Paintings by Miguel Levy
Rozsa Gallery
January 18 – February 15, 2013
Reception for the Artist
Friday, January 18, 6:00 pm
Admission is free.
CS Faculty/Students Win Best Paper Award
Computer Science Assistant Professor Chaoli Wang, former CS undergraduate student John Reese, former CS MS student Huan Zhang, CS PhD student Jun Tao, and Physics Professor Robert Nemiroff will receive a Best Paper Award for their paper, “iMap: A stable layout for navigating large image collections with embedded search”, at the IS&T/SPIE Conference on Visualization and Data Analysis, Feb. 4-6, 2013, in Burlingame, Calif. Jun Tao will present the award paper at the conference.
For their next steps, the authors will further develop techniques for animated transition and graph-based image layout, deploy the visualization results on the display wall at the Immersive Visualization Studio (IVS) at the Center for Computer Systems Research (CCSR) for outreach, and eventually release a web-based online program to benefit a wider user base.
From Tech Today.
A large crowd in Fisher 135 was treated to a newly formatted Fourth Annual Bob Mark Elevator Pitch Competition Wednesday night. It was more realistic: the contestants had only 90 seconds to pitch their product, with elevator sound effects marking their beginnings and endings.
More than 20 teams did their best pitches, and the judges had some hard choices to make. Winning first prize and $1,000 was MyPaar (My Love), a dating website for India, created by physics PhD student Abhi Kantamneni. He also won the Audience Favorite Award and $200.
Kantamneni said he got his inspiration for the idea at 2:30 a.m. one morning, while immersed in another competition. “I realized that my other idea was no good, and I needed to follow one important part of a business model: think of the customer first.”
In spite of nearly double the number of contestants and added entertainment, the event still concluded in about an hour and a half, thanks to many hands that helped: SBE Instructor Michele Loughead and undergrad students Travis Beaulieu (physics and one of last year’s winners), Mason Pew (sound design) and Haley Carlson (marketing).
Read more at Michigan Tech News, by Dennis Walikainen.
The School of Business and Economics’ Bob Mark Memorial Elevator Pitch Competition was covered by the Detroit News recently.
From Tech Today.
The Department of Physics welcomes Sanjeev Gupta, a Fulbright scholar, who came to Tech Oct. 22. Gupta was awarded his PhD in physics from Bhavnagar University, India, in 2010, and spent time as a postdoctoral researcher at the Universita di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Italy. His time at Michigan Tech will be spent primarily with Professor Ravi Pandey’s research group.
Gupta will help design advanced materials that can be future building blocks for solar cells, batteries, and photonic and optoelectronic devices.
From Tech Today.
Two teams from Michigan Tech have been chosen to join in the Michigan Clean Energy Venture Challenge. One of the teams is GreenedIt!, a web-based application for energy auditing.
GreenedIt! team members are physics students Travis Beaulieu, an undergraduate, and graduate student Abhilash Kantamneni. The team traveled to East Lansing for their initial training this past weekend.
“The training we received through the challenge was incredibly useful,” said Beaulieu. “The whole point was to try and get young entrepreneurs into the mindset of finding a customer need and forming the idea around the customer’s feedback. Thankfully this training worked for our team, and we had a complete pivot during the weekend.”
Read more at Tech Today, by Dennis Walikainen.
The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) will hold a Lunch and Learn, “A Blended Learning Buffet,” from noon to 1 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 25. The location will be provided after registration.
Among the discussion facilitators will be:
Will Cantrell and Claudio Mazzoleni (both of Physics)–Just in Time Teaching
Mike Meyer (CTL/Physics)–Discussion Boards
Read more at Tech Today.
A Blended Learning Buffet
Short introductory videos are posted here, including Discussion Boards by Mike Meyer, Just In Time Teaching by Will Cantrell and Claudio Mazzoleni, and Computerized Testing Center by Joel Neves (Visual and Performing Arts) and Mike Meyer.
View more at the CTL public course page.
Designing Courses in Canvas
Learn more about blended learning at the CTL Blended Learning Showcase.
Edward M. Leonard, Jr.
Physics Alum ’12
Mind Trekkers is a group of undergraduate students from all disciplines that take STEM. “The best part about this group? It’s 100% volunteer on the student side. After finishing homework for the night, it’s Mind Trekker time. There are always more logistics to work, more lessons to plan, and more demonstrations to write, and it’s with the will power and dedication of the volunteers that we are the dynamic sensation that we are today.” READ MORE
On the Wednesday before obtaining my Bachelor’s Degree, I left Houghton at 05:00 with 16 other Mind Trekkers for DC (story here). On Saturday, I woke up, donned my Mind Trekkers jersey, and went to the event. I noted that Bill Nye would be signing things starting at 11am, so around then I put on my cap and gown, grabbed my diploma cover, and John Lehman (assistant VP, enrollment services) and myself headed over there. READ MORE