1. ON THE ROAD AGAIN: SMARTLANE PAVEMENT OVERLAY LICENSED TO CARGILL

Last year, Russ Alger's pavement coating gave Wisconsin's icy Wolf River Bridge a rare accident-free winter.

Now, licensing agreement with corporate partner Cargill in hand, Alger and his team from the Keweenaw Research Center are expanding the test program to other Snow Belt bridges. Cargill is marketing the coating under the brand name SmartLane, and if all goes well, it could be de-icing trouble spots all across the U.S.

Here's how it works. SmartLane, a blend of epoxy and aggregate, is applied on top of the road surface about half an inch thick. Come winter, it soaks up the de-icing chemical spread by road crews. When bad weather hits, it slowly releases the chemical and prevents frost and keeps freezing rain and snow from sticking to the roadway. Not only is the chemical there when you need it, making for a safer driving surface, it also saves road maintenance dollars and helps protect the environment. Less salt ends up on the shoulder and in waterways.

One of the first test sites is on northern Wisconsin's remote Highway 8, on the treacherous Wolf River Bridge. Last winter, salt trucks applied chemicals five times, fewer than half the average amount. But unlike in years past, no vehicles slid out of control and crashed into the guard rails.

Under the licensing agreement, Cargill, which manufactures deicing chemicals and distributes them nationwide, will market SmartLane and oversee its installation. Alger, a project manager/research leader at KRC, is considering establishing a spin-off company to train contractors to apply SmartLane. Meanwhile Alger continues to tweak his invention.

"I'm finding now that some chemicals might work better than others, so the next step is to find that magic chemical," Alger said. "Most of the good ones are expensive, but if it costs $500 a gallon and it only takes one gallon to treat a bridge for a year, it's still a great deal."

Though SmartLane is not yet on the market, it has generated plenty of attention from road maintenance professionals, not all of them from above the Mason-Dixon line.

"There has been a big interest in the South," Alger said. "For example, Dallas gets a couple ice storms a year, and they don't have equipment to deal with it, so they have lots of accidents."

Next year, Alger expects to install SmartLane on three more Wisconsin bridges, plus one bridge in Indiana and another near Lansing. "We've also been talking with other states," he said. "I hope for an explosion of projects next summer."

Alger also envisions SmartLane solving winter maintenance woes at the nation's airports. It's currently being tested on a taxiway at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago.

"And the third side of the business would be commercial and residential applications, places like hospital entrances, university sidewalks, federal buildings or the entrance to Wal-Mart," he said. "We've joked about doing the Capitol steps."
_______________

2. SPONSORED EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS REORGANIZED

Sponsored Educational Programs and Distance Learning is being reorganized to integrate distance learning with the rest of the university, Provost and Vice President for Research David Reed has announced.

The reorganization is effective Feb. 21, though some changes will be phased in over the semester to accommodate ongoing activities. It does not involve the loss of any positions.

"Over the years, distance learning has become a basic function at Michigan Tech," Reed said. "Technology is blurring the lines between distance and on-campus students in many situations."

The reorganization reflects this change, according to Scott Amos, who serves as the dean of distance learning as well as dean of the School of Technology. "We are trying to make the use of distance learning technologies seamless with the rest of an MTU education," he said.

Thus, most distance-learning functions will be moved to other areas that perform similar services for on-campus students. For example, Admissions and Student Records and Registration will take on the responsibility for admitting and enrolling students not affiliated with a corporate sponsor, such as GM or Ford. And Research and Sponsored Programs will assume contract negotiating responsibilities.

SEP employees who advise distance-learning students will report to the College or School that offers the degree program. "We are returning responsibility for the academic programs to the units and providing them with support to deliver those programs," said Amos.

And those who manage and operate distance-learning technology will be transferred to Educational Technology Services, which will be responsible for distance-education delivery.

"This will promote the use of educational technologies on campus and serve as a mechanism for the development of off-campus courses," he said.

The SEP administrative operations will become part of Research and Sponsored Programs and report to its director, Anita Quinn. Lynn Artman, who is currently the program manager for student services and program development in SEP, will supervise the new unit.

SEP will be responsible for the business operations, such as billing and contract administration, for all of Michigan Tech's sponsored educational programs. In addition, SEP will administer faculty and staff proposals submitted to foundations and associations. Current Research and Sponsored Programs staff will continue to administer proposals submitted to government agencies and industry.

New staff positions will be created in SEP to focus on contract administration and marketing.

"This is the next phase of a basic change in philosophy that began with the move of distance-learning programs to the general fund last summer," Reed said.

Amos noted that the changes are consistent with Senate Proposal 6-01, Recommendations on Distance Learning (http://www.sas.it.mtu.edu/usenate/propose/01/6-01.htm).
_______________

3. BOOK DONATIONS REQUESTED TO BENEFIT THE LIBRARY
Submitted by the Friends of the Van Pelt Library

The Friends of the Van Pelt Library 2005 book sale is scheduled for April 6 in the MUB. Please donate your used books to the sale. The Friends also accept VHS/DVDs, CDs, cassettes and records. Sorry, we can not accept magazines. All proceeds benefit the Van Pelt Library.

Donations may be dropped off in Chem Sci 304. If you would like us to pick up your books, email or call Dana Richter (dlrichte@mtu.edu, 487-2149) or Mary Marchaterre (mmmarcha@mtu.edu, 487-2830).

Interested in doing more? Help is always welcome sorting and pricing books. Consider joining the Friends. To find out more visit http://www.lib.mtu.edu/friends/friends.htm. Membership is $15 ($10 for seniors or students), and members are invited to shop at the pre-sale held the day before the public book sale. We're always looking for more book-lovers and library-lovers to join the Friends.
______________

4. MICHIGAN TECH APPLICATION OPPORTUNITY

Local high school seniors, and anyone interested in attending Michigan Tech this fall, will have the opportunity to apply in person on Feb. 16-17.

On those days, from 8 a.m. through 9 p.m., the Admissions Office will be open to accept applications from Copper Country high school students, adult learners and home schooled students. High school students should bring a transcript. Admissions officials emphasize that it is not too late to think about attending Michigan Tech for the fall of 2005. The university has openings in virtually all majors, including new programs like psychology and construction management.

No appointment is necessary on either day, and admissions counselors will be available to talk with students and their parents. The event is sponsored by the Admissions Office.
_______________

5. RESEARCH EXCELLENCE FUND AVAILABLE

Proposals are being solicited for the FY2005 Research Excellence Fund. The program announcement document, which includes a program description, proposal format, review criteria and procedure, award procedure and reporting requirements, can be found on the web at http://www.admin.mtu.edu/research/vpr/internal/excellence.html

Proposals are due no later than 4 p.m. on Tuesday, April 5. Proposals received after the deadline will not be accepted for consideration by the review committee for this year. Please send proposals to Joanne Polzien (jpolzien@mtu.edu), Research Compliance Office in Administration 317A.
_______________

6. TEACHING AT TECH: THE YOUNG AND THE RECKLESS
by William Kennedy, director of the Center for Teaching, Learning and Faculty Development

In the 1950s, Harvard researcher William Perry observed that undergraduate students tended to follow a similar developmental pattern in the ways that they interpreted and internalized university instruction. Perry eventually constructed a nine-stage model of student intellectual development based upon those observations. He noted, for example, that many first-year students tended to interpret what they learned at the university in the strictest of dualistic terms. Most seemed to believe that instructors knew all the right answers and that university learning mostly meant mastering the teacher's answers through study. Most beginning students were quite adverse to skepticism and didn't seem to feel the need for reflection.

By stage nine, a level of development that Perry observed in only some students just before graduation, students had long since given up on the idea of instructors as infallible sources of knowledge and tended to regard all incoming knowledge as highly contingent and suspect. Stage nine learners felt the need to reflect on the salience of nearly all incoming information and had learned to use a personal set of certain enduring principles and values that they had gleaned through their studies along the way.

A team of researchers at the National Institutes of Health, using magnetic resonance imaging, now suggest that the part of the human brain largely responsible for reasoned judgment may not be fully formed on average until about the age of 25, and not by age 18, as previously thought. These new findings may suggest that many of life's most important choices, college and career, marriage and military service, are often made before the brain's decision-making center is fully formed.For reasons still unknown, other contemporary researchers have noted that the onset of puberty is occurring earlier and earlier. Temple University's Laurence Steinberg says that the increasingly early onset of puberty and the newly discovered "delay" in the average age of full brain maturation support his theory that the period of adolescent personal recklessness is much longer than previously thought. Implications of the brain maturation research extend beyond the classroom and may help to explain why young adults who should, biologically speaking, have best reaction times and reflexes are involved in so many automobile accidents.

The magnetic resonance imaging is now shifting to comparing brain maturation patterns in twins in an attempt to determine the relative effects of genetics and environmental influences on the pace of neural maturation.

The answers to these questions should be seen as quite critical to secondary and tertiary educational planners. If environmental effects are found to impact maturation, then the placement of courses like Perspectives on Inquiry may be critical to fostering the kindof intellectual growth that will serve the student well in college as well as throughout their adult lives. If, however, brain maturation is primarily predetermined by genetics, then intentionally staging educational experiences to coincide with neural development might be the more productive strategy.

ENTERTAINMENT AND ENRICHMENT News  |  Entertainment & Enrichment  |  Seminars and Workshops | Regular Features  |  Calendar

7. DETROIT PHOTOGRAPHER'S EXHIBIT IN HOUGHTON FOR BLACK HISTORY MONTH

An exhibit by fine art photographer Rod Carter will be on display at Victoria's Kitchen Feb. 14-28 in honor of Black History Month. His visit is sponsored by Educational Opportunity.

An opening reception honoring the artist will be held Monday, Feb. 14, from 5 to 6 p.m. at the restaurant, located at 578 Shelden Ave. The event is free and open to the public.

Carter, a native of Detroit, has been a photographer for more than 30 years. He often accompanies his work with original prose, a practice he dubs "photoliterature." He does not use digital manipulation to alter his images.

Carter has received numerous awards and honors. His photo "My Land" received an Arts League of Michigan Award and was included in the 2002 national tour "People, Plants and Cultures II."

His work has been featured in galleries, museums and numerous fine art festivals, and he is currently exhibiting at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, in Detroit.

An instructor in the Warren Fitzgerald Public School System, Carter is the father of Michigan Tech graduate student Rodwick Barton, who is studying chemical engineering.
_______________

8. ACTING WORKSHOP OFFERED

The Aquila Theatre Company, presenting Shakespeare's comedy "Twelfth Night" at the Rozsa on Saturday, Feb. 19, will be offering a workshop at 4 p.m. in the McArdle Theatre on the same day. The workshop, which will deal with stage movement and physical theater, is free. The workshop is open to high school students and the Tech community, but enrollment is limited. For more information, contact Ashley Hokenson (ahokenso@mtu.edu) or call 487-3200 to register.

SEMINARS AND WORKSHOPS News  |  Entertainment & Enrichment  |  Seminars and Workshops   |  Regular Features  |  Calendar

9. MEEM SEMINAR FRIDAY

Professor Fu Zhao of the University of Michigan will present a seminar, "Toward Sustainable Metalworking Fluid Systems: Microfiltration-Based Recycling and Formulation Design," Friday, Feb. 11, from 10 to 11 a.m., in MEEM 402. The seminar is sponsored by the MEEM department.

_______________

10. PHYSICS COLLOQUIUM FEB. 17

Graduate students Jiesheng Wang and Ziyou Zhou (Physics) will each present a physics colloquium on Thursday, Feb. 17, at 4 p.m., in Fisher 139. Wang will talk on "First Success on Growing Boron Nitride Nanotubes on Substrates" and Zhou will talk on "Acoustic Biosensors Based on PMN-PT Single Crystal."

For more information, contact Yoke Khin Yap (ykyap@mtu.edu, 487-2900) or Ranjit Pati (patir@mtu.edu, 487-3193).

_______________

11. HEART HEALTH LUNCH AND LEARN FEB. 15

"Let's Talk from the Heart" is the title of the next lunch and learn sponsored by the Benefits Office in cooperation with Keweenaw Memorial Medical Center. Jan List, RN, BSN, CCRN, CEN, Nurse Manager-Education at KMMC, will discuss cardiovascular disease as a major health threat, risk factors and how to reduce them, information on some of the American Heart Association's free programs that help the individual take action, and warning signs and symptoms of heart attacks and strokes.

"Let's Talk from the Heart" will be held on Tuesday, Feb. 15, from noon to 1 p.m., in Memorial Union 105 A and B. The lunch and learn is free and open to the Michigan Tech community, including students. Bring your lunch; water and beverages will be provided. Show your BCBSM ID card, Group 55248, and be eligible to win some great prizes.

_______________

12. "KILLING US SOFTLY"--BROWN-BAG LUNCHEON FEB. 17 ON ADVERTISING AND SELF IMAGE

Over 8 million Americans suffer from eating disorders, and over 10 percent of them are female college students. A brown-bag luncheon on the topic will be held on Thursday, Feb. 17, from noon to 1 p.m. in the Memorial Union Alumni Lounge.

The presentation begins with a videotaped lecture by Jean Kilborne, an expert on the use of women's bodies in advertising. Kilborne discusses how ads persuade women and men that they are valuable only if their bodies are perfect.

The Professional Development Committee is sponsoring the presentation, which will be led by Shalini Suryanarayana (Educational Opportunity).

The group discussion that follows the video may provoke questions about how campus environments perpetuate of body image stereotypes--the root of eating disorders. The discussion will also address what can be done to prevent these problems and how to help students if problems arise.

The luncheon is open to the campus community. Refreshments and dessert will be provided. For more information, contact Lynda Heinonen, 487-2212.