March 19, 2024

When Ron Staley ’77 ’80 (AAS Civil Engineering Technology, B.S. Business) encounters a historic building fallen into disrepair, he sees opportunity.

Staley leads one of the country's most respected historic preservation teams at The Christman Company, where he's senior vice president and executive director of historic preservation. For nearly four decades, he and his team have restored architecturally significant structures, preserving them as cornerstones of U.S. history.

With each project he tackles, he's "taking a building apart and putting it back together for future generations."

Read about Staley’s career and his latest project — Michigan Central Station, a grand old rail station in Detroit that will soon be a 30-acre walkable innovation hub — in our 2024 Michigan Tech Magazine.

The College of Engineering (COE) Dean Search Committee has invited four semifinalist candidates to Michigan Tech for on-campus interviews.

Candidate 4 Open Forum Presentation:
Thursday, March 21, at 2 p.m. in Chem Sci 102
The fourth and final candidate's interview will be held Thursday and Friday (March 21 and 22). The candidate will present their administrative philosophy and vision for COE at an open forum at 2 p.m. Thursday in Chem Sci 102.

Information on all candidates, interview dates and open forum information can be viewed at the Academic Affairs Dean Search page. A Michigan Tech login is required to view resumes and provide comment. The open forums will be video recorded and posted to the website for viewing.

The COE Dean Search Committee encourages the campus community to interact with each candidate during the interviews and provide feedback by completing the anonymous comment form provided at the website. Feedback forms will close at 8 a.m. next Tuesday (March 26).

The College of Forest Resources and Environmental Science (CFRES) Dean Search Committee has invited four semifinalist candidates to Michigan Tech for on-campus interviews.

Candidate 2 Open Forum Presentation:
Thursday, March 21, at 4 p.m. in Dow 642
The second candidate’s interview will be held Thursday and Friday (March 21 and 22). The candidate will present their administrative philosophy and vision for CFRES at an open forum Thursday at 4 p.m. in Dow 642.

Information on all candidates, interview dates and open forum information can be viewed at the Academic Affairs Dean Search page. A Michigan Tech login is required to view resumes and provide comment. The open forums will be video recorded and posted to the website for viewing.

The CFRES Dean Search Committee encourages the campus community to interact with each candidate during the interviews and provide feedback by completing the anonymous comment form provided at the website. Feedback forms will be available for 72 hours following the last candidate's visit.

For fall 2024 and spring 2025, the Institute of Computing and Cybersystems (ICC) and Great Lakes Research Center (GLRC) will be supporting members with high research activity by providing funding for faculty fellowships.

The fellowships will last a semester, providing funds to assist faculty in reducing course load, enabling an opportunity to focus on developing new research and funding proposals. Cost-share with home departments or college is encouraged and will be considered in the review scoring.

More information can be found on the application PDF or on the ICC's Faculty Fellowships website.

Application reviews will begin on April 15. Late submissions will be reviewed pending funding availability. Questions and application submissions can be emailed to glrc-icc-admin-l@mtu.edu.

The Soyring Foundation Scholarship is available exclusively for Pavlis Honors College (PHC) students through a generous gift from an alumnus of Michigan Tech with a passion for education and innovation.

The $1,000 scholarship is available to students expressing research and innovation interests in any of the three areas: water quality management, renewable energy, or solutions to prevent and cure cancer.

If you are interested in applying, please fill out the brief Soyring Scholarship Application form. A short essay is required and it can be uploaded as a Word document or PDF file. The application submission deadline is midnight on April 8.

We encourage all eligible students to apply and also kindly request your assistance in sharing this information with peers who may excel in these areas.

For more information about Pavlis Honors College and to stay updated on future opportunities, visit our website.

The University Senate will convene Meeting 699 at 5:30 p.m. tomorrow (March 20) in Dow 642.

Those within the University community unable to attend in person have the option to attend via Zoom. Please note: You will need to log in to your MTU Zoom account to join the virtual meeting.

Senators are responsible for making their constituents aware of the agenda for this meeting. Senators who are unable to attend should arrange for their alternates to attend in their place.

View the agenda to Meeting 699.

Ever thought of using your skills and expertise to solve various transportation challenges? Maybe you should join the Michigan Tech Transportation Institute (MTTI) for our general meeting luncheon next Wednesday (March 27) in the MUB Alumni Lounge A (MUB 107A) from 12-1 p.m. to enjoy good food and information on current/upcoming transportation research opportunities.

The luncheon is open to all interested. Join us in person or via Zoom.

This session:

• MTTI Director Pasi Lautala (CEGE) will provide an overview of the institute and updates on current research happenings.
• Lautala, Colin Brooks (MTRI) and Tim Collings (CTT) will also provide information on getting involved in committees and the annual conference of the Transportation Research Board (TRB), part of the National Academies of Sciences.
• We will recap a recent ARPA-I workshop. This is a new program that builds on other ARPA programs (like ARPA-E). We expect the RFPs to come out fairly soon.

Please complete the MTTI General Membership Meeting form by tomorrow (March 20) to confirm your participation, so we can get a proper luncheon count.

Michigan Tech IT will be performing routine quarterly maintenance on the Fischer/mylogin system on Sunday (March 24) from 8 a.m. to noon. During this maintenance, password resets and mylogin.mtu.edu will be unavailable.

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

In this episode of the "IPEC Presents" podcast, the Institute for Policy, Ethics, and Culture (IPEC) examines our new season’s theme of ethics from a different perspective.

Mark Rouleau (SS) brings with him insights from an IPEC-sponsored trip to Brazil. Rouleau participated in the Summer School on AI technologies for trust, interoperability, autonomy and resilience in Industry 4.0. The summer school was a one-week hands-on training hosted at the University of São Paulo focused on using automation techniques in multi-agent system (MAS) environments to solve practical industrial problems. Topics covered through this hackathon-style training included the following: Web of Things, knowledge graphs, multi-agent systems, and responsible and trustworthy AI.

Check out the podcast on Spotify!

The Michigan Tech Figure Skating Club and Copper Country Skating Academy (CCSA) are happy to announce their annual spring skating show, "Icy Enchantment." The show will be in the John MacInnes Student Ice Arena on Saturday (March 23) at 7 p.m. and Sunday (March 24) at 2 p.m.

Many skaters with a Michigan Tech connection are featured, including students in the Michigan Tech Figure Skating Club, sons and daughters of our faculty and staff, and faculty and staff from the University. "Icy Enchantment" features a magical selection of music from the past and present. It is guaranteed to be an entertaining show filled with jumps, spins and lots of smiling skaters.

Tickets are available from any CCSA member or at the door. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students or seniors. Children under 5 are admitted free.

Jeffrey S. Allen, John F. and Joan M. Calder Professor of Mechanical Engineering, associate chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics (ME-EM) and ME-EM's director of undergraduate studies, has been invited to present and participate in a panel session at the upcoming spring meeting of the Committee on Biological and Physical Sciences in Space (CBPSS), being held today through Thursday (March 19-21) hosted by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in Washington, D.C.

The plenary session is scheduled to begin today at 9 a.m. and will be livestreamed via Vimeo. Allen's panel session starts at 1:15 p.m. ET.

The CBPSS committee is eager to hear Allen’s insights on the key science questions surrounding the theme "Probing Phenomena Hidden by Gravity or Terrestrial Limitations," with a particular emphasis on thermal physics in microgravity and its wide-ranging implications for space exploration. Allen will contribute to a panel addressing unique scientific inquiries pertinent to space exploration.

The meeting is part of the 2024 Space Science Week, a joint meeting of the discipline committees of the Space Studies Board of the U.S. National Academies, in collaboration with the Board on Physics and Astronomy and the Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board. These groups will convene at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C., to discuss advances and challenges in space and Earth science and exploration.

Michigan Tech hockey's Logan Pietila and Max Koskipirtti have been named CCHA Players of the Week. Pietila is the CCHA Forward of the Week and Koskipirtti is the CCHA Rookie of the Week.

Pietila scored twice in the Huskies' CCHA Mason Cup Semifinal win over Minnesota State. He tied the game with a penalty shot goal with less than five minutes left in the third period and then scored the game-winner with 9.1 seconds remaining in regulation.

Koskipirtti registered a pair of assists in MTU's victory over the Mavericks. He had the primary assist on Tech's first goal by Jack Works in the second period, and also added the primary assist on Kash Rasmussen's third-period power-play goal. Koskipirtti was also a key member of the penalty-killing unit, which went 2-for-2.

Read more at Michigan Tech Athletics.

With overtime looming in the CCHA Mason Cup Semifinals, Michigan Tech hockey's Logan Pietila — the nation's leader in game-winning goals — ended it in regulation, scoring in the game's final seconds to lift Michigan Tech over Minnesota State 4-3 on Saturday (March 16) at the John MacInnes Student Ice Arena.

The Huskies were down 3-2 late in the third period when the Mavericks were whistled for covering the puck in the crease. Pietila took the penalty shot for MTU, tying the game with 4:32 remaining. With 9.1 seconds on the clock, he scored again — his 13th career game-winner.

With the win, No. 3 seed Michigan Tech advances to the CCHA Mason Cup Championship Game at Bemidji State on Friday (March 22), with face-off scheduled for 8:07 p.m. ET. The top-seeded Beavers defeated Lake Superior State 4-1 to advance to the championship.

Read more at Michigan Tech Athletics.

The Michigan Tech track and field team hosted a small indoor track meet at the SDC Multipurpose Room to serve as a rust buster ahead of the beginning of the outdoor track and field season on Saturday (March 23).

The Ice Melter Open showcased seven events — mostly distance races, but also pole vault, where Anna Schueller cleared 11-10, setting a new University record.

"It felt like it was important to get our season started earlier than usual, even if it was in a slightly unconventional way this year," head track and field coach Robby Young said. "Our hope is that we're a little sharper the first time we get onto an outdoor track and against stiffer competition than today. Anna Schueller breaking the school record in the pole vault is great after how she's battled during the offseason."

Read more at Michigan Tech Athletics.

Thursday (March 21)
• Nordic Skiing at SuperTour Finals & Spring National Championships (Duluth, Minnesota)

Friday (March 22)
• Women's Tennis vs. Saginaw Valley State, 10 a.m. at Gates Tennis Center
• Hockey at Bemidji State, 8:07 p.m. on Mix 93 WKMJ & FloHockey

Saturday (March 23)
• Nordic Skiing at SuperTour Finals & Spring National Championships (Duluth, Minnesota)

Sunday (March 24)
• Nordic Skiing at SuperTour Finals & Spring National Championships (Duluth, Minnesota)

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Athletics News
Read more in the MTU Athletics weekly update.

Iosif Pinelis (Math) is the author of a paper published in the journal Electronic Communications in Probability.

The paper is titled "Asymptotics of the rate function in the large deviation principle for sums of independent identically distributed random variables."

Lindsay Hiltunen (VPOL) was interviewed by WJMN Local 3 in a St. Patrick’s Day story highlighting the history and heritage of Irish immigrants in the Copper Country.

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WLUC TV6 covered Ph.D. student Yingtong Tan (civil engineering) being awarded an Outstanding Student Traffic Safety Achievement Award by the Governor’s Traffic Safety Advisory Commission for her research on the safety challenges posed by highway rail-grade crossings. Tan was presented with the award last Wednesday (March 13) in East Lansing.

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Huskies Curl curling club members Gracie Kohn, Rese Elza, Bryce Doering, Tyler Magnuson, and Noah Patterson were mentioned by the Daily Mining Gazette in a story about their third-place finish at the 2024 U.S. College Championships, held March 8-10 in Rice Lake, Wisconsin.

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Michigan Tech hockey’s Isaac Gordon and Joe Shawhan (ATH) were quoted by the Daily Mining Gazette in a feature story about Gordon’s CCHA Rookie of the Year award.

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The Voice in Sterling Heights, Michigan, mentioned Michigan Tech’s Mind Trekkers traveling road show in a story recapping St. Clair County Community College’s second annual STEM Fest. Mind Trekkers brought hands-on STEM demonstrations and exhibits to the festival, which drew more than 5,000 attendees March 9.

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Rider Magazine mentioned Michigan Tech in a story about an autumn motorcycle ride through the Upper Peninsula, which featured a stop to see the famed Paulding Light. The story noted MTU students’ debunking of the ghost story, which was featured in a 2010 Michigan Tech News story.

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The Department of Physics was mentioned by the Keweenaw Report in a story previewing the Upper Peninsula Dark Sky Festival at the Keweenaw Dark Sky Park on April 11-13.

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The Daily Mining Gazette covered the Western U.P. STEM Fair and Festival, held Saturday (March 16) at Michigan Tech. The event featured 40 projects from students in grades 4-8 from across the Western U.P.

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The Portland Beacon mentioned Michigan Tech in a story about the sale of Portland Products, a manufacturer of mechanical assemblies for automotive and heavy truck customers located in Portland, Michigan. One of the new owner-operators is Rick Slater ’03 (B.S. Mechanical Engineering).

La Peña Spanish Conversation Hour

Join us today (March 19) for La Peña! Come unwind and meet new people at the Spanish Conversation Hour, all while you refresh your Spanish!

Everybody is welcome. We will meet from 5-6 p.m. in the HDMZ (Humanities Digital Media Zone), Walker 120A.

And don't forget to add to your calendar the Last Peña of the semester: April 2.

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Celebrate Nowruz, the Persian New Year

Spring has officially sprung, giving way to a new season. In addition to the new season, the Iranian Community at Michigan Tech is celebrating Nowruz, the Persian New Year, on Sunday (March 24) from 5-9 p.m. in the MUB Ballroom. This event will be Michigan Tech's ninth Nowruz celebration, featuring a banquet, live Persian music by the multicultural music band and stand-up comedy by Tehran, followed by an after-party.

We, the Iranian Community at Michigan Tech, are honored to invite everyone to join us at this festive event. Tickets will be sold in the MUB Commons tomorrow, Thursday and Friday (March 20-22), from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. each day or until we sell out. Student tickets are $15 and nonstudent tickets are $25.

View our event flyer.

Nowruz means "new day," the exact astronomical beginning of spring and the first day of the new year in the Persian calendar. Iranians, along with many countries across the Middle East, Central Asia, the Caucasus and beyond, celebrate this day as a day of positive transformation, in a sense paralleling the transition from the cold, dark days of winter to the warmer and brighter days of springtime.

In Iran, Nowruz ushers in a celebratory period of two weeks, in which families take part in cleaning their homes, visiting relatives and sharing festive meals and gifts. Families traditionally lay out a “haft-seen,” or a selection of seven symbolic items each beginning with the letter S, including fried fruit, sprouts or grasses, and spices. The Iranian Community at MTU will present a haft-seen at the Van Pelt and Opie Library.

Nowruz was recognized by the U.N. in 2009 as a tradition of intangible cultural heritage that “promotes values of peace and solidarity between generations and within families, as well as reconciliation and neighborliness,” according to the U.N.

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Tick Crowdsourcing Project Returning for Second Year

Tick Talk, the crowdsourcing tick collection project conducted last year at Michigan Tech, will run for a second year in 2024. Tick collection will start early this year due to warm weather.

MTU's Genomic Sequencing Lab wants ticks from you, your family and your pets. The goal of this project is to identify the prevalence of tick-borne illnesses in the Copper Country. Please bring any ticks you find to one of two collection boxes on the Michigan Tech campus:

• U. J. Noblet Forestry Building — Main Entrance
• Great Lakes Research Center — First Floor

Current Results
Results from the community tick submission so far are available on the Tick Talk Dashboard. If you have any questions, please contact lab lead Aimee Marceau at ahmarcea@mtu.edu.

How to Remove and Preserve Ticks

1. Use clean, fine-tipped tweezers to grasp the tick as close to the skin’s surface as possible.
2. Pull upward with steady, even pressure. Don’t twist or jerk the tick; this can cause its mouth parts to break off and remain in the skin. If this happens, remove the mouth parts with tweezers. If you cannot remove the mouth easily with tweezers, leave it alone and let the skin heal.
3. After removing the tick, thoroughly clean the bite area and your hands with rubbing alcohol or soap and water.
4. Never crush a tick with your fingers. Dispose of a live tick by:
   1. Placing it in a sealed plastic storage bag. Multiple ticks from the same location can be placed in the same bag.
   2. Once the tick is sealed inside the plastic storage bag, bring it to a drop-off point within eight hours or place the bag with the tick in a freezer until dropping it off at Michigan Tech.
5. Follow the directions at the drop-off site to ensure the tick is properly preserved.

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

Tuesday, March 19, 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...

Faculty, Staff, Graduate Student Portrait Session (by appointment)

Tuesday, March 19, 10 a.m.–12 p.m. | Administration and Student Services Building, Ground Floor Photography Studio G30

Faculty, staff, and graduate students can have a complimentary professional portrait taken by University Marketing and Communications (UMC). WHEN: March WHAT TIME: 10:00...

Talk About It Tuesday: Informational interviews

Tuesday, March 19, 12:00–12:45 p.m. | Administration and Student Services Building, 220 Career Services

Bring in your lunch and have a conversation about informational interviews and how to ask for one.

Psy/HF3999

Tuesday, March 19, 3:30–4:20 p.m. | Fisher Hall, 101

Job Search and Grad School Search

Adult Huskies Swim Lessons Spring 2024 Session 2

Tuesday, March 19, 5–6 p.m. | Student Development Complex (SDC), Pool

Adult Huskies Swim Lessons provides aquatic education for the beginner to the intermediate swimmer who is looking to become more comfortable in the water and learn the...

Adult Huskies Swim Training Spring 2024 Session 2

Tuesday, March 19, 5–6 p.m. | Student Development Complex (SDC), Pool

Adult Huskies Swim Training provides additional attention and competitive guidance to swimmers ages 18 and older who are looking to improve their swimming skills and fitness...

La Peña: Spanish Conversation Hour

Tuesday, March 19, 5–6 p.m. | Walker Arts and Humanities Center, HDMZ 120A

Please join us today for la Peña. Come unwind, meet new people, and play board games all while you refresh your Spanish! It's a great opportunity to practice and improve your...

NCSA General Meeting

Tuesday, March 19, 6–7 p.m. | Chem-Sci 101

Join NCSA in their weekly meeting, where we talk about news from the Tech industry, give updates on team projects, and have guest speakers from industry talk about what they...