A Montana State University graduate who studies innovative applications of MRI technology has become the first woman to earn a doctorate in MSU’s longstanding mechanical engineering program.
 
Sarah Mailhiot, who is the first person in her family to go to college, completed her Ph.D. in engineering with mechanical engineering option in the College of Engineering in July.
 
“I never felt out of place as a woman in mechanical engineering, which is a reflection of the work that others did to create an inclusive environment,” she said.
 
Nationwide, men significantly outnumber women in engineering in the workforce and in higher education, and MSU’s College of Engineering has made it a priority to recruit and support female engineering students through its Women in Engineering program.
 
“Our students and faculty are working on cutting-edge technologies in an environment conducive to success,” said Christine Foreman, associate dean for student success in the College of Engineering.
 
Mailhiot, of Oak Forest, Illinois, came to MSU in 2013 after earning her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biomedical engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York.
 
She received a fellowship through MSU’s Molecular Biosciences Program, an interdisciplinary program offered through MSU’s Graduate School that allows Ph.D. students to work across multiple academic departments and research centers.
 
A longtime interest in quality-of-life issues drew Mailhiot to study osteoarthritis in the Magnetic Resonance Laboratory, which is housed in the College of Engineering. Researching better ways to diagnose the aging-related disease - in which joint-cushioning cartilage deteriorates, causing pain and decreased mobility - is a specialty of her adviser, Ron June, assistant professor of mechanical and industrial engineering.

 
“She’s been a positive role model for many students,” said June. “She has a great work ethic, and she’s organized. She’s good at doing background research to make her own work more compelling.”

Mailhiot was also advised by Jennifer Brown, associate professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, and Joseph Seymour, co-director of the Magnetic Resonance Laboratory and professor of chemical and biological engineering.
 
In 2016, Mailhiot spent three months in New Zealand as part of the National Science Foundation’s East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes fellowship program, which is designed to foster future international scientific collaborations. At New Zealand’s Victoria University of Wellington, she used MRI technology to study how collagen, one of the proteins found in cartilage, degrades when the arthritis condition is mimicked.

 
In March, Mailhiot was one of 11 students selected nationwide for a Whitaker Scholarship, a prestigious postdoctoral award given to biomedical engineering students seeking postdoctoral research opportunities abroad. The scholarship will fund a year-long stay in Sweden, where she will continue her research of MRI but with a focus on using the technology to monitor small changes in the brain when a person learns a new skill.

 
The research could advance fundamental understanding of how the brain works and could improve diagnosis of brain diseases such as schizophrenia, she said.
 
During her time at MSU, Mailhiot also served as the graduate student representative on the President's Commission on the Status of University Women, a 28-member panel created by MSU President Waded Cruzado in 2011 to study, evaluate and advise the president on issues related to diversity and gender equity.

 
“It was really a good experience,” she said. “It increased my awareness of the resources available for underrepresented groups.”
 
The College of Engineering offers a Ph.D. in Engineering with options such as civil engineering, chemical engineering and environmental engineering. Women have earned doctorates in the options that fall within each of the college’s four departments other than mechanical and industrial engineering.
 
After her year-long stay in Sweden, Mailhiot intends to remain abroad and gain more research experience while working toward her eventual goal of becoming a university professor and researcher, she said.

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks will lift the hoot owl restrictions on the lower Madison River from Ennis Dam to the mouth effective Friday. With cooler water temperatures, this section has met criteria for reopening.

In most cases, according to drought management plans, rivers with hoot owl restrictions due to high water temperatures reopen on Sept. 15 automatically anyway.

In Region 3, the only remaining restrictions in place are the full closures of Section I and V of the Big Hole River as follows:
    •    From Saginaw Bridge on Skinner Meadows Road to the Mouth of the North Fork Big Hole River;
    •    From Notch Bottom Fishing Access Site to the confluence with the Beaverhead River.
 
For up-to-date information on restrictions related to drought, visit http://fwp.mt.gov/news/restrictions/.

Attention all local food lovers! Next month, the Montana Department of Agriculture (MDA) will be hosting an event you won’t want to miss.

On October 10, 2017, the MDA is hosting a food and beverage tradeshow at the GranTree Inn in Bozeman. The show will be open to the general public as well as to professional buyers, with the goal of getting more Montana foods on our plates. The show will feature more than 40 Montana produce, meat, food, and spirit companies. Visit www.foodshow.mt.gov for a complete list of the local companies attending the event and to register.

The doors will be open to the general public from 4-7pm. The daytime hours (10am – 4pm) will be reserved for professional buyers. There will a great turnout of both Montana residents supporting local, quality food as well as foodservice industry professionals.

This event is being co-hosted by the following organizations: Montana Farm to School, Montana Farm to Cafeteria Network, Lake County Community Development’s Farm to Institution program, Montana State University’s Farm to Campus program, the Montana Food and Agriculture Development Center Network, Prospera Business Network, Western Sustainability Exchange, and the Made in Montana Program.

The show is free to attend and professional buyers are encouraged to pre-register for the private buyers event from 10am – 4pm at www.foodshow.mt.gov.  For more information please Steph Hystad of the Montana Department of Agriculture at (406) 444-5425 or shystad@mt.gov.

See you there!

Written by Steph Hystad & Jenna Gorham

A team of Montana State University researchers has received $100,000 from NASA to test a promising new computing technology that could soon be used in spacecraft and satellites.
 
The funding will allow the team to launch an advanced prototype, housed in a satellite the size of a loaf of bread, into orbit from the International Space Station, likely in March 2018. The ensuing year-long experiment will mark the culmination of a decade of developing the technology.
 
“This demonstration will test the technology in the most extreme environment yet,” said project leader Brock LaMeres, associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in MSU’s College of Engineering.

The computer technology, called RadPC, takes a new approach to handling the intense radiation found in outer space.
 
On Earth, the atmosphere and the magnetic field generated by the planet's molten metal core shields computers and other digital devices against high-energy charged particles emitted by the Sun and other celestial bodies. In outer space, however, the particles can interfere with the functioning of tiny, sensitive transistors, the building blocks of modern computers.

Traditionally, space computers have used oversized transistors made of specialized materials to fortify against the radiation. But that makes the computers slow and expensive, and they still sometimes crash, according to LaMeres.
 
The MSU team’s RadPC instead uses multiple inexpensive processors like those found in personal computers. The processors are programmed to operate in parallel, and when a radiation particle disrupts one of the processors, the others recognize the fault, continue the computation and re-program any damaged computer memory.

 
“Our approach is to accept the fact that computers will crash, and to use elegant ways to recover from the crash,” LaMeres said.
 
LaMeres was central to conceiving the innovation, which has so far been tested in a particle accelerator, aboard high-altitude balloons and on small rockets that reach the outer limits of Earth’s atmosphere. Since December, a prototype of the technology has been operating aboard the International Space Station.

 
To build the satellite that will be used for the upcoming test, LaMeres’ team partnered with MSU’s Space Science and Engineering Laboratory, an interdisciplinary facility housed in the Department of Physics in MSU’s College of Letters and Science.
 
Undergraduate and graduate students at SSEL designed and built the radio transmission and solar power systems that will allow the satellite to communicate with the MSU researchers during its year in orbit.
 
“Our students have been helping to design and build this satellite, and now it’s going to go into orbit. It’s exciting,” said Todd Kaiser, head of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department.
 
“Research is a process,” he added. “You start with an idea and work toward a goal. With this one we’re getting to the point where we’re near the end of the mission.”
 
Launching the satellite from the space station is considerably cheaper than propelling it into orbit with a rocket, LaMeres said. To conduct the launch, his team has partnered with NanoRacks, a company that contracts with NASA to deliver scientific equipment to the space station.
 
The prototype will be sent to the space station in a spring-loaded box developed by NanoRacks during a routine delivery of food, water and other supplies. The space station’s robotic arm will aim the box, and when a hatch is opened, the spring will launch the satellite into orbit.
 
As it circles the Earth, the computer “is going to get an extreme bombardment of radiation,” LaMeres said. It will pass through areas over the Earth’s poles where the planet’s magnetic field actually concentrates the barrage of high-energy particles.
 
The computer will perform a routine of calculations and transmit the data to the MSU campus when it passes overhead. If the computer functions continuously and can recover from the anticipated crashes, it would mean that the technology would be ready to be used in other satellites and in spacecraft.
 
“Once we prove it at this level, we’d like to license it to large aerospace companies or startups,” LaMeres said.
 
The $100,000 grant, which came from NASA’s Established Program to Simulate Competitive Research, called EPSCoR, marks the 10th award LaMeres has received from NASA to develop the technology.
 
According to LaMeres, the roughly $1.5 million from those grants, over a 10-year period, has supported hands-on research for more than 50 MSU students, mostly undergraduates in the College of Engineering.

BOZEMAN, MT (September 11, 2017) – The City of Bozeman has narrowed the search for the next City Manager to six highly qualified candidates.

According to Mayor Carson Taylor, “Finding the ideal City Manager for Bozeman is a top priority for the City Commission, and we have been fortunate to receive a remarkable number of highly qualified applicants.” Taylor added, “Bozeman’s success as a thriving community is due to our engaged community and dedicated city staff, so finding a person who views servant leadership and service to the community as guiding principles is important.”

The City selected Strategic Government Resources (SGR), to assist in conducting the extensive search that resulted in an impressive candidate pool. SGR is an executive recruitment firm based in Keller, Texas, specializing in recruiting, assessing, and developing, innovative, collaborative, and authentic leaders for local governments.  SGR’s proprietary recruitment and vetting process produced an incredibly strong field of candidates. The City received 82 applications from candidates in 33 states, as well as Washington, D.C.

The finalists:

Dave Buckingham has seven years of city management experience and a 26-year career in the United States Army. Buckingham most recently served as the City Manager Morro Bay, California. During his military career, he served as Director of Army Environmental Programs at the Pentagon, City Manager of the Military Community in Vicenza, Italy, and Chief Executive and Operations Director, at Ft. Richardson, Alaska. Buckingham holds a Master of Arts, International Relations from the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, a Master of Arts, National Strategic Studies from Salve Regina University, and a Bachelor of Science, Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering from Pennsylvania State University.

Dan Chandler has more than 25 years of governmental experience and currently serves as Assistant County Administrator for Clackamas County, Oregon, where he also served as Senior Assistant County Counsel from 2008-2011. A practicing attorney since 1992, Chandler has been associated with Chandler Law Offices, Portland, Oregon; Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt, Vancouver Washington; Ramis Crew Corrigan & Bachrach, Portland, Oregon; Browning, Kaleczyc, Berry & Hoven, Helena, Montana. Chandler holds a Juris Doctor Degree from Harvard Law School, and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Western Washington University.

Rachael Fuller currently serves as the Assistant City Manager for the City of Gresham, Oregon, where she also served as Senior Operations Manager. Fuller has 16 years of local government experience and previously served the Town of Jackson, Wyoming as Special Project Coordinator from 2006 to 2011, and Program Manager from 2004 to 2006. Fuller holds a Master of Public Administration from the University of Wyoming, and a Bachelor of Arts from Williams College.

Shawn Kessel has more than 17 years of local government experience and currently serves as the City Administrator for the City of Dickinson, North Dakota a position he has held since 2009. He previously served as City Administrator for the City of Wahpeton, North Dakota from 2000 to 2009. An ICMA Credentialed Manager, Kessel holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Mary and a Bachelor of Social Work from Moorhead State University.

J.J. Murphy has more than 13 years of local government experience and currently serves as the City Manager of Hobbs, New Mexico. He previously served the City of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania from 2002 to 2010 as City Administrator and Deputy City Administrator. He also served as President/CEO of Goals Consulting, LLC in Wilkes-Barre. Murphy is a veteran of the United States Air Force, where he continues to serve as a Watch Supervisor, Controller Air Force Rescue Coordination Center. An ICMA Credentialed Manager, Murphy holds a Master of Public Administration from Marywood University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from King’s College.

Andrea Surratt is an ICMA Credentialed Manager with more than 26 years of municipal government experience and has served as the Assistant City Manager for the City of Hickory, North Carolina since 2007. Surratt previously served as Planning and Community Development Director for Moore County, North Carolina and as Town Manager and Director of Planning for the Town of Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina. She held the positions of Planning and Development Manager and Senior Planner for the City of Wilmington, North Carolina, and Municipal Planner for the City of Nixa, Missouri. Surratt holds a Master of City and Regional Planning from Clemson University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Guilford College.

A local woman was mauled by a grizzly bear on a private ranch in the Tom Miner area north of Gardiner early Saturday.

The female victim and two companions were near the carcass of a domestic cow when the incident occurred.

When the bear made contact, the victim laid on her stomach to protect her vital organs. She was bitten on her legs and back.

Her companions used bear spray to scare off the bear and stop the attack.
The victim is being treated for her injuries.

This is the second mauling in southwest Montana in a little over a week. On Monday, Sept. 5, an archery hunter was mauled by a grizzly in the south end of the Gravelly Range.

While these incidents were relatively far from each other, both involved bears feeding on carcasses. In both cases, bear spray played an important role.

These events should serve as a stark reminder that Montana is bear country. Hunters and others working and playing in bear country should be especially alert for grizzlies, carry bear spray, and know how to use it.
 

Windhorse Equine Learning is pleased to announce their 1st Annual Art Raffle to support youth programs. Four fine equine paintings have been donated to the cause by talented regional artists; Edd Enders, Ann Justin, Mary Roberson, and Steven Roebuck.

Windhorse Equine Learning serves youth ages 8-17 in Montana’s Gallatin and Park Counties as the only nonprofit organization in our community to offer equine-assisted learning (EAL) programs to able-bodied and at-risk youth. EAL is a relatively new modality which facilitates learning and personal growth through experiential interactions with horses. By teaching horsemanship, leadership, partnership, responsibility, communication, empathy and other skills, we strive to build confidence and self-esteem, reduce anxiety and stress, and give our students tools to navigate the challenges they face at school, among their peers, and in their family relationships. Funds are needed to provide scholarships so that every child with financial need can benefit from Windhorse programs.

The paintings in Windhorse’s 1st Annual Art Raffle will be exhibited locally; raffle tickets are available at eight regional businesses and can be purchased online. Buyers need not be present to win, and the painting can be mailed to the winner. Tickets are $40 and the odds of winning are great with only 150 tickets being sold. The winner chooses their favorite painting and the remaining three pieces will be auctioned off on November 9 at the Equine & Wine Lady’s Night at Four Corners Saddlery & Boutique. The drawing is at 7:00 pm, followed by live auction for remaining art at 7:30 pm.

See the artwork at: The Great Rocky Mountain Toy Company, 111 East Main Street in Bozeman through October 6 then at Four Corners Saddlery & Boutique, 81770 Gallatin Rd, through November 9.  Raffle tickets also available (cash and checks only) at Montana Cup, Spur Line, and the Livingston Art & Culture Center in Livingston and in Bozeman at Head West, Bridger Animal Nutrition (North 7th location), The Great Rocky Mountain Toy Company, Rosauer’s, and Four Corners Saddlery & Boutique. Learn more or buy raffle tickets online at: windhorseequinelearning.org/1st-annual-art-raffle/

 Thank for helping raise funds for programs that change kids' lives. Learn more about Windhorse at https://windhorseequinelearning.org/about-us/

An archery hunter survived a grizzly bear attack in the southern Gravelly Mountains Monday morning.
 
The incident occurred when two archery hunters surprised a grizzly feeding on a carcass. The hunters yelled at the bear which immediately attacked. Both hunters had bear spray, one deployed it while the other did not. The bear went after the hunter who did not use his bear spray.
 
The hunter with bear spray deployed his can on the bear as it mauled his partner. The bear then retreated. The attacked hunter sustained non-life-threatening injuries to his head, shoulder, arms and thigh. He was treated at the Madison Valley Medical Center in Ennis.
 
Grizzly bears are common in the Gravelly Mountains, which are part of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
                                                                 painting by Sept 2017 Cover Artist Casey Norris
Archery hunters should take every possible precaution when hunting in bear country. Bear country means anywhere in the western half of the state. All hunters should:
 
·         carry bear spray AND be ready to use it at a second’s notice;
·         hunt with a partner, leave detailed plans with someone and check-in periodically;
    •    pay attention to fresh bear sign. Look for bear tracks, scat, and concentrations of natural foods;
    •    use caution when hunting areas that have evidence of bear activity or areas with scavenging birds such as magpies, ravens, or crows;
    •    get harvested big game out of the woods quickly;
    •    upon returning to a site where harvested game is left unattended, study the site at a distance for any movement or changes and signal your approach by making plenty of noise;
    •    never attempt to frighten or haze a bear from a carcass;
    •    contact FWP if a bear has consumed a carcass or covered it with debris rendering it unsalvageable.
 
Most grizzly bears will typically leave an area if they sense human presence. Hunters who observe a grizzly bear or suspect a bear is nearby should leave the area.
 
If you encounter a grizzly, stay calm, don't run, and assess the situation by trying to determine if the bear is actually aware of you. Is it, for instance, threatening or fleeing? Always keep the bear in sight as you back away, and leave the area.
 
For more on bears, visit FWP's website at fwp.mt.gov; then click Be Bear Aware. Bear resistant products are described on the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee's website at www.igbconline.org.  A “How to Hunt Safely in Grizzly Country” brochure is also available at FWP regional offices.