Over 400 Michigan Tech Grads to be Honored at Midyear Commencement

Michigan Technological University will hold Midyear Commencement on Saturday, Dec. 10, at 10:30 a.m. in the Wood Gymnasium at the Student Development Complex.

At the ceremony, the University will honor the achievements of more than 400 graduating students, including 336 students receiving undergraduate degrees, 107 master’s degree candidates, and 27 PhD recipients.

Chang K. Park ’73, founder, president and CEO of Universal Remote Control Inc., will give the commencement address as well as receive an Honorary Doctorate in Philosophy. His Harrison, N.Y.-based company is a world leader in technology and innovation and has supplied more than 80 million remote controls and home automation devices in the past 10 years alone.

Born and raised in South Korea, Park came to the US as a teenager. He soon developed an interest in mathematics—the only language he could understand. After enrolling at Michigan Tech, he received bachelor’s degrees in electrical engineering and engineering administration and went on to earn an MBA at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He began his career with an engineering consulting firm specializing in mass transit and for several years was employed in corporate finance. Then he started a business in his sister’s garage and steadily expanded it to market and develop remote controls and related devices.

He chairs the Chang K. Park Foundation, an organization that supports human rights, the elimination of poverty and hunger, political reform and economic justice. He is also a member of the board of Common Cause.

Michigan Technological University is a public research university founded in 1885 in Houghton, Michigan, and is home to more than 7,000 students from 55 countries around the world. Consistently ranked among the best universities in the country for return on investment, Michigan’s flagship technological university offers more than 120 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science and technology, engineering, computing, forestry, business and economics, health professions, humanities, mathematics, social sciences, and the arts. The rural campus is situated just miles from Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, offering year-round opportunities for outdoor adventure.