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1. Clean Snowmobile Challenge Set for March 10-15 |
For the SAE Clean Snowmobile Challenge, 2008 is the year of biofuel.
Set for March 10-15 at Michigan Tech, the Clean Snowmobile Challenge is the Society of Automotive Engineers' newest collegiate design competition. Teams of engineering students from participating schools take a stock snowmobile and reengineer it to reduce emissions and noise while maintaining or improving performance.
Most events are held at the University's Keweenaw Research Center, home of the Midwest's foremost winter driving test facility.
Now in its sixth year at Michigan Tech, technology and contest rules continue to nudge contestants toward cleaner designs. Two years ago, the challenge created a special division for zero-emissions sleds, sponsored by the National Science Foundation. These battery-powered snowmobiles are used on scientific expeditions in the Arctic, where any emissions can contaminate atmospheric and ice samples. In addition, last year's teams in the internal combustion division were given a hefty bonus for using ethanol.
Ratcheting up the stakes, all 2008 entrants in the internal combustion division must power their snowmobiles with biofuel, says contest codirector Jay Meldrum, director of the Keweenaw Research Center. For most, that translates to E85 ethanol, though one entry is expected to run on B10 biodiesel.
It's not because biofuel-powered sleds are necessarily the wave of the future, Meldrum notes. "But this is an engine competition," he says. "A great deal of R&D on ethanol, from corn or wood or switchgrass, is happening at universities all over the country, and this requirement will give the student engineers a chance to tap into their faculty's latest research."
The Clean Snowmobile Challenge brings together industry, snowmobile enthusiasts, faculty and students from across North America, all working toward the common goals of providing hands-on education for young engineers and promoting greener, quieter snowmobiling. Ironically, the event grew out of a heated snowmobile controversy in Yellowstone National Park, which resulted in then-President Bill Clinton banning sleds in the park altogether. Access was restored by President George W. Bush, but only for guided tours using snowmobiles with the best available technology.
Since then, the challenge has become a model for successful collaboration among government, academia and industry. "When I went to the Greening of Yellowstone conference, the Clean Snowmobile Challenge came up time and time again as an event that successfully involves industry in efforts to solve a problem," Meldrum said.
Sixteen teams are competing this year. In the internal combustion division are Clarkson University in Potsdam, N.Y.; Ecole De Technologie Superieure in Montreal; Kettering University in Flint; McGill University in Montreal; Michigan Tech; Minnesota State University at Mankato; Northern Illinois University in DeKalb; the State University of New York at Buffalo; the University of Idaho in Moscow; the University of Maine in Orono; the University of Waterloo in Ontario; the University of Wisconsin at Madison; and the University of Wisconsin at Platteville.
Four teams have entered the zero-emissions division: Clarkson University; McGill University; the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Rapid City; and the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
Major sponsors include the USDA Forest Service, the National Park Service, automotive parts supplier Denso Corp., Emetic Inc., a supplier of emissions-reduction technology, and Aristo, a designer and manufacturer of light sources. Local businesses provide services, donations and in-kind contributions. In addition, volunteers from the Michigan Snowmobile Association have pitched in every year to provide logistical support for the competition.
The public is welcome at several events. The Grand Opening, at 11 a.m. Tuesday, March 11, kicks off the Endurance Run, from the Keweenaw Research Center to Copper Harbor. At the Clean Snowmobile Challenge Preview, set for Wednesday, March 12, the sleds will be on display at the Copper Country Mall from 6 to 8 p.m.
On Saturday, March 15, the Polaris Acceleration Event begins at 10 a.m. followed by the Polaris Handling Event at 11 a.m., both at the Keweenaw Research Center. Come prepared to walk in snow.
The challenge concludes with the awards banquet on Saturday, at 6 p.m., in the Memorial Union Ballroom.
The Clean Snowmobile Challenge is sponsored at Michigan Tech by the Department of Mechanical Engineering–Engineering Mechanics and the Keweenaw Research Center. |
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2. Five Grad Students Receive Finishing Fellowships |
Five PhD students will receive $2,000 Finishing Fellowships for the spring semester, the Graduate School has announced. The students and their degree programs are
*Emily Fossum, Mechanical Engineering–Engineering Mechanics
*Robert Owen, Engineering—Environmental
*Huaizhen Qin, Mathematical Sciences
*S. Gowtham, Engineering Physics
*Han Bing Wang, Chemical Engineering
The fellowships are made possible by the generous support of the sponsors of the following Michigan Tech Fund endowments:
*Whirlpool Endowed Fellowship
*Neil V. Hakala Endowed Fellowship
*Michigan Tech Student Foundation
If you have any questions regarding these fellowships, please contact Debra Charlesworth at ddc@mtu.edu . |
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3. CTLFD Workshop Jan. 31 on Teaching, Learning Insights |
The Center for Teaching, Learning and Faculty Development is conducting a workshop, "Insights into Teaching and Learning: Things I Wish I Had Known When I Started Teaching..." on Thursday, Jan. 31, noon-12:55 p.m. Lunch will be provided to those who register by Monday, Jan. 28.
Developing an individual style of instruction that encourages student learning is a career-long endeavor. Most of us learned to teach by emulating styles of instruction that appealed to us as students.
Join us as we share tips and techniques that we have found on our teaching journeys. Come to share your best ideas, or just come to listen for some good ideas from your peers.
To register for this workshop, please contact the CTLFD, 487-2046, or register online at www.admin.mtu.edu/ctlfd/workshops by Monday, Jan. 28. |
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4. Mini-grants Available through CTLFD for Instructional Improvement, Innovation |
Mini-grants for instructional improvement and innovation are now available through the Center for Teaching, Learning and Faculty Development.
The purpose of these grants is to improve teaching effectiveness and student learning. These grants, maximum of $500, are available to support the instructional mission of Michigan Tech and will be awarded for the purchase of teaching/learning materials such as software, DVDs or new teaching technology, or travel to a conference to learn new teaching strategies. These grants are not intended to fund routine supplies and equipment that are normally supported by departmental budgets.
The deadline for applying for a mini-grant is Friday, Feb. 15. More information and the grant application form can be found at www.admin.mtu.edu/ctlfd/grants/index.php . |
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5. Research Excellence Fund Call for Proposals |
Proposals are being solicited for the FY2008 Research Excellence Fund (REF).
The program announcement document, which includes a program description, proposal format, review criteria and procedure, award procedure and reporting requirements, is at www.admin.mtu.edu/research/vpr/internal/excellence.html .
Proposals are due no later than 4 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 28.
Incomplete proposals or proposals received after the deadline will not be accepted for consideration by the review committee for this year and will be returned. Newly funded REF awards will begin on July 1.
Submit your proposal to Cheryl Gherna, Office of Research Integrity and Compliance, Administration 317. |
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6. Cashier's Office Drop Box Available for Non-cash Deposits |
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The Cashier's Office has a drop box slot in the door that departments bringing deposits to the office may use to avoid waiting in line or before or after office hours. Please do not deposit cash in the drop box. |
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7. Six Undergraduates Receive CMfgT Certification |
Six seniors in the mechanical engineering technology program have successfully completed the Certified Manufacturing Technologist (CMfgT) exam, demonstrating competency in the fundamentals of manufacturing: Kristopher Benz, Andrew Bolthouse, Joshua Neece, Nick Pichowski, Edward Rentmeester and Brian Sprague.
To earn this certification, the student must demonstrate excellence in math, applied science, design, materials, manufacturing processes, manufacturing management, manufacturing economics and quality control. This certification is an industry standard and provides professional recognition, as well as documentation of manufacturing-related knowledge and skills.
Associate Professor Mark Johnson (School of Technology) added the certificate to the MET degree program to accomplish three major goals: (1) provide graduating students with a recognized professional certification setting them apart from their peers; (2) provide accurate feedback on core learning achievements and ABET accreditation; and (3) promote lifelong learning through continuing education as part of the recertification process that could prepare each graduate to complete additional professional certifications. |
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8. Snow Run Saturday in Hancock |
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Registration is still open for the first annual Lumijuoksu (snow run), a five-kilometer race, Saturday, Jan. 19, in downtown Hancock. All proceeds for the race to benefit the track and field programs at Michigan Tech. To download a registration form or for more information please visit www.keweenawtrails.com or contact Margot Hutchins at 487-3143. |
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9. MLK Observances Next Week: State House Committee Chair to Keynote Banquet |
Michigan Tech is holding a series of events next week, Jan. 21-26, in recognition of Martin Luther King's birthday, observed Monday, Jan. 21. The MLK events are sponsored by the Black Student Association and Educational Opportunity.
MLK Week observances are capped by the Martin Luther King Jr. Banquet, set for 6 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 26. State Rep. George Cushingberry (D-Detroit) will be the keynote speaker; he will be introduced by State Rep. Mike Lahti (D-Hancock).
In addition to serving in the State House of Representatives from 1974 to 1982, Cushingberry chairs the House Appropriations Committee. He also served on the Wayne County Board of Commissioners for 16 years, practices law, and is an assistant pastor of New Starlight Baptist Church.
The MLK Gospel Choir will give a performance dedicated to Inetta Harris, who died Jan. 14. Harris, a former faculty member in the fine arts department, directed the University's Echoes from Heaven Gospel Choir from 1994 to 2003.
Tickets for the banquet are $10 for students, $15 for everyone else, and are available from Educational Opportunity, 487-2920, and from the student concessions desk on the ground floor of the Memorial Union.
Classes are not held on Monday in recognition of Martin Luther King Day. At noon, senior Vincent Iduma will deliver King's "I Have a Dream" speech outside the Memorial Union. A candle-lighting ceremony will be held, followed by a walk to the Rozsa Center. In the Horner Lobby, two undergraduates will discuss their personal experiences at Michigan Tech and their hopes for the future. Lisa Grayson will present "Past to Present," and Tendi Hungwe will give the talk "Present to Future."
At 6 p.m. Tuesday, in Fisher 329, Assistant Professor Matthew Seigel (Humanities) will give a talk, "Mixing Blood: On a Diverse Lit, Obiter Dicta," Latin for "things which are said in passing." He will discuss the landscape of American literature post-King and the relationship between the civil rights movements of the 1950s, '60s and '70s and American literature.
On Wednesday at 6 p.m., in Fisher 139, Keweenaw Pride will host "Eye of the Storm," based on the “Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes” exercise devised for a third-grade, all-white class in response to King's assassination in 1968. The exercise labels its participants as inferior or superior based on eye color, exposing them to the experiences of being a minority.
The BSA will host a free movie, "Do the Right Thing," and discussion on Thursday at 6 p.m. in Fisher 329.
For more information, call Educational Opportunity at 487-2920. |
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10. Teaching at Tech: Learning and Mindfulness |
by Bill Kennedy, director, Center for Teaching, Learning and Faculty Development
“Okay, class, quiet!” The seven truths of education are as follows. 1) The basics must be learned so well that they become second nature. 2) Paying attention means focusing on one thing at a time. Students who can’t or won’t pay attention won’t succeed. 3) It’s helpful if gratification is delayed in the learning process. Rewards should be long sought and hard earned. 4) Rote memorization is necessary and desirable in education, especially early on. 5) Forgetting is a problem and indicates deficient performance or lack of mental horsepower. 6) Intelligence is about knowing stuff. 7) There are right and wrong answers.
The truth is that these “axiomatic truths” are not truths at all but may be vestiges of an anachronistic view of education that has persisted long beyond its usefulness. Harvard psychology professor Ellen Langer’s 1997 book, “The Power of Mindful Learning,” forcefully argues that rethinking these key elements of instruction can lead to much more powerful, transformative and lasting learning. Langer encourages teachers not to proscriptively tell students how to solve problems as much as provide students with cues and insights as to how they might go about solving the problems themselves. She argues for creating opportunities for students to engage in “mindful learning” (I can do this) rather than “learned helplessness” (I passed the test, so I must be okay).
Taking on such comfortable notions as delayed gratification, "the basics," or even "right answers," Langer presents evidence from her own and other’s research that these are all incapacitating myths that lead to learning limited in scope, duration, depth and utility. She replaces these mythological constructions with her concept of mindful or conditional learning. Mindful learning, she writes, takes place with an awareness of context and of the ever-changing nature of information. Learning without this awareness has severely limited uses and often sets students up for later failure as they struggle to adapt as active agents able to weather the storms of technological and social change.
Rather than judging students on their capacity to pay strict attention to what interests us, for example, Langer argues for instruction that encourages the development of a softer form of vigilance that remains open to novelty and allows students to look across and beyond traditional understandings and disciplinary boundaries. It’s interesting that some technological revolutionaries able to envision the unforeseen possibilities associated with computers, like Gates, Jobs, Wozniak, and entrepreneurial gurus like Zuckerberg and Michael Dell, were all restless and ultimately unsuccessful college students who remained rather disinterested and unfocused in their prosaic course of studies.
Many have suggested that artificial inducements like grades unintentionally serve to foster a sense of dependence on someone else’s assessment of one’s work and, over time and with repetition (like 16 years of schooling), preclude the development of a healthy sense of self-evaluation. Similarly, cognitive neuroscience is in concordance with Langer in suggesting that rote memorization, normally undertaken without regard to emotion or engagement, most commonly results in superficial, poorly integrated learning that is neither lasting nor durable.
Expert studies clearly demonstrate that being an expert involves much more than knowing facts, theories and problem-solving protocols. This research demonstrates that functional expertise involves fluidity in the ways of looking at the world, persistent skepticism, a willingness to entertain novel ways of thinking, a capacity to notice anomalous perturbations or patterns in the data stream, and the capacity to bring varying sets of investigative tools into play. Experts in one area or domain have the capacity to bring their sensitivities to other areas, even though the raw materials of the new domain may differ.
On intelligence, Langer observes, “Many theories of intelligence assume that there is an absolute reality out there, and the more intelligent the person, the greater his or her awareness of this reality. Greater intelligence, in this view, implies an optimal fit between individual and environment. An alternative view, which is at the base of mindfulness research, is that individuals may always define their relation to their environment in several ways, essentially creating the reality that is out there. What is out there is shaped by how we view it.” Innovative thinkers have the capacity to envision new realities that account for the same set of data. The learning space should be characterized by a sense of adventure and an encouragement to go beyond present understandings. Langer concludes that encouraging students to see the learning enterprise as an adventurous immersion into a domain of uncertainty and unrealized opportunity is ultimately much more productive than encouraging students to see themselves as the latest cadre of lowly droids traveling in the wake of the great ones who came before them.
Langer’s call seems consistent with developing robust and innovative education programs that actually prepare students to create the future. |
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11. Memorial Union Menus |
Monday, Jan. 21
The Grill--Breakfast, The Mini (one egg any style, two pancakes, two bacon or sausage, hash browns and coffee) $3.99; Lunch, Triple Stacker Value Meal $5.50 (includes triple-cheese burger, 20-ounce soda and small fries), Triple Stacker Only $3.50
Home Style Entrees--Chicken and Spaghetti with Green Beans $5.50, Green Beans $1.50, Chicken Only $3.50, Full order of Spaghetti $2.75, Half order of Spaghetti $1.50
The Wok About International Display Cooking--all entrees $4.75; Mongolian Beef, Chicken Caesar Salad
Soup by the Cup $2.99--Chicken and Dumpling, Cream of Broccoli
Mubsterz Pizza--Mubsterz Pepperoni and Mushroom Pizza, by the slice $2.99
Peppers & Pickles Deli--Try this week's featured sandwich, the Bag Lunch (Get a bread sandwich, small chips, fresh fruit and 20-ounce soda) $3.95
Tuesday, Jan. 22
The Grill--Breakfast, Farmers Omelet $3.95 (fresh cooked scrambled eggs filled with ham, cheese, peppers, onions and hash browns, served with toast); Lunch, Grilled Tuscan (vegetarian sandwich on sourdough bread served with tomatoes, spinach, garlic, onions and provolone cheese) $3.25
Home Style Entrees--Caribbean Jerk Pork Chop $3.50, Full Meal Deal $5.50 (includes two sides), Rice and Peas $1.50, Sauteed Zucchini $1.50
The Wok About International Display Cooking--all entrees $4.75; Vegetarian Fiesta Mexican Soft Tacos, Chicken Caesar Salad
Soup by the Cup--$2.99; Cheesy Vegetable Medley, Chicken Cacciatore
Mubsterz Pizza--Buffalo Chicken Pizza, by the slice $2.99
Peppers & Pickles Deli--Hot Campbell's Soup Served Monday through Friday, $2.99 per cup
Wednesday, Jan. 23
The Grill--Breakfast, Breakfast Pizza $2.75; Lunch, Tater Nuggets (golden-fried potatoes rounds) $1.50
Home Style Entrees--Meat Pasty $3.25, Veggie Pasty $3.25, Mashed Potatoes/Gravy $1.50, Cole Slaw $1.50
The Wok About International Display Cooking--all entrees $4.75; Cajun Chicken with Spinach and Hot Bacon Dressing, Chicken Caesar Salad
Soup by the Cup--$2.99; Beef Barley, Tex Mex Corn Chowder
Mubsterz Pizza--Hawaiian Delight Pizza, by the slice $2.99
Peppers & Pickles Deli--Try one of our low-carb-friendly wrap sandwiches $3.99
Thursday, Jan. 24
The Grill--Breakfast, Western Omelet Toast (filled with bell peppers, onions and ham) and Coffee $3.95; Lunch, Shaved Roast Beef with Onions and Swiss on Rye $3.25 (Make it a value meal with a small fry and 20-ounce soda for $2)
Home Style Entrees--Chicken Pot Pie (Delicious and Homemade, Cole Slaw, Fresh roll and butter) $4.25
The Wok About International Display Cooking--all entrees $4.75; Seven Veggie Stir Fry, Chicken Caesar Salad
Soup by the Cup--$2.99; Minnesota Wild Rice, Curried Chicken Rice
Mubsterz Pizza--Mushroom and Olive Pizza, by the slice $2.99
Peppers & Pickles Deli--Make any sandwich a value meal and get a 20-ounce fountain soda, chips or a jumbo cookie for just $2
Friday, Jan. 25
The Grill--Breakfast, Apple Cinnamon Pancakes $2.50; Lunch, Cauliflower Cheddar Cheese Bites (cauliflower florets in a cheddar-cheese batter served with ranch dressing) $3.25
Home Style Entrees--Tamale Meatloaf $3.50, Full Meal Deal $5.50 (includes two sides), Mexican Rice $1.50, Mexican corn $1.50
The Wok About International Display Cooking--all entrees $4.75; General Taos Chicken Style, Chicken Caesar Salad
Soup by the Cup--$2.99; Wisconsin Cheese, New England Clam Chowder
Mubsterz Pizza--Greek Chicken Pizza, by the slice $2.99
Peppers & Pickles Deli--Try this week's featured sandwich, the Bag Lunch (Get a bread sandwich, small chips, fresh fruit and 20-ounce soda) $3.95 |
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