Category: Awards

The Michigan Tech Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Collegiate Branch has been selected as the Class 2 recipient of the 2019 SAE Honeywell Outstanding Collegiate Chapter Award.

This award recognizes SAE Collegiate Chapters for exemplary performance in the areas of technical meetings, networking opportunities, SAE Collegiate Design Series teams, membership and recruitment, and community service programs. A Class 2 designation is for 50 to 74 student members.

The group advisor is Jason Blough. Department Chair Bill Predebon notes that the recognition is significant, as most universities have an SAE chapter. He wishes to extend his congratulations to the students and their advisor for a well deserved recognition.

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At an awards program Wednesday, January 8, 2020, in the Memorial Union Ballroom, staff members were honored with the Staff Council Making a Difference Awards.

Among the award recipients is Research Engineer Scientist I Rachel Store. She was nominated for the Rookie Award.

Her nominator states “In the 15 months that she has worked for the ME-EM Department, Rachel has made a huge difference in all areas of her job and activities that she has influenced. Her knowledge and drive rival that of someone with many more years of experience.”

A letter of support states that Store is “well-liked and respected by her colleagues and is always willing to help others. In the past one-and-a-half years, I have had the privilege of knowing her, she has proven both through her work and her relationships with others that she is a person of honesty and integrity.”

The Rookie Award recognizes a staff member who:

• Has been at Michigan Tech for less than two years
• Has made an impact in a short amount of time
• Quickly became a valuable member of the team
• Has a demonstrated understanding of the goals/mission of the department/area/division

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Banquet and Program

The ME-EM Senior Recognition Banquet and Order of the Engineer Program was held on December 10, 2019.

VIEW THE PHOTO GALLERY

Keynote Speaker

Larry Staley

The speaker was Lawrence W. Staley, entrepreneur. Staley has a BS in mechanical engineering from Michigan Tech and an Executive MBE from the University of Toledo.

Fall 2019 Outstanding Student Awards

Dillon Babcock, FSAE Enterprise, Nominated by Dr. Jim De Clerck

I have been honored to observe Dillon Babcock evolve into an outstanding engineer. Dillon has intentionally applied concepts from nearly every engineering course to his Formula SAE projects. He developed habits to systematic to approach engineering problems. Dillon always demonstrates a positive, “can-do” attitude. He eagerly seeks help when he needs it. Dillon is always willing to anything to help the team and his teammates.

Nick Jensen, Senior Design, Nominated by Dr. Fei Long

SCD team 52 was assigned the ‘Thompson Surgical—Surgical Instrument Life Cycle Test System’ as the Senior Capstone Design project. In addition to the overall team success on this project, Nick stands out on his excellent team management, customer communication as well as project planning skills. He regularly applied himself on behalf of the team in these areas, the team also responding by delivering their best work towards satisfying the customer. In view of his performance, I recommend Nick Jensen for the Outstanding Student Performance Awards.

Andrew Boerman, Senior Design, Nominated by Dr. Bill Endres

Capstone Team 60 was engaged to develop a new standard process for making tensile test samples from bulk composite sheet.  Much of the challenge centered on understanding why tensile property results from previous sample manufacturing methods showed so much variation.  Identifying the numerous independent variables, designing the experiment and executing the subsequent data processing, was a major undertaking. This student demonstrated a highly competent understanding and ability to apply experimental design and data acquisition techniques.  He was fully committed, and supported by a strong set of teammates, delivered in an outstanding and much needed way. For this, Andrew Boerman is nominated for an Outstanding Student Performance Award.

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Michigan Tech’s Department of Mechanical Engineering – Engineering Mechanics (ME-EM) has earned 2019 Best of Houghton Awards. ME-EM received the award in the Colleges and Universities category.

Each year, the Houghton Award Program identifies those believed to have achieved exceptional marketing success in their local community and business category.

Various sources of information were gathered and analyzed to choose the winners in each category. The 2019 Houghton Award Program focuses on quality, not quantity. Winners are determined based on the information gathered both internally by the Houghton Award Program and data provided by third parties.

The Houghton Award Program is an annual awards program honoring the achievements and accomplishments of local businesses throughout the Houghton area. Recognition is given to those companies that have shown the ability to use their best practices and implemented programs to generate competitive advantages and long-term value.

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Mark Wallach, a fourth-year mechanical engineering student, was recently ranked eighth of eight thousand plus graduating cadets across the nation. The competitive ranking process takes into account academics, physical fitness, student involvement, and performance during advanced camp, a grueling 37-day training event in Fort Knox Kentucky.

He has had an award filled tenure at Michigan Tech. His name can be found on the dean’s list all six semesters, graduated the Army Air Assault School in Fort Campbell Kentucky, traveled to morocco to study their culture, and finished first out of his platoon of 40 at Advanced Camp where he also earned the coveted Recondo badge.

Wallach currently serves as the Cadet Battalion Commander leading a program of 80 undergraduate students. On May 2, Mark will be commissioning into the Army Engineer branch as a Second Lieutenant with hopes of becoming a Sapper.

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SWANA Second Prize

The prestigious SWANA (Solid Waste Association of North America) professional society has awarded second prize in the student design competition to a team from Michigan Tech. Advised by Ezra Bar-Ziv, the team members are:

• Stas Zinchik (ME-EM PhD ’19)
• Shreyas Kolapkar (MSME ’18)
• Zhuo Xu (current ME-EM PhD student)

The competition took place in the 2019 WasteCon conference in Phoenix, AZ, on October 21.

SWANA’s International Solid Waste Design Competition (SWDC) is a student team competition to solve “real world” problems faced by solid waste professionals.

The competition aims at providing design experience to the students interested in pursuing an education and/or career in solid waste management. The 2019 project challenged students on “Evaluating Recycling Rate Metrics and Achieving Recycling Goals.”

SCPPE Best Oral Presentation

In addition, graduate student Zhuo Xu was recently awarded Best Oral Presentation at the 5th International Conference on Sustainable Chemical Product and Process Engineering (SCPPE) on June 30-July 3, 2019, in Tianjin, China. Zhuo Xu’s presentation “Sustainable waste to clean energy solutions” was presented in the ‘Alternative and renewable energy systems and supply chain’ session of the Conference.

2019 Frontiers Spotlight Finalist

Ezra Bar-Ziv’s research group co-authored “Properties of Torrefied U.S. Waste Blends” in Frontiers in Energy Research: Bioenergy and Biofuels. The article is part of a special topic collection.
https://doi.org/10.3389/fenrg.2018.00065

The article collection, “Advancements in Biomass Feedstock Preprocessing: Conversion Ready Feedstocks,” is one of 10 finalists for the 2019 Frontiers Spotlight Award, which supports important fields of research published as special issues in Frontiers journals. The topic was selected via peer review, based on scientific and societal importance, from approximately 1,000 Frontiers topics in 2019. The topic’s readership is among the most globally diverse of the finalists.

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Nancy Barr (ME-EM) has been elevated to IEEE Senior Member status. To qualify for the honor, a candidate must be an engineer, scientist, educator, technical executive,or originator in IEEE-designated fields, have been in professional practice for at least ten years and shown significant performance for at least five of those years.

In addition to developing an extensive communication and teaming undergraduate curriculum in the ME-EM, Barr teaches two graduate communication courses. She is secretary to the IEEE Professional Communication Society Board of Governors and the ASEE North Midwest Section Campus Representative.

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A Michigan Tech assistant professor in Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics is among those being honored with awards from SAE Engineering.

Houghton resident Dr. Darrell Robinette was one of 26 mobility engineering professionals to win the 2019 Forest R. McFarland Award.

Honorees are recognized for their outstanding, sustained contributions to support SAE Engineering Events.

Robinette is currently an assistant professor in the Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics at Michigan Technological University, a position held since August of 2016.

Read more at the Keweenaw Report.

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Gregory M. Odegard has been elected a Fellow of ASME. This is a recognition of Dr. Odegard’s significant impact and outstanding contributions in the field of composite materials research through the pioneering of computational modeling techniques to predict the influence of molecular structure on bulk-level properties of composite materials. The Fellow grade is truly a distinction among ASME members.

Odegard is the Richard and Elizabeth Henes Professor of Computational Mechanics, Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics.

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At the Senior Recognition Banquet and Order of the Engineer Ceremony on Tuesday, April 23, 2019, the ME Student Advisory Committee (MESAC) chair and co-chair announced the Mechanical Engineering Teacher of the Year finalists and winner. The selection is made by mechanical engineering students second year through senior year and run by the MESAC.

The three finalists were Cam Hadden, Aneet Narendranath and Paul Van Susante and the overall winner was Cam Hadden. His name will be on the plaque in the lobby of the R.L. Smith Building (MEEM).

By Mechanical Engineering – Engineering Mechanics.

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