Posts under the ‘Tech MBA Program Spotlight’ category

Congratulations to Matthew Brynick and Maria Kasza, new students in our Tech MBA program. Both are student-athletes who received DII ADA Academic Achievement Awards! See the story from Tech Today:

Tech Student Athletes Honored by D2 Athletics Directors Association
by Wes Frahm, director of athletic communications

The Division II Athletics Directors Association has honored 67 Michigan Tech student-athletes with 2008-09 DII ADA Academic Achievement Awards. The Huskies had the ninth-most award recipients of any Division II institution in the country.

The awards recognize student-athletes with a 3.5 grade point average who have completed two years at their school. A total of 4,041 student-athletes from 116 institutions nationwide earned awards, compared to 2,155 individuals from 67 universities last summer.

Read more at Tech Today.

Associate Professor Dean Johnson of the School of Business and Economics has received the 2009 Distinguished Teaching Award in the associate professor/professor category for the second time. He joins the ranks of only three other Michigan Tech faculty members to have been honored in both categories of the award since its inception in 1952. Johnson’s class offerings include derivative securities, investments, principles of finance and applied portfolio management.

What engages a student enough to make them say, “Johnson’s classes have increased my interest in my major by 100 percent”? The answer comes from students surveyed in Johnson’s investment analysis class. One student says, in a nutshell, “He knows his stuff, keeps students involved and seems to really enjoy teaching his subject.” Several students have commented on the real-world connections made in the classroom. One says, “He cares about the subject and wants to ensure that students understand it and will be able to apply it in real-life situations.”

Johnson says the pedagogy of finance is grounded in the real world. “I tie class material to what’s going on in the financial markets,” he says. “Maybe I’m lucky that with finance, it’s pretty easy to make those connections. We have the stock market, CNBC–it’s front and center every day.” And it’s easy for the School to keep an eye on current events with the new stock ticker located on the first floor of the Academic Office Building–Johnson had a hand in implementing the TV monitor that “brings the market alive” for students and faculty.

Current affairs are at the forefront of his classroom. A typical day in principles of finance calls for students to lead a session on happenings in the market at the beginning of class.

And in the Applied Portfolio Management Program (APMP), the brainchild of Johnson, students gain practical experience in managing a portfolio for a real client, the Michigan Tech Fund. The class, a select group of students, has excelled in managing a $1-million pool of funds contributed by outside donors. The APMP has won the national RISE investment competition in the value category three times in the past eight years.

“Professor Johnson has done a remarkable job of developing and implementing the nationally recognized Applied Portfolio Management Program,” says Darrell Radson, dean of the School of Business and Economics. “We’ve had students come to Michigan Tech just to study in the Program. His unique teaching style allows him to convey difficult financial principles in an applied manner, giving students the ability to be successful financial analysts and investors.”

Johnson goes beyond making practical connections in his classroom–he also makes it a priority to “get to know students as people.” One student says, “He truly cares about the development and understanding of each student.”

Johnson says his perspective on teaching has remained unchanged since he received the Distinguished Teaching Award in 2000. “When I walk into the classroom, I have an hour to make a difference in the lives of those students,” he says. “Teaching isn’t just a job for me. If it’s a job for me, it’ll be a job for the students.”

“I realize students, instead of just faces in the crowd, are here to make their lives better. I try to find out where they’re from and what career goals they have,” he says. “Once you develop a personal relationship, it becomes so much easier to push, push, push them to learn and study because they realize I truly have their best interest at heart.”

It’s clear that students pick up on this lesson and come out of his classes in the black, so to speak. One student comments, “He is the best teacher I have ever had, and I have learned so much in a short amount of time.”

What does Johnson enjoy most about teaching? “Simply seeing students connect the dots, seeing the ‘light-bulb’ moment on their faces. And hearing back from students five years later on how well they’ve done.”

Students in the Tech MBA program are eligible to compete for a position in the Applied Portfolio Management Program.

Assistant Professor David Orozco from Michigan Technological University’s School of Business and Economics presented a research paper, “Innovation Policy and Friends of the Court: Intellectual Property Advocacy Before the US Supreme Court,” Tuesday at the Max Planck Society’s Munich Intellectual Property Law Center, in Germany.

David’s research and teaching focus on the competitive advantage obtained by the proactive management of legal rights and intellectual properties. He received a juris doctor degree from Northwestern University and a bachelor of science in economics degree from New York University. He teaches business law and entrepreneurship at Michigan Tech.

His research paper showed that firms actively shape their and rivals’ ability to protect an innovation from imitation and to capture profits generated from the innovation through their decision-making processes. This decision-making is partially based on firm-related characteristics like technological factors, strategic interactions, institutional capabilities and power relationships in bargaining situations and the firms’ preference among property rules.

David will be teaching the Entrepreneurship course for our MBA this year. Find out more about David and his research on his blog — I.P in the U.P.

Nils Stenvig is pursuing an MBA and a Master’s in Electrical Engineering at Michigan Tech. Recently, Nils and Adam Manty, a graduate of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, received the Outstanding Poster Award for “Reducing Blackout Likelihood via Advances in Tripping, Re-Closing, Load Shedding and System Separation Strategies” in the IREE Section at the National Science Foundation Engineering Education Programs Awardees Conference, held Feb. 1-3 in Reston, Va.

The poster integrated research from projects titled “Transient Analysis of Single Pole Tripping and Re-Closing Strategies on the 300kV Aura-Orkdal Line,” “Transformer Magnetization Measurement Inaccuracies” and “Dynamic VAR Control.”

Nils and Adam are advised by Associate Professor Bruce Mork from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. In addition, Nils is advised by Director of Graduate Business Programs Ruth Archer from the School of Business and Economics.

Nils says: “I actually ended up talking quite a bit about our MBA program, tying a bit of energy economics into my research spiel. A lot of people were really impressed with the MTU group. This will now be an annual event, and the business school should consider sending a representative in future years. It was a really interesting and educational experience!”

Congratulations, Nils!

Other MBA students have previously been honored with these awards. Tanya Sickels was inducted into Beta Gamma Sigma, and Matt Mlinar has been honored with Phi Kappa Phi membership.

Beta Gamma Sigma is the honor society serving business programs accredited by AACSB International. This is the highest recognition a business student anywhere in the world can receive in an AACSB undergraduate or master’s program.  This invitation is offered to students ranking in the top 10 percent of the baccalaureate and top 20 percent of graduate programs at schools. Members receive many benefits, including a members-only job board and access to an alumni network, partnerships, and society benefits. Co-advisors for the Michigan Tech chapter are Drs. Chelley Vician and Mari Buche from the School of Business and Economics.

Phi Kappa Phi is the nation’s oldest, largest, and most selective all-discipline honor society. Membership is by invitation only to the top 10 percent of seniors and graduate students, and 7.5 percent of juniors. Faculty, professional staff, and alumni who have achieved scholarly distinction also qualify. Member benefits include career counseling, job connections, networking, society services, partnerships, awards, grants, and fellowships. Dr. Paul Nelson is the president of the Michigan Tech chapter of Phi Kappa Phi.