American Foundry Society

In May 5, 1995 the officers and Board of Directors of the Central Illinois Chapter of the American Foundrymen's Society announced the recent accreditation of a Student Chapter at Bradley University which would be affiliated with the Central Illinois Chapter.

The achievement had been a Chapter goal for a number of years with the leadership of Dr. Alexey Sverdlin, Bradley Professor. Forty three Bradley students became members of the Student Chapter. In addition to being the Faculty Advisor to the Student Chapter, Dr. Sverdlin also serves as the Educational Chairman for the Central Illinois Chapter. Industry advisors that were named to assist the Bradley University Chapter are: John Grabel, Bill Sullins - Caterpillar Inc., Mike Laukitis - AlCast Co., and Dick Picl, who retired from Harrison Steel Co.

The Central Illinois Chapter Officers and Directors had been working with the faculty on the Bradley campus for a number of years in its efforts to educate the faculty members and the University administration of the growing need in the metal casting industry for technically qualified employees. In addition, the Central Illinois Chapter presented two $500.00 scholarships to the key leaders of the student group who had provided the leadership that was needed to make this dream reality. More than 10 scholarships came from FEF, Wisconsin Chapter AFS, Chicago Chapter AFS, and industry.

In early July 1995 the FEF Bradley students began on a long journey of creating a Liberty Bell made of brass to be used as a fundraiser to the Centennial AFS Congress in Philadelphia in April 1996. Very recently we became a truly International Student Chapter. During the 1995-96 academic year, 4 students from Samara State Aerospace University (SSAU) became the first international members of our Chapter. Our University had a long term joint program with SSAU in student and faculty exchange program and joint research.

In January 1996 three new students from Ural State Technical University (Ekaterinburg, Russia) jointed our Chapter. They came to our University according to the collaborative program between Caterpillar, Uralmash (Russia), Bradley University, and Ural State Technical University (USTU). Bradley Chapter of FEF has been developing the new international opportunities establishing links with universities in Germany, France, Great Britain, and Sweden.