The Graduate School is pleased to announce new theses and dissertations are now available in the J.R. van Pelt and Opie Library from the following programs:
The international lunch called Khana Khazana (food treasure) will feature the cuisines of Turkey and India Friday in the Memorial Union Food Court.
International students Nassim Sabahfar and Komal Tayal will cook. Sabahfar, a graduate student in civil engineering from Iran, will make Turkish lamb kebobs, barley mushroom soup and jellied ice cream with fruit, a dish that is her specialty. Tayal, a graduate student in mechanical engineering from India, will make vegetable pulao, a traditional northern Indian vegetarian rice dish.
Lunch will be served from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. A full meal costs $6, and a la carte dishes costs $2.
Khana Khazana is a collaborative effort of international students and Dining Services.
The rigors of graduate education are daunting enough, and adding a new child into the mix can raise the stress level into the stratosphere.
Now the Graduate School has helped ease the burden for Lihui Hu, a PhD student in computer science who has just given birth to her first baby, a boy named Alex. The Graduate School recently adopted policies to help graduate students transition to parenthood by offering excused absences and paid leave for new mothers or fathers of biological or adopted children, providing they are already supported full-time by the University.
Hu is the first beneficiary of the new policy. “I’m very grateful to my department and all the people who helped,” she says. “I was able to come home one week before my delivery. It has really helped. At the end of the leave, I’ll be ready to return to campus to work and do my research.”
The timing was perfect, too. Hu’s husband, Linjia Hu, had a job offer that just fell through, and the couple would have been without any income.
“We are among only 13 percent of universities nationally who offer six weeks guaranteed, paid leave,” says Kristi Isaacson, assistant director of marketing for the Graduate School.
The support system within academic departments and administrative offices also includes extension time for the degree programs, subsidies for campus child care and local resources to help new parents, Isaacson adds.
Central to the new benefit is the Graduate Student Parental Accommodation Policy, which applies to the mother or father. Under the policy, the graduate student-parent is excused from courses, research, teaching assignments or other responsibilities at Tech for up to six weeks.
“For many women and men, the best time to begin to raise a family is when you are in graduate school,” says Jackie Huntoon, Graduate School dean. “This policy makes it easier for our students and faculty to manage a birth or adoption in a positive way.”
“The excused absence can actually begin three weeks prior to the birth or placement,” Isaacson adds.
The policy also provides a one-semester extension to the time-to-degree limit, as well as extensions to deadlines for completing the qualifying exam or proposal defense.
The academic departments receive funding from the Graduate School to hire temporary replacements for the students on parental leave.
“It’s great that we are able to support her and still cover her duties,” says Steve Carr, chair and professor of computer science, who sits on Hu’s dissertation committee. “With tight budgets, we can still afford a TA. We don’t want to discourage graduate students from starting families, but this type of support is necessary,” Carr adds.
Isaacson agrees. “We don’t want the program to be a burden on the academic department, and we want the grad students to know that we are family supportive,” she says.
Programs like Michigan Tech’s could help stop the “female brain drain in science,” where women are more likely to abandon their academic careers in favor of raising their families, according to research by the Council of Graduate Schools.
“I am proud that our policy is among the best in the nation,” Huntoon says. “This certainly will help us attract and retain more female students, which is one of the University’s strategic goals.”
Isaacson says that help for graduate student-parents, new and old, extends beyond campus resources, such as Little Huskies Child Development Center and the Michigan Tech Preschool.
“The Keweenaw Family Resource Center has the new tree house indoor play area, maternity closet of “gently used clothing” and other programs, and Community Coordinated Child Care (4Cs) also has many ways to help parents.”
“Everyone benefits, and students are not burdened with any additional stress from their academic lives,” Huntoon adds. “They truly can take the time to enjoy the new addition to their family.”
by Jennifer Donovan, director of public relations
Published in Tech Today and Michigan Tech News (by Dennis Walikainen)
The Graduate School is proud to announce the following students are recipients of a one-time Fall 2010 Finishing Fellowship:
The fellowships are made possible by the Charles L. Lawton Endowed Fellowship, Neil V. Hakala Endowed Fellowship, Doctoral Finishing Fellowship, and the Graduate School.
Pictures of our recent awardees are available online.
Whether you are a recent graduate, a graduate student, and
undergraduate, a K-12 teacher, or a faculty member, ORNL has a program
that will engage you in a scientific learning experience. Please browse
and apply to our educational opportunities at http://www.orau.org/ornl
Please browse through the Research Profiles on the different
participants and their research experiences at the right hand side of
the bottom of the web site.
YouTube at http://ow.ly/2EQLz.
The Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship (DOE
CSGF) application is now available online at
https://www.krellinst.org/doecsgf/application/ .
Students must be planning full-time, uninterrupted study toward a Ph.D. degree at a U.S. university. Students in their first or second year of graduate study in engineering, mathematics, or the physical, computer, or life sciences are eligible to apply for the Computational Science Graduate Fellowship (CSGF). Exceptional senior undergraduates who can meet all the requirements listed in this application may also apply.
The deadline to apply is January 11th, 2011.
NASA announces a call for graduate fellowship proposals to the NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship (NESSF) program for the 2011-2012 academic year. This call for fellowship proposals solicits applications from accredited U.S. universities on behalf of individuals pursuing Master of Science (M.Sc.) or Doctoral (Ph.D.) degrees in Earth and space sciences, or related disciplines. The purpose of NESSF is to ensure continued training of a highly qualified workforce in disciplines needed to achieve NASA’s scientific goals. Awards resulting from the competitive selection will be made in the form of training grants to the respective universities.
The deadline for NEW applications is February 1, 2011, and the deadline for RENEWAL applications is March 15, 2011.
All proposals must be submitted in electronic format only through the NASA NSPIRES system. Your advisor will have an active role in the submission of the fellowship proposal. To use the NSPIRES system, the advisor, the student, and the university must all register. You can register in NSPIRES at http://nspires.nasaprs.com/.
For further information contact Ming-Ying Wei, Program Administrator for NESSF Earth Science Research, Telephone: (202) 358-0771, E-mail: mwei@nasa.gov or Dolores Holland, Program Administrator for NESSF Heliophysics Research, Planetary Science Research, and Astrophysics Research, Telephone: (202) 358-0734, E-mail: hq-nessf-Space@nasa.gov.
Please contact Jodi Lehman (jglehman@mtu.edu) for coordination of proposal submission.
Cue the bats and spooky music. We are about to delve into one of Michigan’s most alluring mysteries. It’s so alluring, in fact, that it draws a steady stream of pilgrims of the paranormal to the dot-in-the-road town of Paulding all summer long, and into the winter too, just to hang out on the edge of the woods and watch and wait.
They come to catch a glimpse of the Paulding Light, and they are rarely disappointed. The light (or lights; sometimes they come in groups) appears in a valley near Robins Pond Road. It was even featured this year on the SyFy television show “Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files.”
Led by Jeremy Bos, a PhD candidate in electrical engineering, Michigan Tech’s student chapter of SPIE has undertaken a scientific study to determine exactly what the Paulding Light really is.
But will anyone believe them?
To find out more, see Paulding Lights.
Published in Tech Today.
The Indian Student Association (ISA) is sponsoring its annual Diwali Night this Saturday, Oct. 30. Activities begin with an Indian dinner from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., in the Memorial Union Commons. After dinner, there will be a show in the Rozsa Center at 8 p.m., featuring traditional Indian dance and songs.
Diwali is one of the biggest festivals celebrated in India. It marks the victory of good over evil and light over darkness for the Indian people. ISA President, Sachin Joshi (Mechanical Engineering, Graduate Student) has invited everyone to, “be a part of the biggest Indian festival and join us to celebrate this gracious night of delicious authentic Indian dinner, skits, drama, music, dance and lots of fun!”
The ISA is selling tickets in the Memorial Union Commons from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., today and Friday, Oct. 29. Dinner and the show costs $19 for the general public, $16 for Michigan Tech students, $13 for ISA members. Tickets for the performance only are $9. Children under the age of 8 are free.
The celebration is open to the community.
Michigan Tech will have a dual presence at the first annual USA Science and Engineering Festival, Oct. 23-24, on the National Mall in Washington, DC.
The Science and Engineering Expo is the grand finale of a two-week event promoting public interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. More than 1,500 interactive activities for all ages, hosted by more than 350 of the nation’s leading science and engineering organizations, will expose attendees to a broad spectrum of science. All events are free and open to the public, and hundreds of thousands of visitors are expected to attend.
NSF Program Answers Burning Questions About Volcanoes
How can you tell if a volcano is about to blow? What tools do you use to monitor a volcano? What’s so important about volcanoes, anyway? The world–including thousands of school-age youngsters–will get hands-on answers from Michigan Tech.
Tech’s volcano exhibit is in Freedom Plaza (Section PA-13, Booth #1317). Graduate students Luke Bowman, Kyle Brill and Anieri Morales Rivera will demonstrate equipment and techniques used by field researchers to monitor volcanic activity. By doing this monitoring, volcanologists can learn more about volcanic processes and identify potential precursors to eruptions.
The team hopes its exhibit will get people interested in geology. “Geology is a science full of wonders, excitement and lots of things to discover,” says Morales Rivera, “from understanding natural processes that may become a hazard to humans, such as volcanoes, to improving our knowledge of Earth and planetary sciences.” People are “exposed to geology in a daily basis,” she points out, “from the use of mineral resources to the location of petroleum and water supplies.”
To help illustrate what they look for when monitoring volcanoes, the Tech team is bringing an accelerometer and a Forward-Looking Infrared, or FLIR, camera. To demonstrate the accelerometer, which measures seismic activity, guests will be invited to jump on the ground, creating earthquake-like vibrations that the accelerometer will pick up and display as a seismogram.
The graduate students will also show visitors pictures of themselves taken with the FLIR camera, which measures an object’s radiant energy, translates it into temperature, and displays an image using light intensity or color brightness to show levels of heat.
“Scientists can’t predict eruptions,” says Morales Rivera, “but we can talk about the probability of one based on changes in the volcano’s behavior, such as increased seismicity, changes in gas concentrations coming out of the volcano, and deformation of the volcano itself.”
The exhibit will also explain the kinds of hazards posed by a volcanic eruption, from ash clouds that can block sunlight and interfere with airline flights, to lava flows that can burn everything in their path.
The Department of Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences is one of only 15 National Science Foundation-funded projects invited to participate nationwide. Tech’s project is part of the NSF’s Partnership for International Research and Education (PIRE) program. Tech operates PIRE programs in Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama and Peru.
“The NSF Office for International Science and Education, which manages the PIRE program, was very excited about our selection,” says Chair John Gierke (GMES). “We were the only PIRE project that was selected.”
Does the Tech team feel intimidated? Of course not, says Bowman. “We hike active volcanoes. We can handle the Mall.”
Tech’s MindTrekkers are also traveling to the National Mall. The group, which is a traveling science road show produced by Youth Programs, will share some of the stranger mysteries of science. Read the complete article in Tech Today
by Jennifer Donovan, director of public relations
