Week Two

This week Iron Range Engineering is scattered throughout the state. Half of the students are at the North Shore volunteering. The Power Trowel group is in St. Paul presenting in the final round of the MN Cup. The Medtronic group left early this morning to have a tour of the Medtronic facilities, followed by a mobile design review on the ride home in the suburban. We (General Electric) are the only ones left behind. We are getting settled into our new space and setting the scope of our project which involves increasing efficiency in a manufacturing process. On Wednesday the GE and Medtronic groups will switch places with the students at the North Shore to finish off the week.

Spoken Impact

On Monday, four generation 1 students traveled to the cities to attend an educational presentation. The four of us are involved in the Power Trowel project that has reached the finals of the Minnesota Cup Competition. Only two other teams are left in the student dividion of the entrepreneurial competition. The presentation we attended was focused on the proper way to give a business presentation. As we found out, a business presentation is far different from a technical presentation. Business presentations focus mainly on how the product will make an investor money. No attention is paid to how the product works or the math behind it, but rather why people will buy it and the risk involved to the investors. The presentation will sell our idea to the investors. The team that best sells their idea will be the victor. I believe there was value in the four of us attending the Spoken Impact presentation as all of us walked away with new ideas and ways to sell the product that most likely would not have been there hadn't we attended.

Proofed by Austin and Erin

School is Right around the Corner

5 more days, can you believe it? School has been approaching extremely fast, and many people have been working hard to get our new wing finished by Monday the 23rd. Many of the IRE interns have been spending the past couple weeks ghosting and licensing our 30 computers. Other time has been spent packing up all our stuff from the bat cave and old classroom and putting it into storage until we can move all of it into our new space. Our new classrooms were supposed to be completely finished by Monday along with all of our equipment up and in place. But as it looks currently, this will not be the case. Renovation is moving quickly but we will still be doing some unpacking and moving in next week as all of the students go to school.

A few other notes are the second week of school ALL IRE students will be camping and volunteering up at the North Shore. The students will be going in two different groups, one Monday through Wednesday and the second group Wednesday through Friday. The first day of school is also business casual and the festivities start at noon. Although, much help will be needed from 8 am to noon to set things up if people have time. All of this information along with more is included in an e-mail Ron sent out to all of the students yesterday. So all IRE students make sure you are checking your e-mail and read the e-mail from Ron before you move all your stuff to Virginia for school.

Power Trowel Solution Applicator Prototype "U"

Yesterday, our second prototype for the Power Trowel Solution Applicator was completed. After implementing many of the suggested changes including tank design, spray nozzles, mounting setup, and increased volume capacity, a workable design was built. The design better protects the hose and electrical parts from damage during transport and use.
We installed the prototype on the trowel this morning and are now waiting for an opportunity to test it on a poured slab. This will come sometime next week. If all goes well there will be minor modifications necessary for a sellable product. In addition, next week the teams advancing to the 3rd round of the Minnesota cup will be announced.

Proofed By Erin