Graduate School Newsblog

Author: Debra Charlesworth

Seminar May 21(2pm): Submitting your thesis or dissertation

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Update: View this seminar online.  See the 2009 Archives.  It will be online for approximately one year.

Are you planning on finishing your thesis or dissertation this semester or next semester?  Do you assist students submitting theses or dissertations?  If you answered yes to either of those questions, please join the Graduate School at our next seminar designed to help students, faculty, and staff better understand current procedures and have all of their questions answered.

Join Debra Charlesworth of the Graduate School for a description of online submission of a thesis or dissertation from start to finish. This seminar will be useful to students preparing their documents as well as faculty and staff who assist students.  We will also introduce a new dynamic form, which is part of our continuing effort to reduce the number of forms students need to complete and make them easier to complete correctly.  The seminar will be May 21st at 2:00pm.

Please register for the event at our online registration site:

http://www.gradschool2.mtu.edu/registration/events/

Once you register, you will receive a confirmation with the location and a reminder of the date and time.  Space is limited, so register early! The seminar will be taped and available online for those unable to join us at this time.

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Graduate Students Earn Honors

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Published in Tech Today.

CEE Professors, Graduate Student Win Rudolph Hering Medal
Alex Mayer and David Hand, both professors of civil and environmental engineering, and Karen Endres, a former PhD student, have been named winners of the 2009 Rudolph Hering Medal from the American Society of Civil Engineers. The award is given annually for the best paper on environmental engineering or water resources published in an ASCE journal during the previous year.

Their award-winning paper is titled “Equilibrium versus Nonequilibrium Treatment Modeling in the Optimal Design of Pump-and-Treat Groundwater Remediation Systems.”

The prize is a prestigious one among environmental engineers. The medal will be presented at the Environmental and Water Resources Institute Annual Congress May 17 in Kansas City.

Graduate Student Awarded Travel Assistance to Railway Conference
Graduate student Shane Ferrell, a member of the Rail Transportation Program, was awarded $1,800 in travel assistance from the International Heavy Haul Association to attend its June 2009 conference in Shanghai, China.

The Rail Transportation Program at Michigan Tech was established by the Michigan Tech Transportation Institute in 2007. The program provides rail-related education and research activities, engaging students and faculty with industry partners.

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Graduate student and faculty talk about rail transportation

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Published in Tech Today.

Pasi Lautala, director of the Rail Transportation Program, and graduate student Shane Ferrell, president of the Rail Engineering and Activities Club (REAC), were invited guests of Dick Storm recently on his “Keeping It in the UP” radio program on WOLV 97.7.

To download an MP3 file of the interview, which focuses on rail transportation in North American and rail activities at Michigan Tech, click here.

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Faculty, Grad Students Design Activities for High School Biology Competition

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Published in Tech Today

The 20th Annual Department of Biological Sciences Bio-Athlon for high school students will be held Wednesday, May 5, on campus. The Bio-Athlon is the department’s outreach program, which serves to stimulate interest and problem solving in biology among area youth. Sixty students from 15 Upper Peninsula high schools will participate in activities designed by Michigan Tech faculty members and graduate students of the department.

Each team will be comprised of four students, who will not have had formal course work in biology beyond the traditional sophomore-level high school general biology class. All teams will tackle the same four problems:

* “Dissection,” designed by Associate Professor Ronald Gratz

* “Windows to the Microscopic World: Freshwater Algae Unite!” designed by doctoral candidates Meagan Harless and Sarah Kiemle

* “Field Identification,” designed by Associate Professor Robert Keen

* “Fundamental Biological Principles,” designed by Professor of Practice Karyn Fay, Senior Lecturer Alice Soldan and graduate student Tara Waybrant

Students will be judged on organizational skills, knowledge of facts and concepts, laboratory skills and creativity.

Each member of the first-place team will receive a $200 US savings bond; the second-place team will receive a $100 US savings bond; and the third-place team will receive a $50 US savings bond. As well, a plaque will be awarded to each of the three teams. Every participant will receive a certificate of participation and a Bio-Athlon T-shirt.

Funding is provided by Michigan Tech Admissions, the Department of Biological Sciences, the Michigan Tech Fund and the following alumni: Mark Cowan, M.D.; Robert DellAngelo, M.D.; Olive Cornish Kimball, D.Ed., Ph.D.; and Sandra Lewin, of the Michigan Tech Fund.

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Spring Graduates – May 11, 2009 deadline

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To graduate in the spring semester 2009, graduate students must have all final paperwork submitted and approved no later than May 11th by 4pm.  All forms are online with a detailed list for each degree type.  Final items typically include:

  • A final thesis, report, or dissertation
  • Binding order form (TD-Bindery, theses and dissertations)
  • Life After Michigan Tech form
  • Report on Final Oral Examination (M6/D8)
  • Survey of Earned Doctorates (for PhD students only)

Students should contact Nancy Byers Sprague for questions related to degree auditing, and Debra Charlesworth for questions related to theses and dissertations.

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Board of Control Approves Nine New Degrees

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Published in Tech Today
By Marcia Goodrich, senior writer

Nine new degree programs–most of them in computer engineering and business–were approved last Friday at the Board of Control meeting.

The board’s action included final approval for a Master of Science and a PhD in Computer Engineering, which were initially approved at the Board’s March meeting and sent to the State Academic Affairs Office for review and endorsement. Computer engineering is a hybrid discipline born of computer science and electrical engineering.

One of the seven new degree program proposals approved to advance to the State Academic Affairs Office is a Master of Science and PhD in Applied Cognitive Science and Human Factors.

Applied cognitive science applies the principles of cognitive psychology to develop practical solutions for real-world problems such as effective teaching methods.

Human factors is a multi-disciplinary science within the framework of cognitive science that focuses on human needs in the design of products, work processes and technological systems. It is an emerging discipline critical to technological advancement.

The six remaining new degree proposals are all for bachelor of science degrees with majors in various business disciplines, including accounting, finance, management, management information systems, marketing and operations and systems management.

The new BS degrees replace the Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (BSBA) with concentrations in specialty areas, which the School of Business and Economics now offers. The BS adds recognition to the degree and should help increase the job placement rates at graduation.

“These new degree programs will enable Michigan Tech to remain ahead of the curve–academically and in terms of preparing students for a changing job market,” said President Glenn Mroz.

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CEE Students Present Seminar April 16th

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Published in Tech Today.

Two graduate students in civil and environmental engineering will present a seminar at 4 p.m., April 16th, in Dow 642.

Shane Ferrell, a master’s student, will give a talk, “Cold Climate Embankment Stabilization.” He will address, in part, transportation infrastructures in cold climates.

Baron Colbert, a doctoral student, will give a talk, “The Application of Warm Mix Technology to High Percentage Recycled Asphalt Pavement (RAP) Mixtures.” He will address, in part, the effects that warm mix asphalt has on recycled asphalt pavements.

For more information, contact Zhanping You at 487-1059 or at zyou@mtu.edu .

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Alumni and Graduate School staff honored by Alumni Association

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Announced in Tech Today.

The Michigan Tech Alumni Association Board of Directors has announced the recipients of the 2009 Alumni Association Awards:

Outstanding Young Alumni Award
Michelle Boven ’99
BS in Mechanical Engineering

Honorary Alumni Award
Betty Chavis, recruiting consultant, Graduate School

Outstanding Service Award
John Calder ’67, ’76
BS in Mechanical Engineering, MS in Business Administration

Distinguished Alumni Award
Frank Pavlis ’38
BS in Chemical Engineering

For more information, click here.

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Computer Science Faculty Member, Doctoral Candidate Receive Best Paper Award

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Published in Tech Today

Doctoral candidate Alicia Thorsen and Assistant Professor Philip Merkey (Computer Science), along with Professor Fredrik Manne of the University of Bergen in Norway, received the Best Paper Award at the High Performance Computing and Simulation Symposium held in late March in San Diego.

Thorsen presented the paper, “Maximum Weighted Matching Using the
Partitioned Global Address Space Model.”

This paper described the design and implementation of an algorithm, expressed in a new programming language, UPC, which is designed to program the coming generation of petascale supercomputers.

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