Engineers rely on facts to make decisions. These materials engineering students, in their MEE-312-L lab, measure the hardness of a bacon-strip-sized slab of copper in a reader. To make the metal harder, the students must next squeeze it in a machine press, using a process called “cold working”. The students then re-test the copper, to insure it has been strengthened. In this case, it has. That’s good news for the team. Pictured here from left are: Peter Hartzell, Sean Jacobs, and behind Peter Hartzell: Peter Dombrowski.