By Joshua Robison / The Jambar
The Steel Founders Society of America Technical and Operators Conference took place Dec. 10-13 at the Loews Hotel in Chicago. While at the conference, Ely Vuksanovich, Youngstown State University junior and YSU American Foundry Society chapter president, was awarded a $3,000 scholarship and selected for a mentorship opportunity for her work from Cast in Steel in 2025.
Vuksanovich is one of the first two recipients of the mentorship that will consist of biweekly meetings with long-time SFSA member Tom Stevens, where she will work heavily with high alloy metals.
Vuksanovich said she appreciates the mentorship opportunity with Stevens and his experience with high alloy metal, which often contains higher alloying elements and is known for its strength and durability.
“There is nothing better than directly working with him in a foundry,” Vuksanovich said. “But there is really no better place to learn about high alloy. He’s been working in foundries with high alloy metal since he was in college.”
Vuksanovich said her mentorship is important as many people lack training in high alloy metal and those who are will soon need replacements.
“High alloy is a relatively niche subset of a group of people who know how to do it, and because most of them are retiring, or worse, dying, there aren’t as many people to replace them,” Vuksanovich said. “The mentorship is supposed to get young people interested in high alloy and be competent in the applications and the metallurgy of it.”
During the SFSA conference, Vuksanovich presented the AFS chapter’s work of a George Washington sword, their winning entry from the 2025 Cast In Steel. Vuksanovich said the team’s casting techniques helped them win.
“We also tried some really novel and unique techniques in the way that we cast our sword, the way that we designed the mold [and] the way we set up our gating system especially. A lot of the stuff we did was very groundbreaking,” Vuksanovich said.
The project assignment for Cast in Steel is announced in July every year. Once they receive it, Vuksanovich and her team begin the project at the beginning of the fall semester.
Vuksanovich said that the team maximizes their time and resources in preparation for the competition.
“Once [SFSA] announced it, our team here at YSU started working the first week of the semester. We do not waste time,” Vuksanovich said.
With the nature of high alloy taking much time to perfect, Vuksanovich said that participating in hands-on projects and competitions, such as Cast in Steel, guided by knowledgeable instructors is an effective way to learn.
“Most of my high-alloy understanding has come from doing these projects,” Vuksanovich said. “Our advisor is pretty well versed in different alloys and what gives them strengths and what their weaknesses are and how to treat them.”
Those interested in learning more about the AFS chapter at YSU can contact Vuksanovich at skvuksanovich@student.ysu.edu.
AFS holds its meetings at 6:30 p.m. on Mondays in Moser Hall in the second floor computer lab.