GVSU engineering students in Kendall collaboration

Engineers from Grand Valley State University's School of Engineering and industrial designers from Ferris State University's Kendall College of Art and Design have teamed up to design new products, and the fruits of their labors will be on display Wednesday, April 29.

Teams of graduate students from Grand Valley's School of Engineering worked with undergraduate students from Ferris State University's Kendall College of Art and Design to make concepts developed by the Kendall students functional and easily adopted by manufacturers.

The collaboration began with four industrial design students from Kendall working on their undergraduate thesis with instructor Jon Moroney. Each of those students was assigned a project team of between three and seven Grand Valley engineering graduate students from a product design and manufacturing course taught by professor Hugh Jack.

"The final results are projects that address substantial consumer needs, are aesthetically pleasing, and have a functional engineering design," said Moroney.

The collaboration fulfilled needs for students in both programs, resulting in a perfect marriage of concepts that are of interest to many local companies complete with the substantial engineering work needed to being ready for production, Jack said.

"Normally the Kendall projects would produce computer and physical models of new products, but they wouldn't include the functional components," Jack said. "Similarly the Grand Valley projects would normally develop material that could be patented, but that needed significant industrial design work before production."

The collaboration has resulted in four products that may be easily adapted by manufacturers. The four projects include a portable baby bottle warmer, environmentally conscious clothing for children, an enhanced computer system for police cars, and a novel clothes freshening system.

These projects will be presented by students from Kendall and Grand Valley on Wednesday April 29 from 6-8 p.m. in Kendall College Room 104.