Melanie Kueber Watkins (CEE/MTTI) is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $45,000 research and development contract from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The title of the project is “Letter of Intent for NCHRP Synthesis 20-05/Topic 50-02: Highway Hydraulic Engineering State of Practice.”
This is an 18-month project.
The Vice President for Research Office has awarded Century II Campaign Endowed Equipment Funds (C2E2) at the recommendation of the C2E2 Committee. Noel Urban (GLRC/CEE) received funding for his project GLRC Submission: Water Purification System in Support of GLRC Research and Education.
C2E2 is a program aimed at providing equipment money to improve the lives of faculty, students, and staff campus-wide.
HOUGHTON — Students at Michigan Technological University’s (MTU) Sustainable Development House (SDH) have combined fish and plants into a sustainable farming system called aquaponics. The arrangement of pipes and tanks uses plants and bacteria in an inorganic substrate as the filter for fish tank water, creating an organic system that feeds the plants and keeps the fish healthy.
“We just added a ton of new fish Wednesday,” said SDH resident and project manager Rose Turner.
The aquaponic setup is part of Turner’s senior design project at MTU. It’s a combination of aquaculture and hydroponics, and has some of the strengths and weaknesses of each.
Read more at the Mining Gazette, by Joshua Vissers.
Rose is a senior environmental engineering student from Berkley, Michigan. This is her final semester at Tech and her last semester as the coordinator of the SDH.
Read more at the Michigan Tech Sustainability Demonstration House Facebook page.
HOUGHTON — As high rain or flood events become more prevalent, many areas are putting a renewed focus on natural methods to mitigate flooding.
Michigan Technological University researchers spoke to a standing-room-only crowd at the Carnegie Museum Thursday on the changing climate patterns and extreme weather conditions which contributed to the severity of the June 17 flood.
As air gets warmer, it holds more water vapor, said David Watkins, a Tech civil and environmental engineering professor. At the same time, accelerated warming in the Arctic has shifted the jet stream that circulates air globally, turning it from a direct path to a “lazy river,” Watkins said.
By 2030, extreme weather events will be more likely, and urbanization will have accelerated, said Alex Mayer, professor of geological and mining engineering sciences and civil and environmental engineering at Tech. In 2030, a projected 60 percent of all urban areas will have been built in the past 30 years.
The talk is the first in a series of Father’s Day Flood presentations held by the Keweenaw Land Trust and Carnegie Museum.
John Velat (CEE/MTTI) is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $24,000 contract from the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation.
The title of the project is “Mashashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation’s Long Range Transportation Plan Update.”
This is a six-month project.
By Sponsored Programs Office.
Pengfei Xue (CEE/GLRC) is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $130,118 research and development contract from the University of Michigan-Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research (CIGLR).
The title of the project is “The Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research: Long-Term Data Assimilative, Temperature and Currents Database for Lake Erie.”
This is a one-year project.
By Sponsored Programs.
STANTON TOWNSHIP — In the June 17 storm that caused flash flooding in many areas, the steel dam at Redridge suffered accelerated and aggravated damage and distress.
Stan Vitton, of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at Michigan Technological University, is now the principal investigator for stabilization project to be funded by Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Vitton and his team have worked to monitor the dam’s condition, needed repairs, and other stabilization procedures, Vrana said, and their work has been instrumental in keeping the project on the front burner since the study and restoration programs started in 2008.
More than 700 students in grades 4-12 in thirty classes from ten schools in Houghton, Baraga, and Gogebic Counties descended upon Michigan Tech’s Great Lakes Research Center on Wednesday, October 17, from 9am to 3 pm, for the 7th Annual Lake Superior Water Festival. Students from the following schools participated : Baraga High School, Barkell Elementary, CLK Elementary, EB Holman School, Houghton Middle School, Ironwood High School, Jeffers Middle School, Lake Linden-Hubbell Middle School, South Range Elementary, and Washington Middle School.
Twenty-four different sessions were presented throughout the day, presented by Michigan Tech scientists (including Dr. Audra Morse and Daisuke Minakata’s graduate Student, Ryan Kibler) and graduate students, along with U.S. Coast Guard, Ottawa National Forest, Isle Royale National Park, Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, BHK AmeriCorps and Copper Harbor Trails Club. See attached list of presenters/locations.
The Water Festival provides an opportunity for students to learn about and celebrate our most precious natural resource – the Great Lakes! A wide variety of topics from science and engineering to creative writing will be presented. Students attend four 35-minute activities. Some of the topics to be presented include Remotely-Operated- Vehicles, Leave No Trace Outdoors, cleaning wastewater, Careers with the U.S. Coast Guard, the Chemistry of Corrosion, Design a Fog Harvester, and more.
The 2018 Water Festival is coordinated by the Michigan Tech Center for Science & Environmental Outreach, with funding from the Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative and Michigan Tech’s Great Lakes Research Center.
“Thank you so much for the opportunity to present at Water Festival. It was a blast to teach all of the students. Thanks for all your hard work in organizing such a wonderful event. It’s so exciting to see kids getting hands-on experience in labs and introduced to science at a young age.” – Ryan Kibler, ENVE MS Student
The Center for Technology and Training (CTT) hosted its third annual Roadsoft User Conference of the United States (RUCUS) Sept. 26, 2018, in Grand Rapids. RUCUS was attended by more than 70 persons representing road agencies in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana and Pennsylvania.
Conference topics included roadway asset inventory, inspection and maintenance; using the Roadsoft culvert, drainage structure and sidewalk modules; and safety, pavement management strategies and project planning. The event also provided attendees with networking opportunities with other agencies and with CTT staff.
Those CTT staff attending the conference were Research Engineer Pete Torola, PE and Dale Lighthizer, PhD, PE; Senior Project Manager Gary Schlaff; Training and Operations Senior Project Manager Christine Codere; Technical Specialist Scott Bershing; Customer Service and Data Support Specialist Allison Berryman; Principal Programmers Nick Koszykowski and Luke Peterson; Senior Software Engineers Mary Crane, Nancy Moore and Mike Pionke and Software Engineer Sean Thorpe.
A one-day “Introduction to Roadsoft” training was conducted at the conference venue on Sept. 25. The training provided an overview and instructions on using the following Roadsoft features: map interface, legends, filters and reports; road, sign and culvert modules; data collection using the laptop data collector; safety analysis using crash data; data management and numerous tips and tricks.
Roadsoft is a roadway asset management system for collecting, storing and analyzing data associated with transportation infrastructure. Roadsoft is developed and supported by the CTT with principal funding from the Michigan Department of Transportation.
Center for Technology and Training (CTT) staff Allison Berryman, Mary Crane and Mike Pionke traveled to lower Michigan providing Roadsoft on-site technical assistance in the cities of Detroit, Ann Arbor, Manchester and Pinckney, and at the Newaygo County Road Commission during the week of Oct. 22, 2018.
This is the fifth year of the semi-annual “Roadsoft On The Road” visits, which are hands-on sessions with agency-specific topics. Besides helping Roadsoft customers, the sessions provide CTT software engineers with valuable information about client workflow and challenges; this helps guide further software development to provide improved capability and usability of the Roadsoft program.
The Center for Technology and Training is a research center housed at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Roadsoft is a roadway asset management software suite for collecting, storing, and analyzing data associated with transportation infrastructure. Roadsoft is developed and supported by the CTT with principal funding from the Michigan Department of Transportation.
The Office of Environmental Health and Safety announced the first of two inaugural Excellence in Safety awards for the 2019 academic year.
This year’s academic recipient is the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department. CEE is being recognized for the efforts of its Laboratory Safety and Chemical Hygiene Committee. The committee, comprised of Stan Vitton, Chris Wojick, Dave Perram, Lisa Cunard, Kiko de Melo e Silva, Jake Hiller and Noel Urban, worked to become campus leaders in both online training and self-inspection. The committee developed a training matrix that matches specific lab hazards to training titles in the PureSafety system, and was one of the first departments to adopt the SafetyStratus system for department-level lab inspections.
CEE thanks Chair Audra Morse for her support of the committee’s excellent work, and all of the employees of CEE for their ongoing commitment to safety.
By Environmental Health and Safety.