MSU Tau Epsilon

Dean L. G. Miller and Professor L. C. Price were considering a chapter of Pi Tau Sigma as early as 1944 but waited until the initiative came from the students in mechanical engineering. In the fall of 1949, a group of senior mechanical engineers organized and petitioned the National Council.  The petition was acted upon favorable by the active chapters.  M.S.U. Tau Epsilon Chapter was formally installed April 27, 1950, by National Vice-President F. L. Schwartz, assisted by Professor E. T. Vincent.

The M.S.U. Tau Epsilon Chapter implements the objectives of Pi Tau Sigma by hosting or participating in service, academics, and social events.  New initiates are required to attend a minimum of one of each type of event, to prove their character.

ANNUAL SUMMARY REPORTS

2023-2024 Sara Purdue and Steven Coscino, Fall and Spring Co-Presidents

The Michigan State Tau Epsilon chapter has been working to grow its membership after a 4-year hiatus post-COVID. The focus of this year’s activities were increased membership, improved participation, wider awareness of the chapter within the MSU ME student body, service to the department and our community, and overall value for members. One such measure was switching from email invites to hand-delivered invites after classes in the spring semester; the change yielded positive results, as 3 new members were initiated in Fall 2023 compared to 15 new members being initiated in Spring 2024. Overall camaraderie was improved through various required events for new initiates as well as bi-weekly optional meetings. To stay connected with our members and encourage participation from prospective members, our chapter created social media accounts. We also created a LinkedIn page to highlight professional activities and provide an opportunity for members to showcase these activities and their participation. 

Our chapter engaged in frequent and unique social events, including an egg hunt through the engineering building, two game nights, a study night, a tour of our MSU Cattle Teaching & Research Center, a paper airplane contest, and an E-Board dinner. The chapter also participated in different community service activities, including volunteering at the South Lansing Urban Gardens and for the Greater Lansing Food Bank. Members also participated in various professional events, including a panel of MSU faculty in the MBA program and ME graduate program to explore post-graduation options, a panel from Eli Lilly & Company, and a panel from Ford. Our chapter also hosted its bi-annual ME Senior Elective Night for all MSU ME upperclassmen to learn about all elective courses available, gain student insight regarding such courses, and receive guidance before signing up for classes. 

In an effort to serve the department and the larger ME student body, our chapter hosted a fundraiser to sell MSU ME crewnecks and offered one-on-one tutoring alongside the MSU Tau Beta Pi chapter. We also hosted a spring picnic for all ME students to celebrate a successful semester. This involved fundraising with the ME department as well as other engineering organizations at MSU. Showing success in the first-annual picnic with approximately 150 attendees, this event is scheduled to happen in upcoming years with increased support from the department and alumni.

To better connect alumni with current members, we began a catalog of all MSU PTS alumni. This effort will be used to update alumni bi-annually with current activities, potential opportunities to assist the chapter, and more. 

It has been an exciting year of growth and reconnection with the ME department, and the Tau Epsilon chapter looks forward to continuing such activities next year!

Fall Initiation: 11/30/2023

Officers & Members Left to Right: Steven Coscino, Jacob Keegan, Jenni Aubin, Hannah Crist, Lauren Spott, Joe Hamouda, Stephanie Glaspie, Sara Purdue, Ava Lam

Spring Initiation: 04/04/2024

Officers & Members Left to Right: Jacob Keegan, Dominic Bednar, Ethan Avery, Matthew Celini, Nitin Niranjan, Zachary Skilliter, Cole Mahaffy, Reese Kent, Paddy Toole, Aida Soltanian, Amelia Conatser, Larissa Tacaoca Honda, Alessandro Cabrera, Kate Workman, Gina Sapiano, Nathaniel McNeilly, Joshua Bishel, Steven Coscino, Sara Purdue, Jenni Aubin, Hannah Crist, Stephanie Glaspie, Joe Hamouda

2018-2019 Frank Spica President

Tau Epsilon chapter participated in multiple volunteering and professional events this academic year of 2018-2019. In the fall, these included Introduce a Girl To Engineering Day, Engineering Expo, and several engineering seminars for freshman and sophomore students. In the spring, the events included ASME E-Fest, Introduce a girl to engineering day, and Engineering Expo. Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day is a day where students and faculty members can bring young female friends and family to the university and teach them the interesting aspects of the engineering profession with fun challenges and activities. Volunteers for these events bring the kids and run the challenges and events. Engineering Expo is a career event held over the course of several days where students network with companies around the country and express interest in jobs and internships. The volunteers for this event are required to aid in check-in of the companies, help set up, tear down, and provide the company employees at the booth with anything they need during the event. The volunteer tasks were also similar for ASME E-Fest, an event held by MSU college of engineering that invited schools and programs from around the country to compete in competitions and showcase research and club activity. 

Both semesters also included social and academic events for the members and initiates.  For the social events, the initiates and members met at Buffalo Wild Wings and had dinner together multiple times over the academic school year. There were a couple different academic events also held to aid initiates and members. In the fall, a study night was held for those in similar classes to help each other with materials in classes for mid-terms and final exams. Both semesters also included a senior elective night, where senior members of the chapter commented on the many elective classes that students can take. This event included a full list of classes with descriptions, and each class had a certain period of time provided for the members to talk about the class and their experience in it so that the younger students could have a better idea of what to expect when taking the class. 

Tau Epsilon chapter held two induction ceremonies: one on December 5, 2018, and the other on May 18, 2019. The fall ceremony inducted 13 members, and the spring ceremony inducted 4 members. This was due to a change in information requesting in the university, so the chapter had to resort to other means of retrieving information about the qualified students to be initiated. This issue is still a work in progress, and will be resolved by Fall 2019.

2017-2018

Here are some of the more major events in which MSU Tau Epsilon participated during the 2017-2018 Spring Semester

Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day

February 24, 2018

Society of Women Engineers held an event to get 5th - 8th grade girls excited about engineering.  MSU Tau Epsilon members held a classroom with a demonstration in buoyancy and boat modeling, where the attendees built aluminum foil boats and attempted to hold as many pennies as possible in their boats.

Habitat for Humanity: Williamson ReStore

April 13, 2018

Volunteers helped staff the Williamson ReStore, where slightly used household items are donated and resold to raise money for Habitat for Humanity.

Senior Electives Night

March 28, 2018

MSU Tau Epsilon hosted an open event, where we reviewed every senior elective available to Mechanical Engineering students in the upcoming semester.  We provided information regarding the content and difficulty of the classes, to help optimize students’ senior elective selection.