Metalcasting Industry Awards National Scholarships to GS Grad Students

January 12, 2022

Last November 18-20, 2021, six students from MechE and MfgE, along with Dr. Jingjing Qing, assistant professor of Manufacturing Engineering, and Dr. Mingzhi Xu, assistant professor of Mechanical Engineering, attended the Foundry Educational Foundation (FEF) College Industry Conference in Chicago.  At the conference, 116 student delegates from 30 FEF certified and affiliated schools competed for 36 prestigious scholarships.  Mr. Shelton Fowler and Mr. Samuel Holt, both graduate students in Mechanical Engineering, received $2,000 scholarships.  Both Mr. Fowler and Mr. Holt are researching metalcasting with Dr. Qing and Dr. Xu.  Last summer, Mr. Holt held an internship with Nemak, an aluminum die casting foundry in Wisconsin, while Mr. Fowler held an internship with J.C. Steele & Sons, a cast iron foundry in North Carolina.  

FEF’s College Industry Conference is an annual metalcasting career fair exclusive for FEF certified and affiliated universities in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.  At this year’s conference, more than 160 job openings from 50 international companies were available for the student delegates.  There are currently 21 FEF certified (a higher standard that affiliated) universities, of which Georgia Southern is one.  Dr. Mingzhi Xu is the FEF Key Professor at Georgia Southern.  Dr. Xu and Dr. Zing also advise the student chapter of the American Foundry Society (AFS) at Georgia Southern.