Research Archives | Page 13 of 27 | Social Sciences Newsblog

Vaidya Published on the Sustainability of Woody Biomass

Published August 17, 2016

Ashma Vaidya, who graduated in summer 2016 with a PhD in Environmental and Energy Policy, has published three papers on the sustainability of woody biomass in the UP for bioenergy:

Vaidya A and AL Mayer. 2014. Use of the participatory approach to develop sustainability assessments for natural resource management. International Journal of Sustainable Development and World Ecology 21(4):369-379.

Vaidya A and AL Mayer. 2016. Use of multiple criteria analysis to develop a regional assessment tool for bioenergy production. Biomass and Bioenergy 94:1-11.

Vaidya A and AL Mayer. In press. Criteria and indicators for a bioenergy production industry via stakeholder participation. International Journal of Sustainable Development and World Ecology. DOI:10.1080/13504509.2015.1135830

Contact Audrey Mayer for reprints.

From Tech Today.

Local High School Students Learn Historical GIS with the Keweenaw Time Traveler Team

Published August 4, 2016

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Careers that incorporate geospatial technologies are among the fastest-growing nationwide. That’s why Michigan Tech and Eastern Michigan University have teamed up on the NSF-funded GRACE Project to introduce high school students to GIS techniques and tools that can be used to tackle community issues.

This summer, eleven students from CLK and Houghton high schools are working as paid interns with researchers in the Department of Social Sciences and the Great Lakes Research Center to help build the Keweenaw Time Traveler, an NEH-funded project directed by Assistant Professor Don Lafreniere (SS). This innovative online historical atlas will allow users to pinpoint data about changes in the built, social, and natural environments of the Copper Country. The students have joined our team of “Time Travelers,” which includes graduate students in the Industrial Heritage and Archaeology program as well as undergraduates from departments across Michigan Tech. Together, they are learning to use GIS to identify, digitize, and follow changes in thousands of buildings and features from 1888-1950.

During the six week program, students are exploring the many exciting opportunities provided by mobile geospatial technologies by participating in interactive hands-on field trips, including an afternoon in Lake Linden with Carol MacLennan (SS) exploring the vast milling and processing systems that once studded the western shore of Torch Lake, a related trip on the Agassiz Research Vessel learning about the changing shoreline and water quality, and a day conducting active data collection with mobile tablets and GPS in Calumet to capture the students’ perspectives on how to improve non-motorized transportation in conjunction with the Keweenaw National Historical Park’s Complete Streets initiative. The student interns, who are paid through the GRACE project, will present their work in a final celebration on August 11^th in GLRC 2020. Details forthcoming. The Keweenaw Time Traveler is co-directed by Sarah Fayen Scarlett (SS) and John Arnold (SS)

Wurst Awarded Funding from U.S. Forest Service

Published July 6, 2016

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LouAnn Wurst is the principal investigator on a project that received $6,550 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. The project is titled “Archaeological Collection Cooperative Management Ottawa and Hiawatha National Forests“.

Study on Solar-Hybrid Energy Systems Featured in Several Media Outlets

Published July 1, 2016

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A new study focused on solar-hybrid energy systems using cogeneration, photovoltaics and battery technology and its potential impact in the Upper Peninsula was picked up by several media outlets including Solar Thermal Magazine, Phys.org and e! Science News.

The research was conducted by Abhilash Katamneni (CS), Richelle Winkler (SS), Joshua Pearce (ECE/MSE) and Lucia Gauchia (ECE/ME).

From Tech Today.

ABC10 Story on Keweenaw Time Traveler

Published May 30, 2016

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Professors Don Lafreniere and Sarah Scarlett, along with Ph.D. candidate John Arnold were interviewed by ABC 10 about the Keweenaw Time Traveler. The Time Traveler is funded by an NEH grant (see earlier story).

ABC News 10 Interview on KTT: “Traveling back in time into Upper Peninsula history”

A Digital Time Travel Machine Reveals Keweenaw History

Published May 18, 2016

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by Mark Wilcox

The miners in the boom days of the Copper Country knew that in order to find what they wanted, they had to “drill down.” Today, thanks to the efforts of researchers in Michigan Technological University’s Social Sciences Department and a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, those wishing to find out about the people and the places of the Keweenaw’s past can “drill down” through history.

Keweenaw Time Traveler is an online map-based tool allowing visitors to explore the layers of history for any location in the Houghton, Keweenaw and Ontonagon county region. The project uses proven technologies and techniques of participatory Geographic Information Systems (GIS). It also employs collections of geographic data and tools that are interactively connected, enabling users to incorporate their own information about a place and store that data long-term, to create a high-resolution database that maps changes in the social, natural, industrial and built environments of the Copper Country from 1850 to 1970.

The project is the brainchild of Social Sciences faculty Don Lafreniere, assistant professor of historical geography; Sarah Scarlett, assistant professor of history; and PhD candidate John Arnold, an architect by profession. They have received $259,882 from the National Endowment of the Humanities to support their work.

The project can be accessed at http://www.keweenawhistory.com.

Read the full story.

From Tech Today.

Scarlett Receives Funding for Isle Royale Research Project

Published May 13, 2016

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Timothy Scarlett is the principal investigator on a research project that received $20,000 in a co-op/joint agreement from the National Park Service, Isle Royale National Park. The project is entitled “A Proposal for Archaeological Testing at the Ghyllbank Townsite (20.IR.0224), Isle Royale National Park, Keweenaw County, Michigan.” This is a 16-month project.

From Tech Today.

Environmental Sociology Class Does Local Waste and Recycling Report

Published December 10, 2015

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Graduate students in Richelle Winkler’s Sociology of the Environment course presented a report on waste and recycling in Hancock, Houghton and at Michigan Tech on Dec 9 at the Portage Lake District Library. You can download the Executive Summary or Full Report here.

Click here for ABC 10 News story.

Connecting People and Geology on Volcanoes

Published July 30, 2015

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In October 2011, heavy rainfall poured down the sides of El Salvador’s San Vicente Volcano, nearly four feet of water in 12 days. Coffee plantation employees, working high up on the volcano’s slope began noticing surface cracks forming on steep slopes and in coffee plantations. Cracks herald landslides—places where the wet, heavy upper layers, saturated with water, slide over the less-permeable rocky layers underneath. The workers radioed downslope, keeping close tabs on the rainfall gauge network.

Luke Bowman was also there, helping direct radio calls and conducting fieldwork. Bowman, who recently defended his doctoral research in geology at Michigan Technological University, studies geohazards on San Vicente. The Journal of Applied Volcanology recently published some of his research, co-authored by Kari Henquinet, director of the Michigan Tech Peace Corps Master’s International Program and a senior lecturer in the Department of Social Sciences. Their work combines traditional hazard assessments with social science techniques to develop a more in-depth understanding of the risks present at San Vicente Volcano in El Salvador.

Ethnography
Incorporating social science techniques—like ethnographic interviews and participatory observations of community meetings—is no easy feat for physical scientists, who have not been trained to think that way. Collaboration is important, and Henquinet worked with Bowman on his volcanology research to round out his social science data gathering methodology.

“The ethnographic approach is immersion,” Henquinet says, explaining researchers have to learn in the field and adjust their work accordingly. “It’s an approach that’s exploratory, grounded in reality and the context that people live in, so you’re not isolating or manipulating an experiment in a lab.”

Adam Wellstead at the Midwest Public Affairs Conference

Published July 14, 2015

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Associate Professor Adam Wellstead (SocSci) presented a paper “Beyond Adaptive Capacity: Policy Capacity and Climate Change Adaptation Assessments and Frameworks” at the Midwest Public Affairs Conference in Milwaukee on July 9-11, 2015.

From Tech Today.

Wellstead chaired the Environmental Policy session. The topic of the 2015 Midwest Public Affairs Conference was “Restructuring Governance: Emerging Solutions for Advancing the Public Interest.” The conference was hosted by the UWM Department of Public and Nonprofit Administration and the Helen Bader Institute for Nonprofit Management.

Category: Research