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1. Michigan Tech Receives $3 Million in Federal Stimulus Funds |
by Jennifer Donovan, public relations director
Michigan Tech will receive nearly $3 million in federal stimulus funds to develop an interdisciplinary educational program to train engineers and technicians to design and build the next generation of hybrid electric vehicles.
The $2.98-million grant is part of $2.4 billion in awards under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, announced Thursday by President Barack Obama. Vice President Joe Biden was in Detroit to announce that more than $1 billion of the grants will go to companies and universities in Michigan, more than any other state.
Michigan Tech is one of three state universities in Michigan to receive education and training awards. The other two are Wayne State University and the University of Michigan.
"This is great news for Michigan Tech," said Carl Anderson, associate dean for research and graduate programs in the College of Engineering and principal investigator for the new program. "We have had a strength in liquid-fueled vehicles and active partnerships with their manufacturers for a long time. Now we have the opportunity to take advantage of a broader array of our strengths and establish a similar leadership role in the development of a new generation of electric-powered vehicles.”
Michigan Tech will work with Argonne National Laboratory and a number of industrial partners including AVL, General Motors, Eaton, Horiba, MathWorks, Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories and Woodward. The University and its partners will develop undergraduate and graduate curricula, including a certificate program in hybrid electric vehicles.
"We'll be training and retraining the next generation of engineers to produce vehicles that reduce fuel consumption and emissions," said Jeff Naber, lead faculty member of the multidisciplinary program.
The electric hybrid curriculum will be modeled after the groundbreaking course in advanced propulsion for hybrid vehicles that Michigan Tech taught in Detroit for displaced automotive engineers last spring. The course was offered in cooperation with the Engineering Society of Detroit (ESD) and General Motors, with GM providing laboratory facilities.
Another free, three-credit course will be offered in Detroit this fall, in cooperation with AVL, a developer of powertrains and vehicle simulation and test systems based in Plymouth, and with ESD. AVL will provide lab space, and GM is donating three hybrid vehicles. Ford and Lotus are also supporting the course.
Under the new grant, plans are to develop a mobile lab that could enable engineers anywhere to take the courses, Naber said. |
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2. Industrial Sponsored Proposal F&A Rate Change |
submitted by the VPR Office
Effective immediately, Michigan Tech will begin assessing the uncapped facilities and administrative cost rates to all industrial sponsored proposals. The current on-campus uncapped rate is 63 percent, and the off-campus uncapped rate is 33 percent.
The Sponsored Programs Office will consider requests to reduce the assessed F&A rate when cost share is required on a project, when there are concerns about cost-competitiveness of a proposal and when the project has a maximum total cost. The internal form for requesting such a reduction is available at www.mtu.edu/research/administration/sponsored-programs/pdf/IDCreduct_waiver.pdf .
Federal pass-through funding will continue to be assessed the appropriate federal rate, and all proposals previously submitted with the capped rate will be grandfathered at the rate at which they were submitted.
If you have any questions, contact Julie Seppala, director, Sponsored Programs Office, at 487-2225. |
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3. Tech Talks: The Mighty Mac |
by Dennis Walikainen, senior editor
Alumni on campus for the reunion had a couple of lectures to sit through, but they weren't sweating a pop quiz or solving tough calculations.
Instead, they were treated to a celebration of a natural ecosystem and of engineering solutions to a natural barrier.
Rolf Peterson discussed his wolf and moose on Isle Royale (more on that tomorrow), and Kim Nowak '85 talked about the Mackinac Bridge, of which she is chief engineer.
Nowack started her talk with the reason for the bridge: those insane lines of cars and the 18-hour wait for a ferry ride across.
"The townspeople would sit in your car for you, and they'd have huge hoses running from the gas pumps," she said to laughter.
Then she discussed the monumental odds stacked against the project.
The building cost was seen as astronomical. The underlying geology had to be proved adequate. And, the aerodynamics of the structure had to be perfect, funneling air caused by the wind velocity at the straits.
They were all overcome, of course, thanks to a visionary architect named David Steinman, "who was also the first president of the National Society of Professional Engineers, and we all owe him a debt of gratitude," Nowack, a civil engineer, said.
The impressive numbers just kept piling up: 2,500 workers, the largest marine equipment operation outside of wartime, and engineering beyond belief.
"Especially with this tool," she said among loud laughter and recognition from the crowd. "I'm glad you know what this is. Many of my spectators do not."
The photo showed an engineer hunched over schematics with slide rule in hand.
In amazing engineering feats, huge V-bottom rings were filled and sunk into the bedrock, six-foot-tall anchor bolts were used to attach metal to concrete, and the towers were built with multiple cells inside for strength.
"And, of course, they had to build their own catwalk," Nowack said over vertigo-inducing images of men working with no safety harnesses and stringing fencing out into space. Two men did die during that particularly dangerous episode. A third climbed his way back up to life.
She also showed a photo of the photographer, Herman Ellis, who risked his life daily to document all the engineering.
The aerodynamic solutions, driven in great part by the Tacoma Narrows suspension-bridge collapse of 1940, drew rapt attention from the assembled alumni, as you'd expect.
The genius of Steinman's design was revealed: openings in the structure under the roadway--and the grating on the middle of roadway--allow for air to flow through the bridge.
Since the bridge opened in 1957, it's meant more engineering to maintain. Inspections, electrical upgrades, and of course all that painting means the work is never over.
"This traveler is essential to the upkeep of the underside," Nowack said, showing a mechanized platform that creeps under the bridge and can be extended outside the edges.
Electricians need to walk up the cables and change the light bulbs ("We are looking at LEDs."), another awe-inspiring and rare winter shot. ("The winds aren't normally calm then.")
New technologies have been added: fiber optics for security, commuter and debit cards to hasten getting through the dreaded tollbooths.
"You have to keep the joints moving, too, just like your body," she said. And the Mac has many joints. The grating is also replaced with galvanized sections.
"And, you might know it, but the axles are counted at the tollbooths automatically, and the number has to match exactly with the money taken in," she said, pleasing any accountants in the crowd.
More good questions
How long to walk it? "About an hour, depending on your health."
Any cars blown off? "No. The Yugo in 1984 was driving erratically. The Bronco later was a suicide."
Highest wind gust? "112 mpg in 2002."
How much money taken in tolls? "$14 million, but the number of cars has steadily decreased as the costs to maintain it increase."
Weight restrictions? "144,000 pounds gross, same as the freeways. There are scales, and a Michigan State Police post, on the north side."
Closed by weather? "Two to three times a year, not as often from wind as from ice storms. The cables get covered, and in the spring, sheets of ice can fall off on the roadway."
Anticipated lifespan? "A long time."
The pilot who flew under the bridge? "Air Force jet pilot John Lappo. 1959. Not a smart thing to do."
Terror threats. "We work with Homeland Security. The good thing is not a lot of people know we exist." |
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4. Women's Basketball Alumnae Game Part of Michigan Tech Reunion Weekend |
More than 25 former Michigan Tech women's basketball student-athletes will be back on campus this weekend for the University's 2009 Alumni Reunion. Players from every era of Huskies women's basketball will gather to reminisce and lace up the high tops.
The weekend will culminate in an alumni game at the Student Development Complex Gymnasium Saturday, Aug. 8, at 6:30 p.m.
The list of alumnae scheduled to attend includes three members of the Michigan Tech Sports Hall of Fame--Judy Audit and Pam Bosio-Baileys, who both played in the inaugural seasons of Tech women's basketball, and all-time leading scorer Jenny Postlewaite (Fesenmaier).
Four others who both played and coached at Tech will be in attendance: Kim Cameron (current assistant coach), Sara (Ferris) Moilanen, Darla (Innes) Olson and Traci Vinopal-Phillips.
"We're very excited to have the alumnae back on campus," said head coach John Barnes. "It'll be fun to meet and watch the players who started Michigan Tech's great tradition of women's basketball."
Admission to the alumnae game is free of charge and open to the public. |
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5. New Funding |
Assistant Professor Megan Frost (Biomedical Engineering) has received $140,000 from NSF for the first year of a potential three-year project, "Novel Photoinitiated Controlled Nitric Oxide Release Materials."
Assistant Professor Wenjun Ying (Mathematical Sciences) has received $183,444 from NSF for a three-year project, "Adaptive Kernel-Free Boundary Integral Method for Elliptic PDEs."
Assistant Professor Reza Shahbazian-Yassar (ME-EM) has received $280,000 from NSF for a three-year project, "A New Perspective on Energy-Harvesting Nanowires: The Role of Chemistry and Structures of Nanowires." |
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6. In Print |
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Joan Chadde, coordinator of K-12 education programs for the Center for Science and Environmental Outreach at Michigan Tech, compiled the guidebook "Walking Paths and Protected Areas of the Keweenaw," published by the Michigan Nature Association. |
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7. Office Furniture Available for Free |
Public Safety has the following items available for free:
* one black, metal cabinet, measuring 63 by 20 by 29-1/2 inches, with a wood-grain top, two drawers per side and a shelf in the middle
* one black, metal desk, measuring 45 by 30 by 29.5 inches, with a wood-grain top and two drawers on the left-hand side
* one black, metal desk, measuring 60 by 30 by 29-1/2 inches, with a wood-grain top and two drawers on the right-hand side
* one metal cabinet, measuring 60 by 20 by 29-1/2 inches, with with a wood-grain top and four drawers along the front
* one metal desk wing, measuring 37-1/2 by 20 by 29-1/2 inches, with a wood-grain top and three drawers on the left-hand side
If you are interested, contact Public Safety at 487-2216
University property may only be transferred between departments; it may not be given or sold to individuals. |
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