Michigan Tech News

Cyndi Perkins

Cyndi Perkins

Contact

  • Associate Director of Communications, University Marketing and Communications

Biography

An award-winning editor, journalist, and columnist, Cyndi generates and manages key communications projects that tell the story of Michigan Tech on digital and print platforms. A story shepherd who thrives on collaboration, her superpowers include content strategy and editorial management. She finds work-life balance in the garden, on her yoga mat, and anywhere near the water.

Links of Interest

About Cyndi

  • The former Daily Mining Gazette journalist and editor hails from Houghton and has written for a variety of international, national and regional publications.
  • Specializing in compelling storytelling and cohesive on-brand messaging, the Michigan Tech alumna manages, writes, and edits content across university platforms, from webpages to MTU News.
  • A novelist active in the Upper Peninsula Authors and Publishers Association, the Authors Guild member looks forward to writing more books—and to camping trips in her RV with husband Scott and Goldendoodle Max.

Recent Stories 

Papers, camera, water bottles clutter a table while students work around it.

Study Hard, Play Hard

Tech's RSOs range from fraternities and sororities to honor societies, faith-based groups, and activity groups for sports, video games, board games, and much (much, much) more. The number and variety of options allow Tech students to discover shared interests and personal values alongside fellow students, finding community and creating connections that last lifetimes. Along the way, many Huskies also find opportunities to take part in Tech Traditions, develop leadership and organizational skills, provide community service, and grow as global citizens. Read More

Lei Pan and a student looking at water separation tanks.

Modern Mining’s Moment

Chemical engineer Lei Pan remembers the fascination and promise he felt as an undergraduate when his professors demonstrated how flotation works in mineral processing.
"I was very interested when the bubbles were floated and loaded with shiny brassy-colored copper mineral particles. I was hooked!" says Pan, smiling widely at the memory. "I was also very interested in helping the graduate students who I worked with at that time in processing iron ores using magnetic separators and making green pellets out of processed iron ores." Read More

Researcher observing person in a harness falling forward.

Finding the Balance

Though their work takes place in different labs in Michigan Tech's H-STEM Engineering and Health Technologies Complex, Michigan Tech researchers Kevin Trewartha and Carolyn Duncan share a common mission: helping people live longer, better, and on their own terms. Both are interested in how we sense our surroundings—and what that means for the freedom to choose where we live and what we do late into life. Read More

Lavender harvesting robot in between two rows of lavender plants.

The Scent of Success

As the lavender fields of The Lucky Clover Farm in Gaylord, Michigan, bloomed last July, Michigan Tech researchers walked the fragrant rows, gauging robot mobility while collecting data that will be used to develop and train a lavender detection system.
Harvesting lavender requires a delicate touch as well as a discerning eye. The time-consuming process is made more complicated by labor force shortages and rising costs. Project leader Jung Yun Bae and her team are working with farmers to reimagine what it means to harvest by hand, deploying groups of small robots working in harmony that can be easily controlled, repaired, modified, and replaced. "We want to balance economy and function," she says. Read More

Pep Band drummer with his hands in the air in the midst of the band.

1400 Townsend Drive

The Great Lakes Research Center (GLRC) welcomed RV Soliton to its fleet of marine assets last year. Built by Workskiff, the 26-foot workboat has a bare aluminum hull, a covered pilothouse, and two 150-horsepower outboard engines, which each have a fuel capacity of 150 gallons.
RV Soliton and the other vessels in the GLRC's fleet of marine assets allow Michigan Tech faculty, staff, and students direct access to Lake Superior. Both surface and subsurface assets are available for use by the Tech community and the University's collaborative partners on a shared basis. The fleet includes both crewed research vessels and autonomous surface and subsurface vessels. Read More

Students curling at the Calumet Drillhouse.

Huskies Curl Takes Silver in National Collegiate Competition

Huskies Curl at Michigan Tech took second place in the 2025 USA College Curling Championship, held March 6-9 in Midland, Michigan. The national competition included 16 teams who qualified for the event. Hailing from across the country — from Arizona State University to the United States Naval Academy — all of the competitors were undergraduate or graduate students expected to maintain academic excellence as well as prowess on the curling sheet. Read More