A black and yellow globe award
ICC Achievements and Recognition

ICC Faculty, Staff, and Student Awards and Recognition

2023-2024

Guy Hembroff and Yu Cai

Sustained Teaching Excellence

The Provost's Award for Sustained Teaching Excellence recognizes MTU teaching faculty who have been nominated as finalists for the yearly Distinguished Teaching Award four or more times. Guy Hembroff and Yu Cai, two ICC members, day-in and day-out provide enriching learning environments for their students. Their dedication in the classroom is not unrecognized, and this award is based entirely on student reviews.


Charles Wallace Teaching a Class

MASU Distinguished Professor of the Year

Charles Wallace is one of three recipients of the MASU Distinguished Professor of the Year Award. This award recognizes the outstanding contributions and dedication to the education of undergraduate students exhibited by the faculty of Michigan’s 15 public universities. One exempliary faculty member is nominated for the award from each university in the state.

 

Dr. Wallace was also recently awarded a grant from the Ford-DAPCEP program to lead a programming course for underserved communities in Detroit. 


ICC Achievement Award

ICC Achievement Awards

The ICC Achievement Awards, presented to ICC members that embody the mission of the ICC through their impacts at MTU, the Upper Peninsula, and broad science community, were presented during Showcase [AI]. Here are the three recipients of this year's awards:

  • Briana Bettin - For transforming education in computer programming and advocating for inclusive and accessible computing education.
  • Susanta Ghosh - For pioneering research in computational mechanics and machine learning.
  • Kristi Hauswirth - In recognition of exceptional dedication, unwavering commitment, and invaluable contributions to supporting computing research.

 


Evan Lucas at the student poster competition before completing his PhD

Growing Staff - Evan Lucas '23

Dr. Evan Lucas, a Michigan Tech PhD graduate as of September 2023, joins the ICC to provide research support for members as well as spearhead his own externally funded research program. Evan’s research interests lie in artificial intelligence, specifically natural language processing and computer vision. He is a Husky through-and-through, completing his BS and MS of Mechanical Engineering by 2014 before returning for his PhD. He spent five years in the automotive industry while intermittently working as an adjunct professor during this time. 


Jeremy Bos and Grad Students

NSF HERD Report

The National Science Foundation published their yearly Higher Education Research Development (HERD) report reflecting on the previous fiscal year (FY22) and Michigan Tech has made major headway. The report features rankings of the top 1,000 research-active institutions in the country based on research expenditures and discipline.

MTU has gained significant ground in the Computer and Information Science discipline in few years. For FY22, MTU was ranked as #89, up 59 places from #148 in FY18. This also represents a jump of 26 places since FY21, which had MTU at #115 in this discipline. This is reflective of the increased research activity within the ICC and Computing at Michigan Tech


Robotics-Mechatronics

Mechatronics Praise

The MTU Mechantonics Department has boomed since its inception in 2021 because of the amazing faculty involved with the program and the state-of-the-art equipment available, including the Robotics Lab. Aleksandr Sergeryev, director of the mechatronics graduate program, cites many others for the quick popularity of MTU Mechatronics. As a result, it was recently placed as the second best program of its kind available on a national ranking.


Tim Havens during the ICC Showcase 2023

FY24 First Quarter Success

In the 2023 Fiscal Year, ICC members secured $6.1 million in research grants, which already exceeded the 2022 period by $4 million.

The rapid growth continues, as the first quarter of FY24 saw over $7 million of funded research awards over the three month period (July 2023-September 2023). 


Dennis Livesay presents Kanwal Rehki with his Honor Academy Award

ICC Event Success

The ICC hosts events throughout the year. The 2023 Computing [MTU] Showcase, which has become a particularly popular event, specialized on artificial intelligence as well as its controversies. This year's iteration took on the name Showcase [AI] and featured interesting panel discussions, lively presenters, and more. 

The 2024 Art in Silico event, a computational art exhibition showcasing the intersection of tech and creativity, returned for it's second year. This exciting event illustrates how computing and creativity can collaborate, and prizes were awarded to the top three submissions determined by an art jury.

The ICC also hosts Distinguished Lecturer visits to benefit members and their research.