July 21, 2022

New for fall 2022, AppsAnywhere will be available for personal and MTU-owned Windows devices. Installation will be available to students, faculty and staff after Aug. 15. The applications available will be determined by factors such as licensing, department, enrolled courses, whether the device is owned by Michigan Tech or is a personal device, and whether the device is on or off campus.

For personal devices: Students, faculty and staff will be able to download the AppsAnywhere client from the Software Distribution Site.

For MTU-owned devices: For faculty and staff wishing to install on an MTU-owned device, the download method will depend on how the device is managed:

• Fully managed devices — AppsAnywhere will be available in the Windows Software Center.
• Minimally managed machines — AppsAnywhere will be available in the Azure Company Portal. Laptops not currently managed by Azure will need to be rebuilt in order to install AppsAnywhere. If this applies to you, we recommend that you make arrangements with our shop in advance so that you can install AppsAnywhere when the licensing is available in July 2022.

Learn more about device management at Managed Devices at Michigan Tech.

If you have questions or would like to schedule an appointment to have your laptop rebuilt, we can help. You can directly request a computer rebuild through our service catalog, or contact IT at it-help@mtu.edu or 906-487-1111.

The Board of Trustees will meet Aug. 4 from 9-11 a.m. in the Memorial Union Ballroom B, and public attendance is welcome.

Members of the public are invited to make public comments to the board in accordance with Board of Trustees Bylaw 1.14. Those who wish to address items in the agenda, and who have filed their intent with the secretary of the board as required by Bylaw 1.14, will be limited to five minutes. Those addressing general topics are limited to three minutes.

If you wish to provide public comments to the Board of Trustees, please submit your intent to Sarah Schulte, secretary to the Board of Trustees, at shschult@mtu.edu. The deadline to submit your intent is next Thursday (July 28).

Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering candidate Zhouquan Wu will defend their doctoral dissertation next Friday (July 29) at 10 a.m. via Zoom.

The title of Wu's dissertation is "Study of Vehicle Smart Charging and Energy Management for Vehicle-Grid Integration Systems."

Wu is advised by Bo Chen.

Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering candidate Steven Whitaker will defend their doctoral dissertation Tuesday (July 26) at 3 p.m. via Zoom.

The title of Whitaker's dissertation is "On-Ice Detection, Classification, Localization and Tracking of Anthropogenic Sources with Machine Learning."

Whitaker is advised by Tim Havens.

The Michigan Tech women's basketball team held the 15th-highest GPA in NCAA Division II in 2021-22 and is included in the Women's Basketball Coaches Association Top 25 award.

The Huskies improved their GPA to 3.734 and were one of two GLIAC schools honored, with Wayne State ranked at No. 18. 

Tech has been in the Top 25 for 14 of the past 15 years. Ten players earned GLIAC All-Academic Excellence honors and one more was a GLIAC All-Academic honoree. 

Read more at the Michigan Tech Athletics website.

The University of Michigan's Public Engagement & Impact published a story highlighting Wolverine alum Brad King’s (ME-EM) startup company, Orbion Space Technology.

Headquartered in Houghton, Orbion has developed revolutionary small satellite propulsion systems designed to make spaceflight more simple, affordable and reliable for any in-space maneuvers. The company was featured in Michigan Tech’s 2022 Research Magazine.

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EdScoop mentioned a Michigan Tech data project in a story about the need for modernization of higher education data governance and structure before data and analytics can be used to guide decisions effectively.

The MTU project used data from various sources to examine faculty demographics and historical trends in hiring, promotions and salaries.

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UpNorthLive News mentioned Michigan Tech in a story about a recent disaster response exercise held in Presque Isle County in the northern Lower Peninsula. Michigan Tech and Lake Superior State exhibited autonomous and remote-controlled watercraft during the drill.

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A WLUC TV6 story about the first step of the cleanup plan for Buffalo Reef listed Michigan Tech among the state agencies that have worked with the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy for the past three years to develop the plan.  

The reef is a key whitefish and trout spawning ground located about 20 miles northeast of Houghton currently under threat by thousands of tons of stamp sands.

PhD Defense: Angela Walczyk, BioSci

Ph.D. in Biological Sciences candidate Angela Walczyk will present their doctoral defense at 9 a.m. today (July 21) in person in GLRC 202 and virtually via Zoom.

Walczyk's defense is titled "Investigating the Role of Genomic Material Costs in Ecological, Evolutionary, and Invasion Dynamics using the Solidago gigantea (Giant Goldenrod) polyploid complex."

From the abstract:
The overall goal of this dissertation was to evaluate how the genomic attributes of genome size and polyploidy independently and concurrently influence tolerance to nutrient availability as a means of better understanding the ecological and evolutionary role of genome size and the preponderance of polyploidy in invasive plants. Throughout a series of greenhouse, potted-field, and RNA sequencing studies using diploids, native-tetraploids, invasive-tetraploids, and hexaploids within the autopolyploidy Solidago gigantea system we found that: 1) Differences in morphology and physiology between tetraploids and diploids might equate to tetraploids being better competitors, regardless of the abiotic environment; 2) polyploids have greater material costs related to genome size than diploids; 3) polyploids exhibit strategies to reduce these material costs; 4) polyploids tended to show more phenotypic plasticity for growth traits than diploids in the most NP enhanced environments, but plasticity did not differ much between native- and invasive-tetraploid populations; and 5) tetraploids down-regulate more genes associated with costly traits (i.e., photosynthesis, defense) relative to diploids in low NP conditions, and differences in gene expression between native- and invasive tetraploids populations was marginal.

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PhD Defense: Angela Walczyk

Thursday, July 21, 9–10 a.m. | Great Lakes Research Center (GLRC), 202

Biological Sciences Advisor: Erika Hersch-Green Investigating the Role of Genomic Material Costs in Ecological, Evolutionary, and Invasion Dynamics Using the Solidago...

Master's Defense: Luke Moore

Thursday, July 21, 2 p.m.–3 p.m. | Dow Environmental Sciences and Engineering Building, 743

Biological Sciences Advisor: Stephen Techtmann Investigation of a Carbon Monoxide Dehydrogenase From an Uncultured Archaeon Attend Virtually:...

Adult Huskies Swim Training Summer 2022 Session 2 (Breaststroke/Butterfly Focus)

Thursday, July 21, 5:00 p.m.–5:50 p.m. | Student Development Complex (SDC), Pool

Adult Huskies Swim Training provides additional attention and competitive guidance to swimmers ages 18 and older who are looking to improve their swimming skills and fitness...