Category: News

Interesting stories about and for our students.

Michigan Tech Scientists Verify Nanodiamond Discovery

Diamonds, usually forged in overwhelming heat and pressure miles deep in the Earth’s mantle, have now been made at atmospheric pressure and 100 degrees Celcius—the boiling point of water.

No one will be wearing these diamonds on their ring finger, however.  They are nanodiamonds, just two or three nanometers across, invisible to all but electron microscopes. But their properties could be as alluring as crown jewels. Unlike the other form of carbon, graphite, diamond is a semiconductor, similar to silicon, which is the dominant material in the electronics industry, and gallium arsenide, which is used in lasers and other optical devices.

The discovery, by project leader Mohan Sankaran, Associate Professor of chemical engineering at Case Western Reserve University, was aided by Physics Professor Yoke Khin Yap and graduate student Boyi Hao of Michigan Tech.  Using ultraviolet Ramen spectroscopy in Yap’s lab, they confirmed that Sankaran’s group had indeed made nanodiamonds.

Find out more at the Michigan Tech news site.

Published in Tech Today.

AREMA 2013 Annual Conference scholarship winners

Seventeen students from the Michigan Tech Rail Transportation Program (RTP) traveled to Indianapolis to attend the 2013 Railway Interchange Exhibition and American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association (AREMA) 2013 Annual Conference.  Students attended technical sessions and committee meetings. The students also provided support for the National University Rail Center (NURail) booth at the Exhibition. Michigan Tech is a member of the seven university NURail consortium.

Michigan Tech students, Antonio Passariello and Tanja Mattonen, were invited to be two of the four student interns of the Conference Operating Committee.  Seven Michigan Tech RTP students were identified as AREMA scholarship winners, pulling in over $7,000 in scholarships and 20 percent of the winners nationwide.  Congratulations to:  Dylan Anderson, Chris Blessing, Antonio Passariello, Sean Pengelly, Hamed Pouryousef, Irfan Rasul, and Nicholas Lanoue.  Click here for a complete description of the scholarships.

Pasi Lautala, 2007 PhD graduate, received the second prize in the AREMA Member-Get-A-Member Campaign, awarded at the annual conference.

Published in Tech Today.

Stepping Out in Style: Toward an Artificial Leg with a Natural Gait

Humans rarely walk the straight and narrow; something’s always in the way. So Michigan Tech scientists are developing a computer-controlled prosthesis to make it much easier for amputees to turn as they walk.

In cooperation with a Mayo Clinic scientist, researchers at Michigan Tech are taking a giant step toward solving the problem. They are making a bionic foot that could make an amputee’s walk in the park feel, well, like a walk in the park.

Assistant Professor Mo Rastgaar and PhD student Evandro Ficanha
The secret lies in the ankle. Mo Rastgaar, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering–engineering mechanics, and PhD student Evandro Ficanha are working on a microprocessor-controlled ankle-foot prosthesis that comes close to achieving the innate range of motion of this highly complex joint.

These computerized artificial legs have pressure-sensitive sensors on the bottom of the foot that detect how the amputee is walking. The sensors instantaneously send signals to a microprocessor, which in turn adjusts the prosthesis to make walking more natural.

For the full story see Michigan Tech News

Published in Tech Today by Marcia Goodrich, magazine editor

Cyber Citizens article published in UP news website

Upper Peninsula Second Wave, a UP news website, published article about Michigan Tech’s Cyber Citizens and their development of a citizen scientist smartphone application called EthnoApp.

The Cyber Citizens project goal is to build smartphone apps and websites that connect average citizens with scientists to help acquire valuable environmental information across the world.

A team of graduate and undergrad students at Tech led by Alex Mayer, a professor of civil and environmental engineering, and Robert Pastel, a professor of computer science, have worked to develop four different apps so far.

For more on the article, click here

Published in Tech Today

To the Moon: Michigan Tech Alumnus Contributes to Lunar Mission

Aboard a spacecraft orbiting the moon is a little bit of Brandon Dilworth.

His body is comfortably here on Earth. But for the last several years, Dilworth has poured all his professional skill and passion into a game-changing scientific project that is now hitching a ride on the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer. Launched by NASA Sept. 6. LADEE (dubbed “laddie”) left its Earth orbit Oct. 2 and entered a lunar orbit Oct. 6., Soon, the technical project that Dilworth has been working on at MIT Lincoln Laboratory for the last four years will spring into action.

“I’ve supported the Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration since my first day at Lincoln,” he said. “I got my PhD in August 2009, drove out to Massachusetts, and started work the next Monday.”

Since Dilworth earned his master’s and doctorate in mechanical engineering at Michigan Tech, he has been working on equipment that will revolutionize space communication.

The full release is posted on the Michigan Tech news site.

Published in Tech Today.

New Dissertations in the Library

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

  • Chemical Engineering
  • Biological Sciences
  • Biomedical Engineering
  • Civil Engineering
  • Electrical Engineering
  • Engineering Physics
  • Forest Science
  • Geophysics
  • Industrial Heritage and Archaeology
  • Materials Science and Engineering
  • Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics
  • Rhetoric and Technical Communication

Introducing MyMichiganTech

MyMichiganTech is a personalized website that will allow students to quickly and easily see their current student status. You will also be able to get direct access to Gmail, Canvas, banweb and more from MyMichiganTech – think of this as the first place to go every morning! The Graduate School is pleased to introduce it to you and looks forward to receiving your feedback on how we can improve it in the future.

Navigate to MyMichiganTech.mtu.edu and log in with your Username and ISO Password (just like Canvas, e-mail, or any other campus service)

Picture of MMT log in
The login screen for MyMichiganTech

The homepage has news, events, and weather. Click on the “Current Students” tab (outlined in a red box below) to show information about your current status. Depending on the services you use at the University, such as financial aid, or campus housing, different options will appear.

MyMichiganTech welcome screen.
MyMichiganTech welcome screen.