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Shiley School of Engineering students work with Hyster-Yale Group on forklift steering designs

Engineering

May 2, 2018

Hyster-Yale Group design engineer Jimmy Anderson ’14 is working with mechanical engineering students to develop an alternative steering design for forklifts. The team hopes to create a smaller and less obtrusive steering wheel.

Team members Jonathan Liao ’19, Mitchell Kovalev ’19, Cormac Connolly ’19, Kaitlin Tiernan ’19, Kaitlyn Krushinsky ’19, and Robert Hutchinson ’19 are also part of the University’s Multiple Engineering Cooperative Program (MECOP), which brings knowledge from classes and internships to create industry solutions. “We aim to have designs completed by the end of this semester and to begin prototype construction next year,” said Liao.

“Industry-sponsored projects fundamentally change how students learn and approach classroom experiences,” said faculty advisor C.J. Hainley, Jr. ’08. “The students are trying to solve an issue for which there are no equations, solution manuals, or pre-solved problems.”

“Professors bring industry examples into the classroom,” Krushinsky said. “Working on this project and my MECOP internship have allowed me to better understand concepts and become more
adaptable in tackling a problem.”

Anderson believes projects prepare engineering students for careers in industry. “Industry-sponsored projects expose students to a mix of challenges unique to the workplace,” Anderson said. “They learn to apply engineering fundamentals to problems bound by time and budget, as well as customer and business needs.”

“My engineering courses and industry projects have trained me to be perseverant when dealing with overwhelming tasks and challenging classes,” Liao added. “I’ve learned so much.”