Graduate School Newsblog

Author: Debra Charlesworth

It’s Boom Time in Small-town Wisconsin

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What’s causing the booms in Clintonville? Residents of the small Wisconsin town have been hearing deep, rumbling sounds from time to time since March 18. To find out why, a professor and his grad students are lending their expertise.

Greg Waite, assistant professor of geology, along with graduate students Josh Richardson and Kathleen McKee, installed four seismometers and eight sound sensors around Clintonville, with help from City of Clintonville workers. They are trying to record anything that could relate to the booms that began last month.

“These types of noises have been reported for small shallow earthquakes in many places worldwide,” Waite said. “However, the noises in Clintonville were somewhat difficult to explain, because earthquakes are uncommon in Wisconsin, and most of sounds were not accompanied by felt earthquakes.”

For the full story, see Boom.

by Dennis Walikainen, senior editor
Published in Tech Today

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Michigan Tech Remains the Nation’s Top Peace Corps Master’s International Graduate School

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Michigan Tech ranks as the No. 1 Peace Corps Master’s International (PCMI) university nationwide for the seventh consecutive year. With 31 PCMI graduate students currently serving as Peace Corps volunteers, Michigan Tech has earned top spot in the 2012 rankings of Peace Corps’ Master’s International and Paul D. Coverdell Fellows graduate schools.

The Peace Corps’ Master’s International program allows students to incorporate Peace Corps service as credit toward their graduate degree. The Coverdell Fellows Program provides returned Peace Corps volunteers with scholarships, academic credit and stipends to earn an advanced degree after they complete their Peace Corps service.

“The heart of the program is the students we attract, not just in numbers, but in quality,” said Professor Blair Orr (SFRES), PCMI director. “They bring an interest in the world at large and the desire to help others. They return from two years in a different country with stories of new friends, new ideas and a different perspective on how things do work and should work. They have succeeded professionally and personally in a different culture. Many of the skills and traits they acquire along the way are also the skills that employers are looking for.”

Michigan Tech became a Master’s International partner in 1995. Offering eight distinct graduate programs affiliated with Peace Corps, Michigan Tech has the largest number of Peace Corps Master’s International programs in the country. They include Applied Science Education, Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences, Mechanical Engineering, Rhetoric and Technical Communication, Biological Sciences, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Applied Natural Resource Economics, and Forestry.

Michigan Tech’s PCMI graduate students have served in many countries, including Armenia, Belize, Bulgaria, Fiji, Kenya, Madagascar, Morocco, Paraguay, Uganda and Zambia. More than 190 Michigan Tech alumni have served in the Peace Corps overall. There are also students enrolled in the program who are on campus fulfilling the academic portions of their master’s degree, including Megan Abbott, who recently returned from Belize, and Colin Casey, who is back from Uganda.

2012 Top Peace Corps Master’s International institutions:
(The number in parenthesis is the number of students enrolled in the program and serving overseas as of Sept. 30, 2011.)

  • Michigan Technological University (31)
  • Tulane University (27)
  • University of Washington (26)
  • Monterey Institute of International Studies (26)
  • University of South Florida (22)

About the Master’s International Program
Peace Corps partners with more than 80 colleges and universities nationwide to enable students to earn a master’s degree while serving in the Peace Corps. Students begin their studies on campus, serve overseas for two years, then return to school to finish graduate work. As part of the service, volunteers work on projects related to their master’s studies. The program began at Rutgers University–Camden in 1987 and since then, more than 1,000 volunteers have participated. For more information, visit Master’s Program.

About the Peace Corps
Since President John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps by executive order on March 1, 1961, more than 200,000 Americans have served in 139 host countries. Today, 9,095 volunteers are working with local communities in 75 host countries. Peace Corps volunteers must be U.S. citizens and at least 18 years of age. Peace Corps service is a 27-month commitment, and the agency’s mission is to promote world peace and friendship and a better understanding between Americans and people of other countries. For more information, visit Peace Corps.

by Jennifer Donovan, director, public relations
Published in Tech Today

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ESC/BRC Research Poster Forum Winners Announced

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The Ecosystem Science Center and the Biotechnology Research Center announced the award recipients of the eighth annual ESC/BRC Student Research Forum, held March 30.

Graduate students received four grand prize awards and six merit awards. They were selected from among the 59 posters and abstracts about research related to ecology, the environment and biotechnology.

Each center also awarded a grand prize to an undergraduate researcher in a separate division of 17 submissions.

Posters are on display in the atrium of the Forestry building through April 13.

For more information, see ESC/BRC.

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Eighth Annual ESC/BRC Student Research Forum

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All faculty, staff and students are invited to attend the Eighth Annual ESC/BRC Student Research Forum, held from 3 to 5 p.m., Friday, March 30, in the Noblet atrium. Awards and pizza will follow.

Undergraduate and graduate students working in ecosystem science and biotechnology fields will present their research posters in separate competitions. Odd-numbered posters will present from 3 to 4 p.m., and even-numbered will present from 4 to 5 p.m.

To view the list of participants and their abstracts, see Graduate Students and Undergraduate Students.

For more information, contact Jill Fisher, program manager for the ESC, at jhfisher@mtu.edu , or Mary Tassava, program manager for the BRC, at mltassav@mtu.edu

Published in Tech Today

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Alumnus Presents at Humanities Distinguished Lecture Series

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Gerald Savage, professor emeritus at Illinois State University, will present “Beyond Politeness: How Might We Make Social Justice a Central Value in Technical Communication Education” at 7 p.m., Thursday, March 29, in the Noblet Forestry Lecture Hall. There will be a reception to follow in the atrium.

Savage received master’s and PhD degrees in rhetoric and technical communication from Michigan Tech in 1991 and 1995. He will discuss communication across national and cultural boundaries and focus on “inequities of power and hierarchy.”

Savage comes as a part of the Humanities Distinguished Lecture Series

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Students place at SEG Challenge Bowl

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Two students from the geological and mining engineering and sciences department were runners-up at the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) Challenge Bowl recently. Josh Richards, a PhD candidate in geophysics, and Chad (Danford) Moore, a senior in applied geophysics, took second place at the Sixth Annual Sooner Challenge Bowl at the University of Oklahoma in Norman.

The SEG Challenge Bowl is an international contest testing students’ breadth and depth of knowledge about the field of geoscience. The quiz-show format features intense competition, as the contestants attempt to buzz in first with the answers to challenging geoscience questions.

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Be an MBA: Info Session

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The School of Business and Economics will host an information session for students who are interested in earning their MBA after their undergraduate degree at 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, March 27, in Fisher 130.

Participants will get a chance to meet with MBA admissions staff, alumni and faculty members. Faculty are encouraged to inform students about this opportunity.

For more information, contact Jodie Filpus, MBA Admissions and Recruitment, at 487-3055 or at jrfilpus@mtu.edu .

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Tech Students Converge in Lansing for Graduate Education Day

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Four graduate students are going to Lansing for Graduate Education Day, Thursday, March 29. Governor Rick Snyder has declared the week of March 26 as Graduate Education Week, and more than 50 students from universities and colleges across the state will meet with legislators at the Capitol Building in Lansing.

Students will meet with their hometown legislators to discuss their studies and future plans and will also present their research and degree-related projects.

Attending from Michigan Tech are:

  • Mark Hopkins, a PhD candidate in mechanical engineering from Charlotte. He will be discussing his work on in-space electric rockets.
  • Stephanie Groves, a PhD candidate in biological sciences from Scottville. She will be presenting on converting industrial waste to biofuels and other products.
  • Emily Gochis, a PhD candidate in geology from Ann Arbor. She will discuss geoscience education.
  • Andrew Drees, a PhD candidate in electrical engineering from Stevensville. He will discuss a “smart grid” power system for use on Michigan Tech’s campus.

The governor and legislature have acknowledged that graduate education is key to Michigan’s economic growth and stability. Graduate education in Michigan is highly productive, contributing directly to the well-being of the state and its capacity to meet the challenges of the future.

Last year, Michigan’s four-year public and private colleges and universities awarded more than 20,000 master’s degrees and 5,000 doctorates, with Michigan ranking ninth among states in the US for the number of research-based doctorates awarded.

by Dennis Walikainen, senior editor
Published in Tech Today

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Students Excel in International Poster Competition

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Chemical engineering PhD student Brett Spigarelli with his team's carbon dioxide scrubber. His prize-winning poster focussed on improving the scrubber's efficiency. Sarah Bird photo
Two graduate students, Brett Spigarelli and Howard Haselhuhn, took first and third place in the Minerals and Metallurgical Processing Journal Student Poster Contest, held Feb. 22 in Seattle. Both are PhD candidates in chemical engineering.

The contest was part of the SME (Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration) Annual Meeting. Thirteen graduate students from all over the world entered posters in the event.

The Tech students’ advisor, Chair Komar Kawatra (ChE), is on sabbatical as a Fulbright scholar in India and flew to Seattle for the competition.

“I am very fortunate to be working with graduate students like Howard and Brett,” said Kawatra. “They are highly motivated and just outstanding. One day I expect them to be CEOs of major corporations.”

Spigarelli earned the top spot for his poster on optimizing a carbon-dioxide scrubber that removes 50 percent of the CO2 passing through.

The scrubber, an 11-foot bench-model plastic pipe packed with glass beads, has a water-based solution flowing through it. From below, carbon dioxide bubbles up, reacting with chemicals in the liquid. The process not only captures carbon, it binds it in a solid form, making an undisclosed product that can be used as a construction material. The liquid itself can be recovered and used again.

The group has received a patent and hopes to build a pilot plant in cooperation with industry partner Carbontec Energy Corp.

Spigarelli’s prize-winning poster focused on making the scrubber as efficient as possible. In particular, he developed a model for determining the ideal concentration of chemical in solution to strip out CO2. “You want to remove as much carbon as possible, but you don’t want to use excess chemicals, because you want to save the company money,” Spigarelli said. “This process will give you the best results.”

Haselhuhn’s third-place poster also focused on water chemistry. At an iron-processing facility, he studied the technology used to remove impurities from iron ore. He found ways to improve the process and significantly boost productivity.

“The iron ore is ground down into very small particles, which are mixed in water,” he said. “The larger particles, which contain more iron ore, settle quickly, and the smallest ones, containing silica, stay suspended.” However, Haselhuhn discovered, sometimes the raw ore contains high levels of magnesium, which translates into higher concentrations of magnesium in the water. In turn, that causes silica particles to cluster together and settle out with the iron, rendering the separation process ineffective.

“By compensating for the excess magnesium, companies could reduce the loss of iron in their concentration process,” Haselhuhn said. “The results of this research will save millions of dollars per year and reduce the loss of an important natural resource.”

by Marcia Goodrich, magazine editor
Published in Tech Today

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