Dave Ellis Leadership Conference

This past weekend three IRE students and one Itasca Community College student attended a Dave Ellis leadership conference titled “21st Century Leadership in Education” in Acton, Massachusetts right outside of Boston. It was held and hosted by Research for Better Teaching at 1 Acton Place. This conference was very personal with approximately forty attendees, most of which were school teachers, administrators, and business professionals.

The layout of this conference was quite different from those that we are used to. We had seven minute lectures followed by discussion, an activity, and then feedback. It was very active and each day was different.

Some of the actions we learned that leaders must take include: repeatedly asking for what you want, provide lots of feedback without reprimand, celebrate constantly, accept and embrace your role as a leader, and create a clear vision just to list a few. We learned how to listen for brilliance in everybody and the process that needs to be taken to find multiple solutions for any problem. We will be able to bring what we learned at this conference back to IRE to share with the other students.

Thank you Research for Better Teaching for hosting the conference and Dave Ellis for such a wonderful learning experience.

Proofed by: Emmy Stage

Midterm Has Ended

It is that time of the year, where we have passed the midway point of the semester. For the students, it is time to evaluate where we are in completing individual deliverables by the end of the semester. For some they are right on track while others are a little behind schedule. As students, we are not in panic mode at this time, but soon deliverables will be due and stress levels will rise. It is important that all of us maintain some type of individual schedule.

For the seniors that will be graduating this fall, it is time to see what we need to complete to graduate. In addition to school work, some of us are taking the Fundamentals of Engineering Exam on Saturday. Passing this test is one of the many steps to becoming a Professional Engineer. The test is eight hours long and staying focused throughout the exam will be challenging. So, it is important to have a successful week of studying for the exam and completing the required school work at the same time.

The coming weeks will fly by and staying on top of tasks will be challenging. Everyone has a different way of tackling the challenges ahead, but we all have each other for support. The challenge of finishing the semester in time is something that some of us have completed many times, but it is always interesting. For the Third generation, it will be a challenge but they will be successful with a little guidance from the seniors.

To top it off, many of the fall graduates are looking for jobs, and the juniors are looking for internships for the summer. This is another time concern we have to contend with. All of wish we could have 30 hours in a day, but we know that will never happen. To be successful the students will have to track their progress and be efficient with the remaining time.

Proofed By: Austin Mekash and Tom Happy

Public Speaking at IRE

It is expected when IRE students graduate their communication skills are greatly increased. A communication skill practiced often at IRE is public speaking. Public speaking is a trait that many engineering students lack as they enter their professional careers. IRE desperately wants to change this; because it is important that engineers are able to express their ideas through public speaking. Therefore, over the course of two years at IRE, students are presented with many opportunities to improve their public speaking skills. What makes these opportunities so valuable is the feedback students receive from their peers. This allows them to see what areas they need to improve in.

This past Wednesday, the Generation 3 students (juniors) were presented with yet another opportunity to improve their public speaking skills. We each presented our IRE elevator speech to a group of classmates. An IRE elevator speech is how an IRE student would explain our program to somebody they just met on an elevator. The groups consisted of 4-5 students, and the presentations were roughly five minutes in length. After each student presented, every member of the group would take a couple minutes to give the presenter feedback. The group highlighted the student’s strengths and weaknesses in all the different categories such as professionalism, confidence, appropriate dress, etc.

After all the presentations were done and feedback sheets were given out each student took some time to review their sheets. They then wrote a paragraph or two on how the presentation went, what were their strengths and weaknesses and how they would improve for the next time they presented.

Spring Semester Projects

So... because of MEA weekend, today is the end of the week. This week is especially important because this marks the half way point of the semester. For some of us this is not big deal, for others, this midpoint makes their eyes wide and their minds race on where the time has already went. Many of our projects have begun to take shape and groups such as my own are presenting their design options to their clients before carrying on into manufacturing and other steps.

Today faculty went around to the students and asked them where they might like a project next semester. The different types of projects that may be available next semester are: industrial, mining, biomedical, or other fields. This is important because it makes it a much more enjoyable experience to work on a task you are interested in. Also, non-graduating seniors need to take a look at the topics that they have left to cover to make sure they have met all requirements. By trying to predict the learning that may come from the projects, a student can hopefully schedule their learning so that a majority of it comes directly from the hands on engineering done in the R&D.

Proofed By: Grant Graupmann

Internships while attending IRE

This year, students at Iron Range Engineering have the option of working on an internship program while they attend their normally scheduled classes. Every Tuesday, several students work on their internship at companies throughout the Iron Range. This program is preplanned into their busy schedule and they are required to keep up with their projects and studies during this time away from school.

Working on an internship while attending school simultaneously may seem to be overburdening and sometimes impossible, but this time spent at internships is invaluable. On the job training adds an entire dimension to our learning, and the contacts we gain while at our respective companies will prove to be useful throughout our careers.

This summer, I had the privilege of working at an internship with Minnesota Power in Duluth, Minnesota, and I am still working at my internship throughout this fall. The knowledge I am gaining about the power industry is immense, and I am gaining incite into what industry is looking for in graduating engineers.

It is true that engineers are required to be lifelong learners, but more importantly I saw many engineers teaching while on the job. These engineers were constantly training new engineers in their field about their profession, and I learned a great deal from them. Teaching is something every new engineer should strive to get better at as they start their careers.

Proofed by Bryan Frey

FIE Conference

Last week, the 2011 Frontiers in Education conference was held in Rapid City, SD. IRE presented two papers, and ICC, our partner school, had another presentation. Ron Ulseth presented the first paper covering the IRE model. The audience was so interested that the questions went over the scheduled time. The other paper explored Peer-Directed Learning in a Project Based Model, and was written and presented by one of our first generation students, Andrew McNally. People were intrigued at the happenings at IRE, and we were able to suggest process improvement ideas as well.

People came to the conference from all over the United States and around the world including Australia, England, Argentina, and Nigeria. These people brought many good ideas regarding aspects of engineering education. Many of the pertinent ideas came from the capstone sessions. One particular idea spoke of the benefits of an accelerated start to the project where the students jump into a quick, small abbreviated project. Another was a computer game developed to help students understand and work with dynamics concepts and applications at a high level of learning. The interface looked exciting and the game play looked fun, challenging, and educational.

The conference was a excellent opportunity for IRE to learn from other successful programs, share some of our revolutionary ideas, and make valuable relationships within engineering education.

Proofed by: Matt Hudson

Visit to Mesabi Range Community & Technical College

The IRE Wind Energy Group is in the process of building a wind tunnel for scale model testing. A few of us took a trip to Mesabi Range Community & Technical College in Eveleth to speak with Dan Janisch, the Wind Energy Technology Instructor coordinating the installation of a used Vestas V-27 wind turbine generator system. Dan Janisch is providing IRE with blower fans and a place to build, use, and possibly store the wind tunnel, that is, once they have the space available. Right now the space is occupied by the nacelle and power control system for the 2.5kW generator.

Our trip was beneficial on many fronts. We got to see firsthand the scale of what Dan referred to as a small scale turbine. Not really small unless it is compared to the 2.5 megawatt turbines on Taconite Ridge. It may be “small” but still impressive. I cannot wait to see Mesabi Range’s wind turbine in operation. The IRE Wind Energy Team was invited to attend the tower and turbine lift in a couple of weeks. Dan also extended the invitation to other IRE students and faculty. There will be more to follow when the date is finalized. Their group is waiting on the crane availability, but has the support base ready and was enlarging the diameter of the holes in the bottom section tower connection ring.

We met some very dedicated students and a truly enthusiastic instructor who loves what he does. Dan Janisch has offered help and support for the future and would like our two programs to share learning opportunities whenever possible.

Thank You Mr. Dan Janisch

Dan Marshall, IRE

Wind Energy Team

Proof read by Tyler.

The Brain and Being Human

A group of IRE students recently returned from the 47th annual Nobel Conference held at Gustavus Adolphus College. This years topic was The Brain and Being Human. Over two days, the top dogs of neuroscience shared their cutting-edge work. Discussion topics spanned from "how monogamy may have evolved and its implications towards treating autism" to "exploring how all of us are actually programmed to move to music". At the same time, Dr. Mayberg and Dr. Donoghue showed us the future... their work involves implanting devices into the brain to treat depression and to give patients with paralysis an opportunity to control an arm with only their thoughts. This was an excellent opportunity to peer into an emerging science and it revealed the kind of work some of us may be doing in the near future.

Proofed by: Grant Roy

Full Time Student and Co-op

This semester, IRE students have had the choice to work on companies while participating on a co-op, and still attend IRE full-time. The semester projects that students normally do are replaced by the projects that are assigned at their work sites. In order to increase learning efficiency, co-op students can apply what they learned at their companies towards competencies for IRE. Most of the learning is independent, but co-op students are required to meet once a week to attend seminars and work on competencies. Under this structure, students get experience using metacognitive skills in the workplace while being able to graduate within four years.

Proofread by Brian S. and Tom H.

Options Document

This week at IRE the options document was due. The options document is where all the design ideas are collected and recommendations are made for which design to move forward with. The Children’s Occupational Therapy group came up with the options for the team’s Chippy Tree and Troll Bridge. The Chippy Tree is a tree that children will be able to throw balls or bean bags at. The tree will have a few knots, or holes in it that the children will aim for. When a child gets the ball in the hole there will be lights or sounds celebrating their good throw. The troll bridge is an adjustable height stairway for children to learn to walk up stairs. There was a lot of research that went into finding good options for these projects and the team is looking forward to the experiment phase and the final building of each of the projects. The team would like to thank Banner Engineering for their well-documented guide that is published online. It was very useful in researching the sensors that the Chippy Tree will need. The team would also like to thank Smith Williams Studios and Gilly Arts for allowing us to work with them on these projects.

Proofread by Jeremy Goodell

Communications Workshop

Today we had a workshop with two guest speakers at IRE. Traci Nathans-Kelly, Ph.D. and Christine G. Nicometo, M.S. from the College of Engineering of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, talked about the three main styles of communication, (written, verbal, and visual) and then broke those main styles up into topic areas. We were given multiple examples of good and bad forms of communication. We also discussed what forms of communication need to be more formal, and what can be less formal. Today, there was a lot of eye-opening communication facts presented that will benefit IRE as a whole. We would like to thank Dr. Nathans-Kelly and Master Christine for traveling up to Virginia to increase our professional communication skills.

Proofread by: Tyler Bartek
Re-proofread and corrected by Ron