Pavlis Honors College Blog

Husky Innovate Announces Fall 2022 Schedule of Events

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Husky Innovate, a collaboration between the Pavlis Honors College, the Office of Innovation and Commercialization, and the College of Business, has a goal to provide the tools and knowledge to cultivate Michigan Tech’s innovative, creative, and entrepreneurial spirit across all disciplines offered on campus. To accomplish that goal, Husky Innovate provides valuable innovation and entrepreneurial education programs to students, staff, and faculty at Michigan Tech and this fall’s schedule is no exception!

This semester we have an outstanding lineup of workshops and speakers – check out the schedule of events for fall 2022 below. For more information on our Husky Innovate events, please visit:  http://www.mtu.edu/husky-innovate

Husky Innovate Fall 2022 Calendar of Events
Husky Innovate Fall 2022 Calendar of Events

Looking for ways to get involved? Sign up for our mailing list and get information sent directly to your inbox about upcoming innovation workshops, speakers, or other ways to excel your career. 

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Enterprise Spotlight: CinOptic Communication and Media Enterprise

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CinOptic Communication and Media is a student team in the Enterprise program that focuses on creating photography, video, and sound in communicative media products for clients. They specialize in filming, editing, lighting, acting, and other aspects of media production. The team uses technology to “tell your story,” as advertised on their website. They focus on clarity and creativity in their projects, while also allowing student members to grow in their skills. Located in the Humanities Digital Media Zone in Walker, CinOptic has access to computing equipment, photography devices, editing software, etc. for their work. Within the past year, the team has grown to nine members, including three team leaders and a faculty advisor, Dr. Erin Smith. Additional information on the team can be found at https://cinoptic.hu.mtu.edu/.

Enterprise Team (as of March 2022)
Team Leader Riley Mehki

Team Leader Matthew Brisson opened up on his experience with the enterprise: “CinOptic has been the most important part of my collegiate experience so far. Without the exposure to hands-on equipment usage and real-world clientele, I would not feel comfortable on my current path. Michigan Tech doesn’t have a lot of options for Humanities students, but CinOptic has been the perfect organization for honing the skills I hope to use after graduation.” 

Julianna Humbecke, Team Leader for the biology educational series, describes CinOptic’s project selection process: “Dr. Smith looks over a project proposal, then presents it to the team for us to make the final decision”. She noted the freedom the team has in terms of who they work with.

One of Humbecke’s current projects is creating a series of educational and promotional videos for Biologist Dr. Erika I. Hersch-Green. She explained, “We accompany her in her greenhouse, lab, or mini-internships to record the processes that are undergone and the research she gathers. We then host interviews with her so she can further explain the procedure and we can edit an accurate description to accompany the visuals.” Julianna mentioned that the project is funded by the National Science Foundation to promote Dr. Hersch-Green’s research. It’s meant to follow her progress in research, as well as garner interest in biology and research from high-school students. 

Team Leader Julianna Humecke

Last semester, Humbecke traveled abroad to Germany. Fortunately, another team member could step in to finish up filming and capturing material until she returned. Humbecke described how the organization looks after its members, having members cover one another to help keep projects going.  During their bi-weekly meetings, teammates communicate objectives and project progress. 

Team Leader Riley Mehki followed up on Humbecke, stating, “My favorite thing about CinOptic is that everyone has a specific role and knows exactly what to do at the end of each meeting”. One of his major projects in the past few years was working with Isle Royale National Park to produce a video guide for visitors. The project included voiceovers recorded by a park ranger, with footage shot from the island. For Mehki, projects like these are “… a great way to learn to work with equipment and real-world clients in a low-stress environment”

Team Leader Matthew Brisson
From left to right: Brisson, Humbecke, and Mehki working on their projects in the HDMZ

If you’re interested in learning more about Enterprise at Michigan Tech, you can visit https://www.mtu.edu/enterprise/. 

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Enterprise Spotlight: Humane Interface Design Enterprise

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Humane Interface Design Enterprise Team

Humane Interface Design Enterprise (HIDE) focuses on software development and usability research. HIDE provides students a collaborative environment where they can gain real-world work experience and get a headstart in their careers. For students, joining Enterprise is more than just taking a class, it’s an all-encompassing opportunity to prepare for their future career, and find the industry they want to one day work in. Students elect to discover opportunities through many different projects that can be industry-sponsored. HIDE is dedicated to doing just that. In this guest blog, current HIDE team members share about their enterprise experiences, team projects, and how students and sponsors can get involved.

Charles Vidro, President, HIDE

“I joined HIDE because I wanted to get practical, real-world software development experience. As president, I like to know what type of work people are interested in. Instead of asking what they’re good at, I ask what they want to work on because our projects prepare students for their future careers,” said Vidro. “While students can work on substantial projects within their courses, such as the Team Software Project course, HIDE offers opportunities to work on a project for several semesters with students who are from different majors and have various skill sets and experiences.”

Vidro continues by sharing HIDE project processes and highlights successful projects, “Within HIDE, there is a culture of helping others out and making a difference. Our projects are used by people, so when we develop a web app, we keep the user in mind throughout the entire process. We accomplish this by creating a simple but powerful user interface that meets the users’ needs. Whether it’s helping a user through the crisis of not having access to food, such as in our Health Resource Hub team, or making people’s jobs easier and safer, such as in the Chem Store project,” said Vidro.

Interested in getting involved in Enterprise as a corporate partner? Contact Chris Morgan to learn about partnership benefits and opportunities.

HIDE Students Working on Team Project

“HIDE has worked on several exciting projects. Early projects were the touch screen display studies and developed a HVAC controls mobile app. HIDE has also developed a citizen science app, CoCoTemp, for a scientist in Arizona. A web app for voting on music preferences during Winter Carnival was very popular. Recently, I think that the HuskyHunt website replacing the old Bark Board website will be very popular. I am optimistic that the app Little Brothers supporting drivers transporting community elders will be very successful and helpful. HIDE gives students the opportunity to work with a variety of clients to design and implement enterprise applications.”

Robert Pastel, HIDE Faculty Advisor

HIDE Members Share Their Stories

Abby Myers

“The project I’m currently working on, Health Resource Hub, will make a difference in the UP. It will allow UP residents to locate any resources they may need – food, legal, education, health, etc. This project, co-sponsored by Superior Health Foundation and the Western UP Health Department, is aimed at improving web access to all health related support and services in our local community.”

Abby Myer, Vice President
Jason Hoffman

“CCLC queue is a project that had the most impact on my school life as a computer science student, as it changed the way students can ask questions in the learning centers on campus. It anonymizes questions and makes the coaches more accessible, which makes it easier and less stressful to ask questions when I need help.”

Jason Hoffman, Chemstore Team Lead
Joe Wood

“HuskyHunt is a project developed by HIDE that offers students a platform to create listings for products that they would like to sell to other MTU students. It also offers ridesharing planning to help students in getting home and back during school breaks.”

Joe Wood, GVSC Team Lead
Tyler Zetty

“A project from HIDE that I think is really good is the Little Brothers project. I think it has a good purpose and if it works it will really make their mission easier to achieve.”

Tyler Zetty, CCLC Queue Team Lead
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Winners Announced: 2022 Bob Mark Business Model Pitch Competition

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Social Impact Award Winner – Bayle Golden with STEMPOWER

Congratulations and thank you to Husky Innovate’s Bob Mark Business Model Pitch Competition contestants and winners! On January 27th, 16 Michigan Tech students, representing diverse majors, participated in the competition either virtually over Zoom or in-person, and pitched their business models to a panel of judges and to a live audience. Each contestant was provided 4 minutes to pitch key components of their business models, including the value proposition and customer segment.

A highlight of Michigan Tech’s Innovation Week, this legacy event celebrates entrepreneurship and is a tribute to the late College of Business Professor of Practice Bob Mark. There were three categories of prizes: business model, social impact, and breakout innovation. The business model category looked at how well the solution addresses the customers’ needs, the path to revenue, and the overall presentation. The social impact category examined the significance of the social problem and how well the solution addressed it. The breakout innovation award considered the solution’s novelty, ease of implementation, and time to implementation.  

Congrats to all the contestants who took a big step forward with their entrepreneurship goals when they pitched their business models. Special congratulations to our award winners:

Business Model Category 

Presented by College of Business, thank you to sponsors Rick and Jo Berquist, and Dan and Jane Green for sponsoring the Audience Favorite award.

  • First prize – Akhil Kurup with Sense ($2,000)
  • Second prize – Maggie Zimmermann  with Famealia ($1,000)
  • Third prize – Jakob Christiansen with ProBoard ($500)
  • Honorable Mention – Nick Peterson with NOMAD ($250) 
  • Audience Favorite – Maggie Zimmermann with Famealia ($250) 

Social Impact Award Category

Sponsored and presented by Dr. Elham Asgari, Gates Professor College of Business, with a $1,000 matching contribution from Arick Davis and Jake Northey of Creative Mines.

  • Bayle Golden with STEMPOWER ($2,000)

Breakout Innovation Award

Presented by Patrick Visser, Chief Commercial Officer, MTEC SmartZone, sponsored by the MTEC SmartZone and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.

  • Akhil Kurup with Sense ($1,000)

First Place and Breakout Innovation Award – Akhil Kurup with Sense

Second Place and Audience Favorite – Maggie Zimmermann with Famealia

Third Place – Jakob Christiansen with ProBoard

Honorable Mention – Nick Peterson with NOMAD

Social Impact Award – Bayle Golden with STEMPOWE

Husky Innovate extends a special thanks to those who provided their time and resources to make the competition a success.

Our Sponsors

  • Dean Johnson, Dean, College of Business
  • Elham Asgari, Gates Professor, College of Business
  • Rick and Jo Berquist
  • Dan and Jane Green
  • Arick Davis and Jake Northey, Creative Mines
  • MTEC SmartZone and the MEDC

Our Judges 

  • Jim Baker, Associate VP Research Administration, Co-Director Husky Innovate 
  • Michelle Jarvie-Eggart, Assistant Professor Engineering Fundamentals
  • Eric Roberts, Executive Director 20Fathoms 
  • David Shull, Senior Director Skills Partnerships, Handshake
  • Elham Asgari, Gates Professor, College of Business
  • Dan Green, Entrepreneur, and Principal at BlackFin Group, MTU Alumnus
  • Arick Davis, Entrepreneur, Co-founder Last Mile Cafe, Creative Mines, MTU Alumnus 
Competition Judges

Our Emcee

Gary Tropp, Computer Network and System Administration, Pavlis Honors College Student, University Innovation Fellow, and Husky Innovate Pitch winner ‘18, ‘19.

Our Marketing Team

Vienna Leonarduzzi, Marketing and Communications Director, Pavlis Honors College, and Laura Vidal Chiesa, Michigan Tech Ph.D. Student, College of Sciences and Arts and Husky Innovate Intern.  

Our Production Team

Special thanks to Stefan Hurthibise and the Michigan Tech IT team, Sound and Lighting Services’ James Langsford, Elijah Nation, Luke Schloemp, and the rest of the team, and Photo Services provided by Alok Shelar of University Marketing and Communications, and Dining and Catering Services for their support. 

A special thank you to the Office of Advancement and Alumni Engagement for inviting all Bob Mark pitch contestants to watch the January 29th Michigan Tech Hockey game from the Presidential Skybox.

Thanks to all who attended! We look forward to next year’s event!

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SURF Applications Now Open

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Applications for the 2022 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships (SURFs) are now open. Fellowship recipients will spend the summer on an individual research project under the guidance of a Michigan Tech faculty mentor. SURFs are open to all Tech undergraduates who have at least one semester remaining after the summer term. Awards are up to $4,000.

How to apply

Applications are due by 5 p.m. on February 11, 2022. For more information on the SURF application process, watch the workshop video included on this page. To access application materials and instructions, visit the SURF webpage. If you have any questions, contact Rob Handler at rhandler@mtu.edu. 

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Enterprise Spotlight: Consumer Product Manufacturing Enterprise

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Consumer Product Manufacturing Enterprise Team Photo
Consumer Product Manufacturing Enterprise Team

Consumer Product Manufacturing (CPM) Enterprise, one of 26 Michigan Tech Enterprise Teams, has been busy with several team projects this year. CPM is a multidisciplinary enterprise team that aspires to empower Michigan Tech students with the entrepreneurial, technical, and professional skills to conceive, develop, and market successful products in a company-like setting. In this guest blog, fourth-year chemical engineering major and Consumer Product Manufacturing Enterprise’s Chief Financial Officer and Co-President Seth Whiting shares more about CPM Enterprise, team projects, and how students and sponsors can get involved.

Seth Whiting
Seth Whiting

I decided to come to Michigan Tech after hearing people in the industry speak about how good of a school Michigan Tech is. I joined Consumer Product Manufacturing (CPM) Enterprise to get hands-on experience working on an industry-relevant project. The biggest highlight for me has been the opportunity to work on multiple different interdisciplinary teams. Working with individuals from different majors lends new perspectives that I wouldn’t have considered before.

About CPM Enterprise

We are one of the original enterprises at MTU and have been around for just over 20 years. CPM has multiple different teams working on multiple different projects, which fall under the broad categories of sustainable services, process improvement, and product creation. The Enterprise is open to all majors. Currently, the majority of our members are chemical engineering majors, however, we do have a number of biomedical engineering majors and mechanical engineering majors as well as a few others.

“One of the big aspects that makes CPM unique is the opportunity to meet and work with real-world industry sponsors.”

Seth Whiting, CPM Enterprise student

For over 20 years CPM has provided students a chance to develop a wide range of technical and professional skills. Whether it be by working with a sponsor to solve a real-world problem or creating an idealized solution to one of the many challenges that society faces, CPM provides opportunities for students to grow their skills and gain hands-on experiences. The goal of CPM is to help students develop entrepreneurial, technical, and professional skills and be able to practice them in an environment that is normally not provided in a typical class.

CPM Enterprise Projects

CPM is working on about 10 different projects at the moment, one of which is our shareable air virus mitigation system. The shareable air project was started as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We’re attempting to use hydroxyl radicals to eliminate airborne pathogens and mitigate the spread of diseases.

One of CPM’s previous projects worth mentioning is our nanomag project, sponsored by alumnus Dr. Robert Carnahan, and implemented into production by Shaggy’s. The project explored the use of a dampening agent in skis, utilizing a magnesium alloy developed by nanoMAG.

While I haven’t had a chance to work on this project myself, I would still have to say that I am most proud of CPM’s biogas project. The biogas progress is an attempt to convert food waste into methane that can then be used by MTU. The project has been running for a while now and has seen the creation of an anaerobic digester pilot plant on its path to completion.

CPM is a great way for students to gain experience working on projects, as well as a great resume builder. Anyone interested in learning more about CPM is free to contact me or visit the CPM website. To join, you can contact our advisor, Dr. Tony Rogers.

Student working on biogas project
CPM Biogas Project
Student working on biogas project

Get Involved With CPM Enterprise

CPM Enterprise is always looking for industry partners to sponsor a project for the student teams. This process is very straightforward and comes with excellent benefits like engaging students well in advance of graduation, finding new and unique solutions, and growing your organization’s presence at Michigan Tech. To learn more about participating, contact Chris Morgan cjmorgan@mtu.edu or visit mtu.edu/enterprise/giving/.

About the Enterprise Program

The Enterprise Program is a unique project-based curriculum and is available to students from any major. Students work in multidisciplinary teams on real projects, with real clients, in an environment that’s more like a business than a classroom. With coaching and guidance from faculty mentors, the Enterprise teams work to invent products, provide services, and pioneer solutions. 

Through Enterprise, students have the opportunity to build up their existing skills, and also add some new ones to their repertoires. Enterprise encourages:

  • effective time management
  • leadership, project management, and team-working skills
  • problem-solving and critical-thinking skills
  • adaptability
  • global awareness
  • business savvy
  • competence in written and oral communication
  • networking with industry leaders

Teams collaborate with industry sponsors, communities, and government organizations, and work closely with a faculty advisor. Students could work with organizations like 3M, General Motors, Kimberly-Clark, and the Department of Energy, among many others. Take a look at the Enterprise team listing to learn about existing teams. If you have questions about the Enterprise Program, please contact enterprise@mtu.edu.

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Michigan Tech Part of $15M Great Lakes Innovation Hub

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(Reposted from Michigan Tech News)

In an effort to nurture a regional innovation ecosystem and move more discoveries from the research lab to the real world, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has established a Great Lakes Innovation Corps Hub and Michigan Technological University plays a key role.
 
The 11-university Hub is led by the University of Michigan (U-M), and it’s one of five Hubs across the country announced Aug. 26 as NSF continues to evolve the I-Corps program. Launched in 2011, the NSF Innovation Corps, or I-Corps, trains scientists and engineers to carry their promising ideas and technologies beyond the university and into the marketplace to benefit society.
 
In addition to Michigan Tech and U-M, the Great Lakes Hub includes Purdue University, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the University of Toledo, the University of Minnesota, Iowa State University, Missouri University of Science and Technology, the University of Akron, the University of Chicago, and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

The Impact of I-Corps

Each university in the Great Lakes Hub already has a successful I-Corps program. Michigan Tech has been part of the NSF I-Corps Site program since 2015. Over the past five years, Michigan Tech’s I-Corps Site has helped introduce the entrepreneurial mindset to over 300 researchers, faculty, staff, and students, and helped teams assess the commercial potential of nearly 150 technologies.
 
The Great Lakes I-Corps Hub aims to connect people at a large scale to increase the “effective density” of the Midwest’s innovation ecosystem. Mary Raber, Michigan Tech I-Corps principal investigator and chair of the Department of Engineering Fundamentals, said Michigan Tech researchers will be able to engage with the other members of the Hub and benefit from the extensive resources available throughout the Great Lakes region.
 
“Being invited to join the Great Lakes Hub is reflective of the success of Michigan Tech’s I-Corps Site program and the number of teams that have been selected to attend the National I-Corps program,” said Raber.
 
Other members of the Michigan Tech I-Corps team include Lisa Casper (Pavlis Honors College), Jim Baker (Office of the Vice President for Research), Michael Morley, and Nate Yenor (Office of Innovation and Commercialization), and Jonathan Leinonen (College of Business).
 
“The Great Lakes region is home to many of the world’s leading research institutions, and many of our nation’s critical industries. Our goal with this I-Corps Hub is to leverage this intellectual depth to create a lasting economic impact on the region,” said Alec D. Gallimore, the U-M Robert J. Vlasic Dean of Engineering, the Richard F. and Eleanor A. Towner Professor, an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, and a professor of aerospace engineering.
 
“We’ll do this by creating new businesses, by keeping our existing companies globally competitive and on the leading edge of technology, and by developing talent that not only has technical and cultural expertise, but also an entrepreneurial mindset,” he said.
 
The new Great Lakes Hub has set a goal of training 2,350 teams in the next five years and sending an additional 220 teams to a more in-depth National NSF I-Corps program.
 
In this way, I-Corps is helping to fill what Jonathan Fay, executive director of the U-M Center for Entrepreneurship, calls the “widening gap” between the cutting-edge research being done at universities and the development work of industry to turn research into societal benefit and economic gain.
 
“U.S. universities are set up to reward scientific breakthroughs, but not necessarily the hard work of turning that discovery into social or economic impact,” Fay said. “On the industry side, investing in long-range R&D is expensive with uncertain payoffs. This has led to a shift in the industry away from research and toward development.”
 
“What I-Corps does is fill that gap by changing both the mode of thinking and the social networks of the academic community so we can maximize the benefits of publicly funded research by finding the right place within the industry for a new breakthrough to take hold,” he said.

A Proven Track Record of Success

Each university in the Hub already has a successful I-Corps program, and the new model will make it easier for them to network and learn from one another. Supported through Husky Innovate, Michigan Tech’s innovation and entrepreneurship resource hub, the University will continue offering I-Corps training and support to faculty, students and staff who are developing new ideas and want to explore their commercial viability. “Michigan Tech is an integral part of the Great Lakes Hub,” said Raber.

Teams that have successfully participated in the Michigan Tech I-Corps Site program include:
 
●   Nanosound Inc. is focused on quieting noise from pipes and ducts, such as building HVAC systems, by using active noise control and carbon nanotube technology. Nanosound has secured an initial investment and has partnership agreements with multiple companies to further develop the technology.
 
●   SwimSmart aims to enhance beach safety through smart and connected beachfront technologies that improve swimmer situational awareness, increase forecast frequency and accuracy, and assist lifeguards, first responders and beach managers in their efforts toward the greater goal of ending drownings in our communities. SwimSmart products are on beaches this summer in Frankfort and Muskegon, Michigan, with expansion planned for next year.
 
●   Stabilux Biosciences is commercializing fluorescent imaging compounds with enhanced and tunable brightness, which enables levels of detection which had been previously unattainable. Applications for this technology include biomedical research and medical diagnostics. Stabilux has raised $4 million in follow-on funding to date.
 
●   ZiTechnologies is commercializing technologies that enable the beneficial utilization of plastic from industrial and post-consumer waste streams. It has recently received a $256,000 grant through NSF’s Small Business Innovation Research Program Phase I (SBIR) to continue the commercialization process.

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Congratulations to Lydia Savatsky!

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Lydia has been awarded the Dean of Students Award for Service for 2020-2021. She graduated in May 2021 from Michigan Tech with a degree in math and honors recognition from the Pavlis Honors College. Lydia’s honors program focused in community service and included a certificate for Peace Corps Prep. Lydia spent three summers working with the Appalachian Service Project in various leadership roles, founded and served as president of Tech Tutors during the pandemic, and has been highly active mentoring K-12 students in the local community throughout her degree program. Congratulations, Lydia!

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