Oct. 13, the mechanical engineering department announced the Kris Dressler Strategic Targeted Achievement Recognition scholarship fund. The scholarship aims to recruit and maintain talented students to the University of Wisconsin’s College of Engineering — an ode to Dressler’s work with the department’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee.
In October 2021, Dressler was diagnosed with aggressive brain cancer and immediately stopped teaching his classes, disappearing from campus. When news about Dressler’s diagnosis made its way around the mechanical engineering community, he received many “heartfelt “and “touching” emails. The attendance to the guest lecture echoed the same level of support for his lecture.
Dressler was gifted multiple copies of the book “The Last Lecture.” He received many gifts and books after his diagnosis that he had pushed aside, but the idea of giving a lecture with his new point of view stuck around.
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Mechanical engineering department chair, Darryl Thelen approached him with the idea of speaking, and the planning for Dresslerfest commenced.
“The future, especially Dress’ future in mechanical engineering, is uncertain,” the Engineering Blog said. “Engineers don’t plan on things going right, but the engineering community is grateful for a very entertaining evening with a guy who asks really good questions.”
Currently sitting on the committee for diversity and inclusion, Dressler is passionate about promoting engineering careers to a more diverse group of future students. As a parent, Dressler is well aware of the challenges of exposing young children to the world of science. Both his children were able to experience the importance of hands-on learning in exploring the world of science — something not all families are able to afford.
Dressler knows expanding opportunities for diverse youth groups to develop a love for science will impact the next generation of scientific discoveries.
“I think we need to promote [to] girls, not high school seniors and juniors, but four and five year old girls that science is cool,” Dressler said. “Solving problems in science is a great way to [better] understand the world around you and that you can play an important role here.”
At UW, Dressler noticed the benefit of being on a team with people from different backgrounds. Not only will this push the student to open their worldview, but it will also enable collaboration which can lead to great discoveries.
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“I truly believe this. The more diverse group of people on a team trying to solve a problem, the bigger the bucket of potential solutions you have,” Dressler said. “The farm kid from Northern Wisconsin is going to have a different set of ideas than the city slickers from Chicago, who’s going to have a different set of ideas from a black kid from Detroit and a rich kid from Marin, Churchill or Lake counties.”
Dressler did not follow the traditional path to becoming an engineer. With a lifelong love of sailing, Dressler enrolled at the University of Wisconsin to study fluid mechanics to design high-tech racing boats. As a student at UW, Dressler rowed on the school team, coached Hoofers and completed three internships and two degrees in six years.
An engineer’s role in society is critical, and for Dressler, understanding where students can most make an impact is key to their time as undergraduate.
“The engineer’s job is to solve problems and improve the human condition … find something you’re passionate about, work on it and do what you can to make the world a better place,” Dressler said.
He never ended up designing sailboats, but Dressler did develop a love of educating the next generation of engineers. He worked on the teaching staff at Madison Area Technical College before returning to UW as an assistant teaching professor.
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Dressler spent most of his time in Engineering Hall lecturing first-year engineering students. Often teaching ME 201: Introduction to Mechanical Engineering, Dressler has a special appreciation for incoming engineers.
“It’s also super fun, largely because the students come in as children,” Dressler said. “They still are expecting their hand to be held. Then, they finish the semester as engineering students.”
From his undergraduate years, Dressler understands the importance of these foundational classes in students’ paths to becoming great engineers.
Dressler has watched many of his former ME 201 students develop into engineers equipped to solve the world’s problems. Despite the love students have shown him recently, he knows he was not always the easiest on them. Dressler did not need his students to like him — he wanted them to learn, engage and ask questions.
“I like to say look around the room,” Dressler said. “Everybody in here got a 34 on the ACT. You’re not special anymore, right? You’re just another kid in an engineering class.”
Dressler reminisced how he avoided doing his homework in undergrad and used his experience to try and shape the younger students he had. As a professor, he emphasized that homework is where the fun problems are while tests have the boring ones.
The outpouring of student support demonstrates how Dressler tremendously impacted students at UW. When he returned to campus in January, students were happy to see him.
“Students have been appreciative, but I started to suspect that word spread amongst the undergraduate population that I was a good professor,” Dressler said. “And that ‘hey you may have never had Dress for a class but you should hope he comes back so you can get him.’ Yeah, I have that reputation. I worked really hard to try to do a good job, and it’s nice to hear that it’s appreciated.”
Since his diagnosis one year ago, Dressler had the opportunity to reflect on the importance of engineering research. Rather than change how he views science, his diagnosis highlighted the importance of other fields, such as medical imaging.
While Dressler’s interest sparked in the medical field, he became intrigued by other areas of research as well. Passionate about the environment, Dressler continued to press on other topics, such as research in transportation, clean energy or quiet motors.
“As it changed my worldview, the world of science is a different thing,” Dressler said. “I’m just one out of seven billion people, pretty insignificant… I think it would be selfish to say that we need more brain cancer research. Yeah we do, but we also need more prostate cancer research, ovarian cancer [and] more research in general.”
Throughout his time at UW, Dressler witnessed life-changing research produced by the School of Engineering. From making more effective helmets, to prosthetic limbs, to wind technology, he saw engineers address challenges that face everyday Wisconsinites.
When engineers work together to solve problems they are passionate about, Dressler believes they will make the world a better place. The more people who can cohesively share the Boundary Waters, Yellowstone and local community resources, the better the human condition will be.
