Andrew (Andy) Block graduated from University of Illinois with his B.S from General Engineering, now the SE department in 2005. He was a member of Gamma Epsilon, winner of the Herbert J. Sprengel Award for best SED 232 balsa wood design project in 2004 through the excessive use of superglue and developed a program for 3D animation of control systems simulation data in MATLAB.
He continued his studies of bipedal locomotive robots as a Chittenden Fellowship recipient and graduated with his M.S from IESE (now Systems Engineering) in 2007. After a humbling and grueling first year in industry working for the HON company, he moved to Madison Wisconsin to work for Fiskars. At Fiskars, Andy worked as a Design Engineer at different levels for more than a decade, including time as an awful manager, and is now a Principal Engineer in Research and Technology with interests in sustainable gardening and material replacement. He has received Teamwork and Excellence awards, been named an Innovation Ambassador by his peers, been granted many unique Utility and Design Patents, been a mentor to several Design Engineering interns, and is admittedly “that guy that sends long emails with multiple bulleted lists and bold text”.
Most importantly to him, he is a proud parent of a 2-year-old, Sam, with his wife Jessie. When he can convince Jessie and Sam to give him more than an hour of free time, he attempts to pursue his hobbies of woodworking, gardening, and videogames. His contact information may be made available upon request.
