Category: News

Interesting stories about and for our students.

Spring-Break Shuttle Service

Transportation Services shuttle service will operate 7:00a.m. to 5:30p.m. MondayFriday, March 9-13. The shuttle services the Memorial Union Building to the SDC and stops at both the Lower and Upper Daniell Heights’ bus stop. The shuttle will also stop hourly at the Lakeshore Center.

The City of Houghton will not be operating on campus, which includes the MTU afternoon shuttle during the week of March 9-13. For questions or concerns, please feel free to contact Angie Kolehmainen at 487-3288.

World Water Day Poster Competition

The Center for Water and Society invites all graduate and undergraduate students to participate in the CWS World Water Day Poster Competition. Cash prizes will be awarded in two categories, Original Research and Coursework/Informational. Please register by Friday, Mar. 6

Original Research posters can focus on any aspect of water, but Coursework/Informational posters will earn additional points if they incorporate the 2015 World Water Day theme, Water and Sustainable Development.

Other student groups which have a focus on water are also invited to either submit a poster or set up a booth at the poster session to increase awareness of their group. Email mtcws@mtu.edu by Friday if your group is interested in participating in World Water Day.

The full World Water Day schedule is available online.

Originally posted in Tech Today (3/4/2015)

Graduate Research Colloquium Winners Announced

The 2015 Graduate Research Colloquium was held on Feb. 25–26 in the Memorial Union Ballroom. Winners were announced at a banquet on Thursday, Feb. 26.

Poster Presentation award winners were:
  • First place, Ida Fonkue’s (KIP) “Acute oral ingestion of alcohol modulates muscle sympathetic neural activity differently in Caucasians and African Americans,”
  • Second place, Kaitlin Reini (SFRES) “Modeling the impacts of climate change on water quality for inland lakes in the Great Lakes Basin,”
  • Third place, Ruilong Han (CEE) “Seismic performance assessment considering aftershock hazard.”
  • Favorite Poster, Bethany Klemetsrud, (Chem Eng), “Effect of lignin content on pyrolysis bio-oil properties.”
Oral presentation award winners were:

  • First place, Jennifer Fuller (CEE) “Developing a Sustainable Process for Removal of Synthetic Hormones in Wastewater Treatment.”
  • Second place, Margo Woller-Carter (CLS) “Development of the Intelligent Graphs for Everyday Decisions Tutor.”
  • Third place, Melanie Talaga (Chem) “Diversifying Drug Development through Scaffold Engineering: A Proposed New Strategy.”
  • Talaga also was recognized for the presentation with the highest attendance.
The Graduate Research Colloquium is sponsored each spring by the Graduate Student Government. It is an opportunity for graduate students to share their research with the university community and to gain experience presenting that research to colleagues.
Originally posted in Tech Today (3/2/2015)

GSG Travel Grant Deadline: Feb 20

Graduate students, have you been to a conference since last May? Going to one before April 30? If you are a full time enrolled graduate student you can apply for a GSG Travel Grant to help supplement your costs. Awards of $150 of reimbursement for attending conferences and $250 for presenting either a poster or oral presentation are available. For more information and to apply, visit the GSG website.

Your advisor will need to confirm that you are a full time enrolled graduate student, you are allowed to participate in the conference and you do not have full funding to cover the costs.

All applications and the advisor eligibility must be complete by 5 p.m. on Friday Feb. 20. Not all applicants may receive awards, and your department must be in good standing with GSG to be considered. For questions, contact the GSG Treasurer, Jenn Winikus (jawiniku@mtu.edu).

Originally posted in Tech Today (2/16/2015)

Library Skills Refresher Workshop

Graduate students: has it been a year or two (or longer) since you have had to do any library research? Feel like your information-finding skills are a little rusty? Join us for our Library Skills Refresher workshop to brush off the dust. We will cover library services specific to Michigan Tech as well as a variety of searching techniques and strategies to help you get the most out of your research.

The workshop will be held Thursday, Feb. 12, from 2-3 p.m. in Library 242. Click here to register. Please contact Sarah Lucchesi, instruction and learning librarian, with any questions at slucches@mtu.edu or 7-3379.

Originally posted in Tech Today (2/6/2015)

Volunteers Needed for Annual Get WISE Workshop

The Center for Pre-College Outreach invites faculty and staff to volunteer at Get WISE (Get Women in Science and Engineering). 7th and 8th grade girls from the western Upper Peninsula are invited to spend the day at Michigan Tech, where they participate in a range of activities to reconnect them with the exciting, dynamic world of engineering. Participants compete in several​ challenges, which include projects like: building and testing a bridge with household materials, creating a device to travel across the room into target zones or designing a simple device that will stay airborne for as long as possible. The CPCO and WUP Center for Science, Mathematics and Environmental Education are excited to host this event once more for 250 young women.

Get WISE will take place on Tuesday, Feb. 24 from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the Wood Gym. Volunteers are needed to facilitate the activities, serve lunch and engage with the participants as role models. Please consider donating an hour or two of your time to make a difference in the lives of these young women. Everyone is welcome to volunteer regardless of department or engineering background and any amount of time is appreciated. For more information, contact Liz Fujita (eafujita@mtu.edu).

Originally Posted in Tech Today (1/29/2015)

Geophysics PhD student wins award at AGU

GMES PhD student, Elisa Piispa, has won an Outstanding Student Presentation Award at the American Geophysical Union’s annual meeting. The title of Elisa’s presentation was “Paleomagnetism of the 1.1 Ga Baraga-Marquette dykes (Michigan, USA)”. The AGU Annual meeting was held in San Francisco, CA, December 15-19, 2014. Piispa’s PhD advisor is Aleksey Smirnov.

Originally posted in Tech Today (1/19/2015)

Community English Class: $20 = 7 weeks English Instruction

This is an announcement for the upcoming Community English Class.

This low cost evening “class” has proven to be a great opportunity to learn some English, meet new friends and to get out of the house and explore our community.This is especially true for people new to the community where English is a second language, but this opportunity is certainly not limited to newcomers or non-English speakers.

While designed for the spouses of international faculty, this class is open to graduate students, their partners, and anyone who wants to become more engaged in their community.

Those interested should email <comlanguage@mtu.edu> to register, or contact <carrie@mtu.edu> for more details. The program is taught by the Michigan Tech IESL program faculty, supported by the Michigan Tech Office of the Provost, and sponsored by the Dual Career Program.

Night Owl Leaflet Spring 2015

Michigan Tech News Article from Dec 2013