It's fair to say Scott Upton's head has always been in the clouds – or rather – above them. A passion for aerospace was sparked as a youth and has driven his career and educational journey. He received a degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Minnesota before earning a Master of Science in Project Management degree from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville. He currently works for Blue Origin, a company Upton said is "paving the road to space."

Through a collaborative effort that has spanned more than a year, a couple of alumni – with the help of faculty, staff and students across campus – have been researching and identifying UW-Platteville alumni or students who were killed in action during the Vietnam War, with the hopes of memorializing the veterans on campus.

The Grant County Health Department will hold free COVID-19 public vaccination clinics at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville main campus every Thursday, from 10 a.m. until noon, on first floor Royce Hall, beginning June 3.

UW-Platteville was recently designated as an official Mid-America OSHA Education Center training site, making it one of the only universities with a construction management program to be designated as such. 

It's not often two alumni from the same university but different fields find themselves working together, yet this is exactly the case for Jeff Busch and Jane Traffalis.

The Master of Science in Organizational Change Leadership is a relatively new degree program offered at the UW-Platteville, but its curriculum addresses a growing trend to prepare future leaders amidst rapidly changing business environments. UW-Platteville offers four emphasis areas to help students reach their individual career goals. Of particular note is the Safety Risk Control emphasis, introduced in 2018, which focuses on producing safety and risk control measures for businesses and their teams.

UW-Platteville is one step closer to launching the new Dairy Pilot Plant, thanks to a recent $10,000 grant from Compeer Financial. The proposed plant, which will be located at Pioneer Farm, will provide research and education on dairy food product development while also giving students an opportunity to learn about rural economic development, entrepreneurship and sustainability. 

In January of 2020, four UW-Platteville engineering students partnered with the City of Cuba City to enhance the Presidential Plaza. This spring, the City of Cuba City received the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation Main Street Program Award for its downtown innovation.

Dr. Krista Hardyman, associate professor of animal science, was awarded $1,500 from the Glenn Webb Education Fund/The Growmark Foundation, which assisted in delivering a quality experience to students who completed coursework virtually this year.

Through a memorandum of understanding between UW-Platteville and Wisconsin Technical Colleges, students pursuing industrial studies can transfer their credits from an approved associate's degree program to UW-Platteville and significantly streamline their time to graduation.

Larry and Peggy Hanson recently donated $25,000 to the Dale Dixon Chair of Engineering fund, which supports UW-Platteville faculty. In recognition of their gift, the Hansons will name one of the collaboration studios in the newest engineering building, Sesquicentennial Hall.

Dr. Philip Parker, associate dean of the College of Engineering, Mathematics and Science, is one of 35 higher education professionals from around the nation selected for the American Association of State Colleges and Universities’ 2021 Emerging Leaders Program.

During the University of Wisconsin-Platteville’s recent Earth Day celebration, Chancellor Dennis J. Shields furthered the university’s commitment to being a leader in sustainability by pledging to become a zero waste campus by 2035.

This past year, COVID-19 has brought many challenges for Wisconsinites, with one of the biggest struggles being internet access and network performances. To examine the issues, two electrical engineering students, Troy Januchowski and Jacob Hanacek, spent two semesters conducting an independent study with Dr. Xiaoguang Ma, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering.

UW-Platteville will honor the May 2021 graduates with a virtual celebration on Friday, May 14. A commencement recognition video, including the principal and senior speakers, will be posted at 9 a.m.

The Presto Foundation recently furthered its commitment to UW-Platteville engineers with its renewal of funding for the Presto Engineering Scholarship. Established in 2012, the scholarship awards mechanical, industrial and electrical engineering students $13,200 each year.

Innovation and creativity will be on full display as engineering students showcase their capstone projects to students, faculty and industry representatives at the spring Senior Design Open House on Wednesday, May 19.

UW-Platteville announces that Dr. Philip Parker will become the acting dean of the College of Engineering, Mathematics and Science, effective June 15, 2021. Dr. Molly Gribb, who has been the dean since 2015, is retiring from the university.

Wishing to sharpen both her change and project management skills, Kat Damiano enrolled in the Master’s in Organizational Change Leadership program in 2018. She is now a business change manager with SoCalGas in Los Angeles, California, and works as an internal consultant on the SCG enterprise change management team, overseeing a five-year, 300-plus stakeholder initiative.

Since its creation in 2006, the Distance Education Alumni Board has been committed to supporting alumni and students of UW-Platteville’s distance education programs.

Dr. Holly Attenborough, associate professor of mathematics at UW-Platteville, was recently honored with the 2021 Distinguished Teaching Award from the Wisconsin Section of the Mathematical Association of America.

For more than a decade, L. Joseph Barnes, assistant professor in the School of Business, has brought his business experience inside the classroom where he teaches courses in finance and accounting.

Justine Horst, a senior electrical engineering major from Hartford, Wisconsin, recently had a paper published for the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Integrated STEM Education Conference. Horst’s paper, “STEM Code Using Drones,” is based off of her undergraduate research and describes a methodology of STEM education that would utilize programmable drones.

This summer, elementary through high school students will have the opportunity to learn by doing, as the UW-Platteville Continuing Education Institute announces its How-To Summer Series youth programming. 

The Making a Case for College series continues with two panels over the next two weeks. The idea for the program was born out of the desire to connect directly with students and show them the education, career, and life benefits of attending a UW-Platteville campus.

When talking to Belinda Sain-Cronin ’73, or “Bella” as her friends call her, it won’t take long before you find a connection. Cronin speaks with passion and draws stories out of whomever she’s speaking to. It’s a talent she’s spent a lifetime developing - including when she was a fine arts major at UW-Platteville.

With construction of Sesquicentennial Hall underway, the UW-Platteville Foundation is offering alumni, friends, students, faculty, staff and corporate partners the opportunity to be a visible part of its engineering legacy by sponsoring an engraved paver along the walkways and patios surrounding Sesquicentennial Hall and Busby Hall – formerly Engineering Hall

A group of students interning at local health departments are not only gaining a valuable experience in the health care field, but also making an impact in local communities’ response against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Forty-four students were recently inducted into Phi Kappa Phi, an honor society that recognizes academic achievement of top students in all majors.

It has been less than a year since Katie Koenig graduated from UW-Platteville, and her career is already reaching new heights – from job sites in Washington and New Mexico to the occasional top of a wind turbine.

In honor of Earth Day, UW-Platteville will be hosting a virtual event, Pioneers Protecting the Planet and Transforming Campus, from 1-2 p.m. on Thursday, April 22. Faculty and staff who are actively engaged in environmental programs on and off-campus will discuss the active sustainability programs on campus as well as building renovations at Boebel Hall and Sesquicentennial Hall.

As a continuous improvement analyst at Ortho Molecular Inc., a nutraceutical company, Laucke works as a project manager in company teams, trying to reduce waste in core processes. Yet there’s more to Laucke besides an impressive STEM career. In addition to being an accomplished project manager and engineer, she’s also a self-published author of the children’s book, “Arabian Horses at Play, I Could Watch Them Every Day.”

More than a dozen students recently completed the new five-week workshop, “Building Leaders Through the Prioritization of Self,” hosted by the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs. Created in response to the specific needs of underrepresented minority students at UW-Platteville, the workshop takes a unique approach to leadership development as it explores the interconnected nature of self-care, mental health and leadership.

UW-Platteville will host three panels that will connect prospective students with academic experts, business and community leaders, and alumni. During the discussions, the experts will explain how the new and ongoing education pathways at UW-Platteville and its branch campuses in Richland and Baraboo Sauk County continue to set students up for personal, educational and professional success.

The University of Wisconsin-Platteville Continuing Education Institute announces the launch of its new Supply Chain Management certificate program.

Growing up, Dr. Bob Demaree, Director of Choral Activities at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville was surrounded by music. In 1992, he joined UW-Platteville.

The University of Wisconsin-Platteville will host Pathway to Progress: A Panel Discussion on the importance of Diversity in the Engineering, Construction, and Safety Industries on Wednesday, April 14, from 5:15-6:45 p.m. The virtual event is free and open to the public. 

As Trevor Wavrunek, a senior engineering physics major, prepares for graduation this May, he credits his experience as an undergraduate researcher with helping him with his next academic goal. He has spent the past three years researching the topic of an alternative to solvent-based microfabrication with Dr. Gokul Gopalakrishnan, associate professor of engineering physics

For years, students in Dr. Timothy Swenson’s Practicum in Adapted Physical Education class have had the opportunity to teach students with disabilities within a physical education setting. Students continued that experience this year, but with the added challenge – and opportunity for creativity – that was presented by virtual learning.

With near-record cold stretches and snow accumulation this winter, de-icing of Wisconsin roads and highways is a common sight, but a research project at UW-Platteville is studying the long-term impacts of these treatments on concrete durability.

Jesse Ward, a senior, civil engineering major, was recently honored by the Wisconsin Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers with the Outstanding Senior Civil Engineering Student Award. The recognition is awarded annually to one senior-level civil engineering student who has made significant contributions both to the organization, their own academic career and the career of their fellow students. 

UW-Platteville will host Dr. Salman Khan as the latest speaker in its Distinguished Lecturer series. The event is open to UW-Platteville students, faculty and staff, and will take place via Zoom on Wednesday, April 14, from 10-11 a.m.

WiSys was recently awarded U.S. patents for inventions disclosed by two College of Engineering, Mathematics and Science faculty at UW-Platteville. Dr. Hal Evensen, professor of engineering physics created the “Planar Field Emission Transistor.” Dr. Thomas Zolper, associate professor of mechanical engineering, and his team invented the “Variable Volume Flow Injection Nozzle.” 

The work of Dr. Chris Schulenburg, professor of Spanish, will be published in the forthcoming issue of the journal, Studies in the 20th & 21st Century Literature. His article, "Inés del alma mía or How to Retrain the Chronicle," uses Chilean novelist Isabel Allende's book "Inés del alma mía" to create a new model for the Latin American chronicle. 

Dr. Songqing (Joshua) Yue is an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering at UW-Platteville. This fall, Yue will be teaching courses in the new undergraduate cybersecurity program. 

Triston King is the associate director in the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs at UW-Platteville. The Milwaukee native earned his undergraduate degree in communication with a minor in women and gender studies from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and his master’s degree in student affairs of higher education from Marquette University.

Elizabeth Larrison always loved hearing and telling stories. When she was quite young, she realized that history was essentially the telling of others’ stories, and her interests in the subject continued to grow throughout her education. She is currently studying history in Ireland in a yearlong master’s program at the National University of Ireland-Galway.

UW-Platteville alumna Dr. Ann Schulte is impacting future Pioneer educators through her new textbook Teaching in Rural Places: Thriving in Classrooms, Schools, and Communities. Starting this fall, the School of Education will unveil its new K-9th grade, place-based rurally responsive teacher preparation program and will be using Schulte’s book.