Category: Students

Local ACS Chapter Hosts 2017 Student Research Symposium

ACS SRS RoomThe Upper Peninsula Local Section of the American Chemistry Society invites you to the 2017 Student Research Symposium. This year’s research symposium will be held on Northern Michigan’s campus within the atrium of the New Science Facility on Saturday, March 25. The event starts at 9:30 a.m.

The purpose of the event is to provide a venue for students to present their research in chemistry, chemical engineering and related fields. This symposium is an excellent opportunity for students, faculty and the community at large to learn about the interesting research being conducted in the UP. More details can be found online.

You can also check out our Facebook page for more information.

All are welcome. There is no charge to attend. RSVP here.

By Robert Handler, Chemical Engineering.

Caryn Heldt Featured in SWE People

Caryn Heldt
Caryn Heldt

The Society of Women Engineers highlighted the teaching and research efforts of Caryn Heldt (ChE) in their Winter 2017 issue of SWE Magazine.

RECOGNIZED FOR TEACHING AND RESEARCH

Caryn L. Heldt, Ph.D., associate professor of chemical engineering at Michigan Technological University, was named the recipient of the James and Lorna Mack Endowed Chair in Bioengineering. Her endowed chair is named for James Mack, a Michigan Tech alumnus and retired president and CEO of Cambex Corp., a developer of specialty chemicals. His company has successfully combined biology with engineering — especially in the rapidly emerging field of tissue engineering and cell therapy and the development of small molecule therapeutics.

Read more at SWE People.

Michael McGee is an Annexstad Family Foundation Scholar

Michael McGee
Michael McGee

Four Michigan Tech undergraduates have received scholarships from the Annexstad Family Foundation. They are Ashley Brown, Michael McGee, Alyssa Smith and Xena Cortez.

McGee is a second-year chemical engineering student whose family has lived in the Upper Peninsula for three generations. “With my degree, I will travel the world, using my knowledge to better companies’ environmental footprint,” he says.

The Annexstad Family Foundation was established in 2000 to help aspiring college students. “We have long believed that young people are our future,” say Cathy and Al Annexstad. “By giving students who are the brightest of the bright the opportunity for a college diploma, we are giving our country a successful future.”

Read more at Tech Today, by Jenn Donovan.

PCA Panel Discussion for Chemical Engineering Students Fall 2016

The Presidential Council of Alumnae at Michigan Tech held a panel discussion in Chem Sci 101 on September 22, 2016. Alumnae gave presentations about their careers.

  • Christine Cowell: Introduction
  • Laurie Dorschner: Identifying and selecting career opportunity
  • Heidi Gieger: PIE to power your career: Performance Image Exposure
  • Sally Heidke: How to seek out and use a mentor
  • Jill Meister: Skills you gain throughout your career, balancing work/family
  • Adrienne Minerick: Work hard play Hard, be in the moment
  • Karen Wallace: “Oh the places you will go….”
  • Tina Schmiedel: The power of understanding the financials – professionally and personally

WATCH THE VIDEO

Closed captioning available.

PCA CHE Fall 2016

Thai Interns Learn About Chemical Engineering Program

Suphitsara Yingyuen, whose nickname is Mae, and Sorawit “Pum” Limtasiri are materials engineering undergrad students from Kasetsart University in Bangkok who are at Michigan Tech for a two- month summer internship.

The internships started after Jennifer Donovan, Tech’s director of news and media relations, traveled to Thailand as a Fulbright communications specialist at Kasetsart University.

The interns’ advisor, Timothy Eisele, assistant professor of chemical engineering says, “Overall, I am very happy with both of them. They are conscientious workers who want to have a good understanding of what they are doing, and they work well with my other students.”

Read more at Michigan Tech News, by Leslie Mundell.

Chemical Engineering Major Wins Portage Health Foundation Scholarship

The Chemical Engineering Department would like to congratulate undergraduate student, Dylan Turpeinen, on receiving a Portage Health Undergraduate Scholarship.  Dylan is a local undergraduate student at Michigan Technological University. He graduated from Houghton High School in 2012 and decided to stay in the Houghton area to pursue a Bachelor’s of Science in Chemical Engineering. In addition to classes, he enjoys performing undergraduate research with Dr. Heldt and Dr. King, and also actively participates on the MTU Men’s Club Soccer Team.

Dylan’s interest in biomedical engineering began when he was recruited to perform undergraduate research with Dr. Heldt in her Bioseparations Laboratory. He worked on fabricating and testing graphene nanoplatelet (GNP)/cellulose biosensors. During the summer semester of 2014, he was able to share his enthusiasm for biosensors with Summer Youth Program (SYP) participants. The SYP project utilized a multi-meter and biosensor to identify proteins using a relation between the surface resistance of the graphene paper, and the concentration of proteins in solution to find the molecular weight for an unknown protein. Starting in the summer of 2016, he will begin graduate research work with Dr. Heldt on biosensors to detect malaria.

Full Story: http://www.mtu.edu/news/stories/2016/january/four-michigan-tech-students-win-portage-health-foundation-scholarships.html

Winning Pitch Cleans Up at Michigan Tech Business Contest

Today’s university students are reminded to be careful about what they put up on their Facebook or Twitter accounts. Sometimes they forget, and that’s a job for Clean It Up, the winning entry in the fifth annual Bob Mark Elevator Pitch Competition held Thursday night on the campus of Michigan Technological University.

The late business professor Bob Mark created the competition so students could polish their 90-second, new business pitches, emulating the length of an elevator ride.

The brainchild of accounting major Nikoli Wiens and chemical engineering major Zach Eckert, Clean It Up promises to clean up content and profiles on the Internet, even beyond the cleansing that Facebook and Twitter claim to do upon request.

Read More

Michigan Tech Students Take Top Honors at SME

Michigan Tech undergraduates and graduate students studying chemical engineering took first and second place in the Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration’s (SME) Mineral and Metallurgical Processing Division 2013 student poster contest at the SME annual meeting in Denver.

Undergraduate winners:
First place: Katrina Swanson
Second place: Paul Hagadone II

Graduate student winners:
First place: Brett Spigarelli
Second place: Howard Haselhuhn

Paul Hagadone II, Brett Spigarelli, Howard Haselhuhn, Katrina Swanson