Many faculty, staff and students of the Michigan Tech Transportation Institute (MTTI) attended the 93rd Transportation Research Board (TRB) annual meeting in Washington, DC, recently.
Everyone knows what drones are, right? They have gained visibility for use in military and monitoring applications, but have a wide variety of more ‘friendly’, useful applications here at home, such as helping understand the condition of our transportation infrastructure. They are flying machines, operated for a given purpose either autonomously or remotely, that have uses well beyond their better-known reputation.
By his barren office in the Great Lakes Research Center (GLRC), one can tell that Pengfei Xue is new to campus. The assistant professor in civil and environmental engineering just started Oct. 1, but he’s already hard at work, beginning to model Great Lakes and coastal US regions using Superior, Michigan Technological University’s new supercomputer.
He claims the horsepower within Superior is great.
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Half of the people in Greenland have toxic levels of PCBs in their blood. A harmful cocktail of contaminants, including mercury and dioxin, has led to fish consumption advisories in all of the Great Lakes, including Superior.
Rob Handler is about to harvest his research. Typically, that means the gigantic kale and nice-sized onions and basil he’s growing nine stories up in the Dow Environmental Science and Engineering greenhouse. Today, though, it means the key ingredient for fish tacos, to be served at a residence hall.
“We have been growing tilapa,” he says. “They are a hardy fish that grows well in a controlled environment.”
The staff of the Michigan Tech Research Institute (MTRI) in Ann Arbor was on campus on Friday, Sept. 20, to conduct a poster session in the Dow Atrium (sixth-floor campus entrance). MTRI scientists and engineers were also available to discuss projects, collaborations with Michigan Tech departments and staff, and areas of research interest. The session is intended to outline the institute’s current activities and to explore opportunities to develop new working relationships.
MTRI, a research center of Michigan Technological University, is a recognized leader in the research, development and practical application of sensor and information technology to solve critical problems in national security, protecting and evaluating critical infrastructure, bioinformatics, earth sciences and environmental processes.
Associate Professor Yue Li (CEE) has been awarded the Fulbright-VTT Grant in Science, Technology and Innovation to conduct research in Finland for the duration of six months during 2013–14. VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland is the largest multidisciplinary research organization in Northern Europe. Li will conduct research on structural design for improving earthquake performance of nuclear power plants at the VTT in Espoo, Finland.
Associate Professor Brian Barkdoll (CEE) is joining Professor David Watkins (CEE) as co-coordinator of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Peace Corps Master’s International Program (PCMI). Barkdoll will replace Associate Professor Kurt Paterson (CEE), who is leaving Michigan Tech to head the Engineering Department at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va.
Paterson founded and built the Civil and Environmental Engineering PCMI program, the largest of Tech’s eight PCMI programs and the first PCMI Civil and Environmental Engineering program in the nation. Barkdoll has been advising students in this program for some time, adding his unique perspective as a returned Peace Corps volunteer who served in Nepal.
“We are grateful to Kurt for his numerous contributions to our PCMI program over the years and look forward to working closely with Brian as the new department co-coordinator,” said PCMI Campus Director Kari Henquinet (SS).
David Ferryman, Vice President System Engineering for Canadian National Railway visited Michigan Tech on Tuesday, April 2nd, and led a discussion concentrating on “CN Engineering Challenges”. CN is one of the greatest supporters of Michigan Tech’s Rail Transportation Program and Mr. Ferryman visited Michigan Tech to review the facilities and to discuss future collaboration and activities with students and faculty.
The Michigan Tech Center for Water and Society celebrated World Water Day on Thursday, March 21 with a student poster competition. The posters covered different topics in water research occurring at Michigan Technological University. Posters were displayed on the 1st floor of the Great Lakes Research Center; CWS Faculty presented a showcase of CWS research, followed by A dinner in the Atrium overlooking the lake.
2013 Michigan Tech Center for Water and Society Award Winners
Original Research Category:
1st – Miles Corcoran
2nd – Julie A. Padilla
3rd – Jade E. Ortiz and Martin Hobmeier (Tie)
Coursework/Informational:
1st – Nancy Auer’s BL4465 Biological Oceanography class: