February 8, 2023

Give Back to the Pack, Michigan Tech’s 48-hour giving challenge, starts at 4 p.m. today and goes through 4 p.m. Friday (Feb. 10).

Visit giveback.mtu.edu to make your gift at any time during the 48 hours. Gifts can be made in any amount and to any area of campus. Dozens of challenges from departments across campus have been set up, which can increase the impact of gifts through participation or dollar-for-dollar matches.

Give Back to the Pack aims to celebrate what makes Tech special while developing a culture of philanthropy among alumni, faculty, staff, students and the community.

Nominations for this year's Graduate Student Government (GSG) Merit Awards are now open.

This is a time to celebrate all the hard work that graduate students, faculty and staff have put in over the last year. GSG gives out four awards each year:

• Exceptional Staff Member,
• Exceptional Graduate Mentor,
• Exceptional Student Leader, and
• Exceptional Student Scholar.

To see full information about the criteria for these awards, please visit our website. If you wish to nominate someone, please fill out the form below.

Nominations will close Feb. 17 at 11:59 p.m. Please help us in recognizing some of the outstanding individuals on our campus by submitting a nomination today!

Nominate someone today using the Merit Awards Nomination Form!

The Undergraduate Student Government (USG) at Michigan Tech has been hearing interest from members of the community in having a New York Times subscription for access to articles, news and more. Please consider filling out our interest survey to give USG your opinions on the matter. All are welcome to participate, as the subscription would be available to everyone in the MTU community if purchased!

All pertinent information about pricing, availability and more is included in the survey. Please contact Peyton Hall at plhall@mtu.edu with any questions!

Join the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) on Monday (Feb. 13) from 12-4 p.m. in the J. Robert Van Pelt and John and Ruanne Opie Library for our Pre-Valentine's Day Bake Sale!

From 6-10 p.m. tonight (Feb. 8) during this year’s Winter Carnival All-Nighter, the Tau Kappa Epsilon (TKE) chapter at Michigan Tech will be hosting a free-will offering with all funds raised donated to St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital. While supplies last, donors will receive cookies in gratitude for their donation.

The TKE's table will be located behind their monthlong statue site next to the Administration Building. If you aren’t able to stop by and wish to make a donation, please visit the St. Jude’s site.

Michigan Tech students are invited to the Hancock Cold Season Farmers Market, happening every Thursday from 3-6 p.m. at the Orpheum Theatre, inside Studio Pizza at 426 Quincy Street.

The cold season market offers fresh local produce, baked goods and more. Tomorrow (Feb. 9), in honor of Winter Carnival, we'll have a special musical act: MTU graduate student Enid Partika on the violin doing classical Finnish music.

Students, faculty and staff can get a free ride with the new Hancock Shuttle bus partnership program!

Michigan Tech will host an online Software Carpentry in Python workshop Feb. 20-24. Sessions will be held daily from 3-5:30 p.m. All Michigan Tech students, faculty, and staff are invited to attend this free workshop, which covers basic concepts and tools, including program design, version control and task automation. The target audience is learners who have little to no prior computational experience, although those with some experience will also benefit.

Please sign up by Friday (Feb. 10). Space is limited and will likely fill quickly. Register now.

This workshop is the first of a series of workshops to be held this spring. Additional announcements will be made for these future events as they are confirmed.

Questions? Please email Laura Brown at lebrown@mtu.edu.

Read more on the Computing News Blog.

Head coach Dan Mettlach and the Michigan Tech football program are pleased to announce the 2023 regular season schedule. The Huskies will play 10 contests, including four nonconference foes with five home games at Kearly Stadium this fall.

The Huskies host Hillsdale College in their home opener Sept. 9 at Kearly Stadium. They will kick off the GLIAC calendar with Davenport University in Houghton on Sept. 30. 

Read more and see the full schedule at the Michigan Tech Athletics website.

Michigan Tech hockey's Blake Pietila has been named the CCHA Goaltender of the Week for the third straight time.

Pietila received the honor for the sixth time this season and for the 13th time in his career.

Pietila went 2-0 on the weekend with a .969 save percentage at Bemidji State. Pietila stopped 25 shots in a 2-0 shutout win Friday (Feb. 3), pushing his single-season school record mark to eight shutouts and his career record to 18. Pietila made 37 saves Saturday (Feb. 4) in a 3-2 win, making 30 saves for the eighth time this season and winning his 54th career game.

Read more at the Michigan Tech Athletics website.

Wednesday (Feb. 8)
• Valorant vs. Quinnipiac 9:30 p.m. NSL Varsity Premier

Friday (Feb. 10)
• Counter-Strike: Global Offensive vs. Westcliff 8:30 p.m. NSL Varsity

Times are subject to change. Check Twitter @MTUEsports for updates.

*****

Esports News
Read more in the MTU Esports weekly update.

Riding a three-game win streak, Michigan Tech men's basketball is going on the road for the final time this week.

The Huskies face Grand Valley State tomorrow (Feb. 9) at 8 p.m., and will take on Davenport on Saturday (Feb. 11) at 3 p.m. 

With five games remaining in the regular season, Tech is tied for eighth in the GLIAC standings and needs to finish eighth or better to qualify for the conference tournament. Thursday's game can be heard on Mix 93.5 WKMJ-FM and Saturday's contest will be on partner station 920 WMPL-AM.

Read the preview at the Michigan Tech Athletics website.

The two teams at the top of GLIAC women's basketball conference standings clash again Thursday (Feb. 9) in Allendale, where No. 24 Michigan Tech will take on No. 6 Grand Valley State at 6 p.m.

The Huskies then play at Davenport on Saturday (Feb. 11) to close out their final regular-season road trip.

Tech brings a 19-4 overall record and three-game win streak into the weekend with a chance to overtake the Lakers for first place with a win.

MTU's No. 24 rank is the Huskies' first national ranking this season. 

Read the preview at the Michigan Tech Athletics website.

Susanta Ghosh (ME-EM/ICC) is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $103,212 research and development grant from the University of California, Los Angeles.

The project is titled "Prediction and Tuning of Spin Selectivity Properties of Chiral Nanomaterials via an integrated Machine Learning - First Principles Approach."

This is a potential three-year project.

Caryn Heldt (ChE/HRI) was a guest on WLUC TV6’s “The Ryan Report” on Sunday (Feb. 5). Discussion touched on Michigan Tech’s Health Research Institute, the new H-STEM Complex being constructed on campus, and the nature of and challenges presented by viruses.

*****

Simon Carn (GMES) was mentioned by AZoCleantech and Science Daily in a story about a new study that shows dormant volcanoes release up to three times more sulfur into the atmosphere than previously thought. The story was originally published by UW News.

*****

Michigan Tech’s Earthquake Magnitude Scale and UPSeis information on the Moment Magnitude Scale (GMES) were referenced by MSN News, inews.co.uk, and Bridge Michigan in stories about magnitude 7.8 and 7.7 earthquakes in Turkey and Syria on Monday (Feb. 6).

*****

MLive ran a story about 30 scholarships being offered by Hemlock Semiconductor for students in grades 9-11 to attend Michigan Tech’s Engineering Scholars Summer Youth Program. The scholarship application period ends at 5 p.m. April 9.

*****

The Benzie County Record Patriot covered the expansion of Michigan Tech’s partnership with Northwest Education Services to support high school students in the Career Tech Center Engineering Academy in Traverse City, Michigan.

*****

Radio Results Network picked up a Michigan Tech News story about what’s cooking for Michigan Tech Winter Carnival.

Carnival was also the subject of stories by multiple other news outlets: WLUC TV6 previewed the All-Nighter. ABC 10 ran a story about the 2023 Royalty Coronation. And, Duluth’s Northern News Now picked up a story about the broomball tournament.

*****

The Mining Journal covered the return of St. Albert the Great Catholic University Parish’s annual Ice Mass. St. Al’s first Ice Mass of 2023 will be held at 5:30 p.m. Friday (Feb. 10) at the chapel of Our Lady of the Snows. The service will be livestreamed on Facebook Live.

*****

Civil + Structural Engineer ran a press release announcing Michigan Tech alum Mike Olosky ’91 (mechanical engineering) as the new CEO of Simpson Strong-Tie.

Winter Carnival All-Nighter: All You Can Eat Pancakes

Guardians of the North Air Force ROTC Detachment 400 is putting on its annual All You Can Eat Pancakes fundraiser during the Winter Carnival All-Nighter. Come out and claim the title of Pancake Champion!

The event will start tonight (Feb. 8) at 6 p.m. and end tomorrow (Feb. 9) at 2 a.m. It will be held in Fisher Hall, in the hallway next to Fisher 135.

Prices:

• One person: $7
• Two people: $10

Proceeds from the event support the cadets in leadership opportunities and advancing their academic and military careers.

*****

CTL Coffee Chat: Teaching and Learning in the Age of AI Tools

Chat GPT, the artificial intelligence (AI) powered chatbot, was released in late November 2022. Since then, it has dominated news coverage about AI tools and their impact on higher education. This large language model can generate human-like text responses to user prompts. It’s also adept at producing computer code, generating email messages, composing complex spreadsheet formulas, and much more.

Instructors are grappling with the impact Chat GPT and other AI tools are having in teaching and learning. They’re also exploring strategies to leverage these tools to support course objectives and potentially save time previously used on routine tasks for higher-order learning activities. Have you adjusted your teaching strategies to address the existence of AI tools in your classes?

Make plans to attend a Jackson Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) coffee chat at 3:45 p.m. next Thursday (Feb. 16) in the Library East Reading Room. We’ll provide an overview of some common AI tools, demonstrate how they work and review some AI-generated responses. You’ll also have time to discuss the implications of AI tools with other instructors from across campus. We hope to see you there.

Register to attend the CTL Coffee Chat: Teaching and Learning in the Age of AI Tools.

*****

ChE Research Seminar with Adam Melvin

Adam Melvin will present as part of the Department of Chemical Engineering (ChE) Research Series today (Feb. 8) at 10 a.m. in person in Chem Sci 201 or virtually via Zoom.

Melvin will present "Engineering biosensors and preclinical tumor models to study cancer drug."

Read the abstract on the University Events Calendar.

Melvin is an associate professor with the Cain Department of Chemical Engineering at Louisiana State University.

*****

Parking During Winter Carnival

With Winter Carnival activities beginning today (Feb. 8), Transportation Services wants the campus community to be aware of visitor parking options. Beginning at 4 p.m. today, the following lots will be available free of charge for visitors and will not require a parking permit:

• Lot 9 (commuter lot by the Rozsa)
• Lot 5 (graduate student lot by the Rozsa)
• Lot 27 (visitor lot between the Administration Building and MUB)

Additionally, there will be free parking during the day at all metered areas throughout Winter Carnival. There is no overnight parking at the meters. Visitors requiring overnight parking may park in Lot 10W (commuter lot adjacent to residential Lot 10E, located east of Rozsa — opposite side of Cliff Drive) without a permit.

All residential and faculty/staff lots will continue to be monitored for proper permits.

The Husky Campus Shuttle will continue to operate by its regular schedule — which includes service to Mont Ripley — tomorrow, Friday and Saturday (Feb. 9-11).

For any questions regarding Winter Carnival parking regulations or shuttle bus service, please contact Transportation Services or 906-487-1441.

*****

MTTI Holding Info Session on FRA Broad Agency Announcement

Want to do research to help develop the green transportation mode? Join the Michigan Tech Transportation Institute (MTTI) for an informational session today (Feb. 8) at 2 p.m. in the Alumni Lounge (107A) of the Memorial Union Building.

Have you ever thought about using your research skills to develop the green mode of transportation in the U.S.? You might be able to join seven Michigan Tech faculty (from five different departments) who are currently leading research projects funded by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). We will discuss the latest Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) at this session. Research topics can be found under Appendix C of the RFP.

We will review research topics that range from technology topics to equity research, talk about the application process and share examples of success by Michigan Tech. Refreshments will be provided and a remote option is available via Zoom.

Those who are interested can please RSVP to Pam Hannon at prhannon@mtu.edu.

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

Michigan Tech Art Presents: Me, You, and Us

Wednesday, February 8, 8 a.m.–8 p.m. |

MICHIGAN TECH ART PRESENTS Me, You, and Us ART EXHIBITION MONDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2023 THROUGH SATURDAY FEBRUARY 25, 2023 A-SPACE HOURS: M-F 8 A.M.-8 P.M.

Digital Marketers

Wednesday, February 8, 9–10 a.m. | Administration and Student Services Building, G27

Digital Marketers is a group for digital platform managers (digital ads, photo/video production, social media accounts, websites, etc) across campus. We meet every other...

Engineering Biosensors and Preclinical Tumor Models to Study Cancer Drug Resistance and Metastasis

Wednesday, February 8, 10–11 a.m. | Chemical Sciences and Engineering Building, 201

Chemical Engineering Research Seminar Adam Melvin Cain Department of Chemical Engineering Louisiana State University Abstract Cancer is a highly heterogeneous disease with...

MTTI Information Session on Developing Green Transportation Mode

Wednesday, February 8, 2 p.m. | Memorial Union Building (MUB), Alumni Lounge (107A)

Michigan Tech Transportation Institute Federal Railroad Administration Broad Agency Announcement Want to do research to help develop the green transportation mode? Join the...

Submission and Formatting 101: Master the Dissertation, Thesis, and Report Process

Wednesday, February 8, 2:00 p.m.–4:30 p.m. | Administration and Student Services Building, 404

Students who are completing a dissertation, thesis, or report are invited to join the Graduate School to learn about the resources available to them to assist in scheduling...

Give Back to the Pack

Wednesday, February 8, 4 p.m. | Michigan Tech Campus

Celebrate Winter Carnival 2023 from wherever you are and Give Back to the Pack on February 8–10! Huskies from across the country and globe are coming together during this...

Students For Life General Meeting

Wednesday, February 8, 5 p.m.–6 p.m. | Fisher 133

Students For Life General Meeting

Guardians of the North, Air Force ROTC All-Nighter Pancakes

Wednesday, February 8, 6–2 a.m. | Michigan Tech Campus, Broomball Rinks

The Air Force ROTC cadets are hosting their annual pancake fundraiser during Winter Carnival All-Nighter. Everyone is invited. Proceeds support the cadets in leadership...

Wednesday Learn to Ski and Snowboard Program

Wednesday, February 8, 6:00 p.m.–7:30 p.m. | Mont Ripley Ski Area

Wednesdays Ages 8-12 Children of all ability levels have an opportunity to learn to ski or snowboard, make new friends, and explore Mont Ripley together. The focus is on...

FREE CHILI during the All-Nighter

Wednesday, February 8, 7 p.m. | In front of the library

Fuel and warm up during the All-Nighter by getting FREE chili, served in front of the library on Wednesday, February 8 starting at 7 p.m. until it is gone. Don't miss out on a...

Law Club Weekly Meeting

Wednesday, February 8, 7 p.m.–8 p.m. | Library 103

Our objective is to provide a pre-professional organization for those who are planning to pursue a legal career or those who are interested in the legal field. Meetings will...

Mocktails

Wednesday, February 8, 7 p.m.–10 p.m. | MUB Commons

Did you stop by and grab a "mocktail" last year during Winter Carnival? If not, we'll be hosting it again this year! Come warm up in the MUB Commons, grab a drink, and...

Karaoke

Wednesday, February 8, 8–12 a.m. | Memorial Union Building (MUB), Commons

Sing along with your friends and enjoy some giveaways while you warm up during the Winter Carnival all nighter!

Adult and Youth Huskies Tennis and Pickleball Lessons (Session 1)

February 8, all day | Michigan Tech Gates Tennis Center

Youth Huskies Tennis Lessons: After school and weekend Youth Huskies Group Tennis Lessons are available this spring! Join in by age group and level for some fun on the tennis...