The Western Michigan University (WMU) student chapter of ASEM consistently improves, and is growing from years past. Students participated in school activities, the ASEM IAC, industry tours, and fundraisers. With the focus being to encourage EM development, here are report summaries for each event:

Bronco Bash: This is an event that takes place first week of September each year and 150+ RSOs have a booth to get people interested in joining an RSO. This is a fun way for RSOs to interact with students new to the university. This was the second time that the WMU chapter of ASEM took part in this and it was great talking to freshmen about what ASEM is and what our major is.

ASEM Conference: The annual conference in Alabama was a great experience for those that went to it. We got a chance to interact with professionals from industry working the job what we might have one day. We were able to get nine students to the conference through the use of a fund set aside for ASEM by our Advisor, Dr. David Lyth, and through the funding from our Dean, Dr. Houssam Toutanji. 

JR Automation: Our first tour was to JR Automation, manufacturer of custom automation equipment, which included talking to the management team there and a tour of their plant. 

Green Door Distilling Co: This was our second tour and a unique one. This is a distilling company was founded by an alumnus from the WMU Engineering Management master’s program. The tour showed our students in the program how Jon, founder of Green Door, was able to apply all that he learn from school and start his own company. 

Bells Brewery: The third tour we took was to Bells Brewery right here in our back yard. We were able to see the entire process of how their products are made, from grains to the bottling line. We were also able to taste their product. 

Stryker: Our last tour was at Stryker Instruments and for this tour we are planning to see operations that take place there. The tour was set up through an alumnus from the engineering management technology program at WMU that works at Stryker. This tour gave us insights on how a Fortune 500 company carries out its operations.

Blaze Pizza: This was our first fundraiser of the semester and we got in contact with Blaze Pizza for setting up this fundraiser. It was delicious! We may potentially do it again in the future.

Cookie Sale: For our second fundraiser we got a donation of cookies and we baked them and had a bake sale. This was something new that we tried whereas in the past we had contacted a local business and had a fundraiser there. This was an idea that would be good to use again in the future.

This year, the WMU ASEM Student Chapter will continue to connect students to industries where they might work. The plan is to reach out to the underclass students and have them get involved. Participating in the Bronco Bash provides good exposure for the chapter. Along with that, students will be presenting papers at the ASEM conference, and a case study team is currently being organized.  After the IAC, students hope to participate in an improvement project with YWCA in Kalamazoo.  Lastly, the students strive to partner with other engineering RSOs both in fundraising, and activities.