The Wall Street Journal/College Pulse Salary Impact ranking lists schools in order of their impact on graduates’ salaries and how this relates to the cost of attending the college. Michigan Tech was ranked 12th overall, and 2nd among public universities.
Read more here: https://www.wsj.com/rankings/college-rankings/salary-impact-2024
Marty Lagina will deliver the First-Year Engineering Series Lecture to Michigan Tech’s incoming engineering majors this Monday, October 2 at 6 pm. The lecture will take place on campus at the Rozsa Center Auditorium.
Lagina is CEO of Heritage Sustainable Energy. He is also a winemaker, and an executive producer of the long-running reality TV show, The Curse of Oak Island, now in its 11th season on the History Channel—and, he is a Michigan Tech engineering alumnus.
The title of Lagina’s lecture is “I’m Not Here to Give You Advice.”
“The First-Year Engineering Series Lecture provides an exciting opportunity for our students to hear from some of the nation’s most innovative engineering leaders,” says Mary Raber, chair of the Department of Engineering Fundamentals. “It gives them a sense of the many different career paths that are open to engineering graduates—career paths that allow them to positively impact the world,” she adds.
Throughout his life, Lagina says his engineering education has given him the confidence to try new things. “I was thinking of going to law school, and my father told me: ‘You would make a better lawyer if you knew how things worked.’ So I went to Michigan Tech to study engineering and I liked it. And it prepared me very well for what turned out to be a very multifaceted career.”
Lagina graduated from Michigan Tech with his mechanical engineering degree in 1977, then took a job as a petroleum engineer for Amoco. Then, a few years later while attending law school at the University of Michigan, he worked as an independent petroleum engineer consultant, hired by various Michigan corporations regarding petroleum exploration and production.
“I was a law student, putting together oil deals, working out of a room the size of a walk-in closet,” Lagina recalls. “We drilled 14 dry holes in a row until we finally drilled a decent oil well. It put us in business.”
Lagina’s partner in that first consulting business was Craig Tester, another Michigan Tech mechanical engineering alumnus. They were former college roommates. Once Lagina earned his JD, the two founded Terra Energy to pioneer the exploration and development of the Antrim shale natural gas resources of Michigan, which they did—successfully developing over $3 billion of oil and natural gas resources.
“My education at Michigan Tech is what gives me the confidence for innovation.”
When he turned 40, Lagina decided to change course. He formed Heritage Sustainable Energy, a renewable energy provider. Heritage has successfully developed a series of wind and solar projects in Michigan, which in the aggregate, can power the equivalent of 57,000 average Michigan homes.
In 2006, Lagina started doing some unusual exploring to solve a 228 year old mystery. Featured on the History Channel, Lagina, his family and friends attempt to solve “The Curse of Oak Island,” based on the long, complicated history of treasure hunting on a Nova Scotia island.
It turned out to be a VERY difficult engineering project.
Part National Treasure, part Indiana Jones, the hit docu-series, now in its 11th season, follows their exploits as they attempt to—literally—get to the bottom of the ‘money pit’ on the island that has given up some clues, booby traps, bizarre hints and puzzle pieces. Theories of what is buried include treasures from Solomon’s temple, the Holy Grail, the Knights Templar and numerous other sources.
First, they had to purchase a controlling interest in the North Atlantic island. “And everything is difficult,” Lagina says. “There have been shafts and tunnels installed by previous searchers for 200-plus years, so you need to figure out if you are discovering something from the original works or not.”
Tester, an expert on drilling, resistivity, and more, also appears on The Curse of Oak Island.
Born in Kingsford on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Lagina has spent nearly all his life living in Michigan. His background is in engineering and the energy business, but with family ties to one of Italy’s premier winegrowing areas, a passion for wine is in his blood.
He founded Mari Vineyards in 1999 (the same year he was inducted into Michigan Tech’s ME-EM Academy). His goal: to make world-class red wines in northern Michigan but with a nod to the Italian style of his ancestors.
The winery’s namesake is Lagina’s Grandmother (Nonna), an Italian immigrant who settled in the Iron Mountain area of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Lagina has fond memories of her fermenting wine in the basement of her home.
Mari Vineyards is situated on 60 acres in Traverse City. The winery is largely carbon neutral and built from UP dolomite stone, dug from the bases of wind turbines. “Winemaking is an art, but it’s also highly technical,” he adds.
“Engineering school teaches you how things work, and also to know what you don’t know,” says Lagina.
When choosing to go forward with a new venture Lagina makes sure it meets all of these criteria: “It must be interesting; look like there could be some fun; must be legal and ethical; needs to have a good chance to make money AND (bonus points awarded) if it provides extra benefits for society.”
“It must be interesting; look like there could be some fun; must be legal and ethical; needs to have a good chance to make money AND (bonus points awarded) if it provides extra benefits for society.”
The Jackson Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) congratulates the following 2023 Deans’ Teaching Showcase members who have been selected to receive 2023 CTL Instructional Awards.
This year’s recipients will present an overview of the efforts that led to their teaching awards at a CTL Lunch and Learn event on Sept. 12 at noon in the MUB Alumni Lounge. Each presenter will receive formal recognition and a cash award.
Please register in advance to attend the luncheon.
The CTL would also like to thank previous instructional award recipients who were instrumental in the selection process.
We’re looking for nominations for the upcoming 2024 Deans’ Teaching Showcase during spring semester. Please consider suggesting (to your dean or chair) instructors whom you’ve seen make exceptional contributions in curriculum development, assessment, innovative or out-of-class teaching, or large class teaching.
Contact the CTL at ctl@mtu.edu for more information.
By the Jackson Center for Teaching and Learning.
Special Guest: Dr. Brad King
R.L. Smith Bldg., Room 111
Friday, August 4, from 3-4 p.m.
Please register to join in person or via Zoom.
Join Dr. Brad King during Michigan Tech’s annual Alumni Reunion to learn about the role of engineering as it relates to maneuvering satellites in orbit. The title of his presentation is “Michigan Tech is Propelling the Small Satellite Revolution.”
Not on campus? You’re invited to join via Zoom. No Zoom or alumni reunion registration is required. Your presence will be anonymous to other attendees. All are welcome. You’ll find the direct Zoom link here (just scroll down to see it).
Dr KIng is the Richard and Elizabeth Henes Endowed Professor (Space Systems), Mechanical Engineering- Engineering Mechanics. He also serves as director of the ME-EM Space Systems Research Group. He founded Orbion Space Technology in 2016 to develop and manufacture revolutionary plasma propulsion systems for small satellites.
Orbion Space Technology is one of only a few companies in the brand-new propulsion system market. The company was conceived at Michigan Tech and established its base in Houghton.
Dr. King is the founder and faculty advisor of Michigan Tech’s Aerospace Enterprise team, where he empowers undergraduate students to design, build, and fly spacecraft, too. One of the team’s student-built satellites (Oculus) is now in orbit; their second small satellite (Stratus) is due to launch in 2022, and a third (Auris) now in progress.
“Small satellites are changing the way humans do business and science in space,” says King. “The cost to build and launch a small satellite is now about the same as the cost to build and launch a software app. With the cost barrier removed, innovative students and start-up companies are building small satellites to provide capabilities that my generation has never even dreamed about. Michigan Tech is on the forefront of this movement.”
To attend this event in person at the R. L. Smith Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics Building, register for Alumni Reunion 2023. The event is free, but a ticket is required to attend. The deadline to register is midnight Sunday, July 23, 2023.
Origins of Orbion: When Preparation Meets Opportunity
Brad King: Bite-sized Satellites Changing the World!
Brad King: Space, Satellites and Students
Enterprise at MTU Launches Spacecraft—and Careers
Pasi Lautala has been named College of Engineering (CoE) associate dean for research. He is a professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering (CEGE); director and founder of Michigan Tech’s Rail Transportation Program (RTP); and director of the Michigan Tech Transportation Institute.
In his new position as associate dean, Lautala will support faculty and staff engagement with agencies that fund research projects — ranging from one-year, single-investigator projects to complex multidisciplinary projects involving several institutions, spanning years.
“Dr. Lautala will work to further expand the University’s mission of discovering new knowledge through research, and launching new technologies through innovation,” said Audra Morse, interim dean of the College of Engineering. “He has a strong track record of working with faculty members to form highly competitive research teams. He’s going to continue doing that work, and also expand his efforts to help others lead large, collaborative research proposals.”
Under Lautala’s direction, Michigan Tech developed one of the largest multidisciplinary rail transportation research and education portfolios in the nation. RTP projects include improving grade crossing safety through improved inspection techniques and data analytics that utilize drones, communications research between automated and connected highway/railway vehicles, and better understanding of driver behavior at crossings.
Michigan Tech researchers are involved in additional rail projects, including development of a life cycle analysis framework for rail infrastructure, rail transportation resiliency and lowered environmental footprint through locomotive emissions analysis, and predicting track vulnerabilities for short- and long-term natural disruptions.
Lautala serves as chair of the Rail Group on the Transportation Research Board (TRB), a unit of the National Academies of Sciences (NAS).
“It has been a great experience to work with the Rail Transportation Program, the Michigan Tech Transportation Institute, and colleagues in the CEGE over the last 15 years,” he said.
“I’m really looking forward to this new adventure. For me, the most exciting part of research has always been identifying opportunities that allow our greatest minds to cross-pollinate and use their expertise to address the variety of issues facing us on a daily basis. It’s going to be a steep curve to learn all the facets of research that take place within and beyond the College of Engineering, but I’m excited about the opportunity. I will do my best to help continue the expansion of our research in new directions.”
Lautala joined the Michigan Tech faculty in 2007, and soon after established the RTP to advance rail education and research across disciplines. He first came to Tech from Finland in 1996 to earn an M.S. in Civil Engineering. After his graduation, he worked for five years as a railroad and highway engineering consultant in Chicago before returning to Michigan Tech for a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering – Transportation.
Materials Science and Engineering Professor Emeritus Larry Sutter was the previous associate dean for research. He retired in July 2022.
More than a dozen Michigan Tech faculty are taking part in the 130th American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) Conference and Exhibition, “The Harbor of Engineering Education,” June 26-28 in Baltimore, Maryland. This year’s three-day event has a record number of abstracts, papers, and almost 100 exhibitors.
ASEE’s mission is to “advance innovation, excellence, and access at all levels of education for the engineering profession,” says ASEE President Jenna Carpenter, dean of engineering at Campbell University in North Carolina.
Michigan Tech Chemical Engineering Professor Adrienne Minerick will be finishing up her term as ASEE president at the conference. Presidents of ASEE take part in a three-year cycle: a year as president-elect; a year as president; and then a year as past president.
Michigan Tech Professor Emerita Sheryl Sorby, professor of engineering education at the University of Cincinnati, served as ASEE president in 2020.
This year, some participants from Michigan Tech were unable to attend due to weather-related flight delays and cancellations. Here’s a rundown of their scheduled events:
MMET Department Chair John Irwin is program chair of the Engineering Technology Council and Engineering Technology Division and is the incoming Chair of the Engineering Technology Chair and ASEE Board member for 2023-24.
Engineering Fundamentals Associate Professor Jon Sticklen is program chair of the Systems Engineering Division
Leonard Bohmann, College of Engineering Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, spoke at “Preparation for an On-Site Visit, presented by ABET.”
Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics Associate Teaching Professor Aneet Dharmavaram Narendranath was a panelist at a technical session, “Measuring and Visualizing Metadiscursive Markers in Student Writing.”
Narendranath, along with Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics Assistant Professor Jaclyn Johnson and Teaching Professor Radheshyam Tewari, presented “Work in Progress: Quantification of Problem-Complexity and Problem-Solving Skills with Directed Networks in a Sophomore Course in Mechanics of Materials.”
Engineering Fundamentals Assistant Professor Michelle Jarvie-Eggart presented “Potential Interventions to Promote Engineering Technology Adoption among Faculty.” Her co-author is Assistant Provost and Professor Shari Stockero.
Assistant Professor David Labyak presented “Teaching Vibration and Modal Analysis Concepts in Traditional Subtractive Machining to Mechanical Engineering Technology Students.”
Computer Science Assistant Professor Briana Bettin presented “More Teaching to Transgress in Computing: Creating Identity-Inclusive Computing Experiences in K-16 Computing Education.”
Library Director Erin Matas presented virtually “Undergraduate Students Experience Cognitive Complexity in Basic Elements of Library Research.”
Jin Choi, chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, attended the Department Chairs sessions.
Professor Janet Callahan was recognized at the Women in Engineering Division business meeting for sponsoring the Mara Wasburn Early Engineering Education Grant Award.
“Together we are moving ASEE’s mission forward to create a better world.”
Michigan Tech’s College of Engineering served as an Educator sponsor of the ASEE Annual Conference.
Michael Mullins has agreed to serve as interim chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering. He will officially start July 1, taking over from chair and faculty member Pradeep Agrawal.
Mullins, a professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering, has previously served as department chair. He has extensive experience leading the Michigan Tech University Senate, and also won a Fulbright award, the Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Alternative Energy Technology, to spend the 2015-16 academic year on sabbatical at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden.
“The department is in a strong growth curve of research, and I know that Michael will only help accelerate this as we add additional faculty to the department and also search for the department’s next Chair,” said Dean Janet Callahan.
“Having been in the department for over 35 years, I am pleased to serve as interim chair as we go through the transition period of finding our next chair and hiring additional faculty,” said Mullins. “Until that time, we will continue to promote excellence in education and research, and stay connected to our alumni and industry stakeholders.”
Agrawal came to Michigan Tech in 2017 to serve as chair after nearly 40 years at Georgia Tech. He will soon be returning to Atlanta upon retirement, where he will enjoy winters without anywhere near as much ice or snow!
MTU’s Society of Women Engineers (SWE) Section participated in the global SWE Outreach Competition, where they presented on Engineering Day!, a K-5 outreach program.
Undergraduates Skyler Brawley (computer engineering) and Carsyn Boggio (environmental engineering) described the program developed and hosted jointly by the SWE section and Engineering Ambassadors, which reached over 600 K-5 students and Girl Scouts last year. MTU’s SWE section partnered with the SWE Professional Section in Grand Rapids to host an event for Daisies, Brownies and Juniors scouts. We hosted another at Michigan Tech for Northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula Girl Scouts. Locally, Engineering Day! was held at Lake Linden-Hubbell Elementary, Barkell Elementary and Dollar Bay-Tamarack City Elementary. We were especially thrilled for the first- and second-place sections, both of whom were from Africa and had developed innovative ways to connect with girls and help youth learn about STEM careers and engineering.
The SWE section and Engineering Ambassadors will continue to host Engineering Day! in local schools and with Girl Scouts. We have already begun planning for the Fall and are looking forward to another fun and exciting year of outreach.
The section thanks SWE, Michigan Tech and our industry sponsors for their outreach support.
By Gretchen Hein, Advisor, Society of Women Engineers.
SWE, Engineering Ambassadors Host Engineering Day Events During March 2023
Michigan Tech’s Blizzard Baja team took home an 8th place finish at the recent Baja SAE North American Competition in Oshkosh, Wisconsin in May.
“Our 8th place finish was sealed by a 4th place finish in the final 4-hour Endurance event Sunday morning,” says team faculty advisor, Assistant Teaching Professor Kevin Johnson. “We were in 2nd place in the Endurance event for a long time until we had a steering arm failure on the car. The team quickly replaced the steering knuckle in the pits and got back on the track with a half hour remaining in the race. Regardless of this setback we were able to finish in 4th place.”
Earlier in the race, the team received a black flag, due to their car numbers not being visible due to mud buildup. The team had to enter the pit to clean them off, which set them back a bit, as well.
“This year we had a very strong team with outstanding participation,” adds Johnson. “The team had two major obstacles; a working reliable 4 wheel drive system and a new larger Kohler engine to replace the Briggs that had been used for many years previously.”
Michigan Tech’s Blizzard Baja is one of 25 Enterprise teams, part of Michigan Tech’s award-winning Enterprise Program.
The Blizzard Baja team consists of numerous sub-teams. One of those, the 4×4 Senior Design team with members William Rivet and Alec Pominville, scrapped the 4×4 design from last year due to major issues. “They went through some iterations including a belt and a chain drive and finally ended up with a drive shaft, gearbox, and differentials design,” notes Johnson. “They put countless hours into design, manufacturing, and testing the last two semesters with help from a number of other students.”
This year, Michigan Tech served as host to Fei Baja, the SAE Baja team from Centro Universitário FEI, a university in São Bernardo do Campo, Brazil. “The team from Brazil contacted our team through social media asking if MTU Baja SAE would be willing to host them,” said Johnson. It turned out to be a fantastic experience for both teams.
“The best part of the competition was seeing all of our hard work pay off in the form of a top 10 finish,” said Gregory Jowett, a mechanical engineering student who serves as President of Michigan Tech’s Blizzard Baja SAE team.
“Whether someone was directly working on the vehicle, doing modeling or simulation, or making sure the trip ran smoothly, it’s incredibly rewarding to see everyone’s effort culminate in a successful experience like it did in Oshkosh,” he says.
“I am extremely proud of the entire team and feel they represented Michigan Tech very well.”
“Needing to modify our frame to pass technical inspections and breaking an a-arm during the endurance race were some of the larger setbacks we faced. In both cases, the team was able to efficiently work together to quickly solve both problems. Even after an early morning and 3.5 hours of racing, the team was able to replace the a-arm in the pits and get our driver back out on the track in less than 10 minutes.”
The success experienced by our team is a direct reflection of Blizzard Baja’s “work hard, play hard” culture,” adds Jowett. “We enjoy team bonding when we have free time, but when there are things to do, none of our members hesitate to selflessly step up and get things done.”
“Props to our pit crew!”
As for joining the team, the Blizzard Baja enterprise conducts interviews for prospective new members twice per year. For more information, students can visit the website at baja.mtu.edu or email the team at baja@mtu.edu.
A student engineering team from Michigan Tech is competing this week in the Robotic Mining Challenge, hosted by the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.
The event is designed to create solutions to problems faced on moon exploration missions, with 24 university teams from across the nation taking part.
Each team has spent the past year designing and building a robot that uses resources available on the lunar surface. During the competition, robots must autonomously navigate a lunar-simulated arena and excavate lunar soil, or regolith.
Michigan Tech’s robot, ARES, completed a 15 minute practice runs on Wednesday, May 24. ARES stands for Automated Regolith Excavation System. The name was selected after a brainstorm and voting, says Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Assistant Professor Paul van Susante, the team’s faculty advisor.
Ten of the Michigan Tech team’s 28 members are on site. That includes team lead Karson Linders (mechanical engineering and robotics engineering); Brian Geiger (mechanical engineering); Miranda Meyers (electrical engineering); Brenda Wilson (electrical engineering); Christi LeCaptain (mechanical engineering); Tanner Duncan (mechanical engineering); Collin Miller (mechanical engineering); Ian Giles (robotics engineering); Kyle Hintz (mechanical engineering); and Brendan McRoberts (mechanical engineering).
Many of the students are current or former members of MINE, the Multiplanetary INnovation Enterprise at Michigan Tech, which is also advised by Prof. van Susante. Several of the students recently graduated in April.
Throughout the week, teams will receive one 15-minute practice run and two competition runs. Practice runs will take place May 22-23 with the challenge beginning the afternoon of May 23 and continuing through May 26.
“We were overall pleased with our first competition run,” said van Susante. “Everything worked, but needed tweaking. “We have learned many things that we will improve today and all day tomorrow before our final competition run on Friday.”
Judges of the competition include industry professionals from Caterpillar, the Exolith Lab at the University of Central Florida and NASA’s Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute.
The Robotic Mining Challenge Award ceremony takes place Friday evening. The Michigan Tech team will travel back to Houghton the next day.
This contest is separate from the NASA Lunabotics Competition, hosted at Kennedy Space Center.