Partnerships and Innovation

The REMADE Institute, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) public-private partnership, will provide $600K in funding for a new recycling process technology to extract pure polypropylene (PP) from multilayer plastic packaging waste. The project is a partnership between Michigan Technological University, the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and Braskem America, all of which are providing additional foundational project funding to develop new Solvent Targeted Recycling and Precipitation (STRAP) technology. At Michigan Tech, Ezra Bar-Ziv, a professor of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics, is now working to develop the pilot scale application of STRAP.

The University of Michigan, Michigan Technological University, and Western Michigan University are set to receive a total funding of $775,000 from the Mobility Public-Private Partnership and Programming (MP4) Grant. This funding aims to assist in preparing Michigan's workforce for the increasing number of high-tech jobs in electric vehicles (EV), infrastructure improvements, and related fields.

Michigan Technological University has received $1.2 million from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to develop a practical tool that will help shipping, rail and trucking companies develop cohesive logistics for both predictive planning and real-time decisions that save time, energy and money. Led by Kuilin Zhang, an associate professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering, the Michigan Tech project is titled “A Decarbonized and Resilient Intermodal Freight Transportation (DRIFT) Modeling Platform for Intermodal Logistical Decisions Under Uncertainty.” DRIFT will model a low-carbon, intermodal freight transportation system of the future. It’s one of six projects nationwide funded by the DOE through an Advanced Research Project Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) exploratory topic called INcreasing Transportation Efficiency and Resiliency through MODeling Assets and Logistics (INTERMODAL). Michigan Tech’s project is the only one in the state of Michigan.

Michigan Technological University has entered a $5.4 million cooperative agreement with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Professional Research Experience Program, NIST PREP. Michigan Tech’s NIST PREP agreement will support undergraduate students, graduate students and faculty participants. The program provides laboratory and financial assistance, with fellowships awarded to forward the continued growth and progress of science and engineering in the United States. Tech is the only NIST PREP institution in Michigan.

On March 13, 2023, professors and research leaders from Michigan Technological University and the College of Human Medicine at Michigan State University participated and presented at a collaborative research symposium titled “Engineering the Future of Human Health.” This inaugural event, hosted by MSU, was held at the Secchia Center in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Autonomous vehicles for unstructured environments. Next-generation composite materials for deep-space missions. Technologies to recycle and reuse electric vehicle batteries. Computer-aided precision medicine to manage unruptured brain aneurysms. Marquette native and MICHauto Executive Director Glenn Stevens Jr. traces a lifetime of experiences with Michigan Tech and describes why the University is uniquely positioned to lead the new industrial age and its transformation of the automotive industry.

Security, supply chains, and blue economies that support both commerce and recreation are dependent on healthy, sustainable waterways. Autonomous and intelligent tools give us the means to document what's previously been uncharted and to leverage that data to make informed predictions. Michigan Tech has been a leader in marine autonomy for more than a decade. Take a closer look at the research vessels that keep us on the map.

Energy policy expert Roman Sidortsov assembled a research team of scientists and engineers who proved it's feasible to store energy in old hard-metal mines, transforming them into cost-effective, income-generating community resources. The initiative, developed by Michigan Tech's Keweenaw Energy Transition Lab (KETL), is a novel closed-loop underground system that provides an elegant solution to address the global energy crisis on several fronts, from affordability and environmental cleanup to cultural respect and energy justice for post-mining communities.

The H-STEM Complex will support industry-relevant educational and research programs in health and human-centered engineering with an approach focused on science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM. The complex will include newly constructed shared and flexible laboratory spaces co-located with renovated classrooms and learning spaces within the existing Chemical Sciences and Engineering Building. The estimated investment of $53,100,000 will allow Michigan Tech's engineers and scientists to continue to develop new technologies and prepare tomorrow's technological workforce—major contributions toward future economic prosperity.

Using a three-year, $1.5 million R01 grant from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Michigan Technological University and Johns Hopkins University will create an “Integrated and Continuous Manufacturing of an Influenza Vaccine.” Michigan Tech Chemical Engineering Professor Caryn Heldt is PI on the project. Heldt is a co-PI on another $ 1.4 million collaborative project with the University of Massachusetts and Clemson University, funded by NSF:DMREF, the National Science Foundation: Designing Materials to Revolutionize and Engineer our Future. Chemical Engineering Professor David Shonnard was recently awarded funding in the amount of $917,000 by the US Department of Energy’s Reducing EMbodied-Energy and Decreasing Emissions (REMADE) Manufacturing Institute.

Michigan Tech is excited to launch Innovators in Industry: a project connecting students with MTU alumni who are industry experts, leaders, and influencers. The initial three-part series kicked off with a session titled, “The Future of Autonomous Vehicles and Mobility.” The series is organized by the Office of Advancement and Alumni Engagement, Innovators in Industry aims to give students direct access to industry leaders to help shape their paths. Future plans for the Innovators in Industry series include in-person sessions and on-location visits for students to industry hubs.

Leading the charge in developing a new lighter, stronger, tougher polymer composite for human deep space exploration, the Ultra-Strong Composites by Computational Design (US-COMP) institute under the direction of Dr. Greg Odegard has pivoted with agility during their final year of a five-year project. The NASA-funded research project brings together academia and industry partners with a range of expertise in molecular modeling,manufacturing, material synthesis, and testing.

In an effort to nurture a regional innovation ecosystem and move more discoveries from the research lab to the real world, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has established a Great Lakes Innovation Corps Hub and Michigan Technological University plays a key role. The 11-university Hub is led by the University of Michigan (U-M), and it’s one of five Hubs across the country as NSF continues to evolve the I-Corps program. 

Thanks to a group of generous mechanical engineering alumni, Michigan Tech has acquired a highly advanced 3D metal printer. The 3D Systems ProX350, 3D Metal Printer and accessories are a shared facility on campus. The new system can print using 11 unique metals, including bio-grade titanium (for biomedical applications), cobalt and chromium, several types of stainless steel at a resolution of 5 microns. 

Michigan Technological University has joined the Power Systems Engineering Research Center (PSERC) — a collaboration of university and industry members. Michigan Tech brings much to the research collaborative, particularly in key areas of power systems engineering, social sciences and, most importantly, computing involved heavily in data science and cybersecurity. Membership in PSERC will enable Michigan Tech to apply for seed grants together with other PSERC universities.

A new summer research program connects biomedical, biological sciences and electrical engineering students to Indigenous communities, environmental health and technological solutions. Research experiences for undergraduates (REUs) are programs sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and are paid summer research opportunities for students. TECH SCEnE, a new REU at Michigan Tech, builds an interdisciplinary foundation in STEM and community engagement for students focused in science, technology, engineering and math areas. Each research project was designed in partnership with staff from the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community (KBIC) Natural Resources Department.