IPCC being awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize along with Al Gore.  His clientele list includes major international energy companies; universities such as Princeton, Pitt, MIT, Carnegie Mellon, and Stanford; and the governments of Australia, China, Canada, European Union, Japan, Qatar, New Zealand and the United States.

Simbeck has made many national and international presentations on the technical and economic challenges of CO2 mitigation and clean energy technologies including keynote presentations at the Gasification Technology Conference, the International Conference on Greenhouse Gas Technologies and the International Fluidized Bed Combustion Conference.

Simbeck has authored numerous professional publications and technical reports.  He is a registered professional engineer in California, a Ph.D. advisor to Stanford University, advisor to the Canadian Clean Power Coalition, a member of the External Advisory Board to both the MIT Energy Lab and the energy industry CO2 Capture Project.  He is a lifetime member of the Penn State Alumni Association.

Simbeck and his wife, Marilyn, live in Palo Alto, California.  While visiting Penn State, He also received the Penn State DuBois Alumni Society's Lifetime Achievement Award.

A fresh renovation to the engineering lab at Penn State DuBois will be beneficial to both students, and some local businesses in the powder metal and manufacturing industries who can take advantage of new equipment and services.

"The goal was to increase the capabilities of our lab for teaching students, as well as increasing the flexibility we have to work with local companies on research projects," said Assistant Professor of Engineering Craig Stringer. 

Financed, in part, by a grant from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Ben Franklin Technology Development Authority, improvements to the lab include new electrical and ventilation systems for safety, convenience, and added equipment capacity.  However, the real gains for industry and education come with new equipment and better utilization of current equipment, like a state-of-the-art Computer Numerical Control (CNC) mill and lathe. It's a machine which can be programed to automatically produce precise dimensional metal parts at an impressive pace.  Many parts made by machines like this are used in the fabrication of goods for industries such as the automotive industry, powder metal industry, and other key manufacturing areas relevant to the regional area.

Other improvements include equipment used to test the characteristics of material powders before they are pressed into a solid piece. Powder can be placed into a powder feeder and within seconds the machine can determine the size of the powder particles, the volume fraction of sizes, and print a detailed report recording all the data.  Many local companies and campus engineering students have already taken advantage of the equipment to check their powder mixtures from season to season, or from different powder vendors, troubleshoot product quality issues within a production line, and formulate new materials mixtures for required projects.  Students can now see how to choose the proper powder characteristics for the job they're doing, and meet specified requirements of their applications. 

"The properties of the material dictate the properties of the part," Stringer said.  "We look at the powder properties, the design process for a particular part, and the way it needs to be produced, and decide what powder characteristics will work best for the final product." 

Another recent addition to the lab is equipment used for measuring the dimensional change of materials brought on by temperature, or the materials' thermal expansion. 

"This will allow us to understand the dimensional change and the materials' behavior under different atmospheric conditions, heating and cooling rates, and other processing variables," Stringer mentioned.

Offering the opportunity to perform these analyses to local manufacturing companies, Stringer said, can be an enormous help to those in the industry looking to break ground with new products.  In fact, Stringer, his colleagues, and his students are assisting companies on several projects at this time that are confidential.

"Some projects won't even be out for three to five years," Stringer said.  "Companies like to keep these things under wraps until they're ready to start production." 

For students, they're putting their hands deep into the work that they want to do in their career, rather than just learning the concepts through classroom lectures.

"You're able to apply what you learn in the classroom to a project here in the lab, and it really helps you learn what you need to do," said third year mechanical engineering student Justin Kerr, of Punxsutawney.  Kerr said he plans to pursue a career in the manufacturing industry, and already feels prepared for his first job thanks to his work in the lab.  "It gives you an edge. I'm learning things here that students at other schools might not have the opportunity to learn if they're only in a classroom." 

The lab and its new equipment are even saving money for the campus engineering program by making the program more self-sufficient.  Stringer noted that metal rods, called tensile bar specimens, are now produced in-house in the Penn State DuBois lab.  Tensile bar specimens are placed under stress in a machine until they break; the amount of pressure a specimen can withstand before breaking tells engineers how strong the metal is.  This lab exercise teaches students processes used by manufacturers to test metals around the world.  Making these tensile bar specimens in the labs, as opposed to buying them, adds up to big savings.  

"This cost us $110 to buy," Stringer said, holding up a single specimen, and noting that the lab can go through 20 of them each year.  "We can now make it for $4.00.  It's a huge cost cutting measure doing this in-house."  

For more information on the Bachelor of Engineering degree at Penn State DuBois,    visit http://dubois.psu.edu/GeneralEngineering

Well before her own graduation, Penn State DuBois engineering student Brooke Greathouse is already working for one of the largest companies that employs people in her field.  This summer, the DuBois native who is earning a degree in Electrical Engineering, is an electrical maintenance intern with Nucor, the country’s largest producer of steel.

Greathouse is interning at Nucor’s Armorel, Arkansas location.  It is just one of many of Nucor’s facilities throughout the nation, and around the globe, that contributes to the company’s annual production of 26 million tons of steel. The steel is used in building construction, and purchased by other manufacturers to make numerous other steel products.  For Greathouse, it’s the opportunity to get hands-on experience that will help her decide where she wants to take her career.  Since she hasn't yet entered a concentration for her engineering degree, the internship has given Greathouse some guidance on what she should focus on in her education. 

"I would have missed out on so much if I didn't take this internship.  I wouldn't have had the actual work experience, and having that before even starting my main classes is really helping me find the path that I want to travel on," Greathouse said.  "Without this internship, it's possible that I could have chosen the wrong concentration for my major. I am so lucky and very thankful that Nucor and Penn State DuBois gave me this opportunity. It has really helped shape my personality, my future, and my life in general." 

"Brooke was unique in that she accepted an electrical internship without having very much, if any, electrical training," said Brooke's internship supervisor at Nucor, Dave Davolt.  "We knew one of the things Brooke wanted to get out of her internship was to better decide which direction to steer her education.  Therefore, we provided Brooke with opportunities to experience several different aspects of electrical and mechanical engineering, maintenance, repair and operations."

To gain all of this experience, Greathouse is updating electrical components of equipment in Nucor’s plant, exploring ways to install work lights for some of the machinery, and making the rounds with electricians who help to keep the plant running smoothly with regular maintenance.

"When I arrived in May I was given a couple small projects to work on throughout the summer," Greathouse said, "It is solely up to me to make sure that these tasks get finished. I'm learning how to keep a project organized, make sure I have all the information needed, research my options as much as possible before making a choice, and how to communicate my ideas to others. I've even learned how to adjust from college to work, putting my education to good use." 

Greathouse said she has had such a positive experience with Nucor that she believes the company could provide the future career she's looking for.  She said, "I always knew that I wanted to work somewhere that offered two things: One, the opportunity to put both my mechanical and electrical abilities to good use; and two, the opportunity to be out in the field often, actually working on things, not just sitting in an office all day. Over the summer I have easily found that Nucor holds both of these traits and so much more. I would love to continue my time here at Nucor during future summers, and hopefully make a career out of it."

As impressed as Greathouse has been with Nucor, Davolt said Nucor is also impressed with what this intern has brought to the table.  He stated, "Our interns and co-ops are given the same responsibility as Nucor teammates.  After safety training, they hit the ground running. We expect them to apply themselves to the best of their ability and contribute to the success of Nucor, and Brooke has done a great job since she’s been here."

Greathouse's engineering professor at Penn State DuBois, Craig Stinger, said this is the kind of internship experience every student should have, and it's what he strives to provide for each student.  He said it is one of the most important parts of their education. 

"Internships provide valuable real-world training where students can get a firsthand look at how their Penn State education fits an industry.  It is a great résumé builder, and allows the students an early chance to get a feel for what they might encounter after graduation when they work for a company," Stringer said.  "In today’s competitive job market, grades are only a part of the equation when finding a job; job experience goes a long way when discussing future employment prospects."

Greathouse will complete her summer internship with Nucor in August. 

DuBois – Students in the Freshman Engineering and Design class at Penn State DuBois competed to develop the best designs for environmentally friendly ways to cook and move water this semester. Some teams of students designed and constructed their own solar cooking device, while other teams designed and built water pumps that can run without conventional power.  

The winners were recently named at Engineering Day. For the solar cooker, the winning team members were students Kevryn Boser, Andy Skraba and R.J. Fotta.  For the water pump, the winning team was Chase Lyle, Miles Ridgeway, Ed Ward, Chris Antonio and Tyler Rushnok.

Not only are the ideas of cooking and moving water without conventional energy sources environmentally friendly, it’s also a necessity in some parts of the world.  Assistant Professor of Engineering Craig Stringer said solar cookers are used extensively in South Africa where firewood is scarce, and less than 20% of the nation’s residents are tapped into the electrical grid. 

For the students, it allowed classroom learning to be put into practice, bringing textbook lessons to life. 

"The students were very excited to showcase their designs to the campus, and team members were very impressed by the questions and ideas other students had about their designs," Stringer said.

DuBois – Students in the Freshman Engineering and Design class at Penn State DuBois have developed their own methods for environmentally friendly cooking using solar energy.  For their class project, eleven teams of students designed and constructed their own solar cooking device.  Each team’s device had to be able to boil water, heat a can of soup, or cook a hotdog.

“There was only one problem statement,” said Engineering Design Instructor Craig Stringer.  “They had to cook food using the sun, that’s it.  What we ended up with are eleven different ideas, and they’re all viable.” 

Most designs were built using cardboard and aluminum foil.  It was required that the teams keep their costs under $65.  Some worked like an oven, reflecting the sun’s rays into a chamber where the energy was converted to heat and held.  Others used lenses, much like a magnifying glass, to concentrate the sun’s rays and cast them directly onto food items.

Not only is the idea of cooking with solar energy an environmentally friendly idea, it’s actually a necessity in some parts of the world.  Stringer said solar cookers are used extensively in South Africa where firewood is scarce, and less than 20% of the nation’s residents are tapped into the electrical grid.  “I actually got the idea for this project while reading a magazine,” he said.

For the students, it allowed classroom learning to be put into practice, bringing textbook lessons to life.  “It teaches the engineering process,” said student Brandon Maholtz.  “You have to define the problem, and then eliminate the problem by finding the right solution.” 

“We wanted to come up with solutions that would best serve customers looking for a cooker like this,” said student Caleb McGarvey, of Reynoldsville.  “We learned a lot while working on this project, and had a lot of fun too,” he said. 

DuBois - Penn State DuBois recently hosted a conference for professionals in the Powder Metal (PM) industry, which attracted more than two dozen industry representatives from three states.  Companies from throughout Pennsylvania and Ohio were represented at the conference, and some in attendance came from as far away as Illinois.  The event allowed for networking among those professionals, and gave them the opportunity to learn about the services Penn State DuBois can offer their businesses.

The day began with the Powder Metallurgy Equipment Association's (PMEA) Board of Directors meeting.  PMEA represents PM companies across the nation, and promotes research and education in the industry.

Following the meeting, Penn State DuBois faculty and staff presented a program, Technology-Based Economic Development; Building Partnerships Between Penn State DuBois and the Powder Metallurgy and Particulate Materials Industries. The program showcased the campus resources available to these industries that can help them be more successful.  Following discussions, tours of campus Engineering and Information Science and Technology labs were offered.

"The industry is already successful in this area, but we want to further that success by connecting the industry with the university," said Joe Polito, a manager with SMS Meer in Cranberry Township, PA.  Also a PMEA member and a Penn State DuBois alumnus, Polito was instrumental in bringing the conference to the campus.  "I want to see the university I graduated from work with this industry," he said. "I know there's so much the campus can offer.  There are a lot of resources here that could be utilized." 

Glen Rishel, a Penn State DuBois Research Technician, explained that much of the equipment in the campus engineering labs can be used by local PM companies free of charge.  to support product development.  This service is supported by the Powder Metals Initiative Grant and allows regional PM companies to have access to equipment and faculty expertise in the areas related to engineering.  This can benefit the companies who might not have certain machines at their business location. 

"We've actually had 10 different companies use our lab equipment this year," said Rishel.  "They use our machines for things like testing the strength and integrity of material, or analyzing material to see what it's composed of."

The composition of material can mean everything to a PM manufacturer.  Jason Gabler, the sales manger for Advantage Metal Powders in Ridgway said he's interested in using the campus scanning electron microscope for that purpose.  "I could definitely use the scanning equipment," he said.  "We get powders every now and then that we don't fully understand, and we don't know what's in the powder.  This can tell us what it's made of.

Gabler said different powder metals are used for different parts, and knowing what's in the powder is vital.  "Each element makes the powder's characteristics different, and it makes the part you're making act differently depending on what's in the powder," he said.

The conference goers also had the opportunity to see what the Penn State DuBois engineering programs are all about.  Associate Professor of Engineering Craig Stringer said the curriculum is focused on real-world needs.  "We are preparing our students with the tools they need today, tomorrow and five year's from now," said Stringer.  He said he's confident that graduates of the program will have all the skills they need for success the day they receive their diploma. 

"We really want to help our local industry," said Penn State DuBois Chancellor Anita McDonald.  "We want to showcase the resources available on campus to support the Powder Metal industry, and partner with more companies in this industry.  We offer our facilities and our students to help them solve real problems, and our students also benefit from that experience."