The Pavement Enterprise Started as the Thompson Scholars Program
The Thompson Scholars Program was established in 2000 through a generous gift from Bob and Ellen Thompson and resulted in the creation of the Pavement Design, Construction, and Materials (PDCM) Enterprise. The original goal of the Thompson Scholars Program was to ultimately support undergraduate students with full in-state tuition scholarships. Scholarship recipients were required to actively participate in the Pavement Enterprise during the academic year and also to participate in industry internships during the summer.

Membership Growth 
The Pavement Enterprise initially consisted primarily of Thompson Scholars with a smaller number of non-scholarship students.  At the start of the program in the Fall of 2000, a total of 27 students ranging from freshmen to graduate students were involved in the Enterprise.  The program grew to a  maximum size of 83 students by the Fall of 2004.  The number of students in the program declined as scholarship funding declined.  The last of the Thompson Scholars graduated from the program in Sping of 2008.  The Pavement Enterprise is now a non-scholarship program with 26  students approximately evenly split between juniors and seniors.  To date, over 100 students have graduated from the program and are now pursuing careers in a variety of transportation related fields.  The Pavement Enterprise is one of 24 Enterprises at Michigan Tech. 


Our Mission Statement 
The Pavement Enterprise is a nontraditional program fostering engineering education through relationships between industry, students, and faculty.