Andrew Blatt, '12
2018 recipient of the Nelson Distinguished Young Alumni Award
Blatt was born in Key West, Florida and grew up between Durham, North Carolina and West Virginia.
As a kid, he was fascinated by how cars and other moving objects worked. He first considered going to school to become an automobile mechanic, but understanding his aptitudes, his father recommended an engineering degree. He ran with it, and says it was one of the best choices of his life.
At Tech, Blatt was an active member of the Society of Automotive Engineers and served as president of the college’s chapter of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Always clinging to his fascination with automobiles, he says that working with a team that built an electric motorcycle for their senior project was one of the most memorable experiences of his college career.
Blatt graduated in 2012 and soon landed a job as a laser engineer at the newly established Gestamp facility in South Charleston, West Virginia. A year and a half later, he accepted a position as corporate laser engineer for the company’s North America operations, which took him to five Gestamp plants located from Michigan all the way to Mexico.
After three years on the road, he landed a position as an engineer in the L&W Engineering tube processing facility in Milan, Michigan. L&W is a tier 1 supplier that works directly with original equipment manufacturers such as Ford and GM. The organization makes metal stampings and assemblies at 15 locations in Michigan and other states.
He was recruited only a few months later into the position of laser engineering manager at the company’s Euclid Manufacturing facility in downtown Detroit. The facility specializes in “hot stamping,” a process where stamped automobile parts are hardened. At Euclid, Blatt leads a team of 18 in a facility where those hardened parts are cut into their final shapes using specialized laser equipment. His team oversees the facility’s production, equipment and maintenance, fabrication, engineering and spare parts inventory.
Blatt’s credits his time at Tech for preparing him to work effectively. He says that his success is driven by the fact that, beyond the engineering background, he learned how to communicate with people, how to be open to ideas and how to systematically think through issues to find solutions.
In 2016, Blatt married his high school sweetheart Kayla on what he calls “the best day of my life.” Kayla, a 2012 graduate of Bridgemont Community and Technical College (now BridgeValley), is a dental hygienist. The two live just outside of Detroit in Canton, Michigan, and are expecting a baby boy in June.