Giving a senior capstone project is almost never a cakewalk. But imagine presenting on a senior engineering project when a member of the audience critiquing your presentation was the chief engineer for the U.S. Navy’s X-47B, an unmanned stealth combat aircraft that cost more than $2 billion to develop.
At another university, Keith Carter’s presence might have had students sweating, but Viterbo senior engineering majors Jon Fortney, Gordon Murphy and Matthew Wejrowski were not rattled in the least. Carter has been a familiar virtual presence for Viterbo students the past four years, giving talks via Zoom to systems engineering and design classes.
So how did Carter, the chief engineer on the award-winning and groundbreaking X-47B project who went on to teach systems engineering for the Naval Air Systems Command, end up involved in Viterbo’s engineering program?
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Friendship.
Ric Harned, Viterbo engineering professor, was fresh out of Navy test pilot school and put in charge of a major project. Carter was one of the people Harned chose to work with him on the team, and they formed a strong friendship during their time together.
Years later, when Harned and Emily Vanderfleet were trying to get Viterbo’s engineering program off the ground, Harned turned to Carter for help creating curriculum for the systems engineering class. Harned has long been a firm believer in systems engineering, an interdisciplinary approach that focuses on designing, integrating and managing complex projects over their life cycles (birth to obsolescence), but he wanted to ensure that Viterbo’s teaching of systems engineering, normally a graduate-level field of study, was top flight.
“When I was in the Navy I was never traditionally trained in systems engineering. I just did it. We all knew the kinds of things we had to do,” Harned said.
A few years ago, Harned got special permission from the Naval Air Systems Command to enroll in Carter’s systems engineering course, and Carter has served as a sounding board as Harned works to improve Viterbo’s instruction.
“It’s been so great to be able to bounce ideas off Keith,” Harned said. “It helps me filter out things I shouldn’t be teaching because they’re too high-level.”
After years of lending his expertise from afar, Carter spent a week on campus March 6-10, which included giving a public lecture on systems engineering and sitting in on the senior capstone presentation. The project involves designing and building a prototype trishaw, a lightweight, pedaled three-wheeled vehicle with seating for two passengers.
The project started last year as part of Viterbo’s HAWK WORKS program, and as with any engineering project, the aim was to solve a problem. A local nursing home had a trishaw for taking residents on rides, but trishaws are hard to get and very expensive, as much as $15,000 with tariffs and shipping costs from Europe.
Fortney, Murphy and Wejrowski, the three Viterbo seniors working on the trishaw project, made great advances this year. At the capstone presentation, they reported they expect to have a working prototype ready for testing by the end of the semester, built at a cost of no more than $9,000.
The cost of manufacturing the trishaw will be significantly less than that per unit. At this point, Murphy explained, they have been paying retail price for most parts, and they’ve had large upfront costs for setting up custom manufactured pieces that won’t have to be paid again.
Carter was impressed with the trio’s work, especially their performance and cost analysis and the way they strategized about securing a supply chain for parts in the future. A big part of success in engineering that most people don’t think of is the importance of building relationships with manufacturers and other suppliers.
“I’ve seen a lot of engineers coming into the workforce who had all the hard skills but were lacking a lot of the soft skills they needed to be successful,” Carter said. “Viterbo’s program does a great job of developing those soft skills.”
Carter also was impressed with how much the team consulted with the nursing home recreation director, the ultimate customer for the trishaw. “That’s vital to ensure that what they were creating served their needs,” Carter said. “A lot of times when you get into the design work you forget about what the customer really needs.”
Documentation of risk abatement and mitigation strategies, among other topics, was one area Carter saw need for improvement, especially because another team of Viterbo students will take over the project next fall, ensuring the vehicle meets all U.S. and international safety regulations and putting it through punishing stress tests to see whether and how it can be broken.
Luckily, there’s time to work on better documentation before the end of the semester, and coming up short is a learning experience, Harned said. “The more you learn, the more you figure out there’s way more out there than you ever knew.”
Between the week he spent at Viterbo and his virtual connections over the past few years, Carter said he has built relationships with the students and has a stake in their success. “I see a lot of depth there,” he said. “I would be disappointed if any one of them would fail, but I don’t think Ric would let that happen.”
The Pentagon has released video footage showing what they claim is two Russian Su-27 aircraft in an “unsafe and unprofessional” intercept of one of their MQ-9 reconnaissance drones. The incident, which downed the unmanned aircraft in the Black Sea after an alleged collision, occurred on the morning of March 14, 2023. The drone was operating in international airspace and crashed into international waters. U.S. officials state that the Russian Su-27s dumped fuel upon and struck the propeller of the MQ-9, causing it to be brought down. In contrast, Russian officials claimed the drone crashed after a "sharp manoeuvre" and denied that the two aircraft made contact. The incident comes at a time when tensions between the U.S. and the Kremlin are high due to Russia’s 2023 invasion of Ukraine and U.S. aid to the latter.
The 10 best tax-friendly states—and the 10 worst
A look at the most and least tax-friendly states
Every state handles taxes a little differently, and which state you live in can impact your wallet. As you prepare your state tax return this year, it might not be the first time you, and other Americans, ask, "Is living here worth the taxes?"Â
To assess the tax-friendliness of all 50 states and the District of Columbia, MoneyGeek analyzed data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Tax Foundation and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Expenditure survey to calculate taxes paid in each state. MoneyGeek awarded each state a tax-friendliness grade, giving an "A" to the states with the smallest tax burden and an "F" to the states with the largest. MoneyGeek considered sales, income and property taxes in its calculations. The analysis also explored how each state's tax-friendliness rating related to its population growth from 2021 to 2022.
Key findings
- Illinois is the least tax-friendly state; there, families pay $14,778 in annual taxes. Wyoming is the most tax-friendly state, where residents pay $3,438.
- For a typical middle-class family, the tax burden difference between living in the highest-tax state (Illinois) and the lowest-tax state (Wyoming) is $11,340 per year.
- States that received an A in tax-friendliness experienced above-average population growth (1%); states with an F saw below-average growth (0.1%).
- Florida, which received an A and ranked as the fifth most tax-friendly state in the nation, saw a 2.1% increase in its population growth — the largest of any state.
- New York, which received a D and ranked as the fifth-worst state for tax burdens, saw the biggest population decline (-0.8%) in the U.S.
Wyoming, Nevada lead the 10 most tax-friendly states in America
To find the most tax-friendly states in America, MoneyGeek estimated the state taxes paid by a typical middle-class family. In this analysis, a typical middle-class family was defined as a married couple with one dependent making the median national income ($87,432) and owning a home valued at the national median ($374,665).
MoneyGeek's analysis found that Wyoming is the most tax-friendly state in America, followed by Nevada, Tennessee, Florida and Alaska. States that received a grade of A all share something in common: no state income tax. Washington and South Dakota — which both received a B — also have no state income tax. On average, taxes in the most tax-friendly states only comprised 6% of the typical household's income.
On the other hand, taxes made up 14% of a typical family's income in the 10 states with the highest tax burdens. In Illinois — the least tax-friendly state in America and 1 of 4 states to receive an F grade in this analysis — taxes make up an eye-popping 17% of household income.
Notably, 9 of the 10 least tax-friendly states are located in either New England or the Midwest, with the exception of Nebraska.
Analysis shows higher population growth in lower tax states
For many, the pandemic altered their perceptions about where they want to live and where they can live. Millions of city-weary residents aching for more space — and having more mobility due to the rise in popularity of remote work — have relocated in recent years. Have taxes influenced their decision to move to a new state? MoneyGeek's analysis suggests that the answer is "yes."
Analysis of state tax burden rates and the change in population from 2021 to 2022, as estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau, shows that taxes and population growth are related in some states.
While the average population growth in the U.S. was 0.5%, the most tax-friendly states (those that received an A grade) saw above-average population growth at 1%. Florida — awarded an A grade and ranked as the fifth most tax-friendly state — saw the highest population growth in the nation at 2.1%. Nevada (No. 2) and Tennessee (No.3) — both A-graded states — also saw above-average growth at 1.1% each.
Of the four states with an F grade, two had population declines in 2022. Among the eight states with a D grade, three — New York, Wisconsin and Michigan — saw population declines. Other D-grade states (Nebraska, Iowa and Vermont) saw no population growth or growth below the national average.
Methodology
To calculate the least and most tax-friendly states in America, MoneyGeek researched income and sales tax rates by state using data from the Tax Foundation. Property tax rates were sourced from RocketMortgage.
Using expenditure and income data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Expenditure Survey, income data from the U.S. Census Bureau and housing data from Zillow, MoneyGeek constructed a hypothetical family with one dependent, a gross income of $87,432 (the median national income at the time of research) and a home worth $374,665 (the median new home price at the time of research).
MoneyGeek then estimated the state taxes this hypothetical family would pay in each state. This includes a calculation of the federal tax rate to identify deductions if and where appropriate. States were ranked based on the estimated total taxes and assigned letter grades from A to E based on the size of the tax payment:
- Grade A: $3,438–$5,705
- Grade B: $5,706–$7,973
- Grade C: $7,974–$10,241
- Grade D: $10,242–$12,509
- Grade E: $12,510–$14,778
Population growth information was sourced from the U.S. Census Bureau.
SOURCES
- Tax Foundation. "State and Local Sales Tax Rates, 2022." Accessed January 13, 2023.
- Tax Foundation. "State Individual Income Tax Rates and Brackets for 2022." Accessed January 13, 2023.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. "Consumer Expenditures – 2021." Accessed January 13, 2023.
- U.S. Census Bureau. "Census Bureau Median Family Income By Family Size." Accessed January 13, 2023.
- U.S. Census Bureau. "Population Estimates, Population Change, and Components of Change." Accessed January 13, 2023.
- Zillow Home Value Index. "Housing Data." Accessed January 13, 2023.
- Rocket Mortgage. "Property Taxes By State: A Comparative Look At The Highest To Lowest States." Accessed February 24, 2023.
This story originally appeared on MoneyGeek and has been independently reviewed to meet journalistic standards.
Campus Connection appears weekly in the La Crosse Tribune to spotlight student and faculty achievements at the UW-L, Viterbo and Western Technical College. The campuses provide these features on a rotating basis.
“I’ve seen a lot of engineers coming into the workforce who had all the hard skills but were lacking a lot of the soft skills they needed to be successful. Viterbo’s program does a great job of developing those soft skills.”
 Keith Carter
