Wind Power Duo Wins Bhakta Rath Research Award

image121726-horizWind turbines appear simple, but it’s the complex engineering behind the technology that makes harnessing the wind seem like a breeze. Bridging the gap between mechanical details and large-scale infrastructure needs of wind turbine technology is also no easy feat.

But that’s the research focus of Antonio Velazquez, who earned his PhD from Michigan Technological University last fall, and Assistant Professor Andrew Swartz, Velazquez’s advisor in civil and environmental engineering. Their forward-thinking research on better monitoring systems for wind turbines earned the duo this year’s Bhakta Rath Research Award.

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Bioprinting in 3D: Looks Like Candy, Could Regenerate Nerve Cells

image121814-horizThe printer looks like a toaster oven with the front and sides removed. Its metal frame is built up around a stainless steel circle lit by an ultraviolet light. Stainless steel hydraulics and thin black tubes line the back edge, which lead to an inner, topside box made of red plastic. In front, the metal is etched with the red Bio Bot logo. All together, the gray metal frame is small enough to fit on top of an old-fashioned school desk, but nothing about this 3D printer is old school. In fact, the tissue-printing machine is more like a sci-fi future in the flesh—and it has very real medical applications.
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Alex Mayer Receives 2015 Research Award

image121729-horizWater is perhaps the most controversial natural resource in the US. Alex Mayer recognizes that, for all its controversy, water is essential to life and society. Mayer holds the Charles and Patricia Nelson Presidential Professor in civil and environmental engineering at Michigan Technological University and studies water resources. For his dedication to studying water quality and scarcity — and his unique approach to these complex problems — Mayer won Michigan Tech’s 2015 Research Award.
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STEM Career Tours at Michigan Tech

STEMHigh School students came to learn about STEM Careers at Michigan Tech. Nearly 200 high school students from nine schools in the western UP spent a day at Michigan Tech, exploring science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) careers. They visited labs and learn about green building and low-impact design, human monitoring devices, forest insects, steam mechanics, remotely-operated vehicles, computer science, materials science and engineering, civil engineering/concrete testing, Great Lakes fish, transportation engineering and geology and mining engineering.

On Tuesday May 12, students from Jeffers High School in Adams Township spent the day at Tech learning about STEM careers. Students from Nah Tah Wahsh Public Academy in Wilson were on campus on May 13th, and on Friday the 15th the University will host students from Watersmeet High School.

Students visited a variety of science, engineering, and computer labs at Michigan Tech and participate in presentations and hands-on activities led by Michigan Tech students, engineers, and scientists to kick start students’ planning for careers in STEM. Tours were approximately from 9 am to 2:30 pm.

View some photos of the STEM Careers Tours Program at Michigan Tech

View a short video clip of a lab example learning about STEM careers

Download the PDF Flyer: STEM Career Tours at Michigan Tech

Selected Topics and Labs to Visited:

Green Building & Low Impact Design
Stream Mechanics Lab
Remotely Operated Vehicles
Computer Science
Materials Science & Engineering
Civil Engineering Concrete TestingLab
Fishy Great Lakes
Transportation Engineering
Geology & Mining Engineering
Human Monitoring Devices / Driving Simulator
Forest Insects

For more information about STEM Career Tours at Michigan Tech, contact:

Joan Chadde, Director
MTU Center for Science & Environmental Outreach
jchadde@mtu.edu or 906-487-3341

Made possible with funding from the Michigan STEM Partnership and coordinated by the MTU Center for Science & Environmental Outreach and Western U.P. Center for Science, Math and Environmental Education with assistance from the Dept. of Civil & Environmental Engineering.

STEM Tours School FLYER

Schools Sheduled (Update to May 6)

April 28 – Keweenaw Bay Alternative School and Copper Country Christian
May 4 – Lake Linden-Hubbell High School
May 5 – L’Anse High School
May 8: Dollar Bay
May 11: Bessemer
May 12: Jeffers High School
May 13: Nah Tah Wahsh
May 15: Watersmeet

STEM Career Tour
STEM Career Tour
STEM Career Tour
STEM Career Tour

Listening Under the Ice

image121598-horizThe watery world under winter’s ice is a mystery. It’s also a world full of sound. Now, as the days lengthen and the ice is retreating, researchers at Michigan Technological University are wrapping up their first winter season of underwater acoustic studies.

Learning more about acoustic properties underwater — and specifically under the ice — is important for designing acoustic communication networks and quiet underwater vehicles. These networks and vehicles have a range of applications. Environment monitoring is an example, encompassing everything from ice movement to the habits of aquatic critters to keeping tabs on chemical conditions.

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2015 Design Expo Awards and Summary

IMG_9577 (1280x853)Award Winners of the 2015 Design Expo at Michigan Tech have been announced and are listed below. A summary of links to photos, videos and news articles is also included.

The Design Expo highlights hands-on, discovery-based learning at Michigan Tech. More than 600 students in Enterprise and Senior Design teams showcase their work and compete for awards. A panel of judges, made up of corporate representatives and Michigan Tech staff and faculty members, critique the projects.

Many of them are sponsored by industry, which allows students to gain valuable experience through competition at the Expo, as well as direct exposure to real industrial problems. The fourteenth annual Expo is a combined effort of the College of Engineering and the Pavlis Honors College. The 2015 Expo was held in the Ballroom of the Memorial Union Building.

Meritor: Running Strong. Building Momentum. Looking Forward. Enterprise Awards
Based on poster and presentation

Enterprise –

1st - 215- IBV
1st – 215- IBV

1st Place Award – 215- IBV
Team Leaders: Leslie LaLonde and Andrew Clark, Biomedical Engineering
Advisors: Robert Warrington, Pavlis Honors College
Sponsor: Pavlis Honors College

Project Overview: The Infant Heart Annunciator is a small, BandAid-shaped device that detects an infant’s electrocardiogram, producing a visible flash and audible tone. Often in developing countries, those present at birth do not have the training or equipment needed to determine if an unresponsive infant is alive. Our goal is to eliminate this unnecessary loss of life. Our team is also designing a simple, yet reliable, ventilator that can be stockpiled by hospitals. Typically, hospitals maintain sufficient numbers of ventilators; however, an increase of patients resulting from a pandemic could create a shortage of ventilators. The current high cost of most ICU ventilators prevents hospitals from stockpiling these machines.

2nd - 212 - CPM
2nd – 212 – CPM

2nd Place Award – 212 – CPM
Team Leader: Paul Hagadone, Chemical Engineering
Advisors: Tony Rogers and Sean Clancey, Chemical Engineering
Sponsors: AFI, BASF Corporation, City of Midland, nanoMAG, Razor Edge Systems, Wisconsin and Southern
Railroad

Project Overview: CPM aims to exceed the expectations of company sponsors, improve the lives of consumers through innovation, and develop students into highly marketable professionals. The project goals for our
team include improving runoff models to provide advanced flood warning in Midland, designing a kiln
for cleaner charcoal production in Benin, using food waste as an alternative energy source at Michigan
Tech, developing a water filtration system to cool industrial process streams, curing coatings at lower
temperatures using catalysts, integrating hightech materials into athletic equipment, designing
collapsible packaging for a large volume of liquid product, and conceiving and testing an innovative
product idea from within CPM.

3rd - 224 - Velovations
3rd – 224 – Velovations

3rd Place Award – 224 – Velovations
Team Leaders: Ian Connick, Mechanical Engineering and Kyle McGurk, Electrical Engineering
Advisor: Steve Lehmann and Paulus Van Susante, Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics
Sponsors: Specialized, Thomson, Department of Kinesiology and Integrative Physiology

Project Overview: Our team is dedicated to working on bicycle and bicycling industry related projects. For the 2014-2015 academic year, Velovations has more than twenty-five students from various majors divided
into four projects. The projects are: a pedal that offers the ability to transition from clipped in to
a platform and back at the push of a button; a system to allow tire pressure change on the fly;
an inexpensive winter commuting tire; and an innovative exercise system for wheelchair users that will allow further physical research. Velovations projects cover the complete product development
range, from idea conception, research, and development, to customer communication, testing, and ultimately manufacturing.

Black and Veatch: Building a World of Difference® Senior Design Awards: Based on poster

Senior Design –

1st - 145 - Aluminum Corrosion Study
1st – 145 – Aluminum Corrosion Study

1st Place Award – 145 – Aluminum Corrosion Study
Team Members: Annie LeSage, Jacob Gerdt, Kyle Myszka, and Alexandra Glover, Materials Science and Engineering
Advisor: Steve Kampe, Materials Science and Engineering
Sponsor: Yazaki North America

Project Overview: The switch from copper to aluminum in automotive electrical systems is advantageous to U.S automakers and automotive component suppliers because it has the potential to decrease vehicle weight and raw materials costs. This switch also poses several challenges. This senior design project characterizes the galvanic corrosion rate of an aluminum substrate with a metallic plating when exposed to an electrolytic solution. This mimics the exposure of electrical components to a fluid containing salts or automotive chemicals. The results of this testing are critical to the success of the copper-to-aluminum substitution in automotive electrical systems. This is because they inform automotive component designers about the expected lifetime of such systems when exposed to a corrosive environment.

2nd - 130 - Front End Protection for Data Aquisition
2nd – 130 – Front End Protection for Data Aquisition

2nd Place Award – 130 – Front End Protection for Data Aquisition
Team Members: Sylvia Ferragut, Caleb Wright, and Ben Veltman, Electrical Engineering; Matthew Zawisza, Computer Engineering
Advisor: Duane Bucheger, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Sponsor: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Project Overview: Often devices under test can behave in erratic ways, resulting in catastrophic damage to expensive test equipment. By designing specifications based on National Instruments’ limitations and typical automotive testing requirements, the team created a buffer box to protect from over-voltage and add layers of isolation. The buffer box, used in conjunction with the $50k–$500k tools being regularly used by the automotive industry, is a simple tool, which can be used by a wide range of people with varying levels of expertise to keep expenses down.

3rd Place Award - 110 - Design and Development of an Automated Stacker
3rd – 110 – Design and Development of an Automated Stacker

3rd Place Award – 110 – Design and Development of an Automated Stacker for Highway Products of Nucor Steel Corporation
Team Members: Logan Edwards, Sean Hayes, Stephen Penny, Electrical Engineering Technology; and Shashank
Lakshmikanth, Mechanical Engineering
Advisor: Seyyedmohsen Azizi, School of Technology
Sponsor: Nucor Steel Corporation

Project Overview: In this project, a robotic stacker is designed to enable precise stacking of highway sign posts produced by Nucor Steel Corporation, while complying with the required stacking pattern as
well as time constraints. Currently this process relies heavily on a manual work force, introducing
many safety hazards as well as inefficiencies and inconsistencies. This project offers a robotic
stacker solution using Fanuc robot manipulators, custom-built end-effectors, and a programmable
logic controller (PLC) integrated with human machine interface (HMI). This will result in smaller
and organized stacks as compared to the current disorganized bundles and removal of a worker from
the hazardous position in the process. Organized stacks will also allow for further downstream
automation processes.

HM1 - 104 - Dynamometer Calibration Device
Honorable Mention 1 – 104 – Dynamometer Calibration Device

Honorable Mention 1 – 104 – Dynamometer Calibration Device
Team Members: Kristopher Benaglio, Christopher DeGroot, Adam Deibler, Kenneth Smith, Mechanical Engineering
Advisor: Paul van Susante, Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics
Sponsor: John Deere

Project Overview: This design team is working with John Deere to develop a new dynamometer torque meter calibration device. A dynamometer, commonly referred to as a dyno, is a popular test instrument used to measure variables such as torque, speed, and power output. The current calibration method used by John Deere utilizes a static weight stack attached to a moment arm. This design must be replaced because it exceeds the dynamometer test cell envelope, is difficult to transport from test cell to test cell, requires considerable time and effort for two workers to assemble and disassemble, and requires the repetitive lifting of 40 to 45 pound weights.

HM2 - 128 - Compliance Keweenaw..

Honorable Mention 2 – 128 – Compliance Keweenaw..

Honorable Mention 2 – 128 – Compliance Keweenaw: Aspirus Keweenaw Hand-washing Compliance System
Team Members: Anna Waller, Jannah Brandt, Drew Markel, Creighton Bradley, and Rebecca Manshaem, Biomedical Engineering
Advisor: Bruce Lee, Biomedical Engineering
Sponsor: Aspirus Keweenaw

Project Overview: Hand hygiene is of importance to hospitals not only for the safety and health of employees but also to reduce the spread of hospital-acquired infections and protect patients. Aspirus Keweenaw recruited our team to create an automated system to track hand-washing compliance among employees to assist them in their goal of 100 percent compliance. We created a system using a microcontroller and
RFID readers to detect when a healthcare worker enters a patient’s room and reaches compliance
using the sanitizing foam dispenser. This system will be placed near the doorway and communicate with
a wristband that identifies the healthcare worker and vibrates as a reminder if compliance is not
reached.

 HM3 - 138 - Chrysler 300 Split Tailgate

Honorable Mention 3 – 138 – Chrysler 300 Split Tailgate

Honorable Mention 3 – 138 – Chrysler 300 Split Tailgate
Team Members: Kelly Shanahan, Joshua Yagley, Alex Bancroft, Jerad Marble, and Parry Ragland, Mechanical
Engineering
Advisor: Kevin Johnson, Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics
Sponsor: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles

Project Overview: Our goal is to design, engineer, build, and test a split decklid adapted from the current Chrysler 300 architecture. This decklid system will provide the customer both the access required of typical decklids without the upswing of the lower waterfall area and the added feature of a tailgate style lower swing out panel which will provide a surface for tailgate functions. This feature is rare in the industry and provides an opportunity for segment differentiation creating a unique selling point.

Summary: More information:

2015 Design Expo Photo Gallery

Video Playlist from Michigan Tech Expo Channel on YouTube

2015 Design Expo Image Contest Entries

The Design Expo 2015 Image Contest winners have been selected. Congratulations to MSE senior design team members Jordan Pontoni, Calvin Nitz, Shane Anderson and Austin DePottey for their first place image of a team member at work in the foundry. The image illustrates the team’s project, Casting 357 Aluminum, sponsored by Eck Industries. The team’s advisor is MSE engineer/scientist Thomas Wood.
Team 150, Title: “E357 Alloying to Increase Elongation and Maintain Mechanical Properties”, the foundry shot.

Robotics Systems Enterprise team won second place for its image of ECE student Kealy Smith working on an Afraid-of-the-Dark bot. The team is sponsored by ArcelorMittal.
then 216 (Robotics Systems Enterprise), and 205 (Blue Marble Enterprise).


2015 Design Expo Booklet
(4Mb PDF)


2015 Design Expo Weblog
(4Mb PDF)

Michigan Tech news article: Design Expo 2015 Success: Winners, Senior Design and Enterprise Projects

Pre-event news Michigan Tech article: Get Ready, Get Set: Design Expo 2015

Tess Ahlborn presented with an Outstanding Faculty Award

Tess_AhlbornTess Ahlborn was presented with an Outstanding Faculty Award on Sunday, about 250 students gathered for the 9th Annual Greek Life Awards Ceremony in the MUB Ballroom. In addition to the many student awards presented, Order of Omega, the Greek Life Honor Society that coordinates the awards, also took the time to recognize some exceptional faculty and staff.
There are more than 500 students in fraternities and sororities at Michigan Tech, and Order of Omega really wanted to emphasize that these awards (Outstanding Faculty Award and Outstanding Staff Award) would be coming directly from the students.
Link to Tech Today article

Talking Rocks: Common Ground-geology in the Lake Superior region and Native Americans

Clipboard01Two distinguished authors from Duluth, Ron Morton and Carl Gawboy, will visit Houghton and Michigan Tech as part of the Carnegie Seminar Series in Keweenaw Natural History. Morton is a geologist and emeritus Professor from University of Minnesota, Duluth. Gawboy is an Ojibwa elder and well-known artist. They have taught unique classes together that bridge legend and geological science.

Presentation: Dr. James H. Comfort, General Manager, Cloud Services, IBM Cloud Division

Mar31

The Chemical Engineering department presented a talk by Dr. James H. Comfort,  General Manager, Cloud Services, IBM Cloud Division. The title was “Crafting a Career in Uncharted Waters: A Journey from Chemical Engineering to Cloud Computing and Back.” The presentation was in Fisher 135 at 5:00 p.m. Tuesday March 31st. The university was invited to attend.