Category: Students

Senior Katherine Baker Receives SWE Scholarship

Michigan Tech’s section of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) attended their WE Local 2025 conference in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in mid-March. Through the generous support of their corporate sponsors, SWE at Michigan Tech was able to send 12 students to attend professional development sessions, network with industry professionals and members of other SWE sections, and bond with their fellow Michigan Tech Huskies.

Seth Kriz Selected as MTU Nominee for MAGS Excellence in Teaching Award

The Graduate School announced that Seth Kriz, Ph.D. student in chemical engineering, has been selected to represent Michigan Tech as a nominee for the Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools (MAGS) Excellence in Teaching Award. Congratulations to Seth on this significant achievement.

Kriz’s journey is a testament to his dedication to both research and teaching. In his nomination materials, he shares a powerful anecdote about an early college experience that ignited his passion for engineering and ultimately led him to Michigan Tech. This pivotal moment involved his engineering physics professor, Professor Joe, who spent two hours helping him debug a program. This experience instilled in Kriz a deep appreciation for the impact of dedicated teaching.

Inspired by Professor Joe and other mentors, Kriz has pursued his own passion for education. Read about his philosophy of teaching and accomplishments at Michigan Tech at the Graduate School Newsblog.

Consumer Product Manufacturing Team Shares Enterprise Success Story


Huskies who participate in Michigan Tech’s Enterprise Program learn how to partner with industry and get the kind of experience that employers are looking for when hiring. In the case of the Consumer Product Manufacturing Enterprise (CPM) OneTumbler Team, the research they conducted for their project also led to a publication credit and fewer single-use beverage containers on campus.

Hear from 2024 chemical engineering graduate Jacqui Foreman, who led the CPM OneTumbler Team, on the College of Engineering Blog.

HRI Student Research Forum Winners Announced

The Health Research Institute (HRI) at Michigan Tech is pleased to announce the winners of the poster and oral presentation sessions from our annual Student Research Forum, which was held on Nov. 20. Congratulations to the following:

Poster Session:

  • First Place — Taravat Sarvari, Chemical Engineering
  • Second — Grace Dykstra, Chemical Engineering
  • Third — Natalia Krakhaleva, Chemical Engineering

Oral Presentations:

  • First Place — Ahmad Bshennaty, Biomedical Engineering
  • Second Place — Kamand Sedaghatnia, Chemistry
  • Third Place — Victoria Santillan, Biomedical Engineering

For more information on the Institute, please visit the HRI website.

COE Annual Lecture Series Features Inspiring ChE Alumna

More than 800 first-year engineering Huskies turned out for the College of Engineering’s (COE’s) annual lecture, designed especially for them. The First-Year Engineering Series lecture took place Monday, Aug. 26, at the Rozsa Center, hosted by the Department of Engineering Fundamentals. This year’s featured lecturer was chemical engineering alumna Jessica Elwell ’02 ’03.

“Jessica told the fascinating and inspiring story of how she and her team at OxEon Energy worked with NASA to figure out how to make oxygen from in-situ resources on Mars (Yes, Mars!),” said COE Dean Michelle Scherer. “She also shared her journey to being chief operating officer at OxEon and how she has been able to focus her work on her passion of converting carbon dioxide into oxygen and sustainable fuels.”

Scherer said Elwell’s words of wisdom reinforced why it’s important to move outside the comfort zone to try new things and to remember that engineering design requires failing many times until you find the solution.

Read more about the lecture series and Elwell’s accomplishments on the College of Engineering Blog.

ChE Convocation 2024 Awards

These students, faculty and staff were presented awards on Friday (April 19) at the Department of Chemical Engineering (ChE) Convocation held in the MUB Alumni Lounge. Congratulations to all!

Outstanding Sophomore and Outstanding New Student Awards
These awards recognize an outstanding second-year student and an outstanding new student in chemical engineering who have demonstrated exemplary academic performance in coursework and exhibited excellence in related academic enrichment activities such as research, internship/co-op work experience and the Enterprise Program.
Outstanding Sophomore: Andrew Brenner
Outstanding New Student: Caden Arntz

Excellence in Communication Award
This award acknowledges the critical role that effective communication plays in successful leadership and recognizes a graduating ChE senior for their effective use of communication of the highest standard.
Recipient: Allison Swanson

Professional Ethics Award
This award recognizes a student who has exhibited exemplary ethics and admirable professional conduct during Plant Design and Unit Operations experiences and throughout their academic career at Michigan Tech.
Recipient: Kevin Garland

Prevent Accidents With Safety (PAWS) Award
The PAWS Undergraduate Lab Safety Program is a comprehensive safety program requiring training, constant vigilance and incident reporting and documentation systems — all with an eye toward critical review and continuous improvement. The PAWS program provides a framework to develop the necessary safety culture within the student community.
Recipients: Ryan Anderson, Cameron Hoogstraten, Lydia Nelson and Elizabeth Schumann

Dow Chemical Marriott W. Bredekamp Award
This award recognizes outstanding technical skills in the laboratory, outstanding teamwork and professionalism, effective oral and written communication and strong adherence to process safety practices as recognized by your peers and supported by the faculty of the department. This award is in memory of Marriott W. Bredekamp.
Recipients: Joseph Curro, Austin Foster, Josh Shane, Jackson Vidlund and Gary Vinson

Senior Design Team Awards
John Patton, as chair and faculty member, initiated much of today’s design course content in ChE. He brought his experiences at Exxon to the classroom to provide students with a systematic way to design and analyze a new, large-scale capital project. This award recognizes the student team in CM4861 that created the best plant design and recommendation for Fictitious Chemical Company.
Finalist Teams:
– Third Place ($400): Ava Farquhar, Brandon Espinoza Solis, Caleb Pitts and Erica Proehl
– Runner-Up ($600): Allison Swanson, Emmit Nelson, Joseph Lesko, Matthew Fooy and Mia Bidolli
– Winner ($1,000): Austin Foster, Cade Kaighen, Joseph Curro, Kevin Garland and Nathan LaFontaine

Davis W. Hubbard Outstanding Junior Award
The eligible candidate for this award has completed all their junior-level core chemical engineering courses. Selection is based on GPA for coursework done at Michigan Tech, research engagement and internship/co-op work experience. The award consists of a certificate and monetary award in the amount of $1,000.
Recipient: Chazz Rohrer

Leadership Awards
Recipients:

AIChE: Allison Swanson

CPM: Joseph Bachmeier

OXE: Spencer Kaastra

SAB: Caleb Krueger

AEE: Kristen Kautz

Green Campus: Caroline Brown

Finally, ChE students voted on these categories to honor our outstanding department employees!

  • Teacher of the Year: Kyle Griffin
  • Research Mentor of the Year: David Shonnard
  • Graduate Teaching Assistant of the Year: Emmanual Okoye
  • Undergraduate Grader of the Year: Joseph Curro
  • Staff Making a Difference: Daniel Kulas
  • Peer Mentor and Coach of the Year: Allison Swanson

Kwabena Boafo, Taravat Sarvari, Natalie Nold to Present at GSC 2024

Natalie Nold Takes First Place for Oral Presentation

Nold’s presentation was entitled “A Versatile Purification Method for Virus-based Gene Therapy.”

Presentation Extract

  • The costly manufacturing methods used for viral vectors are a key reason why gene therapies can be prohibitively expensive, often costing over $1 million per patient treated.
  • Our lab has developed a continuous purification method using aqueous two-phase systems (ATPS), which combines product capture and purification by partitioning the viral product and contaminating host-cell impurities to different aqueous phases.
  • ATPS holds promise as a viral vector purification platform with 66-100% overall product recovery for adeno-associated virus (AAV), herpes simplex virus (HSV), porcine parvovirus (PPV), and influenza B virus.

Graduate Research Colloquium 2024

Date: March 26, 2024
Time: 8 a.m.—9 p.m.
Location: Rozsa Center, MTU

March 26 (9 a.m.–3 p.m.) – Oral Presentations (MUB Alumni Lounge)
March 26 (5–8 p.m.) – Poster Presentations (Rosza Lobby)

Chemical Engineering at the Graduate Research Colloquium

Please attend the poster sessions to learn more from the graduate student presenters.

Flow chart of the experimental setup with the description in the caption.
Experimental setup with carbon dioxide supplying section and food (microorganisms) supplying section feeding into the metal leaching section. The output is the metal recovery section.

Sustainable Nickel Recovery from Ore and Mine Tailings Using CO2 and Microorganisms

Kwabena Boafo, Timothy C. Eisele

Abstract

  • As the demand for nickel increases in EV batteries and steel manufacturing, the depletion of high-grade nickel ore prompts the mining industry to process low-grade nickel ore, resulting in the generation of significant mine waste, known as tailings.
  • Despite the tailings containing valuable minerals and metals most times high metal content compared with original ore, they pose environmental and health risks.
  • There is a growing interest in exploring methods to extract the valuable minerals and metals from the tailings.
  • This study proposes a sustainable approach to extract nickel from ores and tailings, utilizing CO2  and microorganisms.
  • Operating at freezing temperatures, bicarbonate ions are formed that effectively complex with nickel.

Five step process for influenza vaccine production described in the caption.
Influenza vaccine production in five steps: infection with virus showing injection into an egg, virus replication showing virus inside the egg, virus harvest showing the virus outside the egg, virus purification showing an apparatus, and virus inactivation and formulation showing a vial.

Aqueous Two-Phase Systems for Influenza Viral Vaccine Purification: A Promising Alternative

Taravat Sarvari, Elizaveta Korolkov, Natalie Nold, Lynn Manchester, and Caryn L. Heldt

Background and Motivation

Viral vaccine production is currently performed in batch mode.

Current Influenza vaccine production in eggs is antiquated, slow, and cannot produce a new strain of vaccine quickly.

Goal: Develop a platform for continuous purification of Influenza virus using aqueous two-phase systems (ATPS).