December 9, 2022

Under Title IX, Michigan Tech is prohibited from promoting opportunities such as scholarships, fellowships and internships that discriminate on the basis of sex. Before you post information from third parties that list such opportunities, please review the list to ensure that none of the listed opportunities appear to do so.

Discrimination on the basis of sex includes discrimination against any group on the basis of sex. If you have a question about whether an opportunity discriminates on the basis of sex, or if you have a question about sharing such information in your personal — rather than professional — capacity, please reach out to the Office of the General Counsel at shschult@mtu.edu or hereid@mtu.edu for advice.

Moody's Investors Service has assigned A1 credit ratings to approximately $24.1 million of Michigan Tech’s General Revenue Bonds, Series 2023A, which mature in 2052; and $5.5 million of the University’s General Revenue Bonds, Series 2023B (taxable), maturing in 2032.

In a Dec. 1 press release, which can be reviewed by accepting the Moodys.com website terms of service, Moody’s said the maintained A1 ratings are based on the University's very good strategic positioning. The service referenced MTU’s regional student reach and reputation as an engineering-focused and applied sciences university, and called out our generally steady enrollment and good fundraising. It also said the University’s international exposure helps mitigate challenging in-state demographics.

“MTU benefits from a growing research platform that, in addition to providing an important economic benefit, aids in the recruitment of students and faculty. It also adds diversity to the university's revenue base, which also includes support from the State of Michigan (Aa1 stable) and student charges.”

Moody’s also highlighted MTU's highly competitive student market as a factor in the ratings, and listed the University’s outlook as stable.

The Human Resources office will be closed next Friday (Dec. 16) from noon until 5 p.m. for a departmental event.

The office will return to normal operating hours the following Monday (Dec. 19). We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Any questions can be directed to humanresources@mtu.edu.

On Feb. 3, Michigan Tech IT will remove all Mac computers from the network that are not running macOS Big Sur (11.7) or higher. Apple is no longer supporting operating systems older than 11.7, making those computers vulnerable to security threats and posing a risk to our network.

If your Mac falls in this category, you will need to upgrade your operating system. If your computer is unable to meet the hardware requirements for the upgrade, our IT procurement staff can help you explore other options.

For more information, please review our KB article on the minimum supported version of macOS.

If you have any questions, we can help. Contact us at it-help@mtu.edu or call 7-1111.

In the corporate world, employers are finding ways to support employees who are caregivers because they realize it provides a competitive advantage to attract and retain employees. The need for robust resources, benefits and policies is apparent: a recent Harvard Business School study found that “73% of all employees have some type of current caregiving responsibility.” Similarly, during the COVID-19 shutdown, faculty’s family responsibilities became literally visible as they carried out their academic work online. Since then, caregiving has remained a critical issue in the academy’s “new normal,” including at Michigan Tech. Last year, a Childcare Committee was formed and drafted recommendations for expanding support for caregivers (internal report not yet publicly available).

Because the majority of employers don’t track caregiving status, supportive measures are often insufficient, leading to poor retention of caregivers. A Harvard Business Review article offers four strategies for “closing the data gap” on caregiving, including working with employees to identify and measure caregiver needs. The key takeaway is that there is a need to expand caregiver support beyond daycares and flextime to acknowledge the value of such responsibilities to work-life health and professional advancement.

Today’s feature was shared with us by the ADVANCE PI Team. If you have an article you think we should feature, please email it to advance-mtu@mtu.edu and we will consider adding it to the ADVANCE Weekly Roundup.

The ADVANCE Weekly Roundup is brought to you by ADVANCE at Michigan Tech, an NSF-funded initiative dedicated to improving faculty career success, retention, diversity, equity and inclusion. Past articles are available on the ADVANCE Newsblog.

To learn more about our featured topic, our mission, programming efforts, and to check out our growing collection of resources, contact us or visit our website.

MTU students and SDC Access Pass holders (minimum one month): Come make a splash with our new inflatable pool obstacle course called the WIBIT!

Saturday Splash! is open to current MTU students and SDC access pass holders (minimum one month). You can test your individual skills on the course or challenge your friend to a race across the obstacles. The course is set up in the deep water and requires users to be able to pass our swim test. (Please see the WIBIT rules and swim test requirements at our website.)

The WIBIT has many different pieces and each event will have a featured combination. Potential featured pieces include:

• The Step — This piece allows users to climb up onto the course.
• The Base — Users must make their way across a horizontal surface. Be careful how fast you move, as it can get slippery!
• The Cliff — Users must navigate either side of a slope using the handles and their balancing skills.
• V-Connect — Users must use limited footing space to navigate across the horizontal structure.
• The Bridge — Users must navigate up and over an arched structure without falling through.
• The Slope — Users must climb up a six-foot wall that leads to a slide into the pool water below!

The next WIBIT Event is tomorrow (Dec. 10) from noon to 4 p.m. with WIBIT Combo: Step/Bridge/Cliff/Slope.

Come visit us at the pool to try out your skills! For more information, visit Michigan Tech Recreation's WIBIT webpage.

The Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering (CEGE) is pleased to invite the University community to attend our fall 2022 Senior Design team presentations.

Presentations will run from 8 a.m. to noon next Friday (Dec. 16) in Dow 641.

Find more CEGE Senior Design Colloquium information — and Zoom links if you'd like to participate virtually — on the CEGE Undergraduate Advising Blog.

Michigan Tech men's basketball head coach Josh Buettner has announced that Gabe Smith of St. Germain, Wisconsin, has signed a National Letter of Intent to join the Huskies next season. 

The 6-foot-4-inch Smith is a senior at Northland Pines High School, where he plays small forward for the Eagles.

Read more about Smith at the Michigan Tech Athletics website.

Tickets for the 57th Great Lakes Invitational are online at Van Andel Arena's site and in person at the DeVos Performance Hall box office for the Dec. 27-28 tournament.  

Tickets are priced on a per-day basis and will be distributed on a mobile device. On-glass tickets are $75, with lower bowl sections for $50 and $40, and student tickets at $20. Upper-level tickets are $30. Ticket pricing is subject to change and additional fees may apply. Michigan Tech's student section is 124 and the Pep Band will be in section 225.

Michigan Tech is hosting the 2022 Great Lakes Invitational at Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Dec. 27-28. GLI mainstay Michigan State will join the Huskies, along with Western Michigan and Ferris State, as the teams compete for the MacInnes Cup in a two-day, single-elimination tournament.

Read more at the Michigan Tech Athletics website.

Job Postings for Friday, Dec. 9, 2022

Staff and faculty job descriptions are available on the Human Resources website. For more information regarding staff positions, call 906-487-2280 or email mtujobs@mtu.edu.

For more information regarding faculty positions, contact the academic department in which the position is posted.

Administrative Aide 7, Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences (UAW posting dates Dec. 9 to Dec. 15, 2022 — external applicants are encouraged to apply; however, internal UAW applicants are given first consideration if they apply during the internal UAW posting dates). Apply online.

Administrative Aide 8, Chemical Engineering (UAW posting dates Dec. 9 to Dec. 15, 2022 — external applicants are encouraged to apply; however, internal UAW applicants are given first consideration if they apply during the internal UAW posting dates). Apply online.

Michigan Technological University is an Equal Opportunity Educational Institution/Equal Opportunity Employer that provides equal opportunity for all, including protected veterans and individuals with disabilities.

Accommodations are available. If you require any auxiliary aids, services, or other accommodations to apply for employment, or for an interview, at Michigan Technological University, please notify the Human Resources office at 906-487-2280 or mtujobs@mtu.edu.

Parisa Pour Shahid Saeed Abadi (ME-EM/BioMed/MSE) and Masoud Kasraie ’22 (Ph.D., materials science and engineering) were quoted by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in a story about the 3D nano-ink they developed in 2021 that could reduce the weight of many 3D-printed parts by 80%, keep cracks too tiny to see from growing in aeronautical equipment and medical devices, and double as electrical wiring.

The research was highlighted by Michigan Tech News in September 2021.

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Rolf Peterson (CFRES) was quoted in a Jackson Hole News & Guide letter to the editor titled “Ode to Doug Smith.” 

Smith retired in November from his position as project leader for the Yellowstone Wolf Project and senior wildlife biologist with the National Park Service.

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The Daily Mining Gazette picked up a Michigan Tech Athletics press release about the passing of former Husky hockey forward Steve Jensen.

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The Ukiah Daily Journal in California interviewed Michigan Tech alum Efstathios “Stathi” Pappas ’02 (M.S., industrial archaeology) in a story about the Magical Christmas Train holiday program offered by Mendocino Railway’s Skunk Train.

As the Skunk Train’s general manager, Pappas — who has been the curator of several railroad museums and overseen museum-quality restoration projects — is working to expand train routes and find more ways to share the “history and magic” of locomotives.

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WE CAN International mentioned Michigan Tech in a story overviewing wins and losses on government action at the COP27 United Nations climate summit, held Nov. 6-18 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.

A WE CAN delegate spoke at the COP27 presentation “Delocalizing Climate policy: Using Local Knowledge to inform climate science,” hosted by Michigan Tech on Oceans and Land Day during the summit.

WebFOCUS System Maintenance

A production system maintenance window is scheduled for Sunday (Dec. 11) from 8 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. During that time, WebFOCUS will be unavailable.

If you have any questions or concerns, we can help. Contact us at it-help@mtu.edu or call 7-1111.

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2022 Flexible Spending Account Claims Deadline

Just a reminder that the deadline for employees to submit claims for their 2022 Flexible Spending Account (FSA) is March 31, 2023. Health care and dependent care claims during the 2022 calendar year are eligible if the date of service was in 2022. Any money remaining in the account after this date is forfeited per IRS regulations.

Dependent care claims require an invoice or receipt from the provider. All medical, dental and optical claims should be processed through your insurance plans before submitting them to your health care reimbursement account.

Attach the Explanation of Benefits (EOB) or a claim summary from your insurance plan to the claim form when submitting a claim. For expenses not processed through insurance, submit the itemized receipt.

More information and the FSA claim form can be found online on the Human Resources Flex Spending page.

For questions, contact Benefit Services at benefits@mtu.edu or call 7-2517.

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BDH Lecture with PhD Student Chen Zhao

The Institute of Computing and Cybersystems’ (ICC) Center for Biocomputing and Digital Health (BDH) will present a lecture by Michigan Tech doctoral student Chen Zhao (applied computing) today (Dec. 9) from 3-4 p.m. in M&M U115.

The title of Zhao's talk is “Multi-view information fusion using multi-view variational autoencoders to predict proximal femoral strength."

Read the post on the Institute of Computing and Cybersystems blog. 

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Chemistry Seminar with Ashutosh Tiwari

Ashutosh Tiwari (Chem) will be presenting his seminar on "Protein Aggregates' Structural Diversity and Toxicity" as part of the Chemistry Seminar Series.

Tiwari will present the seminar in person at 3 p.m. today (Dec. 9) in Chem Sci 101.

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Math Colloquium with Sining Gong

Please join us for the final Mathematical Sciences Weekly Colloquium from 1-2 p.m. today (Dec. 9) via Zoom.

Our guest speaker will be Sining Gong of Brown University.

The title of the presentation is "Convergence of Lagrange FEM for Maxwell Eigenvalue Problem in 3D."

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Film Board Presenting 'DC League of Super-Pets'

This week, the Film Board is presenting "DC League of Super-Pets," which is rated PG.

Summary: Krypto the Super-Dog and Superman are inseparable best friends, sharing the same superpowers and fighting crime side by side in Metropolis. However, when the Man of Steel and the rest of the Justice League are kidnapped, Krypto must convince a ragtag group of animals to master their own newfound powers for a rescue mission.

Showings:

• Friday, Dec. 9 — 5:30 p.m., 8:30 p.m., 11:30 p.m.
• Saturday, Dec. 10 — 5:30 p.m., 8:30 p.m., 11:30 p.m.

Located on Michigan Tech's campus in Fisher 135.

Tickets are $3 and concessions are $1. We hope to see you at the movie this weekend and have a great day.

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CS Colloquium Lecture and Social with Shola Oyedeji

Shola Oyedeji, a postdoctoral researcher at LUT University Finland, will present an on-campus and virtual lecture today (Dec. 9) from 3-4 p.m. in Rekhi 214 and via Zoom.

The Computer Science Colloquium lecture and social are hosted by the Department of Computer Science (CS). A social hour will take place following the lecture in Rekhi 218. Refreshments will be served.

Oyedeji’s research interest is software sustainability by design, focused on integrating human, societal, environmental, technical and economic concerns into software systems design to support sustainability. The topic of his lecture is "Software Sustainability by Design."

Read the abstract on the Computing News Blog.

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

Glycoengineering for a Cleaner, Healthier, and Sweeter Future

Friday, December 9, 10 a.m.

Chemical Engineering Research Seminar Prof. Shishir P. S. Chundawat Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Rutgers, The State University of New...

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Computer Science Colloquium: Shola Oyedeji, LUT University Finland

Friday, December 9, 3 p.m.–4 p.m. | Rekhi Hall, 214

Shola Oyedeji, a postdoctoral researcher at LUT University Finland, will present an on-campus and virtual lecture on December 9, 2022, from 3-4 p.m. in Rekhi Hall, Room...

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Doctoral Student Lectures: Chen Zhao and Xuewei Cao

Friday, December 9, 3 p.m.–4 p.m. | Minerals and Materials Engineering Building (M&M), U115

The Institute of Computing and Cybersystems (ICC), the ICC’s Center for Biocomputing and Digital Health (BDH), and the Health Research Institute (HRI) will present lectures by...

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Doctoral Students Xuewei Cao and Chen Zhao to Present Lectures

Friday, December 9, 3 p.m.–4 p.m. | M & M, U115

The Institute of Computing and Cybersystems (ICC), the ICC’s Center for Biocomputing and Digital Health (BDH), and the Health Research Institute (HRI) will present lectures by...

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Intro to Tracking

Friday, December 9, 5 p.m.–6 p.m. | U.J. Noblet Forestry Building Atrium / Michigan Tech Trails Trailhead

Are you interested in learning how to track animals? This meeting we will be learning how to identify tracks, scat, and more! We will be meeting at 4:50 in the Forestry...

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(Women's Basketball) Lake Superior State vs. Michigan Tech

Friday, December 9, 5:30 p.m.–8:30 p.m. | Student Development Complex (SDC), Wood Gym

Women's Basketball: Lake Superior State vs. Michigan Tech, SDC Gymnasium - Houghton, Mich.

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Film Board Presents: DC League of Superpets

Friday, December 9, 5:30 p.m.–7:00 p.m. | Fisher 135 Michigan Tech

Join Film Board this weekend as we show DC League of Superpets in Fisher 135! Tickets are $3 and concessions are $1 each. More information on our website:...

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Cultural Conversation & Innovations in Africa

Friday, December 9, 6 p.m.–8 p.m. | Fisher Hall

How much do you know about the African continent?What about the people?Are there exciting things going on in this continent?What constitutes African diversity?All and many of...

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Plant & Gardening Club Weekly Meeting

Friday, December 9, 6 p.m.–7 p.m. | The Bubble Greenhouse

Come hang out in the Bubble Greenhouse with us every Friday 6-7pm and take a break from the winter landscape with a little tropical oasis. During meetings food and drink for...

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South Carolina Alumni Holiday Party

Friday, December 9, 6 p.m. | Crooked Hammock Brewery - North Myrtle Beach, SC

Celebrate the season with us! Michigan Tech alumni & friends are invited to a holiday party at Crooked Hammock Brewery on Friday, December 9, 2022, from 6-8 p.m. The venue is...

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(Men's Basketball) Lake Superior State vs. Michigan Tech

Friday, December 9, 7:30 p.m.–10:30 p.m. | Student Development Complex (SDC), Wood Gym

Men's Basketball: Lake Superior State vs. Michigan Tech, SDC Gymnasium - Houghton, Mich.

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Michigan Tech Music Presents: Songs for the Moon

Friday, December 9, 7:30 p.m. | General...

MICHIGAN TECH MUSIC PRESENTS SONGS FOR THE MOON PERFORMED BY THE MICHIGAN TECH CHOIRS PROGRAM Run time Approx. 1h 45m Including Intermission

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Film Board Presents: DC League of Superpets

Friday, December 9, 8:30 p.m.–10:00 p.m. | Fisher 135 Michigan Tech

Join Film Board this weekend as we show DC League of Superpets in Fisher 135! Tickets are $3 and concessions are $1 each. More information on our website:...

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Film Board Presents: DC League of Superpets

Friday, December 9, 11:30–1:00 a.m. | Fisher 135 Michigan Tech

Join Film Board this weekend as we show DC League of Superpets in Fisher 135! Tickets are $3 and concessions are $1 each. More information on our website:...

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Adult and Youth Huskies Tennis Lessons

December 9, all day | Gates Tennis Center

Youth Tennis Lessons: After school and weekend Youth Huskies Group Tennis Lessons are back this fall! Join by age group and level for some fun on the tennis courts! October 24...