Fasenmyer Conference by the Numbers

YOUTH OUTREACH EVENTS BACK ON

AFTER A PANDEMIC-FORCED HIATUS, the college’s K-12 outreach programs, including Women in Engineering Day, First LEGO League, and the STEAM Fair, pictured here, returned to in-person formats. Melanie Ford, director of Youth Education Outreach and the Engineering K-12 Outreach Center, was as eager for a return to in-person programming as attendees were. “The best way to ignite a young person’s interest in science, technology, and mathematics,” she said, “is through hands-on educational engagement.” Follow facebook.com/BehrendOutreach to learn about upcoming programs.

FASENMYER CONFERENCE: BY THE NUMBERS

Every Behrend engineering

student is required to complete a senior capstone design experience, demonstrating hands-on design for a real-world application. Students showcase the results of their work at the Richard J. Fasenmyer Engineering Design Conference, held before spring finals each year. Fasenmyer, a 1969 graduate of Penn State, was a longtime supporter of the School of Engineering; he was the founder of RJF International Corp., a world leader in the manufacture and distribution of interior wall coverings, industrial matting products, and specialty films. In 1995—the first conference:  31 Projects presented  17 Projects sponsored by industry  79 Student presenters This year—the 23rd annual conference:

 81 Projects presented  32 Projects sponsored by industry  293 Student presenters  50 Faculty members overseeing

projects

READ MORE ON PAGE 8

A Truck-Lite recruiter talks with students at a Penn State Behrend career fair.

TRUCK-LITE HEADQUARTERS MOVES TO KNOWLEDGE PARK Truck-Lite Co., LLC, a worldwide leader in LED lighting systems for commercial vehicles, has relocated its headquarters to Behrend’s Knowledge Park, where the company will have better access to engineering and technology talent as it prepares for the transportation industry’s shift to electric vehicles.

“As the transportation industry shifts toward electric vehicles, developing new innovations for customers relies on our ability to attract, develop, and retain qualified talent,” said Brian Kupchella, CEO of Clarience Technologies, the parent company of Truck-Lite. “Relocating our headquarters to Knowledge Park and expanding our association with Behrend creates a strong pipeline of future electrical engineers, data scientists and business leaders.”

The company believes the future research and development capabilities needed to design components in nextgeneration electric vehicles will require its workforce to have deeper expertise in electrical engineering, software programming, and advanced analytics. By locating its new headquarters at Knowledge Park, the company will have more access to a specialized talent pool.

The move also increases opportunities for Truck-Lite to engage in Penn State Behrend’s Open Lab environment, which provides access to student and new graduate talent, faculty expertise, and facilities. Truck-Lite is building two research labs in Behrend’s Advanced Manufacturing and Innovation Center: a 1,745-square-foot product-modeling lab and a 4,075-square-foot photometric testing facility, which will be used to study the light emitted by LEDs, lamps, and other devices.

Seat of POWER

Alumnus helps engineer LiveWire line of electric motorcycles for Harley-Davidson

Shortly after graduating from Penn State

Behrend in 2006 with a degree in Electrical Engineering Technology, Isaac Aunkst was working as an engineering contractor for GE Transportation Systems when he found an area of work that lit him up (pun intended)—electric propulsion and motors/ power-train technology.

After GE, Aunkst worked at General Dynamics Electric Boat, helping to develop the next generation of propulsion drives in submarines for the U.S. Navy. His work often took him to Milwaukee, the hometown of Harley-Davidson (H-D), maker of the iconic motorcycle. So H-D was already on Aunkst’s radar when he learned the company had released its first electric vehicle (EV) prototype–Project LiveWire—and was looking for engineers to work in the EV technology space. He was all in.

“I learned early on that I have to work on things that interest me—big things, fun things, like trains, submarines and motorcycles,” Aunkst said.

H-D announced Project Livewire in June of 2014, and Aunkst signed on as a senior electrical design engineer four months later. At first, he was responsible for design and delivery of LiveWire’s motor and controller. After the company started production of the motorcycle in 2019, his work expanded to include the complete vehicle.

“Today, I’m responsible for the engineering and technical support for the manufacturing and service of LiveWire vehicles that are customer-owned,” he said. “I use this ‘current product’ role to gather feedback, which is then routed to designers working on future EV products.”

LiveWire, which began as a division of H-D, is now becoming its own entity. In 2021, the company announced the launch of the LiveWire all-electric motorcycle brand to be focused initially on the urban market, cementing the obvious: LiveWire is not your dad’s Harley.

ISAAC AUNKST ’06

ON STRADDLING FINE LINES

Harley-Davidson has a 120-year history of success and brand strength that makes it an American icon. Known for its powerful gleaming chrome machines with rumbling V-twin engines that rattle windows, it’s almost unimaginable that H-D would consider an electric model.

And, yet, who better to take the lead and define cool in the EV sector than the maker of one of the most desirable motorcycle brands in the world?

LiveWire motorcycles are sleek, stylish, futuristic-sounding street bikes made to zip through cities. They don’t look or sound anything like a Harley, but they are eye- and ear-catching, nonetheless.

Aunkst said that sound was an important consideration in designing LiveWire motorcycles, as it is one of the most distinc-

Isaac Aunkst ’06

DEGREE: Electrical

Engineering Technology

HOMETOWN: Edinboro,

Pennsylvania

CURRENT CITY OF RESIDENCE: Milwaukee FAMILY: Wife, Kelly, and two

young sons

TITLE: Technical Lead,

Current Product and Value Engineering, EV Platform at LiveWire

WEBSITE: LiveWire.com

tive features of a traditional H-D bike. It’s hard to ignore—or talk over—a Harley.

“An electric bike will not produce the sound of a traditional Harley,” Aunkst said.

But the sound LiveWire bikes do make is cool, and it’s 100 percent authentic. Visit LiveWire.com to see—and hear—for yourself. Be sure to turn up the volume.

FROM PAPER TO PRODUCT SUPPORT

One of the things Aunkst enjoys most about his work at LiveWire is being involved in the “full product lifecycle experience.”

“I have taken a motorcycle design all the way from a ‘paper study,’ where every part and function is just a concept, through writing the requirements, setting the specifications, prototyping, testing, tuning, production, and, finally, providing product support for customers,” he said. “This full experience keeps me engaged and excited about the work I do every day.”

LiveWire recently debuted its second model—the S2 Del Mar. The initial batch of 100 custom-built “launch edition” machines sold out in eighteen minutes. There’s a waiting list for regular production models, which are expected to arrive in the spring of 2023. They are being manufactured in H-D’s Pennsylvania plant.

Aunkst plans to have one in his garage soon.

“Harley-Davidson and LiveWire are very supportive and encouraging of getting employees, especially engineers, on their motorcycles,” he said. “We ride the same bikes that we design and manufacture. I’ve owned three H-D bikes over the last seven years, and a new LiveWire is in my near future.”

OPEN LAB

LEARNING EXPERIENCES SHOWCASE STUDENT INGENUITY

More than 280 students presented their capstone projects during the School of Engineering’s Richard J. Fasenmyer Engineering Design Conference, held on campus this spring. The projects included a cold-weather pickleball and a titanium-alloy container for the core samples NASA plans to collect from the Psyche asteroid.

“Student research teams work closely with business and industry sponsors to develop creative solutions to engineering design challenges,” said Dr. Tim Kurzweg, director of the School of Engineering. “The capstone process distills what students have learned in class and in the lab and applies that knowledge to integrated engineering projects.”

This year’s conference included projects sponsored by Northrop Grumman, Parker LORD Corporation, Wabtec, and Westinghouse Electric, among other companies. NASA funded six teams, each of which advanced an element of the Psyche mission, which will study the core of a metal-rich asteroid orbiting between Mars and Jupiter.

A SPACE CAPSULE

The Psyche spacecraft is scheduled to launch in August and arrive at the asteroid in 2026. Scientists hope to photograph craters on the surface of Psyche to learn more about the asteroid’s origins. Some believe it to be a failed planet.

Four Behrend students—Colton Hervatin, Easton Hooks, Jacob Sampsell, and Thomas Zbezinski—designed a containment vessel for a follow-up mission, when NASA plans to collect core samples from Psyche and return them to Earth.

“We had to design a vessel that can endure a harsh environment,” Sampsell said. “It also has to protect the samples on their return to Earth. It will take NASA several years to collect that material. We don’t want all that effort to be wasted because of a crack in the container.”

With help from their faculty adviser, Dr. Charlotte de Vries, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, the team designed a vessel that can hold twelve rods packed with core samples. To close it, they designed a lid with a tucked hinge. They didn’t have to look far for a working model: The charging case for their Apple AirPods closes the same way.

A COLD-WEATHER PICKLEBALL

A second team of students—Tristan Grimm, Amy Nolte, and David Peterson —designed a product for use in another challenging outdoor environment: Minnesota’s pickleball courts.

The students created a cold-weather pickleball. The project’s sponsor, GAMMA Sports, believes the new material—a blend of polypropylene and high-density polyethylene—could extend the northern season for the sport, which combines elements of tennis, badminton, and Ping-Pong.

Pickleballs tend to crack in cold weather. The ball designed by the Behrend team is more durable, due to both the material blend and the decision to spin-weld the ball’s halves.

The spin-weld eliminates the seam, where any variation makes the ball vulnerable to cracking.

“It also makes the ball bounce faster,” Grimm said. “Good players are going to notice that.”

The students didn’t know much about pickleball at the start of the project. Neither did their adviser, Dr. Gamini Mendis, assistant professor of engineering. Now, he keeps a paddle in his office.