Graduate School Newsblog

DOE Scholars Program is now accepting applications

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The Department of Energy (DOE) Scholars Program is now accepting applications for Summer 2014.

The DOE Scholars Program offers unique opportunities that introduce students or post-graduates to the agency’s mission and operations. Participants in the DOE Scholars Program gain a competitive edge as they apply their education, talent and skills in a variety of scientific research settings within the DOE complex. Appointments are available in a variety of disciplines at participating DOE facilities nationwide.

Application deadline is January 12, 2014 at midnight EST.

Being selected as a DOE Scholar offers the following benefits:

  • Career possibilities with the nation’s leading sponsor for scientific research
  • Opportunities to learn from top scientists and subject matter experts
  • Stipends of up to $650 per week (depending on academic status)
  • Travel arrangements to and from appointment site

Eligibility requirements:

  • US Citizens
  • Undergraduates, graduates or post-graduates of an accredited college or university

For an overview of the program, click here.

To contact the DOE Scholars Program, click here.

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Michigan Tech Scientists Verify Nanodiamond Discovery

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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.

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Peace Corps Information Session at Michigan Tech

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Peace Corps Recruiter Brett Heimann will conduct an information session on Peace Corps overseas service at 6:30 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 23, in MUB Alumni Lounge A.

He will be joined by Scott Hillard, Michigan Tech Peace Corps Master’s International recruiter, who will also talk about how to serve in Peace Corps and complete a master’s degree at the same time.

Published in Tech Today

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AREMA 2013 Annual Conference scholarship winners

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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.

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Michigan Space Grant Consortium Funding Opportunities

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The Michigan Space Grant Consortium announces funding opportunities in the following categories: Undergraduate Fellowship, Graduate Fellowship, Pre-College Education, Public Outreach, Teacher Training, and Research Seed Grant.

The deadline for proposal packages is no later than Wednesday, Nov. 20, at 5 p.m.

The internal Michigan Tech deadline is noon on Wednesday, Nov. 13.

To read announcements, submission requirements, and to submit a proposal, please visit the MSGC website and click the Fellowship Program tab, the Program tab, or the Research Seed Grant tab.  Note–Proposals that exceed the page limits specified will not be considered.

Specific information regarding Michigan Tech requirements and submission procedures can be found at funding. For more information contact Paige Hackney (phackney@mtu.eduor 487-4371).

Women, underrepresented minorities, and persons with disabilities are strongly encouraged to apply to all MSGC funding opportunities.

Published in Tech Today

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

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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

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Cyber Citizens article published in UP news website

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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

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New Module: Incorporating Information Literacy into Instruction

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The Van Pelt and Opie Library and the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) invite faculty and graduate students to attend a module, Incorporating Information Literacy into Instruction, consisting of three one-hour sequential workshops.

Instruction and Learning Librarian Sarah Lucchesi is delivering the module through theCTL’s University Teaching and Learning (UTL) Seminars program.  In this module, using the framework of Michigan Tech information literacy rubric for undergraduate students (learning goal #6), we will explore the library’s information resources, digital tools for keeping current in a field of study and assignment elements that allow students to practice information literacy skills.

Faculty and graduate students are welcome to register only for this three-workshop series, or as a part of the complete UTL Course Design program.  The workshop sessions are:

  • Monday, Nov. 4th, 11th and 18th
  • 11 a.m. to noon in Library 242

Please register by noon, Friday, Nov. 1.

If you have any questions, contact instrlib@mtu.edu

Published in Tech Today.

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WWF funding and fellowship opportunities

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The Luc Hoffmann Institute pursues synthesis ideas that will deliver cutting edge results with a clear pathway to application for decision makers and civil society practitioners in WWF’s key focus areas.  WWF focus areas can be broken into goals focused onpriority places and priority species, and goals focused on reducing human impact, or the human footprint.  Many of these goals receive additional focus through WWF’s Global Initiatives.

Our next call for full proposals is JANUARY 5th, 2014.  For this call, we are accepting proposal ideas across the full suite of WWF focus areas, with a particular focus on synthesis proposals relevant to the goals of WWF Global Initiatives, as well as proposals that explore trade-offs and consequences of alternative social, economic, and ecological futures in the greater Yangtze River area.

To allow enough time to make the next proposal deadline, we recommend that you send us your proposal ideas no later than December 1st, 2013.

If you have any questions related to our process, or in submitting your idea, please contact Emilie Cavallo at ecavallo@wwfint.org.

Proposal submission is a two-step process.

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