The future of manufacturing in the valley looks bright as we embrace new methods of production and fabrication. Job opportunities are available for those interested in learning a trade at one of many of the local technical schools or pursuing higher education at Youngstown State University's STEM College. Skills and knowledge are still needed in today's ever-changing world.

Youngstown State University is a valuable resource for students interested in pursuing a college career in some type of manufacturing. The STEM College represents the departments of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Students learn new skills as well as have the opportunity to work on real-life problems. YSU’s faculty and students have even received patents for their inventions--Professor Doug Genna and student Mariah De Furia; Professor Ganesh Kudav; (now retired) and Professor Tom Oder (currently on leave to work at NSF).

YSU provides students with all of the equipment and laboratories necessary to acquire the knowledge needed to succeed. The Science Facility features thirty-one laboratories, including a planetarium, greenhouse, electron microscopy lab and photonics and semiconductor lab. The Technology Facility features ten specialized computer labs. Mathematics has four labs for its students.

YSU is a Foundry Educational Foundation Affiliated school, one of only 33 in North America. FEF is the cast metal industry's educational program at the college level – providing more than $900,000 annual in scholarships and grants to select students and FEF Key Professors. Over the last four academic years, nearly 80 percent of all graduating students who registered with FEF and reported full-time employment took a position in the metal casting industry.

YSU AFS Chapter members and Mechanical Engineering Technology students placed first at the 2019 American Foundry Society Southeast Regional Casting Competition.

The students designed an original 14-inch aluminum alloy wheel, conducted stress and casting simulations in labs at YSU, had the mold printed on YSU’s 3D sand printer at Humtown Products in Leetonia, poured it at YSU’s foundry in Bliss Hall and submitted it in the competition. Submissions were judged on complexity/difficulty, match to submitted design, casting quality and originality.

“We wanted to cast a wheel with an eye-catching design that our team members would be proud to display on our own vehicles,” the team said in its written submission. “Typically, wheels are cast in low pressure permanent mold, but our team wanted to take on a challenge and cast the wheel using gravity with a sand mold.”

Eric MacDonald, YSU Friedman Chair for Manufacturing, said: “Winning this design competition is a testament to the advanced manufacturing at YSU. Only two universities in the US have the sand printer required for this project.”

The team’s advisor is Jason Walker, assistant professor, Manufacturing Engineering. Professor Brian Vuksanovich coordinates YSU’s foundry operations.

YSU students reverse engineered an escutcheon plate – an antique hand-crafted decorative article from the renovation of a historic Youngstown building.

According to the students, “The goal of this casting was to reproduce an identical part in a way that was both innovative and economical.”

To achieve their goal, the students utilized a variety of advanced manufacturing techniques. First, they used a 3D scanner to generate a computer model of the remaining non-damaged escutcheon plate from the renovation site. Next, the students designed a complex mold using Solidworks. The students took a unique approach to the design saying, “The idea for the mold design was to create a stackable 3D printed mold, which could be used to create two to twenty individual plates.” Ultimately, a stack of eight plates was cast. The mold was 3D printed out of sand by Humtown Products in Leetonia, OH. Finally, the mold was assembled and cast by the team in the Bliss Hall Foundry at YSU by melting aluminum and pouring the molten metal into the mold.

The team included YSU AFS Student Chapter members Justin Stellmar, Rachel Hart, Dominic Clutter, and Jacob Kwolek. YSU Manufacturing Engineering student Brendan Thoreson supported the team with 3D scanning. Special thanks to Jennifer Kirkpatrick, YSU Studio Art Support Specialist.

Team advisor: Dr. Jason Walker, assistant professor, Manufacturing Engineering. Professor Brian Vuksanovich (Mechanical Engineering Technology) also supervised the projects described above.

• YSU offers one of the only Manufacturing Engineering programs in the country.

• We were only the second university in the United States to be able to claim having all seven Additive Manufacturing Processes.

• YSU Manufacturing Engineering faculty have brought in nearly $20-million of advanced manufacturing equipment and research projects to support manufacturing education in the region and to provide manufacturing-related research experiences for students across many engineering and technology disciplines.

• Students who have worked on manufacturing-related projects have found internships and employment at prestigious companies including: NASA, GE Aerospace, Makerbot, Formlabs, and Aptiv.

• YSU has a recently formed chapter of the American Foundry Society (AFS). That organization is the leading professional organization in the United States for foundry professionals. In the chapter’s first two years of existence, under the leadership of Dr. Jason Walker, students from YSU entered into the national “Casting of the Year” competition and won first place each time.