The Honors House, building number 82 on the campus map and formerly the Ruppe House, is a next-door neighbor of the University Residence on Woodland Road. The headquarters for Michigan Tech’s Honors Institute, the Honors House is home to nine honors students and provides ample space for the group’s operations. The remaining four beds are filled by non-honors students who have returned to campus after at least one year of study.

The idea of converting the Ruppe House—previously used for . . .]]>Thu, 03 Oct 2013 11:35:52 -0700 http://www.mtu.edu/news/stories/2013/october/story97966.html3D printing isn’t just cheaper, it’s also greener, says Michigan Technological University’s Joshua Pearce.

Even Pearce, an aficionado of the make-it-yourself-and-save technology, was surprised at his study’s results. It showed that making stuff on a 3D printer uses less energy—and therefore releases less carbon dioxide—than producing it en masse in a factory and shipping it to a warehouse.

Most 3D printers for home use, like the RepRap used in this study, are about the size of microwave ovens. They work by melting filament, usually plastic, and depositing it layer by layer in a specific pattern. Free designs for thousands of products are available . . .]]>Thu, 03 Oct 2013 08:59:03 -0700 http://www.mtu.edu/news/stories/2013/september/story97329.htmlWith 264 companies registered for the Fall Career Fair on Tuesday, Sept. 24, their 900 recruiters run the gamut from new to returning to never-miss-a-fair.

Among the new companies, according to Jim Turnquist, director of Career Services, is Chevron. Although they have recruited and hired on their own on campus, this year they’ve joined the Career Fair and expanded their search.

“In the past, they focused on geology, but this year they are looking for many different engineering fields: chemical, civil, electrical, environmental, mechanical,” Turnquist says. “That’s a big plus.”

Back after a hiatus from recruiting is Procter and Gamble. They are scouting for . . .]]>Mon, 23 Sep 2013 07:00:23 -0700 http://www.mtu.edu/news/stories/2013/september/story97203.htmlWhen Michigan Technological University launched its Generations of Discovery capital campaign in 2006, announcing a goal of $200 million, there were some doubters. Remember 2006—when the housing bubble burst and the stock market was heading for its 2008-09 crash, kicking the country into a major recession?

But Michigan Tech did it—and then some. At a campaign celebration at the University’s Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts on Sept. 19, 2013, Campaign Chair Dave House announced that Michigan Tech has raised $215,366,353, much of it in planned gifts that will be coming in over the next 10 to 25 years.

House, a Michigan Tech . . .]]>Thu, 19 Sep 2013 17:00:09 -0700 http://www.mtu.edu/news/stories/2013/september/story96947.htmlParticle accelerators are massive structures, used to find the tiniest details of our universe. Scientists around the world flock to these facilities to try out theories, hunt for particles and seek to understand a fully unified theory of physics.

“The Tevatron was a proton-antiproton collider and the highest energy accelerator in the world until the LHC(Large Hadron Collider) at CERN (the European organization for nuclear research) came on,” says Todd Johnson, a Michigan Tech graduate and special projects specialist at Fermilab in Batavia, IL. “It was also the first superconducting synchrotron (a type of particle accelerator) and the largest application of superconducting . . .]]>Mon, 16 Sep 2013 11:43:57 -0700 http://www.mtu.edu/news/stories/2013/september/story96776.htmlGetting treatment for a common sleep problem may do more than help you sleep better – it may help you look better too, according to a new research study published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine.  Researchers from Michigan Technological University and the University of Michigan Health System conducted the study.

The findings aren’t just about “looking sleepy” after a late night, or being bright-eyed after a good night’s rest.

For the first time, researchers have shown specific improvement in facial appearance after at-home treatment for sleep apnea, a condition marked by snoring and breathing interruptions. Sleep apnea affects millions of adults—most . . .]]>Fri, 13 Sep 2013 13:00:00 -0700 http://www.mtu.edu/news/stories/2013/september/story96892.htmlMichigan Technological University, like other public universities in the state, submitted its official fall enrollment numbers to Lansing this week. The news was very good.

Michigan Tech has 1,252 first-year students, the largest freshman class since 2008.  The average ACT score and high school GPA of those students are at an all-time high, at 26.7 and 3.66.  

Graduate student numbers also rose for the fifth straight year, to 1,359. 

“I want to thank everyone all across  campus for the work they do to attract the highest quality students,” said President Glenn Mroz. "The results of their efforts speak for themselves.”

Total undergraduate enrollment . . .]]>Thu, 12 Sep 2013 11:27:18 -0700 http://www.mtu.edu/news/stories/2013/september/story96647.htmlMichigan Technological University’s undergraduate programs in all disciplines rose in a ranking of public national universities, coming in at 57^th in the nation, according to the 2014 US News & World Report Best Colleges rankings released today. Last year, Michigan Tech ranked 58^th among public national universities.  Tech also moved up in the overall rankings of all universities--public and private--to 117th this year from 120th last year.  

“This is movement in the right direction,” said President Glenn Mroz. “We know we provide an outstanding undergraduate education, and employers do as well. But it’s encouraging that our peers and higher education leaders . . .]]>Tue, 10 Sep 2013 06:22:14 -0700 http://www.mtu.edu/news/stories/2013/september/story95668.htmlA brightly colored innovation to help families and doctors keep track of childhood vaccine records in the developing world has won the 3D Printers for Peace Contest.

The contest was organized last spring by Michigan Technological University’s Joshua Pearce, who had become alarmed that 3D printing was known primarily as a technology for making homemade guns. “We wanted to celebrate designs that will make lives better, not snuff them out,” said Pearce, a 3D printing aficionado and an associate professor of materials science and engineering and electrical and computer engineering.

The 3D Printers for Peace contest did just that, by underscoring the power . . .]]>Thu, 05 Sep 2013 12:14:13 -0700 http://blogs.mtu.edu/ece/2013/08/20/ece-wins-gsg-co-ed-softball-championship/Tue, 20 Aug 2013 13:53:45 -0700 http://www.mtu.edu/news/stories/2013/august/story94260.htmlThe Dow Chemical Company has taken the lead as naming sponsor of the Dow Chemical Company Great Lakes Bay Science & Engineering Festival at Delta College Oct. 4-5.  The festival, hosted by Michigan Technological University and Delta College on the Delta College campus, will feature the Michigan Tech Mind Trekkers and the American Chemical Society Midland Section’s SciFest, performing their hands-on science shows.

The free two-day festival is designed to get children, adolescents and their families excited about science and engineering by engaging them in hands-on activities.  Its ultimate goal is to attract more bright students into STEM (science, technology, engineering and . . .]]>Fri, 09 Aug 2013 07:20:16 -0700 http://www.mtu.edu/news/stories/2013/july/story93578.htmlDon your safety glasses, slip on a spark-proof smock and fire up the furnace because students enrolled in Michigan Technological University’s Summer Youth Programs (SYP) materials science exploration are eager to share what they’ve been up to in the blacksmithing shop.

SYP wraps up another year of hands-on career explorations and summer camps—right in the heart of the Michigan Tech campus—this week. Middle and high-school students come from around the Midwest and across the nation (students from 23 different states participated this year) to spend a week engaging in hands-on classes, living and eating in a residence hall, and getting a feel . . .]]>Wed, 31 Jul 2013 08:16:37 -0700 http://www.mtu.edu/news/stories/2013/july/story93519.htmlIt may seem like a stretch to envision a 3D printer in every home. However, a Michigan Technological University researcher is predicting that personal manufacturing, like personal computing before it, is about to enter the mainstream in a big way.

“For the average American consumer, 3D printing is ready for showtime,” said Associate Professor Joshua Pearce.

3D printers deposit multiple layers of plastic or other materials to make almost anything, from toys to tools to kitchen gadgets. Free designs that direct the printers are available by the tens of thousands on websites like Thingiverse. Visitors can download designs to make their own products . . .]]>Mon, 29 Jul 2013 08:18:42 -0700 http://blogs.mtu.edu/ece/2013/07/25/winikus-receives-nsf-scholarship-to-2013-grace-hopper-celebration-conference/Thu, 25 Jul 2013 07:57:24 -0700 http://www.mtu.edu/news/stories/2013/july/story93235.html

Rolando Bocanegra never pictured himself attending a four-year university. “There was always a fear factor when it came to thinking about a major college,” he said. As a current student at Grand Rapids Community College, “thinking bigger just made me feel overwhelmed.”

That’s exactly the type of common stumbling block the Michigan College and University Partnership/Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (MICUP/MI–LSAMP) helps community college students overcome. The MICUP/MI–LSAMP program, coordinated by Michigan Technological University’s Center for Diversity and Inclusion, offers low-income, first-generation and underrepresented minority community college students a summer research internship—and a first-hand experience of what life at a four-year . . .]]>Thu, 18 Jul 2013 12:57:58 -0700 http://www.mtu.edu/news/stories/2013/july/story93126.htmlMichigan Tech’s Mind Trekkers are on the road again—taking the magic and mystery of science and engineering to the National Boy Scout Jamboree July 15–23 at Summit Bechtel Reserve in Mt. Hope, W.Va.  It’s the first stop as they trek their hands-on science show to festivals across the nation, culminating at Science Spark’s USA Science & Engineering Festival in April 2014 in Washington, DC.

At the Boy Scout Jamboree’s Technology Quest, where as many as 50,000 Scouts and visitors are expected, Mind Trekkers’ 13 student volunteers and two staff members will be performing some of their favorite demos and some new ones . . .]]>Mon, 15 Jul 2013 07:30:00 -0700 http://blogs.mtu.edu/ece/2013/06/07/bruce-mork-named-wiitanen-professor-of-electric-power-systems/Fri, 07 Jun 2013 10:05:31 -0700 http://blogs.mtu.edu/ece/2013/06/07/endowed-professorships-announced-for-ece-me-em/Fri, 07 Jun 2013 09:42:37 -0700 http://blogs.mtu.edu/ece/2013/06/07/zhuo-feng-receives-dac-best-paper-award/Fri, 07 Jun 2013 08:03:03 -0700 http://www.mtu.edu/news/stories/2013/may/story89711.htmlThe Michigan Tech Research Institute in Ann Arbor, Mich., has signed a six-month, $1 million contract with the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to conduct research in adaptive radar countermeasures.  The contract could be extended to five years and be worth $9 million if all options are exercised. 

MTRI will be developing a new approach to the challenging problem of separating and analyzing radar signals by the function they are intended to perform. Radar—originally an acronym for Radio Detection And Ranging—is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the range, direction and speed of objects.

MTRI’s expertise in . . .]]>Wed, 15 May 2013 08:46:46 -0700