Associate Professor Chunxiao Chigan, electrical and computer engineering, had two of her PhD students, Congyi Liu and Zhengming Li, win the 2010 ITS-Michigan (Intelligent Transportation Society) Student Paper Silver Award .
Liu’s paper is “Reliable Structure-less Message Aggregation and Robust Dissemination in VANETs,” and Li’s paper is “On Resource-Aware Message Verification and Privacy Issues in VANETs.” Liu and Li presented their papers at the ITS-MI Annual Program May 13 in Dearborn.
For their pioneering work to improve water management in low temperature fuel cells, Jeffrey Allen and his PhD student, Ezequiel Medici, have been named the first winners of the Bhakta Rath Research Award at Michigan Tech. Allen is an associate professor of mechanical engineering-engineering mechanics.
The award, endowed earlier this year by 1958 Michigan Tech alumnus Rath and his wife, Shushama Rath, recognizes a doctoral student at Michigan Tech and his or her faculty advisor for “exceptional research of particular value that anticipates the future needs of the nation while supporting advances in emerging technology.” Allen and Medici will share a $2,000 prize.
“We are delighted to recognize Professor Jeff Allen and his accomplished student, Ezequiel Medici, for their outstanding research contribution in the field of mechanical engineering and engineering mechanics,” said Rath, who is associate director of research and head of the Materials Science and Component Technology Directorate at the US Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC. “We have no doubt that their seminal contributions will advance the frontiers of our knowledge in the field and contribute to development of new technologies. My wife and I wish to join their family members, friends and colleagues in congratulating the recipients of this award.”
When he endowed the award in April, Rath said he hoped it would promote and reward research excellence in the physical and natural sciences and engineering, fields in which Michigan Tech is emerging as a world leader in research and education.
“I am honored and grateful to be one of the inaugural recipients of this prestigious award,” Allen said. “However, the credit for the success of this research belongs to Ezequiel.”
His graduate student added, “I feel really honored to have our research recognized because of its potential impact on the fuel-cell industry.”
Medici and Allen’s research focuses on improving the management of the water produced during the operation of a fuel cell, liquid that leads to performance loss and rapid degradation of the fuel cell, significantly reducing the life of the system. They developed a new technique for optimizing fuel cell electrodes and a simple, reliable computational tool that captures the nature of liquid water movement in fuel cell electrodes. Their work, sponsored by the US Department of Energy and conducted in collaboration with the Rochester Institute of Technology and General Motors, will reduce the research and development time and cost of improving fuel cell performance and durability.
Bill Predebon, chair of ME-EM, noted the potential importance of Allen and Medici’s work. “The research being conducted by Ezequiel Medici and his advisor Dr. Jeffrey Allen on the improvement of water management in low temperature fuel cells will have a significant impact in the fuel cell industry in the design of the porous materials used in fuel cells.”
by Jennifer Donovan, director of public relations
Published in Tech Today
The BRC announces the recipients of its 2010 Spring Travel Grants:
Fifty-one theses in the midwest were nominated for the award, and although her work was not recognized as the award recipient, it was well received by the reviewers. One reviewer commented, “I enjoyed reading this thesis – it’s a pleasure to see such a complete approach to a problem.”
Seth DePasqual was also nominated by his advisor, Dr. T. Scarlett, on behalf of the Social Sciences Department. His advisor described his thesis as, “…a study of the evolution of an early 20th century mining system in Spitsbergen as applied by Boston-based Arctic Coal Company.”
The committee to evaluate the nominees consisted of graduate faculty representing a broad range of graduate programs: M. Neuman (Biomedical Engineering), S. Martin (Social Sciences), R. Froese (School of Forestry Resources & Environmental Science), B. Davis (School of Technology) and G. Campbell (School of Business and Economics). Next year’s competition will consider applicants who have completed their degrees between October 1, 2009 and September 30, 2010. An application consists of a recommendation letter from the advisor and an electronic copy of the thesis. Please consider nominating your MS students next year.
Computer Science doctoral student Bryan Franklin and Professor Steven Seidel received the Best Paper Award for, “A Parallel Longest Common Subsequence Algorithm in UPC,” at the High Performance Computing Symposium, April 12-14, in Orlando, Fla. Franklin presented the paper at the conference. The paper describes the design, implementation, and performance of a parallel algorithm for the longest common subsequence problem, an important problem in bioinformatics. This is the second consecutive year that Michigan Tech authors have won the Best Paper Award at the HPC Symposium.
Published in Tech Today
The Graduate School is pleased to announce the awarding of six fellowships made possible by the generous support of The DeVlieg Foundation. This years recipients will tackle a wide range of research problems from osteoarthritis in the knee to comparing the cost and effectiveness of two water treatment technologies. Recipients are:
See our web page for details about the nomination process, and for photos of our recipients.
The results of the 2010 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) competition have been announced. Michigan Tech applauds six of its student applicants who received Fellow Awards this year:
Fellows benefit from a three-year annual stipend of $30,000 along with a $10,500 cost of education allowance for tuition and fees, a one-time $1,000 international travel allowance and the freedom to conduct their own research at any accredited US or foreign institution of graduate education they choose.
Six Michigan Tech students were recognized with honorable mention:
As the oldest graduate fellowship of its kind, the GRFP has a history and reputation of selecting recipients who achieve high levels of success in their future academic and professional careers. To be eligible for the NSF GRFP, students must:
An informative session on applying to the 2011 NSF GRFP will be held at 6 p.m., Wednesday, April 14, in Fisher 130. Contact Jodi Lehman for more information.
Chee Huei Lee, a physics graduate student and research assistant, took a second place award in the Materials Research Society’s popular Science as Art competition, held at the 2009 MRS Fall Meeting in Boston.
Lee produces boron nitride nanotubes in a variety of shapes and sizes using catalytic chemical vapor deposition on a silicon substrate. He created “Dandelion Parachute Ball in the Nano World” using image processing software such as Photoshop to combine multiple scanning electron microscope images of the nanotubes.
“It is like playing a jigsaw puzzle game with no absolute rules,” says Lee. “And the final solution or result is only limited by imagination and creativity.”
Lee’s dandelion was chosen as one of the 50 finalists from among nearly 200 artistic entries. From the finalists, three first place and three second place winners were selected, including Lee’s entry.
From Tech Today
The Ecosystem Science Center and the Biotechnology Research Center have
announced award recipients for the Sixth Annual ESC/BRC Graduate Research Forum, held on March 26. Two grand prize awards, five merit awards and four honorable mention awards were presented.
The recipients were selected from among the 43 posters and abstracts submitted by students conducting research related to ecology, the environment and biotechnology at Michigan Tech.
$500 Grand Prizes
Ecosystem Science Center
Meagan L. Harless (Biological Sciences) for “Effects of Road Salt (NaCl) Pollution on the Survival and Growth of Larval Wood Frogs (Lithobates sylvatica).” Her advisor is Casey Huckins.
Biotechnology Research Center
Eli Vlaisavljevich (Biomedical Engineering) for “Magnetoelastic Materials as Novel Bioactive Coatings for Control of Cell Adhesion to Prevent Implantable Biomaterial Associated Fibrous Overgrowth.” His advisor is Rupak Rajachar.
$100 Merit Awards
Ecosystem Science Center
Rita Koch (SFRES) for “Insect and Disease Response to Prescribed Burning and Wildfire in Pine Forests in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.” Her advisors are Linda Nagel and Andrew Storer.
Mickey Jarvi (SFRES) for “Temperature acclimation of fine roots to soil warming in a sugar maple dominated northern hardwood forest.” His advisor is Andrew Burton.
Kayla Griffith (SFRES) for “H2O18 as an Analyzer of Phragmites australis Invasion from Wet to Dry Sites” Her advisor is Catherine Tarasoff.
Biotechnology Research Center
Christopher Rivet (Biomedical Engineering) for “Development of a Composite Hydrogel Containing Electrospun Fibers for Spinal Cord Injury.” His advisor is Ryan Gilbert.
Jonathan Zuidema (Biomedical Engineering) for “Incorporation of Chitosan and Dextran into Hydrogel Blends Improves Neuronal Adhesion.” His advisor is Ryan Gilbert.
$50 Honorable Mention Awards
Ecosystem Science Center
Emmanuel Ebanyenle (SFRES) for “Impact of Shoot Borer (Hypsipyla robusta) on the Wood Anatomical Properties of Plantation Grown African Mahogany Species (Khaya ivorensis A. Chev).” His advisors are Andrew Burton and Andrew Storer.
Biotechnology Research Center
Yiru Chen (SFRES) for “Overexpression of auxin efflux carrier PIN9 gene alters secondary xylem development, gravitropic response and apical dominance in Populus.” Victor Busov is the advisor.
Natalie Hartman (Biomedical Engineering) for “Vaporized Bioglass Polymer Composites for Interfacial Tissue Regeneration.” Her advisor is Rupak Rajachar.
Sarah Kiemle (Biological Sciences) for “Land Plant Polymer Homologs in Primitive Taxa of the Charophycean Green Algae, Chlorokybus atmophyticus and Klebsormidium flaccidum.” Her advisor is Michael Gretz.
The Graduate School is pleased to announce it’s inaugural group of Dean’s Fellows. These students began their doctoral studies in 2009, and have received a supplement to their stipend and summer support.
The following PhD candidates have received a one-time award:
The fellowships are made possible by the Graduate School and the Class of 1950.
Application procedures for the Graduate School fellowship programs and photographs of recent recipients can be found online. Nominations are currently open for Finishing Fellowships and Dean’s Fellowships.
If you have any questions, contact Debra Charlesworth.