June First Friday Social

There will be one last First Friday Social for this fiscal year! Faculty, staff and graduate students are invited to attend the June First Friday University Social from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., June 7, in the Memorial Union Ballroom B. A cash bar along with complimentary soda and snacks will be provided.

This month’s Social is sponsored by Information Technology. Come and meet your colleagues in a relaxed atmosphere.

The First Friday University Socials began in 2006 to provide a casual setting for members of the campus community to get together informally, share their work and get to know each other. Such informal gatherings often lead to more productive work relationships and an appreciation for diversity.

In an effort to increase the effectiveness of the initiative, this academic year featured departmental partners who sponsored each months’ events. First Friday University Socials will resume in September with the Graduate School and Graduate Student Government as the sponsor – mark your calendars for September 6th!

If your department is interested in hosting a social next academic year or would like more information, please contact Megan Ross at 7-3123 or mrross@mtu.edu.

Intellectual Property Program for Graduate Students

Is it original? Copyright & Patents for Graduate Students

Graduate students are encouraged to enroll in Is It Original? Copyright and Patents for Graduate Students, funded by the National Science Foundation.

Program Basics:

This program offers busy graduate students a unique opportunity to build an understanding of intellectual property that will complement their studies, research, and instructional goals. Students can:

  • Participate in a non-credit (no-cost), five-week program (July 18 – August 15)  that is guided by Michigan Tech copyright and patent experts.
  • Learn with peers in online environments, during Monday/Thursday weekly meetings with campus experts and guest speakers to develop a broad understanding of copyright and patent fundamentals in the context of academic research and publishing.
  • Engage in guided team activities to analyze IP case scenarios relevant to graduate studies and to share your informed analysis with others.

Program Benefits:

Students will gain a competitive edge for their graduate studies and with future employers. They will explore the beneficial balance of IP law that supports the continuous advancement of knowledge by protecting, rewarding, and encouraging originality in STEM research. On successful program completion, they will receive a certificate of training in intellectual property. We’ve worked on this program for several terms taking into account feedback from graduate student attendees.

To enroll, please register online.

An orientation meeting is scheduled for Thursday, July 18 in the library.

For further information and any questions, please contact Jean DeClerck (jsdecler@mtu.edu).

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.

Nominations Open for the 2013 Distinguished Dissertation Award

Nominations are closed for this year’s competition.

Nominations are now open for the 2013 Council of Graduate Schools (CGS)/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award. Please submit nominations to the Graduate School no later than 4pm, July 1, 2013, following our online instructions. This year, nominations are being accepted from dissertations in the fields of:

  1. biological and life sciences (more details)
    Including:  biology; botany; zoology; ecology; embryology; entomology; genetics; nutrition; plant pathology; plant physiology; anatomy; biochemistry; biophysics; microbiology; pathology; pharmacology; physiology; agriculture, forestry, and related fields.
  2. humanities/fine arts (more details)
    Including: history; philosophy; language; linguistics; literature; archaeology; jurisprudence; the history, theory and criticism of the arts; ethics; comparative religion; and those aspects of the social sciences that employ historical or philosophical approaches.

Michigan Tech may nominate one student in each field. PhD students who have completed all of their degree requirements between July 1, 2011, and June 30, 2013, are eligible.   Next year, the 2014 competition will accept nominations in the fields of social sciences and mathematics/physical sciences/engineering for students who have graduated between July 1, 2012 and June 30, 2014.

Please direct your questions to Debra Charlesworth, Assistant Dean of the Graduate School.

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.

Fall 2013 Nominations for Finishing Fellowships Sought

Applications for fall 2013 finishing fellowships are now being accepted, and are due no later than 4pm, June 20, 2013 to Dr. Debra Charlesworth in the Graduate School. Instructions on the application and evaluation process are found online.  Please note that the required form and materials requested have changed slightly for this cycle of competition.

Students are eligible if all of the following criteria are met:

  1. Must be a PhD student.
  2. Must expect to finish during the semester supported as a finishing fellow.
  3. Must have submitted no more than one previous application for a finishing fellowship.
  4. Must be eligible for or in Research Only Mode at the time of application.

Finishing Fellowships provide support to PhD candidates who are close to completing their degrees. These fellowships are available through the generosity of alumni and friends of the University. They are intended to recognize outstanding PhD candidates who are in need of financial support to finish their degrees and are also contributing to the attainment of goals outlined in The Michigan Tech Plan. The Graduate School anticipates funding up to ten fellowships with support ranging from $2000 to full support (stipend + tuition). Students who receive full support through a Finishing Fellowship may not accept any other employment. For example, students cannot be fully supported by a Finishing Fellowship and accept support as a GTA or GRA.

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

Spring 2013 BRC Travel Awards

The Biotechnology Research Center announced its Spring 2013 Travel Grants. Recipients include:

Post-doctoral Research Scientist Presentation:
*Kaela Leonard (ECM) Advances in Microfluidics and Nanofluidics (podium)

Graduate Student Presentations:
*Patrick Bowen (EMSE) 2013 Minerals, Metals and Materials Society Meeting (podium)
*Katrina Bugielski (SCH) 245th ACS National Meeting and Exposition (poster)
*Weilue He (EBE) Gordon Research Conference-Nitric Oxide (poster)
*Na Hu (SCH) American Geophysical Union 2012 (poster)
*Robert Larson (SBL) Experimental Biology (poster)
*Yiping Mao (SBL) Keystone Symposia on Molecular & Cellular Biology (poster)
*Sandra Owusu (FMGB) ASPB: 2013 Midwestern Section Annual Meeting (poster)
*Alison Regal (SACS) North American Society for the Psychology of Sport & Physical Activity (poster)
*Rafi Shaik (SBL) Plant and Animal Genome XXI (poster)
*Ashley Shortz (SACS) IEE Annual Conference and Expo (podium)
*Amy Sieloff (ECM) AIChE 2012 Annual Meeting (poster)
*Srinivasa Rao Sripathi (SBL) Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (poster)
*Huan Yang (SBL) Experimental Biology (poster)
*Nazmiye Yapici (SCH) 245th ACS National Meeting and Exposition (podium)

Published in Tech Today