At UWM’s Connected Systems Institute a steady stream of vials filled with colored water zip around a “testbed” production line. It’s a mini-factory floor for researching automated manufacturing technologies and developing a workforce that can use those innovations.
But just like in real-world factories, the CSI production line may turn out “fails” – vials that are the wrong color, for example, or don’t contain the right amount of water. Or equipment may malfunction, bringing the process to a costly stand still.
Technologies, such as artificial intelligence, have the potential to find and fix such problems by tracking reams of data that a production line produces, said Shamar Webster, who has been working on AI and Cloud development at CSI for the past two years, while finishing his master’s degree in computer science.
Over the summer, Webster, now a program manager at CSI, enlisted two assistants to use Microsoft Power BI, software that can visualize the data.
Even more impressive is that Moreno and Anderson began participating in this engineering research before they had even stepped foot in a UWM classroom.
Tops in undergraduate research
Twenty-two intrepid incoming freshmen, including five from the College of Engineering & Applied Science, accepted the challenge, offered by UR@UWM program, part of the Office of Undergraduate Research.
The recent high school grads interviewed for the available positions and then worked on a project with a faculty member or research associate in an area related to their intended majors, said Kyla Esguerra, deputy director of the Office of Undergraduate Research.
Besides Moreno and Anderson, the three other incoming freshmen researchers were:
- Tyler Klute and David Alonso, worked with Pradeep Rohatgi, professor, materials science & engineering.
- John “Noah” Weishan, worked with Jerald Thomas, assistant professor, computer science.
Fighting fear of the unknown
Though interested in engineering, both Moreno and Anderson worried that they had too vague an idea of what college and a career would be like. So, they decided to leap in.
“I felt like I was behind in what I should know coming to college,” said Moreno, a recent graduate of Lake Mills High School. “I didn’t know what it would be like. So, when I got this email, I jumped at the opportunity.”
Lorenzo Moreno and Peyton Anderson, incoming freshmen in mechanical engineering, built and maintained a dashboard that can give the testbed operators an at-a-glance status.
Anderson, who recently graduated from MPS’s Ronald Reagan High School, said he was eager to start learning and investigating his career options in engineering.
“This opportunity was kind of a blessing.” Anderson said. “I was able to just come along with no experience and they’re teaching me all these things.”
Real engineering problems
To begin, Webster had the interns spend time with him, operating and troubleshooting the CSI manufacturing line. Later, when they learned why curating performance data is so important for automation, it made sense to them.
For Anderson, figuring out a way to log the exported data more quickly, was his top achievement because he wasn’t just using the software, he was figuring out how to get the most from it.
“You don’t just want to collect data and create visuals,” he said. “You want to learn what’s going on from the data. If the only information shows a 40% fail rate – that’s a fact with no context. It was a good lesson for us.”
Toward self-assurance
Along with the industry connections they made, Webster said, the first-year student interns gained more than hands-on experience. They learned to manage the fear of failure.
“My main goal was to make sure that they are confident in themselves,” he said. “It’s important for when they ultimately go into the working world.”
And that’s what Moreno considered his summer’s highlight. When a group of professionals from Microsoft and the Wisconsin venture capital firm TitleTown Tech visited, the interns presented their project in person.
“Definitely it was presenting the work that we did to really important people,” Moreno said. “It was just really cool to feel that pride of accomplishment.”