College of Engineering Blog

Category: Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering

2019 Student Leadership Award Recipients

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Andrew Baker '11 '14
Andrew Baker ’11 ’14

Outstanding students, staff, and a special alumni were honored April 19, 2019, for Michigan Tech’s 25th Annual Student Leadership Awards Ceremony.

Keynote speaker Andrew H. Baker ’11 ’14 (MS, PhD MSE), won the Outstanding Young Alumni Award. He is currently working for Boeing Company and active in his professional organization The Minerals, Metals, & Materials Society.

Congratulations to all of the 2019 winners:

  • President’s Award for Leadership: Jack Hendrick
  • Dean of Students Award for Service: Elise Cheney-Makens
  • Exceptional Leadership in Student Governance Award: Apurva Baruah
  • Exceptional Enthusiasm as Student Leader Award: Ben Metzger
  • Student Employee of the Year: Jessika Rogers
  • Rising Star of the Year: Logan Alger.
  • Outstanding Future Alumni: Magann Dykema
  • Exceptional Program of the Year: Economics Club’s 2018 KHOB Economic Outlook
  • Most Improved Student Organization: Alpha Psi Omega Theatre Honor Society
  • Exceptional Community Service Project: Elise Cheney-Makens, Science Fair Mentoring Program
  • Claire M. Donovan Award: Joel Isaacson
  • Student Organization of the Year: Inter-Residence Housing Council
  • Percy Julian Award: Ron Kyllonen
  • Student Organization Advisors of the Year: James DeClerck, Delta Upsilon and Jean DeClerck, Alpha Sigma Tau
  • The Provost’s Award for Scholarship: Tessa Steenwinkel, Biological Sciences
  • Exceptional Graduate Student Leader: Karina Eyre, Civil and Environmental Engineering
  • Exceptional Graduate Student Scholar: Miles Penhale, ME-EM
  • Exceptional Graduate Mentor: Melissa F. Baird, Social Sciences
  • Exceptional Staff Member: Brittany Buschell, Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences
  • Sorority Woman of the Year – Greta Colford, Alpha Gamma Delta
  • Fraternity Man of the Year – Trevor Peffley, Sigma Rho
  • Sorority of the Year – Alpha Gamma Delta
  • Fraternity of the Year – Phi Kappa Tau

By Student Activities.

Related:

Pavlis Students Shine at 25th Annual Student Leadership Awards

View the Medallion Ceremony Photo Gallery

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2019 Research Excellence Fund Recipients in Engineering

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Congratulations to the 2019 Research Excellence Fund recipients. Awards are given by the Vice President for Research Office in various categories, with the following recipients awarded in the College of Engineering.
Total Organic Carbon Analyzer

Infrastructure Enhancement (IE) Grant

Paul Fraley (MSE/IMP) – Induction Power Supply Replacement for Melt Spinner
Cory McDonald (CEE/GLRC) – Acquisition of a Shimadzu TOC-LCPH
Stephen Kampe (MSE) – Moisture and Oxygen Analyzers for Inert Atmosphere Glove Boxes

Research Seed (RS) Grants

Lei Pan (Chem Eng)

Portage Health Foundation (PHF) Research Seed (RS) Grants

Smitha Rao (Biomed)

Portage Health Foundation (PHF) Mid-Career (MC)

Jingfeng Jiang (Biomed)

A big thanks to the volunteer review committees, the deans, and department chairs for their time spent on this important internal research award process.

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Three Students Awarded NSF Graduate Research Fellowships

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Rose Turner
Rose Turner

Three students from Michigan Tech received fellowships from the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF-GRFP), one of the oldest and most prestigious programs in the nation. In addition, one student received Honorable Mention in the national program.

Rose Turner, Gabriela Shirkey and Helena Keller were named GRFP Fellows while Katelyn Kring received Honorable Mention.

Turner, from Berkley, Michigan, graduated from Michigan Tech in December with a bachelor’s in environmental engineering. She was the student speaker for Fall Commencement and is planning to pursue graduate studies in Environmental Engineering here at Michigan Tech

Kring graduated from Michigan Tech in December and is continuing as a first-year master’s student in Tech’s Department of Geological Sciences and Engineering.

Shirkey, from Manitou Beach, Michigan, graduated from Michigan Tech in the Fall of 2013 in scientific and technical communications and is currently studying geography at Michigan State University.

Keller, from Elk River Minnesota, graduated from Tech in Spring 2014 with a degree in Chemistry. She is currently studying macromolecular, supramolecular and nanochemistry at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

THE NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines who are pursuing research-based master’s and doctoral degrees at accredited US institutions.

By the Graduate School.

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Michigan Tech Design Expo Award Winners for 2019

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More than 1,000 students in Enterprise and Senior Design showcased their work last Thursday, April 18 at Design Expo and competed for awards. A panel of judges, made up of distinguished corporate representatives, community members and Michigan Tech staff and faculty, critiqued the projects. The College of Engineering and the Pavlis Honors College are pleased to announce the following winners:

Gypsum Water Extraction team members
Gypsum Water Extraction from the ME-EM department took first place for Senior Design in the 2019 Expo.

Senior Design Awards (based on poster/video)

1st place: ME-EM – Gypsum Water Extraction

2nd place: ME-EM – Assembly Cell Changeover

3rd place: MSE – Gerdau Inclusion Solidification Prevention

Senior Design Honorable Mention

ME-EM – FCA Advanced Hood Architecture – Structural and Attachment Team

MSE – Cobalt Reduction in Tribaloy T-400

BME – Transcatheter Single Ventricle Device

Aerospace Enterprise team members
Aerospace placed first for Enterprise based on their poster and presentation scores.

Enterprise Awards (based on poster and presentation)

1st place: Aerospace Enterprise

2nd place: Alternative Energy Enterprise

3rd place: General and Expedition Adventure Research (GEAR)

Enterprise Honorable Mention

Innovative Global Solutions

Consumer Product Manufacturing

Blue Marble Security

Innovation Center for Entrepreneurship Innovation Award

1st place: Alternative Energy Enterprise for Renewable Energy Mission Module (REMM)

2nd place: Universal Driver Gear Train (BME)

3rd place: Transcatheter Single Ventricle Device (BME)

Design Expo Image Contest Winners

1st place: Blizzard Baja

Blizzard Baja's Comp Car, "Hornet" jumps over dirt track on the Tech Trails
Meet our 2019 Comp Car “Hornet”

 

2nd place: Full Flexion Knee

3D scan of tibial insert on a computer screen, with the actual tibial insert set in front of the screen in a vise, while being scanned
3D Scanning of Tibial Insert

Honorable Mention: Cin/Optic Communication and Media

Team photo

Enterprise Award Winners

Student Awards:

Outstanding Leadership: Oliver Schihl, Advanced Metalworks Enterprise

Rookie Award: Troy Maust, Aerospace Enterprise

Innovative Solutions: Paul Kamps, Alternative Energy Enterprise

Industry/Sponsor Relations: Romana Carden, Aerospace Enterprise

Faculty/Staff/Sponsor Awards:

Outstanding Enterprise Advisor: Jay Meldrum, Alternative Energy Enterprise

Behind the Scenes: Dr. Jennifer Becker, Civil and Environmental Engineering

 

Congratulations and thanks to ALL teams for a very successful Design Expo 2019!

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Support for MiSTEM Advisory Council

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MiSTEM Networks in the UP colored map
MiSTEM Networks in the UP, Michigan Department of Technology, Management and Budget

Jacqueline Huntoon, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $385,136 grant from the State of Michigan, Department of Education.

Christopher Wojick (CEE), Stephanie Tubman (Provost Office), Douglas Oppliger (EF) and Amanda Gonczi (GLRC) are Co-PIs on the project “2018-19 MiSTEM Advisory Council Grant.”

This is a one-year project.

By Sponsored Programs.

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Tau Beta Pi Honor Society initiates 20 new members

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Michigan Tech Tau Beta Pi Spring 2019 Initiates

Tau Beta Pi initiated eighteen students and two eminent engineers into the Michigan Tech Michigan Beta chapter this semester.

A nationally-recognized engineering honor society, Tau Beta Pi is the only one that recognizes all engineering professions. Members are selected from the top eighth of their junior class, top fifth of their senior class, or the top fifth of graduate students who have completed 50 percent of their coursework.

Tau Beta Pi celebrates those who have distinguished scholarship and exemplary character and members strive to maintain integrity and excellence in engineering. The honor is nationally recognized in both academic and professional settings. Alumni embody the principle of TBP: “Integrity and Excellence in Engineering.”

Spring 2019 Initiates:

Undergraduate Students

David Castelvetere: Mechanical Engineering

Laura De Marchi: Biomedical Engineering

Lucas Determan: Computer Engineering

Brooke Forseth: Civil Engineering

Dakota Frohriep: Electrical Engineering

Zachrey Gogulski: Environmental Engineering

Ben Johnson: Mechanical Engineering

Sean Luke: Mechanical Engineering

Nate Marus: Biomedical Engineering

Josh Poquette: Electrical Engineering

Cameron Reid: Chemical Engineering

Erican Santiago: Biomedical Engineering

Christian Walters: Mechanical Engineering

Jason Whitler: Mechanical Engineering

Derek Willis: Mechanical Engineering

Bronson Wood: Chemical Engineering

 

Graduate Students

Chaitanya Bhat: Civil and Environmental Engineering

Li Wei: Electrical Engineering

 

Eminent Engineers

Sean Kirkpatrick: Biomedical Engineering

Faith Morrison: Chemical Engineering

 

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ASTM Award for Glass Strength Researcher Stephen Morse

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Stephen Morse ASTM Award 2019
Stephen Morse (left) accepts the ASTM Award.

Stephen Morse was awarded an American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) International Committee Award of Appreciation for his outstanding contributions to the Standard Practice for Determining Load Resistance of Glass in Buildings (E1300) and the Subcommittee (E06.52) on Glass Use in Buildings.

He was recognized for his work on greatly improved design methodologies for architectural window glass.

Morse holds a joint appointment as an assistant professor in the Departments of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics and Civil and Environmental Engineering.

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Engineering Students Take Top Prizes at 2019 Graduate Research Colloquium

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The Graduate Student Government (GSG) hosted the 11th Annual Graduate Research Colloquium March 27 and 28, to celebrate the hard work and outstanding achievements of our graduate students. The event has grown from a one-session event with a handful of participants into a two-day event with a record 85 participants, representing 17 academic schools and departments. The event ended with an awards banquet honoring presenters, award nominees and three new awards recognizing departments for supporting graduate education. Congratulations to the 2019 graduate student recipients for their outstanding accomplishments.

Janna Brown
Janna Brown

Top three GRC poster presentations:

  1. Janna Brown, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
  2. Laura Schaerer, Department of Biological Sciences
  3. Avik Ghosh, Department of Chemistry

Top three GRC oral presentations:

  1. Nabhajit Goswami, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
  2. Nicholas Gerstner, Department of Humanities
  3. Jeremy Bigalke, Department of Kinesiology and Integrative Physiology
Nabhajit Goswami
Nabhajit Goswami

The Graduate School sponsors three awards to honor students that have committed an extraordinary amount of time to their studies, instructing others or serving the graduate community. These awards include: Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award, Dean’s Award for Outstanding Scholarship and Graduate Student Service Award.

Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award:

Chemical Engineering

  • Aaron Krieg
  • Daniel Kulas

Chemistry

  • Vagarshak Begoyan
  • Charles Schaerer

Civil and Environmental Engineering

  • Dongdong Ge
  • Christa Meingast
  • Mohammadhossein Sadeghiamirshahidi
  • Darud E Sheefa
  • Sarah Washko

Cognitive and Learning Sciences

  • CatherineTislar

Electrical and Computer Engineering

  • Mehdi Malekrah

Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences

  • Brandi Petryk

Humanities

  • Elizabeth Renshaw

Mathematical Sciences

  • Jacob Blazejewski
  • Nattaporn Chuenjarem

Mechanical Engineering–Engineering Mechanics

  • Ahammad Basha Dudekula
  • Siddharth Bharat Gopujkar
  • Cameron Hansel
  • Erica  Jacobson
  • Luke Jurmu
  • Mingyang Li
  • Si Liu
  • Niranjan Miganakallu
  • William Pisani
  • Samantha Swartzmiller
  • Upendra Yadav
  • Zhuyong Yang

Physics

  • Lisa Eggart
  • Nicholas Videtich

Social Sciences

  • Sun Nguyen
  • Daniel Trepal

Dean’s Award for Outstanding Scholarship:

Atmospheric Sciences

  • Janarjan Bhandari
  • Kamal Kant Chandrakar

Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

  • Jeffrey Kiiskila

Biomedical Engineering

  • Anindya Majumdar

Chemistry

  • Mingxi Fang
  • Shahien Shahsavari

Civil and Environmental Engineering

  • Mohammadhossein Sadeghiamirshahidi
  • Xinyu Ye
  • Shuaidong Zhao

Electrical and Computer Engineering

  • Wyatt Adams

Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences

  • Priscilla Addison

Humanities

  • Nancy Henaku

Kinesiology and Integrative Physiology

  • Jeremy Bigalke

Mathematical Sciences

  • Matthew Roberts

Mechanical Engineering–Engineering Mechanics

  • Sampath Kumar Reddy Boyapally
  • Oladeji Fadayomi
  • Hui Huang
  • Xian Li
  • Miles Penhale
  • Nikhil Appasaheb Shinde
  • Rahul Jitendra Thakkar
  • Mitchel Timm
  • Xiucheng Zhu

Physics

  • Chad Brisbois
  • Dolendra Karki

School of Business and Economics

  • Garrett  Mitchell
  • David Renaldi
  • Gina  Roose
  • Dylan Steman

Social Sciences

  • John Barnett
  • Erin Burkett
  • Robert Zupko

The Graduate Student Service Award is given to graduate students nominated by the Graduate Student Government Executive Board for their outstanding contributions to the graduate community at Michigan Tech.

Graduate Student Service Award:

  • Daniel Byrne, Department of Computer Science
  • Nabhajit Goswami, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
  • Ami Kling, Department of Biomedical Engineering

Michigan Tech is a member of the Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools (MAGS), which solicits nominations for its Excellence in Teaching Award and Distinguished Master’s Thesis Competition.

The MAGS Excellence in Teaching Award participating schools are able to nominate one master’s and one doctoral level graduate students who exemplify excellence in the teaching/learning mission of our university.

Excellence in Teaching Award Nominee:

  • Jacob J. Blazejewski , Mathematical Sciences

The MAGS Distinguished Master’s Thesis Competition recognizes and rewards distinguished scholarship and research at the master’s level.

Distinguished Master’s Thesis Competition Nominee:

  • Sagda Osman, School of Technology

Michigan Tech is also a member of the Council for Graduate Schools/ProQuest and recognizes nominees for having completed dissertations representing original work that makes an unusually significant contribution to the discipline.

Council for Graduate Schools/ProQuest Nominee:

  • Erin C. Pischke, Social Sciences Department
  • Lauren N. Schaefer, Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences Department

New Graduate School Awards to Graduate Programs Innovations to Enhance Graduate Student Recruitment and Enrollment Award:

  • Significant Enhancement in Recruitment and Enrollment Award – For creative strategies to enhance growth in graduate programs. Awarded to Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics
  • Graduate Research Colloquium (GRC) Participation – For highest participation at the GRC. Awarded to Kinesiology and Integrative Physiology, Biomedical Engineering and Chemistry
  • Three Minute Thesis (3MT) Participation – For highest participation at the 3MT competition. Awarded to Biological Sciences

The GSG sponsors an Annual Merit Awards Program consisting of four awards that honor the exceptional work of one staff member, one graduate mentor and two graduate students. The recipients of these awards were nominated by their fellow graduate students and selected by the Graduate Student Government Executive Board.

Exceptional Staff Member Recipient:

  • Brittany Buschell, Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences

Exceptional Graduate Mentor Recipient:

  •  Melissa F. Baird, Social Sciences

Exceptional Student Leader Recipient:

  • Karina Eyre, Civil and Environmental Engineering

Exceptional Student Scholar:

  • Miles Penhale , ME-EM

Congratulations to award recipients and nominees and a huge thank you to all the presenters, judges, volunteers and GSG supporters for helping make this one of the largest colloquiums in GSG’s history.

By Graduate School and Graduate Student Government.

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Engineering Students Sweep the 2019 Undergraduate Research Symposium

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URS 2019The 2019 Undergraduate Research Symposium (URS) was held on Friday, March 29th, in the lobby of the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts from 1-5 p.m. The URS highlighted the amazing cutting-edge research being conducted on Michigan Tech’s campus by some of our best and brightest undergraduate students.

The Pavlis Honors College hosts undergraduate researchers and scholars from all departments, schools and programs to present abstracts for presentation at the URS.

VIEW THE PHOTO GALLERY

The winners of this year’s symposium, based on the assessment of faculty and staff judges from across campus, ARE:

First Place: Ceily Fessel Doan, Environmental Engineering, “Comparison of Nannochloropsis and Chlorelle Vulgaris Algae to Energy Efficiency in the Rio Grande Watershed” working with Alex Mayer

Second Place: Jacob LeBarre, Chemical Engineering, “Improvement of Virus Purification Method using Cation Exchange Chromatography” working with Caryn Heldt

Third Place: Kaylee Meyers, Biomedical Engineering, “Nitric Oxide Releasing Composite Hydrogels for Tendon Repair Via Matrix Metalloproteinase Controlled Pathways” working with Rupak Rajachar

Honorable Mention: Brenna Rosso, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, “Assessing the Expression and Purification of Arg-Tagged MS2 Coat Protein by Cation Exchange Chromatography” working with Ebenezer Tumban

Honorable Mention: Elizabeth Polega, Biomedical Engineering “Antibacterial Properties of Mussel-Inspired Polydopamine Coatings Prepared by Simple Two-Step Shaking-Assisted Method” working with Bruce Lee

Ceily Fessel Doan, CEE, First Place
Ceily Fessel Doan, CEE, First Place
Jacob LeBarre, CHE, Second Place
Jacob LeBarre, CHE, Second Place
Kaylee Meyers, BME, Third Place
Kaylee Meyers, BME, Third Place
Elizabeth Polega, BME, Honorable Mention
Elizabeth Polega, BME, Honorable Mention
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World Water Day 2019 Addresses Human Rights

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Monica Lewis-Patrick
Monica Lewis-Patrick

HOUGHTON — Water should be considered a basic human right, said Monica Lewis-Patrick. But in many cases, its commodification has made reliable access out of reach of struggling households.

Lewis-Patrick, the co-founder, president and chief executive officer of We the People of Detroit, delivered the keynote address Monday, March 25, 2019, as part of Michigan Technological University’s celebration of World Water Day.

Addressing the prospective engineers in the room, Lewis-Patrick urged them to move beyond mere equations and schematics.

“What we know, is that if you will serve humanity, and you begin your conversations for solving those problems with talking to the most impacted community first, I think we can get to these solutions much quicker and with fewer casualties,” she said.

Read more at the Mining Gazette, by Garrett Neese.

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