Enterprise Blog

In celebration of its 25 years at Michigan Technological University, the Enterprise Program has awarded eight inaugural Enterprise Distinguished Service Awards to recognize the dedication and exceptional contributions of advisors and champions who have played pivotal roles in shaping the program’s success. The recipients of the Enterprise Distinguished Service Award are Brett Hamlin, Glen Archer, Rick Berkey, Jason Blough, Brad King, Robert Pastel, Tony Rogers, and Christopher “Kit” Cischke. 

Each of the award winners has more than 15 years of service within Enterprise, dedicating their time and expertise to guide teams, ensure student success, and advance the program’s discovery-based learning mission. The eight advisors have also fostered industry collaborations and strengthened the bridge between academia and industry. 

This eight-part series highlights the contributions of each award recipient.

Christopher “Kit” Cischke, a teaching professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, first came to Michigan Tech as a student in 1997. During his studies, Cischke helped found one of the original Enterprise teams, the Wireless Communications Enterprise (WCE). After graduating in 2001 with a bachelor’s in electrical engineering, Cischke spent several years in industry before completing his master’s in computer engineering at the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities. He then returned to Houghton to teach computer engineering classes and serve as advisor to the (now much bigger) WCE he helped found as an undergraduate. 

After nearly 20 years of working with WCE, Cischke says his favorite part of working with Enterprise students is watching them take ownership of their projects.

“When students do projects in class, they work hard out of obligation,” Cischke says, “Their grade depends on it. But with Enterprise, students take real ownership. They want to succeed, and they put in the time to make it happen and they do cool things on their own volition.”

Cischke notes there have been many standout memories over his years as WCE advisor. One particular example that comes to mind is receiving a set of projects students worked on for Ford from roughly 2016 to 2018.

“A WCE student who interned at Ford talked to his boss and asked if there were any projects that WCE could take on,” Cischke remembers. “The folks at Ford gave us three projects and were super happy with what the students were able to accomplish. What brings the projects to mind, though, is the enthusiasm of the student who approached the company. No one asked the student to see whether Ford had any projects we could work on. Because of the student’s enthusiasm for Enterprise and for engineering and for Ford, they took ownership and the initiative to secure what were some really great projects. And this is very representative of what you see from students every year in Enterprise.”

Another project that stands out in Cischke’s mind is one where WCE students built street lights for campus that were powered entirely by renewable energy. “They got hold of an old street light housing and put in LED bulbs, a special kind of wind turbine, batteries, and a small solar panel. They pulled all these different technologies together, harnessed both wind and solar, and stored the energy in a battery to power a highly efficient bulb for a street lamp.”

Cischke notes that the nature of the Enterprise program is to bring in individual student projects funded by external companies. For WCE, this is often companies like Ford, ITC, Stellantis, and Samsung. 

“External companies ask Enterprise to work on projects, but what many people don’t realize is that we also have a number of internal projects,” Cischke says. “As far back as the start of Enterprise, one of the ideas was to create royalty-generating intellectual property. Only a couple of projects have gotten that far, but it’s always one of our goals. In the recent past, WCE created a smart circuit breaker that, when tripped, would send a notification to your phone, and you could reset the breaker from your phone. The students who built it were able to demo it for the power industry and came very close to commercialization.”

It’s experiences like that, Cischke says, that demonstrate the program’s value.

“The experience gained from Enterprise is so useful in the real world, because it’s so much like working in a professional setting. The practical experience is so powerful. I would imagine that most stories Enterprise students tell during job interviews come from Enterprise experiences – teamwork, entrepreneurship, budgeting, etc.”

Kit Cischke

When asked about receiving one of the inaugural Distinguished Service Awards, Cischke says, “It has been an honor to be a part of what I think is one of the most distinguishing aspects of engineering education at Michigan Tech. Watching the students do what they do has been a reward in and of itself. There are a lot of former Enterprise students who have gone on to do amazing and, in some cases, very big things, and to be a part of that as an advisor – and to receive recognition for what goes into advising – is icing on the cake.”

He continues, “One thing that continues to amaze me about Enterprise is how much student leadership there is. The fact that anything has happened at all is due to the fact that students take ownership of the entire organization. It is so fulfilling to see students rise up to take on the administrative aspects of their projects. They take the initiative to make sure things happen. The fact that they self-organize, self-regulate, and self-administer is part of what makes it joyful as an advisor. It is just so cool to watch them step up and grow and mature over time. They walk in the door as students, not quite sure what to do, and they walk out the door engineers ready to hit the ground running.”

About the Enterprise Program

Michigan Tech’s Enterprise Program offers students a unique, hands-on learning experience that goes beyond the classroom. With more than 25+ Enterprise teams spanning disciplines such as engineering, business, computing, and science, students collaborate on real-world projects sponsored by industry and government partners. Enterprise students develop technical expertise, leadership skills, and teamwork experience—preparing them for success in their careers. Many teams work on cutting-edge innovations, from automotive and aerospace to sustainability and emerging technologies.

Explore the Enterprise Program experience and see how you can get involved! Follow Michigan Tech Enterprise on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn for the latest updates.

In celebration of its 25 years at Michigan Technological University, the Enterprise Program has awarded eight inaugural Enterprise Distinguished Service Awards to recognize the dedication and exceptional contributions of advisors and champions who have played pivotal roles in shaping the program’s success. The recipients of the Enterprise Distinguished Service Award are Brett Hamlin, Glen Archer, Rick Berkey, Jason Blough, Brad King, Robert Pastel, Tony Rogers, and Christopher “Kit” Cischke. 

Each of the award winners has more than 15 years of service within Enterprise, dedicating their time and expertise to guide teams, ensure student success, and advance the program’s discovery-based learning mission. The eight advisors have also fostered industry collaborations and strengthened the bridge between academia and industry. 

This eight-part series highlights the contributions of each award recipient.

Robert Pastel, an associate professor of computer science and an affiliated professor in psychology and human factors, has served as an Enterprise advisor since 2006, when Pastel helped initiate the founding of the Husky Game Development Enterprise with a small group of Enterprise students who wanted to develop video games. He then shifted gears in 2011 to advise the Humane Interface Design Enterprise (HIDE), which focuses on the design, development, and evaluation of mobile apps.

HIDE typically includes students from computer science, humanities, psychology, engineering, and business, and those students have made mobile apps for the automotive and health industries, as well as for scientists.

Pastel remembers HIDE’s early days: “Chrysler approached the University and wanted to support us in training people in interface designs – touch screens on cars had just come on the market, and some apps for cars were coming out, too. Chrysler wanted Michigan Tech students to do testing and evaluation, and maybe some design work. [Professor of Computer Science] Linda Ott thought it was perfect for Enterprise, and I knew six students that would probably want to get involved. Those students recruited friends from humanities. I was already involved in the human factors program, so I brought some graduate students on board as well. We had a three-year contract with Chrysler, and about a dozen students making mobile apps and testing touch screens.”

Pastel says he’s most proud of HIDE projects that serve the community. One example is CoCoTemp, a citizen science project focused on finding the links that buildings, watersheds and other parts of the environment have on the microclimate temperature.

“The students worked on CoCoTemp from Fall 2017 to Spring 2021,” he recalls. “The basic premise of the project is that citizen scientists would have temperature sensors in different microclimates, perhaps around their yard, and they would periodically upload the data from the sensors to a website that would graph the temperatures. Implementation took a long time because the project had many components, including prototyping the hardware for the temperature sensors and interfacing the hardware with the web app.”

Pastel also notes two ongoing projects that have a community focus. “Students are working on a project for the Houghton County Historical Society to make a museum kiosk for visitors to preview and search for historical photos. Another project, Mi Herb Atlas, is an existing citizen science project for recording observation of frogs. The director of Mi Herb Atlas is sponsoring a project for HIDE students to make a mobile app for recording observations.”

“I like that the advisor role is not the same as an instructor. I’m not their boss, so to speak. I can make suggestions, but they need to organize themselves. Watching them learn how to navigate that is very interesting.” 

Robert Pastel

Pastel’s favorite part of serving as an Enterprise advisor is seeing the students grow.

He adds, “I get to observe students overcoming challenges, and when appropriate, I try to help. Currently, though, HIDE is so big – more than 70 students – that I can’t interact with every student. I’m only interacting with management. But still, I’m observing leadership skills and it’s great when I get to see strong leadership skills from the students. And you see those more often than not.”

Pastel good-naturedly jokes that receiving the Distinguished Service Award “feels like a longevity award. I’ve been with Enterprise for a long time, and largely because I see the purpose of it. Most of my teaching is project-based, and that’s why I’ve been able to stay in Enterprise so long. I believe project-based learning is the best way to learn. You can learn some things by reading books, but a lot of people, myself included, often don’t remember what they read. You need to actually practice it, and sometimes, maybe even forget what you read. Hands-on experience is the best classroom.”

About the Enterprise Program

Michigan Tech’s Enterprise Program offers students a unique, hands-on learning experience that goes beyond the classroom. With more than 25+ Enterprise teams spanning disciplines such as engineering, business, computing, and science, students collaborate on real-world projects sponsored by industry and government partners. Enterprise students develop technical expertise, leadership skills, and teamwork experience—preparing them for success in their careers. Many teams work on cutting-edge innovations, from automotive and aerospace to sustainability and emerging technologies.

Explore the Enterprise Program experience and see how you can get involved! Follow Michigan Tech Enterprise on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn for the latest updates.

In celebration of its 25 years at Michigan Technological University, the Enterprise Program has awarded eight inaugural Enterprise Distinguished Service Awards to recognize the dedication and exceptional contributions of advisors and champions who have played pivotal roles in shaping the program’s success. The recipients of the Enterprise Distinguished Service Award are Brett Hamlin, Glen Archer, Rick Berkey, Jason Blough, Brad King, Robert Pastel, Tony Rogers, and Christopher “Kit” Cischke. 

Each of the award winners has more than 15 years of service within Enterprise, dedicating their time and expertise to guide teams, ensure student success, and advance the program’s discovery-based learning mission. The eight advisors have also fostered industry collaborations and strengthened the bridge between academia and industry. 

This eight-part series highlights the contributions of each award recipient.

Glen Archer, a teaching professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, first came to Michigan Tech as a major in the United States Air Force to work with the University’s AFROTC program. After retiring from military service, Archer stayed on at the University to earn his PhD and eventually joined the faculty. He has served as faculty advisor for the Blue Marble Security Enterprise (BMSE) since 2006. 

“The original advisor for BMSE was [former Michigan Tech professor] David Stone,” says Archer. “After 9/11, he thought there would be interest in creating an Enterprise with a homeland security focus, so he basically spun BMSE off of the Wireless Communications Enterprise, which he had helped found and was advising.”

A few years later, when Stone retired from teaching, he asked Archer to step in as BMSE advisor. “He knew I was interested in it,” Archer says. “I have homeland security in my DNA.”

Not only has Archer served as BMSE advisor for nearly 20 years, he’s also stepped up to guide and mentor two other Enterprise groups when they did not have advisors.

“I was the Robotic Systems Enterprise (RSE) advisor from roughly 2015 to 2017 while they looked for a permanent advisor. After a permanent RSE advisor was found, another Enterprise — IT Oxygen — found itself without a faculty advisor. I came in as a joint advisor and advised the group for probably two years.”

Archer has taught circuits and instrumentation for years at Michigan Tech, “but the thing I really enjoy,” he says, “the thing that keeps me coming back, is Enterprise in general and BMSE in particular. I love working with the students, and I enjoy being able to guide their growth and watch them mature from sophomore to junior to senior, and then watch them graduate out into the world. It’s tremendously gratifying.”

During his years advising BMSE, Archer has had some unique experiences.

“There was a project that was a joint undertaking between BMSE and Consumer Products Manufacturing, which is led by Tony Rogers. The project sponsor was Caterpillar, and they wanted us to put together a design for a system that would tell the driver of a wheeled tractor scraper what was going inside the bowl that collected the scraped-off soil. We put together a team, came up with a design, competed in a national competition, and won.”

For Archer, the best part of the experience was watching the students organize. “The crew on that project were some of the finest students I’ve seen,” he says. “One that really stands out is Derek Chopp – he was one of the best hardware guys I’ve ever run across, and he was the financial manager on the project. Ester Buehl, the project manager, was a super organizer. Sandra Cvetanovic and Alexis Dani did a lot of the design work, marshaled resources and got people where they needed to be. It was a tremendous experience, watching them bring home the gold. We were competing against some really, really big schools and we came out on top.”

When he found out he would receive the Enterprise Distinguished Service Award, Archer says he felt grateful for the recognition. “I’m proud of the work that I’ve done with BMSE. This is humbling in a sense because it’s given me an opportunity to reflect back on all the things the students have done over the years — all the work, all the projects — and I’m grateful for all of it. I feel proud to receive the recognition.”

Archer offers up a tip of his hat to the program’s founders: “People like Dave Stone and [Professor Emerita] Sheryl Sorby, they were truly visionaries, and the thing that they created, this Enterprise program, is unique. I’ve seen a lot of programs at a lot of other schools and I’ve never seen anything like our Enterprise program.”

“The Enterprise program is an expression of Michigan Tech’s hands-on focus, and it is one of the very best reasons to come here. You know, every person who comes to Michigan Tech has to drive past a half dozen perfectly fine engineering schools to get here. The Enterprise program and the hands-on focus that is central to a Michigan Tech education are two of the best reasons to drive past those other universities and come up here.”

Glen Archer

About the Enterprise Program

Michigan Tech’s Enterprise Program offers students a unique, hands-on learning experience that goes beyond the classroom. With more than 25+ Enterprise teams spanning disciplines such as engineering, business, computing, and science, students collaborate on real-world projects sponsored by industry and government partners. Enterprise students develop technical expertise, leadership skills, and teamwork experience—preparing them for success in their careers. Many teams work on cutting-edge innovations, from automotive and aerospace to sustainability and emerging technologies.

Explore the Enterprise Program experience and see how you can get involved! Follow Michigan Tech Enterprise on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn for the latest updates.

In celebration of its 25 years at Michigan Technological University, the Enterprise Program has awarded eight inaugural Enterprise Distinguished Service Awards to recognize the dedication and exceptional contributions of advisors and champions who have played pivotal roles in shaping the program’s success. The recipients of the Enterprise Distinguished Service Award are Brett Hamlin, Glen Archer, Rick Berkey, Jason Blough, Brad King, Robert Pastel, Tony Rogers, and Christopher “Kit” Cischke. 

Each of the award winners has more than 15 years of service within Enterprise, dedicating their time and expertise to guide teams, ensure student success, and advance the program’s discovery-based learning mission. The eight advisors have also fostered industry collaborations and strengthened the bridge between academia and industry. 

This eight-part series highlights the contributions of each award recipient.

Jason Blough, chair and distinguished professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, has advised the SAE Clean Snowmobile Enterprise since 2006.

“Prior to joining the mechanical engineering department, I worked at the Keweenaw Research Center for about five years,” Blough recalls. “I ran a noise and vibrations group, and one of the projects I worked on while I was there was helping to redevelop and understand the noise testing procedures for snowmobiles.”

Blough became a member of the SAE snowmobile committee, which establishes the testing standards snowmobiles must meet in order to be sold in North America. Many of the standards the committee established were adopted by Europe as well.

“I got involved with the snowmobile industry to help them make quieter snowmobiles and do a better job testing them,” Blough says. “When I joined the faculty at Michigan Tech, the Clean Snowmobile Enterprise already existed, but the faculty advisor left shortly after I joined, so I took over. There were a lot of reasons for me to take it over, and it just made sense — I had contacts in the snowmobile industry and had already been working on snowmobiles. Plus, I’m a noise and vibrations person, and one of the goals of Clean Snowmobile is to make them quieter.”

For Blough, one of the best aspects of the Enterprise Program is the continuity – students are members for at least two years, and most stay on for three years or longer.

“You get to actually build a relationship with students. In a classroom setting, you see them for a semester and then they move on. But with Enterprise, I get to know them well enough that they open up about their lives, and we joke around together. I get to build a different kind of relationship with them, and it’s much more enjoyable.”

Jason Blough

Blough has had students join Clean Snowmobile during the second semester of their first year and continue on through their fifth year. “They grow and mature throughout the experience, and you get to see it. When you’re working with students every week, you get to see them change and mature, and take on leadership roles. It’s very rewarding. The relationship you build is strong enough that you still talk with them years after they’ve graduated.”

When asked about standout experiences and memories, Blough recalls the SAE International Clean Snowmobile Challenge (CSC) of 2021. CSC is a competition where student teams from participating universities reengineer existing snowmobiles to reduce emissions and noise. The teams then compete in a variety of events that test, among other things, emissions, noise, fuel economy/endurance, and acceleration. In 2020, CSC was canceled halfway through the competition due to the COVID-19 pandemic; in 2021, the event was 100 percent virtual and simulation-based. In other words, competitors needed to simulate riding and test conditions.

“We had created a practice curriculum around 2016 for mechanical and aerospace engineering and had included a lot of simulation into the engineering practice courses. When the students found out that the 2021 CSC would be an entirely simulation-based competition, the mechanical engineering students grabbed the bull by horns and said, ‘We know how to do this stuff.’ And in 2021, Michigan Tech won every aspect of the entire competition. We won for both diesel and spark-ignited engines, and we won all of the sub-competitions — best performance, best design, etc. We won every category.”

The team has also seen its share of disappointment. “In 2010, we were leading the competition,” Blough remembers. “All we needed to do was finish the last event with our gasoline sled and we would get first place. Well, the battery cable came off about 8 feet from the finish line. The cable came off, the sled stopped moving, and that was it. It was a real heartbreaker,” Blough says with a laugh. “We were so close!” 

In addition to advising the Clean Snowmobile Enterprise, Blough also served as the SAE student chapter advisor from 2004 to 2021. In that role, he provided support to the Formula SAE, Baja, and Supermileage Enterprises in addition to Clean Snowmobile. Blough has also been a member of the Enterprise advisory board for as long as he’s been advising, helping shape the direction of the program. To receive the Distinguished Service Award feels like an acknowledgment and a thank you for being with the program for so long and in different facets.

“It’s a really nice nod of appreciation after putting in the time over the years to support the students,” Blough says. “It’s been rewarding. I’m a strong advocate for the Enterprise Program in all its forms and for all its teams. It gives our students an opportunity that they can’t get anywhere else — to get academic credit and also leadership experience and growth. For some of these students, by the time they’re juniors and seniors, they’re leading a group of 25-50 students or more. And the students truly lead the group. It’s a fabulous experience for them, and I’ve done and will continue to do everything I can to support it.”

About the Enterprise Program

Michigan Tech’s Enterprise Program offers students a unique, hands-on learning experience that goes beyond the classroom. With more than 25+ Enterprise teams spanning disciplines such as engineering, business, computing, and science, students collaborate on real-world projects sponsored by industry and government partners. Enterprise students develop technical expertise, leadership skills, and teamwork experience—preparing them for success in their careers. Many teams work on cutting-edge innovations, from automotive and aerospace to sustainability and emerging technologies.

Explore the Enterprise Program experience and see how you can get involved! Follow Michigan Tech Enterprise on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn for the latest updates.

In celebration of its 25 years at Michigan Technological University, the Enterprise Program has awarded eight inaugural Enterprise Distinguished Service Awards to recognize the dedication and exceptional contributions of advisors and champions who have played pivotal roles in shaping the program’s success. The recipients of the Enterprise Distinguished Service Award are Brett Hamlin, Glen Archer, Rick Berkey, Jason Blough, Brad King, Robert Pastel, Tony Rogers, and Christopher “Kit” Cischke. 

Each of the award winners has more than 15 years of service within Enterprise, dedicating their time and expertise to guide teams, ensure student success, and advance the program’s discovery-based learning mission. The eight advisors have also fostered industry collaborations and strengthened the bridge between academia and industry. 

This eight-part series highlights the contributions of each award recipient.

“My role with Enterprise has truly been multifaceted,” says Rick Berkey, Michigan Tech’s director of Global Campus and continuing education. “I joined in 2006 as the sponsored projects manager and I worked with corporate partners to get projects for the students. My professional background was in industry — I worked in the automotive and defense sectors — so it made sense that I would enter higher education that way. But I wanted interaction with students. Two years later, Jim Hertel, an instructor in the engineering fundamentals department, was looking for someone to take over advising the Supermileage Systems Enterprise, so I raised my hand and stepped into that role in fall 2008. And it was a great decision.”

Three years later, in 2011, Berkey started teaching Six Sigma courses with the Enterprise Program, and taught those through 2022. “Six Sigma is a methodology for improving business processes. The courses I taught were short (1-credit) professional development courses, with modules that were designed to complement the work students were doing in Enterprise.”

In 2015, Berkey became the director of the Enterprise Program while continuing his teaching and advising the Supermileage team. He served as director until 2022.

“My involvement with Enterprise has been a highlight of my professional career,” Berkey says. “I have a good 360-degree perspective of the program because I’ve been involved in multiple facets of it — fundraising, advising, teaching, and directing. And that perspective helped me be better in every aspect of the job. Advising a team helped me be a better program director, for example.”

The Supermileage team, which Berkey advised through 2023, is one of Michigan Tech’s Advanced Motorsports Enterprises and builds a single occupant, high-efficiency vehicle that competes in the Shell Eco-marathon competition.

”My first year advising, the team earned second place, and I believe it was the highest fuel mileage the team had ever gotten,” he says. “It had nothing to do with me — I had just taken on the role of advisor — but I got to be there to celebrate with them, and that first year set the bar pretty high. And while it’s great to have that competitive spirit, the real trophy is students getting to build their skill sets and their professional resumes.”

Berkey notes that students learn important lessons in leadership, management, the transfer of knowledge and mentoring. “By design, the most experienced people on the team always leave when they graduate, so there’s an issue of how to keep the momentum going when there’s turnover. In that way, it’s similar to collegiate sports. And the students figure out how to do that through Enterprise and they apply it in their careers going forward. In fact, one of the most rewarding parts of being involved in this program is seeing and talking to alumni — I’ll see them recruiting at Career Fair or we connect on LinkedIn — and they still talk about their Enterprise experience and how well prepared they were to enter the job market.”

Berkey notes that the role of advising an Enterprise team is unique, “because you’re not the sage on the stage, so to speak. You’re more of a coach and a mentor, and you’re fostering students to lead themselves.”

“An Enterprise is much more like a workplace than a classroom, and it’s more collaborative. You get to say to students, ‘I don’t have the answers, but we can figure this out together.’ Sometimes it’s figuring out how to ask the right questions instead of having the answers.””

Rick Berkey

For Berkey, one of the most rewarding aspects of advising in Enterprise is being able to see students grow over multiple years. “A lot of instructors don’t get to see that,” he says. “An Enterprise advisor gets to see that development journey and you can reflect on how much they’ve grown. Advisors get a lot of requests for letters of recommendation for jobs and graduate school, because you get to know the students in a way that maybe their other professors don’t. It gives you a chance to see the students use the program to develop and decide what they want to do next. It’s unique compared to other teaching assignments.”

Berkey says Enterprise is also unique in the world of higher education. “I’ve benchmarked other universities and there really isn’t another program like this, where it’s multi-year and multidisciplinary, and you have a group of students who are very diverse in their backgrounds and skill levels. Every team is unique in its own way.”

On receiving the Enterprise Distinguished Service Award, Berkey says, “I’m very grateful and appreciative to be recognized for the time and the effort. Sometimes it’s a labor of love, and being recognized formally is an honor, and I’m very grateful for that.”

About the Enterprise Program

Michigan Tech’s Enterprise Program offers students a unique, hands-on learning experience that goes beyond the classroom. With more than 25+ Enterprise teams spanning disciplines such as engineering, business, computing, and science, students collaborate on real-world projects sponsored by industry and government partners. Enterprise students develop technical expertise, leadership skills, and teamwork experience—preparing them for success in their careers. Many teams work on cutting-edge innovations, from automotive and aerospace to sustainability and emerging technologies.

Explore the Enterprise Program experience and see how you can get involved! Follow Michigan Tech Enterprise on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn for the latest updates.

In celebration of its 25 years at Michigan Technological University, the Enterprise Program has awarded eight inaugural Enterprise Distinguished Service Awards to recognize the dedication and exceptional contributions of advisors and champions who have played pivotal roles in shaping the program’s success. The recipients of the Enterprise Distinguished Service Award are Brett Hamlin, Glen Archer, Rick Berkey, Jason Blough, Brad King, Robert Pastel, Tony Rogers, and Christopher “Kit” Cischke. 

Each of the award winners has more than 15 years of service within Enterprise, dedicating their time and expertise to guide teams, ensure student success, and advance the program’s discovery-based learning mission. The eight advisors have also fostered industry collaborations and strengthened the bridge between academia and industry. 

This eight-part series highlights the contributions of each award recipient.

The Enterprise journey began in 1998 when Michigan Technological University proposed and was awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support a three-year pilot program. Tony Rogers, now a professor emeritus in the Department of Chemical Engineering, worked on implementing that original NSF grant. And when the program launched in 2000, he began his tenure as faculty advisor for what is now the Consumer Product Manufacturing Enterprise (CPM).

“Kimberly Clark was our first sponsor in the fall of 2000,” Rogers recalls, “and we focused on disposable consumer products. After about four years, we became a general manufacturing Enterprise with a variety of sponsors and products.”

Rogers advised CPM for more than 20 years, up until his retirement in 2023. Throughout the years, the most rewarding aspect of working with the Enterprise students was watching them grow. “They come in as second years, and sometimes even halfway through their first year, and I got to work with them through graduation. By spending multiple years with Enterprise, they’d be seasoned pros by the time they graduated. That’s where the real magic happens — the maturation.”

Rogers says it’s hard to pinpoint just one standout experience or memory from his time with Enterprise. “There were so many, and it’s hard to pick a single one. There was a joint project in 2009 with the Blue Marble Security Enterprise that stands out. We were asked to thermoform an LED tail light cover using 3M film. The film’s optical properties spread the light uniformly across the cavity with relatively few light sources.” Compared to an incandescent bulb, the LED tail light had a lower volume and weight and required less energy. It became standard equipment in the Buick Enclave.

“We also had a project with alumnus Bob Carnahan, who funded the project out of his own pocket,” Rogers continues. “He wanted students to look at developing alternative uses for his nanostructured magnesium product, nanoMAG. The students looked at putting nanoMAG strips inside skis. The strips would absorb vibrations on downhill runs. The end result was a high-end specialty ski that went into the Shaggy’s Skis commercial line.”

Rogers says that what he liked about the Enterprise program from the beginning was that it created an on-campus co-op experience.

“Companies look at it like a co-op experience because you interact with a client, you manage projects, and you have a budget — all the things you might do on a co-op, but you do it while you’re at school.”

Tony Rogers

Rogers notes that the continuity aspect of Enterprise is unique. “It’s not a project that’s one and done. You have a pathway going from second year to senior year. And the identity of each Enterprise is different. We had a large university come visit one time to learn more about our Enterprise program. They wanted to do something more regimented on their campus, but I told them a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work. You can’t mandate how each group does things. Each Enterprise needs its own standard operating procedures and its own governance, and it must be organic. It must come from within the individual Enterprise.”

Receiving the Distinguished Service Award is an indicator to Rogers that “the Enterprise program is healthy. I was glad to have a part in it, and receiving this award is truly an honor. There were a lot of folks doing great things in Enterprise when I was there — I wasn’t the only one. And the great work continues on. Jon Herlevich took over advising CPM when I retired. He’s a professor of practice in chemical engineering, and he’s doing a wonderful job with CPM. I’m glad to see the program is in such good hands.”

About the Enterprise Program

Michigan Tech’s Enterprise Program offers students a unique, hands-on learning experience that goes beyond the classroom. With more than 25+ Enterprise teams spanning disciplines such as engineering, business, computing, and science, students collaborate on real-world projects sponsored by industry and government partners. Enterprise students develop technical expertise, leadership skills, and teamwork experience—preparing them for success in their careers. Many teams work on cutting-edge innovations, from automotive and aerospace to sustainability and emerging technologies.

Explore the Enterprise Program experience and see how you can get involved! Follow Michigan Tech Enterprise on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn for the latest updates.