November 13, 2023

Michigan Tech's Department of Public Safety and Police Services would like to remind the campus community of training sessions occurring in the Memorial Union Building (MUB) conference rooms tomorrow, Wednesday and Thursday (Nov. 14, 15 and 16) from 8 a.m to 5 p.m. each day.

The training being held tomorrow and Wednesday is “Run, Hide, Fight: Surviving an Active Threat.” Its goal is to guide nontraditional first responders in various ways to respond to an active threat incident. While an active shooter threat is something none of us would like to have to think about, we need to be prepared in order to keep ourselves and our community safe.

The training being held Thursday is an instructor certification course for instructor applicants only.

During the training times, you may hear loud noises that simulate gunshots and/or people shouting. These sounds are a standard part of the training and are not cause for concern. Signage will be put up around the MUB during the training times as a reminder.

If you have any questions about this training, please contact Deputy Chief Reid DeVoge at rdevoge@mtu.edu.

The 2024 Open Enrollment period for Michigan Tech benefits takes place Nov. 13–30, 2023. Open Enrollment this year can be completed through Banweb Employee Self Service 9.

During Open Enrollment, you will have the opportunity to:

• Enroll in or change medical, dental, or vision coverage for next year.
• Contribute to or change contributions to a Health Savings Account (HSA), a health care Flexible Spending Account (FSA) or dependent care account. 
• Enroll or change your optional employee life insurance, spouse and/or dependent life insurance, accidental death and dismemberment (AD&D) insurance, long-term disability buy-up coverage, critical illness, accident coverage or add hospital indemnity (new this year).
• Contribute to or change contributions to retirement accounts.
• Earn MTU Wellness 360 (formerly Husky Health) points for completing open enrollment via Banweb Employee Self Service 9.

While Open Enrollment is optional, it is recommended that all employees complete Open Enrollment. Whether you are electing Michigan Tech benefits for the first time, making changes to your elections, or not making any changes at all, Open Enrollment is the perfect time to ensure your information is up to date and correct.

New This Year

Changes are happening during this Open Enrollment period, and we strongly encourage you to participate. 

Over the past five years, the University has incurred significant increases in health care costs. In 2024 alone, Michigan Tech health care premiums will rise by 9.5 percent. Michigan Tech will not pass this increase on to our employees, and health care premiums will remain unchanged.

Also, to better serve our employees, the Benefits Advisory Committee has recommended the following changes, effective January 2024:

• Vision benefits are moving to VSP Vision Care (from MetLife, formerly Davis Vision)
• Life and Disability insurances are moving to The Standard (from Unum)
• Accident and Critical Illness voluntary benefits are moving to Voya (from Securian)
• Hospital Indemnity Insurance is being added as a NEW voluntary benefit

Michigan Tech health and dental plans remain the same, and employee monthly premiums go unchanged. Monthly premium information can be found on the comparison charts on Human Resources’ Benefits website.

Passive Enrollment Option:

Open Enrollment for 2024 is NOT mandatory. Passive enrollment allows employees to roll over most of their benefits from the previous year without making updates in the system.

* Important note: Flexible spending accounts (FSA) and health savings accounts (HSA) will not automatically roll over. If you would like to elect these, it is important to do so during Open Enrollment. 

More Information

For more information, please visit the Open Enrollment website to get the most updated details on benefits for 2024.

The University would like to thank the Benefits Advisory Committee members for their recommendations and their continued work on our long-term benefits strategies.

Michigan Technological University has recently signed a Corporate Education Fellowship Agreement with MAHLE, a leading international development partner and supplier to the automotive industry.

Learn more about this fellowship and the signing event at the Michigan Tech Global Campus News blog.

The GSG 2023 3MT competition was held Nov. 9 in the Forestry Atrium. We are pleased to share the winners of this year's competition.

First Place: Gustavo Bejar Lopez (geological and mining engineering and sciences)
Second Place: Ellianna Sempek (biological sciences)
People's Choice: Cody Tuftee (biomedical engineering)

Gustavo Bejar Lopez will represent Michigan Tech at the regional competition and will compete for a spot at the national and international 3MT competitions.

Thank you to all of the graduate students who participated and to our faculty and staff judges. Please check our GSG Youtube channel for recordings of the event.

The Institute for Policy, Ethics, and Culture (IPEC) invites graduate students and faculty to join our Research Areas.

As part of each research group, participants will work on research projects, participate in proposal development as well as interdisciplinary scholarship, and be eligible for seed/travel grants.

Our new form is now open to applicants.

If you have questions, please contact IPEC director Stefka Hristova at shristov@mtu.edu.

The Michigan Tech Rotaract Club is hosting a Thanksgiving Card Decorating Event tomorrow (Nov. 14) from 6-7 p.m. in the Makerspace of the MUB.

Please feel free to join us for this fun event.

Anatomy of Gray — Nov. 12-15 (4 performances)
McArdle Theatre
Presented by Michigan Tech Theatre

“Powerful and poignant...as thought-provoking and touching as it was humorous and charming.”  – Rick Wyman, Lyric Arts

When her father dies, a girl from the small Indiana town of Gray prays for a healer so that no one will ever suffer again. The next thing she knows, a man claiming to be a doctor blows into town in a hot air balloon. But can this “doctor” keep illness at bay? Michigan Tech Theatre invites you on an extraordinary journey through the murky waters of love, loss, and healing in the 19th century with Anatomy of Gray, written by Jim Leonard Jr. and directed by Patricia Helsel.

Cast

June Muldoon – Katie Holmes

Rebekah Muldoon – Clarissa Gordon

Galen Gray – Spencer Drow

Pastor Phineas Wingfield – Solomon Grueschow

Tiny Wingfield – Becca Feber

Crutch Collins – Alex Dannels

Belva Collins – Molly Pelke

Maggie – Lucy Straubel

Homer – Kyle Magennis

Tickets

• Faculty, staff, and general public: get your tickets online, at 906-487-1906, or from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday through Friday at the Rozsa Box Office. 
• Students: reserve your tickets (included with your Experience Tech fee) online and bring your HuskyCard to use your student tickets or tap in for Student Rush.

COMING SOON

Home for the Holidays — Nov. 25
Rozsa Lobby
Hosted by the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts

Art-O-Rama — Dec. 1-5
Rozsa Art Galleries
Presented by Michigan Tech Visual and Performing Arts

M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering candidate Nicholas Wylie will present his master's defense on Friday (Nov. 17) at 11 a.m. in person in EERC 501 and virtually via Zoom.

The title of the defense is "Development and Verification of Automated Fixtures for Functional Testing of Space Grade Printed Circuit Board Assemblies."

Wylie is advised by Paul Bergstrom.

Siegfried Hoefinger, adjunct assistant professor of physics at Michigan Tech, will present a special Physics Colloquium this week. 

The seminar will be presented in person at 2 p.m. on Friday (Nov. 17) in Fisher 101.

Read the abstract and speaker bio at the University Events Calendar.

Jordan Eagle from the NASA Postdoctoral Program / Goddard Space Flight Center will present at this week's Physics Colloquium.

The seminar will be presented in person at 4 p.m. on Thursday (Nov. 16) in Fisher 139.

Read the abstract and speaker bio at the University Events Calendar.

Michigan Tech was mentioned in a Daily Mining Gazette story about Wednesday’s Houghton city council meeting. The story reported that the city will work with the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) and Michigan Tech to install backflow devices in areas of the city’s water supply where deficiencies were noted in a recent evaluation. 

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The Daily Mining Gazette picked up a Michigan Tech Athletics press release about GLIAC conference accolades awarded to members of the soccer team. Gracie VanLangevelde was named Goalkeeper of the Year and was among five players to earn All-GLIAC honors. 

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Michigan Tech’s student-run Keweenaw Ultramarathon Club was mentioned in a Daily Mining Gazette story about the second-annual 25k and 50k ultramarathon races hosted last Saturday (Nov. 4) at Tech Trails. 

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Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced over $73 million in funding support for entrepreneurial hubs across the state, including more than $3.4 million for MTEC SmartZone.

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The York News-Times ran a profile of Nathan Gauss ‘18 (MS Health Informatics), a veteran of the Iraq War and the Afghanistan War, now a father of three and business analyst for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. 

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The Daily Mining Gazette picked up a Michigan Tech Athletics press release about the women’s basketball team signing three players on National Signing Day. 

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Hydro Review mentioned Michigan Tech as one of 19 winners of Phase I of the Innovating Distributed Embedded Energy Prize (InDEEP) from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Water Power Technologies Office. The awards were announced by the DOE on Nov. 7

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Lansing’s WLNS 6News and more than 130 outlets worldwide ran stories about Ken Engquist ‘93 (BS Mechanical Engineering) being named to the board of directors of Intrepid Metals.

2023 Flexible Spending Account Claims Deadline

The Benefits Office would to remind employees that the deadline to submit claims for their 2023 Flexible Spending Account (FSA) is March 31, 2024. Health care and dependent care claims during the 2022 calendar year are eligible if the date of service was in 2023. Any money remaining in the account after this date is forfeited per IRS regulations.

Dependent care claims require an invoice or receipt from the provider. All medical, dental and optical claims should be processed through your insurance plans before submitting them to your health care reimbursement account.

Attach the Explanation of Benefits (EOB) or a claim summary from your insurance plan to the claim form when submitting a claim. For expenses not processed through insurance, submit the itemized receipt.

More information and the FSA claim form can be found online on the Human Resources Flex Spending page.

For questions, contact Benefits Services at benefits@mtu.edu or call 7-2517.

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Check Out Covidence for Systematic Literature Reviews

Does your research involve conducting a systematic literature review? If yes (or maybe), the Van Pelt and Opie Library invites you to take advantage of our trial of Covidence.

Covidence is a production tool for systematic reviews used for title/abstract screening, full-text screening, data abstraction and quality assessment. Designed to make conducting reviews more efficient and easily tracked, Covidence can be used for any kind of literature review that requires reproducible and reportable reviewing and screening.

Covidence is available on a trial basis to the Michigan Tech community through December 2023. The trial offers a demo review, and users may also import up to 500 references to use within Covidence. Getting Started with Covidence is a series of short videos that will help you navigate the Covidence interface.

To register for a Covidence account, follow these steps:

1. Sign up for Covidence (not necessary if you already have an account at another institution).
2. Send an email to library@mtu.edu requesting an invitation to the library trial.
3. Check your email for the invitation and accept.
4. Please contact library@mtu.edu with any questions.

Your feedback is very important in our decision-making process. Please take a few moments to let us know what you think of Covidence.

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Lunch and Learn: MTU GeoPortal Launch Event

The Geospatial Research Facility (GRF) is excited to announce the launch of the MTU GeoPortal, a multidisciplinary one-stop shop for maps and GIS datasets for the Great Lakes Region and beyond. The aim of the GeoPortal is to supply students, faculty and staff conducting geospatial research at Michigan Technological University with authoritative and unique geospatial data online with easy-to-use geospatial analytical tools.

The GRF cordially invites everyone from MTU community to attend a Lunch and Learn launch event tomorrow (Nov. 14) from noon to 1 p.m. at the Great Lakes Research Center Auditorium and Atrium in GLRC 202.

The event will feature an overview of GRF resources and services, short presentations by GRF staff of recent and ongoing research projects and an overview of the MTU GeoPortal’s functions and features. Lunch will be provided.

An RSVP for this event is greatly appreciated, but not necessary. Please direct any questions and RSVP correspondences to Daniel Lizzadro-McPherson at djlizzad@mtu.edu.

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Study Abroad in Wales This Summer 

Consider studying abroad in Wales this summer! Geared toward advanced undergraduates and graduate students, Wales 2024: Community Transformations is a 16-day exploration of how the "first industrialized nation in the world" (according to National Museum Wales) has transitioned environmentally, economically, culturally and politically.

Using natural and cultural heritage institutions as our medium (national museums, national parks and World Heritage Sites), we will dig into how these institutions navigate the environmental and economic scarring of deindustrialization and try to create a balance between following Welsh Parliament policy and community-based planning. Students will design individual research projects using landscape analysis to present at the Vernacular Architecture Forum hosted at MTU in June 2024. All three courses taught by Mark Rhodes and Kathryn Hannum (both SS) center interdisciplinary-yet-geographic questions upon industrial communities and national identities.

Interested students can reach out to Rhodes directly at marhodes@mtu.edu, visit the program website and apply, and/or mark their calendars for 5 p.m. tomorrow (Nov. 14) for an informational session on campus in AOB 209.

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Thanksgiving Holiday Payroll Schedule

In observance of the Thanksgiving holiday, the University will be closed Nov. 23 and Nov. 24. The deadlines for Payroll and Human Resources Information Systems (HRIS) forms for the off-cycle week ending Nov. 25 will be adjusted as shown below.

Please be sure that all web time approvers have a designated proxy set up.

• Status Forms and EPAF Submissions — due Friday, Nov. 17, at noon
• Deduction Forms — due Tuesday, Nov. 21, at noon
• Off-Cycle Requests — due Tuesday, Nov. 21, at noon
• Reallocations Submission — due Tuesday, Nov. 21, at noon

For instructions on how to set up a proxy, please refer to the Quick Reference Guide for Approvers.

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ACSHF Forum: Grad Student Presentations

The Department of Cognitive and Learning Sciences will host two speakers at the next Applied Cognitive Science and Human Factors forum: Anne Inger Mortvedt and Erin Matas, both ACSHF graduate students. Their presentations will be from 2-3 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 13 in Meese 109.

Mortvedt will present "Usability Assessment of Newly Developed Injury Prevention Program: Insights from Coaches and Players."

Matas will present "Shifting the Lens: Applying Cognitive Task Analysis Methods to the Academic Search Domain."

Full abstracts can be found on the CLS blog!

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DOE Fellowship Application Writing Support

The Graduate School is excited to announce that it is offering application writing support to graduate students who wish to apply for the U.S. Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship (DOE CSGF).  

Eligibility: This prestigious fellowship is open to senior undergraduates and master’s degree students who intend to pursue a Ph.D. as well as first-year Ph.D. students; U.S. citizenship or lawful permanent residency is required.  

A wide range of fields are eligible, including aeronautics, applied mathematics, astrophysics, biological sciences, chemical engineering, chemistry, computer engineering, computer science, electrical engineering, environmental science, materials sciences, mechanical engineering, physics, and statistics.

The benefits include yearly stipends of $45,000, payment of full tuition and required fees, one 12-week practicum experience at a DOE national laboratory or site, and more.

The submission deadline is Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2024.

For more information, visit the fellowship website. Encourage interested students to contact Sarah Isaacson at sisaacso@mtu.edu as soon as possible.

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

Master's Defense: Manuel Anderson

Monday, November 13, 9–10 a.m. | U. J. Noblet Forestry Building, G004

Applied Ecology Co-advisors: Tara Bal and Christopher Webster Two research perspectives on sugar maple canopy dieback in the Upper Great Lakes: A decade of herbaceous...

PhD Defense: Shruti Mohan Amre

Monday, November 13, 12 p.m.–1 p.m. | Harold Meese Center, 110

Applied Cognitive Science & Human Factors Advisor: Kelly Steelman Is the Magic in the Hands or Eyes? Studying the Effects of Driver Monitoring Strategies on Situation...

MATLAB Workshop

Monday, November 13, 2 p.m.–4 p.m. | Online

Free MATLAB Workshop! Women in Physics is hosting a MATLAB workshop that is available to anyone who is interested. It is a 7 week course that will begin with the basic...

Environmental Biotechnology & Monitoring: Monitoring and assessing removal of antibiotic resistance in wastewater systems

Monday, November 13, 3 p.m. | Great Lakes Research Center (GLRC), 202

Environmental Engineering Graduate Seminar Dr. Ishi Keenum, Assistant Professor, Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering, Michigan Tech Bio: Dr. Ishi...

Internship Preparation with WiCS

Monday, November 13, 5 p.m.–6 p.m. | Fisher 130

WiCS will be having Eden VanSicklen, a recruiter from Brooksource, give a presentation about preparing for interviews and early career options. No registration required, in...

Huskies Group Swim Lessons - Parent & Child Aquatics Fall 2023 Session 2

Monday, November 13, 5:10 p.m.–5:50 p.m. | Student Development Complex (SDC), Pool

Ages 6 months to 3 years. Come make a splash in Huskies Group Swim Lessons! American Red Cross Parent and Child Aquatics levels are being offered at the SDC Pool for ages 6...

Huskies Group Swim Lessons - Preschool Aquatics Fall 2023 Session 2

Monday, November 13, 5:10 p.m.–5:50 p.m. | Student Development Complex (SDC), Pool

Ages 4-5 years. Come make a splash in Huskies Group Swim Lessons! American Red Cross Preschool Aquatics levels are being offered at the SDC Pool for ages 4 to 5 years old....

Law Club Weekly Meeting

Monday, November 13, 6 p.m.–7 p.m. | Library 103

Objectives: 1. To provide a pre-professional organization for those who are planning to pursue a legal career or those who are interested in the legal field. 2. To prepare...

PhD Defense: Monty Kennedy

Monday, November 13, 7 p.m.–9 p.m.

Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics Advisor: Jason Blough Correlation of and Development of Procedure to use a Resonant Plate with Mechanical Excitation for Shock...

Campus Barbershop

November 13, all day

Sign up for an appointment today: https://getsquire.com/booking/book/the-good-life-barber-lounge-marquette