February 19, 2025

Jacob Soter ’19 ’20 was interviewed in 2021 by Michigan Tech News after co-founding SwimSmart Technology. Turns out, he was just getting started.

SwimSmart has grown, installing warning and rescue systems to help prevent drownings on Great Lakes Beaches near and far. Today, the company’s partners include the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Michigan Tech's Great Lakes Research Center and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary.

Catch up with Soter in the 2024 Impact Magazine.

Dear First- and Second-Year MTU Students:

The MTU Composition Program is launching Paw Prints: The Michigan Tech Journal of First-Year Writing this semester and invites you to submit your article for publication. The goal of the journal is to highlight excellence in source-based writing by first-year students.

We are writing to invite you to submit an academic essay from any of the semesters from academic year 2023-24 or fall 2024, particularly those written for UN 1015 Composition.

After submitting, if you are invited to revise and edit your submission for publication, you will receive a $100 publication scholarship toward your fall 2025 tuition. In addition, you will be able to list your article as a peer-reviewed publication on your resume or CV.

What to Do
Navigate to Paw Prints’ Submission page and review the requirements for submission. Fill out your information, and submit a link or upload the draft. It's that easy!

Publication Process
HU 3606 Editing students are creating and building the Paw Prints journal as part of their academic coursework. These students have a mix of majors, backgrounds and interests in a wide range of topics, and are serving as the editorial board. They will be reviewing and making recommendations for pieces to include, which will involve a process of writing for publication in both electronic and print versions of the journal.

For first- and second-year Huskies, this means you will work with upper-division students on revising and editing your piece to polish it for appearance in the journal. Students who complete the suggested revisions and see their article through to publication will earn the scholarship credit, supported by the First-Year Writing Program at MTU. 

About the Journal
So far this semester, the editing students have created a vision for Paw Prints that includes the following: 

• Editorial Statement and Purpose
• Submission Guidelines
• Reviewer Guidelines
• Cover Art

Your piece can be part of the first issue of this journal. If you have questions, feel free to email Holly Hassel, director of composition and faculty instructor for HU 3606 Editing, at pawprints@mtu.edu.

Review of submissions will begin immediately. To be considered for inclusion in Paw Prints’ spring issue, your article must be submitted by March 7.

Thank you for your time,

Holly Hassel and the HU 3606 Editing class: Emily Augustyn, Andrew Brodowski, Robert Brownell, Matthew “Rock Salt” Buckeridge, Clare Buday, Vanessa Dulong, Andrew Eschenaure, Emma Hampton, Rowan Kerns, Lou McDermitt, Jamie T. Perlman, Brendan Philo, Ellie Rizk, Jackson Sanderson, Luke Tennes, Kate Westermann and Race Woloshen

Jae Sung Kim (CEGE) has begun serving a term as the Michigan director of the Western Great Lakes Region (WGLR) of the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS).

Kim's service representing the Upper Peninsula of Michigan began in January.

Please remember to submit check requests for disbursements from Michigan Tech Fund Endowed Funds to mtfchecks@mtu.edu by March 10 to meet the deadline for the March 26 payment date.

The 2025 Sustainability Film Series, coordinated by Michigan Tech Office of Sustainability and Resilience, will present February’s film “Troubled Water” at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 20, in Fisher 138. The film is free and everyone is welcome to attend. The film will be followed by a facilitated discussion and refreshments.

Add “Troubled Water” to your Google Calendar.

“Troubled Water” follows lifelong friends Chris Yahanda and William Wright as they embark on a 425-mile paddleboard journey across Lake Michigan and the Grand River, exploring environmental threats to the Great Lakes and discovering the power of community in protecting the waters they love.

Film sponsors include the Keweenaw Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, Keweenaw Co-op, Lake Superior Stewardship Initiative, WUP MiSTEM Network, Friends of the Land of Keweenaw (FOLK), Keweenaw Land Trust, and Michigan Tech's Office of Sustainability and Resilience and Hardwood Mass Timber Institute.

Series Details:

• What: 15th Annual Sustainability Film Series
• When: Third Thursday of each month at 7 p.m., through May
• Where: Fisher 135 or 138 (refreshments in lobby)
• Cost: Free! $5 donations are greatly appreciated. You can make a donation online to support the Sustainable Film Series.

Upcoming Film:

“Women of Carbon” — March 20, Fisher 135
This film highlights innovative women redefining our relationship with carbon by repurposing living materials and driving decarbonization, while navigating challenges in male-dominated industries to restore, protect and preserve the planet.

Tonight, the Superior Wind Symphony, led by Joel Neves, presents its first concert of the spring semester, "British Invasion," at 7:30 p.m. at the Rozsa Center.

"British Invasion" celebrates the music of Britain, spanning classic wind band masterpieces and iconic rock anthems. The program includes Percy Grainger's beloved "Lincolnshire Posy," a cornerstone of the wind band repertoire inspired by traditional folk songs, and showcases the enduring influence of British rock legends the Beatles and Led Zeppelin, bringing the energy of these iconic bands to the stage.

Event Details:

• What: "British Invasion" Superior Wind Symphony Concert
• When: Wednesday, Feb. 19, at 7:30 p.m.
• Where: Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts
• Tickets: Get Tickets

The SDC and Gates Tennis Center will observe reduced hours over spring break, from Friday, Feb. 21, through March 2. Regular building hours will resume March 3.

View the SDC Spring Break Open Rec Hours.

Please join the Department of Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences (GMES) tomorrow, Feb. 20, from 12-1 p.m. in Dow 610, for a research presentation by faculty candidate Martin Dangelmayr, research scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

The title of Dangelmayr's presentation is "Uranium Groundwater Contamination and Remediation at Two Field Sites."

From the abstract:
Uranium contamination of groundwater remains a persistent challenge in the U.S., with over 500 abandoned uranium mining sites posing significant risks to water resources. Remediation and management of those sites is often difficult due to the complex biogeochemistry of uranium, which influences its mobility and long-term persistence in groundwater systems. In this talk, I will present key findings from my research at two field sites where uranium remediation strategies have been implemented.

The first site is a former uranium mill tailings site in Rifle, CO, where multiple bioremediation experiments were conducted over a 10-year period. My research focused on using microbial stoichiometries and fluorescence spectroscopy to investigate the microbial transformation of an injected substrate and its impact on remediation efficiency. The findings showed that microbes generate carbon pools that significantly extend reducing conditions beyond the injection period. Additionally, fluorescence spectroscopy detected a shift in the composition of dissolved organic carbon downgradient of the injection site.

The second project was conducted at the Smith Ranch-Highland site, an in-situ uranium mining site near Casper, WY. For this study, I used PHREEQC to model uranium breakthrough data from a cross-hole field test, demonstrating significant uranium retardation and immobilization. Additionally, uranium isotope ratios were analyzed to quantify kinetic reaction rates, allowing for the simulation of abiotic uranium reduction by ferrous iron. The findings showed that naturally occurring reducing conditions can serve as an effective mechanism for monitored natural attenuation.

I will also briefly introduce two future research projects that I plan to pursue at Michigan Technological University. The first project will investigate uranium accumulation in the vadose zone due to wicking and evaporation, and its impact on remediation efforts. The second project will examine chloride and nitrogen mass loadings in urban restored streams, with a focus on groundwater-surface water interactions. Additionally, I will discuss my research experience, teaching interests, and commitment to undergraduate education and graduate research, highlighting how my expertise aligns with MTU’s mission of advancing geoscience research and education.

Dario Stacchiola, from the Center for Functional Materials at Brookhaven National Laboratory, will be presenting at this week's Chemistry Seminar. The seminar will be held in person at 3 p.m. Friday, Feb. 21, in Chem Sci 101.

Stacchiola’s presentation is titled "In-situ and Operando Surface Chemistry."

From the abstract:
Physical and chemical interactions at material surfaces and interfaces play important roles in electronic and energy storage devices, the chemical industry, and environmental processes. New technologies will be realized by understanding — and ultimately controlling — these interactions on the atomic scale. Through our research program in interface science and catalysis, we develop and apply state-of-the-art capabilities to synthesize and study functional surfaces and interfaces. To explore their structure and chemical composition during dynamic physicochemical processes, we leverage a suite of in situ and operando instruments capable of high-resolution imaging and spectroscopy. Using well-defined ultrathin films — including superconductors, 2D materials, nanoporous oxides, and metal-organic frameworks — we conduct fundamental research in catalysis, chemical separation, and quantum information science. As an example, I will present our studies on Cu-based catalysts.

Stacchiola leads the Interface Science and Catalysis Group at the Center for Functional Nanomaterials at Brookhaven National Laboratory (CFN-BNL). He obtained his B.S. degree in 1997 at UNSL, Argentina, and his Ph.D. in 2002 at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He was a Humboldt Research Fellow at the Fritz-Haber-Institute in Berlin from 2005-07 and received a Fulbright award in 2019. He has authored 200 peer-reviewed publications and patents. His research focuses on surface chemistry studies under operando conditions by in-situ tools, in particular structure-reactivity relationships in catalysis.

The next Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) Graduate Seminar speaker will present at 2 p.m. tomorrow, Feb. 20, in EERC 103.

Anuj Abhishek will present "Operator Networks in Inverse Problems."

Abhishek is an assistant professor of mathematics at Case Western Reserve University, having performed postdoctoral research as a fellow at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and at Drexel University. He received his Ph.D. from Tufts University, with research interests in inverse problems, microlocal analysis and integral geometry.

The next guest speaker in the Department of Biomedical Engineering (BioMed) Seminar Series will present Friday, Feb. 21, at 3 p.m. in Chem Sci 104 and virtually via Zoom.

Join the BioMed Seminar on Zoom.

Ashlee N. Ford Versypt from the University at Buffalo, State University of New York, will present "Systems Biomedicine and Pharmaceutics: Multiscale Modeling of Tissue Remodeling and Damage."

Read Ford Versypt's abstract and bio at the University Events Calendar.

WLUC TV6, the Daily Mining Gazette and the Keweenaw Report covered Michigan Tech Public Safety and Police Services’ call for public assistance in locating graduate student Matthew Sisson (materials science and engineering). Public Safety announced yesterday, Feb. 18, that Sisson was found deceased and no foul play is suspected.

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The Detroit Free Press mentioned Michigan Tech in a story about the Rx Kids cash-assistance program in Michigan, citing research by Richelle Winkler (SS) on population decline in the Upper Peninsula over the past two decades. The story was picked up by Yahoo! News.

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Bridge Michigan mentioned organizational updates at Michigan Tech in a story about changes to diversity efforts at Michigan schools.

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My UP Now covered Michigan Tech senior men's basketball guard Adam Hobson and first-year hockey defenseman Rylan Brown being named players of the week. Hobson earned GLIAC Offensive Player of the Week honors, while Brown was recognized as the CCHA Rookie of the Week.

Today: Health Research Institute Monthly Coffee Hour

The Health Research Institute is hosting an informal coffee hour in the second floor atrium of the H-STEM Complex today, Feb. 19, at 2 p.m.

This is a great opportunity to socialize and meet new colleagues. We hope to see you there!

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Artificial Intelligence Colloquium Series Presentation

The second presentation of the MTU Artificial Intelligence Colloquium Series will be held today, Feb. 19, at noon in EERC 216. Food and refreshments will be provided. If you would like to present in the series or have any questions about the event, you can email Vinh Nguyen at vinhn@mtu.edu.

Department of Computer Science data science Ph.D. student Tagore Kosireddy will present “Autonomous Drone Landing Using Deep Reinforcement Learning: Benchmarks and Implementation.”

From the abstract:
Autonomous drone landing presents significant challenges due to complex aerodynamic dynamics and real-time control requirements. Our work implements a Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) framework for autonomous drone landing using PyBullet physics real time simulations. We are using modular architecture integrating PID control with state-of-the-art DRL algorithms (PPO, SAC, TRPO, TD3, A2C, etc) and benchmarking various Multiple reward functions (exponential, temporal difference, orientation-aware) derived from quadrotor dynamics research. The environment features 12D observation spaces (position, velocity, orientation) and 3D continuous action spaces for thrust vector control. A novel curriculum learning approach progressively increases landing difficulty through randomized initial positions and adaptive waypoint generation. The implementation leverages parallelized training across CPU cores and includes safety constraints for real-world deployment considerations.

Save the Dates: Following today's session, the remaining dates of the Artificial Intelligence Colloquium Series for the spring semester are:

• Wednesday, March 12, at noon in EERC 216
• Wednesday, March 26, at noon in EERC 216

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This Week's C-Cubed Luncheon Menu

Carved and Crafted Catering at Michigan Technological University invites faculty, staff, and their guests to 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).

Menu for Thursday, Feb. 20:

• Fajita Style Chicken Thighs (PR)
• Steak Fajita (PR)
• Portobello Fajita (VG) (CF)
• Flour Tortillas (VG)
• Tortilla Soup (V) (AG) (PR)
• Sopapillas
• Toppings:
  • Sour Cream (V) (AG)
  • Shredded Pepper Jack Cheese (V) (AG)
  • Pico de Gallo (VG) (AG)
  • Cuban Black Beans (VG)
  • Spanish Rice (VG) (AG)

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.

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

Isle Royale Art Exhibition - Michigan Tech Art

Wednesday, February 19, 8 a.m.–8 p.m. | Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts, Rozsa Galleries A-Space

MICHIGAN TECH ART SERIES EVENT Enter into a world of artistic expression inspired by the wilderness of Isle Royale. The artworks showcased in this exhibition have all been...

Artificial Intelligence Colloquium

Wednesday, February 19, 12–1 p.m. | Electrical Energy Resources Center (EERC), 216

The Institute of Computing and Cybersystems (ICC) and its Center for Artificial Intelligence (AI) are excited to announce a new event series: The AI Colloquium Series. This...

Café Français - French Conversation Hour

Wednesday, February 19, 4–5 p.m. | Walker Arts and Humanities Center, 120C

Parlez-vous français? Join us! French conversation hour will take place in Walker 120C (in the HDMZ) twice monthly on Wednesdays through March. Whether you are a complete...

SoundGirls General Meeting!

Wednesday, February 19, 5–6 p.m. | Walker 210

Join us in Walker 210 at 5pm every Wednesday for our general meeting!

Weekly Meeting

Wednesday, February 19, 5–6 p.m. | Fourth Floor of the MEEM

We meet on the fourth floor of the MEEM to discuss plans for the week and work on on going projects. All are welcome to attend.

How can I be Saved?

Wednesday, February 19, 6–7 p.m. | 1st Floor, Opie Van Pelt Library

A bible study geared towards the salvific work of Christ on the Cross

Lets Talk

Wednesday, February 19, 6–8 p.m. | Wadsworth Hall 124W

Not sure if counseling is right for you? Try Let’s Talk! This informal and confidential service is a chance to chat with a Michigan Tech counselor about mental health...

Prospective Husky Hangout

Wednesday, February 19, 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...

British Invasion - Superior Wind Symphony

Wednesday, February 19, 7:30 p.m. | Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts, Black Performance Hall

MICHIGAN TECH MUSIC SERIES EVENT Joel Neves conducts his inaugural concert as music director of the Superior Wind Symphony. The performance features British wind band...

Michigan Tech Parent and Family Panel

Wednesday, February 19, 7:30–8:30 p.m.

Join us virtually to meet parents of our current Huskies! They'll tell you about their student's experiences at Michigan Tech and how to navigate the whole process as a parent.