From the Daily
Mining Gazette, Houghton, MI reprinted with permission
Features: Tuesday,
September 06, 2005
All
aboard!
By KELLY FOSNESS, Gazette
Writer
HOUGHTON - Michigan
Tech University is moving full steam ahead with it's railroad
engineering program. The five-week program, offered during the
summer, provides an introduction to railroads, rail terminology,
and design operations.
Students in the program
take two courses, Introduction to Railroad Engineering and Finnish
Language and Culture. They spend one week studying at MTU, another
week in Chicago touring the rail industry and listening to presentations,
and from there they head to Finland for three weeks of classes
at Tempere University of Technology, projects and technical tours.
Pasi Lautala, the program's
primary instructor and coordinator, said although the program
is five weeks, students cover a range of topics. "Students are
intensely immersed in those five weeks. It gives them a very versatile
background," he said. "They don't narrow it down to the civil
aspect, they look at safety, the history, operation, motor power,
construction, maintenance, and many others." Lautala said he coordinates
the class in a particular order so that lessons in the classrooms
are still fresh in their minds when they travel abroad. "We try
to order the topics, based on the field visits and the timing
of them," he explained. "So when they get to the visits, they
see exactly the same stuff they've been studying in the past week."
Because the program
is very versatile, Lautala said the program is open to any student
from any discipline. Lautala, who is also a Michigan Tech PhD
student in civil engineering, and native of Tempere, Finland,
was one of the program's key organizers along with civil and environmental
engineering professor Bill Sproule. Lautala said his hometown
was selected as the study abroad component because he wanted to
maintain it;s close ties with the Copper Country. After earning
his master's degree in civil engineering in 1997 from MTU, Lautala
began working as a consultant for a railroad industry in Chicago.
Meanwhile, Sproule and Lautala held onto the idea to start a railroad
engineering program at Tech, since they knew a large portion of
the workforce is on the verge or retirement. "The railroad industry
is really going to be looking for engineers from all areas because
they are retiring," Sproule said.
In 2004, after much
planning and marketing, MTU opened the program, with a successful
16 students enrolled. "It was a huge success," Lautala said, noting
that 13 students participated this past summer. "Six of them were
hired as interns for the rest of the summer." Sproule said last
year they had five of the six largest railways in the U.S. on
campus recruiting including CSX Transportation, Burlington Northern,
Union-Pacific, Canadian National and Canadian Pacific. Lautala
said the present couldn't be a better time for students interested
in the railroad industry, to try it out. "Railroads are a really
old industry, most are going to be retiring soon. This a career
opportunity. Railroads haven't been hiring for a long time and
they are and will be for the next six to 10 years," Lautala said.
"This gives them the chance to see if this career is for them."
Senior civil engineering
student at MTU, Steve Kamarainen, took the railroad engineering
class the summer of 2004. Following the course, Kamarainen returned
to Finland for three months on an internship, working with the
railroad industry. "It was great to be able to gain work experience
in my field of interest while experiencing the culture in a foreign
country, especially Finland," Kamarainen said." Having the opportunity
to see first-hand what the railroad industry is like, Kamarainen
said he's very interested. "I do think it would make a very interesting
career ... I witnessed the variety in work locations and projects
while in Finland which I believe is similar to what is found in
the railway industry here in the U.S," he said. "I do plan to
take advantage of the need for entry level engineers in the railway
industry." Lautala said they are currently looking to launch the
first student chapter in railroad engineering.
Editor's Note: This
article is reprinted by permission from the
Daily Mining Gazette, Houghton, Mich.
