A leading expert in metal casting and manufacturing, Dr. Sam Ramrattan ’84 has helped advance technologies used by the automotive and manufacturing industries, partnered with companies and researchers around the world and prepared generations of engineers to tackle new challenges in the field. His work has taken him to more than 24 countries, where he has built research partnerships spanning industry, higher education and government.
Metal casting shapes everyday life. The process produces everything from automotive components to complex industrial parts, and Ramrattan . research has helped manufacturers improve how those parts are made. His expertise bridges traditional manufacturing and emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence, simulation, digital twins and real-time process data.
"Metal casting shapes our future," Ramrattan said. "It's the shaping technology of civilization."
His interest in manufacturing began at home in Trinidad and Tobago. As a boy, he watched his father recycle metal to make items such as fishing sinkers and shot for hunting. A new steel mill was also being built on the island, giving him an early look at how manufacturing and technology could help transform his home country.
That curiosity brought him to Polytechnic, where he studied manufacturing engineering technology before completing a one-year management technology program. Courses in hot materials processing, metal casting, plastics and other manufacturing materials showed him how engineering principles could be applied to real processes and products.
“Those were the things that I was taught and it really excited me,” Ramrattan said. “It propelled me to want to learn more.”
Ramrattan said the combination of theory and practice helped fuel his interest in further study, an experience he hopes future generations of students will continue to find at Stout.
“The one thing that I hope never changes is the real, hands-on relationship between materials and process at Stout,” he said. “Stout was a polytechnic long before it was branded that way.”
Ramrattan went on to earn his Ph.D. at Iowa State University and complete a postdoctoral fellowship before joining Western Michigan University. There, he has worked with industry partners to advance metal casting technologies, testing methods and molding materials that help manufacturers improve quality and efficiency.
Some partnerships have lasted decades., the foundry branch of Toyota, has supported metal casting research and development for more than 25 years, while his involvement with organizations such as the American Foundry Society and the North American Die Casting Society has included research and leadership roles.
As the automotive industry and other manufacturers adopt more sophisticated technologies, Ramrattan sees opportunities to better understand and control production processes. Artificial intelligence, simulation, digital twins and real-time data allow engineers to model processes, predict outcomes and identify ways to improve quality, but the technology is only part of the equation. As Ramrattan sees it, these tools make engineering knowledge even more important, helping professionals interpret results and make informed decisions about complex manufacturing processes.
He also sees sustainability as a key part of the industry's future. Metal can be recycled and recast rather than discarded, giving a manufacturing process that dates back thousands of years an important role in building more sustainable production systems.
Ramratttan's impact is far-reaching. Ramrattan has helped students build careers throughout the manufacturing field and serves as a key professor for the Foundry Educational Foundation. Those relationships have also led to opportunities abroad, including two years in Malaysia helping establish a metal casting program at the University of Technology Malaysia to support the country's automotive industry.
For Ramrattan, the relationships go both ways. "It's kind of a reciprocal thing," Ramrattan said. "Finding students that are passionate, working with them, and then certainly over the years that relationship is fostered to help within the industries here in the U.S. and then internationally as well."
That investment in future engineers starts early. Since 1998, Ramrattan has helped introduce high school students to manufacturing through a weeklong metal casting camp, where young people can experience engineering firsthand. He estimates that 300 to 400 students have participated over the years.
For Ramrattan, there is lasting value in that experience. The hands-on approach he encountered at Polytechnic has stayed with him throughout his career, shaping how he advances manufacturing technologies, works with industry and helps students discover what they can create. “I'm proud because Stout taught me how to build,” he said. “That idea of wanting to build at a high level of quality and productivity, I'm proud of that.”
