After 35 years of trial by fire in the Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering Department (IME) and the College of Engineering, Martin Koch retired March 8, 2019. Martin worked half-time has a lecturer and half-time as an Electro-Mechanical Technician III. However, his influence reached far beyond the expectations of either position.
Martin was instrumental in the development and continued growth of the foundry program and Net Shape Manufacturing Lab where he taught generations of freshman students metal casting design and rapid prototyping. Martin had a long history of special and unique research in the area of 3D printing. In 1994, he introduced the first two 3D printers to the IME Department (and the campus) with a $350,000 donation he secured from the Department of Defense. More recently, he was instrumental in the installation of a state-of-the-art additive manufacturing printer for stainless steel powder on loan from Lawrence Livermore National Labs.
Over the years, Martin’s industry relationships resulted in countless opportunities for students and improvements in our manufacturing labs. His philanthropic efforts with Haas Automation, the Gene Haas Foundation, Melfred Borzal, and Autodesk resulted in more than one million dollars in student scholarships, software training, and in-kind donations.
Martin is still well known and well respected in the metals industries both state-wide and nationally. He serves on the organizing committee for the Foundry Education Foundation’s College and Industry Conference, the premier conference connecting the metal casting industry and universities. He is also a leader in the California Metals Coalition.
Martin is very generous with his time and routinely volunteers to help students, faculty and staff from all over campus and often from other institutions. For the last 14 years, he has coordinated with the BioResource and Agricultural Engineering (BRAE) Department to provide labs during the California FFA State Finals for the Ag Mechanics contest. He also partners with Dick Melsheimer and the Melfred Borzall Company to offer EPIC (Engineering Possibilities in College) welding workshops for hundreds of high school students each summer. In addition, this year marks the 16th Cal Poly will host the California Industrial and Technology Education Association (CITEA) conference for the Manufacturing Technologies Teacher Association (MTTA), a conference Martin developed for high school and college technology teachers to learn computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing design (CAD/CAM), manufacturing processes and rapid prototyping.
Martin will be missed by numerous staff and faculty across Cal Poly. Please join the IME Department in celebrating Martin’s retirement and his indelible legacy 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m, Thursday, June 13 in the Bonderson High Bay (building 197).
