Michigan Tech College of Business Newsblog

Category: Students

SBE Management Student, Tyler Heinonen, WCHA Player of the Month

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HeinonenHeinonen Named WCHA Player of the Month

by Zackary Friedli, director of new media, athletics

Michigan Tech junior forward Tyler Heinonen has been named the WCHA Player of the Month for November.

Heinonen score six times and added four assists for 10 points in eight outings. The winger led the WCHA in goals, points, power-play goals and game-winners during the month after earning points in six-of-eight games.

The Delano, Minn., native was named the WCHA Offensive Player of the Week on Nov. 23 after his six-point weekend at Michigan State and is the first Michigan Tech player to earn WCHA Player of the Month honors.

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SBE Student Athlete, Jacqueline Aird, excels on the court and in the classroom

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Oct 03, 20152accd1cc-ac2a-4e78-8db2-b0447ee5fa58

HILLSDALE, Mich. – Stephanie Dietrich had a game-high 13 kills and hit .522 and teammate Jacqueline Aird had 13 digs, but the Michigan Tech volleyball team was knocked off by Hillsdale, 3-0, in a GLIAC conference volleyball match today (Oct. 3) at Dawn Tibbetts Potter Arena.

Despite the loss, the main story of the match was Aird, who passed Kristin Klock to break the program’s all-time record for career digs. A senior captain, Aird currently has 1,582 digs in her Tech career. She also holds the single-season record after tallying 491 digs last season.

Tech powered its way to an 18-13 lead in the opening set, but an impressive rally by Hillsdale ended with the Chargers taking the first frame, 25-23.

A close second set tilted in favor of Hillsdale midway through when the Chargers went on a run on their way to a 25-19 victory, and a balanced attack in the third set gave the Huskies another edge on the scoreboard before Hillsdale bounced back to edge out Tech, 26-24.

Aubrey Ficek notched 11 kills in the match. Rachel Pohlod paced the Huskies both offensively and defensively, leading Tech in assists (32) and digs (14) in the contest.

Michigan Tech (12-4 overall; 4-3 GLIAC) is back in Houghton next weekend (Oct. 9-10) for two GLIAC matches. The Huskies take on Walsh Friday at 5 p.m. before closing the weekend against Malone on Saturday at 4 p.m.

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MIS student achieves Capital One Academic All-District First-Team honors

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BG_KwangMichigan Tech women’s tennis player Kwang Suthijindawong (Bangkok, Thailand) has earned Capital One Academic All-District First-Team honors from the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).

Suthijindawong was selected as one of 13 female Division II student-athletes from the Midwest Region in the at-large category, which includes the sports of bowling, fencing, field hockey, golf, lacrosse, tennis, hockey, rifle, skiing, swimming and tennis.

Tech’s No. 1 singles player, Suthijindawong was named the Huskies’ first GLIAC Women’s Tennis Player of the Year last fall after a 12-0 league singles record. The junior completed her third perfect season in GLIAC singles (36-0). She posted a 17-1 overall record in singles, falling in the championship match of the ITA Midwest Regional singles draw. Suthijindawong and partner Sandra Cvetanovic posted 15 wins in doubles on their way to becoming the ITA Midwest Regional Doubles Champions—the first in school history.

In the classroom, Suthijindawong owns a 3.57 cumulative grade point average in management information systems.

Suthijindawong is eligible for Academic All-America recognition, which will be announced June. 10.

 

This article was written by Wes Frahm, director of media relations, athletics. It was originally posted in Tech Today on May 15, 2015.

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Ben Stelzer Named Academic All-American

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Finance major Ben Stelzer was named an Academic All-American.
Finance major Ben Stelzer was named an Academic All-American.

Michigan Tech men’s basketball player Ben Stelzer (Manitowoc, Wis.) has become the program’s fifth player to earn Academic All-America recognition. The senior guard was named to the Capital One Academic All-America Second Team today.

Stelzer, who was the preseason GLIAC Player of the Year, leads the GLIAC in scoring at 22.1 points per game. He has posted 552 points this season to run his career total to 1,689—seventh-most in program history. The 6-1 guard leads the nation in 3-point field goals per game (4.0) and broke the Huskies career record for 3-pointers made (now with 352). In the classroom, Stelzer has a 3.69 cumulative grade point average in finance.

He joins an exclusive group of men’s basketball players who have earned Academic All-America status. Austin Armga (2014), Wayne Helmila (1985), J.T. Luginski (2002 and 2003) and Russ VanDuine (1980 and 1981) are the others.

Michigan Tech concludes its 2014-15 regular season today at arch rival Northern Michigan. The Huskies will then host a GLIAC Tournament quarterfinal game at the SDC Gym next Wednesday, Mar. 4.

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Tech Students Collaborate Innovatively

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Michigan Tech’s campus is abuzz with activities leading up to technological innovations and ground-breaking advancements in various fields of engineering. While they may be successful as technologies, do they have the potential to offer opportunities for creating new businesses around them? Our senior year students provide the answer by undertaking the Business Development Experience courses (BUS 4991 and BUS 4992).

Business DevelopmentOffered as a two-course sequence – BUS 4991 in the fall and BUS 4992 in the spring – the Business Development Experience provides students with the perfect entrepreneurial learning experience and the opportunity to work alongside Tech’s engineering students, real-world innovators and entrepreneurs. Students assume entrepreneurial roles and work in teams on projects offered by the Enterprise program, Senior Design, MTEC SmartZone and the Innovation & Industry Engagement (IIE) office housed in the Advanced Technology Development Complex. The course provides an opportunity to integrate these entities into a sustainable entrepreneurial eco-system.

These two courses are taught by Dr. Saurav Pathak, who holds the title of ‘Rick and Jo Berquist Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation’ within the School of Business and Economics. This year, he has secured six projects for his Business Development Experience course for students to tackle. The majority of the projects for this academic year are sourced from entrepreneurs local to the Upper Peninsula. Among the projects supporting Tech’s surrounding community include a novel clothing protector for traveling professionals, a gravity-enabled wood pellet de-duster, and a patented new masonry brick-laying technology.

Another locally sourced project is brought to Business Development Experience students by Michigan Tech SBE instructor, Jonathan Leinonen. He will be mentoring students and requesting that they offer a fully developed online game related to and of interest to the Michigan Tech student and alumni body.

140415-tech-graphene2_5a7bdfa7b9f6c1c5b7bba8c5555e13aa.nbcnews-fp-1240-600
Graphene, a highly conductive and extremely strong transmittable metal

The course would also involve students finding a “route-to-market” for two patented technologies – offered as projects by the IIE office. Students would find ways to commercialize a new way of processing “red mud” – a toxic waste produced during the extraction of Aluminum from Bauxite – with hydrophobic polymers into useful items such as cat litter. The other project’s goal would be to identify the potential partnerships, applications, and competitive landscape of Graphene, a highly conductive and extremely strong transmittable metal. Graphene is thought to be the future technology for capacitors.

Throughout the process, students will gain skills from establishing a target market, conducting customer discovery, developing a business model, pricing framework, developing a financial strategy, proposing a prototype, and potentially deploying a commercial version of each product. Over the last three academic years (2011-12, 2012-13 and 2013-14), more than 60 students have undergone this entrepreneurial learning experience working across 18 technology-based projects provided by our partners. The academic year of 2014-15 will see 23 additional students undergoing this experience working over 6 projects.

In the past, project owners have made generous donations to show their support for our students’ efforts. This year, the Dean’s office has offered funding that would be used to enhance the student learning experience by letting them go outside the classroom and achieve tasks that are essential of any business development. Dr. Pathak’s vision for the coming years is to make this course a revenue generator for the SBE wherein only sponsored/funded projects would be considered.

Carly Harrington, Academic Advisor for the School of Business and Economics, explains the importance of the Business Development Experience in these projects,

With our senior-level Business Development Experience, students have the opportunity to handle financial planning, marketing plans, and business management for real-world research projects and engineering design teams. This opportunity allows for cross-disciplinary collaboration building teamwork skills and strengthening student’s resumes.

Current Michigan Tech students interested in enrolling in the Business Development Experience should contact Carly Harrington (benson@mtu.edu) to discuss their course schedule. Prospective Tech students with questions about the Business Development Experience should contact business@mtu.edu.

 

This article was written with contributions from Dr. Saurav Pathak.

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