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.
In the final weekend of October, the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) hosted WE24, the world’s largest conference for women in engineering and technology. SWE at Michigan Tech supported the travel of 19 students to the conference in Chicago, Illinois where they attended sessions, participated in the career fair, and met with Michigan Tech alumnae from the Chicago area and SWE at large.
The WE24 Career Fair is the largest career fair for women in the world. This year, students in attendance had 17 interviews and 4 internship offers just from participating in this event. Most of the students who interviewed will be hearing in the next few weeks regarding internships and full-time offers.
As part of the conference, WE24 held a robust awards ceremony where engineers from Michigan Tech received awards for their achievements and contributions.
The Michigan Tech College of Engineering is pleased to welcome 16 new faculty members across eight departments this year. These new faculty members bring a wide range of specializations in robotics, geomechanics, cancer tissue engineering, snow hydrology, and more. These brilliant educators and researchers join us from all over the world, including five Michigan Tech College of Engineering alumni. Welcome Huskies!
Read more about our new faculty:
Professors Bruce Lee (BioMed) and Caryn Heldt (ChE/HRI) are co-authors of a new paper published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.
The paper is titled “Utilizing Rapid Hydrogen Peroxide Generation from 6-Hydroxycatechol to Design Moisture-Activated, Self-Disinfecting Coating.”
The paper describes the use of a novel biomimetic coating that could be activated to generate disinfectant when wetted, such as by moisture found in respiratory droplets. This moisture-activated coating was demonstrated to disinfect various strains of bacteria and viruses and can potentially be used as a self-disinfecting coating to limit the spread of various types of infections.
Ph.D. student Fatemeh Razaviamri (biomedical engineering) is the lead author of this paper. Additional co-authors are Sneha Singh ’23 (M.S. Chemical Engineering), postdoctoral researcher James Manuel (BioMed), Ph.D. student Zhongtian Zhang (biomedical engineering) and laboratory technician Lynn M. Manchester (ChE).
Fatemeh Razaviamri, Sneha Singh, James Manuel, Zhongtian Zhang, Lynn M. Manchester, Caryn L. Heldt, and Bruce P. Lee
ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2024, 16, 21, 26998–27010
Publication Date: May 15, 2024
https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.4c00213
A diverse, multitalented group of Michigan Tech students and faculty have been awarded fellowships and grants totaling an impressive $71,728 from the Michigan Space Grant Consortium (MSGC) for its 2024-25 cycle.
The MSGC, which consists of 52 consortia, is sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The MSGC promotes awareness, research and education in “space-related science and technology in Michigan.” To achieve this goal, the organization not only funds fellowships and scholarships for students pursuing STEM careers but also financially supports curriculum enhancement and faculty development.
The Graduate School is proud of these students for their outstanding scholarship. These awards highlight the quality of students at Michigan Tech, their innovative work, their leadership potential and the incredible role played by faculty in students’ academic success.
The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) section at Michigan Tech had 16 students attend the SWE WE23 Societal Conference in Los Angeles, California, with Gretchen Hein, SWE advisor. The students greatly enjoyed and benefited from the conference sessions. They also met with MTU alumni from L.A. and engaged with several MTU SWE alumnae. They especially enjoyed hearing stories about Tech and how campus has changed.
The SWE WE23 Career Fair is the largest career fair for women in the world. This year, SWE members had 20 interviews and one job offer from participating. Most will hear back on internships and full-time offers in two weeks.
The conference took place over three days, October 26–28, inviting attendees to Live Without Limits.
SWE thanks our corporate sponsors for their generous support, which enabled us to fund 100% of the students’ travel!
By Jaclyn Johnson and Gretchen Hein, Advisors, Society of Women Engineers at Michigan Tech.
Hundreds of Michigan Tech students presented their innovative work last week at Michigan Tech’s 23rd annual Design Expo. Each project entails hands-on, experiential, discovery-based learning. Teams competed for cash awards totaling nearly $4,000.
“Design Expo gives students an opportunity to showcase their creativity and innovation,” says Nagesh Hatti, who oversees Enterprise.
“The students,” adds Leonard Bohmann, associate dean of the College of Engineering, “create new things, solve global problems and make lives better.”
Many of the Senior Design and Enterprise projects on display at Design Expo are supported by external industry sponsors, allowing students to gain valuable experience through direct exposure to real industrial problems.
In Senior Design, students explore and solve real industry challenges throughout their senior year—from ideation to realization. In the Enterprise Program, teams of first- through fourth-year students from a variety of disciplines operate much like real companies to develop products, services and solutions.
“Project sponsors generously support our educational mission by providing invaluable project experiences, along with guidance and mentorship for our students,” adds Hatti. “Industry and academia working together as partners in higher education give our students a tremendous learning experience.”
Design Expo’s industry event sponsors make Design Expo, a large campus event, possible. “Their generous support often continues year after year,” says Hatti.
Thompson Surgical Instruments is Design Expo’s 2023 executive partner. ITC Holdings is the event’s directing partner for the 12th consecutive year, joined by fellow directing partner Aramco. And Plexus, OHM Advisors, Altec Inc. and Husky Innovate are collaborating partners.
This year, more than 100 student teams competed for awards. A panel of judges, made up of corporate representatives, community members, and Michigan Tech staff and faculty members, critiqued the projects. “Our esteemed judges give their time and talent to help make Design Expo a success,” adds Hatti.
The judges’ scoring was used to arrive at the awards. Visit the Design Expo website awards page to see the full list of award winning teams (and project videos, too).
The College of Engineering and the Enterprise Program are pleased to announce award winners, below. Congratulations and thanks to ALL teams for a very successful 2023 Design Expo!
FIRST PLACE
123: Velovations
Led by: Ethan McKenzie and Michael Balentine, Mechanical Engineering
Advised by: Steve Lehmann, Biomedical Engineering
Sponsored by: Cleveland Cliffs, Tongy Senger Innovations, Milwaukee Tools
SECOND PLACE
106: Aerospace Enterprise
Led by: Seth Quayle, Mechanical Engineering and Kyle Bruursema, Electrical Engineering
Advised by: L. Brad King, Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics
Sponsored by: Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL)
THIRD PLACE
104: Supermileage Systems
Led by: Olivia Zinser and Ben Klein, Electrical Engineering
Advised by: Rick Berkey, Manufacturing and Mechanical Engineering Technology
Sponsored by: GM, Aramco Americas, Oshkosh, Milwaukee Tool, A&D Technology – GIK, and Dana
HONORABLE MENTION
117: Innovative Global Solutions
Led by: Cynthia Wurtz, Mechanical Engineering and Riley Dickert, Physics
Advised by: Radheshyam Tewari, Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics and Nathan Manser, Geological and Mining Engineering
Sponsored by: Tree Frog Aquagric
FIRST PLACE
233: Social Engineering for High School Students
Team Members: Connor Langdon, Cybersecurity and Kayla Blunt, Computer Network and System Administration
Advised by: Tim Van Wagner and Victoria Walters, Applied Computing
SECOND PLACE
232: Shot Sleeve Re-design for Steel High Pressure Die Casting (HPDC)
Team Members: Ryan Cesario, Henry Summers, Victoria Berger, Caleb Minasian, and Katherine Jarvis, Materials Science and Engineering
Advised by: Paul Sanders and Walter Milligan, Materials Science and Engineering
Sponsored by: Mercury Marine
THIRD PLACE
214: Design of a Method to Characterize the Depletion Mode Medical Device Battery – Phase 2
Team Members: Cole Hebert, Cameron Karnosky, Kristin King, William Poster, and Kelsey Moyer, Biomedical Engineering
Advised by: Orhan Soykan and Smitha Rao, Biomedical Engineering
Sponsored by: U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH)
HONORABLE MENTION
224: Movable Bookshelf Network
Team Members: Spencer Crawford and Ryan Briggs, Computer Engineering and Josh Cribben and Emily Fischer, Electrical Engineering
Advised by: Kit Cischke, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Sponsored by: Michigan Tech Van Pelt and Opie Library
HONORABLE MENTION
227: Physiological Sensing Using a Smart Port-a-Cath
Team Members: Marli Hietala, Savannah Page, Etienne Michels, Ali Dabas and Giovanni Diaz, Biomedical Engineering
Advised by: Sean Kirkpatrick, Biomedical Engineering
Sponsored by: LifeBridge Health
HONORABLE MENTION
231: Renewable Energy Powered Portable Plastic Waste Breakdown Machine
Team Members: Aaron Hogue and Hunter Indermuehle, Electrical Engineering, Ruizhi Ma, Computer Engineering and Zarvan Chinoy, Mechanical Engineering
Advised by: John Lukowski, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Sponsored by: ITC Holdings Corp.
HONORABLE MENTION
237: Utilizing Motor Oil to Rejuvenate RAP Materials
Team Members: Kira Olson, Construction Management, Alli Hummel, Jacob Cleaver, and AJ Clarey, Civil Engineering
Advised by: Zhanping You, Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering
Sponsored by: Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering
FIRST PLACE
301: AAA [Affordable, Accessible, Authentic] Prosthesis
Advised by: Jon Herlivich, Chemical Engineering
SECOND PLACE
203: Implantable Pulse Generator (IPG) and Lead
Advised by: Jingfeng Jiang and Chunxiu (Traci) Yu, Biomedical Engineering
THIRD PLACE
237: Utilizing Motor Oil to Rejuvenate RAP Materials
Advised by: Zhanping You, Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering
Outstanding students, staff and alumni were honored Friday (April 14) during Michigan Tech’s 29th annual Student Leadership Awards Ceremony in the Memorial Union Building Ballroom. Thank you to everyone who joined us in celebrating their achievements!
Congratulations to all of the 2023 winners:
Keynote speaker Jessica L. Thompson ’12 (BS, Biological Sciences) was also recognized as the recipient of the 2023 Outstanding Young Alumni Award.
More information about the awards and the recipients can be found on the Student Leadership Awards webpage. We also invite the campus community to save the date for the 30th annual Student Leadership Awards Ceremony, which will be held April 12, 2024, in the MUB Ballroom.
By Student Leadership and Involvement.
On March 13, 2023, professors and research leaders from Michigan Technological University and the College of Human Medicine at Michigan State University participated and presented at a collaborative research symposium titled “Engineering the Future of Human Health.” This inaugural event, hosted by MSU, was held at the Secchia Center in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
The symposium was spearheaded by Michigan Tech Vice President for Global Campus and Continuing Education David Lawrence and planned by a joint MTU and MSU team. Melissa Kacos, events manager at MSU, used her superior organizational skills to make the symposium a success.
Twelve researchers from MTU and 12 from MSU delivered presentations during the event’s six sessions. The event also featured an 18-poster display from faculty, researchers and M.D. students.
MTU was represented by:
Representing MSU were Brian Johnson and Nureddin Shammakhi (Tissue); Erin Purcell and Jinxing Li (Biosensors); Taeho Kim and Bryan Smith (Biomedical); Aitor Aguirre and Tomasz Timek (Cardiovascular); Rebecca Knickmeyer and Shreesh Sammi (Neurological and Aging); and Anna Moore and Kurt Zinn (Cancer).
The purpose of this collaborative event was investigating areas of shared goals, mutual interests and possible research collaboration in crucial areas of human health. Or as Christopher Contag of MSU affirmed, the symposium “will help integrate the research aims of the two universities for a collective endeavor to develop the tools, technologies and knowledge that will impact human health across the state.”
Sean Kirkpatrick of MTU agreed, noting that the event marked “a good first step towards working across university boundaries and leveraging our unique individual strengths to improve the health of Michiganders.”
The next step will be developing these research aims and shared human health initiatives in a second collaborative symposium hosted by MTU on Oct. 27, which is timed to go along with the Upper Peninsula Medical Conference. In this symposium, researchers will elaborate on the theme of engineering the future of human health, but in these key areas: Big Data, Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Image Processing, Epidemiology, Human Factors and Neural Engineering.
Lawrence, Kirkpatrick, Cooke and Caryn Heldt (ChE/HRI) are MTU’s co-sponsors of this second symposium. Co-sponsors for MSU are Adam Alessio, Departments of Computational Mathematics, Science, and Engineering; Biomedical Engineering; and Radiology; and Bin Chen, Department of Pediatrics and Human Development.
As the second symposium approaches, the Global Campus team will be sharing more details. Stay tuned for ways to attend or participate in this innovative event.
By Shelly Galliah, Global Campus.
by Health Research Institute
The Health Research Institute (HRI) held their 2023 Student Forum on February 24. The forum featured a poster session and an oral presentation session, which drew participation from 20 students in 10 departments. Judges selected the following winners from each category:
First Place: Gregory Miodonski, Kinesiology and Integrative Physiology
Second Place (tie): Bianca Velez, Biological Sciences
Second Place (tie): Chen Zhao, Applied Computing
Third Place (tie): Emily Washeleski, Biological Sciences
Third Place (tie): Sherry Chen, Kinesiology and Integrative Physiology
First Place: Seth Kriz, Chemical Engineering
Second Place (tie): Brennan Vogl, Biomedical Engineering
Second Place (tie): Natalie Nold, Chemical Engineering
Third Place: Roya Bagheri, Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics
Thank you to all of the participants and congratulations to the winners.
For more information on HRI’s student programs and resources, please visit the HRI Student Resources page.