DATE:   March 18, 2002

TO:   Board of Regents

FROM:   W. Franklin Gilmore,  Chancellor, Montana Tech of The University of Montana

RE:   Campus Report for the March 21-22, 2002 Board of Regents' Meeting

  • Montana Tech received a $200,000 Brownsfields Job Training & Development grant awarded by the EPA to provide environmental job training at brownsfields sites.
  • The Petroleum Engineering Department received a $10,000 donation from Anadarko Petroleum Corp. to fund scholarships and update laboratory equipment.
  • The Health Care Informatics degree will be offered in the Fall of 2002.
  • Montana Tech and UM-Western to offer secondary education degree at Montana Tech.
  • New campus WEB page prototype is up and running at the Research Office site.
  • The Rocky Mountain Agile Virtual Enterprise (RAVE) has installed a robotic welding system at the College of Technology. The device will provide area manufacturers with a new fabrication capability now only available in Seattle and Denver. The RAVE program is funded by a grant from the NSF and directed by Dr. Rick Donovan of the General Engineering Department.
  • The campus will be receiving a grant from the U.S. Small Business Administration to initiate an Economic Development Resource Center at Montana Tech. The center will provide information and technical assistance to local development agencies and businesses in Southwest Montana and is directed by Mr. Robert DeDominic of the Business & Information Technology Department.
  • William D. Trethewey, Tech alumnus from 1940 was recently inducted into the Hall of Fame of the U.S. Army Engineer Officers Candidate School.
  • Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico recently published a summary of Neil Wahl's (General Engineering) Ph.D dissertation.
  • Dr. John Morrison, General Engineering, recently negotiated an extension of his contract with INEEL in Idaho Falls to continue investigations on their RF High Level Waste Induction Melter project.
  •  Mr. Dick Johnson, General Engineering, in conjunction with Henderson Creek Corporation, wrote a successful Phase '0' 2 NSF-EPSCoR SBIR grant to develop uses for timber slash and small diameter timber. He will continue helping Henderson with phase one, two, and three grant development.
  • Dr. Karl Burgher, MWTP, advised they have been made full partners (Outreach) of the Rocky Mountain Regional Hazardous Substance Research Center with Colorado State University and the Colorado School of Mines. There are five of these centers in the U.S.
  • On-campus recruiting for Spring has begun with a total of 22 companies scheduled to interview. Nine companies are already scheduled for Fall 2002.
  • The Montana Tech Regional Science and Engineering Fair was held on March 6-7, 2002. There were 651 students from 37 schools participating in the fair. Winning projects will advance on to compete in the State fair at The University of Montana-Missoula in April.