Category: News

Interesting stories about and for our students.

New Theses and Dissertations Available in the Library

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

  • Applied Cognitive Science and Human Factors
  • Biological Sciences
  • Chemistry
  • Civil Engineering
  • Computer Science
  • Electrical Engineering
  • Environmental Engineering
  • Forest Ecology and Management
  • Forest Molecular Genetics and Biotechnology
  • Geology
  • Materials Science and Engineering
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics
  • Physics

Wang Awarded China’s Top Honor for Overseas Grad Students

PhD student Hui Wang (MSE) is the first Michigan Tech student to receive the highly prestigious China National Award for Outstanding Graduate Students Abroad.

The award honors outstanding academic achievement and is extremely competitive. All of China’s graduate students studying abroad can apply, but no more than 500 awards are granted. In 2012, 489 students were recognized.

A total of 149 graduate students in the US received the award, including four from Michigan: Wang, one from Michigan State University and two from University of Michigan.

Wang, who received $6,000, is advised by Yun Hang Hu, the Charles and Caroll McArthur Professor. Her work focuses on the use of graphene to improve the efficiency of photovoltaic cells.

Published in Tech Today

2013 MAGS Excellence in Teaching Award Nominee

Photo of Alexandria Guth
Alexandria Guth represented Michigan Tech in the MAGS Excellence in Teaching Award competition.
Alexandria Guth was selected by the Dean’s Advisory Panel to represent Michigan Tech as a nominee for the Midwestern Association of Graduate School’s Excellence in Teaching Award.  Dr. Guth was nominated by her department, Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences.

Although her contributions to the teaching activities of her department are many, she is most known for developing and implementing novel teaching practices for online courses.  One course is taken primarily by schoolteachers, and as Dr. Pennington notes in his nomination letter, “The schoolteachers in her online courses say that she does a terrific job, and I believe them; they know what they are talking about, and are not easy to please.”  This semester, she is developing an online course with a set of laboratories that can be completed off campus for introductory students in Oceanography.

Dr. Guth earned her PhD in geology in spring 2013, and was advised by Dr. James Wood. Her research has taken her to Kenya for field work, and she has had the opportunity to participate as a teaching assistant with her advisor in a series of field courses for students from Michigan Tech and beyond.  Her teaching is truly global.

Nominations are accepted each year for this award.  Please consider nominating your outstanding graduate students next year.  Full details on the nomination procedure are available online.

DeVlieg Recipients Announced

The Graduate School is pleased to announce that two students have earned fellowships from The DeVlieg Foundation.  The DeVlieg Foundation has generously provided support for graduate students pursuing research in engineering, wildlife, and biology at Michigan Tech.

The recipients this year are:

  • Anthony D. Matthys, PhD candidate in Biological Sciences
  • Renee C. Oats, PhD candidate in Civil Engineering

Photographs and details of awards and fellowships coordinated by the Graduate School can be found online.

Spring 2013 Finishing Fellowship Awardees Announced

The Graduate School is pleased to announce the recipients of the spring 2013 finishing fellowships. The fellowships were made available by the support of the Graduate School.

The recipients were:

  • Xiaochu Ding, PhD candidate in Chemistry
  • Jiqing Fan, PhD candidate in Chemical Engineering
  • Kevyn J. Juneau, PhD candidate in Forest Science
  • Michael T. Kivisalu, PhD candidate in Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics
  • Hui Wang, PhD candidate in Materials Science and Engineering

Finishing fellowship applications for fall 2013 are due no later than 4pm on June 20, 2013. Application procedures and photographs of recent recipients can be found online.

Are You Cited? Find Out With Library’s New Citation Searching Guide

The Van Pelt and Opie Library is pleased to offer a new guide to citation searching, which can be found online. This guide, created specifically for faculty and graduate students at Michigan Tech, contains helpful information for researchers in all academic disciplines.

Save yourself hours of searching time by using the guide to learn how to:

  • Determine if and where your publications have been cited
  • Discover works related to other authors, articles, or topics
  • Assess the relative quality or merit of a publication

If you have a suggestion for a database or other resource that should be added to the guide, please send an e-mail to reflib@mtu.edu or submit your suggestion using the link on the front page of the guide.

Another I-Corps Team Claims First

Michigan Tech’s latest I-Corps team placed first among 21 teams in New York last week, after a final presentation of their market analyses for new technologies. The team was led by Associate Professor Adrienne Minerick (CE), with post-doc Kaela Leonard serving as entrepreneurial lead and team mentor Mary Raber, associate director of the Institute for Leadership and Innovation.

A National Science Foundation program, I-Corps stands for Innovation Corps. Its goal is to help researchers learn how to do customer and market analysis, to enable them to fine-tune their technologies to meet an actual market need.

The technology they are looking to develop is a rapid, portable blood-typing device.

Minerick’s team is the third one from Michigan Tech chosen to participate in the I-Corps program.

Published in Tech Today

Rail Transportation Program Announces AREMA Scholarship Recipients

The American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association (AREMA) Educational Foundation recently selected the recipients of their 2013 scholarship campaign. Michigan Tech Rail Transportation Program (RTP) students received more awards than any other university with 7 of the 36 scholarships granted to these students:

* Dylan Anderson: Michigan Tech Alumni Scholarship

* Chris Blessing: AREMA Committee 27–Maintenance-of-Way Work Equipment Scholarship

* Anthony Passariello: Michigan Tech Alumni Scholarship

* Sean Pengelly: AREMA Committee 18–Light Density and Short Line Railways Scholarship

* Nicholas Lanoue: REMSA Scholarship

* Hamed Pouryousef: AREMA Educational Foundation Scholarship

* Irfan Rasul: AREMA Committee 30–Ties Scholarship

The AREMA Foundation provides scholarships to engineering students who are specializing in the railway industry and supports other educational and training endeavors that help to ensure the future of the profession.

All scholarship recipients were members of the Railroad Engineering and Activities Club (REAC), a multidisciplinary student organization for those with an interest in rail.

For more information about the club, see REAC.

Published in TechToday