June 27, 2023

Dennis Livesay, Dave House Dean of Computing, has announced that Professor Zhenlin Wang has been named interim chair of the Department of Computer Science (CS). Wang will start his interim chair duties on Aug. 1.

“I am pleased to announce that Zhenlin has agreed to be the interim chair of the Department of Computer Science,” Livesay said. “Zhenlin has served in this role before and he is held in the highest regard by department and University communities alike.”

“The department chair is one of the toughest positions on campus, and I know that we all appreciate that Zhenlin has taken on this critical leadership role,” Livesay added. “I look forward to learning about and executing Zhenlin’s vision of how we can continue to be bold, to improve, and to be even better than before.”

Andy Duan, the current chair of the computer science department, will leave the University effective July 31.

Read the announcement on the Computing News Blog.

Students who graduated from Keweenaw high schools this spring and are committed to Michigan Technological University are reminded that they have an opportunity to capture a $1,000 scholarship.

The Parade of Nations committee is seeking to award a scholarship to an MTU-bound first-year student who can share their insights on how their life and community have been made better by embracing cultural diversity.

Students can apply for the scholarship by submitting their insights in an essay of 250-300 words. Full details and eligibility requirements are available on the Parade of Nations Scholarship Contest Application form.

The 2023 scholarship essay prompt reads:

"Our community becomes stronger when people from various backgrounds, experiences and perspectives come together. How have you built connections with individuals different from yourself? How will you contribute to creating a sense of belonging for all students at Michigan Tech?"

Applicants must be a 2023 graduate from a local Keweenaw-region high school (examples: Calumet, Lake Linden, Dollar Bay, Hancock, Houghton, Jeffers, Chassell, Baraga, L’Anse, etc).

Essays are due Friday (June 30).

Enjoy the start of our new garden season through the eyes of these attentive observers. Bountiful beets, winecap wanderings, homemade noodles, cider pressing, thimbleberry patches and honeybees — this year’s Western UP Food Systems Collaborative (WUPFSC) contest photos capture the richness of our area’s foods.

A big thank-you to all of our entrants who were willing to share photos of the vibrance and abundance within our local food system! We invite you to take some time to admire the winning photos and all of the excellent submissions on the WUPFSC’s Flickr page. The descriptions or stories attached to the photos can be seen, along with past photos from previous photo contests. Please note that not all participants wished to share their photos with the public, so the Flickr page shares those who did. More information about the photo contest can be found on the WUPFSC's website.

Thank you to this year’s judges, who helped us make these hard decisions: MTU student Clare Fidler (social sciences), Bre Tucker (ENT/PHC) of Refill U.P., Katrina Linde Moriarty of Portage Lake District Library, and Cindy Wiltse of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community Natural Resource Department.

Thank you to MTU students Maya Klanderman and Isabelle Cervantes (both social sciences) for their work in facilitating this year’s contest.

Michigan Tech is a partner of the Western U.P. Food Systems Collaborative, a grassroots coalition of food growers and procurers, public health and civic partners, scientists, educators, land and water stewards, students and all community members.

The Benefits Team anticipates the Husky Health Checklist to be available by October 2023. Be sure to complete your Blue Cross Blue Shield Michigan Health Assessment and your annual physical.

Stay tuned!

The Department of Mathematical Sciences (Math) in joint collaboration with the Center for Applied Mathematics and Statistics (CAMS) is pleased to announce a free mini-workshop on applied mathematics. This workshop will be held on Thursday (June 29), from 2:30-5 p.m. in Fisher 329. All are welcome to attend.

The guest speakers will be:

• Guang Lin of Purdue University — His presentation is titled "Towards Third Waive AI: Interpretable, Robust Trustworthy Machine Learning for Diverse Applications in Science and Engineering."

• Kui Ren of Columbia University — Ren will be presenting "Inverse Problems to a System of Semilinear Helmholtz Equations."

• Junshan Lin of Auburn University — He will share his presentation titled "Several Spectral Problems in Topological Wave Insulators."

Save the Date — Wednesday, June 28, at 2 p.m.
Please join the Lean Community of Practice (Lean COP) via Zoom for the second session of our Summer Speaker Series tomorrow (June 28) at 2 p.m. Carl LoConte will be running an interactive meeting exploring ways to improve all manner of meetings. You do not need to be a member of the Lean COP to attend this valuable free training, but please register to be added to the meeting invitation! If you have any questions, please reach out to Linnea McGowan Hobmeier at lmhobmei@mtu.edu.

Exploring 'The Art of Gathering'
Have you ever left a meeting thinking it could have been an email? Emails can be an effective means to convey information; however, bringing people together, whether a gathering is in person, remote or hybrid, can build connection and momentum for change. Principles from "The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters" by Priya Parker, a master facilitator and strategic advisor, can help us improve how we meet. These principles are simple and effective, and can be applied in all gatherings of all sizes. Participants will leave with prompts and questions to consider as they are preparing to organize and facilitate their next meeting.

Research Scientist Sushil Dwivedi (Chem); graduate students Dilka Liyana Arachchige, Adenike Olowolagba and Mohamed Mahmoud; undergraduate students Jenna Cunnien, Daniel Tucker and Delaney Fritz; and Professors Thomas Werner (BioSci) and Rudy Luck and Haiying Liu (Chem) are co-authors of a paper published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry B.

The paper is titled "Thiophene-based organic dye with large Stokes shift and deep red emission for live cell NAD(P)H detection under varying chemical stimuli."

The research was supported by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health through Award Numbers R15GM114751 (for H.Y. Liu), 2R15GM114751-02 (for H.Y. Liu) and R15 GM146206-01 (for H.Y. Liu and R. Luck), and the National Science Foundation under an award number 2117318 (for H. Liu).

Gregory Odegard (ME-EM/MSE) was quoted by Chemical & Engineering News in a story about the materials improvements needed to facilitate a manned mission to Mars.

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John Vucetich (CFRES) was interviewed by Raincoast Conservation Foundation in part one of a Q&A about the ethics and moral practice in conservation. The segment dealt particularly with the conservation and lethal management of wolves.

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Sarah Hoy and Rolf Peterson were quoted by the Columbian of Vancouver, Washington, in a story about the 64th Isle Royale Winter Study. The story was picked up from the Associated Press. The 2022-2023 annual report was released June 14 by Michigan Tech and was the subject of a Michigan Tech News story.

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The Daily Mining Gazette covered Michigan Tech Army ROTC Cadet Erin Bennett’s and Air Force ROTC Cadet Casey Zampaloni’s receipt of DAR Gold Outstanding Cadet Medals from the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution.

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The Keweenaw Report picked up the Genomic Sequencing Lab’s announcement about the status of its tick crowdsourcing project in last Friday’s (June 23) issue of Tech Today.

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WLUC TV6 and WZMQ 19 News mentioned Michigan Tech in coverage of a public update by The Nature Conservancy on the Keweenaw Heartlands, more than 32,000 acres purchased by the organization in 2022. MTU is partnering on a cultural and ecological inventory of the property.

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The Working Forest listed Michigan Tech’s forestry program among the top 10 in North America. 

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The Mining Journal mentioned Michigan Tech’s Ford Center in a story about the return of the Academy of Natural Resources, a professional development program for Michigan teachers. The ANR North program is held at the Ford Center.

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Michigan Tech was mentioned in a WLUC TV6 story about Alberta Fest 2023. The story touched on the University’s renovations to the new Alberta Artisan House, which had its grand opening Friday (June 23).

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Michigan Tech was mentioned by Canada Today and the Hockey Writers in stories revisiting the Montreal Canadiens’ draft class of 2015, which included former Husky hockey defenseman Matt Roy.

Cayuse Sponsored Projects Launches at Michigan Tech

The Vice President for Research Office is excited to have launched the Sponsored Projects (SP) module of the Cayuse research software suite. The module is now live, and faculty and staff who intend to submit a sponsored project proposal will use the Cayuse system to create your proposal and route for internal reviews and approvals. This replaces the current PDF-based transmittal process. Effective June 19, all active faculty and staff have access to the SP module. Please be sure to work closely with your Sponsored Programs analyst throughout the proposal process to work through the new system.

Information on the Cayuse SP module, including how to log in, how to create a proposal and the approval process, can be found on our Cayuse Implementations page.

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Western UP Community Food Survey Results Webinar

The community is invited to join a free webinar tomorrow (June 28) at 11 a.m. to learn about the results of a community food survey sent out to residents of Baraga, Gogebic, Houghton, Iron, Keweenaw and Ontonagon counties.

The webinar will be hosted by Angie Carter (SS) and registered dietitian Meghan Jaszczak of the Copper Shores Community Health Foundation.

• When: Wednesday, June 28, from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m.

• What You'll Learn: Explore what makes our communities unique in terms of food access, utilization, procurement, interest and support.

• Purpose: To update community members and partners interested in food systems, food access and food education about the results of the Western Upper Peninsula Community Food Survey.

• Webinar Registration: Register for the webinar at the Portage Health Foundation website.

Following the webinar, interested community members and partners can find the recorded webinar, as well as county-level survey finding summary fact sheets, available for download on the PHF Food Initiative webpage. Additionally, those interested in the survey instrument or question- or demographic-specific survey data summaries can contact the webinar hosts for more information. Partners are encouraged to use and adapt the survey instrument and survey data summaries for use in their own community work.

The food survey is part of a research project that will inform future programs for the Western Upper Peninsula. The project is being conducted by Carter in partnership with the Western Upper Peninsula Food Systems Collaborative and sponsored by the Portage Health Foundation.

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Crowdsourcing Ticks for Disease Surveillance Continues

Current Results from Community Tick Submission
So far, 400 ticks have been collected and submitted to the lab, including 39 Lyme-positive ticks and 23 anaplasma-positive ticks. The locations* where disease-positive ticks were collected are:

• Lyme positives: Chassell (11), Maasto Hiihto Trails (7), Victoria (6), Pilgrim River Trails (5), Liminga (3), L’Anse – Haataja Road (2), Bear Lake Road (1), Dollar Bay (1), Houghton (1), Tech Trails (1).

• Anaplasma positives: Maasto Hiihto Trails (9), Stanton Township – Liminga Road (7), Bear Lake Road (1), L’Anse – Haataja Road (1), Pontiac Road (1), Toivola (1).

* Several disease-positive ticks were submitted from unknown locations.

Crowdsourcing Ticks Project at MTU Continues Through Sept. 30
The Genomic Sequencing Lab continues to accept crowdsourced ticks from you, your family and your pets. The goal of this project is to identify the prevalence of tick-borne illnesses in the Copper Country. Through Sept. 30, please bring any ticks you find to one of two collection boxes on the Michigan Tech campus:

• U. J. Noblet Forestry Building — Main Entrance
• Great Lakes Research Center at 100 Phoenix Drive — Building Lobby

How to Remove and Preserve Ticks

1. Use clean, fine-tipped tweezers to grasp the tick as close to the skin’s surface as possible.
2. Pull upward with steady, even pressure. Don’t twist or jerk the tick; this can cause its mouth parts to break off and remain in the skin. If this happens, remove the mouth parts with tweezers. If you cannot remove the mouth easily with tweezers, leave it alone and let the skin heal.
3. After removing the tick, thoroughly clean the bite area and your hands with rubbing alcohol or soap and water.
4. Never crush a tick with your fingers. Dispose of a live tick by:
   1. Placing it in a sealed plastic storage bag. Multiple ticks from the same location can be placed in the same bag.
   2. Once the tick is sealed inside the plastic storage bag, bring it to a drop-off point within eight hours or place the bag with the tick in a freezer until dropping it off at Michigan Tech.
5. Follow the directions at the drop-off site to ensure the tick is properly preserved.

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Middle School Development - Girls Basketball

Tuesday, June 27, 10 a.m.–12 p.m. | Student Development Complex (SDC), Varsity Wood Gym, Multipurpose Courts

This camp is open to girls entering grades 6-8 as of Fall 2023. What could be better than three days spent learning basketball moves from one of the top women’s college...

Hockey Camp Group 1

June 27, all day | Student Development Complex (SDC), Macinnes Student Ice Arena

Gain fundamental skills and broad knowledge of the sport for all age levels. Co-ed camps and clinics focus on team play, positional play, defensive play, strengthening...

Hockey Camp Groups 2 and 3

June 27, all day | Student Development Complex (SDC), Macinnes Student Ice Arena

Gain fundamental skills and broad knowledge of the sport for all age levels. Co-ed camps and clinics focus on team play, positional play, defensive play, strengthening...

Junior Mountain Biking Camp Summer 2023

June 27, all day | Recreational Forest and Tech Trails, Tech Trails

Ride through beautiful scenery on well-maintained trails of the local area, including the Michigan Tech Trails, Maasto Hiihto/Churning Rapids, and the Copper Harbor MTB...