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The University of Wisconsin-Platteville College of Engineering, Mathematics and Science proudly announces that Dr. Mohammad Rabbani, professor of chemistry, has been selected as the inaugural recipient of the 2025–2026 EMS Excellence in Service Award.
The University of Wisconsin-Platteville announced that its Department of Criminal Justice and Forensic Investigation has earned accreditation from the Forensic Science Education Programs Accreditation Commission (FEPAC)
This spring marks a milestone achievement for the University of Wisconsin-Platteville and University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh as Sienna Isaacson will be the first graduate of the nursing pathway 3+1 dual bachelor’s degree program.
Four UW-Platteville Animal and Dairy Science students competed in the regional American Society of Animal Science (ASAS) Academic Quadrathlon competition at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, March 8th and 9th.
Students from the University of Wisconsin–Platteville and University of Wisconsin–Platteville Baraboo Sauk County presented their research projects at the Research in the Rotunda on Wednesday at the Wisconsin State Capitol, joining undergraduate researchers from across the Universities of Wisconsin.
A delegation including UW–Platteville College of Engineering, Mathematics and Science Dean Philip Parker met with Wisconsin’s Congressional delegation in February to advocate for federal support of engineering education, research, and workforce development that directly benefit UW–Platteville students and programs.
A UW-Platteville student earned first place in the WiSys Innovation On-Ramp program for creating the Eazy Zip.
The Universities of Wisconsin Board of Regents presented MSA with the Regents Business Partnership Award, honoring its lasting partnership and impactful engagement with the University of Wisconsin–Platteville.
Students step into the world of crime-solving, creating forensic evidence for Wisconsin’s State Crime Lab.
In order to address recruitment and retention of math and science teachers in rural schools, the new HOME Scholarship program will provide eligible junior and senior secondary education majors in math or science with scholarships that cover tuition, room and board, and textbooks.
UW-Platteville's annual Holiday Toy Hack returns Saturday, Nov. 15. Student volunteers from all majors adapt electronic toys to make them accessible for children with special needs.
Students collaborated in teams to design mock-ups of innovative, high-tech survival products using Huff Family Innovation Center resources, fostering creativity, entrepreneurship and teamwork skills.
The University of Wisconsin-Platteville’s Department of Mathematics will host a Math Career Panel Discussion on Thursday, Oct. 16, at 4 p.m. in Room 104, Boebel Hall. The event will feature seven Pioneer alumni who majored in mathematics and will highlight the many ways the degree has shaped their careers.
High school students from across Wisconsin spent a week at UW-Platteville, gaining hands-on experience and inspiration to pursue future careers in plant science and innovation.
Dr. Chris Frayer, professor of mathematics at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, was selected as one of the recipients of the 2025 Alliant Energy James R. Underkofler Excellence in Teaching Awards.
Students harness solar power to cook waffles as part of a hands-on final project, applying classroom theory to real-world renewable energy challenges.
Sesquicentennial Hall has earned the 2025 WI ASLA Merit Award for Large Scale Design, honoring its visionary integration of sustainable landscapes, learning spaces and community-centered planning.
Not one, but two teams from UW-Platteville's Cybersecurity Club achieved a top 3% finish out of 10,000 teams in the picoCTF global competition.
From factory floors to global impact, Madi Wunderli’s journey through UW-Platteville’s distance mechanical engineering program proves that earning a degree and designing a future is possible without putting life on hold.
The UW-Platteville Steel Bridge Team soared to a first place overall finish at the Western Great Lakes Regional Competition, earning their place at the upcoming National Finals with a performance defined by precision, perseverance and pride.
UW-Platteville’s Mathematics Department is hosting the annual conference of the Wisconsin Section of the Mathematical Association of America on April 4-5.
STEM Career Exploration Day provided 75 local high school sophomores with a hands-on opportunity to explore the vast world of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Students learned about various majors and career opportunities in STEM fields through engaging workshops across campus.
Sesquicentennial Hall has earned the Grand Prize Award from Learning by Design Magazine, thanks to a collaborative effort that blends innovation, sustainability and hands-on learning.
UW-Platteville is launching an Executive MS in Engineering program in May 2025, offering a flexible hybrid format designed for working professionals. The cohort-based program combines online courses with in-person sessions to enhance collaboration, networking and career growth.
UW-Platteville and UW-La Crosse announce an innovative set of articulation agreements establishing 3+2 dual degree programs, offering students a seamless pathway to earn a Bachelor of Science in physics from UW-La Crosse and a Bachelor of Science in one of four engineering programs at UW-Platteville.
Dr. Danny Xiao presented research at the 104th Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting on the use of capillary pressure sensors to assess the effectiveness of curing on Wisconsin concrete.
A group of engineering students designs a custom bouncy chair for Emma Gunderson, a toddler with blindness and hearing loss, after her current chair became too small. Their innovative solution brought together more than a campus, but a community of love and support.
UW-Platteville is addressing the healthcare gap in rural areas by training a new generation of physician assistants. Through a unique partnership with UW-Madison, students gain hands-on experience in local healthcare settings, preparing them to meet the growing needs of underserved communities.
Innovation took center stage at UW-Platteville during its inaugural Innovation Days, held Nov. 18-21. The celebration highlighted the university’s commitment to innovation as a core value and showcased its efforts to solve complex problems through collaboration across disciplines.
Chemistry students from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville recently attended the 2024 American Chemical Society Midwest Regional Meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, where they showcased their research, connected with industry professionals and explored graduate school opportunities.
As winner of the annual concerto competition, Elliott Loughney, a junior civil engineering and music double major, will perform the first movement of Edvard Grieg’s "Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16," with the UW-Platteville Symphonic Wind Ensemble in concert on Wednesday, Nov. 13.
The UW-Platteville Collegiate Crops Team placed first overall at the Regional Crops Contest held in Brookings, South Dakota on Oct. 19.
The Universities of Wisconsin Board of Regents honored A.Y. McDonald with the Regents Business Partnership Award on Oct. 30, recognizing the company’s longstanding support and impactful collaboration with the University of Wisconsin-Platteville.
Dr. Danny Xiao, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, received the opportunity to complete his sabbatical last spring semester at Hochschule Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences, Germany.
For the seventh consecutive summer, 10 students participated in the Summer Undergraduate Scholars Program at UW-Platteville.
Eight high school students from the tri-state area recently participated in the Plant Biotechnology Boot Camp held at UW-Platteville. The week-long residential camp offered hands-on learning opportunities in the areas of plant biotechnology, genetics, molecular biology, plant pathology and microbiology.
Continuing their ongoing partnership, UW-Platteville and Madison College have formalized a new articulation agreement that will open the door for more students to pursue the growing field of data science.
Dr. Xiaoguang Ma, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, is collaborating with global software manufacturer COPA-DATA USA Corp. to enhance student learning and open the door to new student-led research opportunities.
Explore how UW-Platteville's Applied Engineering Technology Management Department is shaping careers and industries with innovative education and hands-on experience.
Biology students learn a unique way to test the health and well-being of a local stream on the UW-Platteville campus. Electrofishing amps up the education process by taking students outdoors and into a real-world scenario.
Dr. Mohammad Rabbani, associate professor of chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, is being presented with the 2024 Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence.
The Cybersecurity Club at UW-Platteville participated in the picoCTF 2024 competition, where its team placed 17th out of 539 undergraduate schools.
UW-Platteville announces a new transfer agreement with UCLA Extension and adds an aerospace manufacturing engineering emphasis to its online Master of Science in Engineering.
The UW-Platteville Collegiate Soils Team recently competed in two national contests, where students describe and scientifically classify soils and landforms using tools and techniques employed by professional soil scientists.
UW-Platteville junior Olivia Adams was recently named a recipient of the 2024 Barry Goldwater Scholarship. She is one of only 438 students nationwide to receive the 2024 scholarship.
The Steel Bridge Team at UW-Platteville recently competed in a regional steel bridge competition in Chicago, Illinois, where they placed second overall and earned an entry in the national competition.
Dr. Mohammad Rabbani, associate professor in the chemistry department, is helping to train Platteville middle school students in order for them to get practical lab experience for Crime Busters, a Science Olympiad STEM event.
UW-Platteville recently hosted the 2024 Prescribed Fire Conference, welcoming over 200 people from across the state who all share an interest in the vital use of prescribed fire to preserve the rich, biodiverse landscape of Wisconsin and the Driftless region.
UW-Platteville celebrated the grand opening of its newly renovated Cyberlab on Thursday, January 25. The lab has been transformed into a state-of-the-art facility designed to attract, recruit and train top cybersecurity talent.
UW-Platteville senior Jayden Trocke received first place at the seventh annual WiSys Prototype Hackathon Pitch Event.
The University of Wisconsin-Platteville Collegiate Crops Team earned honors in the 89th annual National American Royal Kansas City Collegiate Crops Contest and the 94th annual National Chicago Collegiate Crops Contest earlier this month.
Dr. Samir El-Omari, civil and environmental engineering professor, was recently awarded a prestigious Fulbright grant to teach and research at Nile University in Egypt, where he will continue his work in the field of sustainability.
More than 35 industry and academic leaders from greater Sauk County gathered at UW-Platteville Baraboo Sauk County for the second in a series of group meetings to target and expand the role of the campus with the area’s engineering enterprises.
Two UW-Platteville students were honored yesterday at a ceremony in Madison, with the Alliant Energy Erroll B. Davis, Jr. Achievement Award. Seniors Favour Butterfield and Marcelo Garay received the award, which recognizes the outstanding academic and community-service efforts of students from traditionally underrepresented minority groups who are pursuing a degree in business or engineering at UW-Madison or UW-Platteville.
For Lindsey Barnes, working at the Environmental Protection Agency was always a “dream job.” With a passion for the environment and a desire to make a meaningful impact, the junior from Cedar Rapids, Iowa set her sights on that future goal – never imagining she would achieve it two years before graduating college.
Dr. Ganapathy Natarajan, associate professor of industrial engineering, is part of a team awarded a National Science Foundation grant to research ways to leverage the lived experiences of non-traditional engineering students in order to improve learning for all students in engineering classrooms.
UW-Platteville celebrated a new milestone in its longtime partnership with Plexus Corp. at last week's naming celebration event and ceremonial ribbon-cutting of the Plexus Women in STEM Center.
A team of five students recently competed in the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers’ International Quarter-Scale Tractor Student Design Competition, taking home first place in the Maneuverability category.
University of Wisconsin-Platteville students are helping biologists from the U.S. Geological Survey combat a growing problem in the Great Lakes region – the invasive zebra and quagga mussel, which has caused significant ecological and economic damage in the region since it was first discovered there more than three decades ago.
Approximately 40 local engineering and manufacturing firms from in and around Sauk County convened at a listening session Tuesday at UW-Platteville Baraboo Sauk County to offer their thoughts and share stories of their local businesses, in order to grow connections between UW-Platteville and Sauk County employer needs.
Mollie Johnson, a senior psychology major, is spending her summer conducting research that examines cognitive, affective and physiological aspects of human behavior, as a participant in the Summer Undergraduate Scholars Program.
The ubiquitous eastern redcedar tree – a native species but one that can encroach on the region’s pastures and prairies – may be seen as a nuisance to some, but actually has a very important story to tell about the region’s climate history. Researchers from UW-Platteville are calling on the help of residents of the Driftless Area to identify redcedar tree samples to be included in National Science Foundation research that is studying the long-term history of drought in the region.
As part of UW-Platteville's Summer Undergraduate Scholars Program, Ellie Zimmermann is spending the summer conducting research to explore the connections between community garden space and the perceptions of health and well-being and food security in the local community.
Dr. Ian MacKenzie, assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, is being honored with the 2023 Early Career Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence.
Sub-Zero Group, Inc., manufacturer of leading luxury kitchen appliance brands Sub-Zero, Wolf, and Cove, continues to show its dedication to engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville with a $100,000 gift to support the new Sub-Zero, Wolf and Cove Engineering Instrumentation Lab in Sesquicentennial Hall.
Dr. Ganapathy “Gana” Natarajan, assistant professor of mechanical and industrial engineering, was selected for the 2023-2024 Wisconsin Teaching Fellows and Scholars Program. He is one of two UW-Platteville faculty members selected for the UW System program this year.
UW-Platteville’s collaborative Master of Physician Assistant Studies program officially launched this week with an inaugural cohort of 10 students.
Engineering students will showcase their capstone Senior Design projects at the bi-annual Senior Design Open House on Wednesday, May 17. Open to the public, the event will be held in Busby and Sesquicentennial halls.
UW-Platteville recently hosted students from across the state for the second Wisconsin Agriculture-Water Nexus Network field trip, funded by the Freshwater Collaborative of Wisconsin, where students explored critical issues related to the connections between agriculture and water management.
The UW-Platteville College of Engineering, Mathematics and Science is collaborating with John Deere Dubuque Works for a unique opportunity, teaching a software engineering course to the company’s engineers on John Deere’s campus.
Leadership from both institutions gathered at Madison College’s Truax campus to sign four new transfer agreements, a continuation of their partnership and commitment to making it easier for students to transfer from Madison College to UW-Platteville’s bachelor’s degree programs.
The UW-Platteville Robotics Club’s VEX U team, WiscoBots, traveled to Dallas, Texas, to compete in the VEX Robotics World Championship April 27-29, where they won the VEX U College and University Competition and became the first team in VEX U history to win the world championship in back-to-back years.
The University of Wisconsin-Platteville hosted the third Tri-State Regional Health Care Summit on April 14, welcoming more than 70 major stakeholders in the region to discuss challenges and needs in rural health care.
UW-Platteville signed a new transfer agreement with Nicolet College, allowing students to begin their education there, before seamlessly transferring to the electrical, mechanical or industrial and systems engineering programs at UW-Platteville, while staying in the Northwoods region.
Thanks to resources like the Huff Family Innovation Center and the IDEA Hub, UW-Platteville is helping budding entrepreneurs – like senior Josh Wood – take their ideas from prototype to market. Wood has been prototyping a line of custom outdoor backpacks and officially launched his product to the public this week.
Dr. Gulen Ozkula, assistant professor of civil engineering, recently returned from a weeklong trip to Turkey, where she joined a reconnaissance team assessing and gathering data on the damage caused by the pair of 7.8- and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes that devastated southeastern regions of the country on Feb. 6.
UW-Platteville Professor and Chair of Mathematics Dr. Barb Barnet has been leading the way as the Science Olympiad head coach at Platteville High School since 2010. Barnet explains how students participating in the program are exposed to a variety of scientific fields, but also to the university.
Three UW-Platteville students have been working on an increasingly vital area of study in agriculture, researching ways to develop new agrochemicals for crop protection.
UW-Platteville and UW Oshkosh signed an agreement to offer a unique 3+1 dual bachelor degree program, providing UW-Platteville students with a pathway to earn a bachelor’s in nursing, while saving time and money. The new program hopes to address the significant shortage of healthcare professionals in Wisconsin and the tri-state region.
Two engineering students are studying the effects of anti-icing on concrete and will present their findings at the 19th annual Research in the Rotunda on March 8 in the state Capitol.
Three students are looking at biochar as a way to reduce ammonia emissions and odors off of manure storages, which many farms in Wisconsin use. They will showcase their research at the 19th annual Research in the Rotunda on March 8.
The College of Business, Industry, Life Science and Agriculture recently hosted its inaugural Healthcare Scholarship event, awarding $1,000 scholarships to seven students who have been admitted for fall 2023.
The UW-Platteville Engineers Without Borders Student Chapter spent nearly two weeks in West Africa to examine the land in Adumasa, Ghana, with the goal of building a new school this summer.
One UW-Platteville student spent her summer learning about bats and researching whether the species of bat Nycticeius humeralis, commonly referred to as the evening bat—which has historically stayed south of Wisconsin—may now be found in the Platteville area.
When Alex Walechka and Rebecca Koble enrolled in the online Master of Science in Engineering program in 2021, they went in with the expectation to attain an advanced degree in their area of specialty to improve their current careers and future job prospects, but they also found something more than advanced learning during their time in the program.
The College of Engineering, Mathematics and Science is once again bringing real-world engineering projects to students, faculty and friends of the university with the spring 2023 EMS Engineering Seminar Series. Free and open to the public, the series will highlight four engineering projects and insight from experts in the field.
For more than a century, UW-Platteville has distinguished itself in the realm of engineering education, cultivating a widely respected reputation in the process. Recently, the university's prestige was bolstered by earning several top rankings from College Factual, an independent data analytics firm based in New York.
An engineering senior design team recently rolled out a new solution to help a startup company stabilize their bicycles. The team worked with company sponsor Boogie Bikes to develop an electric bike more stable than a standard two-wheel bicycle.
UW-Platteville’s bi-annual Senior Design Open House will be held Monday, Dec. 19. Open to the public, the event is an opportunity for engineering students to showcase their capstone Senior Design projects.
One student is volunteering his time while raising money for UW-Platteville’s Robotics Club. Junior Scott McDermott has worked part-time at John Deere in a student position since 2021 while pursuing a mechanical engineering degree. This past year, McDermott has donated $3,000 to the UW-Platteville’s Robotics Club through John Deere’s employee giving program, Dollars for Doers.
UW-Platteville alumnus Dr. Ronald Meissen and his wife, Eileen, are supporting engineering students through their newly established endowed Computer Science and Software Engineering Scholarship fund.
In a ceremony today, officials from UW-Platteville and Madison College signed an updated agreement to expand engineering offerings to Madison College students. The new agreement will add UW-Platteville’s Bachelor of Science in industrial and systems engineering to the existing offerings for Madison College students.
Dozens of students from across all three colleges at UW-Platteville came together for the fifth annual Holiday Toy Hack, to modify electronic toys for children with special needs. Fifty students participated and ‘hacked’ 55 toys which will be donated to area families, organizations and clinics.
The U.S. Presidential Scholars Program is one of the nation’s highest honors for high school students, recognizing up to 161 students each year. Among the 2022 honorees is Cameron Pokorny, now a freshman software engineering major at UW-Platteville.
In 2020, four senior design civil engineering students were tasked with the project of solving the parking lot concerns at the American Players Theatre in Spring Green, Wisconsin. The students presented their findings to the company, not realizing a couple years later APT would be receiving a nearly $1 million Tourism Capital Investment Grant from the state to embark on those parking lot improvements.
New this fall, UW-Platteville is now offering a degree in computer engineering. Previously offered as an emphasis under electrical engineering, this new program will prepare students for in-demand careers in an expanding industry.
Dr. Risper Nyairo is working to change the future of sustainability in the Platteville area, which starts in part by reconstructing the past. Nyairo is conducting a feasibility study on the potential of linking more local producers to the university’s Dining Services, in order to increase local food offerings and promote sustainable practices within the local watershed.
There’s more to Becca Bartusewich than meets the eye. In addition to being an instructor, most know her as the advising manager for the Office of Professional Program Support, but she is also an archaeologist at heart.
Caleb Christiansen spent his summer interning with Pierce Manufacturing, where he had a chance to learn more about its electric fire truck – a perfect fit for his interest in renewable energy careers.
UW-Platteville is the recipient of a $1.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation, which will create a unique scholarship program for civil and environmental engineering students and help bring an increased focus on equity in infrastructure to the field.
UW-Platteville alumnus Tommy Jacobs spends his days bringing people’s imagination to life. As a custom lead design engineer at Landscape Structures, in Delano, Minnesota, it’s his job to take clients’ most creative ideas for playgrounds and turn them into reality.
The College of Engineering, Mathematics and Science is bringing real-world engineering projects to students, faculty and friends of the university with the fall 2022 EMS Engineering Seminar Series. Free and open to the public, the series will highlight five engineering projects and insight from experts in the field.
UW-Platteville recently wrapped up its inaugural summer coding camps and hackathon, introducing nearly 60 high school students to the rapidly expanding computer science and cybersecurity fields. The camps – focusing on computer games programming, esports, and cyber defense – were the first of their kind to be offered in the region.
Dr. Danny Xiao, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, received the opportunity to learn firsthand about the inner workings of being an engineer in the private sector, through a faculty internship with Strand Associates, Inc.® in Madison, Wisconsin.
Dayne Friday, a senior at UW-Platteville and a member of the football program, recently completed his second summer internship at August Winter & Sons, impressing supervisors with his leadership and knowledge.
More than 300 members of the UW-Platteville community and tri-state region gathered to celebrate the opening of Sesquicentennial Hall – UW-Platteville’s newest, $55 million state-of-the-art engineering building – at a ribbon-cutting celebration on Sept. 1.
When UW-Platteville's newest engineering building, Sesquicentennial Hall, opens next week, it will be home to one of the largest makerspaces in the Midwest – the Huff Family Innovation Center – and Joe Bormann, the center’s newly appointed director, is looking forward to fostering innovation, among both students and the business community, in Southwest Wisconsin.
Originally from Platteville, Rachael Hallstrom grew up close to UW-Platteville, but once she enrolled as a student, she found that the campus provided what she describes as a different world – a separate, unique community with an engineering education that rivals any bigger school.
UW-Platteville will celebrate the grand opening of its newest engineering building, Sesquicentennial Hall, on Thursday, Sept. 1. The $55 million building will adjoin Busby Hall of Engineering to create a 200,000-square-foot state-of-the-art complex that supports interdisciplinary engineering and computer science.
In his 30-plus years of teaching at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, Dr. Samuel Owusu-Ababio, professor of civil engineering, has had a transformational impact on the education of countless students.
Dr. Jodi Prosise has been selected for the Class of 2022-2023 of Drexel University’s Executive Leadership in Academic Technology, Engineering and Science (ELATES) program – a national leadership development program designed to promote women in academic STEM fields, and faculty allies of all genders, into institutional leadership roles.
Andrew Ricks has always had a passion for aviation. He began taking flying lessons as a freshman in high school and earned his pilot’s license when he turned 17. But, his engineering education at UW-Platteville is what gave him the opportunity to turn his hobby into a career designing and creating airplane parts.
A group of faculty and student researchers are working to contribute solutions to the increasing threat of cyberattacks on critical infrastructure. With the help of the UW System Ignite Grant Program and several industry partners, including ABB Inc., UW-Platteville will soon be home to a smart microgrid cybersecurity testbed.
Beginning this fall, the University of Wisconsin-Platteville’s industrial engineering major will be renamed to industrial and systems engineering – a change that is driven by a growing demand for systems engineering.
Ask a student of Dr. Thomas Zolper about their research, and the answers will be quite varied. Some have worked side-by-side with scientists from the USGS to combat invasive aquatic species. Others are helping to examine the resilience of the Wisconsin energy and information infrastructure against natural or man-made failures. And a few are getting a taste of a different kind of research, as they attempt to scientifically measure what makes people like ice cream.
Faculty from Forensic Investigation and Computer Science and Software Engineering are collaborating on clandestine grave documentation research.
Dr. Douglas Selent, assistant professor of computer science and software engineering, is bringing awareness to neurodiversity through his Wisconsin Teaching Fellows and Scholars (WTFS) Program Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) project.
A group of mechanical engineering students partnered with the U.S. Geological Survey to help combat the spread of invasive species by designing a ballast tank injection system.
UW-Platteville was recently awarded the Anderson Corporate Foundation Grant in the amount of $5,000 for Women in STEM K-12 outreach and programming.
UW-Platteville is expanding the reach of its engineering programs with a new partnership with University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point at Wausau.
The Robotics Club’s VEX U team at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville traveled to Dallas, Texas, on May 5 to compete in the VEX Robotics World Championship, where they won the VEX U College and University Competition.
After several years of planning, UW-Platteville's collaborative Master of Physician Assistant Studies program is officially open to applicants, with the first cohort scheduled to begin in summer 2023. The program will allow UW-Platteville students to earn a degree through UW-Madison’s nationally-recognized Master of Physician Assistant Studies program, while remaining on the UW-Platteville campus to complete the coursework.
The We Energies Foundation recently donated $5,000 to the University of Wisconsin-Platteville Women in STEM program to support outreach and programming efforts.
UW-Platteville is continuing its commitment to sustainability with the construction of its newest engineering building, Sesquicentennial Hall. Set to open this fall, it will be the university’s first building to seek certification by the U.S. Green Building Council’s internationally-recognized Leadership in Energy and Environmental Development rating system, known as LEED.
Eli Trast, a senior civil engineering major from Green Bay, Wisconsin, was recently honored with the 2022 Outstanding Senior Civil Engineering Student Award by the America Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Wisconsin Section.
With sights set on creating enduring change in higher education, seven universities, including UW-Platteville, are launching a transformation of industry engagement in higher education. The intent is to help advisory boards move from a traditional advisory role to an active partnership in engineering education with a goal of helping institutions advance an entrepreneurial mindset in engineers.
The UW-Platteville Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering is offering three new, interactive summer coding camps for high school students.
UW-Platteville will receive $55,373 in support from the Freshwater Collaborative of Wisconsin this year to enhance its water-related academic programs. The funding is part of a statewide initiative to tackle 10 grand water challenges and support curriculum development, undergraduate research opportunities, career development and field training experiences for students interested in studying water-related fields at the 13 UW Schools.
Dr. Chris Underwood is working on a project, funded by the National Park Service, to expand fire history research in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. At the conclusion of the project, the researchers will have a spatially comprehensive fire and vegetation history of the entire park that dates back to the last major North American glaciation.
UW-Platteville graduates have been awarded the annual American Society of Civil Engineers Martin S. Kapp Excellence in Foundation Engineering Award for the past two consecutive years.
A dozen students recently competed against each other, while helping local Platteville businesses reduce their carbon footprint and save money, as part of Trane Technologies’ inaugural Carbon Reduction Energy Blitz Challenge at UW-Platteville.
UW-Platteville is helping to address the critical shortage of qualified math and science teachers in Southwest Wisconsin by partnering with local school districts and STEM teachers to implement a “grow your own” program.
A group of mechanical engineering majors are researching new ways to harvest energy and will present their findings to legislators, state leaders and the public at next week's annual Research in the Rotunda event in the Capitol building in Madison, Wisconsin.
Four students received the opportunity to conduct undergraduate research focused in the area of dendroecology, by assisting Dr. Evan Larson, professor of environmental sciences and society, with his project titled, “Groundwater Access Impacts Tree Productivity in the Central Sands of Wisconsin.”
Dr. Mark Levenstein, assistant professor of biology, is the recipient of the Regent Scholar Award for his proposal titled, “Aryl Fluorinated Ethers to Develop the Next Generation of Agrochemicals.” Through the recognition, Levenstein received a $50,000 grant from UW System to pursue his research.
A group of civil and environmental engineering students are researching a solution for safer long-term nuclear waste disposal by studying the characteristics of bentonite, a naturally-occurring clay. They will present their findings at next month’s annual Research in the Rotunda event in Madison, Wisconsin.
Two electrical engineering students will showcase their research project, “Carbon Nanotube Electronics” at this year’s Research in the Rotunda in the state Capitol.
Chemistry majors Brooke Steeno and Natalie Hayes will travel to the state capitol on March 9 to present their research project, “Turning on the Light: Developing Next Generation Agrochemicals via Organic Photochemistry” at Research in the Rotunda.
Phosphorous concentrations are at an almost dangerously high level in Wisconsin, says senior Olivia Kozlowska – an environmental engineering major from Chicago, Illinois – and it’s a problem she hopes her research will address. Kozlowska will present her project, “Evaluation of Filter Media for Phosphorous Removal Systems” at next month’s annual Research in the Rotunda event in Madison, Wisconsin.
As Luke Strenn navigated his professional career in law enforcement, he always felt he was missing his calling of working in the fields of engineering, mathematics and science. Now, after 20 years, Strenn is preparing to graduate this May from UW-Platteville with a degree in mechanical engineering, which he credits to the Platteville Engineering Partnerships program.
A group of mechanical engineering students are tackling the growing problem of plastic waste in landfills by creating a way for anyone in any community to easily get involved in reusing and recycling plastic.
The College of Engineering, Mathematics and Science is bringing real-world engineering projects to students, faculty and friends of the university through the spring 2022 EMS Engineering Seminar Series. Free and open to the public, the series will highlight six engineering projects and insight from top experts in the field.
UW-Platteville's Dairy Judging Team traveled to Fort Worth, Texas, for the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo Intercollegiate Dairy Judging Contest, held on Jan. 16, where they took home top honors.
A team of biology students have been researching watersheds in Southwest Wisconsin to study mussels and the environmental factors that may influence them. They will present their findings in March at the annual Research in the Rotunda event.
UW-Platteville engineering students have had a hand in some of the new or redesigned household appliances recently hitting the market and industry trade shows, thanks to a partnership between Spectrum Brands and the College of Engineering, Mathematics and Science’s Senior Design program.
A group of animal science students spent a portion of this semester designing and conducting a feeding trial in broiler chickens, with the goal of helping Wisconsin growers better understand how to use and market hazelnuts. When the trial ends next week, they will donate the 60 processed chickens to local food pantries across the Driftless region.
Three civil engineering students recently conducted research at MnROAD, the largest full-scale pavement research facility of its kind in the world, located near Albertville, Minnesota.
Senior Spencer Butterfield is one of only two student-athletes nationwide handpicked to represent the United States at the International University Sports Federation (FISU) World Forum in Costa Rica this spring.
Spencer Butterfield had a summer internship experience like few others. Combining his double majors in sustainability and renewable energy systems and Spanish, he spent two months in the Amazon Rainforest, conducting research on solar panel policy in the rural community of Monterey, Peru.
As Melynda Vang prepares to graduate next month, she reflects on the opportunities the university offered her, setting her up for success and a job before graduation. Vang is majoring in computer science with a minor in business administration, and recently accepted a position at Travelers, in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
Led by UW-Platteville, a consortium of four universities recently received a $300,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. Under the direction of Dr. Philip Parker, the Center for Infrastructure Transformation and Education (CIT-E) will use the grant to transform the approach to diversity, equity and inclusion in the field of civil and environmental engineering education.
Community partners have stepped up to provide support for UW-Platteville's new FIRST LEGO League, a program that introduces STEM to children ages 4 to 16.
Dr. Gana Natarajan, assistant professor of industrial and mechanical engineering, is being honored with two awards from the American Society for Engineering Management. Natarajan will receive the 2021 ASEM William Daughton World Headquarters Service Award and Fellow Award at the virtual International Annual Conference held Oct. 27-30.
Dr. Pete Lammers, associate professor in the School of Agriculture, is contributing to a $10 million project, funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and led by Purdue University, to make Midwestern agriculture more resilient by diversifying farms, marketing and the agricultural landscape.
Dr. Danny Xiao, associate professor of civil engineering, was recently elected as president-elect of the American Society of Civil Engineers Wisconsin Section.
UW-Platteville was recently awarded a $290,000 grant to further its work in the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network and take the next step in advancing entrepreneurial-minded learning for engineers. The grant is being used to initiate a faculty development program to advance the entrepreneurial mindset in curricula over the next two years.
Members of the UW-Platteville community, partners, and local leaders gathered on Oct. 6 to celebrate the construction of the forthcoming Sesquicentennial Hall – UW-Platteville’s newest state-of-the-art engineering building.
Dr. Thomas Zolper has been awarded a faculty research grant from the Tommy G. Thompson Center on Public Leadership for his project titled, “The Wisconsin Strategy: Independent Infrastructure.” Zolper is examining how to enhance the resilience of Wisconsin energy and information infrastructure against natural and man-made failures to reduce public emergencies.
Already known as a hub for creativity and innovation in the tri-state region, UW-Platteville will soon be offering additional services to budding entrepreneurs throughout the region with the launch of Pioneer Prototyping Services.
UW-Platteville College of Engineering, Mathematics and Science, in conjunction with UW-Platteville Corporate Relations, is bringing real-world engineering projects to students, faculty and the friends of the university, through the fall 2021 EMS Engineering Seminar Series.
Dr. John Obielodan’s work as a researcher, educator and inventor, as well as helping other inventors develop prototypes, make him a 2021 WiSys Innovation Champion.
Dr. Mark Levenstein, an active inventor and champion of student research opportunities at UW-Platteville, has been named a 2021 Carl. E Gulbrandsen WiSys Innovator of the Year.
More than one hundred members of the UW-Platteville and greater Platteville communities celebrated the official re-opening of Boebel Hall at a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Friday, Aug. 27.
Edgewood College announces a new, enhanced partnership with the College of Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville. Now, students located anywhere in the state of Wisconsin can earn the UW-Platteville degree through a unique hybrid delivery of face-to-face and online courses, along with hands-on lab experiences.
UW-Platteville’s Women in STEM program received the 2021 Inspiring Programs in STEM Award from INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine, the largest and oldest diversity and inclusion publication in higher education.
New inventions poised to make an impact in a variety of fields are getting their start on the UW-Platteville campus, being designed, prototyped and tested by faculty and students. Thanks to a partnership between WiSys and Dr. John Obielodan, associate professor of mechanical engineering, half a dozen inventions have gone from idea to reality over the past two years.
WiSys, the technology transfer arm of the 11 UW System regional comprehensive campuses, was recently awarded a U.S. patent for an invention disclosed by Dr. Fang Yang, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering. Yang, and her co-inventor Zhao Li, of LY Grid Innovation, created a software-based micro-grid energy management system with proactive and comprehensive control.
Responding to the increasing demand for computing skills in the workforce — in both technical and non-technical professions alike — the University of Wisconsin-Platteville is rolling out a new Computer Science + X degree program, giving students more flexibility to pursue majo
Dr. Evan Larson, professor of geography, and his collaborators have been paddling the lakes of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness for the past 15 years to conduct a sprawling research project, the results of which have been recently published in the journal Ecosphere.
The University of Wisconsin-Platteville recently awarded six faculty research fellowships to help increase dairy-related research capacity through the Dairy Innovation Hub initiative.
Caitlin Warren had a plan to become a veterinarian from a young age, and now having just completed her junior year at UW-Platteville, she is enrolling in the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine Program at UW-Madison this fall, thanks to a new articulation program created by UW-Platteville.
Dr. Chelsea Lancelle, assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, is one of four UW-Platteville faculty members selected for the 2021-22 Wisconsin Teaching Fellows and Scholars Program.
The University of Wisconsin-Platteville is several steps closer to the launch of a new partnership with the University of Wisconsin-Madison Physician Assistant Program.
Dr. Austin Polebitski, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at UW-Platteville, is being honored with the 2021 Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence.
Dr. Chelsea Lancelle, assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, is this year’s recipient of the UW-Platteville Early Career Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence. The award recognizes a tenure-track faculty member who has made distinguished contributions to the mission of UW-Platteville as an outstanding teacher.
A group of UW-Platteville students ranked among the top teams, nationwide, in the recent Student Steel Bridge Competition, sponsored by the American Institute of Steel Construction. Twenty-five teams competed in this year’s event. The UW-Platteville team ranked eighth overall and achieved a second-place ranking in the efficiency category and third place in the lightness category.
Husco International, a manufacturing and engineering company in Waukesha, Wisconsin, is giving UW-Platteville mechanical engineering students the opportunity to work full-time while pursuing their education. It is part of the Husco Scholars Program, through which the company will pay 100% tuition assistance for students earning degrees through UW-Platteville Engineering Partnerships.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
University of Wisconsin-Platteville alumna Morgan Hartman, a 2018 industrial engineering graduate, credits her experience as a student-athlete with giving her the tools to become a marketing engineer for centrifugal water-cooled chillers at
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.
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.
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
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.
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.”
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.
Dr. Yanwei Wu is an associate professor in Computer Science and Software Engineering at UW-Platteville, and one of the faculty who will be teaching in the new Bachelor of Science in cybersecurity program this fall.
In the fall of 2019, Megan Bunyer began exploring potential research topics, guided by particular interests she had in emotion, memory and sense of control. When the pandemic hit last spring, it presented Bunyer with the opportunity to explore these interests in a much more timely and novel project, as she set out to examine the relationship between knowledge surrounding the Covid-19 outbreak and emotion and sense of control.
Freshman Eliot Driessen, an electrical engineering major, is embarking on his first year of undergraduate research. After being awarded the Undergraduate Research, Scholarly and Creative Activity Scholarship, Driessen has been assisting Dr. Hal Evensen, professor of engineering physics with his research in the nano lab.
Often reserved for upperclass students at many universities, research has been a part of Kaylee Finseth’s college experience since nearly the time she first stepped foot on campus at UW-Platteville. Now a junior, Finseth has been engaged in several research projects involving plant-microbe symbioses for the past three years.
UW-Platteville will host a panel of experts to discuss the latest information regarding the coronavirus and vaccine. The event – COVID-19: Vaccines, Variants and Community Health – will take place virtually on Thursday, March 11, from 5–6:30 p.m. and is free and open to the public.
The College of Engineering, Mathematics and Science is inviting students, faculty and the public to its Engineering Seminar Series. The virtual events are free and will highlight four engineering projects and insights from experts in the field. The first seminar will feature Dr. Bassam Zahran's presentation, "Solarwinds Attack: Is this the New Cold War?"
The College of Engineering, Mathematics and Science is being celebrated for its commitment to diversity and inclusion. The American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) recently recognized the college with the Bronze Level Award for the ASEE Diversity Program – the highest-level award issued this cycle.
A longtime supporter of UW-Platteville students, Alliant Energy recently furthered its commitment by pledging continued support to several College of Engineering, Mathematics and Science programs for 2021–22 and signing on as a premier corporate partner with UW-Platteville Intercollegiate Athletics.
Biology major Felicia Holmes has had a goal to become a physical therapist since the seventh grade, when she job-shadowed professionals in the field. She enrolled in the Pre-Physical Therapy program at UW-Platteville, and now in her junior year was already accepted into Clarke University’s Doctor of Physical Therapy program for fall 2021.
UW-Platteville’s longstanding, nationally-recognized Women in Engineering, Mathematics and Science program recently expanded to become the Women in STEM program, allowing for a greater impact on women students across campus.
Dr. Vettrivel Gnaneswaran is an assistant professor of industrial engineering, with research and teaching interests in biomechanics, statistics, quality control, supply chain, engineering management and engineering education.
Dr. A.L. Ranen McLanahan, associate professor of mechanical engineering, was one of only 20 faculty across the nation to be selected by the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN) as a community catalyst.
When Nuria Madueno Morales traveled from her hometown of Lima, Peru, to UW-Platteville in January 2019, she expected to be on campus only one semester as part of an international exchange program. Now, nearly two years later, she is preparing to graduate from UW-Platteville with a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering, after finding opportunities and support on campus that made it feel like home.
As mechanical engineering senior Rkia Talbi prepares for her final days at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, she is being recognized for her academic success and professional experience through two scholarships. Talbi was selected as the “Top Draft Pick” at the manufacturing career fair Internship Draft Day and named one of two recipients of the 2020 Alliant Energy Erroll B. Davis, Jr. Academic Achievement Award.
UW-Platteville will host a virtual Senior Design Open House on Wednesday, Dec. 16, offering engineering students the opportunity to showcase their capstone projects to students, faculty, industry representatives and the general public.
Alumnus Lavern Nall, a 1972 civil engineering graduate, will present at the final virtual event of the College of Engineering, Mathematics and Science Engineering Seminar Series on Tuesday, Dec. 1. Nall, who is the president of Strass Maguire and Associates, will discuss the topic of Protection of Buildings from the Construction of Milwaukee’s “Deep Tunnel.”
This summer, Dr. Asad Azemi joined UW-Platteville as the department chair and professor of electrical and computer engineering. Prior to his move to the Midwest, Azemi was an associate professor of engineering at Penn State. His research interests are in the areas of estimation and signal processing with agriculture and health science applications.
The UW-Platteville chapter of the American Concrete Institute recently participated in the 2020 Concrete Solutions Competition, where students competed against 18 teams representing six countries. Held virtually, the competition tasked teams with conceptualizing and demonstrating a use of concrete that could positively impact the world.
The Goldbergs credit their education at UW-Platteville with giving them the foundation to succeed. To help assist current Pioneers on their collegiate journey, the couple have established the Beth and Gary Goldberg Scholarship.
Dr. Afzal Upal joined UW-Platteville in July as the chair of the Computer Science and Software Engineering Department. He has more than 20 years of experience in the computing field, with an expertise in artificial intelligence and cognitive science. Upal has held several technical and leadership positions in the computer science and software engineering industry and government, however his love for education brought him back to academia.
Wisconsin is known worldwide for its dairy products, and ice cream is an almost universal favorite. Yet what we love about it can often be hard to describe. Now, mechanical engineering professors Dr. Thomas Zolper and Dr. Bidhan Roy are looking at the science behind one of the world’s most popular treats as part of their research for the UW-Platteville Dairy Innovation Hub.
The College of Engineering, Mathematics and Science is hosting its third virtual event in the Engineering Seminar Series on Tuesday, Nov. 10, featuring alumna Lauren Ray, a 2001 civil engineering graduate, and Marc Ruden, both of IIW, P.C.
Since joining UW-Platteville in 2015, Dr. Hynek Boril, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, has been instrumental in providing students with unique research opportunities on campus, particularly through his creation of the Pioneer Speech Signal Processing Laboratory.
Last week, the Department of Industrial Studies hosted an open house to celebrate the newly-renovated electronics and industrial controls systems laboratory. Located in Russell Hall, the lab is one of two automation labs that underwent a $1.5 million renovation to offer students the opportunity to use world-class technology and give them an edge in the workforce.
A new agreement between UW-Platteville and Carroll University will allow Carroll students to earn Bachelor of Science degrees in mechanical and electrical engineering without ever leaving southeast Wisconsin. Carroll students will complete UW-Platteville engineering courses in an online format through UW-Platteville Engineering Partnerships.
Dr. Kristina Fields, professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, was named one of four recipients across the UW System of the 2020 Alliant Energy Underkofler Excellence in Teaching Award.
Dr. Hal Evensen, UW-Platteville professor of engineering physics, is the recipient of the inaugural Dale Dixon Professor of Engineering Award. The award was established by Dr. Dale Dixon, a former engineering department chair in the College of Engineering, Mathematics and Science, to celebrate engineering faculty excellence.
For more than 50 years, the Busby family has helped transform and enrich UW-Platteville and the greater Platteville community. To honor their family legacy, UW-Platteville will rename Engineering Hall to the Busby Hall of Engineering.
It’s an idea that has evolved since 2019 when four engineering students and Dr. Gokul “Gopal” Gopalakrishnan, associate professor of engineering physics, discussed their passion for rock climbing and developed the first prototype of Skillzboard. Today, Gopal and his former students are now partners and have started their own company.
The growing interconnectedness of smart devices – known as the “internet of things” – is changing the way the manufacturing industry operates and the products it produces, and the University of Wisconsin-Platteville is continuing to lead the charge of ensuring that the next generation workforce is prepared for these changes.
When Hannah Exner accepted a summer internship offer last September, she expected to spend the summer of 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, working for Thermo King – a Trane Technologies brand. But when the COVID-19 pandemic began to unfold last spring, Exner began to worry about the possibility of her internship being canceled. Thanks to longstanding relationships with UW-Platteville, many industry partners like Trane Technologies, made it a priority to honor these internship commitments, finding creative solutions to provide meaningful experiences.
College of EMS shop supervisors are producing self-supporting plexiglass barriers to help protect the campus community against COVID-19. The shop supervisors are teaming up with the Facilities Management department in creating the two-foot by two-foot countertop items with an etched university logo and a slot to pass papers through.
As the recipient of the University of Wisconsin-Platteville’s 2019-20 Innovations in Technology for Teaching and Learning Award, Dr. Vettrivel Gnaneswaran, assistant professor of industrial engineering, will use the award funds to implement new learning glass technology on campus.
The University of Wisconsin-Platteville College of Engineering, Mathematics and Science is bringing real-world engineering projects to students, faculty and the public, through the fall 2020 EMS Engineering Seminar Series.
Area high school teachers from across Wisconsin met virtually with engineering professors from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville College of Engineering, Mathematics and Science for the STEMStart Summer Institute. STEMStart is an early college credit program for engineering.
Joseph Creanza, a junior soil and crop science major at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, scored first place at the recent 2020 Student Research and Innovation Showcase for his project, “Plant Essential Oils as Natural and Safe Pesticides for the Control of Soybean White Mold Disease.”
Dr. Douglas Selent, assistant professor of computer science and software engineering, joined the University of Wisconsin-Platteville in 2018. He also serves as the software engineering program coordinator. His interests include bringing active learning into his classroom through different activities and gamification.
Big data and artificial intelligence are increasingly ubiquitous in society, with an estimate of more than 2.5 million terabytes of data generated worldwide every day. Analyzing this data can help answer fundamental research questions, and thanks to a recent collaboration with IBM and OpenPOWER Foundation, spearheaded by Dr. Arghya Das, UW-Platteville is now home to a high-performance computing server to assist in this effort.
Dr. Aric Ranen McLanahan, University of Wisconsin-Platteville assistant professor of mechanical and industrial engineering, was selected for the Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence. The purpose of the award is to recognize a tenure-track faculty member who has made distinguished contributions to the mission of UW-Platteville as an outstanding teacher.
Building on its tradition of offering active, hands-on and problem-based learning, the UW-Platteville College of Engineering, Mathematics and Science recently affirmed its place as a leader in engineering education with its acceptance as a partner in the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN).
Dr. Yan Shi, associate professor of computer science and software engineering joined the University of Wisconsin-Platteville in 2011. Besides teaching, she is researching several topics related to data mining in social networks.
Donna Gavin, a senior lecturer in computer science and software engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, and founder of Platteville’s Girls Who Code Club, recently received a grant of more than $1,500 from the Platteville Community Fund, which will help support new opportunities for both the middle and high school-aged girls in the club and their college mentors.
The creative concepts of five University of Wisconsin-Platteville faculty and one student were recently selected by WiSys in the organization’s Innovation Challenge: COVID-19.
Dr. Vettrivel Gnaneswaran, assistant professor of industrial engineering, was recently awarded a Research Infrastructure Program grant by the Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium for his research exploring the use of gloves and their effect on performing tasks – the results of which could potentially influence glove redesign in manufacturing, aerospace and healthcare industries, helping people select gloves to maximize safety and productivity.
To help combat the shortage of personal protective equipment during this COVID-19 crisis, Dr. Jodi Prosise, chair of the UW-Platteville Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, and a team of undergraduate researchers are designing a system to turn recycled plastic into respiratory face masks.
Recent graduate Caleb Dykema is taking the experiences in innovation he found at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville and inspiring others to achieve the same through his new podcast, Just the Bulb.
Adaptability is perhaps one of the most important skills an engineer must have, and students in the Senior Design Program at UW-Platteville this spring have had a chance to put this skill to the test. The Senior Design Program pairs student groups with an industry partner to solve real problems or create new products. When the COVID-19 pandemic required students to transition to remote learning, they had to make some quick adjustments. On May 20, students will virtually present their final projects to the public during the Senior Design Open House.
A group of UW-Platteville students and one alumnus have found a creative way to team up, while staying at home, to contribute to the fight against COVID-19. They formed a UW-Platteville team to contribute to the Folding@home project – a distributed computing project that relies on people around the world to volunteer their personal computer resources to run simulations of protein dynamics to help scientists find cures for diseases.
After hearing about the growing shortage of personal protective equipment for health care workers, UW-Platteville senior Sam Smith decided he needed to help those battling the COVID-19 crisis. Smith, a computer science major from Kaukauna, Wisconsin, started producing ear guards with his 3D printer. He can create five guards every two hours.
Dr. James Hamilton, professor of chemistry at UW-Platteville, is working with the state of Wisconsin to produce tens of thousands of bottles of hand sanitizer to help protect communities from COVID-19.
“We are all sacrificing much for the COVID-19 crisis. I didn't want my students to sacrifice anything more than they had to,” said Dr. A. L. Ranen McLanahan, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at UW-Platteville. To help transition his thermal systems lab courses into a new alternative delivery, he created four interactive lab-simulating applications for his students to download, calling the series, “Little Dude in Consulting World.” The apps allow students to control a 2D avatar who explores a 2D lab world from inside the classroom.
The University of Wisconsin-Platteville is partnering with a local hospital to help protect health care workers on the front lines of COVID-19. The College of Engineering, Mathematics and Science shop supervisors are using 3D printers to create face shields for medical professionals at Southwest Health.
UPDATE: Due to safety and health concerns around COVID-19, this event has been cancelled as a precautionary measure. The UW-Platteville Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering is partnering with OpenPOWER to present the Big Data and AI Workshop on Tuesday, April 7. Attendees will learn about the latest research and development on big data, artificial intelligence and high-performance computing.
Ongoing work, involving students, in analyzing, cataloging, and sharing the DNA profiles of native grasses and other plant life in preserves and open spaces around Sauk County will aid prairie restoration efforts in communities across Wisconsin and in other regions as well. That’s according to research currently performed by University of Wisconsin-Platteville Baraboo Sauk County students Emily Forbush and Brooke Martin, who together are working to understand what grasses and plants make up a thriving prairie in the rocky and all-season conditions found near the campus.
Four chemistry students are preparing to present their undergraduate research, learning biochemistry the write way: applying writing-to-learn in STEM, at three different events across the country, including Posters on the Hill in Washington, D.C.
UW-Platteville and Edgewood College are pleased to announce the Engineering Dual Degree, that will allow students to complete two degrees simultaneously. Students will earn a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Physics from Edgewood College, as well as a Bachelor’s degree in either Electrical or Mechanical Engineering at UW-Platteville. The two institutions celebrated the agreement at a signing ceremony held today.
Students in the American Foundry Society Club at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville recently topped their previous successes in a regional casting competition by not only taking a first-place finish, but also earning the competition’s Imagination in Metalcasting Award – a first in the competition’s history.
Natural disasters are inevitable, but a group of students are researching how an application can assist with disaster response. Several students are collaborating with Electrical and Computer Engineering Assistant Professor Dr. Mehdi Roopaei on their research topic, device analytics for disaster response applications.
The race to create faster, smarter and smaller electronic devices has consumed the tech industry for decades, but is there a physical limit to just how small they can go? It is a question being explored in UW-Platteville's Material Fabrication and Nano Characterization Lab. Kayla Golden, a senior electrical engineering major, will present her research on nanoscale vacuum-channel field emission transistors at the annual UW System Research in the Rotunda event in Madison, Wisconsin.
As an associate professor of electrical engineering, Dr. Fang Yang specializes in power engineering – an interest she developed during a summer camp in middle school, where she had a chance to visit power plants. Now she teaches these concepts to a unique group of students on the UW Oshkosh Fox Cities campus through the UW-Platteville Engineering Partnership.
University of Wisconsin-Platteville Professor of Mathematics Dr. Chris Frayer will receive the 2020 Distinguished Teaching Award from the Wisconsin Section of the Mathematical Association of America.
For the past several years, UW-Platteville students, led by Dr. John Peterson, associate professor of biology, have been researching an emerging snake fungal disease that threatens to disrupt the balance of ecosystems across the country, including in Wisconsin.
Anyone who has touched a light switch in the University of Wisconsin-Platteville’s Ottensman Hall recently may have noticed a small green placard near the plate urging people to turn the lights off when they leave the room. That placard is the work of Dr.
Two students from the College of Engineering, Mathematics and Science are using a creative outlet to enhance their education. Brady Zink and Sam Horsnell share a passion of science and ceramics, which has led their collection of pottery — titled Kiln Rats — to be showcased in the Harry and Laura Nohr Gallery until March 3.
When you ask Dave Murphy to describe the goals of the UW-Platteville scholarship that bears his name, the recently-retired president of MSA Professional Services is typically modest. “I really hope that I made it easier on the students’ parents, on the families who are supporting them,” he said. “And I hope it makes a difference to the students.”
A longtime partnership between the University of Wisconsin-Platteville and Strand Associates was recently reaffirmed with a $200,000 commitment from the engineering firm, located in Madison, Wisconsin.
Somewhere, right now, on the University of Wisconsin-Platteville’s idyllic rural campus, a battle is brewing. Dr. Doug Selent’s students are feverishly perfecting their programmed pets for Pokemon-style virtual combat, in a game tournament the software engineering assistant professor calls “Battle Pets.”
The $23.7 million Boebel Hall renovations are set to begin in the upcoming weeks. The project will renovate existing laboratory and classroom space to become instructional laboratories, preparation and support space, research and undergraduate research space and a general assignment classroom while adding stunning new looks.
It is no secret that Wisconsin has great fishing opportunities, however, many are unaware of a threat posed to the state’s fishing industry by invasive fish, such as bighead carp and silver carp. Dr. Thomas Zolper, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at UW-Platteville, and his students, have spent the past several years collaborating with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to combat this threat.
Dr. Robabeh Jazaei is an expert in the characterization and simulation of advanced materials subject to static and dynamic loadings; but more than that; she is an expert in a special type of failure. The lecturer in civil and environmental engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville has forged her career around the study of failure mechanism in all its forms: cracking, crumbling, and collapsing.
This coming spring, Dr. Joanne Wilson will retire from her role as Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs. Characteristically, however, she will mark the occasion by holding the door open for a new group of women eager to make their way in STEM. The WiSTEM Scholars and Leadership program, a new initiative at the university, will welcome its pilot cohort of students in the fall of 2020. In honor of Wilson, the first cohort will be named the D. Joanne Wilson WiSTEM Scholarship and Leadership Cohort.
UW-Platteville students recently took part in the second annual Holiday Toy Hack. During the event, students from across campus joined together in Engineering Hall and made adaptations to toys so that they can be used by children with special needs.
Dr. Mesut Muslu is a professor and interim chair of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at UW-Platteville. He is also a professor of sustainability and renewable energy systems.
An agreement, signed on Thursday, Dec. 5, will offer UW-Platteville Bachelor of Science degrees in mechanical and electrical engineering to more students in the region through UW-Platteville Engineering Partnerships, and makes UW-Whitewater at Rock County an official UW-PEP Site.
UW-Platteville undergraduates have the opportunity to assist in research almost from the moment they arrive, building key skills and gaining real-world experience which helps them stand apart from the crowd.
A chance meeting with a high school math teacher led Dr. Holly Attenborough to pursue the field of mathematics. She joined UW-Platteville in 2013 as assistant professor of mathematics, and has already earned several recognitions, including the 2018 UW-Platteville Early Career Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence and the 2017 UW System Wisconsin Teaching Fellow Award.
In a move that will benefit students from both institutions, Madison College and UW-Platteville signed three partnership agreements today that will provide clear pathways and transfer opportunities in the areas of engineering, biotechnology and veterinary technician.
In a unique, collaborative effort, 34 UW-Platteville education students teamed with numerous staff members from Highland (Wisconsin) Elementary School to offer Highland Family STEM Night for more than 100 students and their families at the elementary school.
With a click of a button, UW-Platteville Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Dr. Xiaoguang Ma and his team of students are transforming a local elementary school classroom into a smart classroom with the latest wireless technologies.
Dr. Pamela Tas is an assistant professor of sustainability and renewable energy systems and the SRES program coordinator. She teaches classes related to the utilization of plant-based hydrocarbons as a more sustainable means to societies’ energy use.
While the Internet of Things continues to expand at a rapid rate, Dr. Molly Gribb, dean of the College of Engineering, Mathematics and Science, is leading efforts to position UW-Platteville at the forefront of this cutting-edge field. Gribb was recently appointed as a founding board member of the Wisconsin IoT Council, a professional membership-driven organization that promotes Wisconsin and the Midwest as the epicenter for IoT and drives technological advancement in the region.
The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering received eight new pieces of GPS equipment from Seiler Instrument, a value of $175,000. Seiler Instrument is lending the programs four resource grade GPS units and four survey grade units for the 2019-20 academic year.
Dr. Hanwan Jiang, assistant professor of civil engineering at UW-Platteville, is using an innovative idea to research bridge safety that uses ultrasound to detect the early-stage damage in a non-destructive way.
The College of Engineering, Mathematics and Science is building its relationship with KEEN – a nationwide network of engineering institutions dedicated to advancing engineering education – and the collaboration brings many benefits to students and faculty, according to Dr. Jessica Fick, associate professor of mechanical engineering.
Professor Stephen Swallen, of UW-Platteville Baraboo Sauk County, will be joined by Serge Koenig, of the Sauk County Department of Conservation, Planning, and Zoning to discuss their ongoing study of surface water quality in Sauk County at the campus library on Friday, Oct. 18 at 12:30 p.m.
In recent years, the United States has witnessed a boom in solar energy use, as trends toward sustainable living grow. But how environmentally-friendly is solar technology when it reaches the end of its life cycle? That is the question Dr. Ilke Celik, assistant professor of sustainability and renewable energy systems, and a team of researchers are hoping to address.
The next big idea in green energy may stem from a common Midwestern weed called pennycress, and faculty and students at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville are contributing to this cutting-edge research.
Two alumni and one student earned the esteemed Alliant Energy Erroll B. Davis, Jr. Academic Achievement Award. Dan Gnadt, Julian Rodriguez and Luis Balleno Jr. will be honored for their academic achievements and university involvement at UW-Madison on Friday, Oct. 25.
Dr. Jodi Prosise recently joined UW-Platteville as the new chair of the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. She brings with her a longtime passion and interest in the idea of empowerment through technology, or, improving the lives of individuals with disabilities – specifically in low-income areas – through designing and building assistive technology.
UW-Platteville Civil Engineering Professor Dr. Danny Xiao is interested in all the ways concrete fails. His research focuses on making one of the most important building materials on Earth even better. This summer, Xiao worked on a Wisconsin DOT-funded study to discover the most effective combination of penetrating sealant, application method and application time.
This summer, UW-Platteville senior Anna Drazkowski traveled to Tampa, Florida, with Dr. Yan Wu, associate professor of engineering physics to attend the American Society for Engineering Education Conference to present their research. Their work, “Standard Based Grading in Introductory Physics Laboratory Courses” earned the best paper award in the Division of Experimentation and Laboratory-Oriented Studies.
Beginning this year, students will have access to fresh lettuce, grown on campus year-round through a new hydroponics student-managed business. Located in Glenview Commons, the 1,500-square-foot hydroponics space, built and operated solely by students, will supply nearly all lettuce used by UW-Platteville Dining Services.
Dr. Raymond Pugh is one of two UW-Platteville faculty members to receive the Teaching and Technology Center’s 2019 Innovations in Technology for Teaching and Learning Award, providing him funds to purchase a new 3D printer.
Dr. Soma Chattopadhyay, University of Wisconsin-Platteville associate professor of chemistry, is introducing her proposal, integrating computational chemistry into the undergraduate chemistry curriculum with the web-based interface program WebMO.
Kim Sargent has been supporting women students in the College of Engineering, Mathematics and Science at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville for about eight years. She is now being honored with the university’s 2019 Carol Sue Butts Woman of the Year Award. Named for the provost emeritus and former interim chancellor who served at UW-Platteville from 1998 until 2010, the award recognizes female employees and students who make a difference in the lives of women.
The University of Wisconsin-Platteville will host the 29th annual Wisconsin Space Conference on Thursday, Aug. 15 in Velzy Commons, Ullsvik Hall. The event will bring together faculty, industry, students and community members from across the state with a common interest in aerospace.
Sixteen University of Wisconsin-Platteville students recently collaborated with teaching staff at Dodgeville (Wis.) Elementary School to present Family Math Night for students and their families. It was the first time the program has been held for students from Early Childhood through fifth grade.
When Sean Hayes heard he’d been selected for the 2019 Dawn Drake Excellence in Distance Education Scholarship, the impact went well beyond finances.
University of Wisconsin-Platteville faculty recently participated in Declaration Day at Racine Unified School District’s Park High School, helping students explore science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields and careers.
For exemplary contributions to Wisconsin innovation, the University of Wisconsin-Platteville's Caleb Dykema will receive the 2019 Carl E. Gulbrandsen Innovator of the Year Award.
Health care is an innovative and demanding field, but the work goes far beyond doctors and nurses. There are hundreds of people behind the scenes in business management, research, and more who drive progress.
A group of University of Wisconsin-Platteville mechanical engineering students have spent the past semester tackling a big problem that stems from a rather small animal – the zebra mussel.
The online Master of Science in Engineering program at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville has been ranked in the 2019 Most Affordable Master’s in Engineering Manage
Two University of Wisconsin-Platteville faculty members are being recognized for their innovative ideas to improve living and working environments in Wisconsin.
After earning her Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of South Carolina, LeAnn Clark thought she’d finished her education. She’d secured a job at Boeing, the world's largest aerospace company, as a mechanical systems design engineer.
The second annual Pioneer Creative Activities and Research Day was held on April 24 and showcased the creative and scholarly activities of University of Wisconsin-Platteville students, faculty and staff.
Sixteen University of Wisconsin-Platteville elementary education students recently led “Power Up Your Math Skills Night” for students at Darlington (Wisconsin) Elementary School and their families.
The University of Wisconsin-Platteville will host its sixth Senior Design Open House on Wednesday, May 15 at the Markee Pioneer Student Center. Nearly 220 students from the College of Engineering, Mathematics and Science are participating in the event.
Seth Oren, a junior agriculture and technology education major at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, has helped to expand a branch of the agriculture technology company Crop Search into his hometown of Edgerton, Wisconsin.
From an early age, Marissa Wildeck was fascinated by how her parents and contractors seemed to know what would work for each component of her family’s many house projects. This interest inspired her to pursue a career in engineering and she took the first step toward that goal with the University of Wisconsin-Platteville.
Caleb Dykema, a senior mechanical engineering major at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, is currently working on advancing his second prototype of 1Swipe.
Daniel Zellmer, a junior software engineering major at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, has been researching the topic of emotion mining on Twitter.
More than 325 middle school girls from across the tri-state area gathered at UW-Platteville on Feb. 26 and March 26 to explore careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Two University of Wisconsin-Platteville students are contributing to research on the properties of bentonite, a naturally-occurring clay that is used in the construction of waste barriers.
Thirty-two University of Wisconsin-Platteville elementary education majors recently led meaningful activities at Family Math and Reading Night for more than 100 elementary students from Platteville’s Westview Elementary School and Neal Wilkins Early Learning Center and their pare
University of Wisconsin-Platteville student research teams have been experimenting to find the limitations of the First Contact™ adhesive polymer, which is already being used by NASA to clean its astronomical equipment, like telescopes, mirrors and lenses.
The successful University of Wisconsin-Platteville Engineering Partnerships program will continue in the Fox Valley, UW-Platteville Dennis J. Shields and UW Oshkosh Chancellor Andy Leavitt announced at a joint news conference Friday in Menasha, Wisconsin.
Two University of Wisconsin-Platteville chemistry students will present their research project in Madison, Wisconsin, at the 16th annual Research in the Rotunda on April 17. Student researchers JaLynn Schuh, a senior from Plymouth, Wisconsin, and Hyeong Cheol Yoo, a junior from Seoul, South Korea, are collaborating with Dr.
The University of Wisconsin-Platteville is collaborating with the Platteville School District in teaching students computer science.
Donna Gavin, senior lecturer in the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville has been accepted into the Amazon Future Engineer program for her work with the Girls Who Code Club.
Students and faculty from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville presented at the Regional Materials and Manufacturing Network (RM2N) symposium on Jan 16.
In early January 2019, seven members of the University of Wisconsin-Platteville’s Engineers Without Borders chapter traveled to the community of Chinderi in Ghana for three weeks. Chinderi is about six to seven hours from Accra, the capital of Ghana.
During her time with UW-Platteville, Autumn Fisher has played many different roles—including one she still performs since graduating in the spring of 2017.
Dr. James Hamilton has created First Contact Polymer (FCP), a peel-able coating that cleans and protects optical surfaces like those on giant telescopes and satellites.