Engineering program meeting manufacturing needs

UW-Platteville program offers a long-term workforce solution for northeast Wisconsin

Story by Kurt Rentmeester

When a four-year engineering degree program was established a half decade ago at the University of Wisconsin-Fox Valley in Menasha, it offered local employers a fresh source for highly sought-after skilled engineers. And it also offered the potential for new business growth and expansion.

About 170 engineering students are now enrolled in the program, established in 2002 by UW-Platteville, long regarded as one of the top engineering institutions in the state.

Until the program began, students from northeast Wisconsin wanting to pursue a bachelor’s degree in engineering through the University of Wisconsin System had to relocate to attend campuses in Milwaukee, Madison or Platteville, according to Jenny Jensen, engineering program manager at UW-Fox Valley.

Likewise, employees seeking engineering courses to help them advance up the company ladder had few options here in the region. Often bound by jobs, homes and families, employees already working at northeast Wisconsin manufacturers were unable to become fulltime engineering students.

While some manufacturers in the region were able to provide continuing education for their employees through two-year vocational degrees, many wanted more ways to provide professional education and training locally for existing engineers to help their business grow, Jensen said.

Addressing a shortage
Curing a perceived shortage of qualified engineers in northeast Wisconsin has its roots back nearly two decades. At the time, the Milwaukee School of Engineering had started a program at Fox Valley Technical College in Appleton. In the late 1990s, administrators from MSOE asked the Fox Cities Chamber of Commerce & Industry if it thought the community would spend $9 million to build a facility for the school.

However, Jim Perry, chief executive officer and dean at UW-Fox Valley, recalled that business owners didn’t believe there would be enough local support to warrant raising $9 million for an MSOE satellite campus. MSOE closed down its Fox Valley presence in 1999.

At about the same time, the University Wisconsin Board of Regents suggested the UW four-year campuses attempt to form partnerships with two-year UW campuses to extend educational options throughout the state. The Fox Cities Chamber had convened a meeting of several business and higher education leaders, where it was suggested that UW-Fox Valley and UW-Platteville might be able to expand their articulation agreements to include a bachelor’s program.

“This surprised many because they were accustomed to thinking of the Fox campus as being restricted to offering only freshman and sophomore courses,” Perry said.

Both UW-Fox and UW-Platteville surveyed Fox Valley area businesses to determine the interest in such a joint program. Two areas particularly noted by local manufacturing leaders were in mechanical and electrical engineering, Perry said.
UW-Platteville officials then submitted a funding proposal to the UW System to bring its mechanical engineering program to UW-Fox Valley, Perry said.

Several state legislators from northeast Wisconsin added their support to a proposal for UW-Platteville to bring its mechanical engineering degree program to UW-Fox. The regents for the UW System endorsed the proposal and were successful receiving state funds to support faculty and equipment for the program.

However, a dedicated teaching facility would have to be built with funds gathered from local businesses and industry.
Plexus and Kimberly Clark provided the lead gifts to support what would become a $400,000 project.

The students
Since the program began in 2002, there have been 26 graduates. The typical student profile is someone with one or two years of college courses, Jensen said. Many students are returning to school to pursue their bachelor’s degree.
In December, six students graduated in the mechanical engineering program. This spring, an eight-member class will receive degrees.

“Our graduates are going to be prime recruiting targets for any of the manufacturers in the area,” Jensen said.

Why is engineering so crucial here? Despite news of closures and layoffs at some employers in recent years, the Fox Valley region continues to be one of the most heavily manufacturing-saturated regions in the country, with more than 30 percent of the local workforce employed in some aspect of heavy to medium industry, according to state labor data. As the business and industrial community in the Fox Valley diversifies, its involvement in the local four-year engineering degree program continues to grow.

Working with the students at UW-Fox, Jensen often helps many of them chart a course progression plan as they deal with the combined challenges of work and family.

“They’re very eager to get started. When they get in the program and realize the challenges, in addition to families and jobs, the excitement wears off,” Jensen said. “But after they finish, there’s the realization they are set career-wise with the opportunity (to get a job) before them.”

Business impact
Two employees of Kimberly-Clark Corp. are among the 26 current graduates of the program. Four more are currently enrolled, said Joe Coenen, a technical leader at Kimberly-Clark. Since the UW-Fox engineering degree program began, 74 employees of K-C have inquired about it.

Some of the local firms that have hired program graduates are Azco, Bemis, Voith, GE Oil & Gas and Axle Tech.
As the program continued, UW-Fox officials discovered a demand for graduates with electrical engineering backgrounds, Perry said. The program was expanded in 2006 to include that area of study.

The expansion of the electrical engineering program hopes to bring a fresh pool of talent to Neenah-based Plexus Corp., a designer and manufacturer of electronic circuit boards for components sold to the wireless, medical, defense and security sectors. Plexus hires several graduates each year from the UW System, said Steve Frisch, senior vice president of global engineering for Plexus.

Nearly 200 engineers at Plexus’ headquarters in Neenah focus on product development, as well as mechanical and industrial design.

“The University of Wisconsin-Fox Valley can increase the number of candidates entering the field. It gives businesses an opportunity to find a local resource that is in relatively short supply,” Frisch said. “Businesses are looking for engineering talent and this will give them a better mechanism to meet their business needs and goals.”

Strengthening school ties
The program has also benefited UW-Platteville.

Being located on the UW-Fox campus has enabled the school to build a closer connection to industry in northeast Wisconsin, said Kimberly-Clark’s Coenen, who also serves as chair of UW-Platteville’s advisory board for its College of Engineering, Math and Science. Such advisory boards seek input from businesses on their needs to help shape curriculums.

The engineering program in northeast Wisconsin continues to evolve. UW-Fox administrators plan to evaluate whether a program in robotics engineering would make sense.

“UW-Platteville is a very dynamic institution. They are looking to develop new opportunities all the time,” Jensen said. “So we have more bachelor degreed students all the time, which will help build the economy.”

Several Kimberly-Clark employees are seeking advanced degrees through UW-Platteville. The school offers a masters of engineering program online.

In the future, Coenen said Kimberly-Clark would like to utilize professors from the program on special projects.  The company also could benefit from senior design projects done by the students.

Economic impact
The Fox Valley remains the second-strongest manufacturing region in the state, next to Milwaukee, said Bill Welch, chief executive officer for the Fox Cities Chamber. It also ranks as one of the top 50 regions for manufacturing in the U.S.

There were about 47,600 employees in manufacturing-related jobs in 2006, a 23 percent decline in the last six years, when the manufacturing workforce totaled about 58,100, according to data from the Fox Cities Chamber.

There has been a shortage of qualified engineers in the region in recent years, according to Plexus’ Frisch, who also serves on the Industrial Advisory Board for the electrical engineering program at UW-Madison.

At one time, there was a surplus of students entering engineering, he said. Enrollment declined when the Dot.com bubble burst in 2000-01, along with a misguided belief that all engineering jobs were being outsourced to other countries.

“There’s a significant decline in the enrollment numbers in students entering the engineering discipline. UW-Madison’s electrical engineering enrollment is at its lowest numbers in ten years,” Frisch said. “It’s a nationwide issue that enrollment numbers in engineering are declining.”

In a region with a strong manufacturing base, many question why there was no four-year campus for engineering until now.

“Maybe (the reason was) because prior to this, there was a lack of vision and creativity,” Perry said. “We started thinking outside the box. That’s how things get done.”

Businesses recognize having a four-year engineering program in the Fox Valley offers several long-term economic benefits. The company innovation it fosters may attract new business to the region, for example, Welch said.

“If we’re going to retain the significant number of companies, the increasingly technical nature of engineering requires we must have access to engineering talent,” Welch said. “Our ability to deliver some of these workers to manufacturers here in northeast Wisconsin is very valuable.”

Kurt Rentmeester is a freelance writer based in Kewaunee County who has been previously employed by daily newspapers in Manitowoc and Sheboygan.