Intensive English as a Second Language Forum Today

The campus community is invited to a forum on the Intensive English as a Second Language program on March 17 from 3 to 5 p.m. in Walker 102A. The forum is an important part of the IESL program’s ongoing self-study process for accreditation. IESL is seeking independent accreditation from the Commission on English Language Accreditation. A draft of the self-study report is available at the following offices:

*International Programs and Services
*The Graduate School
*The Waino Wahtera Center for Student Success
*The office of the College of Sciences and Arts
*The office of the chair, Department of Humanities

Published in Tech Today.

Stream Monitoring in Your Own Backyard

Schoolchildren in the Houghton area are learning about water resources protection in a hands-on way. They are joining Michigan Tech faculty and students in monitoring Huron Creek and its watershed, which serves a large part of Houghton and surrounding communities.

Graduate student Lindsey Watch wrote about this stream monitoring project as part of an NSF-funded program to help scientists learn to communicate their research to schoolchildren and the public.

Read the full news story.

Published in Tech Today by Jenn Donovan, director of news and media relations

US News Ranks Michigan Tech PhD Programs in Engineering, Science

More of Michigan Tech’s PhD level engineering and science programs than ever made US News & World Report’s annual graduate school rankings, released today. The rankings reflect momentum generated by Michigan Tech’s focus on graduate education and research, said Provost Max Seel. The Graduate School has more than doubled its enrollment since 2005.

Michigan Tech’s PhD engineering programs earned an overall ranking of 90th, tied with George Washington University, Rochester Institute of Technology and Mississippi State University. Biomedical engineering at Tech showed up in the rankings for the first time, placing 71st.

2014 Graduate Student Research Grant Program

The NCAA Research Committee is pleased to announce the 2014 NCAA Graduate Student Research Grant Program.

The NCAA Research Committee invites research proposals within the general topic areas of student-athlete well-being and college athletics participation.  Research grants are available for graduate students only and are intended to support the student while conducting research to be used for a doctoral dissertation, master’s thesis or external publication.  Awards for these one-time research grants are set at a maximum of $7,500.

Alumnus receives 2014 TMS Young Leader Professional Development Award

Research Assistant Professor Zhiwei Peng (MSE) has received a 2014 TMS Young Leader Professional Development Award from the Minerals, Metals & Materials Society. The award is supported by the TMS Foundation.

Peng, who recently completed a PhD in Materials Science and Engineering at Michigan Tech, was honored with the 2013 Bhakta Rath Award for his exceptional research on the use of microwaves to make steel. “I am truly grateful for the education at Michigan Tech which laid a solid foundation for my career,” said Peng. “I am also deeply indebted to my advisor, Jiann-Yang Hwang, for his excellent and invaluable guidance during my PhD studies.”

Graduate Student Government Travel Grant Award Winners for Spring 2014

Travel grants for spring 2014 have been awarded. The full list of graduate recipients can be accessed online.

Travel grants are awards that help subsidize cost of attending and presenting at conferences. These awards are sponsored by the Graduate Student Government (GSG) and the Graduate School. For more information on travel grants, please visit the webpage.

Should you have any questions, contact the GSG treasurer Jennifer Winikus (jawiniku@mtu.edu).

Published in Tech Today.

Workshops and Certificates for Instructors Available

The Jackson Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) offers a comprehensive curriculum for Michigan Tech faculty and graduate teaching assistants.  Consider attending a workshop that interests you or complete a block of three workshops to earn a certificate.

Several professional development workshops are scheduled for the upcoming weeks.  Pedagogy-focused workshops (which meet for two, 2-hour sessions) include Grading and Learner-Centered Classroom. In addition, several 1-hour workshops are scheduled that focus on in-class (e.g., iClickers) and out-of-class (Canvas and more) education technologies to deliver instructional content.  Please refer to the CTL website to register for a workshop.  If you don’t find what you are looking for, you can request a workshop for yourself or a group or contact us at 7-2046 to request a private consultation.

Published in Tech Today.

International Summer School 2014 on HPC Challenges in Computational Sciences

Graduate students and postdoctoral scholars from institutions in Europe, Canada, Japan and the United States are invited to apply for the fifth International Summer School on HPC Challenges in Computational Sciences, to be held June 1-6, 2014, in Budapest, Hungary.

The summer school is sponsored by the European Union Seventh Framework Program’s Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe Implementation Phase project (PRACE-3IP), U.S. National Science Foundation’s Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE) project, RIKEN Advanced Insti­tute for Computational Science (RIKEN AICS), and Compute/Calcul Canada.

Leading American, Canadian, European and Japanese computational scientists and HPC technologists will offer instruction on a variety of topics, including:

  • Access to EU, U.S., Japanese and Canadian HPC-infrastructures
  • HPC challenges by discipline (e.g., bioinformatics, computer science, chemistry, and physics)
  • HPC programming proficiencies
  • Performance analysis & profiling
  • Algorithmic approaches & numerical libraries
  • Data-intensive computing
  • Scientific visualization

Application deadline: March 9, 2014.