Michigan Tech News Academics Feed

Tech Students Help Patients in India Get a Leg Up

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 13:02:51 -0400

Taking another step toward making affordable and durable prosthetics available to India’s low-income population, a team of Michigan Tech senior design students have redesigned and cost-optimized a prosthetic knee.

This year’s project advances the work of two previous senior design teams who have worked on the prosthetic knee. Each year, the teams have redesigned the prosthetic to make it cheaper and more functional.

“I wanted to work on an international project because it seemed like a great experience, and I felt like I could positively impact a lot of lives,” said Ruth Eischer, a biomedical engineering major. “Working on the knee joint gave . . .

Student Makes a Graphic Point about Recycling and Reducing

Wed, 29 May 2013 16:17:10 -0400

Most people have heard the phrase, “Reduce, reuse, and recycle.” However, one Michigan Technological University student decided to take a different approach to bringing awareness to reducing and reusing.

Melissa Michaelson created a striking display containing 600 plastic water bottles that she collected from recycle bins and dumpsters.

Michaelson’s display was part of a social-change assignment for the course Rhetoric of Everyday Texts, taught by Lauren Bowen, assistant professor of composition in the humanities department.

“People think of rhetoric as this political thing, so I wanted to try to show it doesn’t have to be used to gain power or prestige and that . . .

Tech Students, Local Conservancy Group Team Up on Seven Mile Point Project

Thu, 23 May 2013 09:57:18 -0400

The Keweenaw Peninsula features geology that can be measured in billions of years. A project spanning four months isn’t even a blink of an eye. This project, a collaboration between students and faculty at Michigan Tech and the North Woods Conservancy (NWC), a local land preservation group, set out to help maintain a small piece of nature for future generations.The service-learning project gave students experience solving real-world problems while meeting a local environmental organization’s needs. Along the way, over those four months, they also learned that nature has a very big say in what we do and when we do it.

February . . .

Demonstrating Physics and a Passion for Teaching

Wed, 15 May 2013 08:46:30 -0400

Sports can be tough to understand. There are rules that govern what’s going on, but explaining them to someone unfamiliar with the game can be daunting.

Physics poses a similar problem. We experience the effects of physics every moment of every day, but like the obscure rules of any sport, few of us understand the mechanics of the physics all around us.
Bryan H. Suits, professor of physics at Tech, has found a more familiar way to explain physics concepts to undergraduates who may have little background in the subject and even less interest. He’s teaching “The Physics Behind Music.”

“There is a . . .

Study: Art Strengthens Community Ties in Calumet

Fri, 10 May 2013 15:44:34 -0400

Art has long fostered human connection. Now a Michigan Technological University social sciences professor and her class are examining how art is working as a social glue in Calumet.

Students in Richelle Winkler’s Topics in Rural Community Sustainability class focused on the art scene in Calumet to better understand how the village’s First Fridays art tours benefit the community. On the first Friday of each month, Calumet’s participating art galleries and cafes extend their business hours late into the evening, offering refreshments, artist receptions, demonstrations, menu specials and more, depending on the season.

After surveying hundreds of visitors, touring buildings, speaking with business . . .

A RISEing Star: Biomedical Engineering Student Awarded International Research Internship

Wed, 1 May 2013 10:22:43 -0400

When Leslie LaLonde first heard about the RISE internship program, she thought, “I’m all over this.”

She wasted no time in applying to the competitive Research Internships in Science and Engineering (RISE) program and recently received word of her acceptance for summer 2013. The program offers undergraduate students from the United States, Canada, and Europe the chance to work with researchers at Germany’s top research universities and institutions.

RISE dovetails nicely with LaLonde’s academic and personal interests: she is a second-year biomedical engineering student and has a passion for all things German. For 12 weeks, LaLonde will work alongside a doctoral candidate at . . .

The Last Class: Beth Flynn, Humanities

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 14:53:32 -0400

Beth Flynn had trouble with all three of her vehicles one recent morning. A wrecker call wasn’t the way she thought she’d begin her last day of teaching.

The humanities professor did made it to campus to teach Literary Theory and Criticism, a small seminar designed for advanced English majors, and she clearly had left her last class with lessons learned.

The students read James Joyce, D. H. Lawrence, Virginia Woolf and others, and for their finale they presented on their final papers.

One student asked of Lawrence: “sexist or savvy?” Another looked at androgyny in Woolf via Alice Walker. Another worked with generation . . .

Two Michigan Tech Teams Take Sustainable Designs to Washington, DC

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 07:19:58 -0400

Billions of people worldwide burn animal dung, crop residues, wood and charcoal to cook their meals. And the chemicals produced and inhaled sicken or kill millions. At particular risk are women who prepare their families’ food and children 5-years-old or younger.

Up to now, most interventions have focused on improving the cookstove to lower emissions. And that would be fine, if there were enough improved cookstoves to go around. But there aren’t. In 2012, only 2.5 million improved cookstoves were distributed, improving the household air pollution situation for exactly one-half of 1 percent of the world’s biomass burners.

So an interdisciplinary team . . .

Michigan Tech’s Concrete Canoe Paddles the Competition Again

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 12:17:35 -0400

For the 13^th time in 15 years, Michigan Tech’s team has nabbed the regional title in the ASCE Concrete Canoe Competition.

“We have a super group of students on the team,” said Bill Baxandall, the team’s faculty advisor. “They work really hard and put a lot of extra effort into the product.”

Sponsored by the American Society of Civil Engineers, the competition challenges students’ knowledge, creativity and stamina, while showcasing the versatility and durability of concrete as a building material.

Michigan Tech hosted teams from nine schools in this year’s North Central competition, held April 6-8. The design, paper, aesthetics, product and oral presentation . . .

Steel Bridge Team Qualifies for National Competition

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 11:05:19 -0400

Michigan Technological University’s team took a silver in the regional qualifier for the 2013 National Student Steel Bridge Competition. As a result, it will be competing in the national event, set for May 31-June 1 at the University of Washington, in Seattle.

“We took first in aesthetics and economy and second overall,” said co-captain Nate Schulz, a junior majoring in civil engineering.

Sponsored by the American Institute of Steel Construction and the American Society of Civil Engineers, the contest challenges future civil engineers to display their skills in steel design, steel fabrication and teamwork. This year the North Central Regional Conference event was . . .