Peace Corps Master’s International alumna Kristina Owens, who has joined the Peace Corps National Association board, was interviewed in the Peace Corps Connect newsletter. See online.
Interesting stories about and for our students.
The travel grants for summer 2013 have been awarded. Travel grants are awards that help subsidize the cost of attending and presenting at conferences [sponsored by the Graduate Student Government and Graduate School], for more information of travel grants please check out the website.
The file includes the full list of winners and the statistics. Please note that there are still 10 students that would receive travel grants once their advisor confirms the eligibility. If you have any questions, please contact the Graduate Student Government Treasurer, Jenn Winikus (jawiniku@mtu.edu). Congratulations to all graduate students receiving travel grants.
Published in Tech Today.
“Colleges Work to Retain Women in STEM Majors,” a US News article that appeared online July 1, includes an interview with Kaitlyn Bunker, a PhD student in electrical engineering. As an undergraduate, she lived in an all-female residence hall, giving her contact with other women that she was missing in her engineering classes. Read the full story at US News.
Published in Tech Today.
Representatives from the student insurance office will be on campus at the student service center (Admin building, 1st floor) on the following dates:
- Wednesday, August 21st: 12-2
- Thursday, August 22nd: 9-11
- Friday, August 23rd: 9-11
- Tuesday, September 3rd: 9-12
- Wednesday, September 4th: 2-5
They will also be at the following events:
- Graduate School Student Services Fair – 11:30am – 1pm, MUB Commons
- Expo – 6pm in the Library
Ben Wittbrodt ’13 and current masters student (MSE) presented and demonstrated 3-D printing to the Cummins Inc board of directors and their distinguished guests during their annual Science and Technology conference. He explained the opportunities 3-D printing could bring to the company and the advances in the technology under development at Michigan Tech.
Michigan Tech is one of 12 universities across the nation that are the initial signers of the Green Chemistry Commitment (www.greenchemistrycommitment.org), making them part of the first national effort to make university chemistry education greener. The Green Chemistry Commitment (GCC) is a consortium of universities and industry partners that is bringing green chemistry into undergraduate curriculum to increase the number of green chemists and scientists in the US and the opportunities available to them in the field.
The Green Chemistry Commitment is organized by Beyond Benign (www.beyondbenign.com), a non profit foundation dedicated to providing future and current scientists, educators, and citizens with the tools to teach and learn about green chemistry in order to create a sustainable future. Beyond Benign and the Green Chemistry Commitment will be presenting a session at the 17th Annual Green Chemistry and Engineering Conference this month, sponsored by the American Chemical Society’s Green Chemistry Institute.
As an academic and industrial field, green chemistry encourages chemists and scientists to develop safer, non toxic, renewable chemistry and materials. Supporting green chemistry education gives chemical companies a competitive advantage by:
- Providing a quicker time to market by reducing the environmental impact of manufacturing.
- Reducing worker injury by minimizing exposure to toxic chemicals, processes, and waste.
- Increasing efficiency and productivity of new employees who are better prepared after graduating from academic programs.
“When we modify our teaching labs by substituting drugstore-variety hydrogen peroxide and other greatly reduced toxicity chemicals instead of hazardous solvents and suspected cancer-causing agents, we show the principles of green chemistry in action,” says Irv Levy, chemistry department chair at Gordon College. “Students learn the same concepts and principles of chemistry they need, but they also learn how to achieve results in a way that’s safer for them, the community, and the environment. It’s just the right thing to do.”
By signing the Green Chemistry Commitment, colleges and universities agree that, upon graduation, all chemistry majors will have proficiency in the essential green chemistry competencies of theory, toxicology, lab skills, and practical application. using resources and courses of other departments or institutions.
More information about the Green Chemistry Commitment, including information about becoming a signer, can be found at www.greenchemistrycommitment.org.
Published in Tech Today.
More than ever, students choosing where to go to school review the future earning potential of a university’s graduates. But the well-known US News & World Report ranking of colleges and universities doesn’t give that factor much weight.
They should, says Business Insider, a business website that analyzes financial, media, technology and other industries. So Business Insider combined the US News & World Report rankings of best universities and the Payscale.com college salary report to develop rankings that reflect both reputation and the salaries earned by graduates. Analyzing several hundred universities and colleges, Business Insider developed two lists of colleges and universities: “underrated” and “overrated.”
The website termed schools with a lower US News college ranking and higher Payscale.com salary ranking “underrated.” These are schools whose graduates rank high on salaries earned but aren’t given due credit in the US News ranking.
Michigan Tech made Business Insider’s list of the top 25 “underrated” schools, coming in at 22.
Business Insider termed schools with a high US News ranking and low salary ranking as “overrated.” These are schools that show up very well in the Best Colleges ranking, but their graduates earn lower salaries than might be expected from their US News ranking.
“We found that most of the underrated schools were engineering and technology schools with relatively low US News rankings but outstanding salary performance,” Business Insider notes on its web site.
For the full story, see Business Insider.
Article written by Jenn Donovan, Public Relations Director, and published in Tech Today.
The Graduate School is pleased to announce that the following students earned a finishing fellowship for summer 2013.
- Xiaobao Geng, PhD candidate in Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics
- Ali Mirchi, PhD candidate in Civil Engineering
- Bryan Murray, PhD candidate in Forest Science
- Khatereh Vaghefi, PhD candidate in Civil Engineering
- Andrew Willemsen, PhD candidate in Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics
- Huan Yang, PhD candidate in Biological Sciences
- Nazmiye Yapici, PhD candidate in Chemistry
Profiles of current recipients can be found online.
Nominations for fall 2013 fellowships are due no later than 4pm June 20, 2013 to the Graduate School. See our webpage for nomination information.
Faculty and graduate students from the Humanities Department are participating in the Digital Media and Learning Competition Project: Connect. They would like to share their project with the larger Michigan Tech community and ask for the public to show support by voting online.
Michigan Tech has adopted the recommendation that the University provide lactation rooms throughout campus for faculty, students, staff and visitors. This list has been updated to include the Center for Diversity and Inclusion (CDI).
Campus lactation room locations are:
- Administration Building, 1st Floor
- Electrical Energy Resources Center (EERC), 1st Floor
- Great Lakes Research Center (GLRC), 1st Floor
- Lake Shore Center, 3rd Floor
- Citizen’s Bank, Ground Floor near lunch room
- Center for Diversity and Inclusion (CDI), 2nd Floor
At the end of the summer, two additional rooms will be open in the Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics building (MEEM), 4th Floor and the Student Development Center (SDC), 1st Floor.
Please contact Chris Anderson, 7-2474 or Jim Heikkinen, 7-2305 for questions.