Hibbeler maximizes impact with EVS, Grainger Match

“I didn't spend a dime for my graduate tuition. I have this incredible life now that is enabled by my MechSE degrees, and I got it for basically nothing but my time and effort. I don’t know that I’ll be able to fully pay forward the value of the assistantships I received, but that won’t stop me from trying.”

MechSE alumnus Lance Hibbeler (MSME ‘09, MSTAM ‘11, PhDME ‘14) has launched the Lance C. Hibbeler Mechanical Science and Engineering Visionary Scholarship Fund in an effort to begin giving back for all the help he received throughout his graduate education. 

Hibbeler‘s gift is part of the college-level Engineering Visionary Scholarship (EVS) initiative, which provides renewable scholarships for undergraduate students, specifically focusing on increasing the number of women, under-represented minorities, and first-generation college students.

“The matching program from the Grainger Foundation, in which they match not only my contribution but also my employer's match of my gift, was the motivating factor to get the ball rolling.  Getting four dollars of scholarship for every dollar I contribute was too good an opportunity to pass up,” he said. 

Hibbeler has been working with Intel Corporation since he graduated from MechSE, where he uses computational modeling to help design and debug the manufacturing process for computer chips. Many of the classes he took at Illinois help him daily in his career, including TAM 551 and TAM 552 (Solid Mechanics I and II) with Professor Petros Sofronis and ME 450 (Modeling in Materials Processing) with Professor Jon Dantzig.

According to Hibbeler, professors Brian Thomas (his advisor), Armand Beaudoin, and Dantzig helped him become the engineer he is today through their classes and informal discussions with him. 

During his time in MechSE, Hibbeler said he enjoyed having the opportunity to teach, both in a formal class setting and while supervising undergraduate researchers in the lab. He was also heavily involved with Pi Tau Sigma and was the founding president of GraMS (Graduate MechSE Society).