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1. Facilities Operations, Campus Planning to Report to VP for Administration |
Campus Facilities Planning and Campus Facilities Operations will report to Vice President for Administration Ellen Horsch, effective today, President Glenn Mroz has announced.
Both areas had been under the supervision of CFO Dan Greenlee. Since Greenlee has recently assumed additional duties as CFO and director of operations for the Michigan Tech Fund, the Facilities areas were transferred to allow him to concentrate on his financial management responsibilities.
Campus Facilities Operations will continue under the direction of John Rovano. Facilities Manager Jim Heikkinen has agreed to serve as interim director of campus facilities planning. |
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2. Career Fair a Success |
Over 170 companies sent representatives to Michigan Tech's winter career fair, held on Tuesday, Feb. 20. Approximately 120 of these companies requested interview spaces for Feb. 21 and 22, totaling 1,600 interview slots. Jim Turnquist, director of the Career Center, reported that the companies were impressed with the 2,500 students who attended the career fair. The turn-out was significantly larger than the representatives encountered at other major universities. Furthermore, Turnquist says the companies were impressed at how well prepared, well dressed and serious the students were.
Among the recruiters at the career fair was the Department of Defense, whose STAR program, in which they hired an on-campus student representative, attracted an impressive number of students to the booth. The average wait time to talk to one of the two DOD representatives was about 20 minutes. "They were very impressed with the number of students who came to the booth," Turnquist said. It is estimated that nearly 360,000 positions will open within the DOD in the next few years. This year, only Michigan Tech is participating in the STAR program, but that is anticipated to change as word of the program's success spreads to other schools. |
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3. Goldwater Nominees Announced |
Michigan Tech has nominated Stephanie Irish and Brooke Smith for the Goldwater Scholarship, which is the most competitive award in the U.S. for undergraduate students in science, technology, engineering and math. It provides $7,500 towards tuition, room and board, fees and books. Applicants must write a number of short essays and one longer essay detailing a research project.
Irish, a junior in physics, proposed research on "Ozonolysis of High Molecular Weight Organic Compounds Applied to Ice Nucleation." She will execute her work in this aspect of atmospheric physics under the direction of Associate Professor Will Cantrell (Physics). Irish recently presented her research to date on Ozonolysis at the national meeting of the American Geophysical Union. She is from Rochester, Minn.
Smith, a junior in biomedical engineering, proposed research on the "Development and Fabrication of a Silver-Silver Chloride Reference Electrode Using Thick-Film Technology." She will conduct her research under the direction of department chair Michael Neuman (Biomedical Engineering). She is a participant in the Research Scholars program and a member of the International Business Ventures Enterprise that is developing an infant heart monitor to be used in developing countries. She is from Freeland, Mich.
The Goldwater Scholarship committee this year was composed of Jason Carter, chair of exercise science, Assistant Provost Mary Durfee, Associate Professor John Gierke (GMES) and Associate Professor Linda Nagel (SFRES).
For more information on the Goldwater, contact Durfee at 487-2112. |
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4. Perspectives Instructors Needed |
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Due to a large incoming class for fall, Michigan Tech is seeking more instructors for Perspectives. A PhD is preferred, but dissertation writers and those with a terminal degree (JD or MD) are also welcome to apply. For further information, contact Assistant Provost Mary Durfee, mhdurfee@mtu.edu or 487-2112. |
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5. Northern Lights Film Festival Thursday-Saturday |
Submitted by Assistant Professor Erin Smith (Humanities)
The Third Annual Northern Lights Film Festival will be held in the McArdle Theatre, Thursday-Saturday, March 1-3. The festival brings independent films and filmmakers to campus and provides a venue for films by students and community members. The film festival is free and open to the public.
Thursday, March 1, "The Gender Chip Project" (documentary), noon, "Shut Up and Sing" (documentary), 6:30 p.m.
"The Gender Chip Project" follows five young women majoring in the sciences, engineering and math at Ohio State University and shows how these students are finding new ways to make the science and technology workplace a comfortable environment for women. "Shut Up and Sing" follows the lives and careers of the Dixie Chicks over a period of three years during which they were under attack for a now infamous anti-Bush comment made by the group’s lead singer Natalie Maines in 2003. The film raises questions about our own right to freedom of speech and the negative consequences it sometimes has.
Friday, March 2, "Nalini by Day, Nancy by Night" (documentary), noon, "Phantom of the Operator" (documentary), 5 p.m., "Offshore" (film), 7 p.m.
In "Nalini by Day, Nancy by Night," filmmaker Sonali Gulati, herself an Indian immigrant living in the U.S., explores the fascinating ramifications of outsourcing telephone service jobs to India--including how native telemarketers take on Western names and accents to take calls from the U.S., U.K. and Australia. "Phantom of the Operator" reveals a little-known chapter in labor history through found footage: the story of female telephone operators’ central place in the development of global communications. With an eye for the quirky and humorous, Caroline Martel assembles more than one hundred remarkable, rarely seen industrial, advertising and scientific management films produced in North America between 1903 and 1989 by Bell and Western Electric--and transforms them into a dreamlike montage documentary. "Offshore," shot both in the Detroit area and in India, tells the story of Fairfax Furniture’s U.S. call center, which is about to come under attack. CEO Derek Abernathy declares Voxx of India their new call center. As Voxx call center is cobbled together by its ambitious Indian entrepreneurs, Abernathy forces his employees at Fairfax to train their replacements.
Saturday, March 3, workshops and panels featuring visiting filmmakers Kai Orin and Jerome Loston and documentary filmmaker George Desort.
Filmmakers from NYU’s graduate program in film, Hancock native Kai Orion and Jerome Loston, along with documentary filmmaker George Desort, will conduct workshops. The schedule of workshops is available at the website given below. At 7 p.m., Orion and Desort preview two films shot recently in the U.P., Kai Orion's "Copper on the Chopping Block" and George Desort's documentary on the Isle Royale wolf and moose study, "Fortunate Wilderness." Orion, Loston and Desort will also show other short films and participate in a discussion about how to develop and support local and student filmmaking efforts in the Keweenaw.
The film festival is sponsored by the Humanities Department, the Department of Visual and Performing Arts, Educational Opportunity and International Programs and Services.
For more information, contact Smith at 487-3263 or visit the festival website, http://director.hu.mtu.edu/northernlights . |
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6. The Second City Touring Company Comes to the Rozsa Saturday |
By Valerie Pegg, director, Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts
They're always original, and they're always hilarious! The Second City Touring Company returns to Michigan Tech for one performance on Saturday, March 3, at 7:30 p.m. at the Rozsa Center.
Second City has always been a popular show at Tech, and tickets go fast. In fact, Second City is one of the most popular and long-running shows on the campus circuit. Tickets are available at the Rozsa Box Office (487-3200, Monday-Friday, 11:30 a.m.-5 p.m.) or online at http://tickets.mtu.edu .
"Truth, Justice or The American Way" features the next generation of comic greats performing a diverse array of sketches and songs, as well as off-the-cuff improvisation that can provide completely unexpected comic brilliance. From the battle of the sexes to the battles at the voting booth, the Second City provides a hilarious and insightful look into contemporary American culture.
Little preparation is required for this company. Michigan Tech provides six chairs, a piano, a stage, a few lights, some sound and, of course, an audience ready to enjoy an upbeat evening of fun and laughter. The company arrives (last time they came, they called ahead wanting to know which exit to take off U.S. 41) with six comedians, a few props and costumes. The show is fast-paced, and the audience has to be on its toes. Their humor is seldom sensitive, humane, or politically correct, but it's razor sharp, no holds barred and nothing is sacred, not even the audience. Their special brand of humor is geared for campus audiences, so this show is not suitable for the younger set.
Second City is the famous institution that nurtured the careers of comedy greats like Dan Ackroyd, Martin Short, Bill Murray and many others, and it continues the tradition today, sending the best and brightest on the road to follow in the footsteps of their predecessors. Spot some future stars in this group, and you'll be able to say, "I knew them when."
The visit of the Second City Touring Company is sponsored by the Student Entertainment Board with funding from the Student Activity Fee. The Great Events Series is supported by the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs and the National Endowment for the Arts. |
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7. Memorial Union Tech Arts Festival This Week |
The Memorial Union board is holding its annual Tech Arts Festival this week. Events are as follows:
Lunchtime Crafts--noon-1 p.m. in the Memorial Union Commons
* Monday, finger painting
* Tuesday, collage art
* Wednesday, oven bake clay sculpture
* Thursday, hemp tying
* Friday, dream catchers
Art Workshops--6 p.m. in the Memorial Union Commons
* Monday, food art
* Tuesday, bead making
* Wednesday, tie-dyeing
* Thursday, sushi rolling
Free Art Show--10 a.m.-2 p.m. in the Memorial Union Peninsula Room
Monday Through Friday get a look at student and area art and vote for the "Peoples Choice Award." |
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8. MEEM Graduate Seminar Thursday |
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Xiangfa Wu, from the Nebraska Center for Materials and Nanoscience at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, will give a seminar, "Delamination of Nanofiber-Reinforced Advanced Polymer Composites and Nanomechanics of Nanofiber Networks," March 1, 3-4 p.m., in MEEM 112. |
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9. Biomedical Engineering Graduate Seminar Friday |
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Assistant Professor Rupak Rajachar (Biomedical Engineering) will present a graduate seminar, "Controlling Cell Behavior using Physical Signaling Pathways," at 3 p.m. on Friday, March 2, in Chem Sci 106. All are welcome to attend. |
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10. Computer Science Seminar Friday |
Assistant Professor Zhenlin Wang (Computer Science) will give a seminar, "Compiling UPC for Multi-Core Systems," on Friday, March 2, 3-4 p.m., Rekhi 214.
This presentation will review the ongoing research and development of a UPC compiler and runtime system targeting multi-core systems. The focus will be on the opportunities and challenges on the compiler side to deliver high performance, specifically several strategies mapping the logical partitioned shared address space to varied system settings and their impact on cache and synchronization. |
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