About AFG
Michigan Tech's Enterprise program gives teams of students the opportunity to participate in real-world settings to solve engineering problems supplied by industry partners. The program prepares students for the challenges that await them after their educations are complete, and gives new perspectives to sponsors, businesses, and organizations that participate. The Alternative Fuels Group Enterprise is committed to providing an opportunity for young professionals in multiple academic disciplines to interact with industry and faculty and to provide viable solutions to real-world energy problems.
How it all got started...
In the spring of 2002, a group of students involved with AIChE's Chem-E Car competition returned with a first-place victory from the AIChE regional conference. The team members had bigger visions for the Chem-E Car - to develop a more efficient power source, like a hydrogen fuel cell, and to machine a better vehicle with improved vehicle dynamics. They molded their group into an enterprise that would research and develop current alternative fuels, working in conjunction with industry sponsors to give viable solutions to real-world energy problems. The first memo was written to the chemical engineering department chair, our current advisor, and enterprise program coordinators. It was then that the Alternative Fuels Group Enterprise got started. The newly formed enterprise soon found a project and a sponsor in the area of alternative fuels: the United States Army's Tank-automotive and Armaments Command. Since then, the enterprise has grown and changed considerably. AFG has new sponsors, the Army Research Laboratory, and now supports several sub-groups and teams that focus on unique and individual alternative energy projects.