Graduate School Newsblog

Author: Debra Charlesworth

Two New Graduate Programs Receive Final Approval

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At its regular meeting July 15, the Board gave final approval for Tech to offer two new PhD degrees, one in environmental and energy policy and another in geophysics.

The Board also:

  • Kicked off the public phase of a $200 million capital campaign.
  • Approved the building of a temporary home for the A. E. Seaman Mineral Museum.
  • Approved the purchase of a building to be used for education efforts related to hybrid electric automotive technologies and the Keweenaw Research Center.
  • Awarded the late Jacob R. Oswald an honorary posthumous Bachelor of Science degree in Forestry.
  • Named a mechanical engineering research facility on Ethel Avenue in Hancock the Alternative Energy Research Building.
  • Authorized the University to proceed with construction of the Great Lakes Research Center on the waterfront at Michigan Tech.

Read more news on the Board of Control meeting.

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Library Catalog Delivered Through Smartphones

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The Library has released a mobile catalog interface appropriate for use with cell phones, including iPhones, Androids, Blackberries, or other smartphones with Internet access. Using a mobile device, you can search the library’s catalog, view items you have checked out, or renew library materials.

Mobile browser can be linked to http://ils.lib.mtu.edu/vwebv/searchBasic?sk=mobile . For quick access, bookmark the site or add it to your device’s home screen. The QR code for the mobile catalog is also available.

The mobile pilot project was partially funded by the Center for Teaching, Learning and Faculty Development, with additional support from Information Technology. Computer science students in the Senior Software Engineering Project class assisted with the initiative.

Here is a list of participants:

Computer science members:

  • Robert Pastel, assistant professor
  • Ryan McMahon, computer science student
  • Joshua Fahey, software engineering student

Library members:

  • Haihua Li, web services librarian
  • David Bezotte, library instruction coordinator

For questions and feedback, contact the Library Web Services at wwwlib@mtu.edu .

Published in Tech Today.

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How to use the Edit Text Tool

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Adobe Acrobat has a Edit Text & Images Tool for content editing. This tool can be used to do minor text edits, such as deleting a small amount of text, or fixing a spelling mistake.

Open your pdf file, and select Edit Text & Images by clicking on “Tools” and selecting it from the “Content Editing” section as shown in the screen shot below.  If you use the tool a lot, right click on the tool to “Add to Quick Tools” and it will appear on your toolbar.

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Nominations for Fall Finishing Fellowships Open

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Nominations for fall Finishing Fellowships are now open.  Applications must be submitted to the Graduate School no later than 4pm on July 29th.

Students are eligible if all of the following criteria are met:

  1. Must be a PhD student.
  2. Must expect to finish in fall.
  3. Must have submitted a Petition to Enter Full-Time Research Only Mode. No Finishing Fellowships will be awarded to students who fail to receive approval of their petition.
  4. No source of support for fall semester. (ex: GTA, GRA, etc.)

Previous recipients of a Finishing Fellowship are not eligible.

Please see our application page for details on the materials needed to nominate a student.  Please direct any questions to Dr. Debra Charlesworth.

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Electrical Engineering Graduate Students Earn Silver Award

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Associate Professor Chunxiao Chigan, electrical and computer engineering, had two of her PhD students, Congyi Liu and Zhengming Li, win the 2010 ITS-Michigan (Intelligent Transportation Society) Student Paper Silver Award .

Liu’s paper is “Reliable Structure-less Message Aggregation and Robust Dissemination in VANETs,” and Li’s paper is “On Resource-Aware Message Verification and Privacy Issues in VANETs.” Liu and Li presented their papers at the ITS-MI Annual Program May 13 in Dearborn.

Published in Tech Today

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Jeff Allen, Ezequiel Medici Win First Bhakta Rath Research Award

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For their pioneering work to improve water management in low temperature fuel cells, Jeffrey Allen and his PhD student, Ezequiel Medici, have been named the first winners of the Bhakta Rath Research Award at Michigan Tech. Allen is an associate professor of mechanical engineering-engineering mechanics.

The award, endowed earlier this year by 1958 Michigan Tech alumnus Rath and his wife, Shushama Rath, recognizes a doctoral student at Michigan Tech and his or her faculty advisor for “exceptional research of particular value that anticipates the future needs of the nation while supporting advances in emerging technology.” Allen and Medici will share a $2,000 prize.

“We are delighted to recognize Professor Jeff Allen and his accomplished student, Ezequiel Medici, for their outstanding research contribution in the field of mechanical engineering and engineering mechanics,” said Rath, who is associate director of research and head of the Materials Science and Component Technology Directorate at the US Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC. “We have no doubt that their seminal contributions will advance the frontiers of our knowledge in the field and contribute to development of new technologies. My wife and I wish to join their family members, friends and colleagues in congratulating the recipients of this award.”

When he endowed the award in April, Rath said he hoped it would promote and reward research excellence in the physical and natural sciences and engineering, fields in which Michigan Tech is emerging as a world leader in research and education.

“I am honored and grateful to be one of the inaugural recipients of this prestigious award,” Allen said. “However, the credit for the success of this research belongs to Ezequiel.”

His graduate student added, “I feel really honored to have our research recognized because of its potential impact on the fuel-cell industry.”

Medici and Allen’s research focuses on improving the management of the water produced during the operation of a fuel cell, liquid that leads to performance loss and rapid degradation of the fuel cell, significantly reducing the life of the system. They developed a new technique for optimizing fuel cell electrodes and a simple, reliable computational tool that captures the nature of liquid water movement in fuel cell electrodes. Their work, sponsored by the US Department of Energy and conducted in collaboration with the Rochester Institute of Technology and General Motors, will reduce the research and development time and cost of improving fuel cell performance and durability.

Bill Predebon, chair of ME-EM, noted the potential importance of Allen and Medici’s work. “The research being conducted by Ezequiel Medici and his advisor Dr. Jeffrey Allen on the improvement of water management in low temperature fuel cells will have a significant impact in the fuel cell industry in the design of the porous materials used in fuel cells.”

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

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New theses and dissertations

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The Graduate School is pleased to announce the following thesis and dissertations are now available in the J.R. van Pelt and Opie Library:

Nicholas Krom
Doctor of Philosophy in Biological Sciences
Advisor: Ramakrishna Wusirika
Dissertation title: An Arrangement of Gene Pairs, Retrotransposon Insertions, and Regulation of Gene Expression in Plants

Russell Lutch
Master of Science in Civil Engineering
Advisor: Devin K Harris
Thesis title: Capacity Optimization of a Prestressed Concrete Railroad Tie

Jason Sommerville
Doctor of Philosophy in Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics
Advisor: Lyon Bradley King
Dissertation title: Hall-Effect Thruster-Cathode Coupling: The Effect of Cathode Position and Magnetic Field Topology

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Spring Travel Grants from Biotechnology Research Center

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The BRC announces the recipients of its 2010 Spring Travel Grants:

  • Adam Abraham, (graduate student in ME-EM) will receive $500 toward a podium presentation at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers–Summer Bioengineering Conference, to be held in June in Naples, Fla.
  • Rachel Bradford (graduate student in Biomedical Engineering) will receive $500 toward a poster presentation at the 31st American Society for Bone and Mineral Research held in September in Denver, Colo.
  • Shurong Fang (graduate student in Mathematical Sciences) will receive $500 toward a podium presentation at the 2010 Joint Statistical Meetings to be held in August in Vancouver, British Columbia.
  • Kasra Momeni (graduate student in ME-EM) received $500 toward a poster presentation at the 2010 MRD Spring Meeting Symposium held in April in San Francisco, Calif.
  • Duane Morrow (graduate student in ME-EM) will receive $500 toward a podium presentation at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers–Summer Bioengineering Conference to be held in June in Naples, Fla.
  • Saikat Mukhopadhyay (graduate student in Physics) received $500 toward a podium presentation at the American Physical Society 2010 Meeting held in March in Portland, Ore.
  • Christopher Schwartz (graduate student in Biological Sciences) received $500 toward a poster presentation at the Experimental Biology 2010 Conference held in April in Anaheim, Calif.
  • Sarah Stream (graduate student in Biological Sciences) received $500 toward a poster presentation at the Experimental Biology 2010 Conference held in April in Anaheim, Cali.
  • Echoe Bouta (undergraduate in Biomedical Engineering) will receive $500 toward a poster presentation at the Molecular Mechanisms in Lymphatic Function and Disease Conference to be held in June in Lucca, Italy.
  • Connor McCarthy (undergraduate in Biomedical Engineering) will receive $500 toward a poster presentation at the Molecular Mechanisms in Lymphatic Function and Disease Conference to be held in June in Lucca, Italy.
  • John Moyer (undergraduate in ME-EM) will receive $500 toward a poster presentation at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers–Summer Bioengineering Conference to be held in June in Naples, Fla.
  • Eli Vlaisavljevich (undergraduate in Biomedical Engineering) received $500 toward a poster presentation at the Orthopaedic Research Society Meeting held in March in New Orleans, La.
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How to access a document in Perceptive Content

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Graduate School forms submitted by students are electronically stored in Perceptive Content (formerly known as ImageNow).  All member of the graduate faculty and authorized staff may access these forms by opening the Perceptive Content program, and logging in with their Michigan Tech ISO ID and password.  Students do not have access to Perceptive Content.  Dissertation, thesis, or report reviews are available to students through Canvas (for pre-defense documents) or Digital Commons (for post-defense documents).

Faculty can also choose not to utilize Perceptive Content to access the student’s review.  These faculty may ask their student to share the review file with them, or contact the Graduate Program Assistant for access to the file. The email notification lets the faculty member know that the review is available.

Perceptive Content may be installed on any University computer running the Windows operating system; contact IT for assistance. There is no longer a web client for Perceptive Content.

If your computer is unable to have Perceptive Content installed, the software can also be accessed on the University’s remote server, remote.mtu.edu. See information from IT on how to connect using a Windows or Mac computer and note that a VPN will be needed to access from off campus.

Once logged in, click on the “Documents” icon.  If you have access to more than one set of documents, click on the arrow next to the “Documents” icon and select “Graduate School.”  Note that the name of the software is now Perceptive Content, some windows in the program may still list ImageNow in the title bar of the window.

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