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All faculty, staff and students are invited to attend the Eighth Annual ESC/BRC Student Research Forum, held from 3 to 5 p.m., Friday, March 30, in the Noblet atrium. Awards and pizza will follow.
Undergraduate and graduate students working in ecosystem science and biotechnology fields will present their research posters in separate competitions. Odd-numbered posters will present from 3 to 4 p.m., and even-numbered will present from 4 to 5 p.m.
To view the list of participants and their abstracts, see Graduate Students and Undergraduate Students.
For more information, contact Jill Fisher, program manager for the ESC, at jhfisher@mtu.edu , or Mary Tassava, program manager for the BRC, at mltassav@mtu.edu
Published in Tech Today
Gerald Savage, professor emeritus at Illinois State University, will present “Beyond Politeness: How Might We Make Social Justice a Central Value in Technical Communication Education” at 7 p.m., Thursday, March 29, in the Noblet Forestry Lecture Hall. There will be a reception to follow in the atrium.
Savage received master’s and PhD degrees in rhetoric and technical communication from Michigan Tech in 1991 and 1995. He will discuss communication across national and cultural boundaries and focus on “inequities of power and hierarchy.”
Savage comes as a part of the Humanities Distinguished Lecture Series
Two students from the geological and mining engineering and sciences department were runners-up at the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) Challenge Bowl recently. Josh Richards, a PhD candidate in geophysics, and Chad (Danford) Moore, a senior in applied geophysics, took second place at the Sixth Annual Sooner Challenge Bowl at the University of Oklahoma in Norman.
The SEG Challenge Bowl is an international contest testing students’ breadth and depth of knowledge about the field of geoscience. The quiz-show format features intense competition, as the contestants attempt to buzz in first with the answers to challenging geoscience questions.
The School of Business and Economics will host an information session for students who are interested in earning their MBA after their undergraduate degree at 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, March 27, in Fisher 130.
Participants will get a chance to meet with MBA admissions staff, alumni and faculty members. Faculty are encouraged to inform students about this opportunity.
For more information, contact Jodie Filpus, MBA Admissions and Recruitment, at 487-3055 or at jrfilpus@mtu.edu .
Four graduate students are going to Lansing for Graduate Education Day, Thursday, March 29. Governor Rick Snyder has declared the week of March 26 as Graduate Education Week, and more than 50 students from universities and colleges across the state will meet with legislators at the Capitol Building in Lansing.
Students will meet with their hometown legislators to discuss their studies and future plans and will also present their research and degree-related projects.
Attending from Michigan Tech are:
- Mark Hopkins, a PhD candidate in mechanical engineering from Charlotte. He will be discussing his work on in-space electric rockets.
- Stephanie Groves, a PhD candidate in biological sciences from Scottville. She will be presenting on converting industrial waste to biofuels and other products.
- Emily Gochis, a PhD candidate in geology from Ann Arbor. She will discuss geoscience education.
- Andrew Drees, a PhD candidate in electrical engineering from Stevensville. He will discuss a “smart grid” power system for use on Michigan Tech’s campus.
The governor and legislature have acknowledged that graduate education is key to Michigan’s economic growth and stability. Graduate education in Michigan is highly productive, contributing directly to the well-being of the state and its capacity to meet the challenges of the future.
Last year, Michigan’s four-year public and private colleges and universities awarded more than 20,000 master’s degrees and 5,000 doctorates, with Michigan ranking ninth among states in the US for the number of research-based doctorates awarded.
by Dennis Walikainen, senior editor
Published in Tech Today
The contest was part of the SME (Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration) Annual Meeting. Thirteen graduate students from all over the world entered posters in the event.
The Tech students’ advisor, Chair Komar Kawatra (ChE), is on sabbatical as a Fulbright scholar in India and flew to Seattle for the competition.
“I am very fortunate to be working with graduate students like Howard and Brett,” said Kawatra. “They are highly motivated and just outstanding. One day I expect them to be CEOs of major corporations.”
Spigarelli earned the top spot for his poster on optimizing a carbon-dioxide scrubber that removes 50 percent of the CO2 passing through.
The scrubber, an 11-foot bench-model plastic pipe packed with glass beads, has a water-based solution flowing through it. From below, carbon dioxide bubbles up, reacting with chemicals in the liquid. The process not only captures carbon, it binds it in a solid form, making an undisclosed product that can be used as a construction material. The liquid itself can be recovered and used again.
The group has received a patent and hopes to build a pilot plant in cooperation with industry partner Carbontec Energy Corp.
Spigarelli’s prize-winning poster focused on making the scrubber as efficient as possible. In particular, he developed a model for determining the ideal concentration of chemical in solution to strip out CO2. “You want to remove as much carbon as possible, but you don’t want to use excess chemicals, because you want to save the company money,” Spigarelli said. “This process will give you the best results.”
Haselhuhn’s third-place poster also focused on water chemistry. At an iron-processing facility, he studied the technology used to remove impurities from iron ore. He found ways to improve the process and significantly boost productivity.
“The iron ore is ground down into very small particles, which are mixed in water,” he said. “The larger particles, which contain more iron ore, settle quickly, and the smallest ones, containing silica, stay suspended.” However, Haselhuhn discovered, sometimes the raw ore contains high levels of magnesium, which translates into higher concentrations of magnesium in the water. In turn, that causes silica particles to cluster together and settle out with the iron, rendering the separation process ineffective.
“By compensating for the excess magnesium, companies could reduce the loss of iron in their concentration process,” Haselhuhn said. “The results of this research will save millions of dollars per year and reduce the loss of an important natural resource.”
by Marcia Goodrich, magazine editor
Published in Tech Today
When Stacey Frankenstein-Markon discovered that girls in Uganda often used rags, old socks or wads of newspapers to do the job of sanitary napkins, she was shocked. She was even more horrified to realize that purchasing commercial pads was an impossible dream for most of them, since they come from families of subsistence farmers making about $1 a day in disposable income.
“Disposable pads cost $1 for an 8-pack,” says the 25-year-old Peace Corps volunteer, who with her husband, Tony Markon, is serving in Uganda as part of Michigan Tech’s Peace Corps Master’s International (PCMI) program in applied science education. “If a family has three daughters who need pads, that family would have to spend 20 percent of their income just on menstrual pads. Who can afford to do that?”
The pad problem also was leading girls to stay away from school, fearing that they might stain their clothes and be badgered by boys, Frankenstein-Markon said. Eventually, they fall so far behind that they have to drop out.
But thanks to the inventiveness of another Peace Corps volunteer who had served in the eastern Ugandan region just before the Markons got there in 2010, the Michigan Tech student has been able to help hundreds of girls practice better hygiene while they learn about menstruation, their bodies and women’s health. And not incidentally, stay in school.
She is doing it with RUMPS. The RUMPS (Re-Useable Menstrual Pads) project teaches girls to sew locally available toweling into washable pads. Before they start stitching, they learn about puberty, sex, pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. The Peace Corps volunteer and her community partners answer questions and encourage honest discussion about matters most of the girls have never considered mentioning in public.
With the help of their three Ugandan partners–Betty Adio, Alice Mundaka and Deborah Nabirye–Frankenstein-Markon has reached more than 1,800 girls, women and men. Adio is now reaching out to another 3,000 elementary school girls. Word is spreading, and seven other Peace Corps volunteers have developed RUMPS projects in their communities.
“I’ve cut out 3,600 RUMPS pads myself,” says Frankenstein-Markon. “I have spent 180 hours using scissors, bandaged six blisters and swept up more tiny bits of towel fluff than I ever imagined could exist.”
In October 2010, two faculty members visited the Markons and the RUMPS project. Brad Baltensperger, chair of the Department of Cognitive and Learning Sciences at and program director of the PCMI Applied Science Education Program, and Casey Huckins, an associate professor of biological sciences who heads the University’s new PCMI in biological sciences, spent a week in Uganda to discuss the graduate students’ research, to observe them teaching and to learn more about the experiences of Peace Corps volunteers.
“Stacey made a rousing presentation about women’s bodies and menstrual health to several hundred high school girls packed into a large classroom,” Baltensperger says “She was animated and direct, and she used innovative ways to get and maintain the attention of her audience.”
One of Baltensperger’s and Huckins’ fondest memories of their African trip is sitting around a pot of warm millet beer with several teachers at the end of the day. “Casey and I both joined in drinking from the communal container through three-foot long straws and talked about the challenges faced by teachers in Uganda,” Baltensperger recalls.
Frankenstein-Markon’s work has not gone unrecognized. For International Women’s Day earlier this month, the Peace Corps in Uganda nominated her for her efforts to “empower girls.” She was one of three winners from Africa recognized by the Peace Corps worldwide.
How do Ugandans respond to Americans broaching such a sensitive subject? “Overall, every community I have visited has reacted positively,” Frankenstein-Markon says. “In Uganda today, people are trying to overcome traditional taboos. I have found that talking about menstrual health has opened the door for other, deeper topics. I start by talking about body changes. Then I move on to how a woman becomes pregnant.”
Sometimes the question-and-answer component of RUMPS sessions does run into cultural roadblocks. She recalls one man saying, “Madam, how can I ask you about sex when my niece is in the audience?” Also, “most Ugandans do not want their children to hear about family planning,” Frankenstein-Markon says.
But she is far from discouraged. “For every five shy Ugandans, there is always one courageous woman who says, “Ladies, let’s talk about the clitoris,” another who asks, ‘Madam, I want to use family planning. What can I do?’ People want this information, and we can help them get it.”
A biological sciences major who earned her bachelor of science from Michigan Tech in 2008, Frankenstein-Markon heard about PCMI when she was a junior. When she learned that PCMI was about to start a program in applied science education, she had no doubts. “To be able to join the Peace Corps while earning a master’s degree was a no-brainer,” she says. “It is such a unique opportunity and environment to do your research.”
Next fall the Markons will be back at Michigan Tech to complete their master’s degree work. And then? “We may end up abroad again,” she says. Judging by her passion for her efforts in Uganda that would be no surprise.
by Jennifer Donovan, director, public relations
Published in Tech Today
Can science save the Great lakes?
It’s an appropriate question to ask on World Water Day, which is Thursday, March 22, and even more appropriate considering the fact that Michigan Tech’s Great Lakes Research Center is nearing completion and scheduled to open this summer.
Lana Pollack, chair of the US Section of the International Joint Commission, will examine the threats to the health of the Great Lakes and discuss how research data-based policy-making can protect them.
The free public World Water Day Lecture is at 5:30 p.m. in EERC 103. The International Joint Commission is an independent, binational organization that works to prevent and resolve boundary waters disputes for the common good of the US and Canada.
The lecture is sponsored by Tech’s Center for Water and Society (CWS) and the Visiting Women and Minority Lecture Series. There will be a reception afterward.
Before the lecture, the CWS will sponsor a graduate poster session and competition to highlight the ongoing research on water at Tech. The poster session is scheduled for 3 to 5 p.m. in the DOW atrium.
In keeping with the interdisciplinary nature of water research and CWS, students from six different departments have registered posters in two categories, research and classes. The posters will be judged and cash awards made in both categories.
“World Water Day is the signature event for CWS,” said Center Director Noel Urban (CEE). “The poster session, guest speaker and reception provide an opportunity for CWS members from all of 11 departments represented by the Center to socialize and sow seeds for future collaborations.”
Published in Tech Today
A website for Michigan Tech’s Global Watershed program has been singled out as one of two top websites nationwide. The Global Watershed program is part of a graduate STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fellowship program funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) at 213 universities across the country. The program, known as GK12, prepares graduate students in STEM fields to work with teachers and students in kindergarten through 12th grade to incorporate scientific research and the scientific method as integral parts of their science education curriculum.
Locally, Michigan Tech’s GK12 Global Watershed program partners graduate student fellows with partner-teachers at the BRIDGE Alternative School, Copper Country Intermediate School District, Hancock High and Middle Schools, Manistee High School and Stanton Township. While the Michigan Tech program focuses primarily on rural schools in the western UP, it also partners with the Colegio Munoz school system in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico.
“The website for our GK12 Global Watershed program really is an invaluable tool for organizing and publicizing our project,” said Professor Alex Mayer (CEE), program director.
“It’s critical that we have a polished site that’s easy to use to spread the word about the program to potential GK12 fellows and partner teachers and publicize the accomplishments of our existing fellows and their partner teachers,” Mayer went on to say. “We’re very pleased that NSF has recognized the quality of our web presence.”
The award-winning website was designed and developed locally by the web development firm of opusWeb.com in Hancock. “It’s truly an honor to know that a website our firm developed right here in the Keweenaw was recognized on a national level,” said Jeffery Primeau, opusWeb.com cofounder and director of marketing/communications.
The website was judged on several factors, including design, navigability, structure and content. Comprehensive content/text for the site was written by Lisa Rowan, currently a master’s degree student in ecology at the University of North Florida.
To view the site, see Global Watershed.
by Jennifer Donovan, director, public relations
Published in Tech Today