May 20, 2024

The College of Computing is pleased to announce that Yu Cai, professor in the Department of Applied Computing, will be the College’s new associate dean, effective Aug. 1. As associate dean, Cai will provide oversight and leadership with respect to College research and academics.

“Yu has demonstrated expertise in both areas, making him ideally situated for this new combined associate dean role,” said Dennis Livesay, Dave House Dean of Computing.

“My priority in my new new role is to assist the dean in leading our College through the constantly evolving field of computing to ensure we fulfill our mission to be the premier provider of computing talent and innovation to Michigan and the Great Lakes region,” said Cai. “I am committed to creating and maintaining an environment that is welcoming, forward-thinking and inclusive to all students, faculty and staff members.”

Learn more about the new position on the Computing News Blog.

Michigan Tech's faculty trip to Washington, D.C., has a long-standing tradition of connecting researchers to funding agencies and other collaboration opportunities in the nation’s capital city.

New this year, the Research Development (RD) office is helping to plan research theme-focused trips while keeping many of the programmatic staples. With focused trips, we are expecting to have two to three smaller trips per year. We plan for the Fall 2024 DC Trip to have an environment/ecology science research focus. The Spring 2025 DC Trip will have a health focus, supported by the Health Research Institute (HRI).

This fall, the trip has been set for the week of Sept. 16 due to the Association of Ecosystem Research Centers meeting on Sept. 17-18. This conference involves program officer visits as well. We look forward to working with potential participants on the logistics of pulling together an impactful experience.

If you have any interest at all in the Fall 2024 DC Trip, please email Sarah Atkinson at sjbird@mtu.edu.

The first information session will be held next Tuesday (May 28) from noon to 1 p.m. via Zoom. Join to learn more about the trip and how this is a collaborative opportunity to make the trip most impactful for you.

The RD team is looking forward to working with you!

Can you tell the difference between a spam and phishing email? Spam, or junk email, is an unsolicited email that usually tries to sell you something. With spam, you can unsubscribe using a link in the email.

Phishing is an attempt to get information. This can be in the form of an email, social media post or direct message. The attacker will disguise themselves as someone you know or trust, like an employer or financial institution. They may ask you to provide an account ID, password or other sensitive, personal information.

Read more about phishing and email security on the Michigan Tech IT News blog.

If you have questions, we can help. Contact IT at it-help@mtu.edu or call 906-487-1111.

Financial Services and Operations (FSO) has the following reminders on the allowability of various travel expenses, specifically expense aging.

• Travel reimbursement requests (including repayment of cash advances and business meals) submitted more than 60 days after the event/last day of business travel will be taxable income to the traveler (per IRS regulations).
• Travel reimbursement requests (including business meals) submitted more than 120 days after the event/last day of travel are unallowable and are not reimbursable (per IRS regulations). If travel expenses are on the University PCard, they must be coded as A127C-Personal Expense. Accounts Receivable will invoice the employee for the non-reimbursable amount.
• Issued cash advances that have not been submitted on an expense report or repaid more than 120 days after the last day of business travel will be deducted from the recipient's future paycheck.

If you have questions about the travel changes, contact FSO at 906-487-2373 or travel@mtu.edu. For additional information, please visit FSO's University Travel page.

FSO appreciates your assistance and would like to thank you for adhering to our institutional policies and guidelines.

Financial Services and Operations (FSO) would like to provide additional clarity on the revised University Administrative Policy 2.03 Reimbursement of Business Meals.

Student organizations/groups are defined as:

• Registered student organizations (including learning centers)
• Enterprise teams
• Senior Design teams

When students are traveling with staff/faculty:

• Business meals paid for by the faculty/staff are reimbursable.
• Examples of students traveling with staff/faculty (outside of orgs/groups) include research projects and study abroad activities.

When students are traveling without staff/faculty:

• Students may claim per diem.

This policy can be found on the University Policy Office website. If you have questions about the policy, contact Financial Services and Operations at 906-487-2373 or travel@mtu.edu.

FSO appreciates your assistance and would like to thank you for adhering to our institutional policies and guidelines.

A production system maintenance window is scheduled for June 2 from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. The following production services will be unavailable during that time:

• apps.mtu.edu
• Banner
• Banweb
• MyMichiganTech
• ASPIRE
• Course Tools
• OAP Rental System
• Oracle Reports
• UC4/Appworx
• Virtual Cashiering
• WebFocus

If you have any questions or concerns, we can help. Contact us at it-help@mtu.edu or call 906-487-1111.

A signature component of Michigan Tech’s new Essential Education program will be the Essential Education Experience. These experiences are meant to help prepare our students for an ever-changing, dynamic and diverse world. This active, hands-on experience is expected to expand interaction with the greater society (beyond self) and allow for connections among general education courses.

Civic engagement is defined as experiences where students identify issues of public concern, seeking to understand patterns, outcomes of actions and/or complexity. Their experiences will increase their social awareness, global understandings or cultural competencies through experiential learning.

The following proposals for the design and development of 3-credit Essential Education Experience (E3) courses over the summer are the first to be awarded funding as part of the Essential Education program's RFP process. Course descriptions can be found on the Essential Education Newsblog.

The Essential Education leadership team is grateful to our innovative academic teams for leading the development of these signature courses. An updated RFP to develop E3 courses will be released later this summer.

If you have any questions regarding the RFP process and opportunities, please contact Steve Patchin, project manager for Essential Education implementation, at shpatchi@mtu.edu.

Awarded E3 Course Development Proposals:

• Reading the Forest — Tara Bal (CFRES)
• Exploring Language Acquisition and Language Teaching — Estela Mira Barreda (HU)
• Community and Social Problems Essential Education Experience — Susanna Peters (SS)
• History of Hockey Essential Education Experience — Mark Rouleau and Laura Rouleau (both SS)
• Community Archaeology of Energy — Timothy Scarlett (SS)
• Guided Learning for Digital Newcomers — Kay Tislar (CLS) and Charles Wallace (CS)
• Public Policy Lab at Michigan Tech — Adam Wellstead (SS)
• The Documentary Experience — Erin Smith (HU)

Bo Chen (CS) and Niusen Chen ’23 (Ph.D. Computer Science) were mentioned by the Keweenaw Report as the recipients of Michigan Tech’s 2024 Bhakta Rath Research Award. The award is given to a graduating Michigan Tech Ph.D. student and faculty advisor in recognition of work benefiting American industry and society. The story was picked up from a Michigan Tech News Q&A.

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FOX Weather mentioned Michigan Tech in a story about NASA’s 2024 Lunabotics Challenge on May 11-17 in Florida. MTU was among 10 teams that qualified for the competition’s final round, held at the Kennedy Space Center. The story was picked up by Yahoo! News Canada.

University Staff Service Awards

The annual University Staff Service Awards will be held on June 4 in the MUB Ballroom. The University’s president and the Staff Council chair will present awards for five-year increments of service to more than 100 staff members this year. Recent staff retirees are also recognized. Thank you to the Office of the President for their continued support and funding for the Staff Service Awards luncheon and awards.

Congratulations and thank you to our amazing staff for your service and commitment to Michigan Tech. The staff members who will be honored for reaching a five-year anniversary date this fiscal year are listed on the Staff Service Awards 2024 Honorees page.

This year’s luncheon will feature a picnic buffet including hamburgers, veggie burgers, BBQ glazed chicken, coleslaw, potato chips, watermelon and desserts. Tickets are $15 and may be purchased online. Tickets must be purchased by Friday (May 24) at 5 p.m. Please note there is no reserved seating; it is first come, first served. Doors will open at 11:30 a.m. If you are unable to attend the lunch, you may join the awards presentation beginning at approximately 12:15 p.m.

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Summer Youth Programs is Hiring!

Summer Youth Programs (SYP) is looking for dedicated individuals to join our team of counselors as we host nearly a thousand middle and high school students from around the world.

During the day, our students spend time in Michigan Tech classrooms and labs doing hands-on activities to spark curiosity. In the evenings, awesome staff just like you join our participants as they explore the Keweenaw.

Available positions include:

• Experience Counselor
• Operations Assistant
• Residence Counselor
• Weekend Counselor/Chaperone

Come share your passion for our beautiful home and make an impact today. Job descriptions and an application can be found on our website and we’re always happy to chat. Contact us at outreach@mtu.edu, stop by our office in Admin 217 if you're on the Michigan Tech campus or give us a call at 906-487-2219.

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PhD Proposal Defense: Blade Frisch, CS

Ph.D. student Blade Frisch, Department of Computer Science (CS), will present his dissertation proposal today (May 20) at 10 a.m. via Zoom online meeting.

The title of Frisch's proposal is “Designing Augmentative and Alternative Communication for Social and Community Engagement.”

Frisch is advised by Associate Professor Keith Vertanen (CS).

Join the Zoom meeting.

Read the proposal abstract on the Computing News Blog.

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

PhD Proposal: Blade Frisch, Computer Science

Monday, May 20, 10 a.m.

PhD student Blade Frisch, Department of Computer Science, will present his dissertation proposal on Monday, May 20, 2024, at 10 am via Zoom online meeting. The title of the...