Inspiring Graduates: Grace Goodreid and Josh Goodreid (’24)
- Degrees: B.S. Mechanical Engineering
Grace Goodreid, of Cushing, and Josh Goodreid, of Beldenville, first met in a Thermodynamics class and started dating the next semester while in a Fluid Dynamics course together at UW-Stout.
“In Fluids, we were on the same project team and got to know each other a lot more. Since then, we were in almost every class together and were in the same group for projects,” Grace said.
From there, their relationship grew, and they married.
Grace and Josh were both hired before graduation. Having earned their mechanical engineering degrees on Dec. 14, along with 510 UW-Stout graduates, they are beginning their new careers as mechanical design engineers at Can-Am Integration, a provider of automation solutions in manufacturing, industrial and engineering experiences, located in Menomonie.
What brought you to UW-Stout?
Grace had no intention of coming to UW-Stout but toured as a formality, she said. However, after receiving an unexpected tour of Fryklund Hall, home of the Robert F. Cervenka School of Engineering, given by Instrumentation Coordinator-Instructor Paul Craig, Grace decided to enroll at UW-Stout.
“During the tour, I saw the commitment that faculty members had to Stout students, the lab opportunities and a slice of the environment that Stout had to offer,” she said.
“Other campuses that I toured continued to tell me that as an engineer, I would never leave the lecture hall. I do not believe that is a good environment for an engineer. For those reasons, I decided that Stout would be the best choice and would provide me with the most valuable experience and degree,” she added.
Josh had originally planned to go to Northwood Technical College to be a diesel equipment technician. “But then my dad brought me to tour Stout. I got to see all the labs and got to see that it wasn't just a university where you read books all day,” he said.
“Stout is a university where you get to use your hands and apply what you learn. I learned that Stout had a mechanical engineering program, and it was close to my hometown, so I applied and have loved it ever since,” he added.
How well has UW-Stout prepared you to work in your fields?
Between them, Grace and Josh completed five internships and co-ops, exposing them to varying methods of engineering.
Grace interned with Oxbo International in Clear Lake and Sig Sauer in New Hampshire, where she worked with the research and development department. “It was basically my dream job,” she said.
Josh worked with the automated machine assembly teams at Parker Hannifan in Chetek, which led to another internship at Parker Hannifan, in Kittery, Maine. He also completed a co-op at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, in Chippewa Falls.
In hindsight, Grace and Josh both wish they had double majored in mechanical engineering and manufacturing engineering, as the manufacturing program offered additional hands-on experiences and knowledge in areas that they found essential in their internships and new careers.
“I think all my classes were useful, but most of them gave me a surface-level knowledge. Classes such as Machine Component Design, Controls and Instrumentation, Numerical Methods and Material Removal are very essential to my job now,” Josh said.
“I think Professor Vince Wheeler's style of teaching was unique in that we had online lectures, and all of the class was lab time, and exams were oral. This style allowed me to learn things at my own pace, within reason, and lab times greatly aided in learning the class material and concepts. It also felt like the exams were how well I knew the material and concepts; not how much I could memorize,” Josh added.
Grace’s favorite class was Material Removal. “Learning how material removal machines work and what is possible is very important for design. Working with the machines yourself is one of the best things you can do while learning,” she said.
Her favorite class outside of her degree program was Design of Jigs and Fixtures. “This class had a lot of information that I thought I was going to learn in my degree but didn't. I am super grateful that I took this class because of the information covered.
“I have learned a lot of useful things from my classes, probably more than I even realize. The lab experiences and the professors’ willingness to work with you are what stands out,” she added.
What challenges did you face in earning your degrees?
For their senior engineering capstone, Grace and Josh worked with a team to complete an automated toy manufacturing system as part of a three-year, cross-disciplinary, multi-course project.
They thought their capstone was challenging because the bulk of it was based on the manufacturing process, versus being assigned a project based on mechanical engineering.
“It involved a lot of technical manufacturing skills and knowledge, which I had not learned in coursework, only in my internships,” Josh said. “I was not given any answers to fill in the gap. The only way I found to succeed was to spend lots of hours on it to learn, research and test everything I needed to know.”
The project began in Assistant Professor Kevin Dietsche’s Design for Industry class in fall 2023, when his students collaborated with first graders from St. Paul’s School of Menomonie to brainstorm ideas for toys. The collaboration’s end goal was for the students to build mid- to high-fidelity prototypes of the imagined toys.
From this course, a prototype of a wooden pull-toy duck was given as a model for Grace and Josh’s senior capstone team to design and engineer a manufacturing cell prototype.
Their team included mechanical engineering seniors Deric McConnell and Ayden Veness, and computer and electrical engineering seniors Vinny Bonofiglio and Shane Schauss.
Earlier this fall, the team presented its manufacturing system prototype – constructed of wooden dowels and cardboard – to kindergartners visiting Dietsche’s class. Together, the children and the engineering team built a version of Timothy the Duck, showing them how it automatically assembles the pieces of the duck, including its body, wings, wheels and axle.
On Dec. 18, they presented their completed Taft Prof Two-Wheel Toy Assembly System to faculty, peers, industry partners, family and community members. They spent about 2,600 hours completing their automatic assembly system.
The machine is fully enclosed with safety features and can produce 10 toys at a time, taking about two and a half minutes to assemble one duck, allowing the operator to pause assembly and talk about the process.
The three-part portable manufacturing cell can be assembled and disassembled in minutes for ease of transport, which will allow Dietsche in the future to transport the machine to area schools and demonstrate the process of making wooden toys to local children.
“Capstone especially has made me more confident in what I am doing, not just in engineering. I got to see that there are a lot of like-minded people,” Josh said.
The project was supported by the G.A. Taft Manufacturing Engineering Endowed Professorship through the Robert F. Cervenka School of Engineering, awarded to Dietsche in fall 2023.
What are you most proud of as you finish your degrees?
Grace is proud of the dedication she had to complete her degree and how well she did with little support.
“My main challenge was with new professors who didn't really know how to teach the material. To overcome this, I spent a lot of time with the material, rewriting my notes, doing extra practice problems and researching online,” she said, adding, “I've grown up a lot in the last 4 1/2 years, and Stout has a part in that. I got to meet a lot of people who were similar to me and a lot who were wildly different. Stout provided me with the opportunity of independence that I needed to become who I am today.”
“I'm proud of how much I have learned in engineering and how far I have come as an engineer. From classwork to internships to capstone, I have gained a lot of valuable experience,” Josh said.
UW-Stout’s Robert F. Cervenka School of Engineering is home to five ABET-accredited programs that include, mechanical engineering, manufacturing engineering, computer and electrical engineering, engineering technology and plastics engineering, as well as a sixth bachelor’s program in packaging.
UW-Stout currently offers a dual degree in mechanical engineering and physics. A master’s in manufacturing engineering is available on campus or online.
