Category: News

Interesting stories about and for our students.

New Fall 2014 Course: SU5050: Data Mining

Data mining of text and pictures from social media, including natural language processing theory and geospatial applications.

Course focuses on:

  1. Open source programming and library development (Python)
  2. Develop and write research plan suitable for grant/internal research competition submission
  3. Proof-of-concept to demonstrate data mining techniques learned.

Course taught by scientists at  Michigan Tech Research Institute.

2014 ACS Upper Peninsula Student Research Symposium

On Saturday, March 29 the Upper Peninsula Local Section (UPLS) of the American Chemical Society hosted a research symposium at Northern Michigan University for undergraduate and graduate students across the UP. In total, 33 students presented research from Lake Superior State University, Northern Michigan University and Michigan Tech, and over 70 people attended the event.

Michigan Tech undergraduate student Daniel Beegle tied for the second place poster award for the Undergraduate Division and Michigan. Tech graduate students Suntara Fueangfung, Ashok Khanal and Melanie Talaga tied for first place in the Graduate Division.

Over $400 in awards were distributed to the best posters at the event, which was sponsored by ACS National, the Upper Peninsula ACS Local Section and Northern Michigan University. UPLS Chair Robert Handler (ChE/SFI) commented, “We were very pleased with the enthusiastic response of students from around the UP, and the UPLS is looking forward to hosting this event next year!”

Published in Tech Today.

Great ROI, Starting Salaries

Michigan Tech has been ranked as a university with one of the best returns on investment. The website Payscale announced their rankings, and Michigan Tech was 13th, in the nation for public in-state tuition and ranked 55th in the nation overall.

Michigan Tech ranked 10th among public universities in the nation for the highest average salaries, currently at $59,200.

http://www.payscale.com/college-roi/

Published in Tech Today

10th Annual ESC/BRC Research Forum Awards Announced

The Ecosystem Science Center and the Biotechnology Research Center announce award recipients of the Tenth Annual ESC/BRC Student Research Forum held March 19.

Two Grand Prize Awards and six Merit Awards were presented to the graduate students. They were selected from among the sixty posters and abstracts submitted by graduate students conducting research related to ecology, the environment and biotechnology at Michigan Tech.

Michigan Tech Named Among Top-20 Public Colleges with Smartest Students

Business Insider has rated Michigan Tech number 11 among the top-20 public universities with the smartest students. In assembling its list, Business Insider used data from the website Niche and its College Prowler, a service that provides college reviews by students.

“We see all that our students accomplish here at Michigan Tech and all the companies seeking them out for employment,” said John Lehman, associate vice president for enrollment, marketing and communications. “It doesn’t take long to see that there is something pretty special about the students here. They are smart, amazingly smart. It’s satisfying to know that others see that as well.”

Business Insider also includes student quotes “to illustrate the student intellect and academic caliber of each school.” For Michigan Tech, a student said, “”I love my professors—all of them seem dedicated to their job, as well as understanding. The workload is more than most schools, but the best isn’t the easiest!”

College Prowler features rankings by students in more than 20 categories, from academics to weather and from computers to parking.

According to their website, Business Insider is “dedicated to aggregating, reporting, and analyzing the top news stories across the web.”

To read more, visit Business Insider.

Published in Tech Today.

Grad student attends first PhD Conference on Earth System Science

Jianqiu Zheng, a PhD candidate in the atmospheric sciences, who is under the advisement of Paul Doskey (CEE), recently traveled to the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Jena, Germany to attend the first PhD Conference on Earth System Science. Zheng presented her research on soil emissions of nitrous oxide, which is a greenhouse gas many times more potent than carbon dioxide. She was the only attendee from a US University.

Published in Tech Today.

Alumna named American Geosciences Institute/Schlumberger Geoscience Communication Fellow

Stephanie Tubman, an alumna of the Peace Corps Master’s International (PCMI) program, has been named American Geosciences Institute/Schlumberger Geoscience Communication Fellow. Tubman will be working with AGI’s Critical Issues Program to disseminate geoscience information to help support decision-making at the federal, state and municipal levels.

Following her undergraduate degree at Colgate University, she completed an internship at the US Geological Survey Cascades Volcano Observatory and enrolled in the PCMI program in geohazards mitigation.

During her two-year tour in Guatemala with the Peace Corps, she was assigned to a municipal environmental office, collaborating with local officials on water management, environmental science education and ecotourism projects.

Published in Tech Today.