Search Results for "senior design"

Josh Jay is a University Innovation Fellow

UIFTwo Michigan Tech undergraduates are among 229 students from 62 universities in 10 countries who have been named University Innovation Fellows (UIF). They are Robert Lambert and Josh Jay.

Run by Stanford University’s Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, the University Innovation Fellows program empowers students to become agents of change at their schools. Fellows work to ensure their peers gain the knowledge, skills and attitudes required to compete in the economy of the future and make a positive impact on the world.

Lambert is a second year management major. “I wanted to join UIF to have a more active part in the community, as well as to become an agent of change on Michigan Tech’s campus,” he said.

Jay is a second year student majoring in materials science and engineering. He is currently doing a co-op in Minneapolis. “I want to be a part of UIF because they aren’t just talking and thinking about creating change, but they are actually making it happen,” he said. “It is also a great community of people to help you figure out how to turn your ideas into reality.”

University Innovation Fellows advocate for lasting institutional change and create opportunities for students to engage with innovation, entrepreneurship, design thinking and creativity at their schools. Fellows design innovation spaces, start entrepreneurship organizations, host experiential learning events and work with faculty to develop new courses.

Since it began under the auspices of the National Science Foundation, the UIF program has trained more than 1,200 students.

Michigan Tech has had 14 University Innovation Fellows since the program started in 2014. They work as part of the Pavlis Honors College to promote entrepreneurship, innovation, design thinking and creativity. Among other projects, they developed the makerspace called The Alley in the former bowling alley in the basement of the Memorial Union Building.

“Stanford’s University Innovation Fellows program helps students develop the skills needed to be agents for positive change on their campus,” said Mary Raber, co-director of the Pavlis Honors College Innovation Center for Entrepreneurship. “After participating in an intensive six week online training program, our UIFs have been a force for helping to create a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship at Michigan Tech and have been instrumental in bringing many initiatives to life, like the orientation week’s #uifresh activity, the student-hosted Innovation Fest and the Alley Makerspace.”

By Jenn Donovan.

3D Printers in November News

Ethical Filament FoundationThrough research at the University’s Open Sustainability Technology Lab, Michigan Tech was a launch supporter of the Ethical Filament Foundation, whose goal is to create an environmentally friendly and ethically produced filament for the rapidly growing 3-D printing market. The foundation hopes to open up a new market for value added products that can be produced by waste picker groups in low-income countries. The launch of the Ethical Filament Foundation was covered in the media such as TechCrunch
http://techcrunch.com/2013/11/07/ethical-additive-manufacturing

From Tech Today.

Charity Targets 3D Printing’s Plastic Waste Problem With Standards For An Ethical Alternative

The Foundation has been founded by techfortrade in partnership with Dreambox Emergence which provides 3D printing units for community based manufacturing in Guatemala, and Michigan Technological University.

Read more at TechCrunch, by Natasha Lomas.

Commentary: Open-source hardware for research and education

The software industry has had a similar revolution of shoulder-standing, in the form of the free and open-source computer software movement. Free and open-source software (FOSS) is available in source-code form and can be used, copied, modified, and redistributed without restriction, or with restrictions only to ensure that it remains open to future recipients and users.

Two recent open-source design and production developments are driving those reductions: Arduino microcontrollers and the RepRap three-dimensional printer.

Read more at Physics Today, by Joshua Pearce.

3D Printing a Greener Alternative to Traditional Manufacturing

“The bottom line is, we can get substantial reductions in energy and CO2 emissions from making things at home,” Dr. Joshua Pearce, who conducted the study, said. “And the home manufacturer would be motivated to do the right thing and use less energy, because it costs so much less to make things on a 3D printer than to buy them off the shelf or on the Internet.”

Read more at 3D Printer World, by John Graber.

Pearce Pens a 3D Printing Guide for Scientists on a Budget

Joshua Pearce is not one for understatement. “This is the beginning of a true revolution in the sciences,” says the author of “Open-Source Lab.” For cash-strapped researchers, he could be right.

Read more at Michigan Tech News.

Slideshow: 3D Printing Is Cheap & Green for Plastics

A team led by Michigan Technological University’s Joshua M. Pearce conducted preliminary lifecycle analyses of three small plastic objects: a child’s building block, a spout for a watering can, and a citrus juicer. The three objects chosen were considered typical of those people might want to print at home, and because open-source .STL files are easily available. They were also chosen to test different variables, such as the effect of fill percentage on environmental impact or geometrical complexity. The team included Pearce, associate professor of materials science & engineering, electrical engineering and computer engineering, and Megan Kreiger, graduate student in materials science & engineering.

Read more at Design News, by Ann R. Thryft.

In the News

“America Makes,” the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute, driven by the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM), proudly welcomed eight new members including Michigan Tech for their work in 3D printing.

Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE) published an article in Elsevier Connect 3D-Printing Your Lab Equipment–It’s Cheaper Than You Think.

From Tech Today.

3D-printing your lab equipment—it’s cheaper than you think
3D printing and open-source designs are emerging as powerful tools for accelerating science

3D printers do what engineers like to call additive manufacturing – that is, they make real physical objects by laying down sub-millimeter-thick layers of material (currently mostly plastic) one after another in a specific pattern governed by a digital design. This allows 3D printer users to make products to their own specifications, so they do not have to “make do” with what is available off the shelf at their local store or even on the Internet.

Read more at Elsevier Connect, by Joshua M. Pearce.

Paul Sanders on Partnering with LIFT

LIFT, short for Lightweight Innovations for Tomorrow, is a nonprofit organization established through a partnership with the U.S. Department of Defense, academia, and private industry. Its multifaceted mission includes training workers for high-tech manufacturing jobs, advancing defense-related technology, and preparing more companies to deal in the technology that would qualify them as defense contractors.

LIFT works with Michigan Tech by attracting partners to academia, bringing both funding and industry players into projects.

Paul Sanders, a professor of materials science and engineering at Michigan Tech, has listed several interactions with LIFT. One is connecting Michigan Tech with Southfield-based Grede Foundry on a cast-iron drive train component development project.

Currently, Sanders and his team are working on mechanical property characterizations on a project LIFT brought to them involving hypersonics and additive manufacturing.

Soon to follow will be testing on custom powders LIFT is working on.

“We like the location of LIFT, we like the finances that LIFT has, and we like their emphasis on talent and training.”

Paul Sanders

Michigan Tech also finds it appealing that LIFT is so close to the kinds of students the university wants to attract to its degree programs but doesn’t always have easy access to in the Upper Peninsula.

According to Cassy Tefft de Munoz, Michigan Tech’s executive director of enrollment initiatives, the university has brought thousands of students through LIFT’s facility — some in the sixth and seventh grades — to help get them interested in STEM.

Read more at DBusiness, by Dan Calabrese.

Advancing hypersonic aerospace systems with 3D printing

Just announced this Spring was a related LIFT initiative: sponsored research by undergraduate teams at Michigan Technological University to develop new materials and “road maps” for hypersonics applications. Considering the progress made by the LIFT ramjet project, it’s clear that students’ ideas can be worth paying attention to.

Read more at Design World, by Rachael Pasini.

Related

The Fast Get Faster: Hypersonics and 3D Printing

MTU and LIFT Partner to Design Future Additive Manufacturing Materials, Manufacturing Processes

New Technology for Custom 3DP Alloys

DBusiness Daily Update: OU Credit Union Agrees to 10-year, $5M O’rena Naming Rights Deal, and More

3D Printers for Peace – Contest Results

The results of the Michigan Tech 3-D Printers for Peace Contest are in:

3D Printers for Peace - 1st
First Prize: Open-Series 1 3-D Printer for 3-D Printed Immunization Records

1st Prize an open-source Series 1 3-D printer, provided by Type A Machines went to John Van Tuyl from Hamilton, On who designed VaxBeads, which are 3-D printed immunization records. VaxBeads offer the potential to ease the determination of what vaccines a child needs in the developing world. Each bead represents a different vaccine. The shape and colour of each bead is unique to a specific vaccine.

This innovative idea showcased the ability of 3-D printing as each bead is customized on the spot with the child’s initials, date of birth, and an identifying number. It is the designer’s hopes that the beads would have more intrinsic value to the patients than standard vaccination cards.

3D Printers for Peace - 2nd Prize
Second Prize: MOST 3D Printer Kit for Solar Powered Water Purification Cone

2nd prize (Michigan Tech’s MOST version of the RepRap Prusa Mendel open-source 3D printer kit) went to Michigan Tech student, Matt Courchaine, for his Solar Powered Water Purification Cone. In disaster areas or among the millions of people that do not have improved water supplies clean water is a precious commodity. This printable design allows users to make clean water from contaminated supplies. The white, semi transparent plastic cover of the solar cone allows sunlight to pass through it and evaporate dirty water contained in the black base tray. Clean water then condenses on the cooler white plastic of the cone and drips into a holding reservoir, which is part of the cone for later drinking.

3rd prize, MatterHackers sampler pack of filament, was awarded to Aaron Meidinger for the design of a Braille Tablet, which is a tool for a sighted person to help a blind person to learn braille or just a quick way to leave a note for a friend. One prints out a braille platform and a scrabble set of letters, along with some of the punctuation and a nice pile of the blank tiles to use it to write any short message.

3D Printers for Peace - 3rd Prize
Third Prize: MatterHackers Filament for Braille Tablet

All the open source entries to the contest demonstrated the technical ability and promise of low-cost 3-D printers to provide for humanities needs and advance the cause of peace.

Visit the contest website.

Immunization Beads Garner Top Prize in 3D Printers for Peace Contest

The judges were impressed with the design’s originality and practicality. “VaxBeads are a novel idea; no one has done anything like that yet,” said Pearce. “John demonstrated the ability of 3D printing to address a real need in the developing world. You could print beads fast enough to hand to children, and if they were to wear the necklace to the doctor’s office, it would be quick and easy to identify missing vaccinations.”

Read more at Michigan Tech News, by Marcia Goodrich.

Winner in 3D printer contest designs vaccination record system

“What I’m hoping this does is change the conversation to start really thinking about the constructive uses of 3D printers, not just on manufacturing, but trying to solve some of the most pressing problems, particularly in the developing world,” said associate professor of materials science and contest creator, Joshua Pearce.

Read more at Upper Michigans Source, by Sarah Blakely.

MSE News Briefs

IMG_5897

Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE) co-authored “Photovoltaic System Performance Enhancement With Nontracking Planar Concentrators: Experimental Results and Bidirectional Reflectance Function (BDRF)-Based Modeling” published in the IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics.
Graduate students Negin Heidari (ECE) and Jephias Gwamuri (MSE) co-authored a paper with Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE) titled “Impact of Snow and Ground Interference on Photovoltaic Electric System Performance,” published in the IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics.

Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE) co-authored “Feeding Everyone: Solving the Food Crisis in Event of Global Catastrophes that Kill Crops or Obscure the Sun” in the journal Futures. Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE) was interviewed for CBC in October on feeding everyone in the event of catastrophe. Pearce’s research in low concentration solar photovoltaic technology was also covered widely by the international media including the Epoch Times and the EE Times in Europe and India.

Research on distributed manufacturing with 3D printers in isolated communities co-authored by undergraduate mechanical engineering student Nick Anzalone and Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE), was quoted extensively in Vedomosti (Ведомости, translated literally “The Record”), the largest Russian financial newspaper.

Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE) gave a plenary presentation “Making Open Hardware the New Standard in Science” at the 2015 Open Hardware Summit, Saturday in Philadelphia. The summit was sponsored by the Open Source Hardware Association.

Graduate students Tony Pinar (ECE) and Bas Wijnen (MSE) collaborated with Jerry Anzalone (MSE), Tim Havens(ECE), Paul Sanders (MSE) and Joshua. Pearce (MSE) on a paper titled: Low-cost Open-Source Voltage and Current Monitor for Gas Metal Arc Weld 3-D Printing published in the Journal of Sensors.

Joshua Pearce on Solar and Sustainable Energy

The Next Chapter

Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE) was interviewed for Are Sustainable Energy Jobs Sustainable in Epoch Times (circulation 1.3million).

Pearce was also interviewed on plug and play solar for the Radio Alexandria’s program The Next Chapter audio show.

Pearce is quoted in What’s the Difference Between Solar Panels? in Machine Design.

What’s the Difference Between Solar Panels?

Solar panels or photovoltaics (PVs) are not new in terms of the technology. However, manufacturing processes, cost reduction, and new research has some engineers thinking that photovoltaics will rival traditional power sources, such as coal. How important is Big Solar going to be? And what are the differences between the different types of photovoltaics?

“Solar workers have outnumbered coal workers in the U.S. for some time, but now their ranks have swollen to surpass even the oil and gas industry,” notes Joshua Pearce, Associate Professor of Material Science and Engineering at Michigan Technology . “It is not uncommon to have solar power be the less expensive option—lower-level cost of electricity—for both homeowners and businesses. This is driving a positive feedback loop, where additional growth is expected. The cumulative global market for solar PV is expected to triple by 2020 to almost 700 gigawatts (GW), with annual demand eclipsing 100 GW in 2019.”

Read more at Machine Design, by Jeff Kerns.

In Print

Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE) co-authored a paper, “Feeding Everyone if the Sun is Obscured and Industry is Disabled,” published in the International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction.

In the News

Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE) is quoted in Trump’s Deregulatory Ambitions Could Realize $70B More for US Solar in Solar Reviews.

Countries like the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Switzerland already encourage plug-and-play solar. Even the Czech Republic permits it! —Joshua Pearce

NUCOR Plant Opportunities

NUCOR has a number of plant opportunities available for young technical graduates as well as for qualified experience candidates for which Z-Careers does all of their searches. As we discussed, anyone who you may know may have an interest can e-mail me with their resume along with their desired career/job goal(s), I can examine the openings available and then call them to review possibilities to determine if they have any interest. New openings become available weekly as NUCOR has over 11,000 employees- and since in business over 40 years, a number of personnel are now reaching retirement. In addition to what is described below, NUCOR also has a number of opportunities associated with their Metal Building division. Positions include district sales managers, design engineers, estimators, customer service supervisors and civil engineers.

Z-Careers represents NUCOR STEEL as their recruiters. We have a number of great job opportunities relative to steel mill operations. These areas include engineering, sales, power distribution, electrical project engineer, environmental, finance, safety, maintenance, metallurgical, and design. Locations are through-out the U.S.A., wherever NUCOR plants or sales districts are located.

If you , or if you know of someone who may be interested in learning more about these opportunities, please have them contact me at 614 859 1343 or e-mail me at bob@z-careers.com .

If you know of anyone who may have an interest tell them to e-mail me their resume. I will then will check the “job-board” and if there is a “match” I would call the individual and determine if they had any interest to pursue. .

As you are aware NUCOR has over 40 locations and is now the largest steel plant operation in the United States. Compensation is very good with as a result of production bonus and profit sharing plans.

If more information is desired take a look at the excellent NUCOR STEEL WEBSITE or the Z-Careers website .

All job positions for which we are currently searching are posted on the Z-careers website. By going to the search selector and selecting the type of position it will provide the job description as well as the associated salary range (min.-max) for each position. Anyone who may be interested in a job change due to desired family re-location, better opportunity, or change of position, can contact me and I will be happy to assist them in the analysis of what is available for them at that time.

We have several excellent positions available for metallurgical engineers. Locations for the process and product metallurgical positions range from the east coast to Texas to the mid-west.

In the area of Environment and Safety we have a number of positions available in Connecticut, Mississippi, Nebraska, Arkansas, and Louisiana.

Wittbrodt at MSTA 2013

Pure Michigan Science
MSTA Conference

Ben Wittbrodt (senior Materials Science and Engineering) represented the Michigan Tech Open Sustainability Technology Research Group at the annual Michigan Science Teachers Association conference at Eastern Michigan University. He demonstrated his own open-source 3-D printer, explained the technology and recruited enthusiastic teachers to attend Michigan Tech’s 3-D Printing Workshop.

From Tech Today.

Materials TEM Position

Email: patrick.mccurdy@colostate.edu
Name: Patrick McCurdy

Organization: Colorado State University

Title-Subject: [Filtered] Materials TEM position

Message: The position of Electron Microscopist and Imaging Specialist is a full-time, special, 12 month Research Scientist/Scholar I administrative professional position in the CSU Chemistry Department’s Central Instrument Facility (CIF) Imaging and X-ray Spectroscopy laboratories. Responsibilities will include providing advanced research services and training for, and routinenmaintenance of, electron microscopy methods (EM) including ultra-high resolution transmission EM. All instruments in the CIF are available for use by the successful candidate,who will be expected to collaborate with colleagues, staff scientists, faculty and other principal investigators to advance CSU’s primary research, education and service mission.  Additional information about the CIF can be found at http://cif.colostate.edu/.  The successful candidate must have Ph.D. in a chemistry-related discipline. Familiarity with UHV, EM and X-ray techniques is required and development of collaborations with senior investigators is expected.  Familiarity with the chemistry of hard materials, electron energy loss spectroscopy, lithography and focused ion-beam milling will be considered advantageous.  Salary is negotiable and will be commensurate with experience.

For more information or to apply see –   http://cns.natsci.colostate.edu/employment/Chem-EM/. A full application will include a cover letter, curriculum vitae and contact information for three professional references. For full consideration, applications must be received by May 27; however, the search will remain open until a suitable candidate is identified.  Anticipated employment start date is  July 14, 2013. Files of semifinalists will be available to all Chemistry Department faculty.

CSU is an EO/EA/AA employer.  Colorado State University conducts background checks on all final candidates.