May 4, 2023

Last Mile Cafe opened its first storefront in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in December 2022 — the next step in making a dream reality for Arick Davis '15 (B.S. Electrical Engineering) and his fiancée, Sarah Laman. 

But exactly how did Davis become his own boss as the founder of a coffee business?

"Sarah was doing marketing. I was doing IT," he explained. "Both of us were doing jobs we weren't excited about. We decided to start the company we wanted to work for."

Read more about Last Mile Cafe — it's Davis' third startup — in our 2023 Michigan Tech Magazine.

The Sponsored Operations Office is excited to pilot the Sponsored Projects module of the Cayuse research administration software.

Cayuse is a powerful software tool that streamlines the internal grant proposal and award management processes. It has many benefits for our research community, including:

• Increased accessibility and transparency to proposal information;
• Sponsored program analyst communication;
• A modernized information system that you can access from any location;
• All proposal information is entered and accessed in one place; and
• A dashboard that provides information appropriate to your position.

We believe these features will greatly benefit our research community by reducing administrative burden and improving overall efficiency.

The Sponsored Operations Office is currently leading a pilot that will end in mid-June. Faculty and staff who intend to submit a sponsored project proposal are invited to test the Cayuse system and workflow, and provide feedback that will benefit other users when the platform goes live for employees on campus this summer.

If you are interested in participating in the pilot, please be sure to respond affirmatively when you receive an invite from the Sponsored Programs Office via its email response to your Notification of Intent to Submit form submission.

Additional information is available on our Cayuse Implementations page.

Due to the Annual Power Outage, the Memorial Union Building will be closed beginning today (May 4) at 5 p.m. and will reopen tomorrow (May 5) at 6 a.m.

There will be no tap access to the building.

The Research Development Team will have limited availability next week (May 8-12) as we take the road to Washington, D.C. Due to full itineraries, our response time to inquiries may be longer than normal; thank you for your patience.

Any questions should be directed to the Research Development Team at rd-l@mtu.edu.

In celebration of the ADVANCE Adaptation grant progress, today we feature examples of ADVANCE’s coordination with the University Senate to improve the flexibility, inclusion and family friendliness of University policies.

ADVANCE has presented to the entire University Senate twice; the most recent presentation can be viewed online. ADVANCE has consistently advocated for policies that position people for success and that promote a friendly, supportive community. Some policies have “gotchas” whereby a person needs to have a close network of people with insider information to successfully navigate the policy; these only cause people and our community long-term harm. This was the goal behind the partnership with the University Senate to develop and vet Section 2.6 of the Faculty Handbook, “Role of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.”

ADVANCE has also consulted with various Senate committees on revisions to policies with the goal of promoting policies and practices that are clear, transparent and flexible enough that they position each person with the information and resources available for success.

For more information about ADVANCE, please visit our website. We encourage as broad of engagement in policy and practice discussions as is possible because this will enable the most people to be positioned for healthy/happy work/life balance and career success at Michigan Tech.

John Lehman (URE) was quoted by the Daily Mining Gazette in a story about Michigan Tech’s plans to build a new undergraduate residence hall in space currently used for Rozsa Center parking. The first details on the project, officially announced by Michigan Tech News earlier this week, were also picked up by Radio Results Network.

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Radio Results Network ran a story about the Michigan Tech Board of Trustees’ approval of Tech’s new four-year nursing degree. The nursing program — and Tech’s plans for a new residence hall — were also picked up by Keweenaw Now and the Keweenaw Report.

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ABC 10 ran a story about the crowdsourced tick collection effort being conducted by Michigan Tech’s Genomic Sequencing Lab. Ticks from Copper Country residents and their pets can be submitted through dropboxes on campus through Sept. 30.

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The Daily Mining Gazette mentioned Michigan Tech’s Center for Science and Environmental Outreach (CSEO) in a story about Western U.P. students in grades 8-12 who attended the Lake Superior Youth Symposium at Northland College. The CSEO was one of many donors supporting the trip, which ran  from April 20-23.

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The Keweenaw Report picked up a Graduate School announcement about applications being accepted for fall 2023 Portage Health Foundation graduate assistantships.

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The Daily Mining Gazette mentioned Michigan Tech in a story about SuperiorLand Pet Partners’ efforts to increase the number of pet therapy teams in the Copper Country.

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PR Newswire ran a story on the induction of CITGO CEO Carlos Jordá ’71 (B.S. Chemical Engineering) into the Department of Chemical Engineering’s Distinguished Academy on April 14. Academy membership recognizes excellence and leadership in engineering and civic affairs among the department’s outstanding graduates.

Print Services Limited Capabilities May 8-12

Print Services will have limited capabilities the next week (May 8-12) while we move to our new permanent home in the Lakeshore Center.

Please call us at 7-2347 if you have a time-sensitive order during this time. We expect to be fully operational on May 15.

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Equity Advisor Program Update and Call for 2023-24 Volunteers

The Equity Advisor (EA) Program is just wrapping up for the year. This year, 12 equity advisors worked with tenure-track faculty and department chair search committees to help ensure that diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) remained at the forefront during every step of the search process.

Many thanks to this year’s equity advisors for their service in this important role: Tess Ahlborn (CEGE), Lanrong Bi (Chem), Bill Cooke (KIP), Stefka Hristova (HU), Jinfeng Jiang (BioMed), Carsten Kulheim (CFRES), Adrienne Minerick (ChE/BioMed), Audra Morse (CEGE), Manish Srivastava (COB), Kevin Trewartha (CLS), Chris Webster (CFRES) and Richelle Winkler (SS).

The EA program is now seeking faculty who are interested in joining the program for the 2023-24 academic year. Equity advisors serve as non-voting members of faculty and department search committees (outside of their own department) to help the committee attend to DEI throughout the search process and assist in ensuring that federal, state and University employment laws/policies are followed. Equity advisors should be associate rank or higher faculty (either tenure or ITF) at Michigan Tech, be current on Diversity Literacy and Faculty Hiring Legal Aspects courses, and commit to attending an in-person training workshop that will be held in early September.

More information about the role of the equity advisor is available online. Interested faculty members should complete the 2023-24 Equity Advisor for Faculty Search Teams interest form by Monday (May 8).

If you have questions about this program, please contact Shari Stockero, assistant provost for faculty development, at stockero@mtu.edu.

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Speaker on Native American Marked Trail Trees

The local Peter Wolfe Chapter of the North Country National Scenic Trail and the College of Forest Resources and Environmental Science (CFRES) are hosting a guest speaker on Native American trail marker trees at the U. J. Noblet Forestry Building.

This event is free and open to the public. It will be held at 7 p.m. today (May 4) in Noblet G002.

Hear Bill Van Korsky, a volunteer with the Marquette Regional History Center (MRHC), who will speak on his research into Native American trail marker trees! He is working with the MRHC in finding and recording all these trees in Marquette County that were marked 150-plus years ago by Natives to show a trail path, or point to water or other significant features. He will share with us his photos and knowledge on how to distinguish these very special Native modified trees from naturally odd-shaped trees, and how to record them with photos, measurements, pointing direction, GPS location, privacy protection, etc. (Maybe someone will take up this project in our counties too!)

A meet-and-greet will begin at 6:30 p.m. and the talk begins at 7 p.m. After the talk, we will have a short business meeting that will provide the opportunity to learn more about the Peter Wolfe Chapter, becoming a member, joining one of our public monthly hikes, or helping us maintain the trail, etc.

All are welcome.

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

Summer WonderHack Competition for K-12 Students

May 4, all day

Michigan Tech is pleased to announce the launch of Summer WonderHack 2023, a new capture-the-flag (CTF) cybersecurity competition designed for K-12 participants. The event is...