Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering News

Category: Students

Pasi Lautala on Rail Transportation Education

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RT&SRailway Track & Structures, a magazine for the railroad industry, published a feature article in its November 2016 issue on railroad education, focusing on Michigan Tech’s Rail Transportation Program.

Rail Engineering’s Educated Effort

Existing programs evolve to include the right mix of academics and research and new outreach efforts are exposing a younger audience to the possibilities of rail.

Michigan Tech

Michigan Tech’s Rail Transportation Program (RTP) is designed to align with the needs of the industry from Class 1 railroads to manufacturers and other industry stakeholders. Dr. Pasi Lautala, assistant professor, civil and environmental engineering and director of the RTP says the program concentrates on developing well-balanced candidates with core skills for railway careers.

Read more at Railway Track & Structures, by Mischa Wanek-Libman.

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Pair of CEE students chosen as winners at The 3MT Competition

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Divya Kamath is a PhD Candidate in Environmental Engineering
Divya Kamath is a PhD Candidate in Environmental Engineering
Leigh Miller
Leigh Miller is a returning PCMI Civil Engineering student

The Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition, held on Oct. 12, featured 10 speakers from departments across the University. The 3MT celebrates the research of graduate students across the world. The competition supports their capacity to effectively explain their research in three minutes, in a language appropriate to a non-specialist audience.

Six of the students who participated advanced from the preliminary heats to compete in the finals. The winner of the competition, who will advance to the Midwestern Association of Graduate School’s 3MT Competition in April, was Divya Kamath’s (Environmental engineering PhD candidate) presentation on improving water quality with aquesous phase advanced oxidation processes. Muraleekrishnan Menon’s presentation on improving wind turbine rotors using active flow-control devices took second. The audience selected Leigh Miller’s (Civil Engineering PCMI student) presentation on the protection of clean water in Panama as their favorite for the People’s Choice Award.

The event was sponsored by the Graduate Student Government and the Graduate School. Thank you to all of the judges, volunteers and competitors who helped make the event a success.

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CEE Student Awarded Mackinac Scholarship

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Brock Hoffman
Brock Hoffman is a Junior in Civil Engineering at Michigan Tech.
Mackinac Scholarship:
Named in honor of Michigan’s #1 Civil Engineering Project of the 20th Century by the ASCE Michigan membership in December 1999, this scholarship is intended to recognize a premier Civil Engineering student from Michigan.

This year’s Mackinac Scholarship ($5,000 – 2 year award) was awarded to Nicholas DeSimpelare and Brock Hoffman. Nicholas is a Civil Engineering student at Michigan State University, where he is active in the ASCE Michigan State University Student Chapter. Brock is a Civil Engineering student at Michigan Technological University. He is an ASCE student chapter member and participates heavily in Concrete Canoe.
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SIS & SAAM Hold Annual Meeting

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Hot Choc Machine SIS-SAAM 9.30.16

The students of SIS and SAAM alumni participated in several STEM activities just like their parents did at Tech! Joan Chadde facilitated several Family Engineering activities for the students who ranged in age from 3-17 years. A favorite activity is the “Hot Chocolate Machine where students stack 10-15 cups to let gravity do its thing and mix the  milk power and cocoa powder—and Voila! Hot chocolate!

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Railroad Night is Thursday, September 22, 2016

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Railroad NightThe Michigan Tech Rail Transportation Program (RTP) and the Railroad Engineering and Activities Club (REAC) will once again host their annual Railroad Night on Thursday (Sept. 22), at the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts. The event is open to Michigan Tech faculty, staff and anyone interested in railroads.

Following a social hour from 6 to 7 p.m., a program will feature keynote speaker Brian Lindamood from Alaska Railroad, the outgoing president of the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association (AREMA).

Read more at Tech Today, by the Rail Transportation Program.

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International Senior Design Program Travels to Panama

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IDesign
2016 International Senior Design students at the City of Knowledge in Panama City, Panama. From left to right: Ruth Oppliger, Claire Bradford, Hailey Goupille, Kristina Rushlau, Terrianna Bradley, Samantha Fentress, Courtney Fournier, Charlie Butler, Nathan Ecker, Xi Zhu, and Aaron Jessmore. Ruth, Claire, and Hailey are wearing naguas gifted to them by their host community.

For two weeks in August, eleven students (8 CEE, 2 GMES, 1 ME) traveled to Panama as part of the CEE International Senior Design (“iDesign”) program.  After a day at the City of Knowledge in Panama City, they divided into three teams and traveled to rural, indigenous communities in the Comarca Ngäbe-Bugle in western Panama.  Hosted by Peace Corps Volunteers at these sites, they collected data for their fall semester senior design projects – two water supply systems and a river crossing, respectively.  Other trip highlights included visits to the Panama Canal and the Biomuseo (Biodiversity Museum), a rest day at the beach, and a close encounter with a sloth family.

The trip was led by Professor David Watkins and Research Associate Henrique “Kiko” de Melo e Silva.   Professor of Practice Mike Drewyor is assisting with mentoring the design teams in the fall term.

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Environmental Engineering Student Awarded for Poster Presentation

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Xinyu_with_posterXinyu certificate

Environmental Engineering PhD candidate, Xinyu Ye, was awarded the Best Student Poster Presentation at the 20th Conference on Air-Sea Interaction in Madison held August 15-19, 2016. The conference was hosted by the American Meteorological Society (AMS).

https://www.ametsoc.org/ams/index.cfm/meetings-events/ams-meetings/joint-21st-satellite-meteorology-oceanography-and-climatology-conference-and-20th-conference-on-air-sea-interaction/

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Students Visit Rail Yards in Superior, Wisconsin

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SYP Rail 2016KBJR-TV Channel 6 (NBC) in Duluth broadcast a story about students from Michigan Tech’s Summer Youth Program Rail and Intermodal Transportation Institute visiting rail yards in Superior, Wisconsin.

From Tech Today.

Michigan Tech students get an up close look at trains in Superior

Today, students from throughout the country enrolled in Michigan Tech’s Summer Youth Program’s Rail and Intermodel Transportation program were in Superior to get an up close look at Railroad Transportation.

Read more and watch the video at KBJR-TV Channel 6, by Anthony Matt.

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Environmental Engineering Students are Seeking Solutions to Lake Ontario’s Cladophora Problem

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IMG_5451
Anika Kuczynski, a PhD candidate in environmental engineering, shows Cladophora growing in Lake Ontario
Hayden Henderson, an environmental engineering undergrad, shows some of the green alga collected from Lake Ontario
Hayden Henderson, an environmental engineering undergrad, shows some of the Cladophora collected from Lake Ontario

IMG_0162

IMG_5707
Michelle Nitz, an environmental engineering undergrad, is studying samples taken from Lake Ontario

Cladophora is a filamentous, green alga that grows to nuisance levels in areas of the Great Lakes receiving phosphorus enrichment.  Anika Kuczynski, a Ph.D. candidate in environmental engineering working under Dr. Marty Auer, recently received an Editor’s Choice Award for her paper entitled, “The Cladophora resurgence in Lake Ontario: Characterization and implications for management” published in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences.  Anika is back on Lake Ontario this summer seeking engineering solutions to this problem plaguing the Great Toronto waterfront.  Anika was accompanied by environmental engineering undergrads Hayden Henderson and Michelle Nitz on her most recent trip to Lake Ontario in July.  Results from the field and laboratory studies performed there will be input to a 3D model developed by Anika, Chenfu Huang (also a  Ph.D. student in environmental engineering) and CEE’s Dr. Pengfei Xue to test management strategies to reduce nuisance growth of the alga.

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STEM Career Tour at Michigan Tech

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STEM Tour

Assistant professor Daisuke Minakata and a research engineer/laboratory director David Perram outreached high school students from Lake Linden-Hubble High School on June 1st, 2016. They provided an overview of “Cleaning Water” project, giving high school students hands-on experience in ‘ppm’ and ‘ppb’ concentrations level of chemical contaminants in water and an introduction to advanced water treatment technologies in the CEE department process lab. The outreach activity was a part of Science, Technology, Engineering, Math (STEM) CAREER Tour with funding support from the Lake Superior Stewardship Initiative and coordinated by the MTU Center for Science & Environmental Outreach and Western U.P, Center for Science, Math and Environmental Education. Joan Chadde in CEE coordinated the overall activity.

 

See schedule:

LLH EnvCareer Tour Schedule 06.01.16 FINAL

For more information, contact:

MTU Center for Science & Environmental Outreach

jchadde@mtu.edu or 906-487-3341

 

Made possible with funding from the Lake Superior Stewardship Initiative and coordinated by the MTU Center for Science & Environmental Outreach and Western U.P. Center for Science, Math and Environmental Education.

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