Iron Range Engineering Laboratories

Iron Range Engineering is a getting new laboratory space for students to use. As mentioned in the IRE Groundbreaking Ceremony post, IRE is going to be constructing an electronics lab and a manufacturing lab. Both of these will house brand new equipment available to the students. The electronics lab will have five workbenches with power supplies, function generators, and oscilloscopes. They will also have teaching boards for learning about how the different electric and electronic components work. I feel that the machines for the manufacturing lab are much more impressive however. We will be installing a vertical Computer Numerical Control (CNC) milling machine, a CNC lathe, a manual mill, a laser cutter, and a water jet. We are very fortunate to have benefactors from the region that have assisted in purchasing this equipment for our new building. In particular, the Blandin Foundation, the Minnesota Power Foundation, and the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board have graciously donated hundreds of thousands of dollars. The ability to create our own parts will greatly assist with our semester projects.

IRE Groundbreaking Ceremony

As some of you might have heard, last Friday was a very exciting day for IRE.  It was the groundbreaking ceremony and reception for the new building.  When the government shut down last summer, the grant for the new building was included in the budget.  The new building, along with other renovations, will include: an electronics lab, manufacturing lab, project rooms (with real walls), student life center, and an exercise area.  The students and faculty are looking forward to this building and the improved environment it will bring to IRE.  The students at IRE are very thankful for the improved learning atmosphere and also the huge benefit current and future students will have.  This building started out as a dream and will soon be a reality.  The building will help establish IRE as a program and aid greatly in the unique learning that happens.  There were many people involved in making this happen and without them, it would still be a dream. 

Remember Where You Started

Our journey as engineers thus far started as a new student, just figuring out what engineering is all about.  Most of us came in with goals of inventing the next greatest thing or making the world a better place. The journey then turned into projects, developing friendships with fellow engineering students, and discovering what discipline we would choose. The next couple of years in school were hard, we became bogged down with homework, and life got complicated. Sometimes we may have even wanted to quit, because we forgot why we started in the first place. But there always seems to be a moment when we can revisit our original goals. In those moments we are able to regain control and continue on our path just as determined and confident as when we started.

Revised by Cari Troumbly

Learning Client Responsibility

At the heart of IRE are industry-driven engineering projects; this semester, our group's industry partner was DesignWise Medical, a non-profit pediatric medical devices company.  Compared to working on an internal IRE project, this experience has been much different on many levels. First, I felt a greater obligation to work on the project, because the project is real. In this case, delivering a sub par product would have meant letting down a non-profit company with the goal of improving the quality of life for children. Second, it became obvious whenever we fell behind on our work. Since the client was 200 miles away from us, our group met with the client weekly via teleconference. Long silences during these meetings were a sign that we had not made significant progress that week, and that we would need to change our work habits for the following week. And third, getting client feedback throughout the entire design process gave us a clear sense of what the client expected and forced us to reconsider our decisions. For example, we had initially dismissed one of our options, but then the client requested that we further pursue the option. This option later became part of our final recommendation. All in all, it has been a great experience and I look forward to future projects of this type! 

What is surprising?

            So I’ve reached the end of my first semester as an IRE student.  In looking back on it all, I am asking myself one important question: What is the thing that has surprised me the most?  That is a toss-up between how much I have learned in a relatively short period of time and how much of my past education outside of engineering I have utilized in areas of my learning.  I am amazed when I reflect on what I didn’t know in mid-January that I now have a much better grasp of.  The IRE model of learning based on you has facilitated that immensely.  And from my Vet Tech background, I have assisted in my own learning in multitudes of areas.  I truly believed I would be throwing away my degree when I started engineering, but IRE has shown me that is not the case, for which I am grateful.

My First Semester at IRE

My first project as an IRE student came to a close after the final design review presentation. I was a part of the ∆T∆S Slider project. This project was an entrepreneurial project that I worked on with Spencer Johnson, Melissa Hoppe, and Jason Anderson. We make up the Generation four here at IRE and just started this semester.  

The goal of the slider is to produce an improvement upon the current available camera sliders systems. To accomplish this, the slider will be light-weight, portable, automatic, and have both the dolly and time lapse functions.  The main purchasers of the system will be film and photo enthusiasts that want the best visual effects in their work.  The stand out point of the ΔTΔS will be its low, affordable price tag for high quality integrated technology.

As a first semester student I am very pleased with the project and the results we have gotten. We have a working prototype that fits all of our goals set at the beginning of the semester. I look forward to my future project experiences here at IRE.

Posted by: Matt Sjostrand
Proofed by: Andrew McNally  

Awards & Recognition

This past week Co-director of IRE Ron Ulseth received the Entrepreneurial Leadership in Education award at the 20^th annual Joel Labovitz Entrepreneurial Success Awards.  Ron was acknowledged for his efforts in collaborating engineering education with industry partners, and for his continued success in the partnerships of Minnesota’s colleges.

IRE welcomed visitors to campus this past week.  Minnesota Power, one of IRE’s industry partners, presented IRE with a check for 125,000 dollars towards the development of new lab equipment.  IRE faculty, staff, and students were thrilled to have Minnesota Power visit along with other industry partners that were able to come out for the occasion.   We would like to thank Minnesota Power for their contribution to the continuing development of IRE.

 

        Pictured Above from left to right: Sue Collins President of NHED, Ron Ulseth C0-director of IRE,                                 & Dr Mike Johnson Provost of Itasca Community College

 

 

proofread by Emmy Stage