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1. New Trustees Appointed |
Two new members of the Board of Trustees of the Michigan Tech Fund participated in their first meeting last week. The board is charged with overseeing the investment of private gift assets, including Michigan Tech's endowment, and with participating in fundraising efforts.
Sheryl S. Wright
Sheryl Wright graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering in 1991.
She began her career as a product engineer in the automotive division at 3M. She was business manager at Capital One Financial Services, where she oversaw several initiatives, including a multi-billion-dollar automotive lending business. She also worked as a management consultant in the engineering and marketing group of Booz, Allen and Hamilton.
Most recently, she worked at WellCare Health Plans, a national business that is headquartered in Tampa, Fla. Her duties have included product development, material development, acquisition, branding, market research and consumer insight. She created and ran the marketing department of a $2-billion start-up business. She then served as WellCare's vice president of marketing and business development.
She does volunteer work at Community Action Stops Abuse.
Timothy (Tim) D. Codd
Timothy Codd, a friend of the University, is the founder, CEO, and president of Morgan Bradley LLC and president of Michigan Orthopedic Services in Brighton.
Morgan Bradley is a consulting firm in health care. Michigan Orthopedic provides orthotic and prosthetic services.
A native of the Upper Peninsula, Codd studied at Gogebic Community College and Lake Superior State University.
He engages in extensive community service, including work with the Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan, Wayne County Homeland Security and the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce.
He also serves on several boards, including those of Pioneers of Peace, Random Acts of Kindness, and the Zoe Foundation. He has received the Michigan Heroes Award from the Detroit Pistons for his fundraising efforts on behalf of the Pistons-Palace Foundation and other charitable organizations. |
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2. Fun and Games are Serious Business for Tech's Code Warriors |
by Marcia Goodrich, senior writer
One of the hottest exhibits at Michigan Tech's Undergraduate Expo was a student-designed video game founded on the tried-and-true premise that the best enemy is a dead enemy.
"We tried to make it as pretty as possible," says Ryan Wilson, a codeveloper of Arcane Brawlers and vice president of operations of the Husky Game Development Enterprise. "It's got lightning, a blizzard, meteors, and the players have 21 different spells they can cast."
Sure, players can draw on protection and healing defenses. But, says Wilson, "the whole point is to kill each other," which happens in a spray of blood and body parts, and then you get to shake hands and start over again. And in case this doesn't feel warm and friendly enough, get this: Arcane Brawlers was designed for up to four people to play, at the same time, in the same room. Together.
The Enterprise is about more than games. It also has its fingers in a training simulation for Army ROTC, a virtual classroom in Second Life and a coding competition that had almost 100 students from Tech and Northern thinking like squirrels. To read more, go to the Michigan Tech News site. |
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3. Additional Abatement Work this Weekend in the Administration Building |
submitted by Jim Schultz, Facilities Management
Northwoods Environmental will be back this weekend to wrap up some miscellaneous work on the first and third floors of the Administration building. On first floor they will be removing the block vault ceiling in the registrar's area so that the fire retardant material above can be encapsulated. The area will be isolated like last time to provide a safe building environment.
Work will begin today at approximately 5:30 p.m. and will continue until about 10:30 p.m. During this time, the ceiling will be removed and the first coat of encapsulant will be applied. On Saturday, the crew will return at about 9:30 a.m. to apply a second coat of encapsulant. The work should be done by noon but could run as late as 2 p.m.
The former registrar's area on the first floor will be locked during the time the contractor is working, but the remainder of the first floor will be safe for normal traffic.
On the third floor Northwoods will be abating one additional room of floor tile they were not able to do previously. This will be done tonight at the same time as the work being done on
first floor. On Saturday morning, they will remove some carpeting in a few rooms on third floor that were abated several years ago. No one other than the contractor and work crew should be on third floor during this time .
While all safety precautions will be in place during this work, we encourage people not to be in the building if it is not necessary. Thanks again for your patience. Questions can be directed to Jim Schultz. |
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4. Tech Alum is Parade Marshall |
A Michigan Tech alumnus will be a grand marshall at Saturday's fifth annual Parade of Thanks, which recognizes the people in the armed forces.
John French, a native of Saginaw who now lives in Chassell, earned a bachelor's degree in geological engineering in 1998 and a master's in civil engineering in 2000.
He says it is a "huge privilege" to lead the parade. "I am honored."
He was seriously hurt in Afghanistan on July 19, 2009, when he was hit in the chest by a rocket-propelled grenade. He had been on duty there for six and a half months.
The experience left him appreciative of "everything in life." He means "the big things and especially the little things." He treasures people--"friends, community, everybody."
He was a member of the National Guard and has no regrets about joining the service. "I'd go back in a heartbeat as long as I was with the same guys," he says.
French is still recuperating from his many injuries but is able to work. He is employed with the Baraga Telephone Company.
The parade begins at 10 a.m. at the Franklin Square Inn in Houghton and concludes at Citizen's Bank in Hancock. |
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5. New Funding |
Assistant Professor John Hill (ME-EM) has received $23,112 from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation for a project, "Identifying Costs and Funding Alternatives for Equipping Operating While Intoxicated (OWI) Offenders with Ignition Interlock Devices."
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6. In Print |
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Assistant Professor Yolanda Munoz-Maldonado (Mathematical Sciences) published a paper with Chin Van Dang (The Institute of Hygiene and Public Health, Vietnam), R. Sue Day and Beatrice Selwyn (University of Texas-HSC Houston), Khan Nguyen, Tuyen Le and Mai Le (National Institute of Nutrition, Vietnam). The paper is titled "Initiating BMI prevalence studies in Vietnames children: changes in a transitional economy," and appeared in the Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 19, No. 2. |
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