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.
Affiliated Associate Professor, Psychology and Human Factors
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.”
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.
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