By Marcia Goodrich
October 5, 2012—
Reza Shahbazian-Yassar thinks sodium might be the next big thing in rechargeable batteries.
Now, the gold standard in the industry is the lithium ion battery, which can be recharged hundreds of times and works really well. Its only problem is that it is made with lithium, which is not cheap. It could get even more expensive if more electric vehicles powered with lithium ion batteries hit the road and drive up demand.
Tech Today Article by Travis Gendron, student writer
Two members of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) section at Michigan Tech, Kaitlyn Bunker and Alicia Walby, have been elected to regional and national positions within the organization.
Bunker, an electrical engineering PhD student, is the new collegiate director of SWE and sits on its national board of directors. The collegiate director is the only student who sits on the board, and Bunker is responsible for giving the collegiate members a voice. “I’ll be the first graduate student in the position in quite a while. I also come from a smaller, but really active section, so I can bring a new perspective,” she said.
Michigan Tech held its inaugural celebration of Ada Lovelace Day, an annual event held to recognize the accomplishments and contributions of women to the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics and to encourage young women to pursue careers in STEM fields.
Tech’s celebration involved a two-day series of events beginning on Tuesday, Oct. 16, in Fisher 139 as Professor Martha Sloan (ECE) and guest speakers Mary Long and Michelle Eggart discuss their experiences as women working in STEM fields.
On Wednesday, Oct. 17, from 8 to 10 p.m., in Fisher 135 there was a film screening of “The Gender Chip Project” followed by a panel discussion featuring female faculty and graduate students from departments across campus, including Sarah Green, Nina Mahmoudian, Laura Brown, Patty Sotirin and Kaitlyn Bunker, who discussed their experiences as women in STEM disciplines of academia.
More than 50 Senior Design and two dozen Enterprise teams converged on the Memorial Union Thursday, and their projects were as impressive as they were varied.
The Union filled up early as crowds, judges, media and local school children checked out the inventive creativity on display.
Photos and a list of winners can be viewed at the www.expo.mtu.edu website
The 2012 Society of Automotive Engineers SAE Clean Snowmobile Challenge is being held at Michigan Technological University Houghton, Michigan. Links to Photos and Videos of 2012 SAE Clean Snowmobile Challenge Action can be found at 2012 SAE Clean Snowmobile Challenge Videos
‘Horsepower TV’, a Spike TV program about building hot rod engines, showed Michigan Tech research being done testing engines running on E85 fuels.
The episode is posted online at: Horsepower TV
The segment about E85 is at 13 minutes.
Bill Shapton Featured in Michigan Tech Magazine: An engine of change (PDF)
A bumpy ride in the bush in an off-road vehicle has paved the way for the industrial readiness of engineering students nationwide.
See the historic video clips from 1970s SAE Collegiate Design competitions