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Alum Success

Ben Mitchell

Ben Mitchell
Mechanical Engineering '06

Ben Mitchell grew up in a devout household in the central Upper Peninsula of Michigan where emphasis was placed on helping others. He traveled with his father to places such as Kenya and Peru on short-term medical missions. When he was in Kenya, a missionary explained that engineers have the greatest potential to influence the largest number of people. During high school, Ben participated in a youth mission trip to Tijuana. A result of the mission trips, his family decided to adopt three Vietnamese children when he was a junior.

All of these experiences had a great influence on Ben’s outlook on life. He decided to major in mechanical engineering and enrolled at Lake Superior State University. Near the end of his senior year, he decided to volunteer for the Peace Corps to help others.

His two-year commitment began in the fall of 2007 and took Ben to Burkina Faso in western Africa. He resides in the village of Tansila, population 3,000, approximately 10 km from the Mali border. His host organization is the local cotton growers union. It works cooperatively with other villages to improve and expand their production techniques. He serves as an agribusiness advisor as a part of the Small Enterprise Development program which helps create market linkages and assists with the advancement of business skills.

Computer Engineering

Senior Projects

Real world learning

Our students participate in a senior-year experience working on either an industry-based project or a research-based project, preparing them to solve real-world problems. There are also opportunities for cooperative education positions for those who wish to include industrial experience during their academic career.

Optimized Signal Routing

Team OSR built and tested a unique connection harness to establish proper signal routing during Delphi’s steering system testing process.

Clockwise from lower left: Andre Sawruk (EE), Calvin Mattson (CE), Austin Hicks (CE), Nik Hargenrader (EE), and Johnny Clemente (CE).

The company prides itself on high quality validation of its steering systems. The programmable signal router will allow the Delphi to test hundreds of different electrical steering column components from a variety of manufacturer models using one device. The harness will provide more cost-effective and efficient testing, and allow Delphi engineers to program the routing of signals in any configuration to establish proper interfacing. The project was Phase II of the harness. Phase I was completed during the 2006-07 academic year by Team Universal Signal Routing (USR) which developed the design and proof of concept. Team OSR was charged with the construction of a prototype, testing and manufacturing of six signal routing boxes for Delphi.

The collaborative efforts of the project team and Delphi were featured in recent issue of Upper Peninsula Business Today magazine.

Other opportunities...

There are six professional organizations in which you can become involved: American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Society for Automotive Engineers (SAE), Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME), Society of Women Engineers (SWE), and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) for those interested in computer science activities.
In partnership with our industrial contacts, there are cooperative education experiences available where you learn, work and earn money. Positions are available for fall, spring or summer semesters.

"I have the best of both worlds here at LSSU. As Engineering Projects Manager for the Prototype Development Center, I have the opportunity to help entrepreneurs and small businesses bring their ideas to reality using the resources of the university. In addition, I get one on one time with my students. It is great to give our students the advantage of experiences gained through my years in industry. Most engineering universities don’t provide that practical hands-on experience to the level that LSSU can. One of my sophomore programming students will be working on projects this summer. Opportunities like these are valuable and rare!"

--Eric Becks
Prototype Development Engineer

Competing at Graduate a Level

Third Place
Leith Nader of Lake Superior State University

2004 American Society of Mechanical Engineers Design Engineering Division (Mechanics and Robotics Committee)

28th Biennial Mechanisms and Robotics Conference, Student Mechanisms Design Competition Award (Graduate Competition)

Sept. 28 – Oct. 2, 2004
Salt Lake City, Utah