Last night, 19 April, I enjoyed attending the student MSE 365 Poster Session at the Materials Science and Engineering Department’s Van Vlack Laboratory ( msewww.engin.umich.edu ) in the Dow Building on the North Campus of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Here the students assembled their projects for review and questioning by Prof. Brian Love and other staff and faculty. Although all of the projects stood on their own merits, one of the projects was of particular interest to me. That team of students modeled the solidification of a casting and then poured it in ductile iron at the Joyworks studio. A major lesson learned: insufficient draft in a pattern can make it impossible to draw a pattern from the sand……but once we got past that they made some passable ductile iron. (I’d even consider Austempering it!). They mapped the alloy segregation in the sample, modeled the cooling and compared it to the actual and even made some UoM seals suitable for finishing. (One of them may find itself on to my office desk). The most rewarding part is to see the enthusiasm of the participants. After all, there is something primeval about the pouring of molten metal into a container and producing a useable shape. It’s programmed into the human psyche. It’s cool…….and I’m glad I could be a part of it.