Category: Research

Built World Enterprise Teams Compete at WERC Design Competition

Two student teams from Michigan Tech competed in the WERC Environmental Design Contest at New Mexico State University from April 16–19, 2023. In the 33rd year of the competition, student teams set out to solve challenges facing society today. The teams were composed of environmental engineering majors who are members of the Built World Enterprise.

The first team, which included Jenna Cook, Morgan Halberg, Francine Rosinski, Nadia Stauffer, and Eden Traub, participated in Task 1: Sustainable Communities: Wastewater Reuse for Rural Communities. The task was to design a low-energy and low-maintenance wastewater treatment system so that rural communities in the southwest United States could reuse lagoon effluent to meet water needs.

The second team, consisting of Clark Fadior, Jake McDowell, Allison Olson, and Avery Reno, participated in Task 4: Detecting and Quantifying Microplastics in Reservoirs. For the task, they designed a portable system to detect and quantify microplastics in natural aquatic systems in real time.

Both teams had to create a bench-scale prototype of their design and a business plan, and deliver oral and poster presentations, including a four-minute flash talk.

The Task 1 team:

  • won first place overall for their task
  • won first place in the flash talks
  • earned the Pollution Prevention Award
  • will be invited to be published in IEEE Xplore.

The Task 4 team won second place in the flash talk.

Over 20 schools from across the country participated across the contest’s six tasks. Sponsors of the competition include EPA, Freeport-McMoRan, El Paso Electric Company and many more.

Congratulations to both teams!

By Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering.

The WERC Environmental Design Contest is a unique design competition that brings industry, government, and academia together in search for improved solutions to today’s environmental challenges in ALL fields of engineering.

W-E-R-C formerly stood for “Waste-management Education Research Consortium,” but we are broadening our scope. In addition to managing waste, students are now focusing their designs on minimizing energy & waste and conserving & recycling resources, including water, energy, and natural resources. We will reveal the new meaning of the W-E-R-C acronym this Spring.

Read more at WERC Design Contest, New Mexico State University.

2023 GLRC Grants for Novitch and Harazin

Please join the Great Lakes Research Center (GLRC) in congratulating the winter and spring 2023 GLRC Student Research and Travel Grant recipients.

The GLRC student grants are intended to provide undergraduate and graduate students advised by GLRC members an opportunity to gain experience in writing competitive grants, perform research they would not be able to attempt due to funding limitations or travel to a professional conference to present a poster or paper about their research.

Student grants also provide seed research data for advisors to use in pursuing externally funded research support, and travel grants help amplify areas of research expertise at Michigan Tech. Funded students are expected to participate/volunteer for at least one GLRC activity during the grant period.

Student Research Grants

  • James Juip, Ph.D. student — Social Sciences
    GLRC member advisor: Donald Lafreniere
    Research proposal: “Using Deep Maps and Spatial Narratives as a tool for Community Heritage Making”
  • Jacob Novitch, M.S. student — Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering
    GLRC member advisor: Jennifer Becker
    Research proposal: “Modeling of Lagoon Wastewater Treatment Systems in Small Communities”
  • Caitlyn Sutherlin, Ph.D. student — Social Sciences
    GLRC member advisor: Angie Carter
    Research proposal: “Identifying Community Connections to Nature in California, El Salvador with Photovoice”
  • Cassandra Reed-VanDam, M.S. student — College of Forest Resources and Environmental Science
    GLRC member advisor: Valoree Gagnon
    Research proposal: ““Restoration is repairing relations” manoomin (wild rice) restoration study in KBIC homelands”

Student Travel Grants

  • Leah Harazin, B.S. student — Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering
    GLRC member advisor: Stephen Techtmann
    Attending: 45th Symposium on Biomaterials, Fuels and Chemicals
    Presentation: “Stability of Terephthalate Degrading Microbial Consortia for Plastic Upcycling”
  • Anna Kavanaugh, B.S. student — Social Sciences
    GLRC member advisor: Mark Rhodes
    Attending: 2023 American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting
    Presentation: “The Continuation of Exclusionary Landscapes: Accessibility of Public Transportation in Urban America”
  • Zoe Ketola, M.S. student — Social Sciences
    GLRC member advisor: Chelsea Schelly
    Attending: World Social Science Association 65th Annual Conference
    Presentation: “Energy Service Security for Public Health Resilience: An energy services framework for health facility planning in Michigan’s Western Upper Peninsula”
  • Maya Klanderman, B.S. student — Social Sciences
    GLRC member advisor: Mark Rhodes
    Attending: 2023 American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting
    Presentation: “A Settler Scholar Perspective on Applying Indigenous Methodology in Undergraduate Research”
  • Laura Schaerer, Ph.D. student — Biological Sciences
    GLRC member advisor: Stephen Techtmann
    Attending: 45th Symposium on Biomaterials, Fuels and Chemicals
    Presentation: “Ecological interactions of specialist and generalist species within mixed plastic derivative-utilizing microbial communities”

GLRC Student Travel Grant applications are accepted anytime and will be reviewed on the last Friday of each month. Applications must be submitted at least two weeks in advance of travel. GLRC Student Research Grant applications are accepted three times each year — Nov. 1, March 1 and July 1.

By Great Lakes Research Center.

Zhanping You Appointed to EGLE Scrap Tire Advisory Committee

Zhanping You (CEGE/MTTI) has been appointed to the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) Scrap Tire Advisory Committee.

Section 16911(3) of Part 169, Scrap Tires, of the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act, 1994 PA 451, as amended, states:

“The director of the department shall appoint a scrap tire advisory committee of individuals interested in the management of scrap tires to advise the department on the implementation of this part. In addition to such other issues as the department may request the committee to consider, the committee shall advise the department on the report required by subsection (2) and the relevance of a national standard or specification under section 16901(1)(f).”

By Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering.

Daniel Dowden on Earthquake Resistance in Mass Timber Construction

Daniel Dowden
Daniel Dowden

Daniel Dowden (CEGE) was credited by DBusiness in a story about the benefits and potential of mass timber in the construction industry. Dowden provided info on mass timber buildings’ ability to withstand earthquakes.

Cited by National Geographic as the sustainable material with which future cities could be built, mass timber is an engineered wood that architects and builders increasingly see as a structural alternative to steel and concrete.

According to Dowden, steel and mass timber buildings can be built to respond in an equivalent manner to an earthquake of the same magnitude, but a mass timber structure built with cross-laminated timber walls that are designed to resist lateral forces must also be designed to withstand larger forces because wood is a brittle material compared to steel.

Read more at DBusiness, by Tom Beaman.

Ricardo Eiris, Josiane Isingizwe Receive Best Paper Award

Ricardo Eiris
Ricardo Eiris
Josiane Isingizwe
Josiane Isingizwe

Ricardo Eiris (CEGE) and PhD student Josiane Isingizwe (civil engineering) have been awarded the Best Paper Award for the Associated Schools of Construction (ASC) Conference Proceedings for papers published in 2023.

They received the award for a paper titled “Where Do Minority Serving Institutions Stand Today in U.S. Construction Education?”

The paper will be presented at the 59th Annual ASC International Conference in Liverpool, U.K., on April 3–5, 2023. Eiris and Isingizwe’s achievement will be celebrated during the award presentation.

Daisuke Minakata Podcast on Sunshine and Organic Molecules in Water

Organic molecules dissolved in rivers, lakes, seas and oceans are essential to plant and animal life. Some of these molecules are also degraded and enter a complex cycle of carbon, nitrogen and sulphur containing compounds. Surprisingly, scientists currently have a limited understanding of the fate of these molecules. Dr. Daisuke Minakata and his colleagues from Michigan Technological University are involved in an ambitious programme to overcome this critical knowledge gap.

Minakata was prompted to develop a theory to explain the loss of critical amino acids from water. He assumed that other organic molecules absorb the energy carried by the rays of sunshine and those reactive intermediates transform amino acids into small pieces. According to his theory, such light-activated compounds could act as catalysts, inducing the indirect breakdown of critical amino acids.

https://doi.org/10.33548/SCIENTIA882

Read more and listen to the podcast at SciPod.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

New Instrumentation Available for Radioisotope Research

The Department of Biological Sciences recently acquired a new liquid scintillation counter through a collaboration with the Vice President for Research Office; College of Sciences and Arts; Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering; Ecosystem Science Center; and Great Lakes Research Center.

This counter replaces an older, obsolete unit and is an essential piece of equipment for researchers working with or planning to work with radioisotopes. Researchers interested in using the new counter, or simply learning more about the about it, should contact David Dixon, director of biological laboratory operations, at dcdixon@mtu.edu.

By the Associate Vice President for Research Development.

Michigan Tech Rail Transportation Research Showcased in Washington, DC

Several of Michigan Tech’s ongoing rail transportation research projects were highlighted in Washington, DC, in early January, either as part of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) Annual Meeting, or as separate workshops and demonstrations.

Thomas Oommen (GMES) presented in a TRB workshop titled “International Perspectives on Strategies to Reduce Track-Caused Derailments,” and in a Track Support and Substructure Research Review organized by the Federal Railroad Administration.

Department of Cognitive and Learning Sciences PhD student Tauseef Ibne Mamun (applied cognitive science and human factors) presented our early work, titled “Multi-Site Simulation to Examine Driver Behavior Impact of Integrated Rail Crossing Violation Warning and In-Vehicle Auditory/Visual Alert System,” to the TRB AR080 Highway-Rail Grade Crossing Committee.

Richard Dobson (MTRI) gave an update on the Crossing-i drone technology development for improving grade crossing safety.

Pasi Lautala and John Velat (CEGE/MTTI), in collaboration with Battelle, hosted a booth in the TRB Exhibition and organized a daylong event outside the U.S. Department of Transportation headquarters to demonstrate the rail crossing violation warning (RCVW) technology.

For an RCVW technology introduction, visit our Rail Transportation Program website.

By Pasi Lautala, Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering.

Pengfei Xue on Great Lakes’ Hydroclimate Projections

Satellite view of the Great Lakes by NOAA.
SeaWiFS Project, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, and ORBIMAGE

Urban Milwaukee and Wisconsin Public Radio mentioned a Michigan Tech study in stories about advice from a panel of scientists that Great Lakes communities prepare for swings in high and low water levels in the face of climate change.

The study, led by Pengfei Xue (CEGE/GLRC), projected Lake Superior to rise 7.5 inches and the Lake Michigan-Huron system to rise 17 inches by 2050 due to climate change. From the study:

Climate modeler Pengfei Xue, of Michigan Technological University, and his team for the first time combined a high-resolution regional climate model and a 3D hydrodynamic model, along with hydrologic models to hone projections for lake-level rise.

“What we have built is a system that gives a better representation of the complexity of hydrodynamics and lake-atmosphere interaction and contributes to a more advanced modeling framework necessary for improving the Great Lakes’ hydroclimate projections. This is particularly evident through the markedly improved simulation of lake evaporation.”

Pengfei Xue, associate director of the Great Lakes Research Center and associate professor in Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering

Read “Great Lakes levels are likely to see continued rise in next three decades” at Phys.org, by the American Geophysical Union.

Related

GLRC Appoints Pengfei Xue as Associate Director

Effective today (Oct. 10, 2022), Pengfei Xue (CEGE/GLRC) will become the Great Lakes Research Center’s first associate director.

Established in 2013, the Great Lakes Research Center (GLRC) has grown to include more than 100 affiliated faculty and research staff, achieving $9.2 million in new research awards and $7.1 million in research expenditures in fiscal year 2022. The GLRC’s portfolio includes core research in the areas of Great Lakes science and system processes, sustainability and marine technology adaptation.

Xue, an associate professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering (CEGE), will lead the GLRC’s Hydrodynamics, Climate, and Environment Research Team, and contribute to the center’s long-term strategy development.

“I couldn’t be more pleased to support Dr. Xue’s appointment as associate director,” stated Tim Havens, director of the GLRC. “His leading hydrodynamic modeling research has been a shining example of the high-quality research going on at the GLRC, and his commitment to the strategic growth of the GLRC is evident in his mentoring of new scientists and engineers in his group. I’m thrilled to welcome him to the GLRC executive team.”

“I am proud of Pengfei’s success and the impact his research has had. He is an expert in the development of numerical models and computer simulations for the Great Lakes, as well as environmental risk analysis, seasonal forecasting and regional climate change, ” said Audra Morse, CEGE department chair. “More importantly, the appointment acknowledges the impact Pengfei has had on his colleagues and the work he will continue in an effort to support his colleagues’ growth as scholars.”

By the Great Lakes Research Center.