Joan Schumaker Chadde (CEE/GLRC) is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $47,556 grant from Wayne State University. The project is titled “FACTs & Careers: A Scalable Place-Based Educational Program at a Public Aquarium to Increase STEM Career Choices.”
This is the first year of a potential 2-1/2 year project totaling $146,375.
Michigan Tech alumnus Krissy Guzak is helping Ford look toward an eco-conscious future through a variety of projects and nonprofit work. Guzak received both a BS and MS in Environmental Engineering from Michigan Tech. She is now an environmental compliance engineer in the Environmental Quality Office at Ford.
I work on a handful of things, but my two main responsibilities are acting as the plant waste subject matter expert and maintaining the paint emissions reporting system.
LANSING, Mich. (WLUC) – Gov. Rick Snyder today announced the appointments of Derhun Sanders of Redford Township and Steven Tomaszewski of Howell to the Michigan Technological University Board of Control.
The eight-member board is the governing body of the university.
“I thank Derhun and Steven for their commitment to serving on this board. I am confident they will help the university continue its success,” Snyder said.
Read more at WLUC TV6, by Alyssa Barker.
Steven Tomaszewski is a ’91 Tech graduate in Environmental Engineering.
Six Michigan universities will be getting new members of their governing boards after Gov. Rick Snyder announced appointments this afternoon.
Tomaszewski is the director of global facilities for General Motors. He is a board member of the Hartland Area Youth Athletic Association (HAYAA) and the MTU advisory boards for the College of Engineering and Environmental Engineering. He worked with MTU to establish the GM Rides the Waves program. Tomaszewski holds a bachelor’s degree in environmental engineering from Michigan Technological University and a master’s degree in hazardous waste management from Wayne State University. He will replace Paul Ollila.
Read more at the Detroit Free Press, by David Jesse.
Governor Rick Snyder has announced the appointments of Derhun Sanders of Redford, Michigan and Steven Tomaszewski of Howell, Michigan to serve on the Michigan Tech Board of Trustees. The eight-person board is the governing body of the University. Both men are alumni of Michigan Tech.
Read more at Tech Today, by Mark Wilcox.
Alex Mayer (CEE/GLRC), is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $52,771 research and development grant from the National Science Foundation.
The project is entitled “EAGER: Collaborative Research: The Role of Citizen Science in Watershed Hydrology Research: Relationships Between Volunteer Motivations, Data Quantity and Quality, and Decision-Making.”
This is a one-year project.
There is growing interest in using citizen science projects, public participation in scientific research, to measure hydrologic parameters. Hydrologic variability requires repeated measurements over long periods of time and over a wide range of locations.
Zhanping You (CEE/MTTI) is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $183,489 research and development contract with the Michigan Department of Transportation.
Chris Gilbertson (CEE) is Co-PI on the project, “Identify Best Practices in Pavement Design, Materials, Construction and Maintenance in Wet Freeze Climates Similar to Michigan.”
This is a 13-month project.
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The Associated Press (AP) published a news story about Governor Rick Snyder’s 21st Century Infrastructure Commission, which met Monday to present a report and recommendations for maintenance and improvement of Michigan’s infrastructure. Michigan Tech’s Roadsoft program was mentioned in the report as a model for a regional infrastructure pilot. News outlets all over Michigan published or broadcast the AP story.
Priscilla Addison (GMES), Pasi Lautala (CEE) and Thomas Oommen (GMES) published a paper, “Utilizing Vegetation Indices as a Proxy to Characterize the Stability of a Railway Embankment in a Permafrost Region,” in AIMS Geosciences.
Pasi Lautala (CEE) gave an invited presentation on Michigan Tech’s grade crossing research as part of Wisconsin Department of Transportation’s Annual Freight Railroad Conference in Madison on November 15, 2016. The presentation was titled “Driver Behavior at Grade Crossings—Do Drivers Behave as Engineers Expect Them to Behave?”
Daisy Isaksson is a fifth-grade student at Dollar Bay Elementary. A couple weeks ago, she surprised one of Michigan Tech’s engineers from the Center for Technology & Training by beating the results of several PhDs, professional engineers and engineering students in a classroom activity called “Stop That Truck!”
The activity was designed by Drew Roberts, a civil engineering senior, under a Transportation and Civil Engineering (TRAC) Program module updated by civil engineer Chris Gilbertson from the Center for Technology & Training under a Michigan Department of Transportation grant. TRAC is a national outreach program that encourages the teaching of STEM (with a civil engineering flavor) to students at a young age by providing well-designed learning modules to high school and middle school teachers.
Pengfei Xue (CEE) and his modeling work through the Great Lakes Research Center, which led to a more comprehensive climate and hydrodynamics model for the whole Great Lakes region, has been featured in several science media outlets including Science Daily, Phys.org, Terra Daily and Supercomputing Online News. The story was shared numerous times by collaborators and the science community on Twitter.
The collaborative work brought together researchers from Michigan Technological University, Loyola Marymount University, LimnoTech and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory. Pengfei Xue, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at Michigan Tech, led the study through his work at the Great Lakes Research Center on campus.
One of the important concepts in climate change, in addition to knowing the warming trend, is understanding that extreme events become more severe. That is both a challenge and an important focus in regional climate modeling. —Pengfei Xue
Read more at Michigan Tech News, by Allison Mills.
TechCentury, an engineering and technology publication of the Engineering Society of Detroit, reported on research led by Pengfei Xue(CEE), using computer modeling to better predict weather and its impacts on the Great Lakes. Read the article here.