In the Field, at the Keyboard, on the Factory Floor: IMSE Student Masters Varied Interests
A. J. Menefee loves the outdoors, especially hunting, baseball, and golf. “Baseball is a family addiction,” he admits. And golf? “I always have my clubs in the car,” he says, “and, as time permits, I play a quick round.” Fortunately for Menefee, those interests will hold him in good stead next year when he moves to Michigan to begin his new job.
Menefee will be working for a steel foundry he collaborated with last summer while doing research for his master's degree. In a project sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy and supervised by IMSE Associate Professor Frank Peters, Menefee is examining the causes and degrees of variability in metal castings. “Castings come to the cleaning process with varying degrees of quality,” Menefee explains. “We’re trying to quantify this variability, something that has been attempted in the past, but never on such a large scale.”
Being involved in research has always been an integral part of Menefee's education at Iowa State. In his junior and senior years, he assisted Peters on another DOE project on ergonomic issues in the steel casting industry. That research took Menefee to several steel casting manufacturing companies across the nation, where he gained first-hand knowledge of industry operations, including the opportunity to interact directly with factory floor employees and managers on how best to implement changes to boost productivity.
While his undergraduate research experience encouraged him to enter graduate school, Menefee's drive to excel comes from elsewhere. “I’ve had excellent courses, and working with Dr. Peters has benefited me enormously,” says Menefee. Besides, a streak of stubbornness—or “determination,” as he prefers to call it—has helped Menefee to focus on the big picture.
“A. J. was one of the students on the front line with the industrial partners collecting the data,” recalls Peters. Graduate students like Menefee, according to Peters, play a pivotal role in analyzing this data. Students develop a better understanding of just what the numbers mean and how they can be used to develop solutions for industry.
The DOE project is an ongoing effort, in which teams of undergraduate and graduate students have contributed their knowledge and efforts in the past to help the steel-casting industry enhance productivity. The lesson of benefiting from past successes and contributing to accumulated knowledge is not lost on Menefee, who, in addition to his love for the outdoors, enjoys classical music and plays the piano.
“I enjoy learning a challenging piece of music,” he remarks. “Also, listening to works which are centuries old gives me a great feeling of accomplishment”—not unlike, perhaps, the satisfaction that comes from tackling complex engineering problems and adding to a body of knowledge that aids the growth of industry.
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