ESSAR Refueling Station

This semester I am working on a project with fellow seniors Cody Beer, Bill Dorry and Graham Redshaw. Our mentor for this project is Mike Shoberg. Mike is a professional engineer, who is currently a vice president at Barr Engineering in Hibbing, Minnesota.

For our project this semester ESSAR Steel Minnesota has requested that our group create preliminary designs for their refueling station for their mobile equipment. This stand-alone building will be used to fuel the trucks and perform some regular maintenance, such as the regular fluids and airing of the tires.

These designs will be dictated by the various building codes. These codes include but are not limited to: state, international, general, mechanical, electrical, energy, plumbing and fire.

Our client has requested that we create preliminary drawings and present them to ESSAR early on in the semester. This will allow for constant feedback which will help us create the best possible drawings by the end of the semester. 

Dave Ellis Leadership Conference

Over the weekend of September 15^th, 16^th, and 17^th, Iron Range Engineering sent six students to the internationally acclaimed Dave Ellis Leadership Conference in St. Paul Minnesota.  Dave is a best-selling author, successful businessman, entrepreneur, and CEO of a nonprofit.  The program, titled Coaching Practices for 21st Century Leadership, focused on developing leadership skills among students, industry professionals, and leaders of non-profit organizations.  We learned a variety of skills including a new kind of note taking with 3x5 inch index cards, brilliant listening, and coaching as opposed to giving someone advice.  Note taking on the index cards emphasized taking brief notes, one per card, to help organize thoughts and tasks while maintaining a simple approach.  Mr. Ellis recommended including on these cards a priority rating, deadline/timeline for the goal or task, areas of support or potential collaborators, and potential subcategories.  Brilliant listening entailed being a better listener-giving both verbal and nonverbal feedback, not interrupting or issuing assurances, and then reciting what you heard from the speaker.  The main difference he wanted us to understand between coaching and giving advice is that while coaching, you are there to help the other person think-not to think for them.  Often times, if we ask the right questions or probe the person with a problem, and allow them to articulate their thoughts, they will formulate a solution on their own, which is much more valuable than simply being told another person’s solution.  Coaches facilitate thinking and problem solving.  They do not do it for you. These skills can be used in a variety of situations pertinent to IRE students, particularly in the areas of time and task management, group work, and leading a project team.  

Things are changing at IRE

There are many things changing this fall at Iron Range Engineering, and here are some highlights:

First, we must welcome three new people to IRE. We have a new business instructor, Elizabeth McBride, a new laboratory supervisor, Noel Olander, and a new technology coordinator, Jim Boyd. Welcome to our program, and we look forward to working with you!

This fall our new building located on the Mesabi Range Technical College campus is going up before our eyes. As of today, the concrete foundations have been poured and back-filled, and several walls have been constructed. Hopefully by this spring the new project rooms and laboratory spaces will be completed and ready for our use. 

In our old spaces, a model building and laboratory room has been created and outfitted over the summer, along with a large classroom and a common space. All are located within a short distance of project rooms and faculty offices for ease of access. Additionally, the Blandin Foundation has generously donated a large sum of money allowing us to outfit our new spaces with state of the art tools and equipment.

Finally, thanks to our friends at the Eveleth campus, new facilities are available to us for construction of project related material. These include a wood working and metal shop. We also have use of their overhead gantry crane and forklifts if needed. The availability of these facilities allows us to build high quality experiments and project models.

Thanks to everyone who has supported this program, and we look forward to even more changes in the future.

Iron Range Miners' Expo Tool & Equipment Showcase

The Iron Range Miners' Expo Tool & Equipment Showcase is being held this Thursday and Friday at the Minnesota Discovery Center in Chisholm, MN. There will be an Iron Range Engineering booth held there along with many other companies that are key players in the mining industry. The students will be taking part in this event by actually being behind the booth and giving their story. Out of the 14 students participating, two student groups will take two hour shifts throughout the day and will answer any questions attendees of the conference may have.  This is a great chance for the students to tell their story and to represent their school in the public! The students also have the opportunity to walk around the event, allowing valuable connections to be made with other exhibitors and to learn more about the mining industry.

IRE Attributes

IRE students have created the list of attributes. The reason for these attributes is to have a constant reminder of where we want to drive towards at graduation and to think about how each of the activities undertaken on a daily basis contribute to developing the attributes. Below are these attributes as well as definitions developed by students:

IRE Students are:

Motivated

• Ambitious
• Determined
• Has vision
• Is Driven
• Innovative

Team Oriented

• Responsible
• Communicative
• Flexible
• Organized
• Timely

Self-directed

• Organized
• Knows when to ask for help and when to solve problem on own
• Has follow through
• Time manager

Excellent Communicator

• Articulate
• Uses proper grammar
• Concise
• Good listener
• Willing to share thoughts and ideas
• Uses eye contact

Reflective Practitioner

• Identify Learning Approach
• Monitor Learning
• Evaluate Quality of Learning
• Improve Learning
• Document all of the above processes

Independent, Advanced Learners

• Motivated
• Resourceful
• Invested
• Reflective
• Adaptable
• Persistent

Professional

• Engaged in work
• High quality work
• Dedicated
• Prompt
• Respectful
• Good communicator
• Ethical

Prepared

• Practices presentations 
• Always has pen and paper
• Organized
• Uses to do lists
• Comes with questions
• "10 minutes early is on time"

Curious/Innovative/Creative

• Explore and generate possible solutions
• Stays up to date on contemporary issue
• Constantly improves self
• Thinks outside the box
• Involved in the arts

Helping out Hibbing Community and Technical College

Starting on Thursday (7-26) the IRE Interns have been helping out with moving the equipment and classroom supplies for the customized training program, at the Hibbing Community and Technical College. On Thursday we showed-up at 8:00am and started moving the equipment from the room that the two week course was previously held to a room on the other side of the building for temporary storage.

Figure 1— Birds eye view

Figure 2— Original room before and after 

Figure 3— equipment in temporary storage

Then on Friday we painted the walls of three of the four rooms that the class would be held in,

Figure 4— Painting the walls

and on Monday we painted the walls of the fourth room and about half of the floor in the smallest room to test the paint and see what it would look like when it dried. Then on Tuesday two of us went to paint the rest of the floors, which is what we thought would be the last thing that we would be doing in regards to this project, but we found out that they wanted us to strip and wax the floor in the “Classroom” which is the room that we didn’t paint the floors of because they decided to keep the original tile.

Figure 5— painting the floors

Deconstruction at IRE

It has been a noisy month, jackhammers, trucks, and fans have been held at a constant.  My curiosity as to what was happening in the bathrooms was perked when construction put up a sealed wall in the hallway and shut off our air conditioning. So I went in and took some pictures, here are the good ones:

Both bathrooms, the wall between both of the facilities has been removed and the floor has been dug out



I believe this is the drain for the bathroom, though I not really qualified to know exactly what goes through that pipe. Behind the wall is the main hallway to the IRE rooms and faculty office.

Same restroom, just looking at the wall not caught in the first picture.

Art room that IRE is taking over.



Same art room, all the cabinets and lockers have been moved to the center of the room.

Next semester the art rooms will be in use for IRE students, namely for a classroom and study/lounge area, and the bathroom will be completely renovated. Ill keep posting pictures as construction reaches milestones in their project. More to come!