Other Academic Resources

Library Resources

The Walter Schroeder Library is a service-oriented facility committed to providing scholarly, educational, and other types of information resources and services to the MSOE community-including students, faculty and staff-in response to the educational, research, administrative and social concerns of the university. The collection consists of print books, e-books, print journals, e-journals, newspapers, master’s theses, microforms, selected senior design projects, electronic databases and media programs. The library houses a number of special collections, including the Fred Portz, Sr. Special Chemistry Collection and a popular movie DVD collection. The library’s catalog, Horizon, can be accessed via the Internet. The library’s website is available at www.msoe.edu/library.

In addition to maintaining its collection of materials, the library offers a number of other services, including interlibrary loan, database training, library instruction, the ASTM standards delivery service, and extensive research and documentation help, which includes access to the Refworks bibliographic management service. The library provides access to several bibliographic and full-text databases, available both on campus and remotely. Electronic books and journals are also made available by the library via the campus network and the library website. Through its extensive database services, the library offers access to more than 90,000 electronic journals and more than 100,000 e-books. Important database services include IEEE/IEL, ebrary, ScienceDirect, JSTOR, EI Compendex, and a variety of databases from ProQuest and EbscoHost. A popular paperback book lounge area, an elegant conference meeting room (the Schroeder Room), group study rooms, a digital photocopier/printer, Internet research desktop and laptop computers and free printing are available, as well as food and beverage vending machines and café seating. Study rooms and several study areas are networked and the library is wireless. A math/physics drop-in tutoring lab, sponsored by the Learning Resource Center, is hosted by the library. The library also houses archives that document the history of the university. In cooperation with the Center for BioMolecular Modeling (CBM), the library additionally maintains a unique Model Lending Library that makes available on loan several of the physical biomolecular models produced by the CBM. The library regularly features unique exhibits.

Applied Research

Main Office: Allen-Bradley Hall of Science, S-149
Phone: (414) 277-7195
Fax: (414) 277-7470

Applied Technology CenterTM (ATC)

MSOE’s philosophy of an applications-oriented education - a full theoretical base plus hands-on technological experience - is exemplified by its research arm, the Applied Technology Center™. The ATC is well known for its success in the transfer of technology from the laboratory to the marketplace so that new discoveries and inventions strengthen economic development, protect the environment and benefit human life. The ATC uses MSOE staff, faculty and student expertise to solve technological problems confronting business and industry. There are a number of opportunities for students to contribute to important cutting-edge developments while interacting with faculty, staff, industry and government. Students fulfill the roles of research assistants as part-time or summer employees.

The Applied Technology Center undertakes hundreds of projects annually supporting business, industry and governmental sectors with research, design, development and evaluation of products, processes and systems. Staff can construct and evaluate prototypes and assist in providing technology transfer, helping to fulfill the global objectives of applying engineering talents for the betterment of life for all people.

Some of the areas include:

• Center for BioMolecular Modeling
• Students Understanding eNergy (SUN) Project
• Rapid Prototyping Center
• Fluid Power Institute™
• Engineering Research Center for Compact and Efficient Fluid Power¹
• Clinical and Translational Science Institute²
• Photonics and Applied Optics Center
• Construction Science and Engineering Center
• Center for Sustainability
• Professional Education
• Wisconsin Energy Research Consortium³
• Institutional Review Board (IRB)

¹ _{With University of Minnesota, Purdue University, Georgia Tech, University of Illinois, Vanderbilt University, North Carolina A&T.}

² _{With Medical College of Wisconsin, Marquette University, UW-Milwaukee, Froedtert Hospital, Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, Milwaukee VA Medical Center and BloodCenter of Wisconsin.}

³ _{With Marquette University, UW-Milwaukee, UW-Madison and several industrial partners}

The Center for BioMolecular Modeling creates unique physical models of molecular structures using rapid prototyping and animation technologies. The center works with research scientists to create custom models of the proteins whose structures they are investigating. The center also works closely with educators at both the secondary and post-secondary levels to create innovative products that make the molecular world real for students. The center is unique in the world, bringing together the disciplines of engineering, structural biology and computer visualization.

The Students Understanding eNergy (SUN) Project focuses upon biological energy. Innovative instructional materials useful in teaching energy-related topics at the high school and undergraduate levels are being used and evaluated. The many analogies between the hydrogen fuel cell and the biological processes of photosynthesis and cellular respiration are highlighted.

Rapid Prototyping Center (RPC) offers students opportunities to work with faculty, staff and a consortium of client-members (such as Bombardier Recreational Products and Kohler Co.) to reduce product development cycle time and develop products using the technology of rapid prototyping/additive manufacturing. Rapid Prototyping (RP) is a process that enables a 3D object to be created quickly and automatically from computer data. MSOE is the only university in the world to have multiple machines that use each of the five leading types of RP techniques.

The center can create detailed 3D digital files of objects up to-and including-full-size vehicles using unique hand-held laser scanners. A recent major project resulted in creating all the physical parts of a full-size off-road vehicle.

Rapid Prototyping Research continues to advance the state-of-the-art in additive technologies and hybrid fabrication in a range of areas including medical, aerospace, fluid power, metal fabrication, nanotech, biotech and biomolecular. Emerging RP-structures and processes developed in the RP research laboratory are pushing the envelope of traditional manufacturing to new levels. Rapid prototyping research is involved in several programs targeting the low-cost production of advanced microdevices for medical and aerospace applications including stents and microrocket nozzles.

There is significant activity in novel internally structured solid objects and advanced high-resolution metal casting processes. With the additive nature of Solid Freeform Fabrication it is possible to create structures never thought possible, such as complex, three dimensional lattice structures.

Fluid Power Institute™ (FPI), one of the first centers of its kind in the country, remains a pioneer in research, mechatronics and fluid power education. Through its state-of-the-art facilities it conducts a variety of performance, endurance and environmental evaluations of components and systems. FPI also performs component and system design, modeling and simulation, system integration and prototyping, and develops and delivers various educational programs. A $5 million endowment from the estate of Otto J. Maha provides the potential for continued advancement of fluid power research and education.

FPI uses an interdisciplinary workforce comprised of faculty and staff from various academic departments, and undergraduate and graduate students to conduct fluid power, motion control and related industry projects. FPI’s approach utilizes mechanical, electrical, computer and software engineering along with MSOE’s Rapid Prototyping Center. MSOE is a member of the National Fluid Power Association and supports the activities of the Fluid Power Society and the Fluid Power Educational Foundation.

Undergraduates, in various degree programs, may be hired beginning in their freshman or sophomore years and work 10-20 hours per week during the academic year and full time in the summer.

FPI research assistants acquire two to four years of hands-on experience combined with fluid power courses, giving them excellent problem-solving and interpersonal skills. They often receive job offers upon graduation, from equipment and component manufacturers, OEM’s, distributors and users.

Engineering Research Center for Compact and Efficient Fluid Power (CCEFP) develops compact, next-generation, fluid powered devices - systems that use pressurized liquids or gasses to transmit power, with applications in aerospace, agriculture, construction, health care, manufacturing, mining and transportation. Researchers are developing a range of new technologies, such as hybrid vehicles with efficient fluid power components and wearable fluid-power assisted devices that run for extended periods without external energy sources - ideal mobility aids for people with disabilities or power sources for compact machines such as emergency rescue robots. MSOE is partnered with six other leading universities. The center involves a significant number of students at the partnering universities. There are numerous summer internship opportunities with the more than 50 companies who co-sponsor the center.

The Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI), a regional biomedical collaboration of Medical College of Wisconsin, MSOE and others, involves clinical and translational science. The CTSI collaboration advocates, facilitates and fosters the continuum of research from bench to bedside to community practice. The effort capitalizes on the strong foundation of basic science and community outreach programs within the academic institutions of southeastern Wisconsin. Its goal is to diminish the barriers between disciplines and institutions and to encourage novel approaches to solving complex medical problems that draw on our complementary engineering and biotechnology expertise.

Photonics and Applied Optics Center comprises the Applied Optics Laboratory and the Photonics and Sensors Laboratory. The center’s laboratories are in an extremely low-vibration site that allows performance of the most sensitive optical projects and experiments. The center includes six four-by-eight optical tables and a collection of optical instruments and apparatuses that include picowatt optical power meters, computer-controlled monochromators, a broad array of optical sources including lasers and light-emitting diodes and fiber optic components including an optical time-domain reflectometer.

The center’s support for industry has included consulting projects for small and large local corporations. All of those projects have involved testing of the properties of light-emitting diodes, laser diodes and incandescent light sources, and the design of apparatuses that use those light sources.

The Construction Science and Engineering Center promotes innovation in the building design and construction industries by conducting applied research in structural materials and systems as well as construction methods. The center’s laboratory has approximately 2,100 square feet of floor space and a clear height of 36 feet. There is a large door for truck access and an overhead crane with two 5-ton trolleys. Specialized and adaptable structural testing systems, including a two-channel digitally controlled system, can produce loads from 50 to 500,000 pounds on specimens up to 24 feet tall. The lab has multiple computerized data acquisition capabilities and an extensive array of transducers for measuring force, displacement, and strain. Academic course activities in this laboratory ensure that MSOE graduates understand the physical realities of structural behavior and construction.

The Center for Sustainability works to sustain, improve and promote renewable energy projects on campus and throughout Milwaukee and Wisconsin. Its scope transcends departmental boundaries and involves integration among a broad array of research and educational activities and projects. The Center for Sustainability collaborates with other universities and industry leaders on green building studies and environmental projects such as minimizing waste and improving energy efficiency, among others.

Several new programs are under development dealing with alternative energy sources. A 30 kW solar electric photovoltaic array is installed on a main campus building. Its output is monitored and the information is used in several courses in mechanical, electrical, architectural engineering and physics. In addition, a solar thermal system is installed on the roof of the Margaret Loock Residence Hall. Undergraduate research assistants, working with faculty, may be involved in funded environmental engineering projects.

Professional Education seminars at MSOE, covering topics in fluid power and motion control, offer participants opportunities to explore technological developments and current applications and techniques. The programs are designed to keep practicing engineers abreast of new developments and applications, and also to provide a basic understanding of the technology to new entrants into the field. These hands-on, application-oriented seminars are based on applied research conducted by MSOE scholars using state-of-the-art laboratories with industrial-size equipment.

A state-of-the-art fluid power and motion control training unit has recently been developed. The units are universal, transportable, compact and are designed to be used for professional education programs at the customer’s site. It has been engineered to cover a variety of disciplines including hydraulics, electro-hydraulic, pneumatic, electro-pneumatic and electro-mechanical, and features state-of-the-art software, HMI loaded with MATLAB®/Simulink®, Automation Studio and customer-made software.

MSOE, UW-Milwaukee (UWM), Marquette University and UW-Madison, in partnership with several regional companies and foundations, have formed the Wisconsin Energy Research Consortium (WERC). WERC’s mission is to develop an internationally recognized energy technology research center in Wisconsin and to create an infrastructure and enterprise that is capable of competing at a national level for large-scale energy research projects. The center brings the best area research minds together to advance energy solutions that return benefits for the nation and generations to come. In addition, WERC influences area engineering students to consider careers in the extremely important and interesting fields of sustainability and energy.

Research with Human Participants

The Institutional Review Board (IRB) is an administrative body established to protect the rights and well being of human participants recruited to participate in research activities. MSOE complies with requirements set forth in Title 45, Part 46 of the code of Federal Regulations (45 CFR 46), known as the “Common Rule,” as well as Wisconsin State laws and MSOE policies.

All students, staff and faculty at MSOE planning on conducting research involving human participants must submit an IRB protocol application for review and approval by the MSOE IRB. Review and approval must be completed before human participants are recruited and research begins. The mission of the IRB is to ensure the adequacy of the research plan, to minimize risks and to maximize the benefits for human subjects’ who participate in research. If the investigator is a student, the research must be performed under the supervision of an MSOE faculty or staff member who by his or her signature assumes responsibility for the conduct of that research with respect to the proper safeguards of the rights of participants.

Research is defined (45 CFR 46.102(d)) as “a systematic investigation, including methodology, development, testing and evaluation, designed to develop or contribute to generalizable knowledge.” This definition includes formal investigations from which the results will be publicly disseminated, pilot projects, exploratory research, educational research and research undertaken by students for purposes of classroom work, independent study, senior design and change projects, surveys, master degree theses and includes research with human subjects conducted for non-academic purposes.

Human participant is defined (45 CFR 46.102(f)) as “a living individual about whom an investigator conducting research obtains data through intervention or interaction with the individual or the collection of identifiable private information.” Intervention includes both physical procedures by which data is gathered (for example, blood pressure readings, exercising, equipment design, etc.) and manipulations of the subject or the subject’s environment (heat, light, temperature, etc.) Interaction includes communication or interpersonal contact between the investigator and subject (interviews, focus groups, surveys, etc). Private information includes information (academic, financial, medical records, etc.) about behavior that occurs in a context in which the subject can reasonably expect that no recording is taking place or information the subject has provided for a specific purpose can reasonably expect will not be made public.

IRB protocol packets are available online at http://inside.msoe.edu/academics or from the IRB administrator. Contact the IRB administrator at (414) 277-2835 for more information or assistance in writing the protocol.

Disability Services

The Learning Resource Center offers services for students with disabilities through University Disability Services, located on the third floor of the Student Life and Campus Center. Students with disabilities can work with the disability services coordinator to receive academic accommodations that they may need due to a documented disability, such as Learning Disabilities, Aspergers Syndrome, Attention Deficit Disorder, depression or anxiety, and all physical disabilities. Students seeking assistance will work with the coordinator to develop an individual accommodation plan that will encompass all areas of their academic life. These accommodations may include assistance with note-taking, alternative text, or testing accommodations. Each plan is designed around the individual student’s needs. For questions, contact the coordinator of university disability services at (414) 277-2476.

Center for Entrepreneurship

MSOE established the Uihlein-Spitzer Center for Entrepreneurship to provide resources to a flourishing mindset of entrepreneurship among MSOE faculty and students. Entrepreneurial values are instilled in students, preparing them to join business and industry in leadership roles, improving profitability and productivity. Our students develop new products, design new processes and uncover new markets. Some even start their own businesses. When it comes to entrepreneurship, MSOE students take the helm.

The Center’s efforts are directed by G. Woodrow Adkins, the Uihlein/Spitzer Chair of Entrepreneurship in the Rader School of Business. Professor Adkins draws upon MSOE faculty, experts in business and his experience as an entrepreneur and executive to provide a range of services available through the center, including:

• business concept refinement.
• ideation assistance.
• financial resource identification.
• market identification and feasibility.
• business plan development.

The center supports efforts to integrate entrepreneurial skills into engineering, technology and business education, such as involvement with the Kern Entrepreneurial Education Network (KEEN) grant and the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA).

Businesses need more than graduates who excel in their field; businesses need leaders - who think in innovative ways, plan and manage projects and use technology to bring projects to fruition. These entrepreneurial skills are key components for the future competitiveness of U.S. companies.

Entrepreneurs in the United States have generated between 60 and 80 percent of all new jobs in the last decade. Entrepreneurs in small businesses represent 97 percent of all exporters of goods and are a growing sector for women and other minorities. Entrepreneurship is a big deal, driving the U.S. economy and influencing global enterprise.

Information Technology Department

Information Technology Department
Help Desk: S301
Phone: (414) 277-7288
www.msoe.edu/it

The Information Technology Department (IT) is responsible for providing, maintaining and supporting technology-based services to both the academic and administrative sides of the MSOE community. IT focuses on using technology to effectively support the educational mission of the university, enabling tools and technology used in enrollment processes, academic courses, career placement, alumni services and more.

Technology Package

MSOE leads the state in its commitment to technology; it was the first university in Wisconsin to require its students to have laptop computers. The visionary program, started in 1999, is continuously evolving to provide students immediate access to the technology that they require to better facilitate communication and collaboration between students, faculty and the public.

Upon acceptance of the MSOE computer usage agreement, students are provided with laptops containing standardized software tools based on degree program, online course management systems, user training and the support required to enable effective and efficient use of technology within the academic and student life experience. Students are provided access to the MyMSOE web portal and campus intranet, with personalized and in-depth academic and student information.

This access allows students to utilize the wired and wireless network access across the campus and gives them the ability to connect to the MSOE network from a remote location. The Help Desk has extensive hours available seven days per week to assist with any technology issues experienced, with guaranteed loaner laptops available if required.

IT also provides auxiliary services such as printing and copying and a program that enables students to use their MSOE ID card as a debit card at all campus food service facilities, the campus bookstore, and at a variety of local businesses.

Grohmann Museum

One of the newest additions to MSOE’s campus is the Grohmann Museum, home to the world’s most comprehensive art collection dedicated to the evolution of human work. It serves as home to the General Studies Department where students take their courses in state-of-the-art classrooms and study the artwork and sculptures, which range from 1580 to today, as part of their course work. The museum also houses a library that students can use as a resource.

The museum welcomes the public to three floors of galleries where a core collection is displayed as well as special themed exhibitions, so there is always something new to see. The museum also has a spectacular rooftop sculpture garden and amenities such as a vending café and store.

The Grohmann Museum collection comprises more than 800 paintings and sculptures that reflect a variety of artistic styles and subjects that document the evolution of organized work, from farming and mining to trades like glassblowing and seaweed gathering. Later, it is machines and men embodying the paradoxes of industrialism - dark factory interiors with glowing molten metal juxtaposed with workers.

The museum is named in honor of Dr. Eckhart Grohmann, an MSOE Regent, Milwaukee businessman and avid art collector, who donated the Man at Work collection to MSOE in 2001 and subsequently the funds to purchase, renovate and operate the museum that bears his name. Dr. Grohmann and his wife, Ischi, are longtime supporters of MSOE.

Project Lead The Way (PLTW)

MSOE proudly serves as the National Affiliate University for PLTW in the state of Wisconsin and has been involved in the program since 2004, with a major proponent, the Kern Family Foundation. PLTW is a national program forming partnerships among public schools, higher education and the private sector to increase the quantity and quality of graduating science, technology, engineering and math professionals. PLTW offers middle- and high-school curricula that, when combined with college preparatory mathematics and science courses, is a terrific introduction to the scope, rigor and discipline that engineering and technical programs require. The Wisconsin program has grown rapidly with 200 schools participating in the 2009-2010 school year. Nationally, all 50 states and District of Columbia now participate in PLTW and it has improved the math, science and reading skills of participants as compared to students in traditional four-year, pre-college programs. Students who participate may be eligible for undergraduate college credit, and at MSOE and other institutions PLTW alumni are eligible for special scholarships. The Project Lead The Way office is located in the Student Life and Campus Center, room CC386.

Milwaukee U.S. Export Assistance Center

MSOE’s Rader School of Business sustains a strategic partnership with the U.S. Department of Commerce, Commercial Service’s Milwaukee Export Assistance Center. The U.S. Commercial Service has offices in more than 100 American cities and 80 countries throughout the world and assists businesses throughout America in realizing their export potential. The Milwaukee Export Assistance Center is located on MSOE’s campus in Rosenberg Hall.

Our partnership provides students, alumni and members of MSOE’s Business Excellence Consortium (BEC) with a gateway to the Milwaukee Export Assistance Center’s International Trade Specialist. Staff members of the Milwaukee Export Assistance Center have many years of experience in international markets in a wide variety of industrial sectors. They are available to provide export counseling to interested Wisconsin companies.

Goethe House

The Goethe House of Wisconsin is a non-profit German-American Cultural Institute serving Wisconsin since 1958. It is located on the MSOE campus in the Alumni Partnership Center. They serve as a statewide resource for information about the past and present culture of all German-speaking people. Through cultural and educational programs the Goethe House seeks to provide greater awareness of evolving German Society and, in so doing, promote strong relations, friendship and understanding between Germany and the United States. All MSOE students, and particularly those who study abroad in Germany, have ready access to this unique resource.