Category: Succeeding in Graduate School

Articles about professional development and seminar announcements.

Tech Student Brings Solar Power to Chinese Village

Yawei Wei inspects the solar panels he and his family installed on his cousin's roof in the rural Chinese community of Zao Yuan.
Every Chinese New Year, the power goes out for everyone in Yawei Wei’s hometown. That got him wondering: isn’t there some way to get more electricity to China’s rural villages?

Wei, whose specialty is power engineering, realized he might not be able to keep the lights on during the surge in power demand over New Year’s Eve. But he could do something. He could bring solar panels to sunny Zao Yuan. Specifically, he could bring them to his cousin’s roof.

Read the full story.

Published in Tech Today by Marcia Goodrich, magazine editor

To Russia with Code: Tech Students Make World Finals in Computer Programming

Only 120 teams of 10,000 worldwide are going, and Michigan Tech is one of them. They earned the right to go to Russia to compete in the world finals of the International Collegiate Programming Contest next June by finishing fifth in the North Central regional qualifying contest.

Computer science students Tom Holmes and Eric Rinkus and math major Ryan McNamara will be making the trip to Ural Federal University in Ekaterinburg with coach and computer science PhD student Jason Hiebel.

According to longtime coach Dave Poplawski, professor of computer science, it is a great accomplishment just to get this far, especially given the quality and size of other universities that have qualified and the number of schools Tech had to beat. US teams the likes of MIT, University of California-Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, University of Michigan, Virginia Tech, NYU and others will be crunching 0s and 1s in Russia.

Graduate students making national media coverage

The research of Materials Science and Engineering PhD Students Chenlong Zhang and Bas Wijnen along with their collaborators Jerry Anzalone (MSE), Paul Sanders (MSE) and Joshua M. Pearce (MSE/ECE) has been covered widely by the national media including: NBC News, CNN Money, Live Science and the International Science Times in articles like “Low-Cost, Open-Source 3-D Metal Printer Could Bring Revolutionary Technology To Millions.”

Published in Tech Today.

The Van Pelt and Opie Library Announces Digital Commons @ Michigan Tech.

Digital Commons @ Michigan Tech offers the campus a digital repository for worldwide access to its research, scholarship and other academic works created by members of the Michigan Tech community.

Digital Commons @ Michigan Tech has the capacity to provide and preserve access to all types of documents and publications–from articles and reports to books, journals and other creative works. Tools are also provided to manage the publication process, including peer review. Organization can be by college, department or even individual scholar. Access can be open globally, controlled by ISO login or unique passwords when desirable.

PCMI graduate’s paper published in Journal

Peace Corps Masters International Environmental Engineering Program graduate Cara Shonsey has published a paper titled, “Quantifying available water supply in rural Mali based on data collected by and from women,” in a special issue of the Journal of Cleaner Production on Water, Women, Waste, Wisdom and Wealth. Her advisor, John Gierke (GMES), co-authored the paper. See online.

Published in Tech Today.

Biotechnology Research Center announces Fall 2013 Travel Awards

The Biotechnology Research Center announces its Fall 2013 Travel Grants. Recipients include:

Post doctoral Research Scientist Presentation:

  • Mimi Yang (SCH) 246th American Chemical Society National Meeting (poster)
  • Lijun Zhang (EBE) MSC 2013 Adult Stem Cell Therapy and Regenerative Medicine Meeting (poster)

Graduate Student Presentations:

  • Faten Dhawi Almuhanna (IBMB) International Plant and Animal Genome XXII Meeting (poster)
  • Ran An (ECM) SciX 2013 Conference (poster)
  • David Chadderdon (ECM) 2013 AIChE Annual Conference (podium)
  • Kristina Flesher (FAE) International Annual Meetings of ASA, CSSA, and SSSA (poster)
  • Azhang Hamlekhan (MEEM) TMS 2014 Annual Meeting & Exhibition (podium)
  • Sean Hopkins (EBE) ) 246th American Chemical Society National Meeting (poster)
  • Maryam Khaksari (ECM) SciX 2013 Conference (poster)
  • Connor McCarthy (EBE) 246th American Chemical Society National Meeting (poster)
  • Ramkumar Mohan (SBL) The Midwest Islet Club Meeting (poster)
  • Ji Qi (ECM) 2013 AIChE Annual Conference (podium)
  • Aparupa Sengupta (SBL) Society for Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology (podium)
  • Emily Shearier (EBE) TERMIS-AM 2013 Conference and Exposition (poster)
  • Maria Tafur (ECM) 2013 AIChE Annual Conference (podium)
  • Le Xin (ECM) 2013 AIChE Annual Conference (podium and poster)

Published in Tech Today

DOE Scholars Program is now accepting applications

The Department of Energy (DOE) Scholars Program is now accepting applications for Summer 2014.

The DOE Scholars Program offers unique opportunities that introduce students or post-graduates to the agency’s mission and operations. Participants in the DOE Scholars Program gain a competitive edge as they apply their education, talent and skills in a variety of scientific research settings within the DOE complex. Appointments are available in a variety of disciplines at participating DOE facilities nationwide.

Application deadline is January 12, 2014 at midnight EST.

Being selected as a DOE Scholar offers the following benefits:

  • Career possibilities with the nation’s leading sponsor for scientific research
  • Opportunities to learn from top scientists and subject matter experts
  • Stipends of up to $650 per week (depending on academic status)
  • Travel arrangements to and from appointment site

Eligibility requirements:

  • US Citizens
  • Undergraduates, graduates or post-graduates of an accredited college or university

For an overview of the program, click here.

To contact the DOE Scholars Program, click here.

Michigan Tech Scientists Verify Nanodiamond Discovery

Diamonds, usually forged in overwhelming heat and pressure miles deep in the Earth’s mantle, have now been made at atmospheric pressure and 100 degrees Celcius—the boiling point of water.

No one will be wearing these diamonds on their ring finger, however.  They are nanodiamonds, just two or three nanometers across, invisible to all but electron microscopes. But their properties could be as alluring as crown jewels. Unlike the other form of carbon, graphite, diamond is a semiconductor, similar to silicon, which is the dominant material in the electronics industry, and gallium arsenide, which is used in lasers and other optical devices.

The discovery, by project leader Mohan Sankaran, Associate Professor of chemical engineering at Case Western Reserve University, was aided by Physics Professor Yoke Khin Yap and graduate student Boyi Hao of Michigan Tech.  Using ultraviolet Ramen spectroscopy in Yap’s lab, they confirmed that Sankaran’s group had indeed made nanodiamonds.

Find out more at the Michigan Tech news site.

Published in Tech Today.