• Multi-Disciplinary Enterprise Team of the Year Award
  (nomination form)
  
• Enterprise Product/Service of the Year Award
  (nomination form)
  
• Enterprise Management Team of the Year Award
  (nomination form)
  
• Enterprise Website of the Year Award
  (nomination form)
  
• Most Improved Enterprise Team of the Year Award
  (nomination form)
  
• Most Community Involvement of the Year Award
  (nomination form)
  
• Best Faculty Advisor of the Year Award
  (nomination form)
  

Completed nomination forms are to be submitted to Mary Raber on or before April 9th, 2008.

For more info:
Mary Raber
Director, Enterprise Program
Michigan Tech University
College of Engineering
(906) 487-2005
mraber@mtu.edu

The ultimate goal is to develop a completely wireless transmission system, so what a soldier sees and hears on the battlefield can be viewed and recorded at a remote command post. The project is funded by the Army Research Lab.

The digital POV.1 (for "point of view") is an offspring of V.I.O.'s earlier Adventure Cam analog video camera systems, long favorites of cyclists, snowboarders and other sporting enthusiasts. Users strap the cameras to helmets, handlebars or about anything else, record the action, and then play back movies on their computers or other video equipment.

Read the rest of the article, via Michigan Tech's Tech Today.

March 27, 2008: General Motors needed more electrical and computer engineers. Michigan Technological University's newly established Automotive Computing Enterprise (ACE) needed a test vehicle. It was a match made in heaven.

The General Motors Foundation donated a fully loaded 2007 Chevy Suburban with a navigation system, touch screen, passenger DVD player and rear camera. Michigan Tech Enterprise Coordinator Rick Berkey calls it "the perfect sandbox for ACE."

Read the rest of the article.

Goals/Objectives - : FERM offers the Forestry and Environmental Resource Management (FERMTM) program as an innovative, hands-on opportunity in undergraduate applied ecology and forestry education.

This residency-type, forestry enterprise program provides valuable experience as multi-level teams of students plan, implement, and oversee actual conservation-oriented management on portions of the School's 5,500 acre forest.

In this one-of-a-kind program students gain real-world experience as they learn and realize the lasting impacts that their investments of time and energy have for themselves, the School, the community, and the lands.

Goals/Objectives:
As a student owned and operated business, Cin/Optic Media's goal is to provide professional and valuable video production services, while also designing fresh and innovative implementations of professional video technologies for utilization with consumer-grade price. By balancing between both creative and technical aspects of video, the primary goal is to focus on clients' needs and expectations, while developing artistically engineered products. By capitalizing on creative and technical strengths, concomitantly fortifying relationships with customers (local and global), video technology corporations, talent, and audiences, Cin/Optic Media stands to broaden Michigan Tech students' education in the media industry through real-world business experience.

Goals/Objectives - The Nanotechnology Enterprise seeks to provide undergraduate students with a comprehensive hands-on entrepreneurial educational experience as they research, develop and market nanotechnology-related products and services, and share their knowledge and experiences with first-year undergraduates and high school students and teachers.

Enterprise teams, advisors, and the campus community are all invited to attend! The day's program draft follows, below.

Introductions & Opening Remarks

Keynote Speaker: Erik A Hayenga, MTU Department of Humanities

Session 1: 10:00-10:50

Breakout Session #1 Increase Your Enterprise Funding: How to Get a Sponsor

Come hear Dr. Robert Mark and Richard Berkey speak about how to market your enterprise to prospective sponsors, how to contact those sponsors, and when the best time is for seeking sponsorship. Also, learn what the school does to secure funding, and how you can work with the enterprise program to support your projects. This presentation will explain the entire process of how an organization successfully obtains corporate sponsorship.

Location: Fisher 138

Presented by Aerospace Enterprise
Robert Piedmont
Brandon Christel
Joseph Mokszycke
Steve Conley
David Walters

Breakout Session #2: Speed Engineering: Communicating Under Pressure

Have you ever had to work under the pressure of a close deadline? We are going to teach you about everything that our enterprise has to work with because unlike most enterprises we only have six weeks from the time our challenge is released to when we have to ship a working product. We are going to share the skills that we have learned about communicating under pressure.

Location: Fisher 127

Presented by FIRST Robotics
Stephanie Bekkers
Lance Harvala
Adam Coursin

Breakout Session #3: Effective Communication: Insightful Ways to Effectively Share Your Knowledge

Are you afraid that your knowledge will be lost in the midst of your Enterprise forever? Is it hard for you to approach the elder members of your Enterprise, seeking help? Maybe, your communication is your problem. We will be showing you some of the do's and dont's for teaching the younger members of your Enterprise. Also, for the newer Enterprise members, we will show some of the techniques to effectively learn from another's knowledge.

Location: Fisher 139

Presented by Board Sport Technologies Enterprise
Tyler Lamie
Robert Vis
Jason Lindenberg
Mitch Swenson
David Clapp

Breakout Session #4: Enterprise in the Workforce: The Effectiveness of Your Enterprise Experience

This session will help prove that the experiences students gain from the Enterprise Program are a great asset in the job market. Topics covered will include:
• Using Enterprise experiences in a co-op/internship
• Relating Enterprise experiences in an interview
• The usefulness of the Enterprise program in a full-time job
In short, this presentation will prove to you, the Enterprise student, how the Enterprise program can put your career aspirations into fast-forward.

Location: Fisher 130

Presented by Clean Snowmobile Challenge
Jake Steinbrecher
Matt Thielking
Jeff Lauman
Wes Barrett
Amy Meyers
Derek Frie

Session 2: 10:55-11:45

This session outlines how to establish relationships with industry. The session will discuss how to gain exposure, contact companies, obtain donations/funding, and maintain a working relationship. Special guest Rick Berkey will also explain how enterprise teams can supplement his efforts in finding team sponsors.

Location: Fisher 129

Presented by Board Sport Technologies

Matt Michaelson
Andrew Brinks
Mitch Nollar
Josh Ball
Steve Pribyl

Breakout Session #2: Absence of Formality: A Workshop on Comfortable Communication

Formality can impede the effectiveness of communication. Come learn how to efficiently pass information throughout your enterprise or business by cutting the bull, skipping the suit and tie, and getting right down to business. We'll be heading down to the M&M's foundry where you'll hear about informal communication and get a chance to cast a souvenir.

Location: Fisher Lobby

Presented by Innovative Castings Enterprise
Ken Brooks
Tyler Ethen
Jon Lee
Nick Johnson

Breakout Session #3 Process Communication: Creating a Visual Manufacturing Plan

How do feel when someone mentions the words “tutorial”, “instructions”, or “plan”? We will show you how to communicate using fewer words and how to utilize visual techniques. We will present an example manufacturing plan implementing these helpful techniques.

Location: Fisher 138
Presented by Automotive Systems Engineering
Charlie Hebert
Jonathan LeCloux

Breakout Session #4: PR: Public Relations, Otherwise Known as Proper Recruitment

Have you been trying to attract more members to your Enterprise, but the hoards just don't seem to be coming? Maybe the problem is bad advertising! We'll be going over a few tips on creating better posters, table tents, EDS slides, and other examples of ways that you can best attract new members through various cheap and easy pathways at MTU, that you may have not been aware of.

Location: Fisher 139

Presented by Aerospace Enterprise I

Mitch Senkow
David Kootstra
Eric Green
Leslie Sabbann
Anthony Santi
Peter Garceau

Breakout Session # 5: Videoconferencing into the Community: Enterprise Outreach Communication

Looking to expand your enterprises influence into communities outside the great big U.P.? This session will detail how an outreach program using videoconferencing techniques can intimately meet with people outside our peninsula.

Location: Fisher 132 & 125

Presented by Aqua Terra Tech
Denise Zitnik
Nick Nathan
Ben Roskoskey
Brad Wargnier

Poster Session: 11:50-12:40

Session 3: 12:45-1:35

Learn how to work in a team to complete a project when time is short in this workshop-style presentation.

Location: Fisher 127

Presented by Pavement Design, Construction and Materials III
Anthony Papist
Jenni Markham
Jim Bell
Rhen Hoehn
Steve Aylsworth

Breakout Session #2: Making the Enterprise Work for You: Conveying Enterprise Experience Persuasively to Potential Employers

A multi-perspective view of how students benefit from the enterprise. Viewpoints from people who are involved and affected by the enterprise will be discussed. Positives and negatives of the enterprise will be determined based on the information presented.

Location: Fisher 138

Aerospace Enterprise III
Nathan Wier
Matt Chamberlain
Oleg Ambramovich
Brett Friermood
Jake Palosaari

Breakout Session #3 Resume Writing: How to Seal the Deal

Ever wonder what you have to do to get you resume the attention it deserves? Well then come to listen to how you can boast your enterprise experience and polish the rest of your resume.

Location: Fisher 126
Guest Speaker: Jim Turnquist

Presented by Clean Snowmobile Challenge
Matthew Vetting
Elliot Beck
Lee Semmerling
Joey Berwyn
Shane Yoder
Josh DeSmet
Andrew Wichlacz

Breakout Session #4: Restructuring Your Enterprise Team: How to Increase Effective Communication, Productivity, and Efficiency

With a high turnover of team members, the team structure and organization is bound to change, therefore affecting overall success. To fix this problem restructuring is necessary. Drawing from Formula SAE history as well as other enterprise teams we will show how to set up long-lasting, effective communication, team structure, and knowledge.

Location: Fisher 139

Formula SAE
Dan Jacobson
Jordan Guitar
David Kennedy
Mike Tiry
Robert Mooney

Session 4: 1:40-2:30

Breakout Session #1 Enterprise Team + $$$$ = Champions: STUDENTS Finding and Retaining Sponsors

With budgets being slashed and the constant emphasis on winning, Enterprise teams have been turning to outside help from industry and alumni. Have students on your team had to pay for items or travel out of their own pocket, has there been cutbacks on designs? Why wait for AMS to find sponsors… Students need to learn how to find solid sponsors and good ways to retain yearly sponsorships!

Location: Fisher 130

Presented by SAE Baja
Drew Tuchscherer
Nathan Kent
Quinn Schmidt

Breakout Session #2: Absence of Formality: A Workshop on Comfortable Communication

Formality can impede the effectiveness of communication. Come learn how to efficiently pass information throughout your enterprise or business by cutting the bull, skipping the suit and tie, and getting right down to business. We'll be heading down to the M&M's foundry where you'll hear about informal communication and get a chance to cast a souvenir.

Location: Fisher Lobby

Presented by Innovative Castings Enterprise
Chuck Hansen
Julian Kevianne
Jeff Schwartz
Mike Krug

Breakout Session #3: Writing a Cover Letter: Using Enterprise Experience as a Cornerstone

This workshop will cover how to write a cover letter for a job application using Enterprise Experience as a building block of the letter to better give future employers an idea of your teaming and overall work skills.

Location: Fisher 138

Presented by Noise, Vibration and Harshness Enterprise
Adam Gerth
Michael Gebauer
Rei Tangko

Breakout Session #4: "Coaching a Winning Team": A Look at Building a Winning Team Through Positive Inspirational Communication.

Whether it is in Basketball or Business, a successful team is born of strengthening individual qualities and focusing them on a singular goal. VanVeer, the US Olympic women's basketball coach gives insight into how to “maintain team unity, stay focused on a goal, and how others can lead winning teams in this film.

Location: Fisher 139

Presented by Alternative Fuels Group
Sean Baker
Kurtis Schwaiger

Breakout Session #5: Leadership: Words of Wisdom by Uncle Sam

Nearly every enterprise team gets tasks done as a group. With each group there must be a leader to guide and direct progress. Some of the best leaders in America come in the form of U.S. Officers in the Army, who share their wisdom and knowledge on how to become a better leader.

Location: Fisher 125

Presented by Pavement Design, Construction and Materials
Matthew Brynick
Kyle Fortier
Davy Carmody
Andrew Kemper

Session 5: 2:35-3:25

Breakout Session# 1: Sustainable Mobility and Future Transportation Forum

Roundtable speakers: Kevin Heires, Jeremy Worm (Engines),
Neil Hutzler (Environmental Impact), John Beard (CX Advisor) & Jason Keith (Fuel Cells/Battery Tech).

Location: Fisher 135

Presented by Challenge X
Stephanie Brown
Charisse Lievens
Jake Dunda
Chris Morgan

Breakout Session #2: Power Point Presentations: Endless Droning or Effective Communication?

In the engineering field, power point presentations have become a necessary evil. This presentation will help you conquer blank screen syndrome and prevent you from being one of those presenters that put people to sleep.

Location: Fisher 127

Presented by Aerospace Team
Elizabeth Van Heusden
Jeff Katalenich
Matt Killeen
Joe Thompson
Trevor Kartes

Breakout Session #3: Communication in the Engineering Workplace - There is More to it Than You Might Think

Beyond the stereotypical view of the importance of effective writing and Power Points, how do we communicate, what does it say about us, and what are the consequences for the professional practice of engineering?

Location: Fisher 126

Presented by Pavement Design, Construction and Materials
Eric Westra
Kristen Roth
Kyle Discher
Darrin Evans

Breakout Session #4: Corresponding from Five Feet or a Thousand Miles: Distance Meeting Tools and Practices

“Corresponding from Five Feet or a Thousand Miles: Distant Meeting Tools and Practices” examines meeting practices and the various types of meetings available. Come learn how to hold a better meeting.

Location: Fisher 129

Presented by Blue Marble Security
& Wireless Communications Enterprise
Mike Bischoff
Brian Broeders
Andrew Rohr

Closing Remarks, Wrap-Up, and Reflective Memos

135 Fisher, 3:30-3:45

HOUGHTON -- A layer of packed snow covered M-26 from Ripley to Lake Linden.

M-203 running along Lake Superior and the Portage Lake Shipping Canal down into Hancock was mostly white.

"We haven't seen dry pavement since we left Houghton," Todd Cimermancic said.

Behind the wheel of a 2005 Chevrolet Equinox he and a team of Michigan Technological University students have modified into a gas/electric hybrid, Cimermancic wasn't criticizing local plow crews. He was just pointing out the reality of the conditions their vehicle--they call it the "Huskynox"--needs to perform in.

Sponsored by General Motors, which provided the Equinox that's now the Huskynox, and the U.S. Department of Energy, Challenge X is a contest that pushes engineering students to find a way to make their vehicles more environmentally-friendly without compromising performance.

This is the final year of the four-year competition. Teams focused on design in the first year and took delivery of the vehicles in the second.

Their goal is to improve the vehicles' fuel economy by 30 percent and cut emissions by half.

"There really aren't any restrictions on how you can do that other than you have to implement your own powertrain," team leader Cimermancic said.

Tech's Challenge X team chose a parallel-through-the-road hybrid setup to move the Huskynox. That means the vehicle has separate powertrains for the front and rear axles, with the only mechanical connection between them being through the road.

To power the front wheels, they swapped out the Equinox's stock 3.4 liter V-6 in favor of a 2.0-liter Ford four-cylinder. In back, a Solectria 55-kilowatt AC induction motor hooked to a 288-volt battery pack gives the Huskynox its go.

"We're integrating the two power plants into the car and programming them to work together," Cimermancic said.

The idea is to make the car run mostly on electricity driving around town. The gasoline engine kicks in during acceleration and hill climbs and takes over at highway speeds.

When the car decelerates, the electric motor converts torque from the rear wheels into voltage in the battery pack.

An electronic control system orchestrates all of this. Tinkering the quirks out of that system is the team's current challenge, especially teaching the car to deal with snow.

Cruising the copper towns Thursday, the car would occasionally stutter as the control system tried to make its mind up whether to pull power from the battery or put it back in. Slippery road conditions make it difficult for the system to determine what's happening with the torque at the rear wheels.

"We're not quite calibrated perfectly for the changes in traction related to snow," Cimermancic said.

The Huskynox team faces elemental challenges foreign to competitors farther south. But Cimermancic said the team's goal is to make the vehicle perform in real-world driving conditions.

"One of the biggest things for our team is the snow," he said. "A lot of the teams will never drive their vehicles in the rain, let alone 8 inches of snow, which is the deepest snow we've driven in."

Some of the changes the team has made to the car are more subtle than the new twin powertrain.

Billy Bland, a fourth-year mechanical engineering student who was riding in the back seat of the Huskynox Thursday said when he joined the team, he "started out fixing a bunch of the wiring on the car, put new axles on it, designed a new gas tank and got that ordered."

The gas gauge on the dashboard no longer has anything to do with gas. Team Huskynox rigged it to the battery pack to give a general idea of its charge level. More in-depth system monitoring is done by a laptop computer stashed next to the center console.

"For the most part, driving around every day, the gauges do enough to show us what's going on," Cimermancic said.

Pulling the hill from Lake Linden up to Calumet, the gauge's needle marched steadily counterclockwise. But after a few blocks of town driving in Laurium, it was up to a quarter-tank of voltage.

"The biggest gains in fuel economy come in town, under 45 miles per hour," Cimermancic said.

As he slowed to turn onto M-203 northeast of Calumet, the electric motor whirred and the needle moved clockwise. The gauge showed the battery's charge was just about full.

"It takes very little to change the state of the battery pack," Cimermancic said.

Cruising a flat stretch of M-203 west of Calumet at about 50 mph, the Huskynox was just about silent, running only on the electric motor.

All the while, the computer recorded what was going on. Mindy Saxton, a second-year mechanical engineering student who was also riding in the back seat Thursday, crunches numbers for the team.

"We log our fuel economy and stuff like that," she said. "We have to keep a log of how far we drive, what kind of fuel we use."

The team is close to its goal for fuel economy. They've recorded miles per gallon in the mid- to high-20s for town driving. A stock 2005 all-wheel-drive Equinox gets about 16 miles per gallon in town.

On the highway, where the Huskynox relies solely on its gas engine for propulsion, Cimermancic said fuel economy runs a little shy of the stock Equinox's 22 miles per gallon.

The team has ordered a new catalytic converter to cut down on emissions, but will have to wait until the final round of competition in May to get access to the equipment needed to test its effect.

Performance numbers for the Huskynox closely mirror those of the stock vehicle, Cimermancic said. For instance, both vehicles do zero to 60 in about 10 seconds.

He said the team's goal is to make the Huskynox feel like a gently-used vehicle to the driver, even though the car will be three years old by the time the team travels to the final stage of the competition in New York in May.

They plan to install cameras and microphones at various locations on the car to find the sources of vibrations and rattles.

By May, they want the Huskynox to compare favorably with an actual production car.

Along M-203 Thursday, Cimermancic slowed to see if a pair of motorists stopped on the shoulder needed assistance. Turned out they were just parked there while they took a hike in McLain State Park.

As he drove off, he made note of the type of car they were driving.

"It's a Toyota Prius, a competitive hybrid," he said.

Dan Schneider can be reached at dschneider@mininggazette.com

The Michigan Tech Pavement Enterprise recently won the Heavy Civil Division at the Associated School of Construction Region III student competition, held in suburban Chicago. The win qualifies the team to compete in the national championship, to be held in Las Vegas in March.

According to Kris Mattila, the team's advisor, the competition required teams to develop and present a mock bid proposal for a construction project. The team from Michigan Tech defeated the University of Cincinnati, a nine-time defending regional champion and defending national champion.

The team estimated the amounts of materials and equipment required and how much they would cost, estimated labor productivity and costs, identified the risks in the project, developed a plan to execute the project and presented their proposal to actual members of a construction firm involved in the project.

Mattila noted the team paid great attention to detail, right down to noticing that they had been instructed to sign their contract documents in blue ink. Indeed, Michigan Tech was the only "responsive bidder" whose bid would have been accepted for consideration in the eyes of the judges. Mattila also added that they were also able to get one step ahead of the judges by coming equipped with their own crane capacity charts, essential documents which would eventually be given to all teams by the judges.

"It presents a challenging and rewarding opportunity for our Integrated Microsystems Enterprise (IME) to help V.I.O. advance its POV product to better meet the demands of military, law enforcement, and consumer markets." Read the entire article.

ELIGIBILITY: This scholarship is available to any eligible senior student who is participating in the Enterprise Program as part of their undergraduate degree program at Michigan Technological University. The scholarship is intended for those students who have completed all of the required project course work, but would like to participate in the program for an additional semester. Students should enroll in ENG4961 (Project Work VII).

Download application form, criteria, and instructions here.