Chris Middlebrook (ECE) was an invited keynote speaker for “Light Night,” sponsored by the SPIE Student Chapter at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Free University of Brussels) on May 10, 2016. The event contained “LIGHTtalks” and was partially funded by the European LIGHT2015 project. For more information see Light Night 2016.
John Jaszczak (Physics) and Paul Bergstrom (ECE), published a paper “Physical Mechanisms Leading to the Coulomb Blockade and Coulomb Staircase Structures in Strongly Coupled Multi-Island Single-Electron Devices” with their former PhD student Madhusudan Savaikar in the May 24, 2016, issue of ECS Journal of Solid State Science and Technology.
On Tuesday, June 14, faculty and staff members, along with their guests, gathered at the Rozsa Center lobby for the annual Staff Council Service Recognition Luncheon. Awards were presented for five-year increments of service to more than 150 staff members. A dinner for those reaching 25 years or more was held on May 11. The following ECE staff member was recognized:
25 Years
Michele Kamppinen, Staff Assistant, Electrical and Computer Engineering
PhD student Abhilash Kantamneni (CS) coauthored a paper with Richelle Winkler (SS), Lucia Gauchia (ECE/ME) and Joshua Pearce (ECE/MSE) titled: Emerging economic viability of grid defection in a northern climate using solar hybrid systems in Energy Policy.
Wayne Weaver (ECE) is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $119,997 research grant from the U.S. Department of Defense, Office of Naval Research. Rush Robinett (ME-EM) and Nina Mahmoudian (ME-EM) are Co-PI’s on the project entitled “Autonomous Microgrids: Theory, Control, Flexibility and Scalability.”
This is the first year of a potential four-year project that could total $869,980.
On April 7, Michigan Tech’s new Lean facilitators were recognized. These new facilitators completed a six-month training program with classroom learning and work-related projects.
Among the graduates was Lisa Hitch- Electrical and Computer Engineering Department.
Two student teams from Michigan Tech each brought home $10,000 or more in venture funding from the New Venture Competition at Central Michigan University last weekend.
We Inspire, led by BSEE senior Arick Davis, won the $10,000 Korson Family Highest Growth Potential Award. We Inspire is developing an online system and community to help students make informed career choices by connecting them with profiles and feedback from practicing professionals.
Superior Filament, led by Cedric Kennedy, Aubrey Woern and Jos Krugh, brought home a $10,000 Best Technology Award, as well as another $1,000 for Best Pitch and the $250 Audience Choice Award.
The student-run company is developing filment for 3-D printers from recycled plastics to support growth in the 3-D printing industry while reducing environmental impact.
Two other Michigan Tech teams participated in the annual entrepreneurial competition. TRU is developing a big data solution with proprietary algorithms to help performance athletes optimize performance through informed nutritional and dietary supplement choices.
Huskies 4 Hire is connecting students looking for short-term employment opportunities with community members seeking temporary employees.
The Pavlis Honors College helped sponsor the event financially. The student teams received support from Michigan Tech’s Innovation Center for Entrepreneurship, the School of Business and Economics and the MTEC SMartZone.
Original story by Jenn Donovan, Tech Today, 4/12/16
For more information see LinkedIn Pulse.
This week Michigan Tech made an announcement of a gift from ECE alumnus David Brule, Sr., in support of scholarships in the ECE Department. You can read all about it on the university daily news source “Tech Today“.
Dave Brule is a very good friend of Michigan Tech and of the ECE Department. He has supported a number of initiatives at the university, and while this is not done secretly or anonymously, to my knowledge none of the activities or facilities he has supported carry his name. For example, he was a major contributor to the Dennis Wiitanen Endowed Professorship in Electric Power Engineering, named in honor of a long-time and much-loved faculty member in the ECE Department. He recently funded the renovation of a plaza outside the library, named in honor of retired facilities manager John Rovano.
There are several reasons this is good news for the ECE Department. The first is of course the financial support that it provides for some of our most promising students. Beyond that, however, it serves as a good recruiting tool for the ECE Department, and it raises our visibility as a Department with a long history of excellence in undergraduate education in electrical power transmission and distribution. This is an area where there are significant workforce needs, now and anticipated in the near future. Indeed this is part of Dave’s motivation: to get more students interested in the utility power industry in general, and for Systems Control in particular. In order to attract students into the field, the ECE Department and its partners and friends need to do everything possible to raise awareness of the career opportunities, and to train students to be ready for those opportunities. Finally, I have to commend Dave for really raising the bar in terms of the philanthropic response to this workforce need. A lot of recruiters talk to me about tapping into our ECE talent pipeline, which is gratifying of course and along with Career Services I do everything I can to help them. Now we have a first-rate example of what it really takes to get the attention of students in today’s job market, and it is much more than anything I could ever do by myself.
Michigan Tech is very grateful to all its alumni, friends, and other donors for their philanthropic support of the university mission. It means the world to us. I encourage anyone with a possible interest in doing the same to get in touch – I’d love to talk to you.
– Dan
Daniel R. Fuhrmann
Dave House Professor and Chair
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Michigan Technological University
This week we learned that Michigan Tech made the top-200 list in Princeton Review’s “Colleges That Pay You Back” category. These are the colleges that score highly when one looks at things like financial aid and starting salaries after graduation, the things that speak to the return on investment for a college education. It is good to be recognized for something that we pay attention to, and take a lot of pride in.
One thing that struck me in looking at the list is that the top 5 included Cal Tech, Princeton, and MIT. I am quite certain that by the metrics used in this ranking, these colleges score very highly. The cost of an education is very reasonable if not free, due to the all the financial aid available, and the starting salaries are probably through the roof. There’s only one catch – the typical American high school student could never get in! It’s cruel to hold schools like this up as paragons of value and then tell students they have no hope of going there. I’m tempted to write Princeton Review and suggest a new category – “Colleges That Pay You Back That You Can Actually Get Into.”
If they had such a list, Michigan Tech would be right up there near the top. Our in-state tuition is about $13k, there is a fair amount of financial aid available, starting salaries university-wide are in the mid-60s, and our admission rate is 75%! Now a lot of people think that being ultra-exclusive is what makes for a great university, but I disagree. What makes a university great is what is does for its students. Michigan Tech takes students from all walks of life, all different backgrounds, and a wide range of abilities, and gives them the opportunity to create a meaningful and rewarding life for themselves if they are willing to work hard and do what it takes. There are a lot of naturally gifted students here, but we also have a wide swath of normal everyday students, and we think everyone deserves a shot at the good life. It’s not a cakewalk at Michigan Tech (although it is a lot of fun) but there is a big payoff at graduation. It is interesting to note that, even with that 75% admission rate, our average high school GPA is 3.66 which means that a lot of talented students are choosing Michigan Tech over other more prestigious institutions, and quite a few weaker students are self-selecting out.
Don’t get me wrong about those highly-ranked schools. I know from personal experience that Princeton is an absolutely fabulous place, where a lot of really smart people are surrounded by other really smart people, and doing good work. All of their graduates are going to be very successful in life, not only because of the incredible education they receive, but also because they were talented enough to get in in the first place. The issue I am raising here is that there is only so much a place like Princeton can do for the vast number of American high school seniors. I am coming to believe that it is the Michigan Techs of the world that are doing the most good to prepare large numbers of young people to take their place in the 21st century economy.
I can’t resist getting in one more dig. The “Colleges That Pay You Back” list was featured in a piece on the Today Show, and the Princeton Review rep that was being interviewed gave praise to Harvey Mudd College, a small engineering school east of Los Angeles. I agree with his assessment; Harvey Mudd is a great school with a project-focused educational philosophy very similar to that of Michigan Tech. In talking about the industry demand for graduates, the rep brought up the fact that 150 companies came to the Harvey Mudd campus recently to recruit. 150! I laughed out loud. At the Fall 2015 Career Fair, Michigan Tech had *370* companies and organizations on campus recruiting – and we are located in a geographical dead end, not the middle of southern California! My hat is off to our Career Services office for the fabulous job that they do for our students and graduates.
Speaking of Career Services, next week I will stay in this same vein, reporting on our Spring Career Fair which is next Tuesday. Until then, Happy Valentines Day and Happy Presidents Day everyone!
– Dan
Daniel R. Fuhrmann
Dave House Professor and Chair
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Michigan Technological University