Interesting stories about and for our students.
The Graduate School is pleased to announce the following programs have new theses and dissertations available in the J.R. Van Pelt and Opie Library:
See below for a detailed listing of the new documents available.
The American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) invites you to join us in this exciting dialogue entitled: Why Teach? The Importance of K-12 Engineering Education. The event will take place on Monday, January 24, 2011 at 6pm in Fisher 133. Dr. Charles Margraves from the Mechanical Engineering department will provide insight into the importance of staying connected to our youth through teaching, and Dr. Shari Stockero from the Mathematical Sciences department will discuss the NOYCE program. Refreshments provided. For more information contact KL Jordan (kari@mtu.edu).
IPS will host an information session, “Scholarships, Grants and Fellowships for Study Abroad and Other International Opportunities,” from 6 to 8 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 20, in ChemSci 101.
It’s never too early to begin thinking about money for international opportunities. US undergraduate or graduate students interested in fellowships, grants and scholarships, will want to attend this session.
Presenters will include Joe Kalliokoski, representative from the Rotary Club of Houghton; Associate Professor Mary Durfee (SS); and Greta Gustafson, study abroad coordinator.
Students will receive guidance on the many opportunities available, including eligibility requirements, application processes, service requirements and financial aid.
Students will also receive tips on how to construct a competitive application. A question-and-answer session will be held at the end.
Following are the session details:
For more information on funding, see Financial Aid .
For questions, contact Greta Gustafson, study abroad coordinator, at 487-1876 .
Michigan Tech celebrates its annual Martin Luther King Week. Events include King’s iconic “I Have a Dream” speech; a peace march in the spirit of the great peacemaker; actor Barry Scott’s tribute to his idol; and a closing banquet that features Charles Pugh, president of the Detroit City Council, a respected journalist turned popular civic leader.
Here is a schedule of events, beginning today:
Monday, noon–“I Have a Dream” speech, Memorial Union steps, followed by a candelight vigil and a peace march to the Rozsa Center.
Monday, 1 p.m.–Reception, Rozsa atrium.
Monday, 2 p.m.–Actor Barry Scott’s tribute to King, Rozsa Center.
Tuesday, noon–Traveling Trunk exhibit in the Van Pelt and Opie Library; includes photos, videos, speeches and background information.
Wednesday, noon–Blood drive, Van Pelt and Opie Library Reading Room
Friday, 4 p.m.–Basketball invitational, SDC Wood Gym
Saturday, 9 a.m.–Service Saturday at the Keweenaw Family Resource Center’s Tree House, where there will be stories and snacks for the children.
Saturday, 6 p.m.–Banquet, Memorial Union Ballroom, features Charles Pugh, president of the Detroit City Council. Admission is $15 a person.
For more information, contact the Center for Diversity and Inclusion at 487-2920.
Published in Tech Today.
Abhishek Prasad, a graduate student in physics, won an award at the 2010 Materials Research Society Fall Meeting, which drew 6,000 participants.
Prasad earned first place among 50 finalists in the sciences and arts competition at the meeting. His entry, titled “Stem of nanoflowers,” was artificially composed of multiple scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructures.
Prasad also presented a paper, “(CdSe) ZnS Core Shell Quantum Dots Decorated Zinc Oxide Nanowires for Solar Energy Harvesting Applications,” which appeared in Symposium W: Nanowires–Growth and Device Assembly for Novel Applications.
The MRS meeting was held in Boston from Nov. 28 to Dec. 3. Prasad is a doctoral student who works in Professor Yoke Khin Yap’s (Physics) research group.
Published in Tech Today
Komal Tayal’s tandoori chicken recipe placed second overall in a cookbook competition sponsored by the Daily Mining Gazette.
Tayal won a gift certificate for one of the businesses that advertised in the cookbook. Her recipe and Sahil Thakkar’s phada lapsi are featured in the ethnic section of the 2010 cookbook, published just before Christmas.
Tayal is a graduate student in mechanical engineering. Thakkar is an undergraduate in electrical engineering technology. Both are from India.
Published in Tech Today.
The Graduate School was recently featured on the TV6 news in regards to the new Parental Accommodation Policy. The interview features Lihui Hu, new mother and PhD student in computer science, and the director of graduate marketing, Jacque Smith.
The new policy allows new parents, through either birth or adoption, to take an excused absence from their classes and provides extensions to academic deadlines. It also provides funded students with paid leave for six weeks.
See A (Graduate) Student Affair to view the original Michagan Tech News Story.
First-time international graduate student enrollment is up 3 percent nationwide this year. At Michigan Tech, it’s increased more than 16 percent.
Why is Michigan Tech bucking the trend?
“There are a couple of reasons,” says Jacque Smith, director of marketing for the Graduate School. “First, it has to do with the types and quality of programs we offer.” Many of Michigan Tech’s programs are in STEM fields. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and math. These specialties–which have long been a focus at Michigan Tech, especially in graduate education–are in growing demand around the world. Also, interest in the MBA program is growing, according to recruiters worldwide. The MBA program is offered through the School of Business and Economics.
“Our programs and research are what the world wants,” Smith says, and the numbers seem to be proving that point. The largest gains among first-time international graduate student enrollment nationwide were in the physical and earth sciences, at 9 percent, while engineering rose 3 percent. However, at Michigan Tech, first-time international graduate student enrollment in engineering rose 20.4 percent.
The Council of Graduate Schools, which released the enrollment report, also said that overall (not just first-time) international graduate student enrollment rose only 1 percent nationally in 2010, down from 2 and 3 percent in 2009 and 2008, respectively. During the same time, Tech’s overall international graduate student enrollment increased 13.5 percent. Michigan Tech’s growth also bucked a trend among Midwest schools, whose international graduate student enrollment showed no growth overall.
Nationally, the countries contributing the largest number of first-time international grad students were China, with 20 percent, and the Middle East and Turkey with 7 percent. India and South Korea showed 3 percent declines nationwide. At Michigan Tech, however, numbers of first-time international graduate students from India increased 18.5 percent.
“It’s a reflection of our global recruiting efforts,” Smith says. “For example, our faculty members’ research is growing in prominence, and our alumni are making impacts all over the world that help us to recruit students in their home countries.” And when those international students do enroll at Tech, they bring some impressive credentials with them.
According to the Graduate School, international students are often among the top candidates for admission to graduate programs nationwide. “They bring global perspectives to our campus and community and help our domestic students gain experiences with other cultures,” Smith notes. “They also help everyone on campus learn more about what is happening in other parts of the world and how events are viewed by people from different cultures,” says Dean Jackie Huntoon (Graduate School).
Approximately 45 percent of Michigan Tech’s graduate students are from abroad, and India and China make up more than 70 percent of international graduate student enrollment here. “The international students who come to our campus continue to help the University become better known and respected around the world,” Huntoon adds. “They also contribute to economic development, in Michigan and elsewhere, where they help fill corporations’ needs for STEM-educated people.”
Published in Tech Today.
Michigan Tech has instituted a new fellowship program for graduate students who have served in the Peace Corps, AmeriCorps or the military.
In its first semester of operation, the National Service Graduate Fellowship covers as much as 30 percent of tuition, but its benefits extend beyond financial assistance.
“Through this program, we are getting more nontraditional students to campus who bring a different perspective to the classroom,” said Professor Blair Orr (SFRES). “They have a lot to contribute from their experiences.”
Orr is in charge of Tech’s Peace Corps Master’s International program, one of the three programs involved in the initiative.
Lt. Col. Kerry Beaghan, of the Air Force ROTC program, agrees that the type of student the program attracts is “very atypical.”
“They’re older military personnel, who maybe tried college earlier in their lives,” she says. “Or they might have enlisted right out of high school, and now they are interested in an education and must juggle family and school and financing. This program helps them.”
For the military personnel, the new post-911 GI Bill includes a housing allowance at some schools and, depending on the level of the service, their spouses or children might also benefit from the tuition reduction, Beaghan says.
In the planning for the military component of the fellowship, Beaghan credits Dallas Eubanks, former head of Michigan Tech’s Army ROTC, for his help in crafting this new program.
“We had to decide whom do we include and what to include,” she says.
Natiffany Mathews, a master’s student in industrial archaeology, did her AmeriCorps service on the New Mexico/Texas border, in poor school districts, and she chose Michigan Tech because of the fellowship and the opportunity to teach and do research.
“It’s been a different type of experience–awesome–especially the teaching,” she says. “With college courses, we are constantly changing things up. It’s very dynamic.”
Overall, the fellowship was paramount for her. “I don’t think I could have come here without it,” she says. “We needed the extra funding, and my husband was having trouble finding work here. We had expenses moving here, too.”
She had visited the area previously and fell in love with the people, especially Associate Professor Tim Scarlett (Social Sciences), and the industrial archaeology program. Another draw: Tech treated her in a fair and timely manner. “Another school never returned my phone calls and was always slow responding to emails.”
Jacque Smith, director of marketing for the Graduate School, says the fellowship fills a gap. “Graduate students in programs that focus primarily on career preparation, instead of research, often have to fund more of their education themselves. As the costs keep increasing, it can become harder for these students to attend grad school.”
Mariah Maggio, who was in Peace Corps Masters International Program and is a recipient of a fellowship, didn’t have any viable options to return to graduate school two years after her volunteer service in the Philippines ended.
“With the limited financial resources resulting from life as a Peace Corps volunteer, followed by work with a grassroots international organization, the fellowship was a decisive factor in my being able to enroll in Tech’s environmental policy master’s program,” she explains.
Maggio is thankful that the fellowship recognizes her service. As well, she adds, being a returned Peace Corps volunteer on the campus is a very rich experience because of the community and camaraderie that exist among those who have volunteered.
“You can not only reflect on your experience with fellow returned volunteers, but you also engage with prospective volunteers and really build on the work the Peace Corps is doing,” she says.
“We are fortunate that Tech recognizes returned Peace Corps volunteers as eligible candidates for the fellowship,” she adds. “To be valued after volunteering in such a way that supports returning to graduate school is an amazing initiative of this University and reinforces the ideal that Michigan Tech is playing an important role in fostering leaders for a global future.”
Jacqueline Huntoon, dean of the Graduate School, says the fellowship helps the University achieve its strategic plan, which includes an effort to attract students who bring diverse perspectives to the campus and the program.
“They demonstrate to others the opportunities for providing service to their communities, the nation and the world,” she concludes.
by Dennis Walikainen, senior editor
Published in Tech Today
Graduate School orientation is just around the corner – January 7, 2011. New students from fall and spring semester are invited to attend our session. Online registration for the event is now closed. Students who were unable to register on line and who attend orientation will be accommodated as space permits.
The University is closed on December 23rd, 24th, 30th, and 31st. No offices will be open on these days, or on the weekend.
The Graduate School will have limited staff available December 27-29th. Contact the Graduate School at 906-487-2327 to be directed to a staff member who is available.
Other University offices will be operating with limited staff and/or hours. Human Resources is maintaining a centralized list.