Enterprise Blog

Tag: Senior Design

A Thank You to Sponsors.

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By Len Switzer, Associate Director, Enterprise Program

The Enterprise Program Team at Michigan Tech would like to extend a heartfelt thank you for all the support provided by the sponsors. The Enterprise and Senior Design teams continue to tackle new, challenging problems in technology, manufacturing, transportation, energy, communications, and societal issues with these generous donations of time, money, and resources.

Becoming involved as an industrial sponsor is incredibly rewarding on so many levels. Sponsors get a chance to interact with some of the brightest minds through working with multidisciplinary teams to consult and advise on the development of unique solutions to real-world problems. This also allows for access to students, advising faculty, and other resources of the University.

Whether you are looking at options to grow your workforce, advance ideas in your business, improve your research portfolio, or just help improve the quality of university education, please consider continuing support for the Enterprise and Senior Design teams. In addition, the Enterprise Program would be happy to discuss whether sponsorship of a project is the right choice for you. Please contact Len Switzer (lswitzer@mtu.edu) or visit www.mtu.edu/enterprise/giving/ to learn more.

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2020 Design Expo Goes Virtual!

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Design Expo 2020 - A showcase of Enterprise and Senior Design student projects

Nothing can stop us from celebrating the 20th anniversary of Design Expo. More than 1,000 students in the Enterprise and Senior Design programs have come together to put on a virtual showcase of their work and compete for awards. This year, a panel of judges, made up of distinguished corporate representatives, alumni, community members, and Michigan Tech staff and faculty will critique videos of team projects, solutions and results. 

Similar to past years, teams have a chance to earn cash awards along with well-deserved recognition among their peers. This year, total student awards have been increased to more than $3,500. As always, many projects are sponsored by industry, which allows students to gain valuable experience in solving real industrial problems. Additionally, many teams engage in student-initiated ideas that embody the innovative and the entrepreneurial spirit that comes with being a Husky.

This event is free and open to the public. We encourage current and future students, faculty, staff, parents, alumni, families of students. etc to help us celebrate our students and their achievement—register today to virtually attend Design Expo (see registration links below). 

2020 Schedule of Events:

Tuesday, April 14

Noon: Remote Judging Opens 

Thursday, April 16

10:00 a.m.: Opening Remarks via live webinar

10:15 a.m.: Virtual gallery open to public

2:00 p.m.: Remote judging closes

4:00 p.m.: Presentation of Awards via live webinar

4:30 p.m.: 2020 Design Expo concludes

Register to attend Design Expo live events today.

Design Expo: Kickoff & Opening Remarks

Design Expo: Presentation of Awards

Text In Voting

New this year, participants will have the chance to vote for their favorite student project. Using the number (919) 351-8683, participants can vote for as many competitors as they like but can only vote once for each competitor. Text in voting will take place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday, April 16.

To vote, a participant might text the following case sensitive message to the phone number above:
101 to vote for Baja Blizzard or 201 to vote for Medical Device Ball Bearing Temperature Test Fixture. 

Team numbers will be available on April 16 via the Design Expo website, and all who register for Live Webinars. 

Interested in judging for the 20th annual Design Expo? 

This year, judges will have the flexibility to vote anytime between noon on  April 14 through 2 p.m.  April 16. Judging should still take about an hour, depending on the number of volunteers. Please register to become a judge today.

Check out all of the details of Design Expo here. For questions, please reach out to Briana Tucker.

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Enterprise Turns 20!

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Twenty years of computers, robotics, and game development. Of better snowboards, open-source solutions, and nanosatellites. Of clean snowmobiles and cinematography. Twenty years of working with industry, leading and managing teams, persevering through setbacks and challenges, and developing lifelong friendships.

In 1999, it all started with an NSF grant and three pilot teams– Program in Integrated Sustainable Manufacturing (PrISM), Resource Engineering Associates (REA), and Wireless Communication Enterprise. One year later, over 200 students were enrolled in 11 different Enterprise Teams with over 19 majors represented. And now, two decades later, over 900 students enroll in Enterprise each year. Today’s Enterprise students represent 31 different majors from across the University. Nearly 5,000 alumni (and counting!) have chosen the Enterprise pathway at Michigan Tech.

Enterprise is a student-led, multi-year, interdisciplinary program open to first-year through graduate-level students of any major. Each year, the program offers team-based, hands-on, and client-centric project experiences that can only be found at Michigan Tech. All of those projects and innovative ideas are showcased at one year-end event — Design Expo. More than 1000 students in Enterprise and Senior Design teams present their work and compete for awards. A panel of judges, made up of distinguished corporate representatives and Michigan Tech staff and faculty, critique the projects. Many team projects are sponsored by industry, providing students valuable experience addressing industry-relevant challenges and communicating their results to a diverse audience.

Help us take Enterprise into the next 20 years by getting involved! The Enterprise Program encourages alumni, industry partners, and community members to give back through student engagement and project sponsorship. Sponsorship opportunities are flexible and range from unrestricted donations to multi-year partnership agreements. We can work with you to successfully match your project or idea to the appropriate Enterprise team. 

Learn more about sponsoring a project here: www.mtu.edu/enterprise/involved/industry/

Looking for ways to get involved sooner? The Design Expo is in need of individuals to serve as distinguished Design Expo judges. We’re calling all alumni, community members, and industry representatives who are interested in seeing what today’s students are accomplishing. Judging typically takes an hour or less. As a judge, you’ll be paired with 3-6 teams where you will evaluate their poster/presentation design, organization, communication, and final solutions.

Learn more about judging here: www.mtu.edu/enterprise/involved/expo/judges-guests/

We hope you will join us at the Michigan Tech Memorial Union Ballroom on Thursday, April 16, 2020, from 8 a.m.-4 p.m. for the 20th annual Design Expo. Whether a judge or simply a guest, your feedback at the event is greatly valued by our student teams and makes a valuable contribution to their education. 

2oth anniversary Design Expo Logo
www.mtu.edu/enterprise/involved/expo/
2oth anniversary Enterprise Logo
www.mtu.edu/enterprise/20/
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Design Expo Winners for 2019

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More than 1000 students in Enterprise and Senior Design showcased their work last Thursday, April 18 at Design Expo and competed for awards. A panel of judges, made up of distinguished corporate representatives, community members and Michigan Tech staff and faculty, critiqued the projects. The College of Engineering and the Pavlis Honors College is pleased to announce the following winners.

Gypsum Water Extraction from the ME-EM department took first place for Senior Design in the 2019 Expo.

Senior Design Awards (based on poster/video)

1st place: ME-EM – Gypsum Water Extraction

2nd place: ME-EM – Assembly Cell Changeover

3rd place: MSE – Gerdau Inclusion Solidification Prevention

Senior Design Honorable Mention

ME-EM – FCA Advanced Hood Architecture – Structural and Attachment Team

MSE – Cobalt Reduction in Tribaloy T-400

BME – Transcatheter Single Ventricle Device

Aerospace placed first for Enterprise based on their poster and presentation scores.

Enterprise Awards (based on poster and presentation)

1st place: Aerospace Enterprise

2nd place: Alternative Energy Enterprise

3rd place: General and Expedition Adventure Research (GEAR)

Enterprise Honorable Mention

Innovative Global Solutions

Consumer Product Manufacturing

Blue Marble Security

Innovation Center for Entrepreneurship Innovation Award

1st place: Alternative Energy Enterprise for Renewable Energy Mission Module (REMM)

2nd place: Universal Driver Gear Train (BME)

3rd place: Transcatheter Single Ventricle Device (BME)

Design Expo Image Contest Winners

1st place: Blizzard Baja

Meet our 2019 Comp Car “Hornet”

2nd place: Full Flexion Knee

3D Scanning of Tibial Insert

Honorable Mention: Cin/Optic Communication and Media

Team photo

 

Enterprise Award Winners

Student Awards:

Outstanding Leadership: Oliver Schihl, Advanced Metalworks Enterprise

Rookie Award: Troy Maust, Aerospace Enterprise

Innovative Solutions: Paul Kamps, Alternative Energy Enterprise

Industry/Sponsor Relations: Romana Carden, Aerospace Enterprise

Faculty/Staff/Sponsor Awards:

Outstanding Enterprise Advisor: Jay Meldrum, Alternative Energy Enterprise

Behind the Scenes: Dr. Jennifer Becker, Civil and Environmental Engineering

 

Congratulations and thanks to ALL teams for a very successful Design Expo 2019!

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Industry Speaker to Visit from Altair

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The Enterprise Program will be hosting Altair’s Training and EDU Technical Relations Manager, Erik Larson, November 14 and 15 for a two part industry speaker series event. On Wednesday, November 14 from 1-3pm in the Active Learning Center (MEEM120) Erik Larson will provide an overview of Altair’s revolutionary, easy to use, structural optimization and motion analysis tool, Inspire.  Inspire offers a simple interface that will allow the user to quickly and easily prepare and solve Finite Element Analysis problems to aid in the engineering and light weighting of static and motion based systems. Inspire leads Altair’s suite of software that promotes their philosophy of simulation driven design. Attend this seminar and start creating intelligent designs for your senior design and enterprise projects. This session is open to all levels of students and no prior FEA experience is necessary. Instructions for downloading the FREE, fully functional student edition of Inspire will be provided at the seminar as well.

On Thursday, November 15 from 10am-12pm and 2-4pm in M&M 718A students will have the ability to meet with Erik to get support and guidance on the application of the Altair software suite to current projects.

Erik Larson (’91 BSME) is Altair’s Training and EDU Technical Relations Manager. He is responsible for managing and conducting both online and instructor-led trainings for the United States. Additionally, Erik acts as a technical liaison for the Altair EDU outreach program, helping universities discover how the Altair suite of tools can enrich their curriculum and training faculty and students in the tools. Erik has over 25 years of experience conducting FEA structural, optimization and crash analysis. 

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Design Expo 2018 Award Winners

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Design Expo 20180419_0073

More than 1000 students in Enterprise and Senior Design showcased their work last Thursday, April 19 at Design Expo. Judges include corporate representatives, community members and Michigan Tech staff and faculty. The College of Engineering and the Pavlis Honors College are pleased to announce the award winners, below. Congratulations and thanks to ALL teams for a very successful Design Expo 2018!

Senior Design Awards (based on poster/video)

First place: Performance and Protection Characterization of Plug and Play Solar Systems

Second place: Vibration-Induced Muffler Failure Problem

Third place: Keel Cooler Efficiency Improvement

Honorable Mention: Motorcycle Landing Gear

Honorable Mention: Jeep Next Generation Vehicle Entry/Exit Technology

Honorable Mention: Human Machine Interface (HMI) Annunciator Replacement

Enterprise Awards (based on poster and presentation)

First place: CinOptic Communication and Media

Second place: Consumer Product Manufacturing

Third place: Wireless Communication Enterprise

Honorable Mention: Alternative Energy Enterprise

Honorable Mention: Strategic Education through Naval Systems Experiences (SENSE)

Honorable Mention: Supermileage Systems Enterprise

Design Expo Innovation Awards, sponsored by the Pavlis Honors College Innovation Center for Entrepreneurship (ICE)

First place: Nerve Stimulation through Powered Surgical Instruments: Cerebral Ultrasonic Aspiration

Second place: Development of a Novel Blubber-Only Satellite Telemetry Tag for Humpback Whale Conservation

Third place: Rapid Prototyping of Ultrasound Elastography Phantom for Breast Cancer Detection

Design Expo Image Contest

First Place: Formula SAE

103

Second Place: Advanced Metalworks Enterprise

117

Honorable Mention: Cin/Optic Communication and Media

320

A very special thank you to the faculty, staff, industry representatives, and community members who volunteered their time to serve as judges. Design Expo would not be possible without your help and support.

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ArcelorMittal Steel Warehouse Program

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AMLOGO“Steel Warehouse”

ArcelorMittal is the world’s largest steel producer and a sponsor of numerous enterprise and senior design project teams at Michigan Tech. To support a wider range of project teams, ArcelorMittal conceived the “Steel Warehouse” concept to supply steel to student teams throughout the Michigan Tech campus. This program is managed by the Enterprise Program Office in the Pavlis Honors College.

  •  Any enterprise or senior project team may request steel (and only steel) for their project.
  •  To enable support of many teams across campus, requests are limited to $500. Requests > $500 may be considered for approval, depending upon availability of funds and total number of requests received.

**NOTE: The approval and ordering processes have changed.**

Instructions for teams can be found here. A list of preferred steel vendors is provided here.

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Rekhi Innovation Challenge Deadline Extended to Monday Oct. 26

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Enterprise and Senior Design Teams and Advisors: here is your chance to secure funding for your innovative ideas! The deadline has been extended to encourage participation from more teams. A minimum of 5 teams is needed in order to hold the challenge.

The Vice President for Research Office and Pavlis Honors College are now accepting projects for the Rekhi Innovation Challenge, a crowdfunding competition whose aim is to promote student innovation and entrepreneurship through the use of Superior Ideas. This year, the Challenge has been opened up to any Enterprise or Senior Design teams whose projects include an innovative approach to an important design challenge or market need.

The competition runs from Nov. 1-Dec. 31 and projects must now be submitted by Oct. 26 in order to be considered. To participate, please see the information for teams, advisors, and the application form.

Any questions can be directed to Natasha Chopp at nichopp@mtu.edu.

fall 15 rekhi innovation challenge

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ArcelorMittal Steel Warehouse Program

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AMLOGO

“Steel Warehouse”

ArcelorMittal is the world’s largest steel producer and a sponsor of numerous enterprise and senior design project teams at Michigan Tech. To support a wider range of project teams, ArcelorMittal conceived the “Steel Warehouse” concept to supply steel to student teams throughout the Michigan Tech campus. This program is managed by the Enterprise Program Office in the Pavlis Honors College.

  •  Any enterprise or senior project team may request steel (and only steel) for their project.
  •  To enable support of many teams across campus, requests are limited to $500. Requests > $500 may be considered for approval, depending upon availability of funds and total number of requests received.

**NOTE: The approval and ordering processes have changed.**

Instructions for teams can be found here. A list of preferred steel vendors is provided here.

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Rekhi Innovation Challenge Now Open

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The Vice President for Research Office and Pavlis Honors College are now accepting projects for the Rekhi Innovation Challenge, a crowdfunding competition whose aim is to promote student innovation and entrepreneurship through the use of Superior Ideas. This year, the Challenge has been opened up to any Enterprise or Senior Design teams whose projects include an innovative approach to an important design challenge or market need.

The competition runs from Nov. 1-Dec. 31 and projects must be submitted by Oct. 21 in order to be considered. To participate, please see the information for teams, advisors, and the application form.

Any questions can be directed to Natasha Chopp at nichopp@mtu.edu.

fall 15 rekhi innovation challenge

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