Sam is a junior at the University of Florida studying for a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. A member of the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society, he teaches the fundamentals of math and science to area elementary and middle school students, and at a local community college. Sam had an internship with Rehrig Pacific Company in Georgia last year, where he became involved in the relocation of two of their 1,000 ton presses and the installation of a new 1,300 ton press. As part of his efforts on this project, he championed the installation of the robot safety enclosures and associated safety equipment. He was invited back this past summer to work at the Rehrig facility in Los Angeles. A Dean’s List student, he is active in intramural sports and two student associations for Hispanic/Latin American students.

Dan is a junior at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, studying for his B.S. in Plastics Engineering.  He and his wife take turns going to school and working in order to support two college educations.  Dan has held two engineering internships.  At Jenline Industries in Gloucester, MA, he gained experience with silicone injection molding, created engineering/production documents, and ran validation protocols on new parts.  His work at Jenline resulted in the opportunity for an internship at SABIC Innovative Plastics (formerly GE Plastics) in Selkirk, NY., where he is part of their Operations Development Program/Early Identification Program.  He serves as Secretary for the SPE Student Chapter at UML, is an active member of the Engineering Council, and is a member of the UMass Lowell Crew Team (rowing). 

Koffi is a graduate student at the University of North Texas working on his Ph.D. in Materials Science.  A citizen of Togo, he received his B.S. in Physics-Chemistry at the University of Lome; his M.S. in Physical Chemistry from the University of Marne La Vallee in France; and did advanced graduate study work at the University of Paris 12 before coming to the U.S.  For several years, he taught chemistry, physics and math classes at high schools in Togo and France.  He serves as Vice President of the SPE Student Chapter at UNT, where he is in charge of open houses for students interested in polymers/plastics.  His research work focuses on environmentally degradable plastics, plastics recycling, and biopolymer-based nanocomposites.

Jeremy is a graduate student at the University of Minnesota (Twin Cities) studying for his M.S. in Material Science.  He received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from North Dakota State University, where he was enrolled in a special program, the polymers and coatings option, focused on coatings, polymers, composites and various chemical processes.  After completing his degree, he accepted a position with Tecton Products, a company that specializes in composite pultrusion, as a research and development engineer.  To broaden his experience, he accepted a position as a materials engineer at Steinwall, Inc., and transferred to UMTC to work on his Master’s degree. 

Mike is a senior at Ferris State University where he is pursuing a degree in plastics and rubber engineering.  An active member of SPE, he served as VP of fundraising, and as treasurer of the SPE Student Chapter at Ferris.  He has also been a tutor for math and science, led tours during open houses, and has been active with the local Special Olympics programs.  Mike has had work experiences with Metamora Products performing material testing and designing prototypes, and at Liquid Molding Systems where he served as a process/manufacturing engineer intern.  After completing his degree at Ferris, he plans to continue his education at the University of Massachusetts and obtain an MBA.

Chad is a graduate student at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte, working on his MBA.  He received his B.S. in Plastics Engineering Technology from Penn State Erie.  While attending PSE, he worked for Plastikos, Inc. and Beaumont Technologies.  After graduation, he worked for Confluence Watersports, designing injection molded components to replace those made of metal.  A move to North Carolina took him to his current job with Moldflow Corporation, where he is an application engineer teaching companies about the best utilization of the company’s analysis software.  He hopes to develop both business and management skills that will allow him to move to more prominent roles within the plastics industry.

Marcus is a junior at Grand Rapids Community College where he is working on an Associates degree in Plastics Technology.  After working for 12 years as a thermoforming set-up technician at Leisure Life LTD and Display Pack, Inc., both in Grand Rapids, MI, Marcus realized that it was difficult to advance without a formal education, and chose to return to school to seek a degree in Plastics Technology.  He and his wife, a public school teacher, felt that going back to school was his best option to further his career – and a great example for their two children.  After obtaining his Associates degree next year, Marcus plans to transfer to Ferris State University to obtain his B.S. in Plastics Engineering/Technology.

Jennifer is a graduate student at Polytechnic University, working on her Ph.D. in Materials Chemistry.  She received a B.A. in Math and a B.S. in Chemistry, with a concentration on polymer chemistry characterization, from Quinnipiac University, both magna cum laude.  She holds a patent on cartilage oligomeric protein encapsulation.  Jennifer has worked on two projects this past year – the biosynthesis and characterization of biodegradable block copolymers, and an investigation of the activity of cutinase for the deacetylation of polyvinyl acetate and cellulose acetate.  She presented this work at a green polymer symposium and a nano symposium.  After obtaining her Ph.D., Jennifer would like to work in the area of biodegradable polymers, especially for food packaging.

Hayden is a freshman at Auburn University, majoring in Polymer Engineering.  An honor roll student, taking AP courses, for all four years of high school, he participated in varsity soccer and cross country; the school robotics team; and majored in an engineering pathways integrated curriculum.  Hayden was the recipient of a scholarship from the Alabama Coastal Foundation and the Alabama Costal Heritage Trust to attend the Dauphin Island Sea Lab Discovery Hall honors marine biology course in the summer prior to his senior year.  His interest in polymer engineering was the result of an “Accept the Challenge to Excel” semester-long program at the University of South Alabama, which exposed high school students to various engineering careers.

John is a junior at Macomb Community College, working toward his AAS in Mechanical Engineering.  He is also working on an apprenticeship in plastics mold making design.   John works at Proper Mold and Engineering in the detail department, where he programs and runs three Okuma CNC machines with WorkNC and MasterCAM.  He is also involved in the machining of many engineering changes that occur down the line in the manufacturing process.  John hopes to transfer to the University of Detroit Mercy for his B.S. and would eventually like to obtain an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering with a specialty in designing plastics injection molds.

Katie is a graduate student in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  She is a member of SPE, ASME, and SAE, and was an active member of the Wisconsin Hybrid Baja SAE team while an undergraduate student.  Katie’s focus in Mechanical Engineering has been in the area of polymeric fluids.  She worked as an undergraduate researcher for the Multiphase Flow Visualization and Analysis Laboratory on campus, working on small engine carburetors.  That experience led to a co-op at Mercury Marine, where all of the Mercury outboard boat engines are produced. Her work there in the propulsion integration group included designing engine components for new engines.  According to her senior thesis professor, Katie decided that the mechanics of thermoforming has been sorely neglected, so she identified, set up and solved the central problem in her field.  Her paper on that work, Thermoforming Troughs, was presented at the 2008 ANTEC, and has been submitted for possible inclusion in SPE’s premier journal, Polymer Engineering & Science

Iván is a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, working on his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering.  He received his undergraduate degree in Production Engineering from Universidad Eafit in Medellín, Colombia.  He served as a computer aided design teaching assistant at Eafit and is currently a teaching assistant in manufacturing fundamentals at UWM.  Iván began working in plastics as a researcher at the Plastic and Rubber Research Institute in Medellín, where he developed a special interest in the area of modeling and simulation in polymer processing.  His current research, which this scholarship will help fund, is on 3D flow and thermal simulation through extrusion dies using the radial functions method.

Tim is a senior at Pittsburg State University working on his B.S. in Plastics Engineering Technology.  He works at a custom fiberglass shop that manufactures corrosion resistant air handling equipment. Last spring, his employer mentioned to a customer that Tim had been awarded the 2007 Thermoforming Division/John Griep Memorial Scholarship.  This prompted the customer, who was trying to fabricate a product from fiberglass, to consider using thermoformed ABS instead.  Having received the scholarship gave Tim and his company enough credibility to be chosen as the tool and pattern fabricator for this customer, and resulted in a tool-building job for the company for years to come.  A USMC veteran who served in the first Gulf war, Tim hopes to go on to graduate school and one day realize his dream of owning his own successful plastics manufacturing business.

Jason is a junior at Ferris State University, working on his B.S. in Plastics Engineering Technology, with a minor in Spanish.  He is in the Ferris honors program, serves as Secretary of the SPE Student Chapter, organizes monthly blood drives for the Red Cross on campus, plays percussion in a Christian ministry band, and participates in three intramural sports.  Jason has held three internships with Uniform Color Company as a customer service intern, a quality intern and an engineering intern.  These internships included physical testing on products, running and troubleshooting injection molding machines, replacing lines and fittings on extrusion lines, and designing new organizational systems for product storage and retention.  Jason’s plans upon graduation are uncertain – entering the work force, or going on for an MBA or an M.S. in Plastics Engineering.

 

Jessica is a junior at Penn State-Erie, the Behrend College, majoring in Plastics Engineering Technology.  A student member of SPE, she also serves as secretary for the sophomore class of the SPE Student Chapter at Penn State Erie.  Jessica’s uncle works in the plastics engineering field, and encouraged her to consider plastics as a career choice.  Her interests are in the hands-on areas of plastics – research and development or the design of molds or parts for customers.  She has already begun the search for an internship for the summer of 2009 that will allow her to use her organic chemistry or designing skills. Active in intramural sports at PSE, Jessica also volunteers for projects with Habitat for Humanity, and holds down a part-time job to help finance her education.  After graduating with a BS in Plastics Engineering Technology and a minor in Business Management, she hopes to attend graduate school to obtain her masters in plastics or polymer engineering.

Ben is a graduate student at the University of Connecticut, working on his M.S. in Chemical Engineering.  He received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering with a minor in Materials Engineering.  His undergraduate thesis work focused on quaternary ammonium salt ionomers mixed with untreated clay to yield intercalated nanocomposites.  A Dean’s List student, he is a member of two engineering honor societies, participates in intramural sports, the Campus Crusade for Christ, and went with a U-Conn group in 2006 on a New Orleans Katrina Relief Spring Break Trip to gut houses in preparation for repairs.  Ben has served two internships with the Rogers Corporation, performing lab work on epoxy based flexible circuit adhesives, investigating materials for copper clad laminates, and designing experiments and creating formulations to tune material properties.

Kirtana is a senior at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, double majoring in  Chemical Engineering and Business Management.  Her career goal is to develop techniques to revolutionize the synthesis of novel polymer materials by tailoring their key properties at the nanoscale level.  Last year, she worked at MIT’s Institute of Soldier Nanotechnology in collaboration with Dow Corning on a project involving electrospinning polymer nanofibers with photonic properties.  She also worked with MIT and Nova Biomedicals testing the effectiveness of a novel autosampler tool in conjunction with a cell line bioanalyzer.  Kirtana plans to pursue a Master’s degree and work in the polymer engineering/nanotechnology field.

Michelle is a graduate student at Georgia Institute of Technology, working on her Ph.D. in polymer and fiber engineering.  She has held internships with Honeywell, working on seatbelt construction design and development, and at Fenner-Dunlop working with conveyor belt systems.  Prior to entering graduate school, Michelle worked at Techmer PM, completing training in custom colorant and additive formulation processes for thermoplastics, followed by field work as a sales engineer for the mid-Atlantic region.  Her current research at Georgia Tech, conducted in conjunction with NASA, focuses on carbon nanotube reinforced composites for aerospace applications.  Michelle would like to work as a NASA engineer after graduation.

Jonathan is a senior at Princeton University, working on his degree in Chemical Engineering. A member of Princeton’s Vehicle Engineering Team, he is also a saxophonist with the Princeton Jazz Ensemble and plays with an independent jazz/rock group that performs on campus. Jonathan worked last summer at NASA Langley, studying the piezoresistive properties of polymer-carbon nanotube composites; spent the summer of 2006 at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute constructing and testing a novel Teflon liquid-core waveguide for a laser Raman spectroscopy system to analyze carbon dioxide effects on oceanic chemical balances, and worked during the summer of 2005 at the Weizmann Institute Condensed Matter Physics Laboratory in Israel, where he designed and tested BSCCO ceramic superconductors. Jonathan would like to work in the polymer materials science industry after graduation before returning to college to pursue his Ph.D.

Kory is a senior at Penn State-Erie, The Behrend College.  A student member of SPE, he serves as the secretary of both the SPE  Student Chapter and the Plastics Engineering Club at Penn State Erie.  Kory had a research experience for undergraduates at the School of Polymers and High Performance Materials at the University of Southern Mississippi, where he conducted research on a monomer that would provide a drug eluting coating for coronary artery stents.  His research paper on this work received a Best Student Paper Award at SPE’s Annual Technical Conference (ANTEC) in 2007.  He currently is participating in a co-op at Beaumont Technologies Inc. in Erie.  Kory plans to attend graduate school and obtain a doctorate in Polymer Science and Engineering.  He would like to work in research and development, possibly in the medical industry.

Jake is a senior at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, studying for a degree in Manufacturing Technology, with minors in Drafting & Product Development and Computer Integrated Manufacturing.  He is a member of the UWP cycling club and serves as a production assistant for UWP Television Services, filming and producing school sports activities.  Jake served as an engineering intern at Xten Industries, where he spent the majority of his time in Quality Control, testing products, verifying tolerances, and producing samples.  He also assisted in the development of a cover for an electrical motor control board, troubleshooting and redesigning a tool to eliminate sinks.  Upon graduation, Jake hopes to work in design engineering or tool design & manufacturing for an injection molding company.

Jared is a senior at Penn State-Erie, The Behrend College studying for his B.S. in Plastics Engineering Technology.  After serving for four years in the U.S. Air Force, including tours to Korea and Germany, Jared returned home to pursue a degree in plastics engineering at PSE.  Jared’s senior research project entails the development of a tool to test the thermoformability of plastics materials.  His research will focus on what properties make one sheet more thermoformable than another.  The properties that will undergo testing are the ability to be deep drawn, webbing propensity, and maximum draw ratio.  The tool developed will hopefully then be used to distinguish between easily-formable materials and materials that resist thermoforming.  After graduation from PSE, Jared hopes to go to graduate school at Lehigh University or the University of Massachusetts-Lowell.  A hands-on person, he wants to be involved in many stages of a product, including development, design, processing and production.

Kylie G. Speirs – Detroit Section/Thomas E. Powers Scholarship
Kylie is a junior at Ferris State University, working on dual degrees in Plastics and Rubber Technology.  An active member of the Ferris State Rubber Group, she is a dean’s list scholar, serves as VP of the SPE Student Chapter at Ferris, and volunteers with Habitat for Humanity.  Kylie’s interest in plastics has been life-long - her father, Bob Speirs, is department chair of Plastics and Rubber at Ferris.  She served as a mixing intern with Paulstra CRC, where she analyzed production compounds for validity; and as an Engineering Products Division intern at Goodyear Tire and Rubber, where she conducted materials testing programs, completed rheological studies, and aided in the development of advanced rubber compounds.  Her most recent internship was with General Motors.  Kylie plans to obtain her Master’s degree, work in industry, and eventually become a professor.

Amy is a junior at Cleveland State University, studying for her degree in Chemical Engineering.  She is a member of AIChE, the Society of Women Engineers, the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association, and serves as a therapeutic horseback riding volunteer.  A dean’s list student, she was inducted into Tau Beta Pi, the Engineering Honor Society.  Amy has held a co-op position at Lubrizol Corporation since 2006.  While working in pilot plant operations, she completed a research project on reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer agents in the production of STAR polymers.  In acrylic emulsions manufacturing, she worked on a six sigma project to reduce plant steam consumption, and in process development engineering, she is currently working to refine the start-up of their lab scale sulfonation process.  Amy plans to add a certificate in Biotech Engineering to her degree and complete graduate work in the bioengineering field.

Kaitlyn is a senior at Ferris State University, studying for her degree in Plastics Engineering Technology, with two minors in art history and operations & supply management.  She serves as the community service coordinator for Women in Technology at Ferris, is the VP of the Ferris Honors Programming Board, and served as the Plastics Processing 1 Lab tutor.  Kaitlyn held an internship with Magna Aftermarket, a new Division of Magna, which is involved in non-automotive products.  She was involved with the testing of new materials, helped with production, quality inspection, packaging and shipping of products, and programming and running the robots that aided in the production of parts.  Upon graduation, she hopes to pursue a career in the processing and development of composite materials.

Jerrad is a senior at the University of Alabama, where he is double majoring in Chemical Engineering and Physics.  He is working on the Vietnam Project Committee of the UA chapter of Engineers Without Borders, is seeking sponsors for the 2009 AIChE Regional Conference, and sets up tours at Eastman Chemical for cooperative education students at UA.  Jerrad has held three co-ops with Eastman, first helping to develop a program to comply with EPA regulations.  He next worked in the PET Technology Applications R&D Division, where he researched low molecular weight additives for barrier improvement.  His current co-op is in the Specialty Polymer Technology Division where he is working on two projects - one to design or improve Eastman’s hydrobromic acid delivery system to catalyst feed tanks and the second on StarPac control systems.  Jerrad’s ultimate goal is to head a research team in a plastics laboratory. 

Wantinee is a graduate student at Rutgers University, working on her Ph.D. in Ceramic and Materials Science Engineering, with a concentration in polymers.  She obtained her B.E. from Silpakorn University in Thailand, and her M.S. from Rutgers.  Wantinee held a summer internship at C.A. Petrochemical Co. in Thailand, working in R&D and QC for pipe manufacturing.  Her undergraduate research work was done in conjunction with S.K. Polymer Co. in Thailand, on the development of rubber composites.  At the Rutgers Advanced Polymer Center, Wantinee’s doctoral research focuses on certain properties of melt-processed, uncompatibilized immiscible polymer blends.  A key segment of her dissertation will be on polymer nanocomposites related to the processing and morphology of nanoparticles/polymer composites.

Jon is a senior at Winona State University, working on his degree in Composite Materials Engineering.  He is a former VP of the SPE Student Chapter at Winona, and as a SAMPE member, teaches students at Winona Middle School about composite materials and engineering as a career.  Jon also worked for four years on the Performance Engineering Team to create a full scale chariot that was used in the sesquicentennial celebration at Winona.  He has held three internships, working with Composite Products, Inc. on a resin matrix for automobile door frames; for Epoxical Inc. creating sample batches for customers; and at the Thermoplastic Elastomers Division of RTP Co, testing specimens of variations of a new TPE material. 

Allissa is a senior at Ferris State University, working on her degree in Plastics Engineering.  A member of the Ferris State Dance Team, she also served as President of the SPE Student Chapter, as a voting member of the FSU Finance Division, and is active in the ACS Relay for Life.  She held a project engineer internship with Delphi Saginaw Steering Systems, where she helped to design and test parts for new steering columns.  A self described “hands-on” person, Allissa would like to become a process engineer upon graduation – out on the floor, working with her hands, and solving problems in the plastics plant.  She would eventually like to become a plant manager.