IGS Enterprise Alumni Information
Our Alumni have formulated ideas and cultivated many of the projects we still work on today. The work in IGS helps our members excel for years to come. Look at what some of our alumni are up to today and what Enterprise meant to them!
Morgan Thomas
President and Team Lead on Infant Incubator
Q. What was your favorite memory?
A. I would have to say that my favorite times in Enterprise were moments when I was mentoring. Being able to figure out what motivates and excites people with diverse backgrounds to make a project whole has still to this day been one of the most rewarding things I have done. What is even more rewarding, however, is to see people you mentor grow and be successful in the career path they decide to take.
Q. How has IGS influenced your professional development?
A. IGS is by far the most valuable part of my professional development during my time at Michigan Tech. The reason I became an engineer initially was because I wanted to do research and design medical devices. When the opportunity came to be a technical lead for IGS I took it with no desire to go into any management role for my career. My first semester in leadership changed this perspective and my career trajectory completely. I was hooked on the fact that I could hone in on my own technical skills while also helping others do the same exact thing. IGS does a great job of focusing on getting technical work done but only can get this done by allowing an environment where soft skills can grow too. By developing both soft and technical skills through Enterprise I was able to feel confident in going after competitive internships and co-ops which led to being able to grow this confidence even more to get the career I wanted out of school.
Q. What lessons did you learn in IGS that impact your work today?
A. Self-advocacy is huge when it comes to success, and this is something that came to fruition during my time in the Enterprise. If you can advocate for yourself and have the work and ethic to back it up the sky truly is the limit.
Perfection does not exist, but you can always get closer
Learn fast but fail faster (in other words it’s better to try something than do nothing)
Have a high say:do ratio
Always find things that you love about what you are doing
Nathan Tetzlaff
President and Founder of Incubator project
Q: What was your favorite Memory with IGS?
A: I have many good memories with IGS! A favorite memory that comes to mind was my first year in the enterprise as a freshman while we were preparing for the expo presentation on our low-cost ventilator project. I was new and wasn’t sure how my thoughts and ideas would be received with the team as we planned out our presentation strategy. When I suggested reformatting our presentation to drive our message differently, I remember feeling really encouraged by the support I had from the rest of the team. It was a small moment, but that encouragement really revealed the energy of working on a team passionate about the problems they target! The team dynamics I learned to enjoy at IGS made a big impact on the culture I promote within the teams I lead today.
Q: How has IGS influenced your professional development?
A: Projects at IGS are typically nebulous. You are trying to solve a serious problem but have little framework to guide what a solution looks like. This can be frustrating at first, but it’s extremely helpful for professional development. Successful engineers are able to concentrate on key issues that need to be addressed and develop supporting requirements to design a solution that meets stakeholders’ needs.
Q: What lessons did you learn in IGS that impact your work today?
A: Managing a complex program to a schedule
Presenting technical information to different audiences
Developing a project budget
Good mechanical design practices
Q: What type of work do you do now?
A: I am an engineering project manager at Plexus. Plexus is a contract engineering and manufacturing company that “helps create the products that build a better world”. We work with many well-known companies around the globe to design and develop products to their specifications and manufacture them. I started at Plexus as a product engineer where I supported designing and testing medical devices, but have since supported manufacturing transitions for life science, aerospace, and defense programs as well. As a project manager I help convert our customers’ requests and issues into an actionable plan and coordinate a team of engineers to meet the goals of that plan! The customer focus is my favorite part of the job as it’s fun to work with different people and industries with unique cultures to figure out a good solution.
Sidney Monger
IGS Team Member
Q: What was your favorite memory with IGS?
A: My favorite memory of IGS was getting to see the final product of the incubator each year and getting pizza when we would present.
Q: How has IGS influenced your professional development?
A: IGS really influenced my career goals, I realized the kind of impact I wanted to make from working with IGS.
Q: What lessons did you learn in IGS that impact your work today?
A: Working on a team helped fuel connections with patients and doctors now.
Learning and interacting with the incubator set-up working with and fixing fully functional medical devices at UW Hospital.
Q: What type of work do you do now?
A: I am now working at UW Hospital in Madison, WI fixing medical devices and teaching staff how to use the medical devices we order in. I get to interact directly with patients and doctors and really feel like I’m making a difference.
Riley Dickert
President and Tech Lead
Q: What was your favorite memory with IGS?
A: The summer after my first year with IGS, then President Emma Kantola and I travelled to Kenya to visit the site of our Aquaponics project. Before our visit to the site, we took a detour to meet an always smiling older woman we knew only as “Mama”. A local legend that owned a horticulture farm, Mama showed us that technology could look a lot different than what we were used to. My favorite memory had to be standing in awe as Mama used a big machete to cut down some sugarcane for us from her field. Really memorable introduction to a popular Kenyan snack and an incredible woman.
Q: How has IGS influenced your professional development?
A: As a Physics Major, I didn’t have some of the more practical engineering experience that my peers had built into their coursework. Working with IGS, I gained an immense amount of practical experience by solving unique and interesting problems with my teammates. Without the breadth of experience I gained from the team and the experience working through a number of trials and tribulations, it would have been incredibly hard for me to know what I wanted to do after school.
Q: What lessons did you learn in IGS that impact your work today?
A: I would say that success within an IGS project in particular comes from optimizing the balance between features and cost to offer a solution that is truly valuable to those communities that cannot use alternatives for whatever reason.
In the real world, price constraints mean a product often times needs to just be good enough to do the job it’s intended for given your design constraints. That means sometimes cutting out cool features that just don’t add enough value to your solution.
Whatever industry you are in, there will be some level of cost sensitivity. Understanding the importance of establishing a minimum valuable product (MVP) with your customer and making sure that you are designing for purpose was a great lesson, and is something I am constantly reminded of when I work with with customers today.
Q: What type of work do you do now?
A: I’m an Account Manager for Analog Devices, a market leading analog semiconductor manufacturer based out of Boston.
For my first year with the company, I did a rotational program through four different teams, and just recently started my final position as Global Account Manager for a couple of our Tier 1 Auto Customers this past August 2024.
My job as an Account Manager is to manage the strategy and relationship between our company and our customers, matching the teams and leaders within my company with the correct people within my customer companies.
If you’re the kind of person that really likes to do new things every day, breakdown complex ideas, and work with people, this kind of role may be a good fit for you!