Students weld together a new club

It was a spark of an idea that forged a new campus club.

A year ago, four engineering technology students were taking the class Foundation of Metals that included a brief training program for undergraduate students to learn how welding is used in manufacturing.

They knew they wanted more than welding 101 and started to build the framework of a new club.

“It was beneficial to have the class” said Jack Seeley, chapter president and a fourth-year manufacturing and mechanical engineering technology student from Cherry Valley, N.Y. “But we also wanted to learn more, to take advantage of the resources and equipment we have in our lab area.”

It seemed his peers across campus did as well.

Within a year, Seeley and the others worked with Student Government, RIT’s College of Engineering Technology (CET) administration and faculty member Richard Roe to establish the new organization. It became one of the first student chapters of the American Welding Society’s Northeast District. RIT’s chapter has 50-plus active members and open to any major and experience level.

“We have a diverse team with a wide range of expertise. While many of us have an engineering technology background, our members also have backgrounds in game design, finance, art, mathematics and NTID,” said Lucio Tomassetti, chapter vice president, and a fifth-year manufacturing and mechanical engineering technology student from Fairport, N.Y. “We are working with the members from NTID to build our chapter in a way to make students who may be deaf or hard-of-hearing comfortable here.”

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Liam Myerow/RIT

Members of the student chapter of the American Welding Society are learning how to weld for projects as varied as art to mechanical design.

Welding is the art of using high heat and pressure to mold, shape and secure metals. Those new to the process can be intimidated at first, but the group merged RIT’s general lab safety rules with specific welding safety measures to formulate a unique training program for new members.

“To enhance our training program, we’ve created a chief welder position. This person acts as lead trainer, with responsibilities that include ensuring lab safety, clean up, managing set up and teaching our next group of trainers,” said Tomassetti.

Seeley agreed: “We are constantly trying to improve and retrain our members, especially the newer members with less experience. We can start them on smaller projects so that they can learn what welding sounds like, what it feels like, how the helmet reacts, how it feels to wear different types of gloves and getting that person to feel comfortable with welding.”

The path to formalizing the student chapter was paved through help by alumnus Michael Krupnicki ’99 (MBA), a longtime supporter of RIT and its students, particularly those on the Baja, Formula and Hot Wheelz performance teams. Students learned how to weld at Arc & Flame, his business in Rochester. Krupnicki also provided much of the state-of-the-art equipment found in CET’s labs and in campus machine shops.

The connection to Arc and Flame locally as well as the national society provide multiple opportunities for chapter members to participate in local, regional and national programming, including student design competitions.

“For the current academic year, we are arranging a series of programs with local professionals. These sessions are designed to supplement our classroom learning and will cover a variety of practical skills, including designing with welding standards and fundamentals of business ownership,” said Tomassetti. Programs will focus on crucial skills, like improving interpersonal communication for project management and delivering effective presentations to clients.

Seeley agreed: “These things can help students become successful welding engineers and more confident project leaders.”