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OMAC Awards First John Kowal Scholarships

Program honors a champion of automation.

John Kowal
John Kowal

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OMAC – The Organization for Machine Automation and Control (Booth C-1152) recognized the first recipients of a John A. Kowal Memorial Scholarship yesterday at its General Session held at PACK EXPO Las Vegas. Patrick Wojtera, an Automation Engineering Technology student at McMaster University (Hamilton, Ontario, Canada), and Tyler Ebert, an Electrical Engineering student at Ohio University, each received an award of $5,000.Stephanie Frisque, widow of John Kowal; Bryan Griffen, and OMAC Chairman Ron MacDonald of Nestle; present one of the first John A. Kowal Memorial Scholarships to Tyler Ebert.Stephanie Frisque, widow of John Kowal; Bryan Griffen, and OMAC Chairman Ron MacDonald of Nestle; present one of the first John A. Kowal Memorial Scholarships to Tyler Ebert.

Patrick Wojtera (lower right), the winner of the second $5,000 scholarship, joined the ceremony virtually.Patrick Wojtera (lower right), the winner of the second $5,000 scholarship, joined the ceremony virtually.With the scholarship, “John’s legacy will live on through the students who share his quest for knowledge and passion for the industry,” says Stephanie Frisque, Kowal’s widow. Wojtera is majoring in automation and smart systems and involved in many extracurricular and volunteer activities, including student recruitment, co-op information sessions and Institutional Quality Assurance Process, a quality assurance process required of all publicly assisted universities in Ontario.

In his co-op job as an automation specialist, he has programed human/machine interfaces and programmable logic controllers for multiple machines. His goal is to work in the automation industry, ideally with conveyors. Ebert is active in two student professional organizations: Theta Tau Professional Engineering Fraternity, where he served as pledge class president and professional development chair, and the IEEE Eta Kappa Nu Honor Society. He also has gained considerable hands-on experience in intern and coop positions, including designing and implementing control logic for a milk-powder handling system and creating a functional specification and operator interface for film extrusion die thickness.

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