Oliver Ullrich still remembers the first time he walked into UM-Dearborn’s Manufacturing Systems Engineering Laboratory as a mechanical engineering undergrad. An avid metalworker and jewelry maker since high school, he had spent countless hours working in his family’s Dearborn basement.
But when he saw the MSEL’s 3D printers, mills, welders, laser cutters, CNC machinery and woodworking equipment, it was love at first sight.
“Suddenly I could do so much more than I ever imagined at home,” says Ullrich, who graduated with his bachelor’s in mechanical engineering in April and is currently pursuing a Master of Science in Engineering in mechanical engineering at UM-Dearborn. “To have an idea in my head, design it on the computer, work on it in the MSEL and then hold it in my hand is just such an amazing feeling,” he says.
The MSEL is open to anyone in the UM-Dearborn community for personal and class-related projects. It was a fixture of Ullrich’s undergraduate career.
“When you’re the designer and the builder of something — even a small piece of jewelry — you learn so much about how components actually fit together, about tolerances, all the questions that have to be answered to make something work in the real world,” Ullrich says. “It was a really fun way to learn skills that I need for research and in internships.”
Ullrich eventually parlayed those skills into a role as an undergraduate researcher, designing and manufacturing cold plasma devices to treat air, water and surfaces. He has also taken on domestic and international internships at mechanical engineering companies Becker CAD-CAM-CAST and Windschiegl Maschinenbau GmbH.
In January 2026, Ullrich got an idea that would demand greater precision and passion for detail than anything he’d done before: an engagement ring for his girlfriend, Grace Schook.
The couple started dating three years earlier. When Ullrich made the decision to propose, he knew that only a ring he made himself would do.
The process took nearly a year, from settling on the perfect design to mapping out the manufacturing process, buying diamonds, sapphires and silver online and, obviously, watching dozens of YouTube instructional videos.
“When I started, I didn’t know anything about casting and I had never designed anything like an engagement ring, with settings for stones,” he says.
Ullrich learned about a manufacturing process called vacuum casting, which enables consistent, defect-free molding of small parts and jewelry. The MSEL didn’t have a vacuum casting machine or jewelry workshop, so he built one, using the facility’s equipment.
“I had to cut all the tubes, machine all the metal plates, laser cut the sealing rings, and weld it all together,” he says. “They had every tool and machine I needed.”
The device works by creating a vacuum that pulls air through the microscopic pores of a plaster mold. When molten metal is poured, the vacuum sucks it in quickly and evenly, creating more precise castings than traditional casting.
Even with custom tools, it took Ullrich seven attempts to get a ring that he felt was good enough for his fiancée. Ultimately, his efforts paid off: She said yes. The pair plans to get married in Dearborn in December 2027.
In the meantime, Ullrich still spends much of his time at the MSEL. He works there as a student technician in addition to continuing to design and manufacture parts for his cold plasma generation research. He’s currently focused on systems that produce environmentally friendly agricultural fertilizer using only air, water and electricity.
Ullrich is also helping to build a vacuum casting setup at the MSEL, which will include machines similar to the one he built to cast his fiancée’s ring. He hopes it will enable other UM-Dearborn students to create and learn as he has.
“People don’t know what they’re missing,” he says.
MSEL hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday.
Story by Gabe Cherry. Photos by Rachel Leonard.
