Big ideas need specific tools — Walter Glockner found them in industrial engineering

With a passion for building and problem-solving, Walter Glockner found his perfect fit in industrial engineering.

It started with IMSE academic advisor Devna Popejoy-Sheriff. Wanting to learn more, Walter walked up to the open door of her office and asked, “Do you have time to talk right now?”

“Her immediate answer was ‘Yeah, come on in,’” he says, “That was the first green flag.”

“Learning that industrial engineers improve processes to help people solidified my decision,” he says.

Undergraduate Research Assistantship provides hands-on experience

Walter’s first semester as an industrial engineering major landed him in IMSE assistant professor Jakob Hamilton’s IE 2480 Introduction to Manufacturing class. “I was really interested in 3D printing and asking lots of questions after class. I had big ideas of things I wanted to do and needed specific tools to get it done.”

“Dr. Hamilton heard me talking with Dr. (Matthew) Frank about building projects and asked if I wanted to get paid to do research in his lab as a URA,” Walter says. Getting paid to do something he was interested in was a dream come true.

Coming in with programming experience from his start as an electrical engineering major, he was able to program the robotic arm used in the Slater Lab. One thing Hamilton encouraged was not to be afraid to make mistakes.

“Dr. Hamilton always tells me if you haven’t broken something, you’re not trying hard enough,” Walter says, “He tells me to fail until I come up with a solution. But fail fast.” In fact, from day one Walter says there has only been encouragement. “I truly believe I am a better engineer because of Dr. Hamilton. He has put me in a position where I can run.”

“I just started my own company, Glockner Automation, and Dr. Hamilton has encouraged me in that aspect, too,” he says.

Department support helps students succeed

Support doesn’t end with just Hamilton. Walter says everyone in the IMSE department has helped him. “Together they are a powerful team. You can tell they really care if you learn and succeed. Industrial engineering students have real relationships with the professors that are extremely beneficial academically.”

“Every time I’ve run into a roadblock or an issue and I go and talk to one of the professors or academic advisors, they are willing to go above and beyond to make sure my problem gets solved,” Walter says.

Surrounded by that support, Walter is now taking his education a step further in the concurrent graduate program.

So, why engineering? “It doesn’t stop at the problem. It doesn’t stop at profit. The idea of engineering is to continually solve problems. That’s something I’m extremely passionate about. I want to be a part of that.”