|
|
1. Board of Control Approves Bonds for $24 Million in Capital Projects |
by Jennifer Donovan, public relations director
At its regular meeting Thursday, the Board of Control approved issuing bonds totaling more than $24 million for capital improvement projects that include
* a student residential apartment complex: $16.5 million.
* Great Lakes Research Center: $6.8 million.
* Keweenaw Research Center expansion: $1 million.
Last August, the Board authorized the University to proceed with design development on the residential apartment complex, which will add 192 beds to student housing. The design phase has been completed, and the estimated total cost of the project is $16.5 million.
At today's meeting, the Board authorized the University to proceed with the final design and bidding for the student apartments and to issue general revenue bonds to cover the cost.
Prompting the decision to build this complex are the rising enrollments of recent years and the loss of some capacity in Wadsworth Hall due to its renovation.
The State of Michigan has approved $25 million for a Great Lakes Research Center on the campus waterfront. The University's share of the project is 25 percent, or $6.25 million. The Board authorized the University to proceed with final design and bidding for the center and to issue revenue bonds to cover the University's share of the cost.
Last winter, the Board authorized lending $1 million to the Keweenaw Research Center (KRC) to enable construction of a new Design Center at the KRC's facility at the Houghton County Memorial Airport Park. During the design phase, the scope of the project was expanded, so the Board approved increasing the total project to $2 million. An increase in funded research activity by the KRC will provide revenue to pay back the University.
Board members also approved the first phase of renovation of the John MacInnes Student Ice Arena, at a cost of up to $1 million, to be financed by a $1-million gift from Ruanne and John Opie.
The project includes expanding the existing corner suites at the west end of the building. The suites, which now hold 20 people, will be enlarged to accommodate 50 people each. The project also includes 10 to 12 private suites that will be rented out by the season, and a face-lift for the entrances. All of the suites will generate additional revenue from rental fees and catering services.
The Board also
* welcomed newly appointed Board member Paul Ollila.
* approved forwarding proposals for a Master of Science and a PhD in Computer Engineering to state academic officers for consideration.
* approved a reduced Experience Tech activities fee of $32 for students attending the summer sessions, when only the Portage Lake Golf Course and the Gates Tennis Center are open.
* approved awarding an honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters to Lt. Col. Otha Thornton, a Michigan Tech alumnus who helped lead the Army ROTC at Tech from 1999 to 2001. Thornton, who now works as a presidential communications officer in the White House Communications Agency, will be the keynote speaker at Spring Commencement on May 2.
* approved extending the quiet phase of the current capital campaign one year, to June 30, 2010, due to current economic conditions and newly identified major gift prospects.
* recognized a number of new research awards, including $10 million over five years to the Keweenaw Research Center from the U.S. Army's Tank Automotive and Armaments Command. |
|
|
2. ENT5001: Professor Rekhi at his Two O’clock |
by Dennis Walikainen, senior editor
Maybe he missed his calling.
Maybe he should have been a professor instead of a successful entrepreneur who was part of the first Indian-owned company to go public in the US and the visionary who has helped numerous start-ups succeed around the globe.
Kanwal Rekhi '69 was comfortable and engaging as he spoke to a packed ATDC Wednesday as students, faculty and community members learned about entrepreneurship and more.
Rekhi speaks from what he knows. He was brave enough to quit a safe, corporate job (after being laid off three times) and start his own company, with support from his wife, Ann, first and foremost.
"She said, 'What about the mortgage? And the children?'" After some convincing, she said, "Do what you have to do."
What he had to do was to start his own company, Excelan, with two partners. In 1982, they began manufacturing Ethernet cards to connect PCs to something called the Internet. Excelan was also instrumental in the TCP/IP Internet protocol. Excelan would go on to merge with Novell, and Rekhi became executive vice president, leading product development and technology strategies.
Rekhi drew parallels between the high unemployment of the early 1980s and today, and said both were good times to become an entrepreneur.
"The best times are the hard times," he said. "Jobs are not plentiful, so there are resources available: laid-off people, rent is low, competition is not as tough, and you have time to get your service or product up to speed."
He also said it is time to try your own business when you are restless and not happy, and you can identify the next wave.
Entrepreneurs create new wealth, he said, and, of course, it is hard.
"Ninety percent of people don’t have the entrepreneur gene and won’t try it," Rekhi said. "So the odds of the percent who do try are ten times better! The first step is the hardest, into the valley of death. The first couple of years, it is just you, not even your wife or husband. Nobody outside."
The downside to doing your own thing is that it is very difficult, he said. The upside is that there is unlimited potential for success, "but you have to find out if you have that entrepreneur gene. You have to try it."
Becoming an entrepreneur in tough economic times has an additional upside: "You learn discipline early. You learn the value of money early. In boom times, they don't have discipline, so when the market takes a downturn, they don't do well. I discovered a new me."
Fielding questions from the audience, he said money for start-ups is always available.
"Do your paper designs, paint a picture of that dream."
And being an entrepreneur is much easier today because of the Internet. It is also a "team sport: We had a software guy, a hardware guy, me, who did the boards, and a sales and marketing guy."
You can't do it all by yourself, he said. First, find your strengths and weaknesses.
And he identified some strengths as personality traits, within the entrepreneur gene, for start-ups: having intellectual honesty, working harder than the other guy, holding yourself accountable, having a fair sense of value, knowing your domain, possessing leadership skills to pull everyone up, and not needing accolades from the outside.
"You'll get daily satisfaction from the inside."
He also thought the local area was perfect for entrepreneurs.
"You have a high quality of life, it is clean, good fiber (network), cheap labor with students, and a hotbed of intelligence here with the University."
He compared Houghton and Michigan Tech to Silicon Valley and Stanford, which opened up its labs after hours, for example, to aid in intellectual property development.
He returned to the start-ups.
"There is no magic here. It will take four or five orders to make money, as the first and second orders from a customer are essentially free since you had to invest so much initially."
More wisdom.
"Stay focused. One sharp knife is great. Two sharp knives together become one dull knife."
"Ideas are a dime a dozen. Creating and shipping your product gives it value."
"You should grow as a leader faster than your business grows. Be very honest with yourself."
"Spread your risk around: technological, marketplace, financial and execution as a leader."
"As a leader, keep asking, 'What am I missing?'"
Today, as a leader of TiE, a nonprofit that fosters entrepreneurship with 50 chapters in 11 countries, Rekhi focuses on the South Asian business community and has ties all over Silicon Valley.
Sometimes those beginners talk to him about how hard it is starting out.
"From India, I was dropped off a bus at Michigan Tech in 1967," he says. "I could do it, why not you?"
Lesson learned. Class dismissed. |
|
|
3. Michigan Tech Remains the Top Peace Corps School |
Approximately 34 graduate students are serving in the Peace Corps around the world as part of their master's degree program. As a result, the Peace Corps has announced, Michigan Tech remains the university with the most Peace Corps Master's International (PCMI) program students in the nation. Tech ranked number one in the nation last year, too.
Nationwide, 62 universities participate in the PCMI program. The University of Washington came in a distant second to Michigan Tech, with 19 graduate students currently serving abroad.
Professor Blair Orr (SFRES) heads Tech's PCMI program and credits its success to strong support from the University administration and to the dedication of the students themselves. "Most universities don't provide equivalent support," he said.
"The impact of the support is evident in both the number of students and the high quality of students who are attracted to the program," Orr said. "This support enables faculty to work closely with students on campus and overseas, and this prepares students to function much more effectively than the average volunteer. The students bring a strong technical background to their field assignment, along with an awareness of how technology must be adapted to the local culture."
Michigan Tech offers PCMI degrees in six fields: forestry, civil and environmental engineering, and rhetoric and technical communication--as well as three others, mechanical engineering-engineering mechanics, natural geological hazards and applied science education, that are the only ones of their kind in the US.
John Lyons is a PhD student in geological and mining engineering and sciences. His research focuses on volcanoes. During his two years of Peace Corps service in Guatemala, he lived and worked in a village over which loomed a rumbling, smoking volcano named Fuego.
"The Peace Corps Master's International program in natural hazards enabled me to do two years of field work on an active volcano located right in my backyard," says Lyons. "As I was integrated into the fabric of my community, people shared lifetimes of knowledge about the volcano and its activity, their interpretations of what the volcano was currently doing and stories about what the volcano had done in the past. The Peace Corps experience was unique. It definitely inspired me to do PhD research at Michigan Tech."
Cara Shonsey is another PCMI student. She served as a water and sanitation volunteer in Mali, West Africa, and is now back on campus finishing her master's in civil engineering. "By the end of my service, I felt that I had never worked so hard to change one family's opinions on water and sanitation," she says. "I was extremely frustrated that I could not influence the entire village, but in the end, making a difference in that one family's future makes it all seem worthwhile."
Peace Corps representatives will be at Michigan Tech for an information session for prospective participants at 6 p.m., Tuesday, March 17, in Fisher 125. |
|
|
4. MSGC Funding Announced |
Michigan Tech faculty and students were awarded nearly $100,000 in funding by the Michigan Space Grant Consortium at its recent meeting in Ann Arbor. Here is a summary of research support.
Joan Chadde, education program coordinator for the Center for Science and Environmental Outreach and education program coordinator for the Western Upper Peninsula Center for Science, Mathematics and Environmental Education, received $10,000 in the Public Outreach category.
Jacqueline Huntoon, dean of the Graduate School, was awarded $5000 in the Teacher Training category.
Research Seed Grant Awards
Assistant Professor Ossama Abdelkhalik (ME-EM), "Estimation of Relative Positions and Attitudes of Microsatellite Constellations Using Wireless Local Positioning System," $5,000
Assistant Professor Lanrong Bi (Chemistry), "Antioxidants for Astronauts? Development of Novel Antioxidants Against Oxidative Damage During and After Spaceflight," $5,000
Assistant Professor Simon Carn (GMES), "Infrared Spectroscopy of Tropospheric Volcanic Plumes," $4,670
Assistant Professor Bo Chen (ME-EM), "Initial Analysis for a Semi-Active Vibration Damping System for Spacecraft in Launch Vehicles," $5,000
Assistant Professor Seong-Young Lee (ME-EM), "Investigation of Enhancement of Deflagration-to-Detonation Transition Processes Using an Atmospheric RF Plasma in a Detonation Tube," $5,000
Assistant Professor Spandan Maiti (ME-EM), "Biomimetic Design of Low Density Foams Subjected to Thermal and Mechanical Shock," $5,000
Assistant Professor Reza Yassar (ME-EM), "Mechanics of Hydrogen Storage in Nanostructured Materials for Spacecrafts," $5,000
Graduate Fellowships
Amalia Anderson (Physics), $5,000, advisor: Alex Kostinski
Alexandria Guth (GMES), $5,000, advisor: Jim Wood
Megan Killian (BME), $5,000, advisor: Tammy Haut-Donahue
Patricia Nadeau (GMES), $5,000, advisor: Gregory Waite
Joshua Richardson (GMES), $5,000, advisor: Gregory Waite
Undergraduate Fellowships
Daniel Dubiel (ME-EM/BME), $2,500, advisor: Tammy Haut-Donahue
Katelyn Fitzgerald (GMES), $2,500, advisor: John Gierke
Sara Gray (BME), $2,500, advisor: Seth Donahue
Gareth Johnson (ME-EM), $2,500, advisor: Brad King
David Smeenge (BME), $2,500, advisor: Megan Frost
Nate Wier (ME-EM), $2,500, advisor: Brad King
Samantha Wojda (BME), $2,500 |
|
|
5. ESC/BRC Research Forum Awards Announced |
The Ecosystem Science Center and the Biotechnology Research Center have announced award recipients of the Fifth Annual ESC/BRC Graduate Research Forum, held on Feb. 27.
Two Grand Awards, six Merit Awards and three Honorable Mention Awards were presented.
$500 Grand Prizes
Ecosystem Science Center
Elizabeth Boisvert (SFRES) for "Initiation and Development of Three Lake Superior Coastal Peatlands"; advisor: Assistant Professor Tom Pypker
Biotechnology Research Center
Eric Minner (Biomedical Engineering) for "Hydrogel System Delivers Glutathione and Interleukin-10 to Mitigate Secondary Injury following Spinal Cord Damage"; advisor: Assistant Professor Ryan Gilbert
$100 Merit Prizes
Ecosystem Science Center
Lucas Spaete (SFRES) for "Aspen Biomass Assessment for MI, WI and MN: A GIS and Regression Approach for Quantifying Biomass"; advisor: Associate Professor Ann Maclean
Sarah Stehn (SFRES) for "Altitudinal Gradients of Bryophyte Diversity and Community Assemblage in Southern Appalachian Spruce-Fir Forests"; advisor: Associate Professor Christopher Webster
Biotechnology Research Center
Jared Cregg (Biomedical Engineering) for "The Role of Aligned Fiber Density in Axon Motility"; advisor: Assistant Professor Ryan Gilbert
Jill Jensen (Chemical Engineering) for "Selection for Improved Hybrid Poplar Via Dilute Acid and Enzymatic Hydrolysis Using Mini-Reactors"; advisor: Professor David Shonnard
Dalila Trupiano (SFRES) for "Activation Tagging of A Poplar AP2/ERF Transcription Factor Involved in Lateral Root Formation"; advisor: Associate Professor Victor Busov
Han Bing Wang (Biomedical/Chemical Engineering) for "Axonal Guidance Conduits Containing Aligned, Electrospun Poly-L-Lactic Acid Fibers Direct In Vitro Neurite Outgrowth"; advisors: Assistant Professor Ryan Gilbert (Biomedical Engineering) and Professor Michael Mullins (Chemical Engineering)
Honorable Mentions, Ecosystem Science Center
Chris Miller (SFRES) for "The Economic Feasibility of Aspen as a Coal Co-Firing Component"; advisor: Assistant Professor Robert Froese
Mathew Metz (SFRES) for "Summer Predation Patterns of Yellowstone Gray Wolves"; advisor: Assistant Professor John Vucetich
Max Henschell (SFRES) for "Do the Birds Care? Avian Community Response to Floristic Quality"; advisor: Associate Professor David Flaspohler |
|
|
6. Cross-Country Team Earns Academic Award |
The men's and women's cross-country teams were both named scholar teams by the US Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.
The men's running team finished with a cumulative GPA of 3.23, and the women finished with a 3.61. Both teams posted the second-highest GPA among schools in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
"This award shows the strong emphasis we place on academics in our programs," said head coach Joe Haggenmiller. "We expect all of our athletes to work hard in the classroom and on the field of competition."
This is the second year in a row that both programs have received this honor, which is awarded to teams that have a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or above. |
|
|
7. Hitting Our STRIDE in Faculty Hiring |
Two workshops this month will address the legal aspects of faculty hiring and strategies and tactics for recruiting to improve diversity and excellence (STRIDE).
Both workshops are part of the NSF-funded ADVANCE project at Michigan Tech, which is working to broaden and improve hiring practices to ensure a diverse pool of applicants and faculty success.
On Thursday, March 19, an ADVANCE workshop and panel discussion will explore the legal aspects of faculty hiring. The panel will include Tech's new director of human resources, Anita Quinn; Sherri Kauppi, director of affirmative programs; and Paul Tomasi, legal counsel. The workshop is meant for anyone involved in faculty searches.
Personal invitations are being sent, but if you are involved in faculty searches and don't receive an invitation, contact Eddie Jean Johnson at eddie@mtu.edu .
The University of Michigan's STRIDE committee, made up of senior faculty from across its campus, will present the second workshop on Tuesday, March 31. They will talk about steps they have taken to help maximize the likelihood that diverse, well-qualified candidates for faculty positions are identified, recruited, retained and promoted.
They will do a morning session for those involved in faculty searches and an open presentation for the University community in the afternoon. |
|
|
8. A Word From Sponsored Programs: Submit Grants.gov Proposals Early |
submitted by Sponsored Programs
Grants.gov, an electronic proposal submission system, has numerous system performance issues, and one in particular has been affecting Michigan Tech: an extremely slow server response time when submitting proposal applications. Institutions across the nation are experiencing this same issue. At Michigan Tech, three proposals in the last two weeks were unable to be submitted due to slow server response time. This issue is beyond the control of staff in the Sponsored Programs Office (SPO).
At a national meeting, representatives from NIH said there is not a quick fix for the slow server response time, so institutions need to plan accordingly. They encourage submitting proposals in advance to ensure a successful application
The SPO procedure for proposal submission states that the complete proposal and all applicable internal paperwork (i.e. transmittal sheet, budget, cost share forms, etc.) are due to the Sponsored Programs Office 48 hours prior to the submission deadline. At minimum, we strongly encourage all faculty and staff to adhere to this time frame. We recommend that the complete proposal and applicable internal paperwork be in the Sponsored Programs Office 72 hours prior to the submission deadline for Grants.gov applications.
If you have any questions about Grants.gov, contact SPO at 487-2226. Below are a few tips on Grants.gov applications.
* For Adobe applications, you must use Adobe version 8.1.2 or newer.
* The system is slower in the afternoon. It is best to submit applications in the morning.
* For NIH proposals: even after a proposal makes it through Grants.gov, errors can occur once it is received by NIH. If this happens, the application needs to be fixed and resubmitted through Grants.gov within two days. |
|
|
9. Today’s University Social Starts Early |
|
Today's First Friday University Social has been moved up an hour so that attendees can make it to the women's playoff basketball game. The event will begin at 3 p.m. at the Par and Grill at Portage Lake Golf Course. The game begins at 5 p.m. |
|
|
10. Reminder: Annual MTU Preschool Cabin Fever Carnival Tomorrow |
Step out of the cold and into the warmth of a good time with friends at MTU Preschool's Cabin Fever Carnival, to be held tomorrow, Saturday, March 7, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Horner Lobby of the Rozsa Center.
The event is fun for the entire family, featuring games for all ages and skill levels, prizes, refreshments, a cake walk, and a huge silent auction and theme basket auction.
For more information, visit www.mtupreschool.org/ . |
|
|
11. Michigan Tech Notables |
Timothy Colling, senior research engineer with the Michigan Tech Transportation Institute, has been selected to participate in the Eno Transportation Foundation's Leadership Development Conference in Washington, DC, in May.
The conference brings together the top 20 graduate students in transportation engineering from across the country for the one-week program, in which participants meet top government officials, leaders of transportation organizations and members of Congress to get a firsthand look at how transportation policy is developed and implemented.
Colling is a doctoral student in civil engineering and assistant director of Michigan's Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP).
His advisor, Professor Bill Sproule (CEE), says that this is "a tremendous opportunity" for Colling and "a recognition that he is one of the country's future transportation leaders." |
|
|
12. Teaching at Tech: Finding Common Ground |
by William A. Kennedy, director, Center for Teaching, Learning and Faculty Development
Aristotle observed that truly effective human interaction requires mutual trust, emotional engagement and the ability to share ideas of value. Psychology teaches us that humans have evolved to constantly seek out comfort, safety, control and happiness. We vary individually in our capacity to delay the immediate and constant fulfillment of these desires to achieve increased benefits in the longer term. Some suggest that a willingness to sacrifice the immediate for the long term is one hallmark of intellectual and emotional maturity.
As I grow longer in the tooth, I bristle when I hear young people say, "back in the day." As in, "Back in the day, people used to go into a little boxy booth to make phone calls if they were away from home." How can you authentically wax nostalgic when your frame of historical awareness runs around one decade? I want to tell them that I have socks older than they are, but I usually don't. I think part of the challenge of bridging the gap between generations is due to our lack of common ground, of shared history and experience. Up until the last few months, I must admit I thought grandma was a little nuts when she washed out plastic sandwich bags for reuse.
Many things work against the ability of instructors to find common ground with their students. Our mass manufacturing model of education, for example, has led us to act as though exam performance is a sufficient indicator of robust intellectual growth and maturation. Not surprisingly, we routinely talk about education as a process of transferring "material." In many ways, we, and many of our students, have lost the other two parts of Aristotle's triad--the passion and the trust that give interest and substance to all human interactions.
In 1870, 1.1 percent of 18 to 24 year olds were enrolled in some form of higher education in the United States; by 1970, that number had grown to 32.1 percent.
In 2009, around 70 percent of US high school grads will enroll in some form of postsecondary certificate or degree program, with about 50 percent of them graduating within six years. Going to college used to be reserved for the privileged few--those who were born, bred and more than willing to inherit the mantels of leadership and economic power. These days, the sea of matriculants represents the diversity of the planet, but our instructional methods and metrics have remained relatively unchanged.
From the heights of geezerdom, it would be easy for me to say that it's the students' job to find common ground with me; after all, rank should have some privileges. But, I know that's neither correct nor helpful. The question is, What can I do to encourage all of us to rise to the occasion?
Students read the syllabus and think, "What's the least I can do to earn a (insert desired grade) in this class?" I lay out a syllabus and think, "What's the most they'll tolerate?" Maybe it's time for this kabuki dance, with its preordained ending, to grind to a halt.
If education is to truly become the lighting of a fire, instead of the filling of a pail, we need to arrive at some common sense of purpose, shed our masks and costumes and set about the business of creating the future, for real. |
|
|
