The Sault Ste. Marie SmartZone and the
Lake Superior State University Product Development Center are working together to help make your skiing experience a bit more technologically advanced.
SSMart and the university worked together to help lower-Michigan entrepreneur Andy Liebner with the production of graphite-composite ski poles. The school's Product Development Center used the expertise of the engineering faculty as well as the students to design and prototype a new control system for the machine that creates the poles.
"Projects like these provide the engineering students at LSSU the opportunity to work on real world design problems, says Eric Becks, Product Development Center director and SSmart president.
Liebner, who is the owner of United States Ski Pole Company, manufactures the lightest ski poles available by using former golf club shaft manufacturing equipment. He formerly hails from Soldotna, Alaska, and was the Peruvian cross-country ski team coach in the last Winter Olympics in Sochi.
Writer: Sam Eggleston
Source: Lake Superior State University
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