Michigan Tech 'Top News'

Researchers Begin to Decipher Metabolism of Sexual Assault Drug

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:01:01 -0500

It’s a naturally occurring brain chemical with an unwieldy name: 4-hydroxybutyrate (4-HB). Taken by mouth, it can be abused or used as a date-rape drug.

Now, a team of Ohio and Michigan scientists have determined new routes by which 4-HB is metabolized by the body. “This is new and important information,” said K. Michael Gibson, professor and chair of biological sciences at Michigan Technological University and a member of the research team. “It may provide new clues on how to counteract the drug’s effects, or to enhance its metabolism and decrease toxicity for chronic abusers or victims of sexual assault.”

Gibson is . . .

Michigan Tech Graduate Student Aids International Bird Rescue Effort

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:06:19 -0500

Conservation could be Amber Roth’s middle name. She loves anything to do with nature. Birds, trees, grasses, ecosystems: she’s fascinated by it all.

So after tucking a Bachelor of Science in Conservation Biology and International Relations and a Master of Science in Wildlife Ecology under her belt, the Green Bay native came to Michigan Tech to earn a PhD in the School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science (SFRES).

Roth studies how to manage aspen forests to produce the maximum amount of biomass per acre without harming wildlife habitat. “It’s a management trade-off question,” she explains, and the basis of her PhD . . .

Strategic Faculty Hiring Initiatives Seek Energy, Health Faculty

Thu, 5 Nov 2009 10:26:59 -0500

A worldwide search is on for outstanding energy and health researchers to fill up to 20 new tenure-track faculty positions at Michigan Technological University. The competitions are Michigan Tech’s latest in a multi-year series of Strategic Faculty Hiring Initiatives, designed to enhance and expand the University’s existing, cross-disciplinary research strengths.

One new initiative focuses on Energy: Next Generation Energy Systems. The other is in Health: Basic Sciences, Technologies and Medical Informatics.

Over the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 academic years, up to 10 faculty will be hired who specialize in multidisciplinary research in any aspect of 21^st century energy, including smart transmission and . . .

Youth Programs Helps Science Score Big with Young People

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:51:37 -0500

Michigan Technological University took its traveling STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Road Show to Grand Rapids last week, inspiring thousands of elementary and high-school students to “score with science” at a hockey game and science expo.

The Grand Rapids Griffins’ annual matinee game and Score With Science Expo featured exciting, hands-on activities for the students, presented by Michigan Tech Youth Programs staff. They showed the youngsters how to make liquid nitrogen ice cream, to “walk on water” in an oobleck pool filled with a cornstarch mixture that looks like water but acts like a solid, to blow smoke like a . . .

Building a Grid that Plays Nice

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:58:11 -0500

It's unlikely that you'll crash the local utility system by turning on your microwave. But in smaller electric grids it's not that hard for a single, power-gobbling component—say, central air-conditioning—to blow the proverbial main fuse.

Wayne Weaver, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Michigan Tech, is interested in designing ways for all components in smaller electrical grids to share power. His work applies to systems as simple as a solar-powered home and as complex as a naval vessel, an industrial park or a military outpost.

With a three-year, $350,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, Weaver will use game . . .

Memorial Grove at Michigan Tech: Planting a Green, Living Memorial

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 02:00:01 -0400

Dan Lorenzetti is not a man who likes to wait for results. When he heard that Michigan Technological University was planning to add approximately 150 trees to the well-traveled eastern approach to its campus along Highway 41 over the next 15 years, his response was: “I want to see that approach to campus beautified immediately.”

So he came up with a win-win plan to achieve that goal: Invite the public to sponsor a tree in a Memorial Grove, in honor or memory of someone they admire. That way, a public entrance to Michigan Tech gets its trees, and the community . . .

Grad Student Takes Aim at Sugar Maple Dieback

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 02:00:36 -0400

When Tara Bal brings a 12-gauge into the woods, she doesn’t worry about exceeding her limit.

Bal, a Michigan Technological University PhD student in forest science, isn’t a hunter. She is more of a gatherer, using the shotgun to bring down sugar maple leaves from the forest canopy.

With Andrew Storer, a professor of forest resources and environmental science, she aims to find out why so many Upper Peninsula sugar maples are in trouble. If you go for a walk in the woods and look up, you’ll see quite a few trees with dieback: branches, even whole sections of the tree, . . .

Chemical Engineering Grads Among the Best in National Design Competition

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 09:52:50 -0400

Two May 2009 Michigan Tech chemical engineering graduates were among the best in the US this year in AIChE’s National Student Design Competition in the individual category.

Terry Mazure and John Krystof placed second and third, respectively, for their solutions to a large-scale chemical engineering design problem.

Every year, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers challenges students to tackle a problem that typifies a real, working, chemical engineering design situation.

Chemical engineering faculty members Dan Crowl and Tony Rogers incorporate the problem in the senior design lab course, CM4861. “It’s very open ended, and it takes about a hundred hours to complete,” said . . .

Michigan Tech Researchers Lead Project to Develop Cleaner, More Efficient Diesel Engines

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 02:51:11 -0400

Diesel engines are famously high-performance, reliable and economical. In recent years, they have also improved their image through advanced emissions control systems.

An unfortunate side effect of cleaning up diesel exhaust, however, can be a drop in engine efficiency, which translates into increased fuel consumption. Now, a partnership led by researchers at Michigan Technological University is addressing the problem. The work is being funded by a three-year, $2.8 million grant from the US Department of Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory.

Additional support and in-kind goods, services and expertise for the three-year, $2.8 million project are being provided by Michigan Tech; diesel engine . . .

Student Transforms into National Geographic Star

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 08:34:33 -0400

Alex Guth, Michigan Tech PhD student, online lecturer, and Kenyan geology researcher, has been tapped as an on-camera expert for a National Geographic television show airing next spring.

The focus of the National Geographic TV special is the concept of Pangaea, the super continent that once existed before the current continents parted ways. The Kenya Rift shows how continents tear apart, and the nearby island of Madagascar is a consequence of past rifting. Madagascar's past connection to Pangaea is seen and rocks and animals of the island, for example, lemurs, unique to Madagascar, evolved there after the split, leaving their relatives . . .

Michigan Tech EcoCAR Team Hits the Road

Fri, 9 Oct 2009 02:40:05 -0400

For over a year, Michigan Technological University’s EcoCAR Enterprise team members have been brainstorming and building a next-generation hybrid vehicle on their computers. Now they are ready to roll.

The team has taken delivery on a 2009 Saturn Vue Hybrid, a cross-over vehicle that gets 25 mpg in the city, 34 mpg on the highway, according to EPA estimates. General Motors, a major sponsor of EcoCar, donated new Vues to Michigan Tech and the 16 other US and Canadian universities participating in the competition.

Teams participating in EcoCar, The NeXt Challenge, aim to reengineer their Vues to reduce fuel consumption and . . .

Transplanted Liver Cells Hold Hope for Treating Inherited Diseases

Thu, 8 Oct 2009 10:19:41 -0400

Mike Gibson, chair of the Department of Biological Sciences at Michigan Technological University, has spent most of his professional life trying to better understand genetic metabolic disorders that arise in children. With that knowledge, he is working to develop treatments in mice--including liver-cell transplants--that could one day be used to treat a variety of liver-based illnesses in people.

The genetic diseases Gibson studies are often dizzyingly complex, involving a cascade of biochemical reactions that go awry. While the knowledge gained by studying a single disease could help researchers develop a better treatment, it may also expand our fundamental understanding of physiology . . .

Homecoming 2009: More Fun than a Castle of Mashed Potatoes

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 03:34:36 -0400

Michigan Tech’s 2009 Homecoming features three hockey games, two football games (one NCAA, one not), a parade, alumni broomball, the traditional hilarity involving cardboard boats, and lots more. Special homecoming menus will be served throughout the week in the residence hall dining areas and in the Keweenaw Commons, courtesy of Dining Services.

Homecoming’s first face-off is set for 7:07 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 3, at the MacInness Student Ice Arena, when the Hockey Huskies go up against Ryerson, of Toronto. The Homecoming Queen’s court will be announced after the second period.

On Sunday, Oct, 4, student groups will be decorating windows at . . .

Local Alumnus Makes Good: GS Engineering Awarded $25-Million Government Contract

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 09:04:36 -0400

A local firm with Michigan Tech roots has secured a $25-million, five-year contract with the US Special Operations Command.

GS Engineering, founded by 1980 graduate Glen Simula was awarded the contract recently. Technically, it is an “indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity task order contract to supply systems test support services for US Special Operations Forces (SOF) ground mobility vehicles,” according to a US Special Operations Command news release.

Given the security surrounding the work, much of the details are not for public consumption, but GS Engineering says it will be doing design and analysis of light military structures, and the terms of the contract . . .

Researchers Receive $1.5 Million to Make Steel, Syngas Using Microwaves

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 03:08:56 -0400

A project spearheaded by a team of materials science and engineering researchers has received $1.5 million from the Michigan Public Service Commission to further develop a new, energy-efficient method for making steel. And, by the way, it also produces syngas.

The grant was awarded jointly to Michigan Tech and to U.P. Steel, a start-up company created by Professor Jiann-Yang Hwang and Xiaodi Huang, a project manager and research leader in the Institute of Materials Processing.

“We started this concept back in 1991, using microwaves to do steel-making,” said Huang. “Iron ore and carbon, which are used to make steel, are both excellent . . .