New Facilities

2005 has been a year of accomplishment. We
have expanded programs, opened new facilities,
and engaged in award-winning research—all with
a positive bottom line. In this report, we'll show
you how we are delivering on our promise to
prepare students to create the future.

Our faculty emphasize scholarship, research, and inspirational teaching. To support their efforts, three new facilities were dedicated in 2005.

The John and Ruanne Opie Library, funded by alumnus John Opie and his wife Ruanne, is a striking addition to the J.R. Van Pelt Library, which was completely renovated as part of the project. The high-tech facility provides twenty-two small-group study rooms, which support Michigan Tech's emphasis on team learning. It is equipped with state-of-the-art technologies, including an electronic information center that provides the latest on library and campus activities, as well as a steady stream of news and weather.

Kanwal and Ann Rekhi Hall, funded by alumnus Kanwal Rekhi and his wife Ann, features distinctive copper architecture and centralized space for computer science facilities. It provides multimedia classrooms for high-tech instruction, distance learning, and teleconferencing. Because of ever-changing technology, Rekhi Hall has adaptable labs and research spaces to accommodate future innovations in computing.

The Advanced Technology Development Complex (ATDC) provides ideal space for research at Michigan Tech to be tested, developed into prototypes, and commercialized. A major part of the ATDC is the Ford Student Design Center, named to recognize the building's lead donor, the Ford Motor Company Fund. With fully-equipped industrial workspace right next to clean space for computer work and team meetings, the Ford Student Design Center allows students to bring what they learn in the classroom to the production floor-right on campus.

These new facilities enhance Michigan Tech's signature discovery-based learning programs. The Opie Library conference rooms, the multimedia capabilities in Rekhi Hall, and the industrial workspace of the ATDC combine to create a ripe climate for innovation at Michigan Tech, as evidenced by opportunities like the Enterprise Program.

The Enterprise Program

Nowhere else in the country will you find anything quite like the Enterprise Program at Michigan Tech. Enterprises are run like businesses-students collaborate across disciplines to manage budgets, meet deadlines, and present products and solutions to faculty and industry mentors. For up to four years, students can work with an Enterprise on various projects with the opportunity to move through challenging leadership positions that develop their communication and people skills.

In 2005, a record twenty-two Enterprise teams involving over six hundred students tackled real-world engineering and manufacturing problems for industry, the government, the community, and the University.

Expanded Learning Opportunities

We continue to prepare students to create the future with
new bachelor's, master's, and PhD programs.

We are dedicated to educating our students to be
the best. In today's world, this means having the knowledge and ability to develop, understand, apply, manage, and communicate science and technology.

Honors Institute

A new honors institute provides more than eighty undergraduate students with an academically challenging program in a new way-integrating advanced opportunities into existing courses. The institute, begun in the spring of 2005, features student-faculty collaboration on supplemental course material, research, and independent study. Students complete three "contracts," and their achievements are recorded on their transcripts. Members are also encouraged to apply for nationally-competitive scholarships.

Peace Corps International Master's Programs

Michigan Tech continues to build its relationship with the Peace Corps. The University now offers four Master's International programs-forestry, civil and environmental engineering, geology and geological engineering, and a new program in science education. Through these three-year programs, students combine a master's degree with Peace Corps service.

Strategic Plan: Provide an
outstanding and relevant learning
environment consistent with a
national university of choice.

More Academic Highlights

• One hundred students studied abroad in twenty-eight countries.
• Michigan Tech launched a new minor in nanotechnology.
• The number of full-text online journals at the library has increased 200 percent in three years.
• Co-op enrollment has grown nearly 9 percent over the past two years, and there are now 1,776 registered co-op employers.
• For the past two years, a Michigan Tech student team has earned its way to the Association for Computing Machinery International Collegiate Programming Contest World Finals-one of about seventy teams earning spots from more than four thousand teams competing regionally. Competitions were held in Shanghai and Prague.
• Michigan Tech took first place overall in the region and finished third in the nation in the 2005 American Society of Civil Engineers Concrete Canoe Competition.
• Michigan Tech placed second in the 2005 national RISE Investment Competition. Students manage a portfolio of over $650,000.
• Since 2001, civil and environmental engineering's International Sustainable Engineering Initiative has involved over one hundred students in service learning projects in seventeen countries.

       © Michigan Technological University, 2005 Annual Report

       Michigan Technological University  |  2005 Annual Report  |  http://www.mtu.edu/annualreport/