Evansville Ivy Tech Student Recognized for Work with Advanced Automation and Robotics by the IDOE

Lisa Hamrick, an Ivy Tech Community College Evansville Campus student, has been selected to receive one of four student Awards for Excellence from the Indiana Department of Education. The awards will be presented at a ceremony on February 26.

Hamrick said she originally was a cyber security student and liked the program, but had already worked some in advanced manufacturing. After getting a taste of robotics – she was hooked.

Donna Zimmerman, program chair for Advanced Automation and Robotics, said she was considering disbanding the Robotics Club for lack of participation, when the Student Life director sent Hamrick her way. “She sent Lisa to see me, and Lisa immediately joined the club, submitted all the necessary paperwork, started a membership drive, and literally saved the Robotics Club from disbanding.”

Hamrick said there was something about helping others, by altering toys to perform a function for someone with a disability, that caused her to switch majors. Now, she works with Zimmerman with 3D printing pieces to be used to build a prosthetic arm and working hand. “We even got to go to EnableCon 2018, an international conference on prosthetics, and participate in a panel discussion,” she said.

Hamrick, 35, is a single mother of two. She not only takes several classes each semester, but also works as a work study student for Student Life, and after hours cleaning some of the Ivy Tech buildings. She is involved in five student organizations and takes a leading role in many. “She gives her all to them, and truly serves each with excellence,” Zimmerman said.

Following her anticipated graduation in 2020, she plans to study mechanical engineering and eventually become a professor. “I love to teach,” she said.

The Indiana Career and Technical Education Awards for Excellence program identifies and celebrates career and technical education students, programs, active partnerships that contribute to high quality career and technical education, guidance/career services displaying excellence in Indiana, and outstanding contributors to careers in technical education in Indiana.