October 30, 2024

Save the Date: Research Day 2024 will be held on Dec. 18 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the Memorial Union Building.

Everyone is invited to join us for a time of learning, inspiration and networking as we look toward the future of research at Michigan Tech.

Please register to attend by Dec. 10.

We encourage participants to attend in person for the best experience, and we also plan to, where practical, provide hybrid options and virtual networking opportunities for anyone who needs to attend remotely. A full agenda with more details and a list of sessions with hybrid options will be published soon.

Any questions should be addressed to rd-l@mtu.edu.

This past Saturday, Oct. 26, over 540 Michigan Tech Huskies dispersed across the Keweenaw to Make a Difference in our community. While hour updates are still being collected from participants, our early numbers indicate nearly 2,000 hours of community service were invested in the local area.

This year, students got to engage in a wide variety of projects at 66 different Make a Difference Day service sites:

• Splitting wood with Little Brothers Friends of the Elderly
• Clearing up several local cemeteries
• Visiting with animals and cleaning pens at the Copper Country Humane Society
• Removing invasive plants with KISMA (Keweenaw Invasive Species Management Area)
• Organizing storage at the Barbara Kettle Gundlach Shelter Home
• Dating and weighing food at the Husky Food Access Network (FAN)
• Staining a ramp at BHK Child Development
• Winterizing the KBIC Community Garden with the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community
• Raking leaves for local community members
• Removing nails and other debris from Stanton Township Park (Breakers Beach)
• Trail maintenance projects with the Swedetown Trails Club, Keweenaw Land Trust, and the North Country National Scenic Trail (NCT)
• Building Michigan Tech's broomball rinks for the upcoming season
• Decorating for Trunk or Treat at Saints Peter & Paul Lutheran Church

Thank you to the service sites who welcomed and supported our students this weekend! Save the date for a project you need assistance with next year — Make a Difference Day 2025 will be held on Oct. 25!

Assistant Professor Mazi Erfani (CEGE) has been appointed as a new editorial board member of the American Society of Civil Engineering (ASCE) Journal of Management in Engineering (JME).

JME is a premier journal in the field of management and engineering within the civil engineering discipline. Over the past years, the journal has boasted the highest impact factor and cite score among all ASCE journals.

We'd like to thank all who participated and encouraged students to present at the American Chemical Society (ACS) Upper Peninsula Local Section Student Research Symposium (SRS). This year's event was held on Oct. 26 at Northern Michigan University.

Graduate students receiving awards were:

• First Place — Shaoqin Chen (MTU, Materials Science and Engineering)
• Second Place — Adonis Amoli (MTU, Chemistry)
• Third Place — Anandhu Krishnan (MTU, Chemistry)
• Honorable Mention — Adenike Olowolagba (MTU, Chemistry)

Please congratulate the students — and we hope to see you at next year's events!

The Student Research Symposium is sponsored by the ACS Upper Peninsula Local Section, Michigan Tech's College of Engineering and Department of Chemistry, Northern Michigan University, and Lake Superior State University.

Financial Services and Operations (FSO) will periodically be sharing information regarding a specific topic to increase awareness and knowledge in an “FSO — Did You Know?” article. If there is an FSO topic that you’d like to learn more about, please email fso@mtu.edu.

University Invoicing
University invoices (non-research) over $100 should be billed through the University’s Accounts Receivable invoicing process.

This allows for:

• Consistent invoices across the University.
• One central location for calls and questions.
• The Cashier’s Office to quickly match payments with vendors to properly process payments.
• Vendors to pay online.
• Automated tracking.
• Options for further collection action if nonpayment occurs.

We recommend that Request for Invoice forms be submitted within two weeks after the service has been provided in order to allow the vendor to submit payment in a timely manner.

The directions for requesting an invoice can be found on the Instructions - Request for Invoice PDF.

The Request for Invoice form is also available online as a PDF.

If you have additional questions, please reach out to mtuar@mtu.edu.

It is already time to begin preparing for Winter Carnival 2025, hosted by the Blue Key National Honor Society at Michigan Technological University. Blue Key is responsible for many of the events that make up Winter Carnival, one of these being the Royalty Coronation!

We are looking for faculty volunteers who would be interested in being a preliminary judge for this year's Royalty candidates. Preliminary judging will take place on Nov. 16 beginning at 8 a.m. in the Wads Cherry Room (Wads 138W). The length of the preliminary judging will depend on the number of candidates, but will run no later than 2 p.m. Lunch will be provided. In addition, you will also receive two free tickets to the Winter Carnival coronation, scheduled for Feb. 1 at 7 p.m. in the Rozsa.

If this sounds fun, but the date does not work for you, we are also looking for finalist judges on Jan. 18 from 9 a.m. to noon. Lunch and free coronation tickets will also be provided for this date!

If you are interested and able to commit, please email bkroyalty@mtu.edu no later than Sunday, Nov. 3.

The Graduate Student Government (GSG) is hosting a Halloween Party — join us for a Spooktacular Halloween Bash!

Event Details:

• What: GSG Halloween Party
• When: Thursday, Oct. 31, from 6-8 p.m.
• Where: Grad Commons
• Dress Code: Halloween-themed attire or colors (orange, black, purple and green).

Activities include a costume contest (prizes for winners!), campfire, Halloween-themed snacks/drinks, and the chance to strike a pose with our spooky decor!

Costume Contest Categories:

• Master of Disguise: Best overall
• Bone-Chilling: Spookiest look
• Wickedly Hilarious: Funniest costume

Don't miss out on a night of frightful fun! Check our flyer for more information.

If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to reach out to gsgsocial@mtu.edu.

Organized by the Graduate Student Government.

Join the William G. Jackson Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) every Thursday from 2:30-3:30 p.m. in Library 243 for casual conversation over your favorite beverage from Velodrome (compliments of the CTL), where educators from across campus can come together to exchange ideas, thoughts and experiences related to teaching.

This week, our faculty fellows will be joining us! Matt Barron (EF), Teresa Woods (Math) and Aneet Narendranath (MAE). Interested in making some small changes to your course but not sure where to start? Our faculty fellows would love to chat with you about teaching strategies.

Connections Over Coffee is an open, informal space to share teaching ideas, learn from each other and collaborate — no agenda or presentations, just rich conversation! Come connect, relax and enjoy some time with colleagues.

Hope you can join us!

The next Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) Graduate Seminar Speaker will present at 4 p.m. tomorrow, Oct. 31, in MEEM 112.

James Gibert will present “Mechanical Metamaterials Seeking Synergy Dynamic Performance and Sensing through Configuration, Composition and Programmability.”

Gibert’s research lies at the intersection of dynamics, smart materials and manufacturing. His work is supported by organizations ranging from the National Science Foundation, the Army Research Lab, John Deere Inc. and Wabash International to the International Safe Transit Association.

The Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) is hosting a seminar presented by Amit Shyam, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, from 1-2 p.m. tomorrow, Oct. 31, in M&M 610.

Shyam will present “Design of Creep Resistant Aluminum Alloys.”

From the abstract:
A variety of applications demand lightweight aluminum alloys that are creep resistant in the 250-450°C temperature range. Two recent developments in the design of creep resistant aluminum alloys will be described in this presentation. The first development is associated with design of creep resistant cast aluminum alloys. Cast AlCuMnZr (ACMZ) alloys with stabilized θ′-Al2Cu phase microstructures have been gaining interest in recent years. ACMZ alloys have improved tensile response due to strengthening of grain bulk to 350°C by θ′ enriched microstructures but their creep response at low to intermediate stresses is demonstrated to be controlled by grain boundary microstructures. We will present an alloy design strategy wherein coarsening resistant Co, Ni and Fe rich phases in the grain boundary region impede grain boundary sliding at 300°C. The resulting Co-, Ni- and Fe- containing ACMZ alloys are among the most creep resistant cast aluminum alloys reported. The second development is associated with design of creep resistant additively manufactured aluminum alloys. A specific new composition in AlCeNiMnZr alloy with thermally stable microstructure and high-volume fraction of dispersoids with exceptional creep resistance to 400°C will be presented. In situ neutron diffraction experiments demonstrate that Orowan strengthening from dispersoids determines the creep resistance of the alloy. The two recent developments underline opportunities for modifying bulk and interfacial microstructures of aluminum alloys in order to enhance their creep resistance.

Shyam is distinguished R&D staff member and group leader of the Alloy Behavior and Design Group within the Materials Science and Technology Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). He received an undergraduate degree in metallurgical and materials engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur in 1997 and a doctorate in materials science and engineering from Michigan Technological University in 2002. From 2002 to 2004, he was a joint postdoc at the University of Michigan and Ford Research Laboratories.

Shyam joined ORNL in 2004 as a postdoctoral researcher. His current research interests include mechanical behavior of materials and design of alloys for structural applications. He has published extensively in international journals in these areas.

Job Posting for Wednesday, Oct. 30, 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.

Research Technician I, Great Lakes Research Center. 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.

Tim Havens (CS/GLRC/ICC), along with graduate students Mohamed Salem (mechatronics) and Kevin Li (mechanical engineering), attended the Robust AI Test Event (RAITE), held at the Muscatatuck Training Center near Butlerville, Indiana, on Oct. 21-25.

The weeklong event included teams from across the nation who tested autonomy and artificial intelligence algorithms. Havens, Salem and Li demonstrated how their autonomous marine vessel could be used in a search and rescue scenario in a flooded urban area.

The event was sponsored by the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division (NSWC Crane).

Travis White (GLRC) was quoted by Cottage Life in a story about Michigan Tech researchers piloting the uncrewed vessel Armada 8 as part of the Lakebed 2030 initiative. White discussed how the project aims to update outdated maps of the Great Lakes using multibeam sonar technology, providing high-definition 3D images of the lake floor and potentially locating missing aircraft vessels.

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The Daily Mining Gazette mentioned Michigan Tech in a story about the second annual Deb Mann Memorial Downhill Pumpkin Races in Hancock, held Oct. 26. MTU students and other volunteers helped with the event as part of Make a Difference Day.

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WZMQ 19 News mentioned Michigan Tech’s cross country teams in a story about their performance at the GLIAC Cross Country Championships. The men’s team placed third and the women’s team finished fifth, with six Huskies earning All-GLIAC honors.

MTU Wellness 360 Updates

The MTU Wellness 360 program supports qualifying, benefits-eligible faculty and staff in learning about their health and well-being, encourages them to take steps to improve or maintain them, and offers monetary rewards of up to $450 for participating in the annual incentive program. Participation in the MTU Wellness 360 program is free, voluntary and confidential.

Submission for the 2024 MTU Wellness 360 Incentive is now open! To earn up to $450, participants will simply check off the activities they completed between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2024, and submit the electronic form. Benefits-eligible employees can access the MTU Wellness 360 Incentive 2024 Checklist Google form or navigate to the MTU Wellness 360 website.

The last day to submit the MTU Wellness 360 incentive form for 2024 will be Jan. 10, 2025. Payouts are expected to arrive in late February. Tax-free payout options include lump sums deposited into an employee’s health savings account (HSA) — available only to employees enrolled in the HDHP1/HDHP2 health insurance plans — or flexible spending account (FSA). Taxable payout options include Michigan Tech Gift Card or Keweenaw Cash.

Participation in the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan's tobacco cessation program and the Wondr Health weight-loss program are open to benefits-eligible employees on a year-round basis. Links to registration for those programs can be found on the MTU Wellness 360 website.

For more information about upcoming Lunch and Learns, wellness tips, wellness events, fitness programs and more, check out the MTU Wellness 360 website or follow Michigan Tech Wellness on Facebook. Questions? Contact Benefits Services at benefits@mtu.edu or 906-487-2517.

The mission of MTU's Wellness Committee and programming is to create an environment that enhances the physical, emotional, social and financial well-being of all faculty and staff. Through educational programs, activities and outreach events, we envision more productive employees, happier individuals and a healthier community. Interested in joining the MTU Wellness Committee? Email benefits@mtu.edu for more information.

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This Week's C-Cubed Luncheon Menu

Carved and Crafted Catering at Michigan Technological University invites you to join the C-Cubed Luncheon, held from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. every Thursday in the Memorial Union Alumni Lounge (MUB 107). All faculty and staff, along with their guests, are invited.

Menu for Thursday, Oct. 31:

• Barbecue Beef Brisket
• Chimichurri Charred Cauliflower (VG) (AG)
• Macaroni & Cheese (V) (PR)
• Coleslaw (V) (AG)
• Cookie Platter (V)

The 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. All vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free items on the buffet are labeled for easy identification. No takeout service or personal containers are permitted.

The buffet lunch is $15.50 per person. Cash, credit cards and gift cards are accepted. Gift cards can be purchased in the Memorial Union Office (MUB 101).

You can submit C-Cubed feedback using C-Cubed Survey/Comments form. To join the C-Cubed Luncheon Email List and receive weekly menus, please complete the sign-up form.

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Halloween at the A. E. Seaman Mineral Museum

Happy Halloween! Tomorrow, Oct. 31, on Halloween, all orange, green and red minerals will be 15% off* at the A. E. Seaman Mineral Museum!

From ghoulish green malachite to ominous orange-red carnelian, the gift shop has plenty of treats to choose from.

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

that thing between my teeth is my foot Exhibit - Michigan Tech Art

Wednesday, October 30, 8 a.m.–8 p.m. | Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts, Rozsa Art Galleries A-Space

MICHIGAN TECH ART SERIES EVENT Douglas Degges is presenting two parallel artistic explorations in the Rozsa A-Space Gallery. Since the fall of 2019, Degges has been creating...

Python Workshop

Wednesday, October 30, 5–6 p.m. | Rekhi 113

A free, in person, python workshop for beginners!

SoundGirls General Meeting!

Wednesday, October 30, 5–6 p.m. | Walker 210

SoundGirls strives to empower women and minorities in the audio industry. This year, we are working on a halloween themed reality TV show.

WIBIT Wednesday

Wednesday, October 30, 5–8 p.m. | Student Development Complex (SDC), SDC Pool

Come make a splash with our inflatable pool obstacle course called the WIBIT! You can test your individual skills on the course or challenge a friend to a race across the...

Leading Scholar Information Session

Wednesday, October 30, 6–7 p.m.

Learn more about the Leading Scholar Award! We will go over the application process, award value, and more.

Wip Annual Physics Bowl

Wednesday, October 30, 6–7 p.m. | Fisher 326

Please join us for the Annual Physics Bowl. Show off your physics knowledge (or just come for fun). Teams of 2-3 will compete quiz bowl style. Prizes will be awarded to 1st -...

Wip Annual Physics Bowl

Wednesday, October 30, 6–7 p.m. | Fisher 326

Please join us for the Annual Physics Bowl. Show off your physics knowledge (or just come for fun). Teams of 2-3 will compete quiz bowl style. Prizes will be awarded to 1st -...

Women's Volleyball vs Northern Michigan

Wednesday, October 30, 6–9 p.m. | Student Development Complex (SDC), Wood Gym

Women's Volleyball vs Northern Michigan Houghton, Mich.

Husky Innovate: What to Consider when Starting a Business

Wednesday, October 30, 7:00–8:30 p.m. | Dow Environmental Sciences and Engineering Building, 642

Are you considering starting your own business but unsure where to begin? Husky Innovate invites you to an insightful session, “What to Consider When Starting a Business” with...

Michigan Tech ROTC Information Session

Wednesday, October 30, 7–8 p.m.

Learn more about the opportunities available for students interested in Army and Air Force ROTC.