In 2019, the electrical engineering student was invited to ride the StartupBus from Akron to New Orleans, but last month, she served as lead conductor of the competition’s bus. From July 27-31,��she coached and led 30 aspiring Black entrepreneurs as they traveled from her Cincinnati hometown to Austin, Texas.

Turner graduated high school in 2015, not completely clear about her educational path, but initially pursued international business and finance, following her mother’s path to corporate America. “But that just wasn’t me,” said Turner.

It took dropping out of school and spending time in her hometown with her grandfather to steer her in another direction.

“I hadn’t really spent much time with him and he was the only engineer that I knew of in my family,” said Turner. “Once I started talking about things that got me excited,�� engineering came into the conversation and I thought of electrical, because I always enjoyed knowing the electrical parts of how something is built, like toys. It was always gadgets or anything that you can kind of physically interact with and involves an electrical component, and so that’s what I wanted to spend time studying.”

In the next year and a half, Turner was anything but idle. She started by picking up prerequisites she would need to study engineering at a satellite location of University of Cincinnati. Outside of school, Turner’s independent study and proactive networking included a total immersion in the tech community.

“I had freedom and time and I joined many tech-related groups and listened to podcasts,” said Turner. “I learned about the StartupBus from a Facebook group I joined called Hackathon Hackers, who are interested in hackathons and coding and creating projects.”

Turner said the entrepreneurial aspect was appealing as well as the engineering. “I like freedom and doing my own thing,” she said. “I think engineering is a way to be able to build the technical skill set, which is important, but I’ve always been interested in the entrepreneurial side.”

For more preparation for engineering school, Turner sought out travel scholarships for tech conferences, including one to San Diego that introduced her to the world of big tech companies and to computer science students.

“It was there when I first felt that maybe I could do this. I could get into engineering,” she said.

The student experienced another major milestone in her quest when she connected online with a Google employee, Don Gerstle, an electrical engineering alum of Speed School, who offered to mentor her.

Turner’s insatiable curiosity and initiative was noticed, and she was invited to the StartupBus in 2019.��

“I was on the Ohio bus, but the Advancing Black Entrepreneurs bus in that year, they left from Harlem, New York, and there was just something to say about the startup ideas generated on that bus,” said Turner. “They were more about building their communities, like financial literacy for minorities, for example, things that can really influence their communities. When those different, marginalized groups, have access to technology and education, a lot of the times that’s going into positively impacting their communities. That’s what I like about technology specifically for Black and brown communities is that it’s a tool to build those communities.”

From mixing and mingling with others from the Florida bus and the DC bus, Turner said she ended up spending time in the last stop city of New Orleans, where she met directors of StartupBus Europe and StartupBus Africa. It was that networking that led to her to ask about the ABE bus.

“The other conductors on the bus and me want to make this an amazing experience for riders. I am still actively recruiting to get University of Louisville students involved as well,” she said.

Going into her junior year, she said she is getting more comfortable at Speed School, where she applied in part to be close to her mother, who lives in Louisville and works at Humana.

“I was really nervous when I started here,” she said. “I started taking the bus in the mornings and getting to campus really early and just hanging out on the engineering floor. I thought if I stay in this place long enough, it’ll feel like home.”

Turner , and was a student worker for FirstBuild, the GE Appliances start-up. She said the best part of her Speed School experience so far has been getting involved in .

“Representation is important,” said Turner. “Before I went to Speed School, I developed a great network of Black and brown computer science students at these tech conferences. Being able to find that where I’m going to be spending most of my time at school is important to me, too and NSBE is a great avenue for that. It helped me find other students that look like me and made me feel comfortable.”

“Honorary degrees salute special achievements and recognize outstanding service to the university and to the community,” said Gonzalez. “I am pleased and proud to confer this degree on such an extraordinary individual.”

Nolan’s leadership and efforts have resulted in $50 million to help support public education initiatives in Louisville to provide equitable access to quality educational opportunities for all students. For Nolan’s commitment to public education, in 2020, he received the Kelly Award from the Kentucky Department of ����ֱ��.

During his time as vice president of technology at GE Appliances, Nolan created FirstBuild, a global maker destination, in partnership with UofL. The partnership continues today, boasting 15 products on the shelf and 454 prototypes created.

Nolan is also a longtime member of UofL’s J.B. Speed School of Engineering’s advisory board. Gonzalez noted that, thanks to Nolan, strong ties between UofL and GE Appliances have been built resulting in the development of scholarships and GE’s participation in student organizations such as Speed Spectrum, Society of Women Engineers, the Women’s Leadership Conference and the Engineering Living Learning Community.

Since 2004, GE Appliances has hosted 575 co-op students from the Speed School, which have completed 1,314 co-op rotations. In 2020, UofL honored GE Appliances as its “Outstanding Corporate Partner of the Year.”

“With Kevin’s leadership, GE Appliances invested in first-generation college students through support of the Speed School’s Brown-Forman Engineering Academy,” said Gonzalez. “Kevin has also invested personally, giving to the Mechanical Engineering Fund in the Speed School.”

In his remarks to the graduating class of 2022, Nolan emphasized the importance of how one’s unique gifts and differences can define character and create future opportunities. Nolan, an honors scholar graduate from the University of Connecticut, where he received a mechanical engineering degree, shared how struggles with dyslexia early in his studies hampered his interest in school. It was one of his professors at the University of Connecticut whose belief and support helped drive and influence Nolan’s success.

“It’s your differences that make you special,” said Nolan. “Leverage those differences to create opportunities for yourself. Don’t try to fit in by becoming something else or someone else. Be who you are and who you want to be. We need all of you with all you have to offer. After all, creativity thrives on the diversity of ideas. And that’s why I have been so committed to this university and why I have appreciated the many partnerships we have built with UofL.”

Nolan’s final word of advice to the 2022 graduates: Stay curious.

“Use your skills and innate curiosity to fuel your passion and discover what you love,” he said. “I have been so fortunate to have my career and passions intersect. It is truly something I wish on all of you. Keep learning. Keep growing. Keeping asking the question, ‘what if’.”

Hear Kevin Nolan’s complete remarks on the UofL YouTube channel .

In the four decades since its introduction, the engineering ceremony has spread to 27 states and engineering schools across the nation. Graduate and registered engineers are invited to accept the “obligation” of the Engineer and wear a symbolic steel ring to honor it.

The obligation is a creed similar to the oath attributed to Hippocrates (460-377 B.C.) that is generally taken by medical graduates and which sets forth an ethical code. Initiates pledge voluntarily to uphold the standards and dignity of the engineering profession and to serve humanity by making the best use of Earth’s precious wealth.

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Lipomanis, who is half-Canadian, grew up knowing about the Order of Engineers from her grandfather, a civil engineer, and she had hoped he would see her take the pledge before he passed. While unfortunately that didn’t happen, Lipomanis worked with an event committee of administrators to coordinate the logistics involved to bring it to UofL’s campus.

“He was proud that I cared so much about it,” she said.

After two years of working to get the Order of Engineer to UofL, history was made April 25, 2022, as University of Louisville’s inaugural Order of the Engineer ceremony was held. Ninety-five inductees, including seniors graduate students, alumni and engineering faculty, acknowledged the oath and donned their stainless steel ring for the first time.

“I think the reason it means so much is because it’s not an accolade or award you earn,” said Lipomanis. “It’s a solemn oath to maintain the highest standard in the engineering profession no matter what engineering discipline or professional path you may take. You’re saying to society, ‘I am willing to take on the responsibility of people’s lives based on projects I’m building, sites I’m designing, and inventions I’m making as an engineer, while always promising to do my best job.”

Pamela Thomas, assistant professor, Computer Science & Engineering, was one of four faculty members who participated in the Order of Engineers ceremony.

“I thought it would be a great opportunity to reaffirm my commitment to what working in an engineering school means, and support the students who are making the choice to be qualified, competent engineers,” she said.

Mark McGinley, professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering, who took his oath as a Canadian years ago, acted as master of ceremonies for the event. He believes it is important for Speed School to have the Order of the Engineer to help instill a sense of obligation in young engineers.

“It encourages engineers to identify with other engineers in common cause – we have a duty to the betterment of mankind and we rely on each other to fulfill that duty,” said McGinley. “This is not just a job; it’s a career where we are obligated in our practice to do our best for a higher order society.”

Mechanical Engineering alum Grigory Tarsevich, ’17, said he wanted to participate in the ceremony to demonstrate pride in his profession.

“This just brings us together and shows us it’s about more than just a good salary,” he said. “It’s common inspiration for what we work towards as engineers.”

Tarsevich, a native of Omsk, Russia, and two-time Olympic swimmer (2016, 2020) has now completed his athletic career and returned to the city of his alma mater to embark on his career as a thermal engineer for Vogt Power.

Computer Science and Engineering alum Max Pisaryk, ’19, who was also inducted, currently works at University of Louisville Information Technology and is working on his Masters of Engineering Management degree.

“I feel like it’s a sense of belonging to a group of highly educated and motivated people, and I want to be a part of that group,” he said.

For Sophie Lipomanis, the Order of the Engineer is more than just another feather in her cap, it’s about providing a legacy.

“It makes me so happy to know that the year I graduated is when UofL initiated it, and hopefully it will continue for every year now,” she said. “It’s been so cool to be a part of the team behind it. I can tell my kids, ‘Hey, you know the Order of the Engineers? We started that at UofL.’”

Future Order of the Engineer ceremonies will be held each spring semester with an invitation extended to alumni to participate.

The two UofL startups, BioProducts LLC and OrgVitals, will be formally recognized in a February live event. To be eligible, startups must be based in Kentucky, have been founded five or fewer years ago and have total raised capital of less than $25 million.

BioProducts is built around UofL-patented technology that gives new life to local distillery organic-based byproducts, for example, as a low-calorie sugar substitute and as specialized activated carbon suitable for a number of high-performance applications, particularly lithium-ion batteries.��

The technology was invented by Jagannadh Satyavolu, of the UofL Conn Center for Renewable Energy Research, in collaboration with Michael Nantz and his team in the UofL chemistry department, and recently took the top spot at the Distillers Grains Reverse Pitch competition.

OrgVitals, which��grew out of Unitonomy studio, is a startup leveraging UofL-born intellectual property for employee engagement data and analysis — used for predictive modeling to create healthier places to work.��

That technology was invented by Brad Shuck, an organizational culture and applied behavioral economics researcher in the UofL College of ����ֱ�� and Human Development (CEHD). The��, and the first to be supported by the UofL Office of Research and Innovation’s entrepreneurs in residence program, which brings in seasoned founders to help guide the university’s research-backed technologies to market.

UofL supports entrepreneurs through its UofL New Ventures office, which works to launch and grow startups built around . Aside from the entrepreneurs in residence program, the office also supports startups through LaunchIt, a 10-week entrepreneurship and innovation bootcamp, and through a prestigious suite of grant programs aimed at translating university research into products.

“We’re so proud of these UofL startups and the work they’re doing to further innovations that improve the way we work and live,” said Will Metcalf, an associate vice president for research and innovation who leads UofL New Ventures. “This recognition is proof-positive of that, and I can’t wait to see what they accomplish.”

Arduro Sustainable Rubber Inc. is a clean technology advanced manufacturing company that converts waste tire back into their primary components (rubber, carbon black or “CB” and steel). The company has developed a patented process that provides high quality raw materials (rubber and carbon black) at competitive prices to go back into Original Equipment Manufacturing products, while providing an environmentally sustainable disposal method of ELTs.

Eight years in the making

The initial research for the project goes back eight years when Dr. Gerold Willing, professor and chair of the Chemical Engineering Department at Speed School, was working with Civil Engineering professor Thomas Rockaway and the Center for Infrastructure Research as well as the Rapid Prototyping Center. With an American Water Works Association grant, they were studying the aging of elastomeric materials and the water utility industry.

Due to new EPA rules, utilities had begun switching from using chlorine to clean water to using chloramines. But with the introduction of the new chemicals, they began to notice rubber components were degrading much faster than they should be.

“They were supposed to be lasting 20 years, but were only lasting two years,” said Willing.

The rapid degradation mechanisms inspired Willing to wonder if there was any way to purposefully use this to degrade rubber, and the idea for the research germinated in 2012. That term, graduate student Patrick Kroeger wrote his Master’s thesis on the project. “Could this be a feasible method of recycling tires? and the answer was yes,” said Kroeger, who decided to continue to pursue this project through his PhD at Speed School.

“We replicated our results from my original Master’s thesis and we filed for our provisional patent in fall of 2014, and then filed for the full patent and received it in 2016,” he said.

The sometimes difficult next step in taking the research to commercialization was finding funding. “At that point, we managed to cobble together some funding with a little bit from the state and a little bit from the university to continue developing it,” said Willing.

Patented new technology attracts investor

Willing explained that when you’re seeking funding, it comes to develop a proof of concept and to prepare for commercialization.

“But there is a space between where it’s a funding gap,” he said. As luck would have it, UofL’s technology transfer office put the project work on the website and immediately attracted the attention of business executive and investor Ian Lowe, who is now the CEO of Arduro.

“With his connections and influence, he took us the next step to the commercialization route,” said Willing.

Kroeger designed the system and after two years at the company, is currently the vice president of Technology for Arduro. “There was no technology that was really effective at creating a vulcanized rubber product where you can basically take the tire from a rigid, non-malleable state and chemically modify it so that it can go back and be remolded and then re-vulcanized and put back into, for example, another tire,” said Kroeger. “There’s no other technology out there that does that right now, so Ian Lowe and I began discussing my background, and he needed someone to lead the technical side of it.”

From the lab to the workplace

Kroeger was not the only chemical engineering major from Speed School to find the idea of building something from the ground up appealing. Cora Grief, Heather Evans and Michael LaRoche, among others, worked as co-ops and undergraduate assistants.

“They’ve been a critical part of the development as we progressed through ideas and concepts and manufacturing techniques that didn’t work, and then eventually adjusted those into actually working,” said Kroeger. “They’ve been there every step of the way.”

Grief was the first co-op at Arduro. “When I entered the chemical engineering major, I became really interested in more green-type of endeavors, helping to fix some of the damage we have done to harm the Earth,” said Grief. “When I saw Arduro, it’s a very hands-on workspace. You can just try things out, and your ideas can be implemented really quickly,” she said.

Kroeger said Evans began as an intern and while she finished classes at Speed, in between she was working to bring the pilot plant up and operating, building the beginning of the infrastructure that would turn into what it is today.

“I was attracted to the sustainability aspect of Arduro,” said Evans. “A lot of companies in the chemical industry really just aren’t doing the best thing for the environment. I really liked the environment of the start-up. We’re all here because we have the motivation and ambition to do something meaningful.”

LaRoche completed all three co-op rotations at Arduro, and upon graduation in Spring 2022, will be working for the company as well.

“Freshmen year, not too long after I started working at Arduro, I just kind of immediately fell in love with the pilot plant setting,” said LaRoche. “I felt like my ideas were respected, and I feel like I learned a lot of information very quickly about chemical engineering in general, and the transition from a lab state to an actual plan.”

Two graduates tapped to lead development in Canada

The success of Arduro as a company over the last two years has led to the company expanding its footprint into Canada. “roeger said Grief and Evans were hired with the primary goal and focus on the development of the Nova Scotia plan.����

The two engineers are excited for the challenge.

“We’re still in the very early stages,” said Evans. “We are looking at different sites for where the plant is going to go up, figuring out what contractors we need to get those sites ready. The scope of the project is how do we take what we’ve done that’s out here in the pilot plan and scale that up and put that in Canada?”

The project is a two-phased approach, with a tire shredding plant built before the reaction system. Kroeger expects the plant to produce around 2.5 tons of rubber and 1.5 tons of carbon black every day. The Nova Scotia plant is expected to be operational by mid-2023.

Willing said the environmental impact is huge. “When people talk about a fundamental shift in how we do things, this is that shift,” he said. “Up until this point, there’s been no way to close that rubber loop effectively, and you end up either burning it or it goes in a landfill. But now that’s not the end of the road.”

“It will begin to address at a massive environmental problem,” added Kroeger. “A lot of people are excited about the fact that we can reuse material. We’ve talked to some pretty big tire companies and rubber manufacturers, and they want to be part of the solution.”

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From 2015 to 2020, Salas served in the U.S. Navy as a Culinary Specialist onboard the Los Angeles Class Attack Submarine the USS Newport News. In spring of 2021 Salas enrolled in UofL’s Mechanical Engineering program as a sophomore.

During his five-year Navy career, Salas earned two Navy and Marine Corps Achievement medals: the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal and the Global War on Terror Expeditionary Medal. Although he cited his proudest decoration as earning the coveted Submarine “Dolphin,” signifying his expert knowledge about every system on-board the submarine. While serving on the Newport News he deployed twice, including visits to Scotland, Gibraltar, and Diego Garcia.

Salas has been a UofL fan since he and his family moved to Louisville when he was seven. From that point on, he knew he wanted to attend UofL to study engineering.��

He is a proud member of UofL’s Formula SAE team, an engineering design competition to design and produce a prototype race car for prospective investors. While the goal of the season is producing a competitive race car, there are many more aspects of the project than simply design and production.

Salas envisions using his Mechanical Engineering degree to pursue a career with the motorsports divisions of BMW, Toyota or Porsche.��

UofL celebrates Salas’ service in the U.S. Navy in recognition of the 246th birthday of the U.S. Navy on October 13.��

Story written by Kyle Hurwitz, UofL’s director of Military and Online Initiatives.��

A team from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) traveled from California on September 20 to collaborate with robotics researchers at the (LARRI) facility. NASA’s JPL is a federally-funded research and development center that works on developing new technology for robots that could be useful for future space exploration.

The 40-person JPL team, dubbed “CoStar” made the trip to University of Louisville to compete for a $2 million prize in the third and final round of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Subterranean (SubT) Challenge. This international robotics competition was held September 21-23 at Louisville Mega Caverns beneath the Louisville Zoo.

“Being out here at UofL Speed School and specifically working with LARRI is a fantastic way for us to be preparing and ensuring our robots and associated software are ready for competition,”��said Benjamin Morrell, robotics engineer at JPL and deputy team lead of CoStar. “It’s an incredible facility.”

LARRI Director Dan Popa said the event is a great opportunity to showcase Speed School and the robotics program at the brand-new, cutting-edge facility.

“It is a really good spot to support this kind of competition because it has easy in and out access, and the facility itself was built in such a way to quickly deploy robots and test them,” Popa said. “We are pleased to see it being used to maximum capacity.”

In the DARPA SubT Challenge, CoStar, (which is a collaboration of JPL, CalTech, MIT, Kaist (University in Korea) and LTU (University in Sweden), competed against seven other teams of autonomous robots exploring unknown environments including cave, urban and mine elements and will demonstrate how their autonomy, networking, perception and mobility capabilities perform on physical courses underground.

Morrell explained that the system is designed for robots to go in quickly, map what a disaster area looks like and report back to a human rescue crew so they can pinpoint where survivors are and avoid areas that are dangerous.

“For a NASA application, we are looking at cave exploration on the moon and Mars, using this same kind of technology to gather scientific information,” said Morrell.

With a new research facility soon to open, Popa said the university is currently recruiting faculty from this same elite robotics community from around the country and the world.

“This helps visibility, and for people to know about what we’re doing here,” he said.

Speed School students also reap the benefits.

“It’s a great opportunity for them to be exposed to this,” said Popa. “The challenges that DARPA has put together have very difficult feats, and these teams are the cream of the crop in research around the world.”

With each new challenge, DARPA has played a role in moving robotics forward, according to Popa.

“Every five years DARPA has issued a new challenge and they have included autonomous driving, humanoid robots and now this subterranean challenge,” he said. “All these challenges are pushing development not just at universities but at companies, and eventually they come into the commercial sector.”

Check out video from the visit below.��

“” combines informative online modules with a virtual roundtable discussion. The roundtable discussion is scheduled for March 16, 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. Any faculty or staff member may sign up .

Featured in the training are Heidi Cooley-Cook, assistant director, and Mike Miller, family field training coordinator, of the , and Colleen Martin, director of UofL’s .

“We currently have 40 students who are receiving support from the DRC,” Cooley-Cook said. She added that a total of about 333 students enrolled in fall 2020 identify as having ASD — a number that is expected to continue to grow.��

KATC is a university-based program with a legislative mandate to enhance outcomes for Kentuckians with ASD. It is a statewide resource for families and educators. The DRC provides support for UofL students with documented disabilities.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 1 in 88 traditional college-age individuals in the United States identify as having ASD. But the CDC also estimates that by 2022, that number will increase to 1 in 59. The CDC defines ASD as “a developmental disability that can cause significant social, communication and behavioral challenges.”

While coping with the transition from high school to college can be challenging for many incoming students, for those with ASD, these challenges may be amplified. The modules combined with a Feb. 10 roundtable discussion explored various aspects of this issue, including students’ difficulty making friends and working on group projects.

Junior Nathaniel Newcomer, a student with ASD who is majoring in health and human performance, said group projects can be vague for someone on the spectrum. “Be specific about what is required to work with a team,” he suggested.��

Cooley-Cook said students with ASD may become unsettled when there are changes in their routines or may have trouble with loud noises or other sensory experiences, such as experiencing a sound as a taste. Professors and staff who recognize these signs are more prepared help students remain calm when they are upset.

Miller and Cooley-Cook emphasized that UofL is providing students with ASD much more than just a degree: These students learn life skills from professors and fellow students who become their role models.

Miller works one-on-one with 10 ASD students each academic year. This year, his group includes students in engineering, business, biology and exercise science.

He takes a photograph of every student he works with as a freshman, and then another of them as a senior. When he asks the student which version they like better, they always pick the senior photo, he said. Every student he has worked with has found employment after graduation, Miller said.

Miller said he’s worked with the J.B. Speed School of Engineering to ensure that classes are videotaped (even before COVID-19). That way, students who need help taking notes can refer back to lectures. This also helps the entire student body, because the recording is available to every student in the class who may need it, he said.

Speed mechanical engineering senior Ben Mitchell, who participated in the roundtable, has worked with Miller for four years and is maintaining a 4.0 GPA. He plans to go into the Master’s of Engineering Program at Speed after he graduates.

“Mike has always been available to listen to my successes and my struggles ever since I first met him, and I know he’s so proud of how far I’ve come from when I first started out here,” Mitchell said.

In addition to the KATC and the DRC, “Reframing Autism” is sponsored by the Dean of Students office and the Delphi Center for Teaching and Learning.

Gaunt, a Pikeville, Kentucky, native, has completed three co-op rotations at Midea America Research Center where, among other tasks, he led projects including innovative new feature design and laboratory planning, applied CAD design, FMEA analysis and data management skills, and communicated with both local and Chinese teams to ensure project needs were met. He is currently employed at Midea as a part-time consumer appliance R&D engineer.

Phil Hombroek, his co-op supervisor, called Gaunt one of the best students he has ever worked with in 30 years of engineering.

“He demonstrates all the necessary attributes that are expected of a seasoned engineer and surpasses expectations by over-delivering on projects he worked on,” Hombroek said.��

Gaunt participated in the 2018 UofL International Service Learning Program in Cusco, Peru. During the trip, the students inventoried and mapped the irrigation systems for high altitude farming communities, said Thomas Rockaway, Professor, Civil & Environmental Engineering.��

“Michael helped lead the assessment teams and coordinated the student work efforts,” he said. “Being fluent in Spanish, he was instrumental in integrating the students into the Peruvian community, making the trip a positive experience for all.”

Gaunt has been involved in several activities at UofL and the Louisville community including Engineers without Borders, Cardinals for the Appreciation of Musical Theatre and Singing Cardsmen.�� At Sojourn Community Church, Gaunt has been a “SojournKids” volunteer for events hosted by Student Government, Engage Lead Serve Board and Student Outreach Uniting Louisville.��

Story written by Holly Hinson.��

COVID-19 has caused a sea change in day-to-day life. Work, school, recreation, retail, medical care, everything has been altered.

Many have expressed a sense of frustration or helplessness because they feel there is nothing they can actively do to help – this virus is unprecedented. But for Speed School engineers at the University of Louisville, creating innovative solutions for the most complex problems – and taking action – is what they do best.

The����(AMIST) facility at Speed School of Engineering has risen to this challenge by contributing something vital to the pandemic: protective face shields for healthcare workers, an item currently in a critical shortage due to tightening of hospital supply chain lines. The original impetus for the project was a request for 100 of the shields from the Internal Medicine Department at UofL Health.

Created with state of the art 3-D printing technology, the team has been printing face shields at their core facility, increasing their production output to 55 shields per day by running continuous shifts from 8 a.m. to midnight daily.

Ed Tackett, director of Workforce Development at AMIST, is coordinating the COVID-19 Speed School Response Team.

“We asked ourselves, ‘what can we do right now?’ How do we protect our most vulnerable citizens and how can the University play a positive role in making that happen?” said Tackett. “We have medical professionals literally on the front lines, and if we can help them be safer or keep them from getting sick, we’re going to do whatever we need to do to make that happen,” said Tackett.

What he needed was a dedicated and talented production team. He got that team with graduate assistant Kate Schneidau and four other Speed School students who wanted to help however they could with this health crisis. Schneidau is the production manager who helps manage the scheduling of shifts totaling 16 hours a day, and ensures that builds are continuously running so they can output as many face shields as possible in a day.

Schneidau said she feels a sense of pride knowing that she is contributing skills she learned at Speed School in such a direct way to benefit the community.

“It’s more than just helping produce a product that can be sold commercially. It’s a sense of camaraderie with the community knowing in tough times I can still help. I was taught all my life if somebody needs help, you step up and help as much as you can without expecting anything, because it’s the right thing to do.”

The first batch of 100 face shields have been picked up, and while the face shield production is filling the gap until the medical supply chain catches up, the Additive Manufacturing center is nimble and can adapt quickly to new 3-D printing needs that may arise due to COVID-19.

“We’re producing face shields now but that could change at any moment,” said Schneidau. “We are here as a tool to help in whatever way the medical community may need. We could shift production to ventilators if that is what is needed next.”

The community is doing their part to help, too. After a post on social media about the project, citizens with 3-D printers have stepped up, wanting to be part of the solution. Schneidau has helped to coordinate drop-off locations for the components being printed by people with their home printers, and these parts are picked up and put in the production stream at Speed School.

Schneidau said this experience is one she won’t forget and, in fact, it has solidified her interest in a career in building medical devices.

“I want to make an impact to help people better their lives – to make sure they live their best life possible,” she said.

Tackett said with all the bad news every day about COVID-19, it is great having the team of students and other people involved in this.

“They feel like they’re making a difference, and they actually are making a difference. Students involved in this will be better equipped to provide significant engineering changes in the world. It’s what we should be doing as an engineering school. We’re all going to come out of this, and we’re all going to be stronger when we come out of this,” he said.

As for Schneidau, she is a millennial leader ready to keep making a difference in her world.

“The fact that these students have these skills and are willing to step up to the plate to help – this has just reaffirmed my belief that the next generation – we got it covered,” she said. “The future is in good hands.”

Check out the team’s work:��