College of Engineering Blog

The Rail Day and Expo is an awesome opportunity for both students and industry! Railroad companies and consultants have the opportunity to showcase the industry and the career opportunities available. This is also a targeted recruiting opportunity for the industry … students who attend already have some interest in railroading. For students, this is an opportunity to have focused discussions about the rail industry and what it has to offer.

Railroad Night is a networking opportunity for both industry representatives and students. The event features a relaxed evening of dining and conversation.

Mr. Art Guzzetti, Vice President-Policy of the American Public Transportation Association was the keynote speaker and provided a personal touch and insight into the rail industry.

According to the APTA website, Guzzetti is a 32-year veteran of public transportation at the local, state, and national levels.

Among other things, Guzzetti is responsible for APTA’s extensive policy research agenda, policy analysis and development, transportation information, and statistics. He and the APTA team work with the legislative and executive branches of all levels of government and with other national associations, think tanks, and interest groups to cultivate the ideas, relationships, and advocacy initiatives that will propel public transportation forward.

Prior to coming to APTA in June 1997, Guzzetti spent 16 years in management at two of the nation’s leading public transportation systems—New Jersey Transit Corporation and Pittsburgh’s Port Authority of Allegheny County—along with two years at New Jersey DOT. His duties focused on transportation policy, government affairs, capital programming, grants development, and grants management and advocacy. In short, the focus of his career has been on generating support for public transportation and the benefits it provides to communities and regions. Guzzetti has a political science degree from Edinboro State University and a master of public administration from the University of Pittsburgh.

See more photos at the Rail Day Gallery

MORE INFORMATION

Videos of 11th Annual Railroad Night and Rail Expo Day

A group of Michigan Tech’s alumni were kept very busy at Michigan Tech for a week of entrepreneurial events.

Michigan Tech hosted executives from California’s Silicon Valley for a panel discussion on the topic “Technology, Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Leadership.” The event happened October 14 in Ballroom A of the Memorial Union Building.

The Panel included:
Dave House (retired Intel, chair of Brocade)
Kanwal Rekhi (venture capitalist)
Patrick Moore (entrepreneur)
Tom Porter (entrepreneur, philanthropist)

The University celebrated the opening of the Michigan Tech Pavlis Honors College Innovation Center for Entrepreneurship: The center co-directors are Jim Baker and Mary Raber who were on hand to share their ideas and vision. This new center fulfills a long term need on campus to create an interdisciplinary focal point for a cohesive set of entrepreneurial and innovation resources that will harness the potential of the campus community to innovate, develop and implement ideas and inventions. Lorelle A. Meadows, Dean of the Pavlis Honors College and Gene Klippel, Dean, School of Business and Economics at Michigan Tech spoke about the history of the Pavlis Honors College.

Another event was the Michigan Tech Entrepreneur Meet-up and business plan pitch by entrepreneurs; These 5 pitches were selected from among all of the submissions to present at this event.

The Pavlis Honors College in partnership with student organizations The Movement and the Entrepreneurs Club, sponsored the event to learn about the interests of other entrepreneurially minded students, faculty, and staff. The business plan pitches were done in front of successful entrepreneurial alumni visiting from Silicon Valley. They provided invaluable feedback.

The panel: Dave House — Michigan native, tech executive who lead Intel’s microprocessor business for 23 years, Bay Networks, an Ethernet products innovator, chair of Brocade Communication Systems and an entrepreneur and major Michigan Tech supporter; Tom Porter, a 1968 electrical engineering graduate who spent 25 years with IBM, followed by Western Digital and Seagate Technology, and who is now consulting with the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.; Kanwal Rekhi, a 1969 Michigan Tech grad who founded an early Ethernet technology company, Exelan, that was bought by Novell in 1989, and who has been an investor since 1994; Patrick Moore, a veteran entrepreneur who said he was “employee No. 31” at LinkedIn; and Devyani Kamdar, a founder and executive of various startups and the Palo Alto Institute.

* Nano Innovations Inc., to develop innovative thermal management technology for electronics
* Micro Device Engineering, to develop a portable, more reliable blood typing device
* 3D printer filament from recycled plastic waste
* An athletic performance indicator device app that will include analysis of body fluids
* “We Inspire”, a service to bring inspiring mentors into high schools

See a lot more photos at the Michigan Tech Engineering Flickr Gallery

by Jenn Donovan

Amber Kempainnen, a senior lecturer in engineering fundamentals, has been chosen as one of 70 young engineering educators across the nation to participate in the National Academy of Engineering’s Frontiers of Engineering Education Symposium in Irvine, Cal., Oct. 25-28.

At the symposium, faculty members who are developing and implementing innovative educational approaches in a variety of engineering disciplines, will come together to share ideas and learn from research and best practices.

Attendees were nominated by NAE members or deans and chosen from a highly competitive pool of applicants.

Kempainnen has been instrumental in developing Tech’s IDEAS project, including three curriculum modules—biomechanics, wind energy and aquaculture—for first-year engineering students and a First-Year Engineering Learning Center.

by Mark Wilcox

The FCA Foundation, the philanthropic arm of FCA US LLC has donated $30,000 to create a week-long summer youth program at Michigan Tech, designed to encourage young women to consider careers in automotive engineering.

Jody Hand, a Michigan Tech alumna and FCA interior engineer, was on the Tech campus Wednesday to present a check that will create the FCA Women in Automotive Engineering Summer Youth Program in July of next year.

The new program will focus on increasing the engineering talent pipeline for women in the automotive industry. The FCA Foundation is the sole sponsor of the summer program and FCA will provide female role model speakers aimed at inspiring young women to become engineers.

Stephen Williams[/caption]Stephen L. Williams, head of safety compliance and product analysis for FCA North America said the donation reflects FCA’s strong commitment to developing a diverse workforce. He said FCA invests in a wide variety of education and training initiatives to help students — especially women and underrepresented minorities— obtain the technical skills in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) vital to the future.

“Although women purchase 60 percent of all vehicles and influence nearly 85 percent of all car-buying decisions, enrollment of women in baccalaureate engineering programs remains stubbornly low at around 18 percent,” Williams said.

“By Sponsoring the FCA Women in Automotive Engineering Summer Youth Program at Michigan Tech, we hope to encourage promising young women to consider engineering as a field of study and a career in the automotive industry.”

Cody Kangas, director of Tech’s Center for Pre-College Outreach said the WIAE will introduce talented female high school students, with high academic potential in science and math, to careers in automotive engineering. He said students will be exposed to several pivotal topics that make up the field of automative engineering.

“We are grateful to the FCA Foundation for investing in the future of young women,” Kangas said.

“Engineering as a whole is commonly known to be a male-dominated field, thus automotive engineering often becomes overlooked by aspiring young female professionals.”

Kangas said the WIAE serves specifically to engage high-achieving young women to experience the automotive engineering field in a hands-on, discovery-based learning environment with their peers.

“Our goal is to encourage them to consider the immense possibilities that make up the automotive industry.”

Michigan Tech and FCA have a long partnership dating at least back to the 1970s. FCA Has supported a wide range of activities across campus including scholarships, capital projects, senior design and enterprise programs, student organizations, sponsored research, advisory board membership, recruiting support, youth programs, diversity initiatives and more.