April 22, 2024

After more than five years of planning and two years of construction, Michigan Tech announces the completion of the H-STEM Engineering and Health Technologies Complex (H-STEM Complex).

The state-of-the-art facility officially opened its doors to the public March 11, becoming the most significant reflection yet of the University’s commitment to advancing interdisciplinary health-related research and education.

“The opening of the new H-STEM Complex ushers in a new era of health care innovation at Michigan Tech,” said Rick Koubek, Michigan Tech’s president. “Coupling state-of-the-art lab space with faculty expertise and innovative partnerships, the H-STEM Complex isn’t just a building, it’s a hub for developing advanced technologies to improve health outcomes for the citizens of Michigan and beyond.”

Find out more about the H-STEM Complex at Michigan Tech News.

The Air Force and Army ROTC invite you to the Spring 2024 Commissioning Ceremony on Friday (April 26) at 7 p.m. at the Rozsa Center.

This semester, we have 10 Air Force cadets and four Army cadets commissioning. Those commissioning are from the following programs:

Chemical Engineering | Chemistry | Civil Engineering | Computer Science | Electrical Engineering | Environmental Engineering | Mechanical Engineering | Mining Engineering | Molecular Biology

The College of Sciences and Arts wishes to congratulate Kemmy Taylor (BioSci/KIP), who is one of only 25 educators from across the United States selected for the 2024 U.S. Army Educator Tour at Fort Stewart in Savannah, Georgia.

Taylor was nominated by the Milwaukee Army Healthcare Team for her willingness to go above and beyond sharing the scholarships and programs in health-related professions offered by the Army. She was chosen by the U.S. Army Recruiting Command for in recognition of her demonstrated openness and dedication to ensuring current and future pre-med/pre-health students are aware of the Army’s health-related opportunities.

Fort Stewart is the home of the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division, 75th Ranger Regiment, and 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR). The medical professionals at the Winn Army Community Hospital and Hunter Army Airfield Clinic on base support all 4,000-plus soldiers and their families.

During the tour, Taylor will skydive with the Army’s premier parachute demonstration team, the Golden Knights, in addition to attending various exhibits hosted by each of the units on base and touring both the community hospital and clinic. Most importantly, Taylor will get to work with and witness firsthand the soldiers and families supported by Army Medicine.

By sharing information about the Army's programs and scholarships, Taylor is directly developing future medical professionals who will be providing care for soldiers. The tour will also provide the opportunity to network with other university representatives and showcase Michigan Technological University’s dedication to supporting the health and welfare of our troops.

Over 1,000 students from both the Enterprise and Senior Design categories poured their dedication and ingenuity into their projects. These teams vied for cash awards totaling nearly $4,000. Our panel of judges comprised esteemed representatives from the corporate realm, the local community and Michigan Tech staff and faculty.

As anticipated, the judging process for Design Expo 2024 was exceptionally tight, but the Enterprise Program and the College of Engineering are delighted to announce the official results.

Congratulations to all participating teams! We encourage everyone to view the team videos and full award results at mtu.edu/expo.

Enterprise

• First Place — Velovations
  Advisor: Steve Lehmann (BioMed)

• Second Place (tie) — Aerospace Enterprise
  Advisor: L. Brad King (ME-EM)

• Second Place (tie) — General Expedition Adventure Research (GEAR)
  Advisors: Brett Hamlin, Engineering Fundamentals

• Third Place — Clean Snow Mobile Challenge
  Advisor: Jason Blough (ME-EM)

• Honorable Mention — Robotic Systems Enterprise
  Advisor: Darrell Robinette (ME-EM)

Senior Design

• First Place — 218. Minimally-Invasive (MIS) Cable Passer for Trauma Surgery
  Team members: Sarah Rowe, Alex LaMere, Madison Ide, Magen Radke and Misael Cruz (biomedical engineering)
  Advised by: Sang Yoon Han and Bruce Lee (BioMed)
  Sponsored by: Resolve Surgical Technologies

• Second Place — 235. Real-time Hazard Evaluation and Mitigation Instrument (RHEMI)
  Team members: Alexander Kwapisz, Alex Beltz and Chase Pelletier (electrical engineering); and Nathan Soule and Zoey Mishler (computer engineering)
  Advised by: Tony Pinar (ECE)
  Sponsored by: MTU Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

• Third Place (tie) — 216. Mechanical Properties and Microstructure of Gray Iron with Boron Contamination and Removal by Soda Ash
  Team members: Joshua King, Rebekah Smith, Daniel Linley, Keith Pickelmann (materials science and engineering)
  Advised by: Paul Sanders (MSE)
  Sponsored by: Waupaca Foundry and Jason Bush

• Third Place (tie) — 237. Waupaca Foundry Automated Cast Cleaning
  Team members: Howie Howland (robotics engineering); Emilio Alcantar and Tristan Parker (electrical engineering); Ryan Sweeney (computer engineering); and Dallas Hall and Elliot Vironda (mechanical engineering technology)
  Advised by: David Labyak (MMET) and Trever Hassell (ECE)
  Sponsored by: Waupaca Foundry

• Honorable Mention — 238. Reducing Manganese Content in Solid Steel Weld Wire
  Team members: Bea Visscher, Seth Eacker, Jack Schaller and Anna Cole (materials science and engineering)
  Advised by: Paul Sanders (MSE)
  Sponsored by: Hobart Brothers LLC

• Honorable Mention — 210. Device to Culture Anterior-Segment of the Eye and Measure Intraocular Pressure in Real Time
  Team members: Rachel Callaghan, Kai Jackson, David Bradbury and Nikolas Butcher (biomedical engineering)
  Advised by: Muhammad Rizwan and Chunxiu (Traci) Yu (BioMed)
  Sponsored by: MTU Department of Biomedical Engineering

• Honorable Mention — 231. Rubber Tire Asphalt Design for County Road 573 in Dickinson County, MI
  Team members: Matthew Burns, Jordan Dent, Benjamin Nagel and Colton Haataja (civil engineering)
  Advised by: Zhanping You (CEGE)
  Sponsored by: Lance Malburg, Engineer, Dickinson County Road Commission

• Honorable Mention — 205. Calculation of radiation view factors via high performance ray tracing on HPCs and GPUs
  Team members: Erik Taylor, Charlie Knipper, Peter Alger and Debbie Brink (computer engineering)
  Advised by: John Lukowski (ECE)
  Sponsored by: ThermoAnalytics

Images

• First Place — 207. Day in the Life on the Moon
• Second Place — 106. CinOptic Communication and Media Enterprise
• Third Place — 228. Reducing Manganese Content in Solid Steel Weld Wire

Innovation Awards

• First Place — 219. Molecular Monitoring System
• Second Place — 218. Minimally-Invasive (MIS) Cable Passer for Trauma Surgery
• Third Place — 108. Consumer Products Manufacturing - Authentic, Affordable, Accessible [AAA] Prosthesis Team

Enterprise Awards

• Rookie Award — Nick Miller, Multiplanetary Innovation Enterprise, and Sam Hendershott, Robotic Systems Enterprise
• Innovative Solutions — Samuel Cox, Consumer Product Manufacturing
• Outstanding Enterprise Leadership — Mason Mariuzza,  Multiplanetary Innovation Enterprise
• Behind the Scenes — Len Switzer, Enterprise Program Office
• Outstanding Sponsor — GlaxoSmithKline
• Champions of Organization Award — H-STEM Enterprise

As the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) section at Michigan Tech transitions to a new advisor, we want to reflect on our history at Michigan Tech. We are proud of our section’s accomplishments, both at Tech and as our SWE at Michigan Tech alumnae progress through their careers. This week in Tech Today, we'll be highlighting some of our most notable SWE members and their accomplishments.

From SWE History: In 1975, we submitted our charter to SWE and became a section in 1976. Since then, we have grown to be an internationally recognized collegiate section even though we are a medium-sized section (40-plus active members) at Michigan Tech. Gretchen Hein (MMET) has been our SWE faculty advisor since 1998 — for 26 years — over half the lifetime of our section! She was recognized for her service at the annual SWE-Wisconsin Professional Day. Although she will be greatly missed for her mentorship and support, we are looking forward to working with Jaclyn Johnson (ME-EM) as our new faculty advisor.

Notable SWE Alumnae:

• Martha Sloan, professor emerita in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), is a SWE Fellow and served on the SWE Board of Trustees for nine years. She was the first woman faculty member in ECE.

• Kaitlyn (Reed) Bunker ’10 ’12 ’14 (B.S. M.S. Ph.D. Electrical Engineering)
  SWE Service: 
  - President of the Rocky Mountain Section
  - FY13 Collegiate Director, Board of Directors
  - Member of the Nominating Committee
  - FY21-23 Senator
  - FY24-25 SWE Secretary, Board of Directors
  Awards:
  - WE13 Outstanding Collegiate Member
  - WE18 Distinguished New Engineer
  - WE19 Global Team Leadership
  - Michigan Tech Outstanding New Alumni
  - Board of Directors Member of Rural Renewable Energy Alliance (RREAL)

• Anne (Dancy) Maher ’12 (B.S. Biomedical Engineering)
  Award:
  - WE19 Distinguished New Engineer

Ph.D. in Biological Sciences candidate Michelle Kelly will present a final doctoral defense from 10:30-11:30 a.m. Wednesday (April 24) in Fisher 231. Virtual attendance is also invited via Zoom.

Kelly's dissertation is titled "Novel Analytical Approaches for the Study of Energy and Nutrient Flow in Streams."

Kelly is a fifth-year Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Biological Sciences and a 2021 graduate of the Data Science Foundations Certificate program at Michigan Tech.

Advised by Amy Marcarelli, her research explores energy and nutrient cycling in aquatic ecosystems using machine learning and Bayesian modeling-based approaches. She completed a master's degree in ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Kansas in 2019.

From the abstract:
The goal of this dissertation was to improve the research and understanding of energy and nutrient cycling in streams through 3 studies: (1) patterns of respiration and denitrification in streams across the United States, (2) simultaneous estimation of denitrification and nitrogen (N) fixation rates, and (3) the interacting role of microbial communities and dissolved organic matter (DOM) quality on respiration. In the first study, I used predictive modeling approaches to show that respiration and denitrification were positively correlated across the landscape but were predicted by factors at different spatial scales. Denitrification rates were best predicted by the characteristics of the stream, such as phosphorus and nitrogen concentrations and streambed cover type. In contrast, respiration was best predicted by characteristics of the landscape, such as watershed land cover and slope. In the second study, we identified several opportunities to improve modeling of the simultaneous estimation of denitrification and N fixation through model structure adjustments and experimental parameterization. I also improved upon standard methods of air-water exchange rate estimation by using the natural abundance of argon as a tracer gas. In the final study, I determined that experimental conditions, such as incubation time and measurement frequency, as well as calculated decay metrics, impact interpretation of experiments designed to test the biodegradability of dissolved organic matter in water. Overall, this dissertation applied novel modeling, experimental and statistical approaches to overcome challenges for measuring and comparing processes on compatible scales and provided a path forward for future studies of the interacting effects between energy and nutrient cycling in streams.

The Michigan Tech Nordic ski team distributed annual team awards at their potluck banquet over the weekend.

This season marks the conclusion of the careers of five Huskies, as undergraduates Olivia Laven (engineering management), Anabel Needham (environmental engineering), Jasper Johnston (forestry) and Henry Snider (mechanical engineering), together with graduate assistant coach Félix Cottet-Puinel (master's student, exercise science), are all graduating this spring.

The team award winners are:

• Scholastic Achievement Award: Olivia Laven and Parker Courte-Rathwell
• Most Improved Skier Award: Colin Freed and Olivia Laven
• Most Outstanding Skier Award: Anabel Needham and Skylar Patten
• Harold Meese Sportsmanship Award: Colin Freed and Bridget Burns
• Team Husky Award: Synne Herheim and Henry Snider

Read more at Michigan Tech Athletics.

Michigan Tech hockey has an online BSN Team Store open until April 29 featuring CCHA Mason Cup Championship and Great Lakes Invitational Championship apparel.

The exclusive shop features T-shirts and sweatshirts with men, women and youth size options.

Shop Now.

Job Posting for Monday, April 22, 2024

Staff and faculty job descriptions are available on the Human Resources website. For more information regarding staff positions, call 906-487-2280 or email humanresources@mtu.edu. For more information regarding faculty positions, contact the academic department in which the position is posted.

Director – Media Technology Services, Information Technology. 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 humanresources@mtu.edu.

Jared Anderson (VPA) was quoted by WLUC TV6 in a story previewing Michigan Tech Music's "Mosaic for Earth" concert, held last Saturday (April 20) at the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts. The Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra, Michigan Tech Choirs and more than 150 local musicians in total took part in the concert.

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Tess Ahlborn (CEGE) and Adjunct Professor Joshua Pearce (MSE) were mentioned by 3DPrint.com in a story profiling "construction 3D printing pioneer" Megan Kreiger ’09 ’12 (B.S. Mathematics M.S. Materials Science and Engineering). Kreiger is the portfolio manager of additive construction (AC) and the U.S. Department of Defense’s subject matter expert of AC at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Engineer Research and Development Center.

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Adjunct Professor Joshua Pearce (MSE) was mentioned by 3DPrint.com in a story discussing whether recycled 3D printer filament could be key to sustainable development. The story noted that a large portion of the existing research on filament recycling was conducted by Michigan Tech.

Clearance Sale at University Chemical Stores

University Chemical Stores is having a sale on many items, with discounts up to 75%. Take advantage of these prices now; items are available on a first-come, first-served basis, and won't be available after May 17.

A list of currently discounted items is available on our clearance spreadsheet, and additional product information can be obtained via our catalog or by emailing us at chemstores@mtu.edu.

To stock up on these products while they're available, please submit our online order requisition form.

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Book Donations to the Friends of the Michigan Tech Library

As the school year winds down, we wonder: Do you have any books to donate to the Friends of the Michigan Tech Library?

All books donated to the Friends are sold at one of our book sales, either in the fall, at Winter Carnival or in the spring, and all proceeds support the Van Pelt and Opie Library at Michigan Tech. The Friends support the leisure reading collection, productivity items available at the Circulation Desk, collections, travel grants, interns for the Michigan Tech Archives and more!

We would like to make this easy for you, and so we have volunteers who can come get book donations if you would like us to. To arrange a pickup, please email Steve Walton at sawalton@mtu.edu or fmtl-l@mtu.edu and someone will contact you to arrange the pickup. If you prefer to bring them yourself, they can be brought to the library’s loading dock during business hours. When you arrive at the loading dock, call the number on the door near the loading dock and the Circulation Desk will send out some helpers to take the books.

Thanks for considering a donation — and thank you for supporting the library.

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2024 Annual Steam Shutdown

The annual steam shutdown for 2024 will take place the week following Spring Commencement, from Sunday (April 28) through May 3 (weather permitting).

This outage is required to provide maintenance and service of the boilers and steam distribution system on campus. This planned maintenance improves the reliability of our system and reduces the likelihood of an unplanned failure during the winter heating season.

Note: There will not be heat or hot water in the affected buildings during the steam shutdown. There will be no distilled water available from the steam-driven stills. Steam-driven autoclaves/sterilizers will not be operational.

Annual steam shutdown dates/times:

• Begins: Sunday, April 28, at noon
• Ends: Friday, May 3, at noon

Buildings affected:

• Administration Building
• ROTC Building
• Academic Office Building
• Annex Building
• Electrical Energy Resources Center
• Dow Environmental Sciences and Engineering Building
• Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts
• Walker Arts and Humanities Center
• Minerals and Materials Engineering Building
• Grover C. Dillman Hall
• Fisher Hall
• J. R. Van Pelt and John and Ruanne Opie Library
• U. J. Noblet Forestry Building
• H-STEM Building
• Chemical Sciences and Engineering Building
• R. L. Smith Building (MEEM)
• Student Development Complex
• Kanwal and Ann Rekhi Hall
• Douglass Houghton Hall
• Memorial Union Building
• Wadsworth Hall
• McNair Hall
• Central Energy Plant
• Facilities Management
• Hillside Place
• Great Lakes Research Center

If there are questions or concerns with this plan, contact Steve Store, energy plant manager, at 906-487-2706 (office), 906-390-6336 (cell) or scstore@mtu.edu.

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East Hall Construction Update

Please note that construction on East Hall is underway and will pick up pace with the nicer weather. Construction will impact campus this summer as follows:

• Prince’s Point Trail will be closed during April and May 2024.
• Pedestrian traffic routes will change beginning April 29. Changes will remain in effect until summer 2025.
• The area and sidewalk south of Walker and the Rozsa will be closed from May 20 to the end of June 2024.
• The parking lot east of the Rozsa (Lot 5) will be closed from May 20 until mid-July 2024.
• Cliff Drive will be closed one weekend in May 2024 (exact dates TBD).
• Construction delivery truck traffic routes will cross Cliff Drive.

For a detailed map of the areas impacted by this construction, please visit Facilities Management's East Hall Construction page. Facilities will continue to provide updates as impacts to campus change.

Drivers and pedestrians are reminded to keep alert while in and around construction zones and to follow all appropriate directions and detours as well as stay on designated pedestrian paths.

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Summer Hours Begin at End of April

Beginning April 29, the University will shift to our summer hours schedule. The core hours of operation will be 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., meaning all offices must be staffed during these hours.

Employees are expected to fulfill their usual full-time or part-time obligations. Employee work schedules during this time must be coordinated with, and approved by, their supervisor.

Regular office hours (8 a.m. to 5 p.m.) will resume Aug. 12.

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SYP Scholarship Available for UP Students

Summer Youth Programs (SYP) and the Department of Social Sciences (SS) at Michigan Tech have partnered with John and Patricia Case to provide $500 scholarships to 10 Upper Peninsula high school students to explore interests and experience college life at Michigan Tech this summer.

SYP is kind of like summer camp, but smarter. To be eligible for the award, U.P. students currently in grades 9-11 must enroll in one of three SYP courses: Climate & Sustainability, Discover Archaeology, or Model UN: Climate Change. Then, they must complete the additional scholarship application for the John & Patricia Case Scholarship.

During these SYP courses, students will be hands-on in the lab and out in the field designing, experimenting and discovering with students from around the world. Each program is one week long and will be held on campus at Michigan Tech between June 16 and July 26.

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Fringe Benefits Satisfaction Survey

The Fringe Benefits Committee (FBC) of Michigan Tech's University Senate would like to hear from you about your satisfaction regarding Michigan Tech’s fringe benefits. The FBC welcomes and encourages all benefits-eligible Michigan Tech employees to respond to our anonymous survey.

The FBC will use the survey results to guide the future work the FBC does on behalf of all University Senate constituents.

Additionally, the FBC will share the anonymous, aggregate survey results with MTU’s Benefits Advisory Committee, a group of faculty and staff members (three senate representatives sit on this committee) charged to review and make benefits recommendations to University leadership.

The survey is a comprehensive look at all our benefits. It is mostly multiple choice with some open-ended questions. We expect it to take approximately six minutes, depending how many comments you wish to share.

The survey will be live through May 1. The FBC thanks you for your time.

Take the survey.

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Website Update for J-1 Visa English Language Requirements

International Programs and Services (IPS) and the Graduate School have worked to streamline the process regarding the methods by which visiting scholars and exchange students can provide proof of English language proficiency for J-1 visa purposes. View IPS's page, J-1 Exchange Visitor Scholars — specifically, English Proficiency Requirements — to view the multiple options one can use to verify English language proficiency for J-1 visa purposes.

The webpage Visiting Scholar and Exchange Student Online English Language Assessments has been moved from the Grad School's website to IPS's website, but the assessments are still available, if necessary.

Questions? Contact ips@mtu.edu or gradschool@mtu.edu.

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Essential Ed Assessment Survey for Gen Ed Courses

The Essential Education Implementation Assessment Working Group is searching for instructors who are teaching General Education courses to fill out a brief survey. This is the final call for your valued input, which will help us build the new Essential Education initiative at Michigan Tech.

Completing this survey will help our working group accomplish three objectives:

1. Get a sense of your interpretation of the Essential Education learning outcomes (aka Essential Abilities or EAs), as currently defined.
2. Understand how current General Education courses support EAs in terms of content, activities and/or assignments.
3. Gather your suggestions for revision of the EA definitions for clarity.

Thank you for your assistance. This information will help guide plans for supporting and assessing EAs in courses and across the program. Faculty will have other opportunities to provide input throughout the process of developing Michigan Tech’s Essential Education program.

The estimated time to complete the survey is 10-15 minutes. Thank you for your time and contributions to the building of this student-focused initiative.

Take the Essential Ability Alignment Survey.

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

KMEA Presents: Together in Song: Come Travel With Me

Monday, April 22, 6 p.m. | Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts DURATION

A celebration of singing provided by the school choirs of the Keweenaw. CONTENT GUIDANCE