In this video, new graduate Isaac Gonzalez, BSE Mechanical Engineer, talks about how UWM’s Student Success Talent Pipeline Initiative helped him secure a paid internship with Molson Coors while he was in college.
Hear from Gonzalez and other new grads across campus as they recall the people and programs that contributed to their success at UWM and what they’ll miss most about the university.
Before he completed his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering, Eric Tutkowski had already accepted a position at Eaton Corporation. He is just one of the many December 2022 graduates who had kicked off their careers before commencement.
Classwork is only part of our students’ successes. Many work internships at local businesses or Fortune 500 companies, develop relationships with professionals, and tailor their experiences to the careers they seek.
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Congratulations to UWM alumnus and Microsoft chairman and CEO Satya Nadella (’90 MS Computer Science). The Wall Street journal reported that Drucker Institute (a unit of Claremont Graduate School) ranked Microsoft No. 1 in their annual Management Top 250 ranking. The institute has ranked the tech giant as the best-run U.S. company for the past three years.
Microsoft stood out for its employee engagement, innovation, social responsibility, and financial strength.
Entrepreneur Jesse DePinto (’13 BS Mechanical Engineering) co-founded Frontdesk in 2017, a privately held company that rents short-term accommodations to travelers in 34 U.S. cities. In August, he assumed the role of CEO.
The company’s recent headlines include being listed on the Inc. 5000 list, marking it as one the fasted growing U.S. companies.
In 2020, DePinto and other entrepreneurs who graduated from UWM’s College of Engineering & Applied Science spoke on campus about how engineering led them to launch their own startup companies. DePinto attributed his success to UWM’s Startup Challenge.
Congratulations to College of Engineering & Applied Science alumni Ben Caya and Dennis Webb. The two are among the 13 individuals and organizations chosen by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Alumni Association to receive awards in recognition of their outstanding contributions to the university and community. All honorees will be officially recognized during a ceremony at Milwaukee’s Pfister Hotel on Feb. 24, 2023.
Ben Caya (’12 BSE Mechanical Engineering, left)
President, Spike Brewing
Graduate of the Last Decade (GOLD) Award
While he was a UWM student, Caya founded what would become Spike Brewing. The company, which sells commercial-grade homebrewing equipment, has customers in more than 20 countries and has been named among the top 500 fastest-growing companies on the Inc. 5000 list. Caya has hired several UWM alumni over the years and has provided students with internships and hands-on projects. At UWM’s 2020 Milwaukee Engineering Research Conference, Caya shared his story with the college’s students, faculty, alumni and industry partners.
Dennis Webb (’71 BS Materials Engineering, right)
President, Sage Water
Exemplary Alumni Service Award
After a 29-year career at Badger Meter, during which he served numerous roles, including vice president of customer solutions, sales and marketing, and engineering, Webb formed Sage Water, a consulting firm that focuses on water management issues. He serves on the board of directors for the UWM Foundation and the UWM Research Foundation. He and his wife, Susan Webb (’74 BA Art History) have included the College of Engineering & Applied Science in their estate plans and they have generously supported Milwaukee Panther Athletics.
All 13 honorees of UWM Alumni Awards were chosen based on their outstanding professional achievements, civic involvement, and partnerships with the university. More.
Marissa Jablonski (‘15 PhD Civil & Environmental Engineering, ’09 MS Civil & Environmental Engineering) discussed the impact of buying used clothes, with TMJ-4. Jablonski is executive director of the Freshwater Collaborative of Wisconsin.
“When you think about the production of a new T-shirt, it uses about 2,700 liters of water,” Jablonski said. “I think in the U.S. we’re decreasing the stigma of buying used clothes, finally, because we are such mass consumers. And it’s helping decrease our water energy, impact on planet earth.” More.
UWM engineering graduate students Asif Al Zubayer Swapnil (left, mechanical engineering) and Shamar Rhadre Webster (right, computer science) staffed UWM’s Connected Systems Institute (CSI) booth at the 31st annual Rockwell Automation Fair in Chicago Nov. 16-17, an event that showcased the value of connecting enterprises end-to-end to deliver data-fueled insights.
UWM’s booth was featured prominently within Rockwell’s Digital Workforce area at an event that attracted more than 10,000 visitors.
The UWM team created a live stream and digital twin of the CSI testbed for demonstrations to a crowd that included technology professionals, industrial automation leaders, current and potential industry partners, employees of other academic institutions, and students.
Swapnil says visitors were very interested in how CSI uses a complete industrial manufacturing system (consisting of SAP, PLEX MES, and an advanced manufacturing testbed hosted in a fully featured industrial network) to help students learn how industry 4.0 technologies work. Visitors were also interested in using digital twin technology for teaching in classrooms.
In November, Google’s North American Developer Communities team flew Pranay Mandadapu, a UWM computer science master’s degree student, to their California headquarters to take part in North America Connect. The three-day event featured talks by Google computer scientists involved in Google maps, Android development and other Google technologies and was attended by about 200 students from the U.S. and Canada, all of whom are leading Google Developers Student Groups.
Personnel at Google’s developer communities knew of Mandadapu, an international student, because he recently started the Google Developers Student Group at UWM, a student organization for software developers who want to learn programming technologies.
Crucial to getting the student organization off the ground, Mandadapy said, was the encouragement he received from of Susan McRoy, professor, computer science and department chair, and Christine Cheng, associate professor, computer science.
“I wouldn’t have started the developer group without the support of faculty from computer science,” he said. “I strongly believe that the support I got at UWM is unique.”
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Johnson Controls announced in November that they had named Lei Schlitz (’98 PhD Mechanical Engineering) president of Global Products.
A researcher focused on heat transfer, Schlitz began her career at Eaton Corporation’s Innovation Center before taking positions at GE Global Research Center, GE Industrial Systems and Siemens. She joined Illinois Tool Works in 2008 as vice president of research and development and was appointed executive vice president in 2015. Under her leadership, ITW was recognized in 2017 as “Best in Class” by Food Equipment Magazine and as the recipient of EPA’s Energy Star Partner of the Year Sustained Excellence Award.
In 2018, Schlitz received a Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award from UWM’s Alumni Association.
In 2021, Schlitz and her husband, Daniel J. Schlitz (’92 MS Engineering), established the Diane K. Schlitz ’59 and Harold L. Schlitz ’59 Memorial Engineering Fund. The fund supports pre-college programs and activities offered by UWM’s College of Engineering & Applied Science that encourage participants to enroll in UWM’s engineering or other STEM programs.
On Nov. 10, UW System presented Wilkistar Otieno, associate professor and department chair, industrial & manufacturing engineering, with a 2022 Outstanding Women of Color in Education Award. Now in its 27th year, this high honor his been given to more than 400 faculty, staff, students, or community members in recognition of their achievements in advancing equity and inclusion for people of color within the UW System as well as communities across Wisconsin.
Otieno has a passion for teaching and inspiring students. She is a faculty mentor to five student organizations, recipient of a $1 million National Science Foundation S-STEM grant, and a long-time faculty mentor of the STEM INSPIRE Wisconsin Alliance for Minority Participation Program.