Tag: distinguished service award

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.