Senior project challenges paper science and engineering students  

A UWSP Paper Science and Engineering student checks paper coming off the university's pilot paper machine.

By Carly Cuene, WIST Communications Intern

The Paper Science and Engineering Program at UWSP challenges its senior students each year by presenting them with a project to test their skills.   

"Senior design projects are a staple of engineering programs across the country," says Karyn Biasca, professor of paper science and engineering, who is the advisor on the project.  The 2012 fall semester requires the students to participate in one of four projects, all of equivalent challenge. 

"Every type of engineering, whether it is chemical or electrical, has a requirement for a final project that is a very open-ended question that you give to the students," Biasca says.  "Their assignment is to research the background of the question to investigate the current situation and come up with proposed ideas to solve the problem." 

In one of the projects, seniors are refurbishing the current size press on the pilot paper machine at UWSP. The size press infuses a sheet of paper with additional treatment, a starch solution, to give it physical properties that it did not have before. The most common treatment increases water resistance, which is needed for printing applications. It keeps ink on the paper surface, rather than allowing absorption, which would spread the ink.

At first, the size press did not perform well, resulting in uneven treatment depending on the type of paper. The goal for the students is to achieve better control of the starch solution for greater consistency and quality.  The seniors are experimenting with several approaches to solve the problem. 

"This project is the culmination of 5 years of engineering education," says Kurt Oleszko, a senior paper science and engineering student working on the project.  "It represents the first of many engineering problems that we will encounter in the paper industry and it forces us to not only come up with solutions, but the class challenges us to utilize mathematics and other common engineering practices to prove a solution will work."

The senior project, once successfully completed, will open opportunities  for future assignments and projects that implement the paper machine's working size press. Courses offered by the Paper Science and Engineering Program can incorporate the size press to manufacture different paper grades than are now possible. 

WIST supports the senior project financially to provide students with real-world scenarios, says Paul Fowler, WIST executive director. It's mutually beneficial: In addition to its use by students, the paper machine is used by WIST Laboratory Services to provide raw material and/or chemical additive studies, equipment evaluation, grade development and production runs for commercial clients. Revenue from that work in turn maintains the machine, helping to make sure it continues to be available for student use.   

WIST offers a number of different courses in both papermaking technology and in several areas of sustainable technology. The improved size press will allow WIST to offer yet another course, focused on use of the size press, and add new elements to its hands-on papermaking course.
 

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With support from the UWSP College of Natural Resources and the College of Letters and Science