Creating An Engineering Enterprise Team Based On The Sae Clean Snowmobile Challenge

The program consists of an innovative sixteen credit elective path; nine credits of course work and seven credits of project work, that combines traditional classroom learning with realistic engineering practice in a modern engineering curriculum. The course work is delivered in one credit modules and emphasizes communications, business, and teaming, as well as engineering topics. The project work is accomplished in student teams of 20-30 working on a significant engineering assignment. The engineering enterprises provide a major design experience for its team members and have a life span of multiple academic years. Sophomores hire into and graduating seniors retire from the Enterprise. The purpose of this paper is to show how one of the enterprises, the Clean Snowmobile Enterprise, has been implemented, how the design portion of the experience differs from a traditional senior design project, and the expected enhancements over the traditional design experience. A more specific overview of the Enterprise Program can be obtained by reading the paper entitled, “The Enterprise Program at Michigan Technological University”, by M. R. Plichta and M. Raber, presented at the 2001 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference and Exposition.