Category: News

Michigan Space Grant 2013

MSGCMichigan Tech faculty, staff members, and students received awards tallying $ 96,635 in funding through the Michigan Space Grant Consortium (MSGC), sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Undergraduate students in the College of Sciences and Arts receiving $2,500 research fellowships include:

  • Ashima Chhabra (Chem): “Measuring surface roughness of mineral dust for comparison to Martian dust”
  • Nathanael Green (Chem): “A sequencing technology capable of monitoring variations of DNA methylation induced by travel in space”

Graduate student Colin Gurganus in Physics is receiving a $5,000 fellowship for his project entitled “Examining the Role of Surface Roughness on Atmospheric Nucleation Processes.”

Chemistry faculty member Loredana Valenzano is receiving a $4-5,000 seed grant for “Revealing the Performance Barrier: First Principles Prediction of the Physical-Chemical Properties of New Co-Crystals for Rocket Propulsion.”

Read more at Tech Today.

Chemistry Grad Student Receives NSF Fellowship for Summer Research in China

AsiaDouglas Smith will be traveling to Beijing this summer, courtesy of the National Science Foundation East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes. Smith, who is earning his MS in Chemistry, received the EAPSI fellowship to conduct research at Beijing Technological University.

Smith started his research career as an undergraduate, working with Assistant Professor Lanrong Bi (Chemistry). After he completed his BS in Pharmaceutical Chemistry, she continued as his advisor.

Read more at Tech Today.

BonzAI Brawl Programming Challenge

bonzAI 2013BonzAI Brawl is an all-day artificial intelligence (AI) programming competition. “The competition has grown over 50 percent this year, with about 180 contestants on 75 teams,” says Jason Hiebel, a computer science graduate student and one of the organizers of this year’s event.

Read more at Tech Today, by Kevin Hodur.

Have you ever had to program your video game to play it? Well, on Saturday, about 200 students did just that for the 6th Annual BonzAI Brawl at Michigan Tech University; students played a computer game about ducks all day for the competition.

Read more at the Mining Gazette, by Beth Cefalu.

Two From CLS Among Top 25 Psychology Professors in Michigan

Kedmon HungweAssociate Professor of Teacher Education Kedmon N. Hungwe and Assistant Professor of Psychology Edward T. Cokely have been named among the top 25 psychology professors in Michigan.

Hungwe is the Cognitive and Learning Sciences Director at Michigan Tech. His research interests include youth and adolescent development and science education.

Cokely received the Raymond S. Nickerson Best Paper Award, sponsored by the American Psychological Association, for his co-authored paper.

Edward Cokely Read more at the CLS News Blog.

Army ROTC Cadet Training

Army ROTC Spring 2013This battalion is called the Artic Warriors, and they’re certainly living up to their name as all 50 cadets complete field training in frigid rain and snow.

“We come out on Friday night, do land navigation,” explains Army ROTC Cadet Command Sgt. Major Christopher Sherrill. “Then Saturday we do tactical evaluations and Sunday we do rigorous training.”

Read more and watch the video at Upper Michigans Source, by Beth Cefalu.

Two from CLS Among Top 25 Education Professors in Michigan

Brad BaltenspergerProfessor Brad Baltensperger, chair of cognitive and learning sciences, and Joan Chadde, coordinator of education programs for the Center for Science and Environmental Outreach, have been named among the 25 top education professors in Michigan.

Baltensperger was recognized for receiving a $3.8 million, four-year National Science Foundation grant, along with four colleagues, for the Michigan Teacher Excellence Program. Chadde was recognized for K-12 outreach efforts in Great Lakes education and stewardship, watershed management and stream monitoring.

Joan Chadde ShumakerRead more at Tech Today.

Ninth Annual ESC/BRC Student Research Forum Winners

ESC BRC Research ForumThe Ecosystem Science Center and the Biotechnology Research Center announced award recipients of the Ninth Annual ESC/BRC Student Research Forum, held March 27. For the graduate students, two Grand Prize Awards and six Merit Awards were presented.

One of the Grand Prizes went to Ramkumar Mohan, a graduate student in Biological Sciences.

There were four Merit Awards to grad students in Biological Sciences: Komal K. Bollepogu Raja, Brian Danhoff, Anthony Matthys, and James Olson.

Undergraduate Jade Oritz in Biological Sciences was awarded one of the Grand Prizes for undergraduate research.

Read more at Tech Today.

SURF Awards 2013

SURF 2013This summer, the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) will fund 26 students from across the University with funds from the Vice President for Research, the Honors Institute, the School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science, the Earth Planetary and Space Sciences Institute, and the Department of Physics. The total funding for the program this year is $85,800.

From Tech Today.

Recipients from Physics are Joseph Charnawskas, Mick Small, Angela Small, and Kevin Rocheleau. Audra Winter in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Madeline Topitzes in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology are SURF 2013 award recipients. Marie Rene Mets in Exercise Science, Michael Johnson III in Mathematics, Kimberly Stanke in Computational and Applied Mathematics, and Adam Cary in Biological Sciences will also receive awards.

World Water Day Poster Awards

Miles CorcoranThe Center for Water & Society World Water Day poster competition was held at the Great Lakes Research Center on Thursday March 21, 2013. Awards were made in two categories: Original Research (presentation of thesis or project research) and Coursework/Informational (presentation of coursework or literature-based research). CWS Faculty presented a showcase of CWS research, followed by A dinner in the Atrium overlooking the lake.

Miles Corcoran received the First Place Award Original Research for “Respiration and Consumption Rates of Lake Superior Diporeia.” His advisor is associate professor of biological sciences Nancy Auer.

Nancy Auer’s BL4465 Biological Oceanography class placed first in the Coursework/Informational category:

First Place
“Plastic and Pharmaceutical Accumulation in the Great Lakes: A Local Problem with Global Impacts”
Presenter: Barbara Michel, BL4465 Biological Oceanography (Barbara Michel, Jade Ortiz, Amanda Miller, Kyle Schueller, Melissa Patterson, Eryn Grupido, Eric Dipping, Erin Collins)
Advisor: Nancy Auer

Many excellent posters were presented at World Water Day 2013.