March 24, 2020

In compliance with Governor Whitmer’s Executive Order 2020-21, “Stay Home, Stay Safe,” Michigan Technological University’s campus will significantly limit services and operations, effective as of 12:01 a.m. today (March 24), for a minimum of three weeks while the order is in place.

During this time, the University will continue offering remote learning for its students. Employees who are able to do so should work from home, if they are not already. Only those employees identified under Michigan Tech’s COVID-19 Stay at Home Protocol (20-6) will be allowed on campus to maintain basic operations. Access to buildings will be restricted. I ask each of you to review the University’s COVID-19 Stay at Home Protocol (20-6). 

As the University complies with the governor's executive order, we remain committed to providing a safe and supportive environment for all of our students. Those who remain in the residence halls will receive additional information from Residential Life on foodservice, support, and how the governor’s order affects them. 

I want to take a moment to thank you in advance for respecting Governor Whitmer’s executive order to stay home and stay safe. Your commitment not only helps to protect the health of our community but also the integrity of our local health care system. Please continue to visit mtu.edu/covid-19 for the latest information and updates. 

Stay safe and take care.

The annual Power Outage scheduled for May 6 & 7 by Facilities Management has been canceled.

The Steam outage is still on schedule (see article below). Please contact Facilities Management for any questions and concerns at 7-2303.

The annual steam shutdown will take place during the week following the end of the spring semester, Sunday, May 3 through Friday, May 8 (weather permitting).

This outage is required to provide maintenance and service of the boilers and steam distribution system on campus. This planned maintenance improves the reliability of our system and reduces the likelihood of an unplanned failure during the winter heating season.

Note: There will not be heat or hot water in the affected buildings during the steam shutdown. There will be no distilled water available from the steam-driven stills. Steam-driven autoclaves/sterilizers will not be operational.

Annual Steam Shutdown (Noon Sunday, May 3 to noon Friday, May 8). Buildings Affected:

• Administration Building
• ROTC Building
• Academic Offices Building
• Annex Building
• Electrical Energy Resources
• DOW Envir Sciences & Eng Bldg
• Rozsa Performing Arts & Educ
• Walker - Arts & Humanities
• Minerals & Materials Engr Bldg
• Grover C. Dillman Hall
• Fisher Hall
• J.R. Van Pelt Library
• U.J. Noblet Forestry Building
• Chemical Sciences & Engr Building
• R.L. Smith (MEEM) Building
• Student Development Complex
• Kanwal and Ann Rekhi Hall
• Douglass Houghton Hall
• Memorial Union Building
• Wadsworth Hall
• McNair Hall
• Central Heating Plant
• Facilities Management
• Hillside Place
• Great Lakes Research Center

The deadline for Undergraduate Research Internship Program (URIP) applications has been extended to April 20. There are three tracks for faculty mentors to consider:

• Faculty in Health-Related Fields are invited to identify an undergraduate research intern with any amount of prior experience - Portage Health Foundation Scholars
• Faculty in the fields of Research in Engineering, Technology, Environmental Sciences or Wildlife Sciences with any amount of prior experience - DeVlieg Foundation Scholars
• Faculty in any discipline are invited to identify an undergraduate intern that is relatively new to research or scholarship (less than 6 months) - Pavlis Young Investigators

The internship program is open to any undergraduate student on campus. Faculty are welcome to encourage students with whom they are already working to apply. The program consists of a 20-week internship (Mid-September through Mid-March) for the student, as well as professional development activities centered in academic research and scholarship.

The Pavlis Honors College will provide $800 in funding for the student intern, with the expectation that faculty will identify a source to match this value, resulting in a total of $1600 (or $10/hr for 8 hours per week for a period of 20 weeks). Faculty may make use of research funds, IRAD, startup packages, or consult their chairs, deans or center/institute management.

Once awarded the internship, the student intern is required to:

• Meet with the faculty mentor within the first 2 weeks of the internship and complete an individual development plan (IDP) - a form will be provided by the Pavlis Honors College
• Present their research findings in a poster at the Undergraduate Research Symposium in March (Friday of Preview Day Weekend).

Applications are due by April 20 and include the following:

1. Online Application Form
2. Project Description
3. Faculty Mentor Letter of Support
4. Faculty Match Funding Acknowledgement

The Project Description is to be completed as a collaborative effort between the student applicant and the faculty mentor. Details of these requirements can be found here.

This program is made possible by generous donations from the Portage Health Foundation, the DeVlieg Foundation and with the support of the Pavlis Honors College.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) recently issued an updated Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide that will be in effect for all proposals submitted on or after June 1.

The most significant changes that will affect Michigan Tech researchers are:

• Biographical sketches included in proposals will now only be accepted if generated by an NSF-approved format. The primary method for generating a compliant NSF biosketch will be through the SciENcv: Science Experts Network. Each user will need to create an individual account in this system. SciENcv can create compliant biosketches for both NSF and NIH. As an alternative, NSF will also be publishing a fillable PDF. Additional information about the biosketch changes can be found here
• Current and Pending support information will also need to be produced using an NSF-approved format. As for the biosketches, SciENcv will be one option for producing current and pending support documents. NSF also will release a fillable PDF. Additional information on this change can be found here

Other important changes include:

• The project description will no longer require a separate section titled “intellectual merit.” Intellectual merit and broader impact sections will still be required in the project summary
• In the Appointments section, biosketches will now need to include all academic, professional, and/or institutional positions, whether or not these positions are paid
• Additional guidance on the Current and Pending support section has been provided to clarify what types of support must be included. Additional information is available here and frequently asked questions can be reviewed here

The Research Development office will host several upcoming working sessions to go over the biosketch and current and pending support changes, and to offer on-site help for SciENcv. These will be Zoom sessions. To be included, contact Research Development via the rd-l@mtu.edu list. Upcoming sessions include:

• Tomorrow (March 25): 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. 
• April 8: 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. 
• May 6: 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. 

The Colleges of Computing and Engineering invite the campus community to view a lecture by faculty candidate Junqiao Qiu.

Per a new Michigan Tech policy in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the College of Computing has announced all currently scheduled faculty candidate interviews and lectures will take place online through Zoom Meetings. Qui's Zoom lecture will take place at 3 p.m. Monday (March 30). The title of his lecture is “Model-Centric Speculative Parallelization for Scalable Data Processing.”

For more information, view the blog.

The Michigan Tech Student Development Complex, Gates Tennis Center, and Systems Control Nordic Waxing Center at the Recreation Trails are now closed to student-athletes, students, and the public due to concerns over the COVID-19 health situation. University Images is also closed.

These closures are in compliance with Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s “Stay Home, Stay Safe” executive order issued yesterday. The closures will continue through at least April 13.

The Tech Trails will remain open to those with memberships. Under the University’s Stay at Home Protocol, Tech Trails users must maintain social distancing of at least six feet.

UP Health System – Portage Rehab and Sports Medicine and Pharmacy will continue operating under regular hours.

More information about COVID-19 and Michigan Tech's response can be found at mtu.edu/covid-19.

Michigan Tech basketball's Kyle Monroe has been named to the National Association of Basketball Coaches' (NABC) Division II All-Midwest District First Team, announced Monday by the national office. The teams are selected and voted on by member coaches of the NABC and in NCAA Division II.

The senior forward from Green Bay has already earned numerous accolades for his play on the court this season. Earlier this month, Monroe was the Division II Conference Commissioners Association Midwest Region Player of the Year while landing on the All-Midwest Region First Team. In addition, Monroe was the 2020 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Player of the Year, First Team All-GLIAC, and the GLIAC Tournament Most Valuable Player. He was also chosen as the GLIAC Player of the Week eight times throughout the 2019-20 campaign.

Monroe set career scoring records for Michigan Tech and the GLIAC while also breaking the single-game scoring record for Tech and the conference with 53 points at Grand Valley State Jan. 23. Monroe ended his career with 2,542 points and racked up 1,875 points in regular-season conference contests over the course of his career to establish that new benchmark.

Michigan Tech closed the season 23-8 overall and finished second in the GLIAC North Division and third in the overall regular-season standings. The Huskies defeated Northwood 68-57 to claim the 2020 GLIAC Tournament Championship, the third in program history.

Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE) was quoted in an article "3D Printing Against Coronavirus: Who And How To Help" in Fabbaloo. Pearce was also quoted in the article "MTU engineering experts join open-source ventilator movement to overcome COVID-19" in News-Medical.Net

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Caryn Heldt (ChE) was quoted in the article "Looking beyond the surface: A new method for determining the isoelectric point of a virus," in BioTechniques.

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Michigan Tech was mentioned in the article "4.8 -magnitude quake rattle Northern California coast, USGS reports," which was printed in several California newspapers including the Sacramento Bee and the Modesto Bee.

Online Faculty Candidate Seminar Today

The Colleges of Computing and Engineering invite the campus community to view a lecture by faculty candidate Leo C. Ureel II (CS).

The College of Computing has announced all currently scheduled faculty candidate interviews and lectures will take place online through Zoom Meetings.

Ureel's Zoom lecture will take place at 3 p.m. today (March 24). The title of his lecture is, “Critiquing Student Code by Identifying Novice Antipatterns.” For more information, view the blog.

To have your event automatically appear, please submit them to the University Events Calendar.

World Water Day: VIRTUAL Youth Keynote Speaker

Tuesday, March 24, 12:30 p.m.–2:00 p.m.

Sophia Kianni is an 18-year-old climate activist based in Washington, D.C. She works on the Fridays for Future USA national media team and This is Zero Hour national...

World Water Day: Youth Key Note Speaker Online Event

Tuesday, March 24, 12:30 p.m.

"Climate Advocacy and Youth Leadership: If Adults Won't Take Action to Protect Our Future, Youth Will" Youth Keynote Lecture by Sophia Kianni Join with Zoom High school...

Faculty Candidate Lecture: Leo Ureel

Tuesday, March 24, 3 p.m.

The Colleges of Computing and Engineering invite the campus community to a lecture by faculty candidate Leo C. Ureel II on Tuesday, March 24, 2020, at 3:00 p.m. The lec ture...

World Water Day Film: Between Earth and Sky

Tuesday, March 24, 3:30 p.m.–5:00 p.m.

Between Earth and Sky: Climate Change on the Last Frontier (80 min) Examines climate change through the lens of impacts to native Alaskans, receding glaciers, and arctic...

Environmental Graphiti Online Exhibit

March 24, all day

The Art of Climate Change Alisa Singer The work of Chicago-based artist Alisa Singer, Environmental Graphiti is a series of digital paintings created to enhance public...