Alumni

Michigan Tech has decades long tradition of placing graduates to rail industry careers. Since Rail Transportation Program was established more than 100 Michigan Tech graduates have started their employment in the industry.RTP alumni work for various industry companies, including Class I and smaller freight railroads, passenger railroads, engineering consultants and rail contractors, manufacturers, and DOTS. Our alumni often participate by supporting our programming. Examples for how Alumni can continue to be involved in RTP programming: organizing on-site field trip visits, providing student research project ideas and involvement, providing scholarship support, giving presentations.

We welcome our alumni to keep in touch! Let us know what you are doing. Please fill the Alumni Feedback Form or send an email to rtp@mtu.edu. We can share your news!

RTP Alumni in Rail Industry

Staff Engineer, Patrick Engineering
Troy graduated in December 2012 with a BS in Civil Engineering and has since been working as a staff engineer for Patrick Engineering. “Growing up, some of my fondest memories were traveling to Pennsylvania to see the famous Horseshoe curve. Like a lot of kids, I wasn’t really aware of all the possibilities in the rail industry. That is until I came to Michigan Tech. I joined REAC and attended various events as well as AREMA conferences. The summer before my final semester, I had an internship with Norfolk Southern in Toledo in the Maintenance of Way Group.
Senior Data Scientist, Predikto
After graduating from MTU in 2008, I enrolled in graduate school at Texas Tech University pursuing my PhD in Mechanical Engineering with an emphasis in the modelling/simulation and optimization based prediction of dynamic systems.
Senior Signals & Communications Standards Engineer, CN
At no point in my childhood and teen years did I ever think of “workin’ on the railroad.” It wasn’t until a gentleman named Pasi Lautala helped set me on a different track, by talking about railroads in my Controls class at Michigan Tech. After going to an informational meeting, and talking to CN at the career fair, I was sold.
Manager of Yard Operations, UPRR
Destine is a 2014 graduate with a BS in Operations and Systems Management. In July, 2014, she began work for Union Pacific Railroad as an Operations Management Trainee (OMT) in the Chicago, IL area. Upon completion of the OMT program Destine will become a Manager of Yard Operations. “Prior to taking the Logistics and Transportation course (OSM4700), I never considered working for the rail industry. The topic of railroads was one that I rarely heard about until this course. After classroom lectures and being assigned a project discussing the critical issues in rail transportation, I became fascinated."
Analyst - PTC, CN
Much of my day is spent on conference calls, working with PTC implementation, operations and testing, or working with the software build team.  With the software team I work to compile all of the information they need (signals, switches, sidings, speeds, special operating conditions, etc.) into a set of checklists for specific geographic areas.
Sharma & Associates
Hamed worked on “Capacity Improvement Along the U.S. Shared-Use Corridors by Applying Timetable and Operational Management Techniques “ , funded by NURail. He was also a co-PI for another project, Evaluating the Use of Operational Management Techniques for Capacity Improvements on Shared-Use Rail Corridors. The project started in September, 2014, and was funded by the Center for Freight and Intermodal Research and Education (CFIRE). His Ph.D. thesis was closely aligned with project work and evaluated different U.S.
EMD
Arthur Jones is a graduate of the Michigan Technological University ECE department. After working for two summers (2012 and 2013) as an intern for Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD), a major locomotive manufacturer based in La Grange, IL, he joined their electrical traction systems department full time in June, 2014. Arthur’s work focuses on the design and test of systems related to the electric drives on locomotives.
Remprex Engineering
After graduating in April ’17, I accepted a job with the consulting firm I interned with the previous summer, Remprex LLC in their Engineering services department working with a few other MTU alumi.  When I started Full time with them in June I have been doing a lot of construction management on various projects by myself and with other coworkers.  Some of these included pavement replacement, and automated gate system installation.  Part of the construction management entails monitoring contractor safety, quantity tracking, quality insurance and coordination via various channels. 
Design Engineer, Hanson Professional Services - MS Graduate (2009), Civil Engineering
Shane Ferrell became the first graduate of the Rail Transportation Program (RTP) at Michigan Technological University (Michigan Tech). He received his BS in Civil Engineering from Michigan Tech in 2008 and was awarded a MS in Civil Engineering with the completion of his thesis “Maintaining Stability Beneath Cold Climate Transportation Infrastructure with Special Emphasis on Railroads” in August 2009.
Staff Engineer, Engineered Rail Solutions, LLC
After working as an intern for HR Green, Inc. in the summer of 2012, Chad Kohlhoff graduated in December 2012 with a BS in Civil Engineering. He was hired by HR Green upon graduation and since August, 2013, Chad has been working for Engineered Rail Solutions, LLC (ERS) as a Staff Engineer. “My interest in railroad engineering was sparked by getting involved in the RTP and REAC at Michigan Tech. Student trips and hands-on activities on campus provided valuable learning experiences about the railroad industry outside of the classroom, including networking opportunities that led to my internship and full time job.

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