Category: Alumni

Rachel Store recently joined the Department of Manufacturing and Mechanical Engineering Technology (MMET) as an assistant teaching professor. She earned her BS and MS at Michigan Tech, both in Mechanical Engineering.

What first drew you to Michigan Tech?

It all started when I was in high school. My parents moved back to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula after a 25-year military career. They were living in Escanaba. I knew I wanted to study engineering; I wanted to play varsity soccer; and I wanted to be close enough to my family that I could see them within a day. Michigan Tech was honestly the only school that fit that bill—so it was an easy decision. It was also the only campus I visited. But I fell in love with Tech. So much so, that after I finished my undergrad, I went for a victory lap masters degree—Tech has a fantastic accelerated masters program! And I loved the campus, the community, and the Keweenaw. Houghton truly is a special place.

After graduating with my Master’s degree, I got a job in Milwaukee. I still found myself coming back to Houghton several times a month to see my boyfriend. He’s really what brought me back to Houghton. As soon as I could, I started looking for jobs back in the Houghton area (spoiler, we’ve been married for four years and are blessed with two wonderful children).  

I was delighted when I found work back at Michigan Tech, in the Department of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics. I actually had several offers from local companies that I passed on because I wanted to be part of the Tech community again. I was in the ME-EM Department for 5 years. Now, I am super excited to move into a more student-focused position in the MMET Department.

What do you consider an important long-term goal for your teaching, research, and outreach?

My background in industry was manufacturing and quality. I really enjoy teaching the topics where you go from a design or theory into making something physical, for example, a product or a lab sample. I enjoy additive manufacturing and especially forming processes. My research right now is focused on materials manufacturing with friction stir processing. I am working with Dr. Scott Wagner (MMET) and Dr. Vinh Nguyen (ME-EM) on a project right now. I am hoping to earn a PhD in a few years. In the meantime, I want to continue to develop as a teacher.

What do you hope to accomplish, as an educator and as a researcher, over the next few years?

I’ve been spending a lot of time lately thinking about teaching—how to teach, why it matters, and how I can help make my students the best future employees that they can be.  A lot of students see the class, the grade, the degree as an end goal. But really those are just the starting points for the rest of their lives. This is my first year in a full-time instructor role, so I know I still have a lot to learn myself.

What do you like to do in your spare time?

Fun question!  I have two and a half year old twins, so spare time at my house is more like ‘how do I multi-task!’ We live just south of Chassell on a little hobby farm (I’m a bit of a crazy chicken lady). And now my kids are starting to pick that up too. They love collecting the eggs with me, or going to the garden and looking for vegetables. We do a lot of stuff on our property—apple cider, maple syrup, gardening, foraging.

I also really enjoy being creative. I quilt and make soap, or sometimes I like to bring that creativity to the kitchen and cook fun meals. I am always excited for a welding, construction, or repair project. And I love the outdoors. That includes hunting, camping, kayaking, snow sports, and hiking (or snowshoeing!) especially.  

What’s your favorite book, movie, or piece of art?

The Princess Bride and Finding Nemo are two movies that come to mind. I like the stories about doing whatever it takes for someone that you love.    

Any favorite spots on campus, in Houghton, or in the UP?

Anywhere on Lake Superior, but I am partial to the Black Creek Trail. It’s where my husband and I met. I also really love the Gratiot River Park. I think is so cool how the mouth of the Gratiot River changes every year depending on how the ice and snow was that winter.  

Any advice for incoming students?

Get out and talk to people. Talk to your classmates, talk to your professors, talk to the locals.  The best thing about Houghton and MTU are the people. It is such a rich community. Also, get out and play in the snow. I always tell people new to the area and snow that you have to find ways to play in the snow. 

At Michigan Tech, we proudly refer to Senior Design as a “first job” rather than a “last class,” as it tasks senior-level project teams to address practical, open-ended design challenges. This past year, the MMET Department at Michigan Tech has been fortunate to have four Senior Design team projects generously sponsored by industry partners: Donald Engineering, Equinox Bicycleworks and Engineering, National Fluid Power Association (NFPA), and Kohler. These project supporters make a strategic investment in our educational mission.

MMET typically has 6-10 senior design projects each year, says John Irwin, MMET Department Chair. “We’re always interested in forming new partnerships with alumni and friends of the department who are interested in contributing to the education of MET students,”

Senior design projects can be sponsored at various funding levels. The projects involve providing engineering guidance to the team over the span of two semesters, fall-spring or spring-fall. 

The most recent sponsorship came from Donald Engineering, long-time supporter of the “Mechatronics Playground”—a set of labs that support both MMET and the Applied Computing departments at Michigan Tech.

Donald Engineering President Mark Gauthier and his employees supported a Fall 2022 interdisciplinary team made up of two MET students and one EET student. The team designed, built and tested a hydraulically-powered tensile and compression testing apparatus.

“The equipment donated by Donald Engineering will be put to good use in other ways,” notes Irwin. “Additional student teams will use it to test their project materials. It will serve as lab equipment in the MET Strength of Materials course—and last but not least, it will enable fluid power mechatronics students to see a real-life application of electro-hydraulics in action.”

Last spring, Equinox Bicycleworks, a local UP company that manufactures mountain bikes, needed a fixture to test the tubular frames to meet industry standards. The Michigan Tech MET senior design team, led by Joseph Williams (now a Michigan Tech alumnus) produced various designs for performing tests, such as fatigue testing per ISO 4210-6 standards on bicycle frames. The team manufactured a testing fixture, and tested the solution. It all came about through a partnership formed with help from Michelle Jarvie-Eggart, an assistant professor in the Department of Engineering Fundamentals at Michigan Tech. Dr. Jarvie-Eggart connected us with her husband, Brian Eggart, who owns and operates Equinox. He is also a research engineer at the Advanced Power Systems Research Center at Michigan Tech.

The National Fluid Power Association (NFPA) runs a yearly contest each April called the Fluid Power Vehicle Challenge, which has many industry sponsors, including Danfoss Power Solutions, Norgren, Parker Hannifin, Lubritech, Hydroforce, and IFP (Iowa Fluid Power). University teams from all over the country develop a timeline to design, simulate, build, test, qualify, and compete with their concepts. MMET Associate Teaching Professor David Wanless has been the advisor for many iterations of Senior Design project groups tackling this challenge. Each fall semester, a new set of students refine the design of the previous groups and then develop a new, improved solution. The outcome of the 2022 contest was that the team won the Sprint Race and were awarded $1,000.

Kohler entered into an agreement with the MMET Department for a sponsored project that started in the fall of 2020. The project has since continued, with the goal of assisting Kohler’s Engine Department in designing a new, highly accurate flow bench for small engines.

The first MET senior design team developed an initial flow bench design, but the COVID pandemic slowed their progress and prevented them from completing the manufacturing and testing. The next Michigan Tech MET team took over the project and presented their results in spring 2022.

A flow bench is generally designed to move air through cylinder heads or other components to measure the overall airflow throughout the entire system. The project was mostly complete, except for the controls and data acquisition portion, which is now the task of a third Senior Design team. Their goal is to complete the Engine Flow Bench by spring 2023.

Longtime MMET Advisory Board member Brian Hartwig, director of Kohler Engines’ Application Engineering and Development Lab, provided engineering guidance for this project, along with his team at Kohler.

Dear Friends,

The Michigan Tech MMET Department continues to prosper. Thirty MET students graduated in spring semester, and another nine this fall! Our total number of students continues to grow, due to the large incoming class of new and transfer students. 

One of the courses our students really enjoy is “Fundamentals of Machining,” where future engineers learn how parts are manufactured using traditional machining methods. Building a product from a piece of raw material is very satisfying. It’s an experience that lasts a lifetime. 

Making mistakes along the way is part of the process. It teaches the difficulty inherent in machining—and develops a lasting appreciation for manufacturing design—something that is instilled in every proud graduate from the MET program.

I hope you enjoy reading these stories about what has happened here at Michigan Tech over the past year.

Happy Holidays!

Sincerely,

John L. Irwin, Professor and MMET Department Chair

The second annual Zachary Richard Podkul Memorial Scholarship Challenge at Michigan Tech has come to its (delicious) completion.

Students in the Department of Manufacturing and Mechanical Engineering Technology set out to design a cookie cutter, one that the department could send out to prospective students, employers and alumni. Students were also required to provide an NX CAD assembly model of the process used to manufacture the cookie cutter.

If you ever wondered how cookie cutters are made, just take a look at this YouTube video, which helped serve as the inspiration for the challenge. The sponsors, Richard and Cathy Podkul, wanted to honor their late son Zachary with a design contest that incorporated his passions for both cooking and machine design. The contest was announced in late fall semester, and students began their thought process on what to design.

During the spring semester, sophomore mechanical engineering technology (MET) students enroll in a parametric 3D CAD modeling course that teaches how to use Siemens NX CAD modeling software. Many of the students enrolled in this parametric modeling course submitted entries for the cookie cutter contest.

To help get them started, students were provided with a 3D CAD assembly model as a guide for size and configuration. Later this design was substituted with a wrench shape to use as a prototype—something that could be used by students to test and see how the cookie cutter assembly operates prior to submitting their own entries.

MMET machine shop student workers—with assistance from Master Machinist Scott Meneguzzo and Operations/Facilities Supervisor Nick Hendrickson—produced a working model of the cookie cutter manufacturing fixture. After two design iterations of the 3D printed pushers connected to the clamps, the first, successful wrench-shaped “test” cookie cutter was produced.

The material used for the cutter is a thin strip of brass, cut to the precise circumference of the cutter outline. It is then formed into a hoop, spot welded together, and tempered for formability. Each clamp is manually operated and each has a 2,500 pound holding force. The cookie cutter form in the center was 3D printed on the Fortus 400MC Stratasys 3D Printer, located in the MMET department’s Polymeric Additive Manufacturing Facility

Many interesting cookie cutters designs were evaluated by the contest judges for the following qualities: 1) Parametric⁠—3D CAD model(s) utilizes sketches fully constrained with parametric features and fully constrained parts in the assembly; 2) Originality—a unique and innovative design; 3) Optimized—minimized use of material, while not compromising strength; 4) Manufacturability—the part’s ability to be easily formed in manufacturing fixture; and finally 5) Ease of use—the manufacturing design is ergonomic and simple to use.

The results? Three students tied for second place in the contest. They were Ben Engle, who designed a gear-shaped cookie cutter; Luz Aparicio, who designed a lightbulb, and Patrick Moeller, who designed a Lift Bridge cookie cutter.

In the end, the contest yielded the first-place winning cookie cutter, Hunter Wilke’s design, also in the shape of the Portage Lift Bridge.

All the winners were presented certificates at an awards ceremony on April 19, which was the celebration of Zachary’s birthday.

The next challenge for the Podkuls, together with Michigan Tech MMET department faculty, will be to develop an idea for the 3rd Annual ZRP Memorial Scholarship! With Zachary’s love of cooking, the outdoors and nature, writing, poetry, and his curiosity for discovering how things worked, it could be just about anything!

Richard T. and Catherine F. Podkul established an endowed scholarship in honor of their son, Zachary Richard Podkul ’18. Zach earned a BS in Mechanical Engineering Technology at Michigan Tech. He suffered from Crohn’s disease, and died in 2020 at age 25. Thankfully, Zachary’s wonderful legacy lives on here at Michigan Tech, now and always.

Richard T. and Catherine F. Podkul have established a new endowed scholarship in honor of their dear son, Zachary Richard Podkul, who suffered from Crohn’s disease and passed away in 2020 at age 25.

Zachary shared a love of cooking, the outdoors and nature, writing, and poetry. As a young boy, he had a curiosity for discovering how things worked. With this passion for knowledge, he enrolled in Michigan Tech and graduated in 2018 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering Technology.

It was no small secret that Zachary loved the Upper Peninsula and his best times were at Michigan Tech. His intelligence inspired others to never stop learning. Zachary’s scholarship is intended to ease the financial burden for students who share his MTU experience and who also live with chronic health conditions. Zachary will always be remembered by his Michigan Tech Family and Alumni. Learn more here.

The Zachary Richard Podkul MET Design Competition

Zachary’s family also supports the annual Zachary Richard Podkul Design Competition. Each year, the contest winner will receive a $1,000 scholarship. Contest rules stipulate that students must use NX CAD software to design their content submission. Once selected by a panel of judges, the top-rated design is then 3D printed using the Stratasys Fortus 400 MC which uses Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) process of extruding plastic filament. 

And the 2021 winner is….HUNTER WILKE!

The challenge: design an item that can be used to decrease the spread of the COVID-19 virus, something that can be worn, hooked to a backpack or clothing, or easily carried on one’s person. Hunter was declared the winner in 2021 for his “Door Opening Device.” Read the full story here.

For this year’s competition in 2022, the challenge is to design a Michigan Tech cookie cutter and provide an assembly of the automated process used to manufacture the cookie cutter, which will be used by the department to send to MET prospective students, employers, and alumni. Read the full story here.