Michigan Tech Sigma Iota

Students at Michigan Technological University became interested in Pi Tau Sigma when the need for an honorary society of Mechanical Engineering students became apparent. Under the direction of Dr. Joseph Mayersak, a petition was prepared and submitted to Pi Tau Sigma. The petition was approved and on April 1, 1967 the Michigan Tech Sigma Iota Chapter of Pi Tau Sigma was installed by National President E. Kent Springer, National Vice-President Erwin C. Hoelsher, and National Secretary-Treasurer James W. Bayne.

The Sigma Iota Chapter is presently involved in two major activities to serve the mechanical engineering students at Michigan Tech. In order to help junior mechanical engineering students to select their professional sequences, the Brothers of Sigma Iota sponsor an Option Night, where the students meet with the faculty who express their views and answer questions regarding the professional sequences. The Sigma Iota Chapter also sponsors a Graduate Night. An evening seminar designed to acquaint undergraduate students with graduate school and its benefits.

ANNUAL SUMMARY REPORTS

2020-2021    Mark Ousdigian, President

While the COVID-19 Pandemic shifted a lot of the norms for everyone this year, the Michigan Tech Sigma Iota chapter sought to continue to find ways to serve the community around us. In the fall  members helped out at Michigan Tech’s Make a Difference day, where dozens of student organizations join together to volunteer in the community. We were assigned raking some lawns on campus, which was made a little difficult from the dusting of snow we got overnight (In October!!). 

In the spring we took on the challenge of hosting our annual MEEM (Mechanical Engineering - Engineering Mechanics) Department Clothing fundraiser, despite the restrictions from COVID. We chose to do our advertising via emails to the department, instead of having students advertising on campus, as we wanted to minimize in person contact and the campus building had low traffic this year. Our sales were a little lower than usual, so in retrospect we wish we had put more work into creative advertising, but we are satisfied with the result considering we were trying something new to us. 

Another awesome virtual event we helped organize this year was having some guest speakers from Plexus come speak to us and any other students who were interested. A former MTU PTS Vice President who now works at Plexus reached out to us to organize the event. This event was held right before the Spring Career Fair, which was perfect timing for students interested in Plexus. The speakers talked about what their roles as Mechanical Engineers at Plexus have been, and answered any questions students had. In the future we hope to have even more events like this to provide networking opportunities for our members.

The last major event of the semester was a woodcutting event. We teamed up with another MTU student organization, Knights of Columbus, to cut wood for elderly people in our community who need the wood for wood burning stoves. Our Vice President was a member of KoC so he organized it for us to join them. This was a first-time event for us, but everyone had a great time so we may try to do it again next year!

In the coming years we hope to continue to grow as an organization, both in our number of members and the impact we have on those around us.

Initiates from the Fall 2020 Make-up Initiation 

(We forgot to take photos at the primary initiation)

Spring 2021 Initiates

2019-2020    Aaron Kruzel, President

At the Sigma Iota Chapter of Pi Tau Sigma at Michigan Technological University, we strive to uphold the ideals of our organization: engineering ability, scholarship, service, leadership, and integrity. With about 30 members active we are able to make a big impact on our campus and on our fellow engineers. 

This year we proudly gave back to our community through many hours of service and volunteering. In the fall our main event was “Make a Difference Day” which occurs every year on the third Saturday of October. This is a campus wide event where almost every student organization goes out into the community to serve. During this event we helped to clean up the areas around the Keweenaw, which included members raking leaves and picking up debris, and most of the time it was in the rain! Luckily we all brought jackets to keep dry.  Despite the rain, we all kept high spirits knowing that we were doing something nice for our community.

For the spring semester we participated in the Copper Dog 150, which is a dog sledding race that starts fairly close to campus. We had members this year who volunteered at the luncheon and helped with the tear down. It was a very cool event to be a part of and we helped to keep an amazing Upper Peninsula tradition going strong. In addition to these larger events, we also had smaller groups of Pi Tau Sigma members volunteer at various locations in Houghton County. 

We usually host an annual spring fundraising event where we sell Michigan Tech Mechanical Engineering Department apparel, however this year that didn’t happen due to COVID-19 shutdowns. We tried to set up an online order so that students could still obtain this special apparel, however the apparel provider was shut down during the pandemic.

Despite all the setbacks from COVID, we still had a great year with many new members joining our chapter and with many members graduating and earning their degree in Mechanical Engineering. Unfortunately, there was not an in person commencement so we couldn’t watch the graduates cross the stage to get their diploma, but it is still great to know that they are moving on to bigger and brighter futures. It’s always bittersweet to say goodbye, but with a new E-board and a motivated membership our recent and not so recent alumni can rest assured knowing that the Sigma Iota Chapter at Michigan Tech is as strong as ever!

2018-2019

At the Sigma Iota Chapter of Pi Tau Sigma at Michigan Technological University, our  we strive to uphold the ideals of our organization: engineering ability, scholarship, service, leadership, and integrity. With about 30 members active we are able to make a big impact on our campus and on our fellow engineers. 

This year we proudly gave back to our community through many hours of service and volunteering. In the fall our main event was “Make a Difference Day” which occurs every year on the third Saturday of October. During this event  we helped to clean up the areas around Houghton, which included members raking leaves, picking up debris, and in some places shoveling snow! Luckily we were given some nice T-shirts that were great for an extra layer of protection against the weather.  Despite the cold, we all kept high spirits knowing that we were helping improve our town. 

For the spring semester we participated in two large scale volunteering events. The first on was helping in the Copper Dog 150, which is a dog sledding race that starts fairly close to campus. We had members helping with the dogs at the starting line, helping with set up and tear down, and with road crossing. It was a very cool event to watch and we helped to keep an amazing Upper Peninsula tradition going strong. The second large spring volunteering event that we did as an organization was to do a spring cleaning of the Houghton Country Historical Museum. Similar to “Make a Difference Day”  there was a little snow on the ground, but that didn’t stop us from raking leaves and getting everything looking nice for the warmer months. In addition to these larger event we also had smaller group of Pi Tau Sigma members volunteer at various locations in Houghton county. 

An event that we continued to keep a tradition was our annual apparel fundraiser. We sell polos, jackets, and tumblers with the Michigan Technological University Mechanical Engineering logo embroidered or printed on them. We set up a table in the main lobby of our Mechanical Engineering building and put our salesmanship to the test. For most of us it was a little hard at first, but after you get your first order everything falls into place. Once again it was a big hit with our department and selling them was also a great way to get our name out on campus.   

We had a great year with many new members joining our chapter. We also had many people graduating and earning their degree. It was hard to see the graduates go, but it was great to see their hard work paying off. It is great knowing that they are going to go on to bigger and brighter futures and we all hope to see them again soon, maybe even at career fair! It’s always bittersweet to say goodbye, but with a new E-board and a motivated membership our alumni can rest assured knowing our future at Michigan Tech is in good hands and is looking bright! 

2017-2018

The Sigma Iota Chapter of Pi Tau Sigma at Michigan Technological University is a very renowned organization on campus. It consists of over 100 members, with about 30 members thoroughly active.

Throughout the year, the members help the community and volunteer their time to a number of causes. In the fall, Michigan Tech hosts a “Make A Difference Day” that includes a variety of outdoor and indoor volunteer events that directly benefit the community or those less fortunate. It occurs on a Saturday in the month of October. This past academic calendar year, our chapter helped by shoveling snow and raking leaves. Yes, in the same day. On one side of town it was snowing so we helped shovel snow for a preschool and then upon finishing that we traveled to the other side of town to rake leaves in a cemetery. This event requires our members to dedicate an entire Saturday of their fall semester, which so conveniently usually falls around the first round of exams. It is a large time commitment and the volunteers are rewarded with a T-shirt and pizza.

The Sigma Iota chapter has yearly provided a fundraiser to the Mechanical Engineering department at Michigan Tech. Over the past years, we have sold weatherproof jackets with the Michigan Tech logo and “Mechanical Engineering” embroidered on them. A portion of the profits go towards supplying the jackets then the rest is invested back into the organization. But this year (2017-2018) we expanded our selection of merchandise to not only jackets, but polo T-shirts and insulated drink tumblers. We require each of our members to dedicate one (1) hour of their time during the week to either run the sales table, or distribute merchandise after orders are received. It allows for customers (students and faculty) to interact face-to-face with the members, making it more of a personable purchase rather than distributing an order form online or via email. This year we boasted the largest amount of sales out of all years this fundraiser has been active.

The final, sizeable yearly event that we participate in as a chapter, is called the “Copper Dog 150”. It is a 150-mile sled dog race that kicks off a couple of town north of where Michigan Tech is located. This is rarely considered a stereotypical volunteering event because it is so much fun. It begins on a Friday afternoon and volunteers have the choice of duties that range from coat check to dog handling, and from road guard to parking assistant. It is by far our largest event that we see members devoting their time towards. You would think it would be hard to get people to volunteer their time when it is snowing and -10 degrees Fahrenheit, but not at Michigan Tech. We have had a successful year and plan to keep up the involvement and pursue more activities for our members as well as our department as a whole. Stay tuned to find out what we have accomplished in the 2018-2019 academic year!