April 11, 2022

Michigan Tech’s new DEIS Where to Go for What directory covers everything from finding accessible technology to mentoring underrepresented faculty.

Divided into three categories — diversity and accessibility, equity and advocacy, and inclusion and a sense of belonging — the resource lives under the policies tab on MTU’s  ADVANCE website.

The listing was compiled by ADVANCE member and 2021 Michigan Tech Diversity Award winner Sonia Goltz (CoB) as part of her work with the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Sense of Belonging (DEIS) Positive Action Team (VPDI).

Learn more about the resource on Unscripted, the University's research blog — and share it on your department’s social media, announcements and webpages.

Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM) activities continue through the month of April. Throughout Michigan Tech and the surrounding community, there are still many upcoming opportunities for our students, staff and faculty to engage in the dialogue surrounding this important issue.

SAAM aims to increase awareness about the causes and risk factors associated with sexual assault and to empower survivors. Below you will find events offered throughout this month by the student organization SAVE and Dial Help Inc.

• Friday, April 15 — Cover the Cruiser at Spring Fling, noon to 2 p.m. 
  During Spring Fling, Public Safety and Police Services along with the student organizations SAVE and Triangle will be covering a Michigan Tech police cruiser with sticky notes to show support for survivors of sexual and domestic violence. Show your support and stop by to help cover the cruiser, show your support for survivors and help us to prevent violence! #CopperCountrySAAM #MichiganTechSpeakUp
  
  
• Wednesday, April 20, to Sunday, May 1 — Virtual Puppy Parade for Awareness
  Sign up to participate or volunteer for the virtual event.
  
  
• Thursday, April 21 — Film: "The Last Duel"
  This film will be made available to the campus and surrounding community along with snacks at no cost.
  Summary: Based on a true story. Jean de Carrouges is a respected knight known for his bravery and skill on the battlefield. Jacques Le Gris is a squire whose intelligence and eloquence make him one of the most admired nobles in court. When Le Gris viciously assaults Carrouges' wife, she steps forward to accuse her attacker, an act of bravery and defiance that puts her life in jeopardy. The ensuing trial by combat, a grueling duel to the death, places all three in the hands of fate.
  
  
• Wednesday, April 27 — In-Person Puppy Parade for Awareness, 5:30-7:30 p.m.
  Sign up to participate or volunteer for the in-person event.
  
  
• Wednesday, April 27 — Denim Day
  Michigan Tech Title IX invites you to proudly wear denim with a purpose on April 27 for International Denim Day to support survivors and educate our community about the forms of sexual violence as a part of Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Tag us on Facebook and Instagram (@MichiganTechSpeakUp) in a post to social media with a photo of yourself wearing denim and tell us why you chose to wear denim for #DenimDay. #CopperCountrySAAM #MichiganTechSpeakUp
  Find out more about Denim Day.

The Equity Advisor (EA) Program is just wrapping up for 2021-22, following the successful pilot of the program in 2020-21. This year, 11 equity advisors worked with 13 tenure-track faculty and department chair search committees to help ensure that diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) remained at the forefront during every step of the search process.

Many thanks to this year’s equity advisors for their service in this important role: Tess Ahlborn (CEGE), Lanrong Bi (Chem), Bill Cooke (KIP), David Flaspohler (CFRES), Erika Hersch-Green (BioSci), Stefka Hristova (HU), Don Lafreniere (SS), Adrienne Minerick (ChE), Audra Morse (CEGE), Aurenice Oliveira (ECE), and Chris Webster (CFRES).

Volunteers Needed for 2022-23
The EA Program is now seeking tenured faculty who are interested in joining the program for the 2022-23 academic year. Equity advisors serve as nonvoting members of faculty and department search committees (outside of their own department) to help the committee attend to DEI throughout the search process and assist in ensuring that federal, state, and University employment laws/policies are followed.

Equity advisors must be tenured Michigan Tech faculty members, current on Diversity Literacy and Faculty Hiring Legal Aspects courses and able to commit to attending an in-person training workshop tentatively scheduled for Sept. 9 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. A complete job description is available.

Interested faculty members should complete our Google form by May 6. If you have questions about this program, please contact Shari Stockero, assistant provost for faculty development, at stockero@mtu.edu.

A production system maintenance window will take place April 24 from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The following production services will be unavailable during that time:

Banner
Banweb
MyMichiganTech
Aspire
Confluence
Course Tools
Cumulus
Fischer/mylogin.mtu.edu
Housing Apartments Wait List
mtu.edu/tips
OAP Rental System
Oracle Reports
Papercut Printing
Perceptive Content (Imagenow)
Pinnacle
Sunapsis
UC4/Appworx
Virtual Cashiering
WebFocus

If you have any questions or concerns, we can help. Contact us at it-help@mtu.edu or call 7-1111.

Please join us at the last Café Français of this semester for an hour of laid-back Francophone setting with French natives and other Francophiles. All levels welcome.

Café Français meets from 5-6 p.m. tomorrow (April 12) in Walker 120C.

Looking for ways to celebrate Earth Day this year? From Saturday (April 16) to April 23, Michigan Tech is hosting a weeklong celebration offering many opportunities to get involved and learn about sustainability in your community!

See the list of events below and check out the Sustainability Blog for more information.

• Waste Reduction Drive
  Saturday, April 16 — 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. @ SDC
  
  
• Clothing Swap
  Monday, April 18 — noon to 4 p.m. @ Husky Plaza
  
  
• Discussion on Sustainable Careers
  Monday, April 18 — 6:30-7:30 p.m. @ Chem Sci 108
  
  
• Sustainability Awards Presentation
  Tuesday, April 19 — noon to 1 p.m. @ MUB (light snacks provided)
  
  
• Sustainable Living Forum
  Tuesday, April 19 — 6 p.m. @ Fisher 101
  
  
• Earth Day Art & Music Festival
  Wednesday, April 20 — 2-6 p.m. @ Husky Plaza (or MUB Commons pending weather)
  
  
• Line 5 Presentation & Forum
  Thursday, April 21 — 6-7 p.m. @ Fisher 138
  
  
• ReFill Up Collab
  Friday, April 22 — 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. @ Library
  
  
• Earth Day Dinner
  Friday, April 22 — 4-7 p.m. @ McNair Dining Hall
  
  
• Climate March Against Line 5
  Saturday, April 23 — 4-6 p.m. @ Veterans Memorial Park

Modern Languages in the Humanities Department is happy to invite you to a celebration of our graduating minors and the end of the semester.

French, German and Spanish students, as well as faculty and friends, are welcome to attend the celebration from 6-7 p.m. tomorrow (April 12) in GLRC 201.

Food will be provided, and there will be games and music.

• When: Tuesday, April 12 — 6-7 p.m. 
• Where: Great Lakes Research Center, GLRC 201

Congrats to environmental engineering M.S. student Tyler LeMahieu for being awarded a 2022 National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship (GRF).

LeMahieu's proposal was titled "Understanding Wild Rice Site Suitability in a Changing Climate."

 

Nine student members of Michigan Tech’s section of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) and their advisor, Gretchen Hein (MMET), recently attended Spring Forward, a professional development day in Kohler, Wisconsin, hosted by the SWE-Wisconsin. Laura Kohler, senior vice president of human resources, stewardship and sustainability at Kohler Company, gave the keynote address, speaking about her career path, the importance of diversity, and leadership.

Michigan Tech's SWE section received the SWE-Wisconsin President’s Choice Award and SWE biomedical engineering student Kathleen Heusser won the GE Women’s Network First Place Scholarship at the event.

“Receiving the 2022 GE Women's Network Scholarship was an incredible honor. In addition to the tuition assistance it provides, the scholarship affirms my confidence in the value of my resume, my education and my professional references, as well as my scholarship essay on what being an engineer means to me," said Heusser. "The last paragraph in my essay shares how my work as an engineer will be motivated by my love of others in order to work hard — creating solutions to the problem of an individual, a company or a society.”

After the conference, each Michigan Tech student in attendance reflected on their participation and what they learned.

Read the full story on the College of Engineering Blog.

PhD Defense: Mehdi Malekrah, ECE

Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering candidate Mehdi Malekrah will present their doctoral dissertation at 4 p.m. today (April 11) via Zoom.

Malekrah's dissertation is titled "Process Development, Physical, and Electrical Characterization of Langmuir Blodgett Trough Deposited Polyaniline."

Malekrah is advised by Paul Bergstrom.

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MS Defense: Charles Warren, AC

M.S. in Cybersecurity candidate Charles Warren will present his final master's defense at 4:30 p.m. today (April 11) in Rekhi 101 and virtually via Google Meet.

Warren's talk is titled “An Analysis of Compressive Convolutional Autoencoders for Image Archiving in Medical Informatics.”

Warren is advised by Guy Hembroff.

Read the post on the Computing News Blog.

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MTU Hosting Health Professions Mock Interview Day

Michigan Tech Pre-Health Professions is excited to host its annual Health Professions Mock Interview Day tomorrow (April 12).

Students will have the opportunity to practice and gain experience with common graduate health program interview formats, including traditional interviews and multiple mini interviews. We have recruited volunteers to help out with this event, including current medical/professional students, local providers, and University faculty and staff. The goal is to help better prepare students for these types of interviews with practice and valuable feedback.

Interested students can contact the Director of Pre-Health Professions Nicole Seigneurie at nmseigne@mtu.edu.

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Volunteers Needed: Virtual Unboxed Challenge Outreach Event

The Center for Educational Outreach (EdO) is looking for volunteers to help us host a virtual outreach event Wednesday (April 13) for eighth-grade students featuring our Unboxed: Galaxy Challenge.

Unboxed Challenges are escape room–style activities where students will apply their STEM knowledge to solve a series of puzzles and develop their soft skills. 

Wednesday's event will take place on Zoom. Volunteers will be in a breakout room with a team of four students to give hints and help as needed. Volunteers can log on from wherever they choose — and for most of the session, will be able to be keep their mic and camera off. Volunteers will also be provided with an answer sheet, and no STEM experience is required!

We are hosting two sessions from 1-2 p.m. and 2-3 p.m. Volunteers do not have to be available for both sessions, but will need the ability to log on promptly at 1 p.m. or 2 p.m. and stay for the full hour. Training will be provided via a recorded webinar that will walk volunteers through each puzzle included in our Galaxy theme.

Students, staff and faculty are all welcome to volunteer! Please email Jannah Tumey at jrtumey@mtu.edu to sign up or for more information.

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Applications Open for Innovation Award at Design Expo

Husky Innovate and the Office of Innovation and Commercialization (OIC) are offering an innovation award of $500 split among three Design Expo teams that demonstrate an innovative customer value proposition that displays a clear understanding of their customer’s needs.

The winning teams' solutions will be distinctive when compared to alternatives and demonstrate the potential for positive economic and/or societal impact. All teams are encouraged to apply and must submit our application form by 11:59 p.m. tomorrow (April 12) to be considered.

Three prize winners will be announced at Design Expo on April 21.

Winners will receive:

• First place — $250
• Second place — $150
• Third place — $100

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Lunch and Learn: Navigating Working Parenthood

Please join the Benefits Office at noon tomorrow (April 12) in MUB Alumni Lounges A and B as we welcome Jen Wall (REC) and Shannon Rinkinen (COB), who will discuss the challenges of working parenthood during our next Lunch and Learn — "Toddlers to Teens: Navigating Working Parenthood." 

The trials of parenting are real and managing them can be chaotic! From finding child care to monitoring social media, join Wall and Rinkinen for an hour of authentic conversation. Participants can expect to feel supported, make new connections, learn a little and laugh a lot!

Please email benefits@mtu.edu to reserve your seat today.

This Lunch and Learn counts toward Option 2 in your Husky Health Checklist.

Follow Michigan Tech Wellness on Facebook for upcoming health and wellness initiatives supported by the Benefits Office, which may count toward your 2022 Husky Health Checklist.

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Bad Info Presenting 'Reinventing Journalism' Talk

The Bad Info project presents a talk by award-winning ProPublica journalist Craig Silverman: “Reinventing Journalism in the Age of Mis/Disinformation.”

The talk will be held from 5-7 p.m. Thursday (April 14) in person in the East Reading Room of the Van Pelt and Opie Library and virtually via Zoom.

Light refreshments will be provided. Joshua Vissers, founder of Copper Beacon, will moderate a Q&A session.

Reinventing Journalism in the Age of Mis/Disinformation
Journalists around the world are contending with an information environment filled with false and misleading claims, manipulated media, influence campaigns and viral hoaxes. This talk examines the global growth of the mis/disinformation beat within newsrooms, the techniques used in this work and the challenges and risks facing reporters and the public.

Craig Silverman
Silverman is an award-winning journalist and author and one of the world's leading experts on online disinformation, fake news and digital investigations. He recently joined ProPublica as a reporter investigating voting, platforms, disinformation and online manipulation. He's also the editor of the European Journalism Centre’s Verification Handbook series.

Silverman previously served as media editor of BuzzFeed News, where he pioneered coverage of digital disinformation and media manipulation. He received a George Polk Award in 2021 for a series of articles about Facebook, and is the recipient of the Carey McWilliams Award from the American Political Science Association, which honors “a major journalistic contribution to our understanding of politics.” His 2019 series exposing a global Facebook advertising scam was also named investigation of the year by the Canadian Association of Journalists. His journalism and books have also been honored by the Mirror Awards, U.S. National Press Club, National Magazine Awards (Canada) and Crime Writers of Canada.

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MS Defense: Emily Zeitunian, ME-EM

M.S. in Mechanical Engineering candidate Emily Zeitunian will present their master's defense at 3 p.m. today (April 11). This virtual defense will be held online only. Attendance is invited via Zoom.

Zeitunian's defense is titled "Microscale Transverse Compression Modeling: A Comparative Study of the Analytical MAC/GMC Methods to Experimental Results."

Zeitunian is advised by Greg Odegard.

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MS Defense: Carter Paprocki, ME-EM

M.S. in Mechanical Engineering candidate Carter Paprocki will present their master's defense at 1 p.m. today (April 11) in person in MEEM 208 and virtually via Zoom.

Paprocki's defense is titled "Characterization of Hydraulic Flow Noise Induced by Spool Valves."

Paprocki is advised by Sriram Malladi.

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Parya Siahcheshm Presents Carbon Dots at ACS Spring Conference

The Department of Chemistry would like to give a big shout-out to Ph.D. candidate Parya Siahcheshm, who presented two papers on carbon dots during her first attendance at the American Chemical Society (ACS) Spring Conference held in San Diego from March 20-24.

Siahcheshm's first paper, titled “High quantum yield carbon dots that give selective detection of Fe2+/Fe3+ ions prepared with Tween® 80,” was presented March 21 at 5 p.m.

Her second, titled “Comparison of linear, cyclic, and aromatic reagents in nitrogen-doped carbon dots,” was presented March 23 at 3 p.m.

Siahcheshm's doctoral advisor, Patricia Heiden (Chem) is a co-author on both papers.

Well done, Parya and Dr. Heiden! Way to represent!

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Graduate Research Colloquium Winners

The Graduate Research Colloquium 2022 was held March 29 and 30. Graduate Student Government (GSG) would like to thank everyone who made the event possible. Over the two days, we had 50 poster presentations and 49 oral presentations.

The winners are as follows:

Poster Presentations

• Third Place: Mohanish Chandurkar, “Shear stress sensing on endothelial cells using traction force microscopy (TFM)”
• Second Place (tie): Laura Schaerer, “Division of Labor in Polyethylene Terephthalate Degrading Microbial Consortia”
• Second Place (tie): Brennan Vogl, “Effect of aortic curvature on bioprosthetic aortic valve performance”
• First Place: Arslan Amer, “Selenoprotein Sepp1 Determines Cysteine Dependence in Pancreatic Cancer”

Oral Presentations
Due to an unlikely four-way tie, we have decided to present the awards to our top four presenters in no particular order:

• Arslan Amer, "Selenium and Cysteine in Pancreatic Cancer Therapy"
• Fatemeh Razaviamri, "Moisture-Activated Antiviral Coating based on Mussel Adhesive Chemistry"
• Rishi Babu, "Study of a source rich region to understand the origin of PeVatrons"
• Isaac Wedig, "A Practical Application of Blood Flow Restriction Exercise"

A hearty congratulations to all the winners at this year’s colloquium. GSG would like to thank everyone — presenters, judges, volunteers and GSG supporters — for making this a great event!

GSG would also like to hear ways in which this event could be improved next year using our feedback form.

Pictures of the event can be found online.

Alumnus Anurag Kamal '18 (M.S., mechanical engineering) is one of 10 standouts featured by Forbes in a story on this year's 30 Under 30 who are leading the green energy transition. Kamal co-founded ElectricFish, the company behind a containerized combination battery backup system and EV charger that can connect into existing, ubiquitous electrical infrastructure.

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Online Master’s Degrees ranked Michigan Tech’s online master's program in engineering 18th in the nation for 2022.

To have your event automatically appear, please submit them to the University Events Calendar.

Teal Ribbons

Monday, April 11, 12:00 a.m.–11:45 p.m. | Campus!

Have you seen teal ribbons? Help raise awareness for Sexual Assault Awareness Month by scanning the QR code and participating in SAVE and Title IX's Octopi project and get the...

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Master's Defense: Carter Paprocki

Monday, April 11, 1 p.m.–2 p.m. | R. L. Smith Building (MEEM), 1021

Mechanical Engineering Co-advisors: Vijaya Venkata Narasimha Sriram Malladi and Andrew Barnard Characterization of Hydraulic Flow Noise Induced by Spool Valves Attend...

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Master's Defense: Emily Zeitunian

Monday, April 11, 3 p.m.–4 p.m.

Mechanical Engineering Advisor: Gregory Odegard Microscale Transverse Compression Modeling: A Comparative Study of the Analytical MAC/GMC Methods to Experimental Results ...

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PhD Defense: Mehdi Malekrah

Monday, April 11, 4 p.m.–5 p.m.

Electrical Engineering Advisor: Paul Bergstrom Process Development, Physical, and Electrical Characterization of Langmuir Blodgett Trough Deposited Polyaniline Attend...

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MS Defense: Charles Warren, Cybersecurity

Monday, April 11, 4:30 p.m. | Rekhi Hall, Room 101

Graduate student Charles Warren, Cybersecurity, will present his final M.S. defense on Monday, April 11, 2022, at 4:30 p.m., in Rekhi Hall, Room 101 and virtually. The title...

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Monthly General Meeting _ Spring 2022

Monday, April 11, 6 p.m.–7 p.m. | Chem Sci. 211

Hi folks, This mail serves to notify us that we will be having our monthly general meeting on the last Wednesday of the month 6 - 7 PM at Chem Sci. 211 or via Zoom. Feel...

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Open Rock Climbing

Monday, April 11, 6 p.m.–8 p.m. | Student Development Complex (SDC), Multipurpose Room Climbing Wall

All ages (we can allow all ages to climb as long as we have the proper fitting equipment). No need to sign up, just stop by the Climbing Wall between 6 and 8 pm Monday through...

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Keweenaw Socialists @ MTU General Meeting

Monday, April 11, 7 p.m.–9 p.m. | Fisher 126

Discussion of current club projects and planned socials as well as notable recent news. Meeting will by hybrid in-person and on Zoom. Following the organized portion of the...

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Weekly Meeting

Monday, April 11, 7 p.m.–8 p.m. | Wadsworth Hall Annex

Come hang out and play some chess.