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1. Governor Appoints Two Michigan Tech Deans to Wind Council |
by Jennifer Donovan, public relations director
Governor Jennifer Granholm has appointed two Michigan Tech deans to the Great Lakes Wind Council. They are Margaret Gale, dean of the School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science, and Leonard Bohmann, associate dean of academic affairs in the College of Engineering.
The Great Lakes Wind Council is an advisory group within the Michigan Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth. It provides a public forum to begin to identify where in the Great Lakes wind energy systems might be prudently situated. It was created by executive order of the governor in February 2009.
"I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to play a role in the future of wind energy in Michigan," said Gale. "It's an exciting time to be part of renewable energy planning."
Bohmann said he is extremely pleased about the appointment too. "This council is part of the governor's initiative to increase renewables, both as a source of energy and as a source of economic growth," he observed. "I support her efforts, and I think our work on the council will greatly increase wind energy production in Michigan."
Two other new appointments to the Wind Council were Arnold Boezaart, interim director of the Michigan Alternative and Renewable Energy Center at Grand Valley State University, and Wilfred Cwikiel, principal of Harbor Springs Middle School. |
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2. Michigan Tech Spring Commencement May 2 |
Lt. Col. Otha Thornton, a presidential communications officer, is the featured speaker at Spring Commencement, set for Saturday, May 2.
The University will honor the accomplishments of 785 students receiving undergraduate degrees, 81 master's degree candidates and 31 PhD recipients.
Thornton, who earned an MS in Rhetoric and Technical Communication from Michigan Tech in 2001, will receive an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters. He is the former director of White House Communications.
Thornton was stationed at Michigan Tech from 1999 to 2002 as a recruiter, public affairs officer and assistant professor of military science in the Army ROTC program.
This summer, he leaves his post in Washington, DC for Iraq to become the chief of personnel plans and operations.
Among his honors, Thornton received Michigan Tech's Outstanding Young Alumni Award and served on the board of directors of the National PTA.
Also at commencement, Dawn (Zarling) Plitzuweit will receive an Outstanding Young Alumni Award. She is now associate head coach for the University of Michigan women's basketball team. As head coach at Grand Valley State University, Plitzuweit and her team won the NCAA Division II national championship in 2005-06.
A 1995 graduate of Michigan Tech, she was named 1995 NCAA Woman of the Year in Michigan, the same year she was invited to speak at her own commencement. |
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3. A Soldier Departs |
by John Gagnon, promotional writer
Lt. Col. Dallas Eubanks, the forthright, friendly and spirited leader of Tech's Army ROTC program, is fading away now--retiring from the military after 21 years of service.
"What are you up to?" we asked him late last week, the day before a reception in his honor.
"Thinking about my next life," he answered.
This summer, Eubanks will begin "a suit and tie job"--teaching as a civilian at the US Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.
His last military assignment, the Michigan Tech ROTC program, culminates a career that has taken him around the world, including two combat assignments: Desert Shield and Desert Storm in 1990-91, and Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003-04.
He sums up his ROTC duties as "the serious business of training tomorrow's leaders to excel in a dangerous profession."
Now Eubanks will set aside his ribbons and salutes and reenter civilian life. He reflected about his profession, where he loved mentoring and coaching. "The army is a people business," he said. "It's about people, not tanks."
That attitude rubbed off on his student charges. Cadet Jon Hill said of Eubanks: "If you needed help, he was there. I never wished he'd done more."
Besides his military duties, Eubanks became active in the community. Tech's own Mari Buche (SBE) worked with him at Rotary. "He's so dedicated," she said. "Anytime there was a service project, Dallas was right in the middle of it. He's going to be missed."
Perhaps the most noteworthy community work was the "Toys for Troops" project. The local Rotary collected and sent 4,000 stuffed animals to American soldiers, who in turn gave them to kids in Iraq and Afghanistan. "It was madly successful," Buche said, noting that Eubanks lead the logistics of the effort. Eubanks summed up the project simply, "It was for kids surrounded by war."
At the reception for Eubanks late Friday afternoon, a hundred people, including community and campus leaders, as well as his wife, Lisa (Student Affairs), and daughter, Hannah, showed up. Eubanks regaled them all with a witty farewell. He recalled his first commanding officer, who told him, "You might amount to something--I don't know." They are fast friends these days.
On a serious note, Eubanks said, "I will always be a soldier." He said he has "lots of good friends from the battlefield," some of them just a memory.
He said he looks forward to commissioning his last nine second lieutenants at commencement next Saturday. He told the cadets who will graduate after he leaves: "Do the right thing and take care of your buddy."
Then Cadet Hill played the army song, during which Eubanks stood at attention. After a standing ovation, there was a reception line, where there were gifts and handshakes and hugs, and where Eubanks confessed, "This is hard." |
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4. Low Tech, High Impact: Students Build a Grain Mill for Africa |
by Marcia Goodrich, senior writer
Africa is dotted with monuments to what doesn't work. Terry Woychowski wanted to build something that would.
The 1978 mechanical engineering graduate has put the resources of his family foundation behind a Senior Design project to make a grain mill that can withstand the pressures of African village life.
It won't be the first time someone has tried to help subsistence farmers improve their lives by grinding their own maize. Traditionally, farmers have had two choices: hauling grain to the local mill and paying to have it ground into flour, or grinding it themselves by hand with a mortar and pestle.
Plenty of elegant, efficient mills, pumps and other labor-saving devices have been donated to villages, but they rarely lasted long. "They are disassembled for their parts," Woychowski explains. When people are poor, they sacrifice the devices and sell the parts or use them for something else. After all, they can still get their water the old fashioned way by using buckets.
Ten-year-old Solomi Mafuta, of the African village of Sentani, hauls his family's maize to a diesel-powered mill to be ground. The time-consuming task has pulled him away from his studies and to the verge of flunking out of school. His photo is tacked up in the cubicle occupied by Design Team 19 as a reminder of why they are there.
"He would miss school because he had to carry grain," says team member Kate Olkkonen, a mechanical engineering senior.
Woychowski is executive director of General Motors North America vehicle chief engineers and the global chief engineer for trucks, and he has a special interest in advanced propulsion systems, which are notable for their complexity. But when he offered to underwrite a Senior Design team effort to build a grain mill that would work in Africa, he stipulated that it had to be low tech: simple, cheap and made with materials available locally. That meant no motors.
Students found the project intriguing. "It seemed interesting to be working on a project that could be applied in Africa," said Olkkonen. Nathan Fetting added, "And unlike a lot of projects, it will actually be used."
The students were forced to think differently about design. Every dollar, not just every hundred dollars, counted. "It got us away from the parts catalog," said Fetting. Even at that, it was hard to stay simple. "[Team member] Tyler [Blank] had designed a really cool hopper with an intricate feeder, and our advisor asked us why people couldn't just pour the grain in by hand." The hopper was scrapped.
In the end, they built a mill with Solomi in mind. It's powered by an old bicycle: a 10-year-old boy could hop on and grind his family's maize just by pumping the pedals. It produces a coarse flour, which is cooked in boiling water. The end result is nshima, a staple dish in Malawi that looks like mashed potatoes. "We sent some to a family from Malawi living in the Detroit area, and they served it over Easter," Fetting said. "Even their kids liked it."
John Beard, associate professor of mechanical engineering-engineering mechanics, is the team's advisor and is proud of its success. "It's hard to make something simple," he said. "These students had to learn all kinds of things from a hundred years ago." It also answers one of Africa's three greatest needs, he said: the other two are education and clean drinking water.
Jamie Woychowski, Terry's daughter and executive director of the Woychowski Charitable Foundation, will travel to Zambia to transfer the design plans and spearhead the manufacturing of the first five mills. "Our design will be improved upon by the inhabitants of this region," Fetting predicted, since they know the local materials and how best to use them. If the effort is successful, another 75 will be built, with help from the World Hope International Foundation.
The biggest change will come about if Africans themselves incorporate the mills into their local economies. "The real win would be if someone starts a microbusiness to manufacture these," said Woychowski, who came to Michigan Tech to check out the team's progress. "Then the people who make them could earn enough to buy one."
"On behalf of my family, I want to express my gratitude," he said. "These guys have taken what they've learned and applied it in a way that will change the world." |
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5. The Rozsa's New Space to Showcase Art |
by Dennis Walikainen, senior editor
Made possible by a generous gift from Ilene Niva, an empty space will come alive. The Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts has a new art gallery.
"It's been in the plans for years," says Mike Morelli, director of the Rozsa Center, "and we are very excited to have a new gallery."
Working with the Department of Visual and Performing Arts and Mike Wilmers of Facilities Management, the Rozsa staff cleaned out storage space to make room.
The Rozsa's Design and Marketing Coordinator, Niki Belkowski, has been designing the new room, which is downstairs from the Horner Lobby. And it needs to be finished by September, according to Morelli.
"We've got a traveling exhibition from the Smithsonian Institution coming in," he says. "It's called 'The Dancer Within,' and it features 48 incredible photos, including some from the Tchaikovsky Ballet Theater's Swan Lake, which we hosted here last year."
The website for the exhibit is www.sites.si.edu/images/exhibits/Dancer%20Within/slideshow/index.htm .
Other possibilities in the future for the gallery include featuring artists from the Keweenaw and elsewhere.
"We've got a world-class watercolorist next door--Mary Ann Beckwith," Morelli says. "And we are working with a renowned illustrator from Time and Newsweek who we'd like to bring in."
And art shows featuring student talent could also be held in the new space.
"We are obviously very excited about this new campus showpiece and can't wait to showcase art within it," Morelli says. |
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6. Reminder: New SPO Proposal Submission Deadline to Take Effect Friday |
The Sponsored Programs Office (SPO) is implementing an internal deadline for all external proposal submissions, effective Friday, May 1.
A completed technical proposal and all applicable internal paperwork are to be submitted to the Sponsored Programs staff 48 hours or more prior to the sponsor's deadline (excluding weekend hours). The SPO staff will not submit a proposal if it is received after the internal deadline, even if it is received prior to the sponsor's deadline. If a proposal deadline is outside normal business hours, the 48-hour deadline is counted from the end of normal business hours on the due date.
Due to capacity issues with grants.gov, we recommend that a completed proposal and all applicable internal paperwork be submitted to the Sponsored Programs staff five business days or more prior to the sponsor's deadline for grants.gov submissions.
If you have questions regarding grants.gov, contact the Sponsored Programs Office at 487-2226. |
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7. TiViTz Tournament Thursday |
The annual "Space TiViTz" tournament returns to campus this week.
Two-hundred fifty Upper Peninsula grade-schoolers will gather at Tech to compete in a tournament that sneaks in a healthy dose of learning mixed with plenty of fun.
The youngsters, in grades four through eight, will engage in a challenge that tests their math and critical-thinking skills.
"Space TiViTz" is a board game that is as easy as checkers and as strategic as chess. Kathryn Clark, former chief scientist of Human Space Flight for NASA, co-invented the game.
The event will be held at the Wood Gymnasium of the Student Development Complex on Thursday, April 30, from 9 am. to 12:30 p.m.
Here is the agenda:
9-9:30 a.m.--Registration
9:30-10 a.m.--Welcome by Kathryn Clark, who is also vice chair of the Michigan Tech Board of Control. A practice round follows her remarks.
10-11:30--Three rounds of competition
11:30-noon--Lunch
noon-12:30--Awards
The top students will be invited to the state TiViTz tournament on Saturday, May 16, at the Kalamazoo Air Zoo.
The event is sponsored by Youth Programs, the Department of Educational Opportunity and the Western UP Center for Science, Mathematics and Environmental Education. |
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8. Reminder: Retirement Social for Milt Olsson Wednesday |
Visual and Performing Arts will host a retirement social honoring Milton Olsson, professor of music, from 3 to 5 p.m., Wednesday, April 29, in the Rozsa Lobby.
In addition to organizing and conducting Michigan Tech's choirs, Olsson has been music director of the Keweenaw Symphony for many years.
For more information, visit www.admin.mtu.edu/urel/ttoday/previous.php?issue=20090417#3 or contact Karen Snyder at 487-3094 or at kasnyder@mtu.edu . |
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9. Reminder: Central Heating Shutdown May 3-7 |
by Dave Taivalkoski, energy manager
A shutdown of the Central Heating Plant will take place from noon, Sunday, May 3, until noon, Thursday, May 7. The reason: work on the steam generation and distribution system. Most buildings will be kept reasonably comfortable from their internal heat load, but there will be a lack of hot water in most areas. Also, distilled water from steam-driven stills may run out depending on demand and size of the storage tank.
Steam will not be available for buildings served by the Central Heating Plant, from the Administration Building down the lower campus to the Rozsa and up the hill to the U. J. Noblet Building and the SDC, including the Gates Tennis Center.
Work will begin on Monday, May 4, as soon as the plant and piping cool down. It is possible that the work will be completed a day sooner than planned.
Looking ahead to next year, the steam system shutdown is planned to begin on Sunday, May 2, and may be of similar duration. Shutdowns generally begin at noon on the day following Spring Commencement.
To report unforeseen difficulties, contact Taivalkoski at 487-2706 or detaival@mtu.edu . |
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10. Arson Suspect Sought: Contact Police with Any Information |
Public Safety is assisting the Houghton Police Department in its search for a potential suspect in the arson of the apartment building located at 1202 College Ave.
The potential suspect should have injuries to his or her hand and arm; the injuries would most likely be to the left limb.
Anyone with any information is asked to contact the Houghton Police Department at 482-2121 or stop by their office at 616 Sheldon Ave. |
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11. SYP Registration Blitz to Be Held Tuesday, Summer Explorations Discount Available |
The Summer Youth Programs Registration Blitz, which was postponed from last week due to inclement weather, will take place tomorrow, Tuesday, April 28, from 4 to 6 p.m. in Memorial Union Peninsula Room A. The raffle scheduled for last week's blitz will be held tomorrow.
The children and grandchildren of Michigan Tech employees and alumni are eligible for a discount of $50 off the live-in or commuter rate for any Summer Exploration (one per participant, per summer).
You do not need to attend the registration blitz to sign up for an exploration or to take advantage of the discount, but if you would like to sign up for the raffle, stop by.
Applications and payment forms are available on the Summer Youth Programs website, http://youthprograms.mtu.edu , or you can apply directly online. |
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12. Portage Lake Golf Course Opens for the Season |
The Portage Lake Golf Course has opened for the season. Golf carts will not be allowed on the course during opening weekend, Saturday and Sunday, April 25-26, but Mark Maroste, golf course manager, is optimistic that golfers will be able to use carts today, Monday, April 27.
Tee times are available by calling 487-2641 or visiting www.golf.mtu.edu . |
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13. Summer Registration for Community Programs Starts May 6 |
You can register for summer Community Programs offerings beginning Wednesday, May 6, at the SDC Ticket Office or online at http://www.aux.mtu.edu/rec/ ; click the Online Registration link and follow the instructions from there.
You will need to register at the ticket office if you are taking advantage of any discounts, such as TechFit or the SDC membership discount.
The youth classes include
* Swimming--available to anyone over 6 months of age. (Sign up babies, toddlers and children up to 5 for the Parent and Child Class.)
* Aikido--a great martial arts activity for both youth and adults
* Tennis--Both youth and adult classes are offered. Call 487-2975 for more information.
The adult classes include
* Social Dance--Be a star on the dance floor at weddings.
* Aikido--combines elements of aerobic exercise, mindful meditation and self-defense
* Aqua-Fit--water aerobics, perfect for those looking for a low-impact workout
* Aerobics--a great variety of classes offered throughout the week
* Pilates--Focus on core muscles that help keep the body balanced (noontime in the ROTC Gym is back).
* Pilates Plus--a unique class that combines Pilates and aerobics
* Scuba Diving--Become certified and start exploring Great Lakes shipwrecks.
* Yoga--Several types of Yoga classes are offered, featuring both strength and cardiovascular conditioning and flexibility components while using music to enhance the experience.
To view the Community Programs brochure, visit www.aux.mtu.edu/rec/ .
For more information, call Sports and Recreation at 487-2975. |
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14. Seminar Tuesday on Wood Decay |
Jessie Glaeser, research plant pathologist at the Forest Products Laboratory of the US Forest Service, Madison, Wis., will give a seminar, "Wood Decay Research--Where Have We Been and Where Are We Going? Two Case Studies of Wood Decay and Climate Change," Tuesday, April 28, 10 a.m. in U. J. Noblet 143.
Glaeser will discuss new understandings of phylogenetic relationships among wood decay fungi enhanced by recent DNA findings and related research at the Forest Products Lab.
This seminar is sponsored by the School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science and the Wood Protection Group. |
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15. New Funding |
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Linda Nagel (SFRES) has received $15,000 from the USDA Forest Service for "Assessing Vegetation of Isle Royale National Park with FIA." |
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16. Job Posting |
Staff job descriptions are available in Human Resources or at http://www.admin.mtu.edu/hro/postings . For more information regarding staff positions, call 487-2280 or email jobs@mtu.edu .
Faculty job descriptions can be found at www.admin.mtu.edu/hro/facpers/facvac.htm . For more information regarding faculty positions, contact the academic department in which the position is posted.
Job Posting
April 27-May 1
Office Assistant 5
Registrar's Office
UAW Internal and External Posting
Michigan Technological University is an equal opportunity educational institution/equal opportunity employer. |
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