Joe Genco: Engineering Innovation in Action

What does it take to turn cutting-edge ideas into real-world materials?

Joe Genco, a fourth-year mechanical engineering student with an aerospace concentration from Virginia Beach, is answering that question every day at the University of Maine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center (ASCC). As a Student Research Assistant in the Nanopolymer Lab, Genco focuses on developing polymer-based materials while coordinating 3D printing projects for faculty, researchers, and fellow students. His work ranges from preparing models with slicing software to managing the printing process, design changes, and troubleshooting, bringing innovative concepts to life in real time.

Beyond the Nanopolymer Lab, Genco has contributed to the ASCC’s Fiber and Specialty Textile Research (FASTR) Lab, a premier hub for advanced textile solutions and workforce development. There, he helped adapt flat carbon fiber tape for weaving machines traditionally designed for round thread, tackling challenges with material handling and spool winding. By improving setup processes for carbon fiber tape, Genco engaged in solution-driven collaboration across disciplines. This type of hands-on, real-world problem-solving is what defines the ASCC.

“For me, working at the ASCC has been transformative,” Genco says. “In class, you mostly learn theory. Here, I have learned how to build and design things that work in real life, not just on paper.”

Genco, who plans to pursue a career in additive manufacturing within the aerospace industry, is one of more than 3,000 students trained at the ASCC since its founding. Students from over 35 academic disciplines, including engineering, science, and business, have gained real-world experience at the Center. “It is not just engineers here,” he adds. “There are people with backgrounds in chemistry, forestry, business, and more. Working with so many different types of people has really helped me grow.”

The ASCC’s interdisciplinary approach to workforce development continues to expand. The forthcoming GEM building, set to open in September 2025, will further integrate learning by doing across UMaine’s campus with Maine College of Engineering and Computing and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. With new collaborative spaces and advanced digital manufacturing capabilities, from makerspaces open to the pubic to large-scale innovation bays tackling housing innovation and blat building, GEM will serve as a launchpad for the next generation of engineers, scientists, and entrepreneurs.

At its core, the ASCC lives by the values of “students first” and “none of us is as smart as all of us”. By training Maine’s workforce and fostering collaboration across a wide range of disciplines and expertise, the Center demonstrates that the best results come when people learn, innovate, and solve problems together.

Written By: Sara Tran, quynh.tran@maine.edu
Contact: MJ Gautrau, mj@composites.maine.edu