Colorado State Tau Psi

Early in the 1960-61 school year, students in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, with the help of Professor Robert Haberstroh, a Pi Tau Sigma member from Carnegie Iota, formed a petitioning group whose proposal was offered at the October 23rd meeting of the National Council. Approval of the Council and ratification by the
chapters led to installation of the Colorado State Tau Psi chapter on March 8, 1961. The installation was conducted by National President D. S. Clark and Vice-President E. K. Springer.

The chapter participates actively in student affairs and student government in both the Mechanical Engineering Department and the College of Engineering. It also awards a prize for scholarship to the highest ranking senior and another award to the professor whose teaching standards appeal most to the students. Tau Psi also operates
various contests at the Engineers' Days celebration and conducted the first professor evaluation in the College of Engineering. This has grown into a regular, college-wide program.

ANNUAL SUMMARY REPORTS
 

2019-2020 By: Brandi Grauberger - Tau Psi President 

This year has been very busy for the Tau Psi Chapter of Pi Tau Sigma at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. Coming down from hosting the PTS National Convention in February 2019, we shifted focus to chapter level growth. Even though our spring semester was halted due to the Covid-19 outbreak, the fall was quite full of chapter and community events. 

The Tau Psi Chapter welcomed 3 new members into the chapter this year, all who show great interest in the organization. These members helped us stay active in the community and were active in the community events we are a part of every year. In the fall, our chapter was a part of CSU’s event called Fall Clean-Up. This program helps elderly and physically unable community members ready their homes for the winter. This program allows for these people to keep their independence and stay in their own homes when they struggle with maintenance and up-keep of their homes. Unfortunately, because of the Covid-19 outbreak, we were not able to participate in the sister program for spring clean-up, CSU-nity. 

Our chapter was also involved in a STEM night at an elementary school. This event is held to inspire the youth of our community to pursue a career in STEM, hopefully engineering. We bring fun gadgets and mechanisms to these events including our newest purchase for the club, two Stirling engines, which demonstrate the directionality of heat flow. We also took mechanisms that showed phenomena such as evaporative cooling, and auto-ignition. These events are great opportunities for us to apply and share the things we are learning in real-world mechanisms, and it brings a sparkle to the eye of the youth.

This year for chapter events, we held our third annual Jingle and Mingle holiday party. This also serves as our annual fundraiser, as non-PTS members have to pay a small registration fee for the dinner. The party involves events such as ugly sweater contests, christmas chili cook-offs and a christmas themed design competition. We did not get to hold spring member events due to the Covid-19 outbreak. 

Two members attended the National Convention at RIT in New York this year. The 2 days of activities and networking were phenomenal and gave a fun break from school work and stress with new friends and contacts. 

Though this year was cut short, and we were not able to hold any PTS events in the spring, this past year for the Tau Psi Chapter has been incredibly rewarding for all involved. 

2018-2019 By: Brandi Grauberger - Tau Psi Treasurer

The Tau Psi Chapter of Pi Tau Sigma at Colorado State University in Fort Collins has had a full year of activities. We held the humbling honor of hosting the PTS National convention in February. Somehow in all of the chaos of preparing the convention we were also involved in chapter and community events to give back to our community and come together as Mechanical Engineering students. 

The Tau Psi Chapter welcomed 5 new members into the chapter this year, all who show great interest in the organization. These members helped us stay active in the community and were active in the community events we are a part of every year. In the fall, our chapter was a part of CSU’s event called Fall Clean-Up. This program helps elderly and physically unable community members ready their homes for the winter. This program allows for these people to keep their independence and stay in their own homes when they struggle with maintenance and up-keep of their homes. Unfortunately, because of an overwhelming abundance in volunteers, we were not able to participate in the sister program for spring clean-up, CSU-nity. 

Our chapter was also involved in a STEM night at an elementary school. This event is held to inspire the youth of our community to pursue a career in STEM, hopefully engineering. We bring fun gadgets and mechanisms to these events including two Stirling engines, which demonstrate the directionality of heat movement. We also took mechanisms that showed phenomena such as evaporative cooling, and auto-ignition. These events are great opportunities for us to apply and share the things we are learning in real-world mechanisms, and it brings a sparkle to the eye of the youth.

This year for chapter events, we held our second annual Jingle and Mingle holiday party. This also serves as our annual fundraiser, as non-PTS members have to pay a small registration fee for the dinner. The party involves events such as ugly sweater contests, and a christmas themed design competition. In the spring, our chapter held an event we called bent-night. We had a BBQ and sanded, painted, and mounted our bents on boards. This event brought us all together and finally gave us all the drive to finish our bents. Even graduating members attended, as they had not yet finished their bents. We plan on having this even yearly as an end-of-year celebration. 

The National Convention at CSU took up the majority of our PTS involvement. The convention was held the third weekend of February and had 179 attendees. The 2 days of activities kept everyone busy, but gave all a fun break from school work and stress with new friends and contacts. 

Lastly, our chapter held a booth at the CSU engineering-days where we met engineering in other majors, and had an afternoon filled with food, and friendly competitions. This past year for the Tau Psi Chapter has been incredibly rewarding for all involved.

2017-2018 By: Alex Grauberger - Tau Psi President

Colorado State University’s Tau Psi chapter has a strong history of student involvement. Aside from hosting formal initiations each fall and spring, the chapter is involved with various extracurricular and community activities aimed to develop members and give back to the Fort Collins community.

Volunteering pursuits included two local STEM nights at elementary schools to inspire young students to pursue careers in mechanical engineering. The chapter brought fun, interactive machines such as a Stirling engines, a cutaway lawn mower engine, linkage systems, and much more. The volunteers taught the students in simple terms how the machines work. The chapter also volunteered in CSUnity and Fall Clean-Up. CSUnity aims to help local elderly residents clean their yards during the spring. This program helps residents maintain their independence and stay in their homes. This is a very rewarding program and helps to reflect CSU in a great light to the community. Fall Clean-Up is the same principle as CSUnity however it takes place in the fall.

The chapter hosted seminars for all mechanical engineering students to enhance leadership abilities, teach engineering ethics, and promote innovative thinking. Two major seminars occurred this academic year. The first was a seminar by Jim Turner, the Associate Director for Technical Management at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. This seminar focused on NASA’s quest for innovation regarding their new Space Launch System. The event was an incredible success with a turnout of over 200 engineering students. The remainder of the day was spent touring Jim across CSU’s various facilities and ended with a member exclusive dinner event where the chapter was able to meet Jim and ask questions about his career and what work life was like at NASA.

The second seminar was with Lee Moore who is a professional engineering mentor. He assists personal and commercial clients reach their engineering career goals. This seminar had fewer attendees which allowed it to be tuned to each attendee’s questions. At the end of the seminar, Lee had attendees fill out a feedback form where he randomly selected an attendee to provide them with free coaching services.

The chapter also organizes several non-academic events for members to network and escape the stresses of their studies. For the fall semester event, the chapter hosted the first annual Pi Tau Sigma Jingle and Mingle holiday party for members and their friends and family. Festivities included an ugly sweater contest and a holiday themed design competition with prizes, pizza, candy and goodies. The event was one of the best attended this year and the chapter is considering opening the event to the engineering college in the future, as a yearly fundraising event. For spring semester, the events committee planned a bowling event for members to socialize and relax before finals.

Lastly, the chapter participated in Ram Welcome, a yearly event that welcomes freshmen engineering students to the college. This is a great first introduction to the Tau Psi chapter and helps with recruiting new members.