Fourth-year management information systems (MIS) major Macy Pawielski is the 2020-21 Outstanding Women in Business. Originally from Marquette, Michigan, Pawielski says choosing Michigan Tech has been one of the best decisions she’s ever made. 
“I’ve not only had amazing career and leadership opportunities, but I’ve made friendships and professional connections—it’s beyond anything I could have imagined for my college career,” she says.
During her time in the College of Business, she restarted the Organization for Information Systems (OIS) Enterprise, providing fellow MIS students with networking opportunities while developing a close-knit community within the major. Today, Pawielski is president of OIS and serves on the Dean’s Student Advisory Council. She is also a member of the Women in Computer Science organization and has been named to the Dean’s List every semester.
Jeff Wall, associate professor of MIS in the Michigan Tech College of Business, says, “Macy is an outstanding student and leader on and off campus. She has demonstrated time and time again that through her passion and dedication she can make things happen. Macy will have a strong career as a leader in industry.”
Pawielski has interned at 3M for two summers—once within the IT optimization team, followed by a role on the enterprise data quality team.
“I’m very proud of all I have accomplished over my years here at Michigan Tech and I’m honored to receive such a prestigious award.”
About the College of Business
The Michigan Tech College of Business offers undergraduate majors in accounting, construction management, economics, engineering management, finance, management, management information systems, and marketing, as well as a general business option. Graduate degrees include the TechMBA®, a Master of Engineering Management, a Master of Science in Accounting, and a Master of Science in Applied Natural Resource Economics.
Enthusiastic, inspirational, and adaptable are how William Breffle’s students describe the economics professor and are attributes they felt worthy of the 2020-21 Michigan Technological University College of Business Teacher of the Year honor.
One student noted, “I have had Dr. Breffle for many courses. He cares about students, cares about the curriculum, and offers exquisite insight. The way he relates coursework to current events and trends is fantastic. He’s the best professor I have had at Michigan Tech.”
William “Bill” Breffle is an applied microeconomist specializing in environmental economics. Prior to joining Michigan Tech in 2007, he conducted economics research for Natural Resource Damage Assessments at Superfund sites.
Given the adaptations campus made during the pandemic, many of the undergraduate students who voted described Breffle’s ability to maintain a high level of teaching both in-person and over digital platforms, with one student saying: “He’s the best teacher I’ve had over Zoom. He always wants to lead students to the answer and loves class participation.”
Another student confirmed: “Dr. Breffle shows up to every class ready to teach. His enthusiasm is infectious and gives students energy to participate in class. It is clear he has a deep understanding of the material he teaches.”
Dean Johnson, dean of the College of Business, adds: “Dr. Breffle has consistently provided excellence in the classroom. We are pleased to be able to recognize him this year in the face of disruptions to the teaching environment.”
Breffle has published more than 25 research papers and 20 technical reports. Two of his journal articles have been selected for the International Library of Environmental Economics and Policy book volumes as “important and influential essays.” Another publication co-authored by Breffle is listed among the top 200 “most influential” research papers in the discipline of environmental and ecological economics.
His research focus is on the Great Lakes and their broader ecosystems that help shape the industries, recreation, and culture of the people who live near them. Breffle’s work aids in the development of policy management tools that sustain and protect the environmental and human-use services provided by these critical resources. He frequently involves students in his research activities.
This is not the first time Breffle has been lauded for his teaching. In 2014, he was selected as the first-ever Props for Profs recipient. In 2015, Breffle was selected as a finalist for the campus-wide Distinguished Teaching Award—the University’s highest teaching honor—and he was inducted into the Michigan Tech Academy of Teaching Excellence. In 2018, Breffle was inducted by the College of Business into the business honor society Beta Gamma Sigma.
About the College of Business
The Michigan Tech College of Business offers undergraduate majors in accounting, construction management, economics, engineering management, finance, management, management information systems, and marketing, as well as a general business option. Graduate degrees include the TechMBA®, a Master of Engineering Management, a Master of Science in Accounting, and a Master of Science in Applied Natural Resource Economics.
The Husky Investment Tournament hosted by the College of Business at Michigan Technological University this spring drew high school business students from across the country and world to compete for a cash prize and scholarships toward a Michigan Tech education.
Students Prabhnoor Singh, Tijil Gupta, and Amol Singh Cheema of Amity International School in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India, came in first place at the conclusion of trading on April 16.
“The tournament really helped us to get real-world trading experience while competing with other people,” the team, who worked together remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, said.
Their teacher, Virendra Verma, taught the eleventh-graders the basics of stock market investing and reached out to the College of Business for a platform to complement their existing high school curriculum and help further develop their investment skills.
The competition utilizes a virtual stock-trading tool and college student- and faculty-led video modules to help high school educators lead engaging conversations and lessons of their own. Teams of three to four students receive $1,000,000 in virtual US dollars to build a portfolio. The group with the highest-valued portfolio earns $1,000 in prize money and all students who actively participate are awarded a scholarship to attend Michigan Tech.
As a result of increased interest, this semester, the competition expanded to include international participants.
The Husky Investment Tournament is embedded in high school economics, business, and personal finance classes. Since its launch in September 2019, 917 students from across California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Virginia, and Wisconsin have participated in the Husky Investment Tournament.
High school educators or administrators wishing to sign teams up for a future competition should visit mtu.edu/business-tournament.
About the College of Business
The Michigan Tech College of Business offers undergraduate majors in accounting, construction management, economics, engineering management, finance, management, management information systems, and marketing, as well as a general business option. Graduate degrees include the TechMBA®, a Master of Engineering Management, a Master of Science in Accounting, and a Master of Science in Applied Natural Resource Economics.
The Michigan Technological University College of Business (COB) has been approved for an accreditation extension to 2026 by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).
AACSB is the longest-serving global association dedicated to advancing management education. The association is synonymous with the highest standards in business education and its accreditation has been earned by only 5% of the world’s schools offering business degrees at the bachelor’s level or higher.
Dean Johnson, dean of the Michigan Tech College of Business, says the renewal is an affirmation of the job the College is doing.
“It’s a reflection of our ability to fulfill AACSB’s mission with our uniquely tech-focused curriculum and premiere faculty research and teaching ability,” he said.
To maintain accreditation, a school is put through a rigorous review every five years, demonstrating quality standards relating to faculty qualifications, strategic use of resources, faculty and student interaction and a commitment to continuous improvement and achievement of learning goals in degree programs.
Why Accreditation Matters
Johnson explains why AACSB accreditation is vital. “The AACSB has strict standards for curriculum development and faculty qualifications, research and teaching. Accreditation also documents that our program innovatively responds to the ever-changing demands of the business world. The output of this excellence is seen in our students.”
Measured against peers, Michigan Tech accounting students earn the second-highest CPA pass rates in the nation and achieve the highest average score. AACSB is an internationally recognized seal employers know and trust. “Our students land paid internships after their very first semester. Top firms and corporations need our skilled thinkers who are highly adaptable and ready for any challenge,” Johnson added.
Advancing the Future of Business
In their peer review, AACSB’s Continuous Improvement Review Committee commended COB’s Husky Investment Tournament designed for high school business classrooms. The stock-trading simulation takes pre-college students through a semester-long hands-on stock trading experience while infusing principles of the business world and introducing students to the people and opportunities in business at Michigan Tech. The outreach program provides high school business educators with easily implementable tools and resources, including video modules created by MTU students and faculty.
In return for their participation, high school students receive a scholarship to Michigan Tech. Since its inception, the Husky Investment Tournament has reached more than 1,000 students from nine states and two countries.
Additionally in their report, COB was lauded for its demonstrated commitment to developing curriculum centered on technology and analytics. At the undergraduate level, new offerings include a concentration in data analytics in accounting, a minor in business and the state’s first minor in financial technology (FinTech). At the graduate level, updates include a master’s degree in engineering management and graduate certificates in accounting analytics and forensic accounting.
About the College of Business
The Michigan Tech College of Business offers undergraduate majors in accounting, construction management, economics, engineering management, finance, management, management information systems, and marketing, as well as a general business option. Graduate degrees include the TechMBA®, a Master of Engineering Management, a Master of Science in Accounting, and a Master of Science in Applied Natural Resource Economics.
Thank you for participating in the Husky Investment Tournament! This week is your final week for trading, which will close at 11:59 p.m. on Friday, April 16. The winning team will be determined by their final portfolio value at the time of the completion of the tournament. We will announce the winning team on Monday, April 19.
We hope you have enjoyed learning and interacting with us as much as we have with you.
Once the competition is over it would make sense to calculate your portfolio return. The portfolio return is calculated by taking the ending portfolio value divided by the beginning value and converted into a percentage to yield the total portfolio return. Annually, the market has returned between 6-8 percent. How do you compare? Was your stock picking better than what the market would have returned? Our competition was only seven weeks long (35 days) compared to the 250 trading days there are in a year. Doing some math we can convert the 7 percent return to our time period of 35 days.
7% return over 250 days = 0.028% per day
0.028% * 35 days in competition = 0.98% return
If we take the $1 million we started with and use the simple interest formula for the 0.98% return we find that it calculates out to $1,009,800.
FV = $1,000,000 * (1.0098) ^1 = $1,009,800
So all of the teams that finish above that amount “beat the market.”
However, the portfolio return formula fails to take a very important factor into account—risk.
We have encouraged teams to pursue risk in order to win the competition—here is the reason why. As you can see, the total portfolio return does not take the amount of risk that you pursued into account while calculating your percentage return. Because of this, teams may have found it lucrative to pursue a higher level of risk in order to achieve a higher potential return.
While this strategy works well in a trading competition, where there is nothing to lose and everything to gain from pursuing risk, we would not want you to leave the Husky Investment Tournament thinking this is the best strategy for investing for retirement, or that this is how portfolio returns are measured in industry. In the real world, portfolio returns are risk-adjusted or adjusted to show how much extra return you generated per unit of risk. This comparison shifts the question from “how much money did you make me?” to “how much did you risk to make me this money?”
In this week’s video, Dean Johnson, dean of the MTU College of Business, introduces risk-adjusted return metrics and how investors use them to measure their investment results.