2021 Undergraduate Research Symposium Winners Announced

To follow COVID-19 safety protocols, the 2021 Undergraduate Research Symposium was held virtually and asynchronously. While we missed seeing our poster presenters in person, the virtual symposium gave us a chance to keep and display our students’ presentations.

2021 Winners

First Place: Ethan Burghardt, Biochemistry

“Characterization of Aqueous Two-Phase Extraction Systems for Virus Purification” working with Caryn Heldt (ChE)

Play Characterization of Aqueous Two-Phase Extraction Systems for Virus Purification video
Preview image for Characterization of Aqueous Two-Phase Extraction Systems for Virus Purification video

Characterization of Aqueous Two-Phase Extraction Systems for Virus Purification

Second Place (Tie): Ava Miller, Sustainability Science and Society

“Community Response to Renewable Energy Project Siting: A Case Student in L’Anse, MI” working with Richelle Winkler (SS)

Play Community Response to Renewable Energy Project Siting: A Case Study in L’Anse, MI video
Preview image for Community Response to Renewable Energy Project Siting: A Case Study in L’Anse, MI video

Community Response to Renewable Energy Project Siting: A Case Study in L’Anse, MI

Second Place (Tie): Lauren Spahn, Chemical Engineering

“Optimization of Lignin Precipitation with Functional Group Control for Use in Bio-Based Polyurethane Foams” working with Rebecca Ong (ChE)

Play Optimization of Lignin Precipitation w/Functional Group Control for…Bio-Based Polyurethane Foams video
Preview image for Optimization of Lignin Precipitation w/Functional Group Control for...Bio-Based Polyurethane Foams video

Optimization of Lignin Precipitation w/Functional Group Control for…Bio-Based Polyurethane Foams

Four students also received Honorable Mention:

Volunteer at Design Expo 2021!

How well do students in Michigan Tech’s Enterprise and Senior Design programs address design challenges? You be the judge—volunteer at Design Expo 2021!

Hosted by the Pavlis Honors College and the College of Engineering as an annual event, Design Expo highlights hands-on, discovery-based learning at Michigan Tech.

At Design Expo, more than 1000 students in Enterprise and Senior Design teams showcase their work and compete for awards. Many team projects are supported by industry, which allows students to gain valuable experience and direct exposure to industry-relevant problems.

Do you have an hour or so to spare? Sign up to serve as distinguished virtual judge at Michigan Tech’s upcoming 21st annual Design Expo, held virtually on Thursday, April 15, 2021.

“No experience or education in engineering is required to be a judge,” says Briana Tucker, Enterprise Program Coordinator in the Pavlis Honors College at Michigan Tech. “In fact, we welcome judges from various professions, disciplines and backgrounds to volunteer to judge at this year’s event.”

As a virtual event, 2021 Design Expo includes a digital gallery of student-created videos that showcase their project work. Judging usually takes about an hour, depending on the number of volunteers.

Sign Me Up!

Visit Michigan Tech’s Design Expo Judges and Guests page for more information and to register to judge by Wednesday, April 7, 2021.

In order to serve as a judge, please commit to the following: 

  1. Attend Design Expo between 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM on April 15, 2021 to interact virtually with assigned teams via Gatherly.
  1. Review and score assigned team videos via RocketJudge prior to the start of Design Expo, April 12-15, 2021.

Note: prior to the event, all judges and attendees will be provided resources outlining use of the Gatherly and RocketJudge platforms.

Who should judge?

  • Community members
  • Alumni interested in seeing what today’s undergraduate students are accomplishing as undergrads
  • Those looking to network with Michigan Tech faculty and students
  • Industry representatives interested in sponsoring a future project
  • Anyone with an interest in supporting our students as they engage in hands-on, discovery-based learning

Questions? 

Feel free to contact Briana Tucker, Enterprise Program Coordinator in Michigan Tech’s Pavlis Honors College, at bctucker@mtu.edu.

“We hope you will join us virtually at the 21st Annual Design Expo. Whether a judge or simply a virtual guest, your involvement in the event is greatly valued by our student teams and makes a valuable contribution to their education.” 

Briana Tucker, Enterprise Program Coordinator, Pavlis Honors College, Michigan Tech

TECH SCEnE, Research Experience for Undergraduates

Bio-inspired, Community-centric Research Experience

TECH SCEnE – Technology, Science, and Community Engagement in Engineering is a unique undergraduate research program. The features of the program are

  • The program combines engineering research with direct community involvement and impact.
  • Each project will team the students with mentors at Michigan Tech and the Natural Resources Department at the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community.
  • Projects include water quality testing for heavy metal contamination, smart adhesives for underwater applications, underwater sensor networks for long-term monitoring, simulating daylight for hatcheries and nanofiber manufacturing for personal protective equipment and filters.
  • Hands-on laboratory experience and field visits to the beautiful lake shores of the Keweenaw Bay and Lake Superior.

The projects directly impact the community and apply engineering solutions to address specific needs.

For more information on how to apply, see the website.

Meet Annalisa Wiesner…

“When I joined Pavlis, I was worried that I wouldn’t have time for it and that it would be too stressful. Pavlis actually made my life a lot less stressful because I learned how to manage myself and manage my work. I did things that were really interesting to me and that gave me energy and were creative and exciting and not not just schoolwork. My life felt a lot better once I started with Pavlis. ” Watch Annalisa’s commencement interview, or read more about her Pavlis experience.

Annalisa Wiesner’s “why did you become an engineer?” story is a familiar one. But through her own reflections and a little help from Pavlis Honors College, Annalisa’s personal pathway led her to become an author, an architect, a builder, and a Michigan Tech graduate in mechanical engineering with ideas on how to combine creativity, curiosity, and technical know-how into a career path custom to her interests. Her “What will you do now that you’re an engineer?” story has been shaped by her time in the Pavlis Honors College.

A young woman sitting on the base of the Michigan Tech husky statue and smiling.

“Honestly? I threw the mailer away.”

“My parents always told me that I was good at engineering, and that I was creative, and that I should look into engineering as a career.” After two years at community college exploring engineering courses, Annalisa transferred to Michigan Tech.

“Right before I started at Michigan Tech, I got the mailer about the honors college, and honestly? I threw it away without even opening it. I didn’t want to be an honors student in college. I had been an honors student for a long time [in high school], and I wanted to be done with the stress of being in honors.”

Fortunately, Annalisa had a friend in the Honors Pathway Program. A lot of the things her friend was learning in her honors classes—like personal growth, leadership skills, and incorporating school into her life instead of going to school just because it was the next expected thing to do—resonated with Annalisa.

“When I joined Pavlis, I was worried that I wouldn’t have time for it and that it would be too stressful. Pavlis actually made my life a lot less stressful because I learned how to manage myself and manage my work. And I did things that were really interesting to me and that gave me energy and were creative and exciting and not not just schoolwork. My life felt a lot better once I started with Pavlis. ”

A group of college students stands on the star decal at center field of AT&T stadium
Annalisa’s immersion experience let her see the sights in Texas, including AT&T Stadium.

Fast facts: Annalisa’s Pathway

Annalisa graduated in December 2020 with a degree in mechanical engineering.

Immersion experience: Internship with CommScope, an American global network infrastructure provider company, in their Richardson, Texas office

Honors project: writing a children’s book about her hometown of Traverse City, Michigan.

Academic enhancement: the design/build semester program at Yestermorrow Design/Build School. In the program, she joined a team that researched, designed, and built an architecturally innovative high-performance shelter.

Leadership/mentorship activity: worked in the toddler room at BHK Child Development in Houghton

[Learn more about pathway components]


A young woman laughs in the woods, wearing ear protection and brandishing a chainsaw.
Annalisa’s academic enhancement included chainsaws, customer discovery, and more.

Academics, enhanced (with chainsaws)

Reflection and Design Thinking are two key parts of the Honors Pathway Program. Try something, think about the experience, and base your next steps on what you’ve learned. Annalisa’s immersion experience, an internship, made her realize she wanted to try a self-directed creative project. So she wrote a children’s book for her honors project. After more reflection, she had an idea for an academic enhancement.

By her senior year, Annalisa knew that she wanted to find a career that got her away from a desk, where creativity and dreams and design could come together. “I had this crazy idea to be a treehouse engineer, to design and build liveable, sustainable treehouses as a career.”

Some research led to Yestermorrow Design/Build School in Vermont. Their treehouse class was full, but they did offer a 16-week, 15-credit immersive program that “takes up to 15 students from a variety of backgrounds through an architectural design process to the substantial completion of a single, high-performance, year-round structure. Students, while completing a 15-credit course load, receive instruction in design, assembly and detailing, and building performance while exploring group process, definitions of sustainability, and relevant contexts.” [Source] 

Building an knowledge base in an area that complements the focus of an honors experience? That’s an academic enhancement. After talking to her honors and in-major advisor, the registrar, and more, she had a plan: her last semester of college would be spent in Vermont. Four credits would apply to Senior Design, and the rest would form her academic enhancement for her honors pathway.

The Yestermorrow team designed a building for a customer who needed flexibility. It could be a residential space. It could be a small business space. It could be a short-term rental. And, per the customer’s request, you can keep the front tire of a bike fixed in a center spot and rotate the rest of the bike 360 degrees around that pivot point without running into anything. (And yes, Annalisa got to work on a treehouse while at Yestermorrow.)

Annalisa, wearing ear protection and a face mask, poses for the camera while wearing a shirt that reads "I got my geek on at Michigan Tech."

“My experiences are 100 percent going to impact what I do after graduation,” says Annalisa. “One hundred percent.”

“When you know how things work, you can make things that are really cool and really creative. And that’s what I want to use my degree for.”

Why Pavlis?

Annalisa’s pathway components added a lot to her resume. But Pavlis added more than bullet points on a resume. “I think the biggest benefit that I received personally from the honors college is that I learned how to reflect on my circumstances and my experiences. I’ve gone back to that idea of reflection so many times, and I write reflections now on things that don’t have anything to do with the honors college. I know how to think through my experiences better because I was asked to do that in Pavlis. I’ll go and reflect on a problem or an event, and I’ll come up with some really profound things to help me know myself better and help me to choose a direction for my life. Pavlis taught me the tools that I can use to design my life.”

Student Spotlight: Honors Pathway Program Application by Colin VanderBeek

“For me, it’s about success, and how I think Pavlis can be a catalyst for my journey.” Accountability. Creativity. Innovation. Learn more about why Colin is joining Pavlis Honors College at Michigan Tech.

Coming to Tech in the fall? Learn more about early admission for incoming first-year students.

Already a Tech student? Learn more about the Honors Pathway Program.

ETS-IMPRESS Scholarship for Transfer Students in Technology Majors

by Dr. Laura Kasson Fiss

Applying to MTU as a transfer student? Interested in engineering technology? Check out the ETS-IMPRESS scholarship program. Open to community college transfer students majoring in electrical engineering technology, mechanical engineering technology, mechatronics, cybersecurity, or computer network and system administration, this program requires participation in the Honors Pathway Program in the Pavlis Honors College as well as mentoring activities. It fulfills unmet need of $4,500. Other requirements are listed on the scholarship website, and the deadline for application is March 5.

I’ve had the pleasure of teaching a number of ETS-IMPRESS students in Pavlis Seminar II, and I’ve learned from them about their work designing satellites, implementing sustainable solutions, and using their industry experience to improve MTU’s curriculum. The community within ETS and Pavlis has helped hone their ambitions and support them through the challenges of college — which have intensified for all of us in the past year.

Check out ETS-IMPRESS scholar Caleb Devonta Rogers’ story, in which he describes his journey to MTU and his plans for his Honors Project, and remember to apply by March 5!

Meet Caleb, an ETS-IMPRESS student who wants his honors project in autonomous vehicles to benefit all drivers, whether they’re in Houghton or his Hawaiian hometown.
Young man leaning against a brick wall
“When I had discovered the ETS-IMPRESS scholarship, it took very little time to understand how helpful it would be to my life both in and out of college. Not only was I able to afford to go to college, but I was also getting more out of my college experience.”
–Brad Gipson, 3rd-year CNSA major

Celebrating our fall 2020 graduates

Congratulations to our fall 2020 graduates! You’re leaders. Authors. Researchers. Global travelers. Volunteers. We’re honored that you chose to spend part of your time at Michigan Tech in the Pavlis Honors College, we’ve enjoyed watching what you’ve accomplished here, and we can’t wait to see what’s next.

Video: A few words of welcome and congratulations to our 2020 Pavlis Honors Pathway Program graduates, from Dean Lorelle Meadows and the PHC team.

In addition to her environmental engineering major and global and community development partnerships minor, Maya volunteered with local community organizations, coordinated philanthropy efforts for her sorority, and studied abroad in Accra, Ghana.

Mechanical engineering major Annalisa built her custom pathway around an internship, a children’s book, and spending a semester at a design-and-build school in Vermont (including treehouse engineering!).


Tessa majored in biochemistry and molecular biology, minored in pharmaceutical chemistry, and plans to get her master’s and PhD. While an undergraduate, she worked in a genetics lab, co-authored two books, helped kids get excited about STEM, and tested samples for Michigan Tech’s COVID-19 lab.

Amanda Moya

In addition to her mechanical engineering major and certificate in global technological leadership, Amanda’s Global Leadership Pathway culminated in a trip to Ghana in 2017. Amanda spent her last semester completing her degree remotely while working full-time for Georgia-Pacific in Oregon, helping meet the new demand for toilet paper and paper towels.