Through collaborations with organizations such as Sub-Zero Group, UW-Madison’s College of Engineering is helping ensure AI workforce education reflects real-world challenges, opportunities, and emerging workforce needs.
Artificial intelligence is transforming engineering, manufacturing, and public-sector organizations. Across industries, leaders are exploring how AI can improve productivity, uncover new opportunities, and strengthen competitiveness. Yet many are still determining how to move from experimentation to meaningful implementation.
One company navigating that challenge is Sub-Zero Group, the family-owned manufacturer of Sub-Zero, Wolf, and Cove appliances. Through UW-Madison’s Interdisciplinary Professional Programs (InterPro), the College of Engineering’s division for professional education, industry leaders and university experts are working together to identify workforce challenges and develop educational programs that address emerging needs.
“Everybody’s talking about it. There’s so much hype that every company, I think, to some extent feels like… we’re behind or we’re not doing enough,” said Steve Nackers, leader of Electronics and Connectivity at Sub-Zero Group and a newly appointed Program Director with UW-Madison’s Interdisciplinary Professional Programs (InterPro).
For Nackers, the opportunity isn’t simply to adopt another technology.
“I look at it as an augmentation to everything we’re doing rather than a replacement,” he said.
He believes organizations that succeed with AI will be those that help their workforce apply it thoughtfully, pairing new technology with sound engineering fundamentals, critical thinking, and continuous learning.
Learning Together
Nackers said his decision to join InterPro grew out of his experience serving on the College of Engineering’s Industrial Advisory Board.
“I saw how much value there was in the partnership between industry and the college,” he said. “Industry and academia bring different perspectives, but those perspectives are highly complementary.”
That exchange of ideas is central to InterPro’s approach.
“Our goal is to help organizations become more effective, productive, and competitive by connecting them with the expertise of UW faculty and researchers,” said Ed Borbely, associate dean of Interdisciplinary Professional Programs. “In the process, we learn from industry as well, ensuring our programs remain relevant and responsive to emerging challenges.”
“The most successful workforce-development partnerships begin with listening,” said Susan Ottmann, director of Professional Programs. “Every organization faces different challenges. Our role is to understand those needs and determine how UW expertise can help address them. Often, those solutions grow beyond a single partnership and become professional education opportunities that benefit organizations across industries.”
The collaboration with Sub-Zero has already influenced both customized workforce-development initiatives and InterPro’s open-enrollment portfolio. Insights gained through the partnership helped shape Foundations of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, while other collaborations led to the development of Tools and Tactics to Recover Troubled Projects and informed Continuous Improvement: From Symptoms to Solutions, scheduled to launch this fall.
Preparing Engineers for What’s Next
Nackers believes one of the greatest challenges organizations face is not the technology itself, but helping people understand where AI can create value and how to integrate it responsibly into engineering and manufacturing processes.
In manufacturing environments, AI is already helping organizations identify bottlenecks, improve efficiency, reduce waste, and uncover opportunities that previously required months of analysis.
“People are starting to sit down and solve those things out in half a day,” he said.
As AI adoption accelerates, InterPro continues to expand its portfolio of offerings in artificial intelligence, machine learning, analytics, governance, predictive technologies, and data-driven decision making. Recent additions include Artificial Intelligence Fundamentals and Applications for Engineers, Artificial Intelligence: Strategy and Governance, Industrial Data Analytics: Models, Forecasts, and AI Tools, and Artificial Intelligence in the Water and Wastewater Sector.
For Nackers, one of the partnership’s greatest benefits has been helping Sub-Zero take a more strategic approach to AI.
“For us, what’s changed is focus,” he said. “UW brings tremendous depth in manufacturing, so rather than chasing AI everywhere, we’ve been able to identify where it creates the greatest value in our engineering processes. Working with InterPro in our specific domain has made that effort even more valuable.“
Organizations interested in exploring workforce-development opportunities, custom training solutions, or professional education programs can contact Corporate Engagement Manager Chelsy Cegielski to learn more about InterPro’s Corporate Engagement services.