A group of representatives from the University of Missouri–St. Louis pose for a photo with Basler Electric employees during a tour on April 10 that gave School of Engineering students a behind-the-scenes look at the manufacturer of power systems products. Standing are (from left) Basler Electric Manager of Research and Development Engineering Mike Basler, UMSL Professor Xin Wang, Basler Electric Principal Electrical Engineer Todd Martin, UMSL Assistant Professor Siqiang Guo, Garrett Massie, Basler Electric Product Line Manager Brian Luttinen, Zach Osborn, Natalie Keeler, Felicia Crossley, Summer Cartwright, UMSL Associate Professor Phil Fraundorf, Rebecca Amos, Maneet Kaur, UMSL Career Services Coordinator Scottie Floyd, Skye Knowles, Joseph Lewis, Cherish Saunders, Basler Electric Electrical Engineering Manager Austin Leigh and Ali Alhajam. (Photos by Dave Benson)
A recent visit to Basler Electric offered University of Missouri–St. Louis engineering students more than just a behind-the-scenes look at a successful company. It provided a glimpse of what their own futures might hold.
Professor Xin Wang, the program coordinator for electrical engineering at UMSL’s new School of Engineering, took 11 UMSL freshmen on a short trip to the manufacturer of power systems products on April 10 in Highland, Illinois. While there, Wang reunited with several former students now working at the company.
“I’ve known Basler Electric for over 13 years,” said Wang, who previously taught at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. “There are a lot of people who are also my previous students working at Basler, so we’ve had that connection for a long time.”
Xin Wang (right), professor and program coordinator for electrical engineering at UMSL’s School of Engineering, looks on as Basler Electric Electrical Engineering Manager Austin Leigh gives UMSL engineering students a control panel demonstration during the April 10 tour of the the manufacturer of power systems products in Highland, Illinois.
For Wang’s current students, seeing engineers who once sat in his classes now thriving in real-world roles made the leap from campus to career feel a whole lot closer.
“Rather than simply teaching the fundamental stuff, the theories, it’s also important for the students to see there are big applications of everything we teach,” Wang said. “The students in my class can see that they will not only get a grade, but they will also get a job.”
The outing also underscored how UMSL is connecting classroom learning with professional pathways, giving students early opportunities to envision themselves in the workforce and build confidence in the direction of their studies.
“UMSL provides a lot more opportunities for those students who’ve ever thought, ‘I’m just going to the university to get a degree,’” freshman Summer Cartwright said. “No, they’re actually helping you throughout the process to get out there and have other people see your abilities as not only a student, but for your career. They’re actually doing things to make sure that you’re going to be successful.”
The 11 freshmen – Cartwright, Felicia Crossley, Cherish Saunders, Ali Alhajam, Joseph Lewis, Maneet Kaur, Rebecca Amos, Natalie Keeler, Skye Knowles, Zach Osborn and Garrett Massie – made the drive less than an hour east of campus to view presentations and tour the facilities of what Wang said is one of the leading power engineering and manufacturing companies in North America, specializing in energy management, generator controls and voltage regulation. During a walk through Basler’s factory and engineering lab, the students got to see how PCBs are manufactured and how a power excitation system works, and they learned about the variety of Basler products that supply power for everything from Disney cruise ships to nuclear power plants.
UMSL engineering student Joseph Lewis stands outside the Basler Electric facility in Highland, Illinois.
“It was pretty amazing to see real-world applications of what we’re learning in class,” Lewis said. “It’s these kinds of opportunities that we get at UMSL to let us know that we’re going to be able to put our degree to good use.”
In fact, Wang said UMSL engineering students will be at a decided advantage for many jobs with companies like Basler because of the high-quality power engineering courses that UMSL has to offer. Wang said UMSL is committed to developing a program for power engineering that rivals the top options from throughout the Midwest such as the University of Illinois or Purdue University, and Wang added that he envisions UMSL soon playing a significant role in the development of the next generation of future technologies for the power engineering industry.
“We have the ideas and we have the expertise to do all of those things compared with other neighboring universities,” Wang said.
“We are aiming at bringing in whatever is the best equipment for our students, whatever is the best research experience for our students. We will have the latest motors, generators, transformers, all of those modules readily here at UMSL so when our students graduate, they already have the knowledge of how a motor works, how a generator works, and once they get that knowledge, they can work in power companies such as Basler Electric.”
