May 17, 2023

ITC Holdings Corp., the nation’s largest independent electricity transmission company, has established an annual scholarship fund for civil and electrical engineering students at Michigan Technological University to honor its retired chief operating officer and Michigan Tech Board of Trustees member Jon E. Jipping.

“Over the years, I’ve witnessed Jon’s passion and commitment to developing students, interns and professionals entering engineering and STEM careers. He has served as an advocate and mentor to those in the engineering field, and through this scholarship he will continue to support the next generation of engineers,” said Linda Apsey, president and CEO of ITC.

Read more at Michigan Tech News.

As part of our team’s ongoing efforts to support enhanced capacity for campuswide research and scholarly activity, the Research Development Office is pleased to announce support for researchers and scholars who need photography, videography or visual graphic support as part of their research and proposal activities.

If you believe these services could help you advance your work, please reach out to rd-L@mtu.edu to further discuss the availability of these services and their fit with your ideas.

Michigan Tech IT invites the campus community to a social to honor Dave Hale, who will retire June 2.

The social will be held May 30 from 2-4 p.m. in the Memorial Union Building Ballroom. Snacks and refreshments will be provided.

Hale has served Michigan Tech for over 26 years and has led the success of Information Technology's security team. Join us in celebrating his career, thanking him for his service, and to wish him well.

Michigan Technological University Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) will host a two-day Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration (MIOSHA) Safety Education and Training event Tuesday and Wednesday (May 23 and 24) featuring Senior Occupational Safety Consultant John Bodnar.

The event will focus on the improvement of occupational safety in Michigan Tech teaching and research laboratories. Bodnar will educate Michigan Tech employees on how to identify and correct safety and health hazards in their work environment, explain how MIOSHA standards and policies apply to laboratories, and provide training education on selected topics.

Please mark your calendars and join us in person or remotely (Zoom details will be posted on the EHS webpage) for these safety events!

The following events will be held in MUB Ballroom A and are open to all Michigan Tech employees:

Tuesday, May 23 — Open Question Forum

• Coffee with John — 9-10 a.m.
  An informal opportunity for faculty, staff and students to stop by MUB Ballroom A to ask Bodnar questions about workplace safety and obtain information on MIOSHA's program services and resources. Light morning refreshments provided.

Wednesday, May 24 — Educational Training Courses

• MIOSHA Perspective: General Industry, Research, and the General Duty Clause — 10:10-11 a.m.
  Understand how MIOSHA applies its safety standards and views the safety responsibilities of supervisors and managers, and how the General Duty Clause pertains to Michigan Tech research and teaching laboratories.
  
  
• What to Do When MIOSHA Enforcement Visits — 11:10 a.m. to 12 p.m.
  Gain insight on the process and procedures a MIOSHA compliance officer follows while conducting a workplace inspection.
  
  
• MIOSHA Laboratory Standard — 1:30-3 p.m.
  Learn about the specific MIOSHA standards that apply to laboratories and laboratory activities. MIOSHA laboratory standards provide rules that protect and support researchers and staff in laboratories who work with chemical, biological, physical and other safety hazards.

About the Speaker
MIOSHA Senior Occupational Safety Consultant John Bodnar is familiar with the unique challenges to health and safety in the Upper Peninsula.  He served as the Upper Peninsula senior safety officer in the MIOSHA Enforcement division for many years before transferring to the educational arm of the agency. Bodnar’s background spans over 25 years in occupational safety, health, and emergency services and operations in both the private and public sectors. He has been involved with several recent Michigan Tech/MIOSHA educational events and is well acquainted with our campus, employees and community.

Students who are completing a dissertation, thesis or report are invited to join the Graduate School to learn about the resources available to them to assist in scheduling their defense, formatting their documents and submitting their documents. In one afternoon, you can learn everything you need to be successful and complete your degree in a timely fashion! Faculty and staff who assist students with submissions are also welcome to attend. Attend the entire event, or stop in for the seminar that interests you.

• When: Wednesday, May 24, from 2-4 p.m. (see a detailed schedule on our blog)
• Who: Students completing a dissertation, thesis or report; faculty and staff who assist students with submission.
• Where: Virtually via Zoom (please register to attend online and receive participation instructions) and in person in Admin 404 (room capacity is 35).
• Registration: Please register to receive handouts via email or attend online. The seminar will be available online as well as on campus.

If you are unable to join us, the event will be taped and available online after the event. The previous semester’s seminars are always available online.

Information on submitting, formatting and more can be found online for dissertations and theses or reports.

Five Michigan Tech tennis players were selected to the 2023 College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-District Team last week: Dominika Bobik, Marina Fernandez, Lauren Opalewski, Neva Manas and Vitor Jordao.

CSC recognizes the nation's top student-athletes for their combined performances on the court and in the classroom. The CSC Academic All-America program separately recognizes men's and women's tennis honorees in four divisions — NCAA Division I, NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III and NAIA.

Academic All-District honorees advance to the CSC Academic All-America ballot. First-, second- and third-team Academic All-America honorees will be announced June 1.

Read about the honorees at the Michigan Tech Athletics website.

Michigan Tech Athletics has hired Curtis Wittenberg as the assistant athletic director for business operations. In his role, Wittenberg is responsible for managing the Department of Athletics and Recreation finances. He began his duties on May 1.

Wittenberg comes to Tech after serving as the athletic director at Finlandia University over the past six and a half years.

"We are very excited to welcome Curtis to our team," Vice President for Athletics and Recreation Suzanne Sanregret said. "He brings knowledge and experience in a number of areas that will help us achieve our strategic goals and initiatives. I look forward to working with him as we continue to grow Michigan Tech Athletics and Recreation."

"I'm thrilled to be able to continue my career in collegiate athletics while being able to stay in the Copper Country," Wittenberg said. "I've always admired how Suzanne has run Michigan Tech Athletics, and I want to thank her and the rest of the search committee for giving me this opportunity."

Read more at the Michigan Tech Athletics website.

Hayden Henderson (GLRC) is the principal investigator (PI) on a project that has received a $90,000 research and development contract from the Great Lakes Observing System (GLOS).

The project is titled "MTU Observing Systems Refurbishment & Enhancement 2023."

Jamey Anderson and Christopher Pinnow (GLRC) are co-PIs on this potential two-year project.

Paul Sanders (MSE) was quoted by Modern Casting in a story about a new method for producing customized powdered metal alloys developed by Michigan Tech students in partnership with the LIFT manufacturing research institute. The process involves molten metal poured through a funnel and then atomized using a high-pressure gas nozzle.

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Architect Magazine listed undergraduate student Sara Dancy (civil engineering) as one of five winners of design firm SmithGroup’s 2023 Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Scholarships.

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InnovationMap in Houston, Texas, mentioned Michigan Tech as the home of Integrated Molecular Innovations, a startup founded by graduate student Rourke Sylvain (biomedical engineering) and Ali Dabas ‘23 (B.S. Biomedical Engineering). The venture won the $25,000 Southwest National Pediatric Device Consortium Prize in the 2023 Rice Business Plan Competition.

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The Daily Mining Gazette mentioned Michigan Tech in a story about a meet-and-greet with The Nature Conservancy’s new Keweenaw Heartlands project manager, Ph.D. student Julia Petersen (environmental and energy policy). The event is planned tomorrow (May 18) in Eagle Harbor.

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WLUC TV6 mentioned Michigan Tech in a story on this year’s Upper Peninsula Sports Hall of Fame inductees. Among them was David Cvengros ’62 (B.S. Mechanical Engineering), who played basketball and tennis at Tech from 1958-1962. Cvengros was inducted into MTU’s Sports Hall of Fame in 2010.

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WJMN Local 3 mentioned Michigan Tech in a story about the new speed eating record set by Nathan Klein ’09 (B.S. Mechanical Engineering) at Miner’s Café in Laurium, Michigan. Klein finished the cafe’s five-pound Ultimate Omelet in five minutes, 47 seconds.

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Yahoo! News mentioned Michigan Tech’s Grand Traverse Research Center and collaboration to build a Freshwater Research and Innovation Center in a guest column picked up from the Traverse City Record-Eagle.

'Data Carpentry Workshop on R' is May 22-23

Michigan Tech will host an in-person "Data Carpentry Workshop on R" on Monday and Tuesday (May 22 and 23) from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day. The emphasis of the workshop is on ecology. The workshop will take place in the Great Lakes Research Center, GLRC 202.

Michigan Tech students, faculty and staff who registered to attend this free workshop by the May 12 deadline were emailed a confirmation of their registration on Monday (May 15).

This workshop curriculum includes:

• Data Organization
• Introduction to R
• Data Manipulation with R (tidyverse)
• Plotting and Programming with R (ggplot2)

Learn more about the workshop on the Computing News Blog.

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GSG Softball League Registration Open

Registration is open for the Graduate Student Government (GSG) Softball League. Sign up now to register a team or to register as an individual. Individuals without a team will be assigned a team for the season. All Michigan Tech and community members are welcome — the only stipulation is that 50% of the team be Tech students, faculty or staff.

Registration closes at 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday (May 23). The league will run Thursday nights starting June 1 and ending with a Saturday picnic and playoff tournament on July 29.

All are welcome to play, as we will have a preseason softball clinic and captains meeting to go over the rules and techniques of softball.

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Free Sustainability Film: 'Gather'

"Gather" will be shown at 7 p.m. tomorrow (May 18) at the U. J. Noblet Forestry Building in Noblet 144. Refreshments will be hosted by the Keweenaw Land Trust.

The discussion following the film will be led by Sierra Ayres and Rachael Pressley ’14 (B.S. Geology).

The film is free. Donations are welcome. A donation link is available at the University Events Calendar.

Film Description
"Gather" explores the growing movement amongst Native Americans to reclaim their spiritual, political and cultural identities through food sovereignty, while battling the trauma of centuries of genocide. Run time is 75 minutes.

Discussion Facilitators
Sierra Ayers is the program coordinator for Walking the Path Together in the Department of Social Work at Northern Michigan University and a member of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community Lake Superior Band of Ojibwe. She graduated from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis in 2019 with a master's in social work, and from the University of Michigan in 2017 with a B.A. in Sociology.

Rachael Pressley is a regional planner at the Western U.P. Planning and Development Region (WUPPDR), where she works with local communities to collaboratively plan rural food systems, hazard mitigation and climate adaptation, and accessible recreation. She earned a B.S. in Geology from Michigan Tech in 2014.

Film & Discussion Series
The Sustainability Film & Discussion Series is co-sponsored by:

MTU Office of Sustainability and Resilience | Keweenaw Land Trust | Keweenaw Unitarian Universalist Fellowship | Lake Superior Stewardship Initiative | Friends of the Land of Keweenaw | Refill U.P. | MTU College of Forest Resources and Environmental Science | MTU Department of Social Sciences Sustainability Science Program | MTU Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering | MTU Center for Science and Environmental Outreach | MTU Sustainability Demonstration House | MTU Great Lakes Research Center | MTU Students for Sustainability

Questions about the film series can be directed to Alan Turnquist at sustainability@mtu.edu.

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Cashier's Office Closed This Morning

The cashier's office within the Student Financial Services Center will be closed today (May 17) from 8 a.m. to noon for a departmental retreat. The office will open at noon.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

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Participants Needed for Dual-Task Ergometer Study

Research participants are needed to help us explore how well people can perform physically and mentally demanding tasks at the same time, and what task qualities contribute to performance enhancements or impairments. The experiment is conducted in the Harold Meese Building and will take approximately one hour to complete, with a total of 15 minutes of effortful spinning on an upper body ergometer, along with several verbal memory tasks. Participants will be compensated for their time.

Please consider participating if you meet the following eligibility requirements:

• Fluent in English with no hearing impairments
• Age 18-40
• Do not smoke, vape or use other forms of nicotine or recreational drugs
• Good aerobic fitness, doing aerobic exercise a minimum of 60 minutes of vigorous activity a week (on average)
• Have never suffered a heart attack or stroke
• Do not have any cardiopulmonary disorders (e.g., high blood pressure)
• Free from injuries and health conditions that would impair your ability to safely participate in strenuous aerobic exercise
• Willing to abstain from alcohol for 12 hours prior to participating
• Willing to abstain from caffeine for three hours prior to participating
• If you sign up for this study, a lengthier list of inclusion criteria will be emailed to you. You will be asked to confirm your eligibility prior to participation. 

For more information about the study or participation, contact Samantha Smith at slsmith1@mtu.edu. Please note that we are primarily conducting the experiment on Mondays during business hours, but can accommodate other schedules on a case-by-case basis.

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

Husky Happy Hour in Zeeland, MI

Wednesday, May 17, 5:30 p.m.–7:30 p.m. | Zeeland, MI

Unwind from the workday and connect with fellow alumni and friends on Wednesday, May 17, 2023, from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at Tripelroot Brewery. The venue is located at 146 E Main...

Math Placement Overview

Wednesday, May 17, 7:00 p.m.–8:30 p.m.

Join Michigan Tech staff to learn options for math placement, including the ALEKS assessment, and get answers to any questions on the process.