Jaclyn Johnson, teaching professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) is one of three recipients of the 2025 Michigan Distinguished Professor of the Year Award. The awards are presented annually by the Michigan Association of State Universities (MASU) to recognize outstanding contributions and dedication to the education of undergraduate students exhibited by the faculty from Michigan’s 15 public universities.
College of Engineering Dean Michelle Scherer has selected William “Bill” Endres, professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE), as the featured instructor in this week’s Deans’ Teaching Showcase.
Endres will be recognized at an end-of-term event with other spring showcase members and is a candidate for the CTL Instructional Award Series.
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.
Michigan Tech’s sparked ignition (SI) team took home first place overall as well as first place in the design phase of competition in the SAE International annual Clean Snowmobile Challenge earlier this month. Michigan Tech’s Clean Snowmobile Challenge team entered two sleds in this year’s competition at the World Championship Derby Complex in Eagle River, Wisconsin: one in the SI category and one in the compression ignition diesel utility snowmobile (CI) competition.
The Michigan Tech team came in second in the CI category, which is being phased out. This year’s challenge included 14 teams from the United States and Canada.
Distinguished Professor Jason R. Blough has officially been named the chair of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE), effective Jan. 6. Blough has served in the role since July 2022.
Blough is a full professor in the department whose distinguished career includes a thriving research group and many honors in recognition of his work. He was named a distinguished professor at Michigan Tech in 2021.
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:
The Vice President for Research Office (VPR) announces the Spring 2024 Research Excellence Fund (REF) award recipients. Congratulations to each of the awardees.
The REF team also wishes to thank the individual REF reviewers and review panelists, as well as the deans and department chairs, for their time spent on this important internal research award process.
The principal investigators of the awarded projects include:
Research Seed Grants:
The Air Force and Army ROTC invite you to the Spring 2024 Commissioning Ceremony on Friday (April 26) at 7 p.m. at the Rozsa Center.
This semester, we have 10 Air Force cadets and four Army cadets commissioning. Those commissioning are from the following programs:
Chemical Engineering | Chemistry | Civil Engineering | Computer Science | Electrical Engineering | Environmental Engineering | Mechanical Engineering | Mining Engineering | Molecular Biology
By Air Force and Army ROTC.
On March 9, the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) section at Michigan Tech hosted their annual Girl Scouts Engineering Day for over 35 scouts in the Upper Peninsula and northern Wisconsin.
The Brownies and Daisies “Molded the Future,” using Play-Doh to create robotic gripper designs to pick up unique shapes. The scouts then used a digital scanner to see what their models looked like on a computer and learned about the 3D printing process. This session was led by Shane Oberloier, assistant teaching professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE).
The Juniors and Cadettes participated in sessions sponsored by MTU’s Applied Cognitive Science and Human Factors (ACSHF) program and ECE. In one session, the scouts learned about human factors under the guidance of Kelly Steelman, chair and associate professor in the Department of Cognitive and Learning Sciences (CLS), while the second session, “FANtastic Controllers,” focused on computer programming, microcontrollers and circuit building. The scouts assembled a circuit that included an Arduino board, a power supply module, a logic chip and a DC motor to create a working fan. Next, they engaged in programming the circuit, gaining insights into the fundamentals of computer science and serial communication.
To make this event successful, Tech students from Blue Marble Security Enterprise and the Open Source Hardware Enterprise volunteered. SWE appreciates the support we received from ACSHF and ECE. Planning has already begun for the 2025 Girl Scout event!
SWE members Tory Cantrell (mechanical engineering) and Carsyn Boggio (environmental engineering), ECE students Skyler Brawley (computer engineering) and Emily Roth (electrical engineering), and SWENexter Jenna Beaudoin, a Lake Linden-Hubbell High School senior, worked with Girl Scouts and Ring Lardner Middle School students in Niles, Michigan, on April 6. Sophie Owen ’22 (B.S. Electrical Engineering) helped the students construct their circuits.
In Grand Rapids, Michigan, Amy (Palmgren) Rokos ’08 (B.S. Computer Engineering) joined us and helped with the event. Lilly, a fourth grader and Junior Girl Scout, commented, “I liked the programing. I had to do math, but it was fun! I’m excited to do more things with my kit at home.” (Every participant not only used components, but was given an Arduino kit to take home.)
SWE sends a huge shoutout to Brawley and Beaudoin, who worked hard to design this integrated outreach activity, and to academic advisor Lauren Huested (ECE), who obtained the funding for this trip through a grant from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. The funds needed to be used on K-12 outreach that would teach students about EE concepts (specifically motors), making the Arduino/motorized fan kit a perfect fit!
Thanks to our vice president for Global Campus and continuing education, David Lawrence, who permitted us to use the grant funding, we were able to pay for the cost of supplies and travel for the events.
SWE also thanks the College of Engineering and the ECE department for their support, along with the CLS department. Outreach events are exciting opportunities for us to interact with future Michigan Tech Huskies!
By Jaclyn Johnson and Gretchen Hein, Advisors, Society of Women Engineers.