Being part of the CPM Team means being part of one of our smaller teams, each devoted to a specific project. Our projects challenge and engage students in different ways, depending on their experiences and areas of expertise. Freshman or Senior, it's our goal to create opportunities for success.
Biogas: Anaerobic Digestion of Dining Hall Food Waste for Methane Production
A returning MTU funded enterprise project with the goal of creating a sustainable pilot plant on campus. This pilot plant will digest food scraps from the dining halls and convert those scraps into methane and compost to be used by the university.
AAA Prosthetics: The Development of a Mechanically Simple Foot and Ankle Prosthesis
The AAA [Affordable, Accessible, Authentic] Prosthetics team, an MTU healthcare research team, has a goal of producing a low cost, easily manufacturable ankle and foot prosthetics.
Clean Diesel: Converting University Wastes into Biodiesel
Michigan Tech utilizes hundreds of gallons of diesel fuel every academic year for the purpose of transportation and grounds maintenance. The university simultaneously produces an estimated 120 gallons of waste soybean oil per week from cooking methods in the dining hall that must be disposed of. There is an opportunity for a student team to test reaction methods and design a biodiesel production system so that the university can reuse the waste cooking oil as fuel for the equipment.
OneTumbler: Multi-Use Beverage Container
Sponsored by Sussex Injection Molding, located in Sussex, WI, the OneTumbler Sustainability team aims to encourage sustainability on MTU's campus through promoting a multi-use beverage container made from recycled plastic. The teams goals are to generate awareness and investigate new market opportunities.
GSK: Alternative Evaporation for Pharmaceutical Production
Sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline, located in Hamilton, MT, the GSK team aims to optimize the production of immunologic adjuvant. Adjuvant is used in vaccines to improve a patient's immune response. The current adjuvant production process involves outdated evaporation technology that has a small production capacity. The team has been tasked with evaluating more efficient alternatives to GSK’s current evaporation technology in order to improve their process.
Koppers
We are working closely with our sponsor, Koppers Performance Chemicals, in order to streamline their concentration measurements. We are looking to develop an in-line sensor in order to measure the chemical concentration of their product stream.