June 17, 2024

For the first time ever, the Van Pelt and Opie Library at Michigan Tech will be partnering with the Portage Lake District Library and Houghton Public Schools to bring you an adventurous summer reading challenge! Students, staff, faculty and community members are invited to participate.

Starting today (June 17), stop at the main desk at the library to pick up a snazzy tote bag and summer reading log. Log your reading time and bring the completed log to the Portage Lake District Library (PLDL) in downtown Houghton to get rewards when you reach certain goals through Aug. 24.

You do not need to have a library card with PLDL to participate. All are welcome!

Join Student Leadership and Involvement (SLI) and Residence Education and Housing Services (REHS) for a Juneteenth celebration! We invite you to come and commemorate this significant day in history.

The celebration will take place on Wednesday (June 19) from 1-3 p.m. on the DHH Patio. There will be an array of exciting activities for everyone to enjoy, including delicious food, refreshing drinks, engaging outdoor games and a thrilling trivia contest with fantastic prizes.

Don't miss out on this opportunity to celebrate and learn more about Juneteenth. Mark your calendars and join us for a memorable event!

A.J. Mikus (FM), the facilities manager for the Daniell Heights apartment complex at Michigan Tech, and Courtney Archambeau (SS), in her former role as assistant director of housing operations, collaborated on a Lean kaizen improvement event. They designed the event to improve the student experience of checking out of their apartments, reduce the amount of repairs needed and ensure all damages were properly accounted for.

Watch the video in our Continuous Improvement Blog post to hear about their experience, see how they made the problems visible, and think about how you might apply some of these ideas to your own work.

The Office of Continuous Improvement is available to support your office or service process improvement efforts. Email us at improvement@mtu.edu or submit the Request a Process Improvement form on our website.

Ph.D. in Computer Science student Shiwei Ding will present his dissertation proposal on Thursday (June 20) at 8 a.m. in Rekhi 101 and virtually via Zoom.

The title of Ding’s proposal is “Efficient and privacy-guaranteed training/testing for Deep Neural Networks.”

Ding is advised by Professor Zhenlin Wang and Adjunct Professor Xiaoyong (Brian) Yuan of Clemson University.

Join the Zoom meeting.

Read the proposal abstract on the Computing News Blog.

Job Posting for Monday, June 17, 2024

Staff and faculty job descriptions are available on the Human Resources website. For more information regarding staff positions, call 906-487-2280 or email humanresources@mtu.edu. For more information regarding faculty positions, contact the academic department in which the position is posted.

Essential Education Experience Manager, Associate Provost for Undergraduate Education. Apply online.

Michigan Technological University is an Equal Opportunity Educational Institution/Equal Opportunity Employer that provides equal opportunity for all, including protected veterans and individuals with disabilities.

Accommodations are available. If you require any auxiliary aids, services, or other accommodations to apply for employment, or for an interview, at Michigan Technological University, please notify the Human Resources office at 906-487-2280 or humanresources@mtu.edu.

Simon Carn (GMES/EPSSI) is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $35,613 research and development grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

The project is titled "Continuation of Multi-Decadal Global SO2 and NO2 Earth Science Data Records."

This is a potential five-year project.

NASA mentioned Michigan Tech’s Planetary Surface Technology Development Lab as one of three teams that “performed exceptionally well” in the excavation portion of the final round of the Break the Ice Lunar Challenge. Along with the two prize-winning teams, NASA invited the PSTDL to use the thermal vacuum chambers at its Marshall Space Flight Center to continue testing and development.

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John Jaszczak (Museum/Physics) was pictured and Michigan Tech’s A. E. Seaman Mineral Museum was mentioned in the “outtakes” section in the printed edition of the latest Nature Conservancy Magazine (issue No. 2 for 2024). Photographer Michael George visited the museum and snapped the photo of Jaszczak in his office while visiting the Keweenaw Peninsula for the magazine’s “Wild North” article about the Keweenaw Heartlands.

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Portage Lake Golf Course general manager Erik Crowley was interviewed by the Daily Mining Gazette for an article about upgrades at the course’s driving range, clubhouse, and Par and Grill lounge.

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Crain’s Grand Rapids Business mentioned Michigan Tech in a story about the future of the state’s electric boating grant program, begun in 2023 with the Fresh Coast Maritime Challenge. Tech received $50,000 to study charging infrastructure for electric boats and develop a playbook to bolster it.

Copper Shores Activates Sexual Assault Hotline

Copper Shores Community Health Foundation’s 24/7 sexual assault hotline for all residents of the Copper Country is now live. Victims of sexual assault living in Baraga, Houghton, Keweenaw and Ontonagon counties can call the hotline at any time for a variety of help.

This service is offered through the Michigan Coalition to End Domestic & Sexual Violence. The dispatchers are trained specifically to help victims of sexual assault, and keep up to date on the latest coping techniques and laws. If a victim chooses, they can be connected to local law enforcement, as well as the professional advocates and services at Copper Shores Victim Support, including an on-call advocate who is available at all times.

To access the Sexual Assault Hotline call 906-482-5797. For more information, visit coppershores.org/hotline.

The former crisis line has closed due to low call volume. Other services and programming at Copper Shores remain operational. If you or someone else is in immediate danger, call 911. If you or someone else is considering suicide, call or text 988.

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CGS Workshop: 'How NSF’s New Mentoring Requirements Can Improve Your Research Agenda'

The Research Development (RD) team is promoting this upcoming Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) virtual workshop broadly on campus. It will be held online tomorrow (June 18) from 2-3:30 p.m. ET and is free to attend.

The National Science Foundation's (NSF's) mentorship plan requirements are broadening to include graduate students in addition to postdoctoral positions, affecting a much greater proportion of proposals that Michigan Tech principal investigators (PIs) submit to NSF. The workshop will provide detailed information about the requirements and resources for mentoring graduate students. 

Someone from the RD team will be attending this event. And, while the intended audience is faculty and PIs, we think employees in research support roles at Michigan Tech can become better prepared to assist researchers by attending as well.

Register for the free June 18 workshop.

From the Council of Graduate Schools' workshop description:
"In this 90-minute virtual workshop, participants will learn about NSF’s new graduate student mentoring requirements for grants submitted on or after May 22, 2024. NSF leaders will begin the event with information about the new requirements, which apply to any grant that provides support to graduate students. Next, disciplinary society leaders and faculty with distinguished records as researchers and mentors will provide strategies and examples for improving both mentoring and research outcomes."

The CGS notes that tomorrow's workshop is the second in a series designed to prepare institutions and researchers for the new mentoring requirements. A recording of the first webinar, "NSF's New Mentoring Requirements for Graduate Students," is available to view online.

Tomorrow's workshop speakers:

• Jacqueline Huntoon, Division Director, Division of Graduate Education, National Science Foundation
• Daniel Denecke, Lead Program Director, Innovations in Graduate Education (IGE) Program, National Science Foundation
• Corrie Kuniyoshi, Senior Portfolio Manager, Student Experiences Office, American Chemical Society and PI of NSF IGE grant, Impact Indicators and Instruments for Individual Development Plans (IDPs)
• Adam Matzgar, Charles G. Overberger Collegiate Professor of Chemistry and Macromolecular Science & Engineering, University of Michigan
• Ricardo Cortez, Pendergraft William Larkin Duren Professor, School of Science and Engineering, Tulane University
• Ruth Varner, Professor, Earth Science, University of New Hampshire

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Call for Applications: IDEAhub Course Innovation Grants

Are you interested in making changes to one of your fall courses? (Examples include designing new assignments, redesigning activities, restructuring the course, and incorporating multiple forms of assessment of student learning.) Do you lack the time, resources or motivation to innovate?

IDEAhub can help. We have eight mini grants available in Track B to invest in your ideas. Participants will receive $1,500 upon completion of the program. Please take five minutes to apply using the IDEAhub Course Innovation Grant Application. Applications are due June 24.

Mini grants are open to instructors in any discipline, any department. We are particularly interested in projects that focus on incorporating active learning, group activities, new ways of assessing student learning and/or changing classroom culture.

This four-week summer program will provide you with resources, community, deadlines and funding to help you move forward on your project. For those who know that you want to change an aspect of your course, but don’t know how to change it, we will provide an ideation session to help you come up with possibilities. You can participate in person or remotely. We will provide community support for your project via weekly office hours (in person and virtually) where you can check in, get help or co-work.

Tentative Schedule:

• Week 1 —
  • Kickoff: Tuesday, July 9, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
  • Ideation Session: Thursday, July 11, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. 
• Weeks 2-3 — Office hours to check in, get help or co-work. Participants should plan to attend one check-in per week, but may attend both. All sessions are held in person and via Zoom.
  
  • Office Hours:
    • Mondays, July 15 and 22, from 10-10:50 a.m.
    • Thursdays, July 18 and 25, from 10-10:50 a.m.
• Week 4 — 
  
  • Final Check-In/Work Session: Monday, July 29, from 10-10:50 a.m. 
  • Debrief: Thursday, Aug. 1, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Deliverables:

• Copy of new assignment/syllabus/demo/etc.
• Implementation in a course in fall 2024.
• Written reflection on the outcomes at the end of the fall semester.
• Collaborate with other participants to share your project and lessons learned at a Lunch and Learn.
• Participants will be encouraged to also share their project at next year’s UP Teaching and Learning Conference.

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Library's Third Floor Closed for Carpet Cleaning

The Van Pelt and Opie Library is undergoing carpet cleaning on our third floor this week, beginning today (June 17). While the library will remain open for regular summer hours, the third floor will not be accessible during this time. If you need to access materials from the third floor, please place a hold through the library catalog using your library account or by visiting the Circulation Desk to put in your request.

If you have other questions or need assistance, please email library@mtu.edu, call 906-487-2508 or visit the Circulation Desk.

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

Huskies Swim Training - Summer 2024 Session 1

Monday, June 17, 3:30–5:00 p.m. | Student Development Complex (SDC), Pool

Join us for a summer of swimming in Huskies Swim Training! This training program provides additional attention and competitive guidance to proficient swimmers ages 6-17...

Pine Mountain Music Festival Presents: The Bergonzi Trio

Monday, June 17, 7:30 p.m. |

The Bergonzi Trio featuring Scott Flavin (violin), Ross Harbaugh (cello), and Lindsay Garritson (piano) returns to the Pine Mountain Music Festival CONTENT GUIDANCE