Teams of dedicated programmers code relentlessly for eight hours straight. Their mission: develop an artificial intelligence (that’s where BonzAI’s AI comes from) that will play a given game and defeat all comers. A total of 104 players comprised the 40 teams that assembled April 9 to play the fourth annual BonzAI Brawl. Sponsors include the Department of Computer Science…. [read more]
The renovated Humanities Digital Media Zone (HDMZ) will host an open house at 1:30 p.m., Friday, April 29. Members of the Michigan Tech Board of Control and the administration are expected to attend, and the public is also welcome. The HDMZ is located on the first floor of Walker. “The HDMZ is designed to create a flexible and sophisticated technological work and social environment,” said Erin Smith, director of the project and senior lecturer in humanities…” [read more]
Michigan Technological University adopted a paid maternity leave policy in January 2010, due in great part to Pushpalatha Murthy. For her efforts, Murthy will receive the 2011 Distinguished Service Award, which carries a prize of $2,500. Murthy, a professor of chemistry and director of the Women in Science and Engineering group… [read more]
Biological Sciences invites the campus community to join in recognizing three members of the department who are retiring at the end of this semester, including Professor Eunice Carlson, Associate Professor Ronald Gratz and Associate Professor Robert Keen, who have logged a combined 108 years of teaching and research excellence at Michigan Tech. The festivities will be from 2 to 4 p.m., Tuesday, April 26, in Memorial Union Alumni Lounge…. [read more]
Tuesday was award day at the Air Force ROTC program. Lt. Col. Kerry Beaghan, detachment commander, led a ceremony that recognized a year of work, achievements, service and leadership by the cadets. This is what Beaghan said: “All the cadets have worked tremendously hard this year and this ceremony is a small, but visible way, to recognize their achievements…” [read more]
For groundbreaking work in nanotechnology, Yoke Khin Yap and Chee Huei Lee have received Michigan Technological University’s Bhakta Rath Research Award. Yap, an associate professor of physics, and then-PhD student Lee (he graduated in 2010) invented a technique for synthesizing boron nitride nanotubes. Compared to their carbon-based cousins, boron nitride nanotubes have alluring qualities but…” [read more]
Graduate Research Fellowships support students in NSF-supported STEM disciplines who are pursuing research-based degrees. Among the recipients within the college is David Schaeffer, who will continue work on his PhD in Psychology. Honorable mentions include physics undergraduate Eric Petersen and master’s student in biological sciences Jonathen Ebel. Tech student Erin Thoma, who is earning a PhD degree in mathematical sciences, was selected to participate in NSF’s East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes…. [read more]
Michigan Technological University scientists Yoke Khin Yap and Jaroslaw Drelich have created a filter that separates the two substances as quickly and cleanly as a ref breaking up a clinch. Their fine, stainless steel mesh is coated with carbon nanotubes about 10 microns across. “They have a super-honeycomb structure that repels water,” says Yap, an associate professor of physics. “But they like organic stuff, like oil….” [read more]