Anne Reiner of the On the Pulse local news site visited campus recently to interview Ryan M. Witmer, a mechatronics technology student from Lancaster County. Reiner watched Witmer employ various diagnostic tools to monitor the performance of Penn College’s roll-fed thermoformer and discussed with him the unique major, which combines electrical, mechanical and computer engineering into one field. Reiner also explored mechatronics with one of Witmer’s teachers: Howard W. Troup, instructor of automated manufacturing and machining. “Everything that I learned in high school was, ‘I needed to fix it,'” says Witmer, who graduated with high honors on May 17. “Here, I can build it … I can fix it … I can, you know, prevent it from being broken in the first place.” The new alumnus is employed as an assembly technician for Astro Machine Works in Ephrata.
