March 11, 2024

The Michigan Tech Parade of Nations, a beloved cultural celebration highlighting diversity and unity in the Keweenaw, welcomes a new co-chair coordinator for 2024: Mariana Nakashima.

Nakashima, who serves as the senior administrative assistant and designated school official (DSO) for International Programs and Services (IPS) at Michigan Tech, brings a wealth of experience and passion to her new role. "I am humbled by the responsibility and the opportunity to continue the long tradition of Parade of Nations in this community," she said.

Nakashima has been actively involved with the Parade of Nations for three years. "There are three major aspects to the PoN," she said. "First, the parade itself. Also, there is the food and the entertainment. I enjoy seeing how different cultures are represented and connected."

Nakashima also emphasized the significance of the event in fostering cultural exchange and community cohesion, recounting heartwarming stories of students finding friendship and connection through the parade.

The Parade of Nations serves as a platform for showcasing the rich tapestry of cultures represented in the Keweenaw. "Parade of Nations is not only about showing the community our diversity and embracing it, but also to make sure our children remember their own cultural origins and maintain our traditions for generations to come," said Nakashima. "At its core, the Parade of Nations is a reflection of our shared American journey."

This year's Parade of Nations is set for Sept. 21 with a theme celebrating “Holidays from Around the World”. Community members interested in participating or volunteering are encouraged to reach out to Nakashima at 906-487-2160 or mnakashi@mtu.edu for more information.

The Equity Advisor program is seeking faculty who are interested in joining the program for the 2024-25 academic year. Equity advisors (EAs) serve as nonvoting members of faculty and department search committees outside of their own department. Their role is to help the committee attend to equity and inclusion throughout the search process and assist in ensuring that federal, state and University employment laws/policies are followed.

EAs should be associate rank or higher faculty (either tenure-track or instructional-track faculty) at Michigan Tech, current on Diversity Literacy and Faculty Hiring Legal Aspects courses, and able to commit to attending an in-person training workshop that will be held on April 30 from 1-4 p.m.

The EA work is supported with monthly meetings throughout the academic year. More information about the role of the equity advisor is available on Human Resources’ Equity Advisors page. Interested faculty members should complete the interest form by March 29.

If you have questions about this program, please contact Shari Stockero, assistant provost for faculty development, at stockero@mtu.edu.

Tomorrow (March 12), the League of Women Voters of the Copper Country will mark Equal Pay Day 2024 by distributing cookies and literature on Michigan Tech's campus. The league and co-sponsors will spread awareness by wearing red and gathering at the Husky Statue from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Please stop by and say hello.

Red is worn on Equal Pay Day as a symbol of how far women and people of color are "in the red." Equal Pay Day symbolizes the extra days an average women must work to catch up to what the average man earned the previous year. The date of Equal Pay Day changes from year to year as the situation improves — no gender pay gap (i.e., if women and men, on average, earned the same amount over the course of a year) would land Equal Pay Day on Dec. 31. This is not the case, and thus one can think of women as working into the following year to make as much as a man, on average.

Co-sponsors of this Equal Pay Day 2024 event include the League of Women Voters of the Copper Country and Michigan Tech's Friends of the Michigan Tech Library, Center for Diversity and Inclusion, Office of Equal Opportunity Compliance and Title IX, Graduate School and Order of Omega.

For the most recent data on the gender pay gap, see the American Association of University Women's website.

The Van Pelt and Opie Library and American Indian Sciences and Engineering Society (AISES) are excited to announce a Celebration of Indigenous Stories in partnership with this year's Great Michigan Read program, featuring "Fire Keeper's Daughter" by Angeline Boulley.

On Thursday (March 14) from 5-8 p.m. in the library, the celebration will center around an exhibit of art, author talks and a sharing of stories. Light refreshments and Indigenous food will be served.

Schedule:

• 5-6 p.m. — Art exhibits, including beadwork, birch bark baskets and more will be on display.
• 6-7 p.m. — Author talks with April Lindala and T. Marie Bertineau.
• 7-8 p.m. — Open mic featuring poetry and stories from invited speakers. Open to students and Keweenaw Bay Indian Community (KBIC) members to join. Moderated by Anna Lindgren.

Select pieces will be on exhibit in the library starting today (March 11) through March 22, and AISES members will be handing out free copies of "Fire Keeper's Daughter" today in the afternoon.

The 2024 Sustainability Film & Discussion Series, coordinated by the Michigan Tech Office of Sustainability and Resilience, will present March's film "Going Circular" at 7 p.m. March 21 in Fisher 138.

The film will be followed by discussion facilitated by Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering candidate Utkarsh Chaudhari and members of the Hotforest Enterprise.

The film and free refreshments in lobby are provided by the Great Lakes Research Center in recognition of 2024 World Water Day.

Film sponsors include the Keweenaw Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, Keweenaw Land Trust, Lake Superior Stewardship Initiative, Keweenaw Co-Op, Friends of the Land of Keweenaw and WUP MiSTEM, as well as Michigan Tech’s Great Lakes Research Center, Department of Social Sciences, Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering, Center for Science and Environmental Outreach, College of Forest Resources and Environmental Science, Sustainability Demonstration House, Students for Sustainability and Keweenaw Youth for Climate Action.

Sustainability Film & Discussion Series Details:

• When: Third Thursday of each month at 7 p.m., through May
• Where: Fisher 135 or 138 (refreshments in lobby)
• Cost: Free! $5 donations are greatly appreciated — make a donation.

Upcoming Films:

• "Climate Sisu" — April 18, Fisher 135
  Take a journey through Michigan in search of community knowledge about climate action, resilience, adaptation and education. Climate SISU offers an urgent, yet optimistic call for climate action.
  
  
• "The Engine Inside" — May 16, Fisher 138
  Follow the lives of six individuals from around the globe who have devoted themselves to a simple, age-old machine — the bicycle. Witness how bicycles have the potential to transform lives and contribute to a better world.

Join the Copper Country Cycling Club (C4) at Michigan Tech for our first winter triathlon, the Swedetown FrosTri! This event will take place March 23 at 10 a.m. at the Swedetown Trails. We will start with a ski (classic or skate), followed by a fat bike ride and, finally, a snowshoe!

What happens if there is no snow? We've all been confused with this winter, so it's hard to predict snow conditions for late March. If we're low on snow, we'll remove the ski event and instead do just a bike/run event. We will post updates to the event website and email registrants as the date gets closer!

View the event flyer.

All are welcome! We invite students and community members to come out and enjoy the race!

Event Details:

• What: Swedetown FrosTri Winter Triathlon
• When: Saturday, March 23, at 10 a.m.
• Where: Swedetown Main Trailhead
• Cost: It's free, but donations are appreciated and all profits will support local trail networks!

Bring Food!
We want you to bring food to the event! We would love to have baked goods, fruit, chips, finger foods or other food you can see yourself craving after your hard work! We'll set this all up at the Swedetown Chalet to be feasted upon by race participants.

Event Routes and Distances (in this order):

• 14K Nordic Ski: Valley Trail to Upper Greenstone to reverse Mama Bear, reverse Papa Bear, reverse Baby Bear, Lower Greenstone, Relentless Loop to Pine Ridge Loop, and then Tiger Loop.

• 10K Fat Bike: Fat bike loops 1, 2, 3 and 5.

• 5K Snowshoe: Bear Paw Snowshoe Short Loop to Bear Paw Snowshoe Long Loop to Valley Trail.

Zoot Suit Pi-it — Thursday, March 14, at 7:30 p.m.
Huskies Pep Band
Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts
Presented by Michigan Tech Music

Join the Huskies Pep Band on Pi Day (3.14) for a night of loud and proud music! Like pi, the band's love for Michigan Tech and the Keweenaw is never-ending.

Tickets:
General Public: Tickets are Pay As You're Able for this Michigan Tech Music event. Purchase your tickets through the Rozsa Box Office online 24/7, in person on weekdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., or by calling 906-487-1906.

Students: Reserve your tickets (included with your Experience Tech fee) online. Bring your HuskyCard to use your student tickets or tap in for Student Rush.
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Simple Machines: Poetry, Letterpress, and the Art of the Little Magazine — Exhibit Open Now through March 30
Rozsa Art Galleries A-Space
Presented by Michigan Tech Art

Simple Machines is a two-edition international letterpress poetry magazine founded and edited by Michigan Tech’s M. Bartley Seigel (HU) and featuring original poetry from a diverse array of national and international poets. The publication is funded through a Research Excellence Fund Scholarship & Creativity Grant and produced in collaboration with designer/printers at the Copper Country Community Arts Center (CCCAC) and TYPA Letterpress & Paper Art Centre, Tartu, Estonia.

A-Space Gallery Hours:
Monday-Friday: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. | Saturday: 1-8 p.m.
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Coming Soon!

Don Keranen Jazz Festival featuring Kris Johnson — March 22 and 23

Menu for Thursday (March 14):

• Jerk Chicken Breast with Pineapple Salsa (AG, AD)
• Coconut Ceviche (AG, AD, V)
• Spanish Rice (AG, AD, V)
• Garden Salad (VG)
• Cuban Black Beans (AG, AD, VG)
• Tortillas (Contain Gluten)

Join Carved and Crafted Catering for this week's C3 Luncheon. The luncheon is held each week on Thursday from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the Memorial Union Alumni Lounge (MUB 107). All faculty and staff, along with their guests, are invited.

The C3, or C-Cubed, lunch buffet menus are created and prepared by Chef Luis Delgado and his culinary team. As the name suggests, the meals are meant to foster conversation, community and collegiality. Attendees may bring their lunch instead of purchasing the buffet. Fruit-infused water, coffee, tea and cookies are available free to all attendees.

The buffet lunch is $15 per person. Cash, credit cards and gift cards are accepted. Gift cards can be purchased in the Memorial Union office (MUB 101).

We will be incorporating new food icons moving forward. Please follow the guide listed below and you will see these included into our menus and used in dining facilities across campus.

AG = Avoiding Gluten
AD = Avoiding Dairy
VG = Vegan
V = Vegetarian

Department of Computer Science (CS) tenure-track faculty candidate Michael Walker will give a research presentation on Thursday (March 14) from 1-1:50 p.m. in Rekhi 214.

The title of Walker’s talk is “The Design of Virtual and Mixed Reality Interfaces for Human-Robot Interaction.” Following, a meeting with computer science students will take place from 2-3 p.m. in Rekhi 101.

Read the candidate's bio and talk abstract on the Computing News Blog.

Please join the Rhetoric, Theory, and Culture (RTC) graduate program for a Brown Bag event on Friday (March 15) at noon in the Petersen Library, Walker 319. The presentor is fourth-year RTC Ph.D. student Brilynn Janckila.

Janckila’s presentation is titled “Too Much Pink!: Influencer Barbie and the Mediatization of Little Girlhood.”

From the abstract:
The “girl-method” (Mitchell, 2011) is highly valued in girlhood studies and focuses on adults working with girls to understand more about the girl experience and, hopefully, advocate for them. Typically, the focus is on teen or tween girls (McRobbie, 2007; Ringrose & Harvey, 2013; Rossie, 2015; Willett, 2005), which has provided valuable insight into the girl perspective. However, little girls, or girls ages 5-9, have not yet been heavily included in the field. As part of my dissertation project, I facilitated two focus groups with little girls to explore their perspective on the Barbie's Youtube Vlogs — where Barbie is now an influencer — and what they think about older girlhood in relation to media made for them. In this presentation, I will explore a content analysis of the Barbie Vlogs themselves, as well as themes from the focus groups.

Speaking to girls this age can bring new insight into the figure of the girl. Even at ages 5-9, girls are forming their identity. Barbie represents a specific girlhood — a white, (upper) middle-class, can-do girl. In her vlogs, she demonstrates an interior life focused on self-empowerment and competency, engaging girls in a culture of competency rather than of leisure. Barbie’s modern role-model worthy makeover as a lifestyle influencer is an interesting dichotomy of social forces at play — the unapologetically feminine and capable character is using social media to speak directly to her viewers. My goal with this study is to explore how little girls interpret Barbie’s performance of teenage girlhood. The presentation will also include reflections on the methods, working with girls this age, and recommendations for future research.

The College of Forest Resources and Environmental Science (CFRES) will host a seminar at 12:30 p.m. Thursday (March 14) in Noblet G002 with speaker Jason Keller, Kravis Professor of Integrated Sciences: Ecology, Claremont McKenna College.

The title of Keller's talk is "Microbial reduction of organic matter as a key control of methane production in northern peatland ecosystems."

From the abstract:
Northern peatlands are among the most important ecosystems in the global climate — storing massive amounts of carbon in their soils and emitting the potent greenhouse gas methane to the atmosphere. Methane production in peatlands is regulated by complex interactions between microbial and plant communities, and unraveling this complexity remains a key challenge for understanding peatland-climate feedbacks in the face of ongoing global change. Much of my team’s research over the past decade has focused on the microbial reduction of organic matter, i.e., the use of organic terminal electron acceptors in microbial respiration in northern peatland soils. Our work adds to a growing consensus that this process can be an important pathway of anaerobic decomposition while suppressing methane production in these ecosystems. Ongoing projects are utilizing ‘peat peepers’ to explore how microbial organic matter reduction (and concomitant methane production) respond to global change and are beginning to leverage metabolomic approaches to investigate the organic compounds involved in this process.

Three student-athletes from the Michigan Tech men's basketball team have been selected for All-GLIAC honors:

• Marcus Tomashek has been named to the First Team All-GLIAC.
• Dan Gherezgher has been tabbed Second Team All-GLIAC.
• Josh Terrian was named to the All-GLIAC Defensive Team.

Read about their accomplishments this season at Michigan Tech Athletics.

The GLIAC has selected three members of Michigan Tech women's basketball for First-, Second- and Defensive-Team honors:

• Isabella Lenz is a First Team All-GLIAC honoree for the second year in a row.
• Katelyn Meister earned Second Team All-GLIAC, and was also named to the GLIAC All-Defensive Team. It is her first time receiving both honors.
• Alex Rondorf was also named to the Second Team All-GLIAC for the second time in her career.

Read about their season achievements at Michigan Tech Athletics.

Zhanping You (CEGE/MTTI) is the principal investigator (PI) on a project that has received a $27,000 research and development contract from the Michigan Department of Transportation.

The project is titled "As Needed Asphalt, Concrete, and Unbound Material Laboratory Testing."

Dongzhao Jin (CEGE/MTTI) is the co-PI on this project.

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LouAnn Wurst (SS) is the PI on a project that has received a $28,508 other sponsored activites co-op joint agreement from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Forest Service.

The project is titled "Archaeological Collection Cooperative Management Hiawatha National Forest."

Trista Vick-Majors (BioSci/GLRC) was quoted by Canada’s National Observer, ABC News and MLive in a story exploring how an ongoing lack of winter ice cover could change the Great Lakes. It also touches on Vick-Majors’ project to gather winter-specific lake samples for comparison to summer data, with researchers around the Great Lakes participating in sampling this month. The story was originally published by the Associated Press and has been picked up by over 400 U.S. news outlets.

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Rodney Chimner (CFRES/ESC) was quoted by the Colorado Sun in a story about the town of Silverton’s struggle to balance the handling of its wetlands with its need for housing.

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Zhanping You (CEGE/MTTI) was quoted by the Alpena News in a story about the “big potential” for recycling scrap tires by incorporating them into road pavement. Trial road projects using rubber-modified asphalt are “performing pretty well,” according to You. The story was originally published by Great Lakes Echo.

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Assembly Magazine mentioned Michigan Tech in a story discussing automation as a safe way to cost-effectively disassemble EV battery packs. The story noted MTU’s collaboration with Argonne National Laboratory on a project addressing battery recycling’s cost and material quality issues “by coupling recycling with existing mine waste reclamation efforts.”

Spring 2024 Portrait Sessions by Appointment

Faculty, staff and graduate students can have a complimentary professional portrait taken by University Marketing and Communications (UMC) during one of our spring semester portrait sessions.

• Monday, March 18 — 10 a.m. to noon
• Tuesday, March 19 — 10 a.m. to noon

Portraits will be taken in the UMC Studio, located on the ground floor of the Administration Building (Admin G37). An appointment is required.

Schedule an appointment through our online calendar. You must use your mtu.edu account to schedule an appointment.

• Sign in to the calendar with your mtu.edu account
• Find the portrait session date you want — March 18 or 19
• Click the appointment time you want between 10 a.m. and noon
• Click Save
• Smile!

Portraits will be emailed directly to you three to four weeks after your session.

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Call for Judges: Michigan Tech Design Expo 2024

Interested in supporting our students as they engage in hands-on, discovery-based learning? Consider serving as a distinguished judge at this year’s Design Expo!

Design Expo, scheduled for April 16, showcases pioneering projects crafted by our talented students across various disciplines. The annual event showcases the breadth and depth of undergraduate student innovation at Tech, with more than 100 Enterprise, Senior Design and Capstone projects on display.

As a judge, you'll play a crucial role in supporting student success and fostering a culture of innovation. We encourage all Michigan Tech faculty, graduate students, staff, alumni, industry representatives and community members interested to sign up.

Here's what we need from our judges:

• Attend the Expo: Mark your calendar for April 16 and be present between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. to visit assigned teams and witness their projects firsthand.
  
  
• Review Team Videos: Prior to the Expo, between April 15 and April 16, you'll have the opportunity to review and score assigned team videos via RocketJudge. Your feedback will be instrumental in guiding the students and helping them refine their projects.

By becoming a judge, you'll inspire the next generation of researchers, connect with fellow educators and industry professionals, and make a tangible difference in the lives of our students.

Don't miss this chance to be part of something extraordinary. Join us as a judge at the Michigan Tech Design Expo and let your passion for hands-on learning shine! Learn more and sign up now. For questions, please email designexpo@mtu.edu.

We look forward to seeing you at Design Expo!

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GMES Faculty Candidate Presentation with Wencheng Jin

Department of Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences (GMES) assistant professor candidate Wencheng Jin will give a presentation Monday (March 11) at noon in Dow 610. All are welcome to attend. Virtual attendance is invited via Zoom.

The presentation is titled "The Role of Computational Geomechanics in Energy Transition."

From the abstract:
The global energy landscape is undergoing a significant shift, presenting challenges and opportunities for mining engineers. This transition relies heavily on increasing renewable energy generation and mineral extraction. Geothermal energy extraction, in-situ mining, and bioenergy production offer promising solutions to these challenges, but they require innovative approaches rooted in geomechanics. In this presentation, a numerical scheme will be introduced, combining a nonlocal diffused damage model at the meso-scale with a cohesive zone discrete model at the macro-scale. This scheme, utilizing the Extended Finite Element Method, aims to predict the multi-scale propagation of hydraulic fractures and proppant transport in transversely isotropic porous media relevant for geothermal energy and mineral extraction. Additionally, advancements in machine learning-assisted handling equipment design for bioenergy will be discussed, including the adaptation of soil mechanics constitutive laws for unconventional granular biomass materials, the development of novel Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics code to manage flow disruptions, and the utilization of deep neural networks for data augmentation and surrogate model optimization. The presentation will be concluded with research visions.

Wencheng Jin is a computational scientist at the Energy and Environmental Science & Technology Directorate of Idaho National Laboratory (INL). Before joining INL, he earned his Ph.D. in civil engineering (specializing in geotechnical engineering) from the Georgia Institute of Technology and his bachelor's and master’s degrees in engineering mechanics from Sichuan University. Funded by several offices across the U.S. Department of Energy (e.g., Geothermal Technologies Office, ARPA-E), his research focuses on constitutive modeling of particulate and solid materials, computational multiphysics coupling, multiscale fracture propagation and AI in geosystems. His research has been applied in granular material handling, energy geotechnics and subsurface digitalization. He received many awards and honors throughout his career, including the Best Ph.D. Thesis Award in 2018 from the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Georgia Tech, Selected Future Leader in 2022 from the American Rock Mechanics Association and the Early Career Achievement Award in 2023 from the Energy and Environmental Science & Technology Directorate at INL.

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

Simple Machines: Poetry, Letterpress, and the Art of the Little Magazine Presented by Michigan Tech Art

Monday, March 11, 8 a.m.–8 p.m. | Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts, Rozsa Galleries

Simple Machines is a two-edition, international, letterpress poetry magazine founded and edited by Michigan Tech’s M. Bartley Seigel, funded through a Research Excellence...

Perspectives on Fish Contaminant Studies: Environmental Engineering to Biogeochemistry to Fish Justice

Monday, March 11, 3 p.m. | Great Lakes Research Center (GLRC), 202

Environmental Engineering Graduate Seminar Drs. Judith Perlinger & Noel Urban, Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering

Huskies Group Swim Lessons - Parent & Child Aquatics - Spring 2024 Session 2

Monday, March 11, 5:10–5:50 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 - Spring 2024 Session 2

Monday, March 11, 5:10–5:50 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....