March 30, 2020

Administrators from the Traverse Bay Area Intermediate School District (TBAISD) and Michigan Tech met March 4 to solidify an agreement that will promote ongoing educational opportunities and career exploration for students enrolled in the Career-Tech Center’s (CTC) Manufacturing Technology Academy (MTA). This will allow current and future students to reap the benefits of additional lectures, seminars and workshops delivered through Michigan Tech curriculum and provide a $1,000 annual renewable scholarship for those who successfully complete two years of MTA and enroll at Michigan Tech as first-year students.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) formalizes the intent and understanding between the two institutions to identify initiatives that expand student learning, exploration and apprentice programs in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) career paths.

“This partnership gives positive recognition to the value career and technical education provides to high school students and we are honored that Michigan Tech looks highly upon the quality of students they see coming from our Manufacturing Technology Academy,” says Pat Lamb, assistant superintendent of Career and Technical Education and Community Outreach for TBAISD.

MTA is a high school education program within Traverse Bay Area Intermediate School District’s Career-Tech Center, serving students throughout the five-county Traverse Bay region. MTA students engage in rigorous academics including chemistry, physics, economics, technical writing, public speaking, and mathematics. MTA’s two-year technical curriculum builds student knowledge and hands-on experience in design; robotics and automation; quality assurance; fluid power; manufacturing processes; electrical systems; and project management and teamwork.

In the spirit of collaboration, MTU and CTC are furthering efforts through local partnerships to coordinate a variety of student learning opportunities. Already this year, CTC, MTU and Newton’s Road partnered to provide STEM experiences through a Career Exploring Club for middle and high school students. The program is designed to bring in experts from a variety of career fields to deepen understanding and provide hands-on learning to students throughout the Traverse Bay region.

To learn more about the opportunities available through the TBAISD Career-Tech Center Manufacturing Technology Academy and the partnership with Michigan Technological University contact MTA academic instructor Debby Oliver.

For more information about TBAISD go to the TBAISD website or call 231-922-6200.

Help make campus culture more equitable for all. We encourage you to apply to join the Advocates team.

What is Advocates and Allies?

Advocates and Allies is one of three programs currently being adapted to the Michigan Tech culture as part of the NSF-funded ADVANCE Initiative. This program is dedicated to engaging majority stakeholders in the dissemination of knowledge on gender equity as well as actively participating in activities to increase allyship on campus. Advocates and Allies at Michigan Tech has been in startup phases over the past few years through a series of video conferences and in-person visits with Roger Green from North Dakota State University (NDSU). The program launched in earnest with a series of workshops in October 2019 facilitated by a team from NDSU and Auburn University. The Advocates and Allies initiative seeks to leverage the momentum from the October workshops and the formation of an Advisory Board of minority stakeholders (women, minorities, and gender diverse individuals) by forming an Advocates team of majority stakeholders to further institutionalize the commitment to gender equity.

What is the Advocates Team?

This group of majority stakeholders (men) will work closely with the NSF-funded ADVANCE initiative and the Advocates and Allies Advisory Board (AAAB) to make our campus culture more inclusive by advancing knowledge, allyship and policy/practices. Advocates will be expected to participate in program development and delivery while executing Personal Action Plans related to equity issues on campus. Applications are due April 3.

What is the time commitment and is there compensation?

Rome wasn’t built in a day and building gender equity is no easy task. We anticipate a time commitment of one to two hours per month in person in addition to literature review and program planning and development over the course of the staggered one to two-year appointments. After a year, half of the Advocates team members will train their replacements before passing their torch to the next group. The ADVANCE Initiative will be able to provide compensation to Advocates in the form of automated credentialing in Digital Measures. Other forms of compensation are currently being pursued.

How Do I Apply?

Interested individuals should complete our Google Form and upload a CV/Resume and a 2000 character max. description of advocacy experience/vision. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns we would love to hear from you. Feel free to email us or call 7-2519.

As Michigan Tech proceeds to online instruction, we offer the following guidance about academic integrity in online learning environments. We know many of our students, instructors, and faculty have navigated this before, so we also invite you to email studentconduct@mtu.edu with any suggestions or resources, and we can continue to share those here.

1. Remind students that the Academic Integrity Policy still applies, as it always has. As is best practice in any learning environment, be specific about what this means in your particular course or subject area. Remember that our students come from diverse learning and professional backgrounds, and your leadership is integral to being sure your learning community has a shared understanding. You can use the Academic Integrity Resource Center as a resource for students.
2. As you begin any new teaching format, openly invite clarifying questions about how and if collaboration and resource-sharing expectations might change given these changes in the learning environment. If you and your students are changing to an online format, this will be a developing process for everyone, so continue to invite questions as you and students adapt. As you do this, be mindful and inclusive of Disability Services accommodations and varied internet accessibility. You could say, for example, “The project that I had previously envisioned being a group project can now be done individually, and I will outline the requirements. If you need further modifications for Disability Services accommodations or limited internet access, please let me know that.”
3. Consider a variety of ways for students to participate, including inviting students to disclose what technology and time are available to them. Internet access may be varied among your students and they may be sharing home space with a variety of family members, so polling software or vocal participation may create challenges. Find creative and multiple platforms for them to engage, including email, surveys, and formative assessments as the course progresses. This promotes integrity as well as better knowledge acquisition and your ongoing assessment of their learning.
4. Students should continue to use the Multiliteracies Center online resources, which provide excellent information about plagiarism, writing processes, and other essential steps in maintaining academic integrity. Be clear about citation expectations: “For this assignment, you need to attribute any quotations that you use within the paper. Please see [insert example that you select].”
5. Design assignments that require students to do the work independently of their peers, as this will also support varied internet access. When assigning an online quiz or test, you can often randomize the order of questions or multiple-choice options, making it harder to cheat. Likewise, assignments or assessments designed with more than one correct answer and where students must demonstrate reasoning also promote academic integrity, as well as more real-world thinking. Consider open note/book exams with a large question bank (say a five-question test with 30 questions). That way everyone can easily receive a different test. This article from Ohio State University provides more detail on how to accomplish this.
6. Consider how much time you allot for assignments. Be sure students have enough time to meaningfully do the work, without time to compare answers. As noted before, be inclusive of students with varied internet access and students with Disability Services accommodations.
7. If you’re not familiar with technology that increases assurances for online integrity, the Center for Teaching and Learning has some useful resources.
8. If you have questions or concerns about a student’s academic integrity, review our faculty guide for Academic Integrity.

We appreciatively acknowledge George Washington University, Ohio State University and West Virginia University, as their resources contributed to this work.

More than one million digitized books are now openly available through the National Emergency Library. This library, an initiative of the Internet Archive and numerous universities and colleges, provides immediate access to works supporting teaching and research across many disciplines. Most works are from the 20th century. Some leisure reading is also included. The National Emergency Library will be available through June 2020. Registration is required to access the collection. Sign up here.

The Van Pelt and Opie Library is committed to providing awareness of and access to temporarily open or free resources made available during the COVID-19 period. See our COVID-19 Temporary Resources guide for more details.

For information on our remote services and detailed instructions for accessing online materials, visit Library Services During Covid-19 Response. Questions are always welcome at library@mtu.edu.

In response to the disruptions caused by COVID-19, the Graduate School will be adjusting deadlines for completing a dissertation, thesis, or report for the spring semester. In addition to extending the deadline for spring, we are providing a no-cost way to complete a degree in summer when students are able to submit early in the summer.

For full details on the deadlines and what students need to submit in order to complete their degree, please see our blog post.

Editing services are still available through the English Language Institute to all members of the campus community with the following options:

• Document editing (grammar, spelling, punctuation, flow, readability) via email, with quick turnaround
• Video conferencing for long-term writing improvement

Editing services are provided by highly qualified English language instructors with expertise in grammar, writing, and language instruction. Service rates are $25 per hour. Requests for editing can be made here.

Join us for the 11th annual Feminists Reading Feminists event hosted by the Center for Diversity and Inclusion (CDI) and the Humanities Department. Help us pay homage to the contributions of diverse feminist scholars and activists who have inspired us and continue to shape our evolving world.

The event will be held at 4 p.m. tomorrow (March 31) via ZOOM. We encourage you to sign up through our Google form ahead of time (or submit a video/picture through the Google form if you cannot attend) and at our virtual event via ZOOM, be prepared to share a chosen passage from your favorite text, your favorite video/audio clip, or simply participate by listening and engaging with those sharing.

Your selection should take five minutes or less to read or view. Prose, poetry and media are welcome. There will be time at the end for those who did not sign up ahead of time to participate in an open reading, ALL are welcome. Please join us virtually to engage in meaningful dialogue and celebrating the women's history month - near and far - as a community. If you’re part of the dialogue, you’re part of the solution.

Andrew Barnard (ME-EM/GLRC) is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $248,517 research and development grant from The U.S. Department of Defense, Office of Naval Research.

The project is entitled, "ONR STEM ROTC Cyber Education Initiative." Timothy Havens (CComputing/GLRC), Laura Brown, (CC/GLRC) and Yu Cai (CC/GLRC) are co-PI's on this one-year project.

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Cassy Tefft de Munoz (Center for Pre-College Outreach/PIOI) is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $42,500 contract with the Michigan Department of Transportation.

The project is entitled, "2020 National Summer Transportation Institute at MTU." Rose Martell (Center for Pre-College Outreach/PIOI) and Amanda Jackson (Center for Pre-College Outreach/PIOI) are Co-PI's on this 6-month project.

Daisuke Minakata (CEE) and his students with his collaborator, Kerry Howe, at the University of New Mexico published their research findings and a predictive model in Environmental Science and Technology, a premium journal in environmental science and engineering field.

The study developed a group contribution method to predict the rejection of diverse organic chemicals through commercially available Reverse Osmosis membranes for potable reuse of wastewater. Minakata states that this is a significant step to predict the permeability of many diverse organic compounds through membrane technologies based on only given structural information of organics. The paper provides an MS Excel spreadsheet that allows anyone to download and use for the prediction as supporting information.

Minakata comments that the model is useful for water industries, policymakers and regulators that consider the contaminants under the future regulations, water treatment utilities, and educators who can implement this tool in class. From Minakata's group, one graduate and three undergraduate researchers worked on this project with the support from WateResearch Foundation and internal Michigan Tech Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) by Pavlis Honors College. 

Spring 2020 Diverse Dialogues Series Canceled

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Master's Defense: Gregory Putman

Monday, March 30, 12 p.m.–1 p.m.

Integrated Geospatial Tech Advisor: Evgueny Levin Spatial Analysis of the Infrastructural Demands of Integrating 5G Technologies: A Case Study in the City of Detroit Attend...

A Laboratory-scale Evaluation of the Factors Controlling Pathogen and Indicator Organism Inactivation Under Ambient Conditions

Monday, March 30, 3 p.m.–4 p.m.

Environmental Engineering Graduate Seminar Zoom Meeting: https://michigantech.zoom.us/j/221882370 JP Harron, Environmental Engineering MS Student Abstract: Wastewater...

Faculty Candidate Lecture: Junqiao Qiu

Monday, March 30, 3 p.m.

The College of Computing invites the campus community to a lecture by faculty candidate Junqiao Qiu on Monday, March 30, 2020, at 3:00 p.m. The lecture will take place online...

Thermo-Photo Catalytic Water Splitting on Low-Cost Ni@NiO-Loaded TiO2

Monday, March 30, 3 p.m.–4 p.m.

Environmental Engineering Graduate Seminar Zoom Meeting: https://michigantech.zoom.us/j/221882370 Siyuan Fang, Ph.D. student in Environmental Engineering Abstract:...

Environmental Graphiti Online Exhibit

March 30, 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...