December 4, 2024

“Tomorrow's Needs” is a series of opinion pieces from leaders around campus on the role that Michigan Tech innovators will play to define the world’s emerging needs.

In President Rick Koubek’s September article, he asked: “In 2035, what will society’s most pressing questions be? And what are Michigan Tech’s best opportunities for answering those questions?”

Continuing the discussion, Vice President for University Relations and Enrollment John Lehman and Vice President for Student Affairs Laura Bulleit pose three questions asking how Michigan Tech can better prepare our students to meet the demands of the 2035 workplace — which they expect to be radically different from today's.

“In contrast to the highly curated environments in which students have spent their formative years, the professional world will value adaptability, resilience, creativity and problem-solving skills — traits that are cultivated through exposure to discomfort, uncertainty, risk and failure,” they write. “This evolving landscape presents both an urgent challenge and an exciting opportunity for Michigan Tech.”

Read their full article at Michigan Tech News.

Next Tuesday, Dec. 10, Mind Trekkers will be hosting the OneUP Copper Trail Festival for hundreds of local middle school students at the Student Development Complex (SDC). This event showcases STEM and career fields through hands-on activities in collaboration with industry members and academic departments. Volunteers are needed in a variety of roles and times to help make this event as impactful as possible.

Lunch will be provided to all volunteers, and no STEM experience is necessary! We welcome all faculty, staff and students. To learn more about this event and to sign up, please visit our event page.

If you have any questions, please reach out to mindtrekkers@mtu.edu.

The Human Resources office will be closed on Friday, Dec. 6, from 2:30-5 p.m. for a departmental meeting. The office will reopen on Monday, Dec. 9.

Questions during this time can be sent to hr-help@mtu.edu.

Join Michigan Tech Recreation for WIBIT Wednesday today, Dec. 4! Test your individual skills on the course or challenge your friend to a race across the obstacles.

The event is open to current MTU students and SDC members (minimum one-month). Student IDs/access IDs are required for admission. The general public can access the event by purchasing a WIBIT Wednesday Pass.

More information, including the WIBIT Wednesday Pass registration link, can be found on our WIBIT webpage.

Featured WIBIT obstacles include:

• The Step — This piece allows users to climb up onto the course.
• The Cliff — Users must navigate either side of a slope using the handles and their balancing skills.
• The Bridge — Users must navigate up and over an arched structure without falling through.
• The Slope — Users must climb up a six-foot wall that leads to a slide into the pool water below!

Registration for spring 2025 Michigan Tech Aquatics programs is open!

Swimming programs are offered at the SDC for all ages and ability levels. We hope to see you at the pool!

• Adult Huskies Swim Training (ages 18 years and older)
• Adult Huskies Swim Lessons (ages 18 years and older)
• Huskies Group Swim Lessons Parent & Child Aquatics (ages 6 months to 3 years)
• Huskies Group Swim Lessons Preschool Aquatics (ages 4-5 years)
• Huskies Group Swim Lessons Learn to Swim Levels 1-5 (ages 6-17 years)
• Huskies Swim Training (ages 6-17 years)

Questions? Contact Aquatics Manager Annie Bengry at ambengry@mtu.edu or 906-487-2995.

If the class you are looking for is full, please fill out the waitlist form or contact Aquatics Manager Annie Bengry at ambengry@mtu.edu or 906-487-2995. We will try to add additional sections based on demand.

Mentoring is an important role of any faculty member, but few faculty receive formal training for this role. "Guiding Growth: A Workshop for Faculty Mentors" will help faculty develop skills for effectively mentoring graduate students, junior faculty and peers. The program will provide an opportunity for both new and senior faculty to work with a community of peers to enhance their ability to guide and support others as they navigate their academic career.

Topics will include developing mentoring agreements, communicating expectations, fostering independence, meeting the mentee’s individual needs and addressing mentoring challenges.

The Guiding Growth workshop will include four 90-minute sessions from 12:30-2 p.m. on Jan. 14, Feb. 4, March 4 and April 1. Participants will be asked to commit to all four sessions.

Please register for the workshop series by Dec. 20.

The next Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) Graduate Seminar Speaker will present at 4 p.m. tomorrow, Dec. 5, in R. L. Smith 112.

Fei Long will present “A Novel Smart Manufacturing Approach for Improved Plastic Waste Recycling.”

Long has more than 20 years of experience in material characterization technologies, including vibrational spectroscopy, scanning probe microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and many more. His current research focuses on innovative characterization and sustainable manufacturing for waste valorization. He is building the first solvent-targeted recovery and precipitation (STRAP) pilot plant in the Advanced Power System Laboratory at MTU and is the principal investigator and co-PI of a total of $8 million in projects.

All are welcome to join the Ecosystem Science Center (ESC) tomorrow, Dec. 5, at 3 p.m. for a presentation by Jake Vander Zanden titled "Lessons about Aquatic Invasive Species from the North Temperate Lakes Long-Term Ecological Research Program." The presentation will take place in GLRC 202 and via Zoom. This is a joint event for ESC's Distinguished Ecologist Lecture Series and the Biology Department's Fall Seminar Series.

Join the ESC/BioSci Lecture on Zoom.

Vander Zanden is the Wayland Noland Distinguished Chair in Limnology, director of the Center for Limnology and professor of integrative biology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research focuses on freshwater ecosystems, particularly the factors that degrade them, using a food web approach that integrates physical, chemical and biological aspects to understand these systems. In addition to Wisconsin lakes, he has worked in Mongolia, Denmark, Iceland, Canada, New Zealand, Switzerland and Mexico. He was a David H. Smith Postdoctoral Fellow, a Leopold Leadership Fellow and the recipient of many awards and honors, including the IRPE Prize in Limnetic Ecology, the J.C. Stevenson Memorial Award, a Fulbright Fellowship and the UW-Madison Chancellor’s Teaching Award.

The Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) is hosting a seminar presented by Erico Freitas tomorrow, Dec. 5, at 1 p.m. in M&M 610.

Freitas will present "Thin foils characterization by TEM."

From the abstract:
The transmission electron microscope (TEM) is fundamentally an electron scattering instrument that enables a comprehensive study of electron transparent specimens in terms of composition and crystallographic structure down to nanometer scale and even to atomic scale. The incomparable TEM electron diffraction and imaging capabilities empowers the characterization of solid phase materials. To mention a few examples, it enables the study of microstructure, grain boundaries, coherent and incoherent precipitates, precipitate free-zones, dislocations, stacking faults and other crystallographic defects at high resolution, which provides very useful information about the properties of the analyzed material. Its ability to observe the specimen in real and in the reciprocal space makes the TEM a versatile machine to characterize features of interest in the specimen. TEM characterization of steel and alloys, for example, allows the study of crystallographic orientation between different phases within the material and as such the determination of the material properties, e.g. mechanical and corrosion behavior. In this seminar, Dr. Erico Freitas will present and discuss different TEM diffraction and imaging techniques applied to the characterization of thin foils. 

Freitas graduated from the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), where he got his bachelor's in physics (2005), master's in science education (2010), and doctoral degree in materials science and engineering (2016). He worked for the UFMG Center of Microscopy from February 2009 to December 2021, with day-to-day operation of TEM, where he also managed the TEM laboratory for four years. He joined Michigan Technological University in January 2022. He manages the FEI 200kV Titan Themis STEM in the Electron Optics Facility of ACMAL, the Applied Chemical and Morphological Analysis Laboratory.

Michigan Tech hockey's Derek Mullahy has been named the CCHA Goaltender of the Week.

Mullahy, a fifth-year transfer from Harvard, backstopped the Huskies in taking 4-of-6 CCHA points at Bowling Green over the weekend. He had a 0.97 goals-against average and .967 save percentage in the series against the Falcons.

He earned his second shutout of the season and the third of his career with 28 saves on Friday. Mullahy then made 31 saves in a 2-2 tie on Saturday.

Read more hockey news at Michigan Tech Athletics.

Michigan Tech women's basketball senior guard Isabella Lenz has been named the GLIAC Defensive Player of the Week. This is Lenz's first honor this season.

Lenz helped the Huskies conclude the nonconference portion of the schedule with a home weekend split, with a loss to No. 21 Concordia-St. Paul on Saturday (63-60) and a win over Winona State (71-66) on Sunday.

She averaged a team-leading 35.5 minutes, scoring 23 points with 10 rebounds, five assists, five blocks and two steals. She recorded a career-high three blocks in Sunday's win, adding 12 points, seven rebounds and a steal.

Read more women's basketball news at Michigan Tech Athletics.

Michigan Tech Vice President for Athletics and Recreation Suzanne Sanregret has named Cindy Pindral the eighth head coach of the volleyball program. Pindral returns to the Huskies after being an assistant head coach, assistant coach and volunteer coach with MTU for seven seasons, from 2016-22.

"Cindy was an integral part of the successes our volleyball team has had in recent years," Sanregret said. "Her extensive experience, both as a player and coach at the collegiate and club levels, brings tremendous value to Michigan Tech. We're thrilled to welcome her back, knowing her expertise and dedication will greatly benefit our student-athletes and their growth on and off the court."

"It is an absolute honor to be the next head volleyball coach for this inspiring program," Pindral said. "I am so excited to be back with the team and really looking forward to diving head-first into spring practices and getting on the recruiting trail."

Read more about Pindral at Michigan Tech Athletics.

Job Postings for Wednesday, Dec. 4, 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.

Administrative Aide (12 months/ 40 hours/ first shift) #24350, Graduate School (UAW posting dates Dec. 4 to Dec. 10, 2024 — external applicants are encouraged to apply; however, internal UAW applicants are given first consideration if they apply during the internal UAW posting dates). 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 Colling (CEGE/CTT) was quoted by MLive in a story about the condition of Michigan roadways. Colling was interviewed as an expert on pavement condition and pavement deterioration.

*****

The Mining Journal, WLUC TV6, My UP Now, and the Keweenaw Report covered Michigan Tech Athletics’ announcement of Cindy Pindral as the Huskies’ new head volleyball coach. Pindral, who previously served as an assistant coach at Tech from 2016-22, replaces Matt Jennings following his resignation after 13 seasons.

*****

My UP Now covered Michigan Tech women’s basketball senior guard Isabella Lenz being named GLIAC Defensive Player of the Week.

*****

College Hockey News interviewed Michigan Tech hockey forward Stiven Sardarian for a story about his journey from Russia to North American hockey. Sardarian discussed his transition to Michigan Tech after two seasons at New Hampshire, his success leading the Huskies in points this season, and his aspirations to play in the NHL.

Change to Process for Updating Direct Deposit Information in Banweb

Due to the recent increase in cyber fraud, Michigan Tech is making changes to the process for updating direct deposit information in Banweb. Effective immediately, in order to update your direct deposit routing information, you will be directed to a new webpage protected by Duo. There, you will need to enter your current routing and account information prior to being able to enter your new information. If you do not know your current information and would like to make changes, you will need to contact HR at hr-help@mtu.edu or 906-497-2280 for further instructions.

We have observed a rise in both the frequency and sophistication of phishing and financial fraud attempts. Fraudulent actors may impersonate IT Support, Human Resources or other Michigan Tech staff and ask you to approve a Duo request or provide a Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) code. Please remember, no one from Michigan Tech will ever ask you for your Duo MFA code or password through any means (phone, chat, email or otherwise).

If you mistakenly accept a fraudulent Duo or MFA prompt, your account can be compromised within minutes. This could include changes to your direct deposit information and the addition of email filters to conceal warning messages. You will only receive an MFA prompt (sometimes called a "Duo push") when logging into a service that uses MTU Secure Sign-On (SSO). If you receive an unexpected MFA prompt — whether by phone, SMS or through the Duo app — decline it and report it as fraud via both the Duo app and to MTU IT at it-help@mtu.edu. Do not approve any unexpected MFA prompts, especially if multiple occur in rapid succession. If this happens, change your password immediately or contact IT at 906-487-1111 for assistance.

For more information on identifying phishing attempts and spam, please review our guidelines. If you have any questions or concerns about email fraud and security, reach out to IT at it-help@mtu.edu or call 906-487-1111.

*****

Nomination Period Closing Soon: 2025 MAGS Excellence in Teaching Awards

Nominations are closing soon for the Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools (MAGS) Excellence in Teaching Awards. Michigan Tech may nominate one student at the M.S. and Ph.D. level. Each graduate program may nominate one student at the M.S. and Ph.D. level. Nominations are due to the Graduate School no later than 4 p.m. next Wednesday, Dec. 11.

Eligible students:

• Will have been enrolled at Michigan Tech during the 2024 calendar year and have a teaching appointment.
• Will have earned the Michigan Tech Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award.
• Will exemplify excellence in the teaching and learning mission of Michigan Tech.

See the application page for complete details on what is required for a nomination.

*****

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, Dec. 5:

• Sweet and Sour Chicken (PR)
• Asian Vegetable Stir Fry (VG)
• Basmati Rice (VG) (AG)
• Marinated Tofu (VG) (AG)
• Asian Salad (VG)
• Vegetable Spring Roll (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 and tea are available free to all attendees. All vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free items on the buffet are labeled for easy identification. Meals are for dine-in only, and personal containers and to-go meals are not 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.

*****
Customer Appreciation Day!

Let us show how much we appreciate you as a customer by celebrating with huge discounts at the Campus Store and University Images!

• Friday, Dec. 6: Shop In-Store and get 25% off almost everything at the Campus Store and University Images.

Store Hours for Friday’s Customer Appreciation Day:

• Campus Store (Memorial Union Building) 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• University Images (Student Development Complex) 8 a.m. to 8:45 p.m.

Shop, save and share your Husky pride this holiday season!

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

Master's Defense: Jacob Knott

Wednesday, December 4, 12:30–1:30 p.m. | R. L. Smith Building (MEEM), 1021

Mechanical Engineering Advisor: Jason Blough Characterization of Krypton Performance in a Laboratory 300 W Magnetically Shielded Hall-effect Thruster Attend Virtually:...

Copper Country Robotics General Meeting

Wednesday, December 4, 5–6 p.m. | Fisher 133

Come join Copper Country Robotics in our General Meeting on Wednesday, December 4th at 5PM in Fisher 133 to discuss more Robot in 3 Days details along with assistance for...

Drop-In Revision Workshop

Wednesday, December 4, 5–7 p.m. | Walker Arts and Humanities Center, 107

Come by The Writing Center 107 Walker on Wednesday, December 4th from 5-7pm for a drop-in revision workshop. If you're revising something the last week of class, come out to...

SoundGirls General Meeting!

Wednesday, December 4, 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, December 4, 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...

Board Game Night

Wednesday, December 4, 6–8 p.m. | WADs Annex

Join Jim Grider and our student staff in the Wads Annex to connect with others over playing board games! Spend time practicing intentional self-care while destressing from the...

Memory of Color: An Artist Talk with Anne Beffel - Studio Here Now

Wednesday, December 4, 6:00–7:30 p.m. |

MICHIGAN TECH ART SERIES EVENT An artist talk by Anne Beffel including musings on colors and memory. Light refreshments served. CONTENT GUIDANCE

Husky Hangout

Wednesday, December 4, 7–8 p.m.

Join us to meet other future Huskies! This virtual event is a great opportunity for you to chat with other students who are considering Michigan Tech and hear from a few...