One Month's Reprieve

Following the end of all project and competency work on November 23 rd , IRE students were given a one week period in which to touch up all of their semester’s work into two compilations. The first compilation was the projects’ technical document, where all of the groups compiled everything that they had accomplished over the semester’s work. The second compilation was the individual student’s binders, where each student compiled all of their learning and professional accomplishments to assist in defending their semester’s learning. The following Monday (of December 5 th ) the project groups gave their final presentations to their peers and to some engineers from industry; followed by three days of straight defense for the individual students (and instructor’s too! J). For groups that had projects in industry, their presentations to their clients also happened during this two week period.

Now that the semester is finally over, I can stop to appreciate what I have done in the semester; however more importantly, I can take some time to observe what I have not done that I regret not doing, whether I was able to do them or not. However, while being able to just observe what went well, and conversely what didn’t, is rewarding for a student reflecting on his learning, taking the time to work on improving the process is at the heart of the IRE model. The consequence of being trained into the IRE model is that this process, dubbed Metacognition, becomes routine in everything that we as students (and for the first generation students as professionals) do in our work. So not only can I appreciate what happened over the semester, I can also ask “How can I do better?”

And on January 9 th we get to do it. Enjoy your break everybody!

Christmas Break

Christmas break is finally here! This means that we can all enjoy a few weeks off from getting up early and being efficient workers. However, this doesn’t mean that we can take couple weeks off from learning! Since we are all life-long-learners at IRE, I can only imagine that there will be many learning activities completed by our students over the break. We can apply our heat transfer knowledge to decrease the heat loss out of our fish houses. Or maybe some of the electrical engineering students will make a fancy circuit to catch Santa Claus in the act of delivering our presents. Whatever situation we find ourselves in I’m sure we’ll come up with some way to make it better.

Proofread by Ron.

Co-op at United Taconite

As a student at IRE I have had the unique opportunity to have a three semester long “co-op” as a reliability engineer with United Taconite. I am going to graduate at the end of fall semester 2012, and then continue to work in this position at United Taconite. In my first semester in this co-op, I have been required to write documents on the different steps in the design process, as every student at IRE does every semester. The main difference here is when on a project team working on a project at IRE, the team collaborates to create this document, and it is written on the one semester long project they are working on. As a reliability engineer, I do not work on large, many months long projects. They are much smaller in scale. They also do not appear to fallow the design process. In the beginning of the semester I did not know how I was going to do this. After a few projects, I tried to sort them out and apply different steps of the design to the different projects. This is the method in which I wrote most of the documents needed at IRE. Through this writing, and putting them all together into a technical report I made a discovery. A small project done by a reliability engineer does fit the design process! It was not at all intuitive, but through a lot of reflection and drawing relationships I found it to fit quite well. This got me thinking about how versatile this process really is. It can be applied to almost anything. Not every problem uses all of the steps, but this process is a logical way to approach any issue or problem. The scope can be years or it can be days, either way the design process still applies.

Congratulations

Today the Generation 1 students were down at Minnesota State Mankato to receive their diplomas. This day marks a huge achievement for each individual student, as well as for the program. The students earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering. They are the first graduates in the state of Minnesota to receive a degree from a program founded on the principals of project based learning, and likewise IRE is a first of its kind in the state. From everyone at IRE, I would like to say congratulations to all the Generation 1 students who have helped mark this day in history.

Proofed by: Ron Ulseth

Finally Graduating

For those of you who have been following since the beginning, the first generation students are finally graduating. From our perspective this seems to have taken a very long time: Just two years ago we were just getting ready to start our first semester here. We have come along way, and I know that I am a better person from my journey through the last two years with this program.
All of the first generations students are excited to start their engineering careers we began preparing for so long. We are ready. Here we come.

Proofed by Matt Hudson

Society of Hispanic Engineering Conference

Iron Range Engineering gives the students an opportunity to develop their professionalism by attending leadership conferences. Cari and Carissa recently attended a conference in Anaheim, California.

The conference was geared towards developing the Hispanic engineering community, but we still got a lot out of it. The conference ran for two days and there was a career fair the following day. We attended ten different one hour workshops as well as get some volunteer hours in helping with registration for the conference. In the workshops topics such as interviewing, resume writing, and balancing work and home life were discussed.

This conference helped us to see how many different places and things an engineer can do. Companies as different as BP and General Mills sent representatives to the conference to teach young engineers about various. One of the most informative workshops we attended was sponsored by Lockhead Martin, a weapons company, which was titled Networking 101 for college students. This was important because we went to company sponsored hospitality suits where there were recruiters available to talk to about jobs. We attended these on Thursday night and had no idea what to say. We decided after that, we needed to attend a networking workshop to be more prepared for the career fair on Saturday.

Also in preparation for the career fair, we had our resumes critiqued. The biggest thing they wanted to see on our resumes was a project description, especially if there was no engineering related work experience. The career fair was a new experience for us. We were able to meet with representatives from different companies, hand out our resumes, and get some cool “swag”.

The conference was an overall success and a great opportunity to see different things available to an engineer. We both enjoyed getting companies’ point of view on what they are looking for in their new hire engineers. We will take the things we learned at this conference, build on them, and use them throughout our careers.

By Cari and Carissa

Dyssynchrony Project

It has been roughly one year since the start of the dyssynchrony project. The focus of this project is to mathematically model dyssynchrony in the heart, create a physical model that shows dyssynchrony, and write journal publications on the research that has been done. After one year, two of the three goals have been accomplished at a high standard. These being the mathematical model and the program developed, as well as the journal publications that have been submitted to Mankato State's Undergraduate Research Center. The mechanical model, although completed, is not able to produce desired physiological results of dyssynchrony. But experimentation can still be done, and so far, the results are viewed to be life like. Our team is now putting together the final report for mondays final design review and looking forward to getting more accurate results with the mechanical model.

Proofed by: Andrew McNally

Thank You!

As this semester at IRE is coming to an end, the 3^rd Generation students would agree that it has been one of the biggest learning experiences of our student careers. Building relationships with the Generation 1 and Generation 2 students has really helped us get through this semester. They have always been willing to help us out whenever we have had questions. They have made this semester more enjoyable and brought many laughs to lighten the mood, day and night. As a group, we would just like to thank all those students for putting us under their wing and helping us through this learning experience. Many of them probably don’t think that they have made an impact on us, but they have. We have learned much from them, from helping us get used about the program, to teaching us technical information and demonstrating how to be more professional. It has been our pleasure to get to know this great group of people. To the Generation 1 students in particular, we would like to say, thank you, and wish the best of luck with your future. We know all of them are very talented and are going to make it far once they get into the “Real Engineering World.” Just don’t forget that the students that aren’t graduating wouldn’t mind a visit during the next semesters from you first gens.

Proofed By: Adam Geilser and Andy Lillesve

United Taconite Project

This semester myself and three others have a project with United Taconite. Our objective is to suggest new materials and/or a new design for filter concentrate chutes. These chutes currently build up with filter concentrate and cause costly downtime. We have met with the client a few times to discuss the scope of the project as well as design options. As a result, we have decided on a passive design with few or no moving parts due to the ease of maintenance. The main focus of the design is selecting the best material for the application.

To aid in the selection and to satisfy design grade requirements we designed and conducted an experiment to compare the coefficient of friction of different chute materials. Here, a hinged framework was built to hold the chute materials at an infinite range of angles. A known amount of filter concentrate was placed onto each material sample. The frame was then lifted until the concentrate slid off the sample material. At this point the angle was recorded. Using some basic principles of statics and Newton's second law we were able to solve for the coefficient of static friction. Finally, a chute material was selected.

In order to quantify the rate of build up, we set up a time-lapse camera at United Taconite to take pictures of the chutes at specific intervals over an eight hour time period. Using Photoshop, we overlaid a grid pattern into these pictures to give us a standard method to measure the amount of buildup. Knowing the amount of buildup and the time intervals we are now able to calculate the rate of build up.

We are in the final stages of the project now, which includes: finishing the final design, writing the technical report, and preparing the final design review. There is a lot of work left but I know we will get it done.

An End To The Beginning

The first semester of my IRE experience is coming to an end. During the past two weeks, tension has been high. The question in everyones mind has been, can I finish all my work on time? Even through all the stress and hard work, I have found myself in numerous conversations with other students about what we have learned this semester and what we can improve on for next semester. All of the conversations I have had started from the beginning, what we did, how we did it, how we felt about it then compared to how we feel now, what worked, and what did not work. Through this metacognitive process, I have realized that I am not the same as when I started. I have different styles of learning and a different understanding of what this experience is all about. I have made the transition into this style of learning. Looking forward from here, I feel that next semester will flow smoother and my learning processes will be refined even more. Behind all of the stress and pressure, I can feel the excitement and curiosity of what is in my future.

Proofed By: Emily Kilpatrick

The Next Step

Today is November 21, 2011. I started my college career August 24, 2006 at Itasca Community College. 5 years in the making and school is officially over for me in 17 days. The excitement is unbearable. Its felt like a decade has passed with the amount of time and energy spent in getting my engineering degree. While I am very excited to graduate and already have a job lined up, I'm still in aw; is this really happening to me, am I finally graduating? What does the working world have in store for me? Am I going to succeed, or is something else in store for me? While I ponder these questions I know one thing is certain. I am prepared for what ever life is going the throw at me. While college has been very important in developing me professional and technically, its time for the next stage in my life.

I will most certainly miss everyone at IRE. I want to thank my friends for all the good times we had. I also want the thank the faculty for everything as well. IRE certainly has been a very dynamic learning environment and I might not know what the future holds for me, or fully understand all the things that go into my next step but one thing is for sure I'm ready...

Anodizing

Last week several of the students conducted a lab to anodize some aluminum parts.

The process involved a degreasing bath at 150°+ for 5 minutes. Then, the parts were rinsed and dipped in a de-oxidizing tub at 110° for 3 minutes. This prepped the aluminum parts to successfully accept the anodizing process. Next, the aluminum parts were connected to the positive lead of a 3 amp source and dunked in 70° acid/water tank for 2 hours. Now the parts had an oxidation layer on them, with a honeycomb structure, which was quickly dunked in a dye tank for 15 minutes at 140°. The dye leeched into the "porous" oxidation layer, before a quick transfer to 210° bath of chemical to seal the pores shut. This finalized the anodizing process and helped to keep the color in. Lastly, the parts were rubbed with a mineral oil and set out to cool and dry.

The parts below are aluminum pieces off of a Honda dirt bike, anodized and dyed red.

Freedom

While our most recent visitor, Dr. Thomas Litzinger, was here, an interesting observation was made by a student while discussing the IRE model.
"Freedom is the best and the worst thing that we have at Iron Range Engineering."
This has been becoming more and more apparent as the semester comes to a close. At the beginning of Generation 3's first semester, we thought that time was on our side, we couldn't have been more wrong. Time is a fickle mistress, pretending to fulfill our dreams, all the while plotting the demise of the unmotivated student. This is another valuable teaching tool that IRE provides, time realization and management skills, it's time to realize how the world survives outside of academia. Let's hope that next semester's learning curve is considerably less steep.

Proofed by Ron Ulseth (student)

Crunch Time

With Thanksgiving a little over a week away, the realization comes that the semester will soon be over. But before this can happen there are a few important dates. Wednesday, November 23 is the day that all competencies are to be complete. Also, on this date the first draft of the project technical paper is to be submitted. This means that many of us have work to do tying up loose ends and finishing oral exams. During this time the coffee comsumption will increase dramatically, the midnight oil will be burned, and the tensions will rise as many students spend the majority of their day at the school. Client presentations, Final Design Review and exit interviews will follow shortly after.

The semester wraps up on December 9, with the senior graduation taking place at Giants Ridge on December 8 and Mankato commencement on December 10.

At Iron Range Engineering, students are required to do a certain number of volunteer hours that contribute to the community. This is part of the professional development learning that helps I.R.E. students learn about responsibilities outside the workplace. The Wind Turbine Team worked on fulfilling their community outreach (volunteer hours) in October. They spent the afternoon working at a community event called Community Connect. This event was for people who are less fortunate and need some assistance. The members of the group did jobs like greeting, serving lunch, registration, and exit interviews.

This ended up being a very rewarding day for the members and made them feel great satisfaction that they helped others in their community.

D2 Presentations

This past Thursday, IRE students gave formal presentations as project teams to other IRE students, faculty, and staff. These presentations gave project teams the opportunity to improve their professional/public speaking skills and to update others in IRE on the progress of their projects.

Through the course of the semester, IRE students have given several presentations in various formats. All of these presentations have helped to improve each student’s individual public speaking skills. Each project group will present formally one more time in front of the IRE community at the final design reviews. This is where the students will be able to show how much they have improved their public speaking skills since the start of the school year.

Proofed by Grant Roy

MAX Scholar Visit

This past Thursday and Friday a group of students and 3 faculty members visited IRE from Minnesota State University Mankato from the MAX Scholarship program. Four students from IRE are involved in this program and participate in weekly meetings with the Mankato students. The MAX scholarship is a diversity scholarship funded through the National Science Foundation.

The first night here IRE students and MAX scholars went bowling and visited about the program. The next day involved a mine tour of Minorca, a lunch with all IRE students, a speech about IRE from Ron, and debates within the scholar group.

Everyone had a good time visiting and meeting new people, or re-meeting for a second time, and the Mankato students finally got to experience the Iron Range.

Proofed By: Emily Kilpatrick