Category: Seminars and Lectures

Exploring the Social Feasibility of Minewater Geothermal in Calumet
Public Presentation
Thursday, December 12, 2013
7:00 pm
CLK Schools Commons

A class of Michigan Tech undergraduate and graduate students have partnered with Main Street Calumet to conduct a research project investigating the social feasibility of tapping into the minewater beneath the village of Calumet for geothermal energy. Students in the class worked together with Calumet community members to understand the demand for energy use within the village, to measure distances between mine shafts and key locations, and to summarize opportunities and challenges for community development associated with using the legacy of mining in the community as a sustainable and independent energy source.

Students will present the results of this project in a free public presentation on December 12 at 7:00pm at the CLK Schools Commons. A discussion and social will follow the presentation with coffee and snacks. Please join us! Everyone is welcome! CLK Schools is located at 57070 Mine Street in Calumet. Enter through the west entrance off Red Jacket Road. For additional information or questions please contact Dr. Richelle Winkler at rwinkler@mtu.edu or 906-487-1886.

Michigan Tech students to present study on feasibility of minewater as geothermal energy for Calumet Dec. 12

The public is warmly invited to a community gathering and presentation of the results of a research project assessing the social and economic feasibility of tapping into mine shafts for geothermal energy in Calumet. The presentation will look at the opportunities and challenges associated with using the legacy of mining in the community as a sustainable and independent energy source. The project is the result of a collaborative effort between Main Street Calumet, Dr. Richelle Winkler and students at Michigan Technological University.

The purpose of the presentation and discussion this Thursday is to help people in the community decide whether this is something they would like to do, Winkler explained.

Read more at Keweenaw Now, by Michele Bourdieu.

Class Investigates Tapping Mines for Geothermal Heat: Presentation Tonight

Richelle Winkler, assistant professor of social sciences, taught the class of undergraduates and grad students and says that they learned much from the project.

“This was a real-world research project,” Winkler says. “The students learned a lot about the community: how they work together, how to empower people to ask questions and get excited about a project.”

As Winkler’s group looks at the social aspects, an Enterprise team is looking at the technical side. That group is advised by Jay Meldrum, director of the Keweenaw Research Center, which is currently using mine water geothermal for heating and cooling.

Read more at Tech Today, by Dennis Walikainen.

Class Investigates Tapping Mines for Geothermal Heat in Calumet

Richelle Winkler, assistant professor of social sciences, taught the class of undergraduates and graduate students. She says that they learned much from the project.

“This was a real-world research project,” Winkler explains. “The students learned a lot about the community: how they work together, how to empower people to ask questions and get excited about a project.”

Read more at Michigan Tech News, by Dennis Walikainen.

MTU students present Calumet proposal to heat buildings with mine water

With 37 mine shafts holding billions of gallons of water beneath the village of Calumet, the researchers took it upon themselves to see it put to use.

“This is a sustainable resource, and we have so many around the area that one possible thing that we could save on is cost, and that seems to be a huge issue around this area,” said student researcher, Carrie Karvakko.

Read more and watch the video at Upper Michigans Source, by Sarah Blakely.

Social Sciences Brown Bag Presentation Tuesday

The social sciences department’s noon brown bag series presents, “Reflections of a Fair Historian: The Joys of World’s Fair Scholarship,” by Robert Rydell, Montana State University. The talk will take place Tuesday, Nov. 19, at noon in Chem-Sci 104b. Please contact Rebecca Graff with any question, rsgraff@mtu.edu

From Tech Today.

Social Sciences Lecture Nov. 19

Robert Rydell, Michael P. Malone Professor of History and director, MSU Humanities Institute, Montana State University, will discuss “From Architecture to Zippers: World’s Fairs and the Invention(s) of the Modern World,” Tuesday, Nov. 19, 5 p.m., MUB Alumni Lounge.

Beginning with London’s Crystal Palace Exhibition (1851) and continuing into our own time, the Shanghai World Expo (2010), world’s fairs have shaped the modern world. After briefly examining the history (and future) of world’s fairs, Professor Rydell will explore how a series of technological inventions and innovations that debuted at world’s fairs made the world modern. Visited by well over a billion people since 1851 (the Shanghai fair alone attracted 70 million), world’s fairs mapped mental and cultural landscapes and, not incidentally, made progress seem like great fun especially when it came at the expense of “others.”

If you have any questions regarding our events, please contact: Rebecca Graff, rsgraff@mtu.edu

From Tech Today.