Daily Pioneer News

PLATTEVILLE - Two University of Wisconsin-Platteville industrial studies students were peers among professionals when they presented their research results at the world's largest plastics technical conference last month.

For their research into injection molding, spring UWP graduates Anthony Harris and Jeremy Gokey won an award for best student paper in their division at the Society of Plastics Engineers annual conference in mid-May. The students studied the viability of different "gate" locations in a plastic injection mold, and tested the reliability of a software program in analyzing the design.

"In a mold, a gate is the spot where the liquid is injected into the mold. We wanted to look at how gate location affected quality of part," Harris said.

Gate location is important for strength of the product and to ensure that air doesn't get trapped in the product during the molding process. Though more than 800 papers were presented at the conference, the UWP students were among only five undergraduate presentations.

"The others were in polymers. We were in the design-process side. It was kind of neat because we were something unique," Harris said.

"Being accepted in such a conference is a unique opportunity. Our plastics program is renowned in the plastics industry," said Majid Tabrizi, professor of industrial studies.

Tabrizi said the students had worked on the project for six to seven months. For Harris, it was an opportunity to expand his professional horizons.

"As a student, it helped to get me interested in doing things outside the classroom," he said. Harris has had a couple of articles published in the newsletter of the Milwaukee chapter of the Society of Plastics Engineers. "I'm actually in the process of getting a third published," he said.

Since graduation, Harris has accepted a position with Midwest Manufacturing in Eau Claire. He will return to the university in August to teach a course on the same topic for the UWP pre-college program.