Over 200 current Enterprise students pose near the husky statue
Enterprise Turns 20

Enterprise Turns 20

enterprise turns 20On October 1, 1998, three-year NSF grant EEC-9872533, titled "Redesigning Engineering Education with Active Learning and Integration Through the Engineering Enterprise (REEALITEE)," is awarded to Michigan Tech. The next year, the program launched with the name that 4,821 Michigan Tech alumni (and counting!) from the last twenty years have used: Enterprise.

Twenty years of computers, robotics, and game development. Of better snowboards, open-source solutions, and space travel. Of clean snowmobiles and cinematography. Twenty years of learning about industry, leadership opportunities, occasional frustrations, and lifelong friendships.

If you were an Enterprise student, advisor, or sponsor, you're part of our history. Join the celebration.

1999: The Pilot Year

teams created to test the Enterprise concept
The first teams are Program in Integrated Sustainable Manufacturing (PrISM), Resource Engineering Associates (REA), and Wireless Communication Enterprise (WCE)—which is still operating today!

2000: Year One

Official program launch and scale-up from the successful pilot year.

200 enrolled Enterprise students

11 Enterprise teams

19 majors represented

2020: Two Decades Later

900+ students currently enrolled in Enterprise

25 Enterprise teams
including seven of the teams launched in 2000

31 majors represented
across all University schools and colleges

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An Award-Winning History

October 1, 1998

Three-year National Science Foundation (NSF) grant EEC-9872533 (submitted under the Action Agenda for Systemic Engineering Education Reform) for $749,976 awarded to Michigan Tech. The proposal was titled "Redesigning Engineering Education with Active Learning and Integration Through the Engineering Enterprise (REEALITEE)."

2012

The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) included Enterprise as one of only 29 programs selected nationally in their publication "Infusing Real World Experiences into Engineering Education"

2017

Michigan Tech's Enterprise Program was selected by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Engineering Education Awards Committee for the Donald N. Zwiep Innovation in Education Award.

Michigan Tech students work on a baja racer

Blizzard Baja, 2010

Group photo of the 2010 Wireless Communication Enterprise

Wireless Communications Enterprise, 2010

An oddly-shaped supermilage car. It's low to the ground and shaped like a cross between a banana and slug.

Supermileage Enterprise, 2008

Share Your Story

Seeing your product in production. Your favorite advisor. The Enterprise friends who came to your wedding—and brought a nanosatellite as their plus-one. What do you remember from Enterprise? Tell us your story!

Or, if you don't remember the name, what was its focus?

Early 00s? Still happening now? What years were you in Enterprise?

We're always looking for more Enterprise memories! Check here if we can contact you for photos, videos, etc.

 

Enterprise students have 13% higher third-year retention rates and 17% higher graduation rates than non-Enterprise students.