Author: Sue Hill

Sue Hill is the Digital Content Manager for the College of Engineering.

Culvert Asset Management Selected as Project of the Year

APWA 2018 Award with five people including two recipients

Tim Colling, Director of the Center for Technology & Training, congratulates Chris Gilbertson and Scott Bershing for their leadership with the 2018 Michigan Local Agency Culvert Asset Management Pilot Project. The project was selected as the 2019 Project of the Year by the Michigan Chapter of the American Public Works Association (APWA). The team was able to complete this project on a tight, legislatively mandated timeframe.

I think this project is a great example of the work that Michigan Tech does working closely with state and local government to support public infrastructure. Tim Colling

Gilbertson and Bershing received the award at APWA’s Statewide Conference on May 23, 2019. The project was forwarded to the APWA National office for competition at that level.

Also winning an APWA award was Zhanping You for his project with Kalamazoo Country Road commission using recycled tire rubber for a chip seal.

Tim Colling
CTT Director Tim Colling
Chris Gilbertson
Chris Gilbertson
Scott Bershing
Scott Bershing
Zhanping You
Zhanping You

Marty Auer Selected to Receive IAGLR Lifetime Achievement Award

Martin T. Auer
Martin T. Auer

The International Association for Great Lakes Research (IAGLR) has selected Marty Auer (CEE) for their Lifetime Achievement Award. He has been a member since 1975 and a generous donor of IAGLR scholarships. His nomination described Auer’s academic excellence in several areas of research and leadership that has had a positive impact on Great Lakes research.

By Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Rural School Educational Grant

Lloyd Wescoat
Lloyd Wescoat

Lloyd Wescoat (CEE/GLRC) is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $74,967 grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce – National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association.

Joan Schumaker Chadde (CEE) and Amanda Gonczi (GLRC) are co-PIs on the project titled “Lake Superior Stewardship Initiative – Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences for Rural Schools.”

This is an 18-month project totaling $74,967.

Pasi Lautala Participates in Shift2Rail

Pasi Lautala
Pasi Lautala

Pasi Lautala (CEE) the director of Michigan Tech’s Rail Transportation Program was invited to participate in a Shift2Rail project meeting in Pardubice, Czech Republic. Lautala also gave a presentation titled, “Importance of (Freight) Rail Transportation in North America.”

Shift2Rail is the first European rail initiative to seek focused research and innovation (R&I) and market-driven solutions by accelerating the integration of new and advanced technologies into innovative rail product solutions. Shift2Rail promotes the competitiveness of the European rail industry and meets changing EU transport needs to complete the Single European Railway Area (SERA).

Concrete Canoe and Steel Bridge Teams Finish First at 2019 North Central Regional Competition

2019 North Central Student Conference

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) North Central Student Conference brings together students from 11 universities from Michigan and Ohio to participate in a multitude of events, particularly the Concrete Canoe competition.

Beginning with the 2019 competition year, the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) is the sole sponsor of all 18 regional Student Steel Bridge Competitions (SSBC) nationwide. Students from 11 universities from Michigan, Indiana and Ohio competed based on the rules established by AISC.

The 2019 conference and competitions took place April 12-14 at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Among the attendees were the Michigan Tech Concrete Canoe team and Michigan Tech ASCE Student Chapter’s Steel Bridge team.

Both the Concrete Canoe and Steel Bridge teams finished first, qualifying them for the Nationals.

The Steel Bridge team also finished first in the subcategories of stiffness, economy, construction speed, structural efficiency and aesthetics.

The National Finals of the Steel Bridge competition are May 31- June 1 at Southern Illinois University.

The National Finals of the Concrete Canoe competition are June 6-8 in Melbourne, Florida.

Related:

Scaling the Heights: Concrete Canoe Team Prepped for 2018 Regionals

Steeled for Success: A Husky Tradition Forged in Engineering Excellence

Best Papers in Environmental Science 2018

Mercury Deposition mapNoel Urban (CEE), Cory McDonald (CEE), Shiliang Wu (CEE/GMES), Judith Perlinger (CEE), Valoree Gagnon (SS), Hugh Gorman (SS) and Charles Kerfoot (BioSci) with CEE/EPD2 students, Tanvir Kahn, Ashley Hendricks, Mudgha Priyadarshini, Morgan Bolstad, Huanxin Zhang, and A. Kumar published two papers on mercury deposition, both nominated for their excellence.

The papers were nominated as Best Papers 2018 – Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts by the Environmental Science Best Papers Initiative among those published in the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Environmental Science journal family.

Perlinger, J.A., Urban, N.R., Giang, A., Selin, N.E., Hendricks, A.N., Zhang, H., Kumar, A., Wu, S., Gagnon, V.S., Gorman, H.S., and Norman, E.S., Responses of deposition and bioaccumulation in the Great Lakes region to policy and other large-scale drivers of mercury emissions, Environ. Sci.: Processes Impacts, 20, 195-209, 2018.

DOI: 10.1039/C7EM00547D

Kerfoot, W.C., Urban, N.R., McDonald, C.P., Zhang, H., Rossmann, R., Perlinger, J.A., Khan, T., Hendricks, A., Priyadarshini, M., Bolstad, M., Mining legacy across a wetland landscape: High mercury in Upper Peninsula (Michigan) rivers, lakes, and fish, Environ. Sci.: Processes Impacts, 20, 708-733, 2018.

DOI: 10.1039/C7EM00521K

Pasi Lautala Presents Abroad on Rail Transportation

Level Crossing Forum adPasi Lautala (CEE), Director of Michigan Tech’s Rail Transportation Program, lectured at the Jyväskylä University of Applied Sciences in Finland. The presentation was titled, “Railroads as Part of Transportation System (in U.S. and Elsewhere).”

Lautala also participated in International Union of Railways Workshop on Rail Suicide and Trespasser Prevention and the 21st European Level Crossing Forum in Paris, France. As part of the Level Crossing Forum, Lautala presented research conducted at Michigan Tech, “Driver Behavior at Level Crossings — In-Vehicle Auditory Alerts and Naturalistic Driving Data Research in the USA.”

Center Receives Grant to Provide Outdoor Science Field Trips for 4000 Area Students

Brian Doughty Nara Nature Center
Science specialist Brian Doughty teaches at the Nara Nature Center.

More than four thousand western UP students will spend time learning outdoors this school year thanks to a $20,000 grant from the Wege Foundation recently provided to the Michigan Tech Center for Science and Environmental Outreach. The Center’s Outdoor Science Investigations Field Trip Program is open to elementary and middle school students in all 19 school districts in Houghton, Baraga, Gogebic, Ontonagon and Keweenaw counties. Last year, the Field Trip Program engaged more than 4000 students in 200 classes from 14 schools in outdoor science learning, from physical and earth science, to forestry, wildlife, and stream monitoring.

Two activities are offered for each grade level during each season, led by the Center’s science specialist, Brian Doughty. Activities for younger students focus on exploration and observation. These field trips enhance classroom learning and provide real-world, hands-on experiences for students. All activities are correlated to Michigan Science Standards and connect to the school curriculum. The outdoor classroom allows students to utilize science and math skills, including observing, predicting, data-collection, analysis, and graphing.

During the winter field trip season, students are provided with snowshoes to incorporate physical exercise into their learning. Students investigate topics such as the “wind chill” effect, which materials make better insulators, and techniques used by wildlife to survive our cold, snowy winters. One teacher observed, “My students absolutely loved the program. Their favorite part was looking for decomposers, which made the food web a reality for them. Later on that day, one of my students was very excited because she found the word, ‘carnivore’ in her reading. This is just what we learned this morning!”

The Center’s mission is to enhance the teaching and learning of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and promote environmental stewardship amongst K-12 students and teachers. For more information about the Wege Foundation grant or the field trip program, contact Joan Chadde at 906-487-3341 or jchadde@mtu.edu .