WVU Department of Mechanical, Materials and Aerospace Engineering

For now 3 years running, this has become a major single day outreach opportunity for the WVU Department of Mechanical, Materials and Aerospace Engineering ! Our WVU Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources faculty and students have great expanded our presence in West Virginia University Merit Badge University!! This provides an excellent opportunity to welcome these scouts into our exciting labs on campus! Today, students are being exposed to Autonomous Drones, Flight Simulation, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Engineering, Materials Science, Composites, and Robotics. We hope they leaving knowing how strong WVU is in these fields and how they have opportunities! About 75 scouts are earning merit badges in robotics, composite materials, engineering and aviation today! Thanks Dimas Dutra, Konstantinos Sierros , Patrick Browning , Edward Sabolsky , Kathy Sabolsky, Omar Hazbon , Christopher Griffin , Brian Woerner and all of our dedicated student leaders for making this happen.

With a brand new robotics engineering major, WVU is setting the standard for education for an industry with the power to change the world. | WVU Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources

Today's WVU Department of Mechanical, Materials and Aerospace Engineering sophomore seminar speaker was 1984 WVU BSME Alum Mike Reilley. Mike is the Chief Engineer at Newport News Shipbuilding, A Division of HII. Due to the winter storms, he visited remotely, but, we will welcome him in-person on campus soon. He shared some great advice to our students that is summarized below: * Engineers always need to be learning from others. For example, something you design might not be feasible to manufacture and you should take the time to learn from skilled craftsman and manufacturing engineers on how to design; *If you want to get ahead as an engineer, be the engineer who volunteers to take on the important assignments that no one else wants to do. Every manager has a desk full of those and will reward you will a great assignment later. *Always be mindful of the importance of what we do as engineers. Mistakes as engineers can cause loss of life. Understand you will make mistakes, but always take care in what you do and seek out others to review your work. *Be willing to take on new roles every few years. Sometimes opportunities where you are not even given a chance to say no means you will learn the most. *You will face forks in the road throughout your career. It is always hard to choose, but, when you do make a choice, fully commit. Don't waste time looking back and second guessing. *As a practicing engineer, no one has ever asked Mike for his GPA. Make sure to always try your best in classes, but, in engineering school, a B or even C can be a really good grade as compared to other fields. Just keep moving forward.

Last week, the new Robotic Manipulators lab in the WVU Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources has been put online and is already starting to be put to good use by our students taking Dr. Guilherme Pereira's Robotic Manipulators course this semester. This new state-of-the-art lab facility takes our #wvurobotics educational programs to a new level in teaching the use of robots and co-bots for industrial automation applications. Thanks to Dr. Pereria and his team for the hard work to get this online. We are appreciative of the grant support that enabled this and the donor support from Conn-Weld Industries, LLC for getting the first FANUC last year. WVU Department of Mechanical, Materials and Aerospace Engineering WVU LCSEE

Today’s WVU Department of Mechanical, Materials and Aerospace Engineering sophomore seminar speaker was 1989 WVU BSME alum Dr. Jeffrey Carpenter at West Virginia University School of Medicine with appointments in Radiology, Neuroradiology, Neuroscience, and the WVU Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute. Dr. Carpenter shared his career path that started as an undergraduate studying Mechanical Engineering and led to a successful career as an Interventional Neuroradiologist. He reassured our students that their choice to seek an engineering degree is a great one, even if they have not determined what they want to do for their career or if it doesn’t end up being in engineering. He shared how having the engineering degree credential opened up several exciting opportunities for him once he transitioned to medicine because it made him more unique. He shared all of the exciting developments and big potential in the use of ultrasound in neuroradiology and encouraged our students to consider medicine.

Thanks Kerri Phillips, Ph.D. for your great lecture to our WVU Department of Mechanical, Materials and Aerospace Engineering sophomore seminar students. Kerri discussed her career path and shared how its progression has not been in the linear/sequential manner that she originally expected, but instead it has grown through taking on roles that span across technical area leadership, people management, and program management. Kerri also encouraged our students to blaze their own paths so that others can follow. She shared the importance of becoming comfortable with rejection and failure as they are important parts of growth. If you find you are never experiencing rejection or failure, it might indicates you are not growing to your potential. Mountaineers Go First! Sorry the weather didn’t cooperate for the class visit to be in-person!

Volunteers Needed for the 3rd Annual WVU MMAE Vex Robotics Competition! 🤖 When: February 21-23 📅 Where: WVU Student Rec Center We’re seeking volunteers from all backgrounds—WVU students, faculty, staff, and community members are welcome to join us in making this event an unforgettable experience. This is an incredible opportunity to engage with the next generation of STEM innovators, learn about robotics, and help facilitate an exciting competition! Interested? Sign up to volunteer here: 👉 https://ow.ly/U3Fk50UOGbQ

Today’s WVU Department of Mechanical, Materials and Aerospace Engineering sophomore seminar speaker was our Associate Chair for Research, Professor Konstantinos Sierros . Kostas shared the value of getting involved with research as an undergraduate as it is the highest form for active learning. He encouraged our students to transition from knowledge consumers to knowledge producers and shared various ways to get involved. He encouraged thinking about graduate programs and shared that the skills honed while pursuing research are highly valued no matter your career path.

Congratulations to WVU Department of Mechanical, Materials and Aerospace Engineering Teaching Associate Professor Christopher Griffin for being named the West Virginia College Educator of the year by the West Virginia American Legion. Pictured with Dr. Griffin is his former student and recent department alumni Noah Sampson. Noah surprised Dr. Griffin with this nomination. Congratulations on this well deserved recognition!

This afternoon, we had the opportunity to do some high school #wvurobotics outreach from the WVU Department of Mechanical, Materials and Aerospace Engineering. Students were tasked with programming their drone to fly through as many sequential obstacles as possible and land on a marker. They had about 45 minutes to experiment and then shared their best flight. There were some impressive flights. If you know someone in K-12 who would like to try to work someone from our team in for a visit, please email roboticsoutreach@mail.wvu.edu and we will try to make it work!!