Tag: Civil Engineering

Michigan Tech Graduate Students Win NSF Graduate Research Fellowships

Three graduate students have received Graduate Research Fellowships from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Christa Meingast in environmental engineering and Gregory Hardy and David Diesenroth in mechanical engineering won the competitive fellowships. Benjamin Winter in civil engineering received an honorable mention.

“NSF Graduate Research Fellowships are one of the oldest, most prestigious and competitive programs nationally,” said Jodi Lehman, assistant director for research development at Michigan Tech. “It is the fellowship program that other federal programs such as the Department of Defense, Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy use as a benchmark,” she noted.

“The Graduate School is happy to see our students honored for their scholarship and achievements in and out of the classroom,” said Debra Charlesworth, assistant dean of the Graduate School and coordinator of the NSF Graduate Research Fellows program at Michigan Tech. “These prestigious awards recognize not only our students, but the faculty and staff who have provided opportunities and mentoring for them to reach their potential. They join an outstanding group of Michigan Tech NSF scholars who are conducting research around the world.”

Charlesworth herself is a former NSF Graduate Research Fellow.

“The recent awards and honorable mention demonstrate the quality of a Michigan Tech education at all levels and disciplines,” said Craig Friedrich, director of graduate studies for the Department of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics and Richard and Bonnie Robbins Chair Professor of Mechanical Engineering. “Our students are on par with the top research institutions in the US, and the support provided by Jodi Lehman helping students prepare fellowship applications continues to grow our success and recognition with the National Science Foundation and other agencies.”

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

Grad student attends first PhD Conference on Earth System Science

Jianqiu Zheng, a PhD candidate in the atmospheric sciences, who is under the advisement of Paul Doskey (CEE), recently traveled to the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Jena, Germany to attend the first PhD Conference on Earth System Science. Zheng presented her research on soil emissions of nitrous oxide, which is a greenhouse gas many times more potent than carbon dioxide. She was the only attendee from a US University.

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.

New theses available in the Library

The Graduate School is pleased to announce new theses are now available in the J.R. van Pelt and Opie Library from the following programs:

  • Applied Ecology
  • Applied Natural Resource Economics
  • Biological Sciences
  • Chemical Engineering
  • Civil Engineering
  • Forest Ecology and Management
  • Forest Molecular Genetics and Biotechnology
  • Forestry
  • Geology
  • Industrial Archaeology
  • Materials Science and Engineering
  • Mathematical Sciences
  • Mechanical Engineering

New Dissertations Available in the Library

The Graduate School is pleased to announce new dissertations are now available in the J.R. van Pelt and Opie Library from the following programs:

  • Biological Sciences
  • Biomedical Engineering
  • Chemical Engineering
  • Chemistry
  • Civil Engineering
  • Environmental Engineering
  • Forest Science
  • Geology
  • Materials Science and Engineering
  • Mathematical Sciences
  • Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics
  • Rhetoric and Technical Communication

Research Universities Partner to Increase the Diversity in Future Faculty

Michigan Tech, the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, Western Michigan University and Wayne State University are partners on a 3.5-year $1.32 million project sponsored by the National Science Foundation.  Michigan Tech will partner with the other research universities in Michigan to test strategies designed to increase the number of domestic underrepresented minority graduate students pursuing careers in academia.  The project will involve an extensive research component that will test the effectiveness of mentoring and community-building events on graduate students’ persistence toward a degree and interest in continuing on to a career in academia.

“I am very excited about this project because it will result in hard data that can be used to test the importance of mentoring relationships and a sense of community on graduate students’ experiences,” said principal investigator Jacqueline Huntoon.  “I anticipate that by learning more about the graduate experience for students who are not members of the dominant racial/ethnic group, we will learn more about how to better meet the needs of all graduate students regardless of their race, ethnicity or gender.”

This research project is strengthened by the fact that five very different universities will participate in the project.  Their graduate deans recognize that the demographics of the US population are changing dramatically.  The goal of the project is to ultimately diversify the ranks of higher education faculty so that they are more representative of the US population at large and can better meet the needs of students and employers.  The project will ultimately help graduate schools across the country learn more about how to better serve students.

Craig Friedrich (MEEM), Shekhar Joshi (Bio Sci) and Chris Wojick (CEE) are co-principal investigators on the project.

AREMA 2013 Annual Conference scholarship winners

Seventeen students from the Michigan Tech Rail Transportation Program (RTP) traveled to Indianapolis to attend the 2013 Railway Interchange Exhibition and American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association (AREMA) 2013 Annual Conference.  Students attended technical sessions and committee meetings. The students also provided support for the National University Rail Center (NURail) booth at the Exhibition. Michigan Tech is a member of the seven university NURail consortium.

Michigan Tech students, Antonio Passariello and Tanja Mattonen, were invited to be two of the four student interns of the Conference Operating Committee.  Seven Michigan Tech RTP students were identified as AREMA scholarship winners, pulling in over $7,000 in scholarships and 20 percent of the winners nationwide.  Congratulations to:  Dylan Anderson, Chris Blessing, Antonio Passariello, Sean Pengelly, Hamed Pouryousef, Irfan Rasul, and Nicholas Lanoue.  Click here for a complete description of the scholarships.

Pasi Lautala, 2007 PhD graduate, received the second prize in the AREMA Member-Get-A-Member Campaign, awarded at the annual conference.

Published in Tech Today.