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Author Archives: News Staff

Experience immersive XR as a teaching tool

By | September 30, 2020
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screenshot of virual lecture hall

Extended reality holds immense potential as a teaching tool, especially in today’s increasingly online instructional environment. On Thursday, October 29 from 1-2:30 p.m., Academic Innovation at Michigan (AIM) will feature an immersive experience using the virtual platform, VirBELA. AIM Extended Reality (XR): Developing a Chemotherapy Treatment Simulation in Virtual Reality with Professor Michelle Aebersold will share her experience working in virtual… Read More »

COVID-19 dashboard adds data sets, gets high rating from researchers

By | September 25, 2020
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U-M’s COVID-19 data dashboard earned high marks in a recent evaluation by a team of Yale and Harvard researchers. “We Rate Covid Dashboards,” a new Twitter account and website that grades pandemic dashboards created by colleges and universities, awarded U-M an “A” grade for being easy to read, sharing community data trends, and identifying how many students are… Read More »

Roya Ensafi named inaugural Consumer Reports Digital Lab Fellow

By | September 25, 2020
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Roya Ensafi

Roya Ensafi, assistant professor of computer science and engineering, has been named an inaugural Digital Lab Fellow by Consumer Reports, with support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The 2020-21 cohort consists of five public interest technology researchers from around the world, working on a 10 month collaboration with support and a stipend. As a fellow, Ensafi will… Read More »

Movement science students test latest tech in on-campus course

By | September 24, 2020
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Female athlete wearing mask measuring blood oxygen. Two researchers in BG.

The kinesiology students in Scientific Inquiry Using Wearable Technology class represent one of four groups that came to campus to experience the lab-based course that uses the latest technology to study how movement and function impact health. The experiment the team designed uses a Bioharness3 worn as a chest strap, a Biostrap worn on the arm (new technology… Read More »

U-M professor’s ‘fractal simulation tools’ appear in new TV series

By | September 21, 2020
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A fractal is a pattern that repeats itself at different scales and is ideal for modeling nature. But modern computer scientists aren’t the only ones to use fractals—Africans have been using them for centuries to design textiles, sculptures, architecture, hairstyles and more. U-M professor Ron Eglash is widely known for his work in the field of ethnomathematics—particularly for… Read More »

UM-Flint will create College of Innovation & Technology

By | September 18, 2020
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(Image of a computer monitor showing code in a dark, glowing pinkish purple room with a man typing on the keyboard.)

A new, cutting-edge academic unit at UM-Flint will open in 2021 that will educate and prepare students for key roles in the diverse technical career fields of the 21st century. The U-M Board of Regents enthusiastically approved the establishment of the new College of Innovation & Technology at its Sept. 17 meeting. UM-Flint will join a small group… Read More »

History class as a vehicle for learning computer science

By | September 18, 2020
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Prof. Mark Guzdial

Mark Guzdial, professor in computer science, wants more people to have access to the power of programming, so he has proposed a new way to engage high school students: integrate the use of purpose-built computer science tools that include programming into history courses. Under a new grant from the National Science Foundation, Guzdial is working with high school… Read More »

U-M startup SkyGig aims to take 5G to the next level

By | September 17, 2020
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skygig logo

Two U-M researchers are steadily building their young company, SkyGig, to bring the next generation of high-speed wireless connectivity to the 5G ecosystem, satellite communications (Satcom), and beyond. Since founding the company in 2019, co-founders Armin Jam and Avish Kosari have attracted $1M in new funding and are now expanding their team to accelerate development and commercialization of… Read More »

High school teacher uses U-M developed role playing simulation tool to keep students engaged

By | September 16, 2020
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ViewPoint logo

New York-based high school teacher Sean Swider knew he had to develop a creative project to keep his advanced history students engaged, especially after a transition to remote learning. Swider then discovered the U-M role-playing simulation tool ViewPoint and decided to simulate an oil spill disaster. Modeled after the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Prince William Sound, Alaska, Swider created the… Read More »

4 keys to a dazzling library website redesign

By | September 15, 2020
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For the last two years, a project team of the U-M Library I.T. Division has been working on the redesign of the library’s primary website at lib.umich.edu, which launched in July. It features new technology infrastructure, designs, and information architecture, as well as fully rewritten content.  “The response to the new site has been overwhelmingly positive,” writes project lead… Read More »

Google.org supports UMSI health equity research

By | September 14, 2020
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Google.org announced that a team of School of Information (UMSI) researchers has been selected to receive funding as part of the company’s efforts to support projects using innovative artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics to help understand COVID-19 and address its impacts.  Faculty members Tiffany Veinot, Vinod Vydiswaran, Lorraine Buis, and Anna Laurie will receive $200,000 in funds to… Read More »

3D modeling could help develop treatments for lung disease caused by COVID-19

By | September 14, 2020
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2D and 3D models of lungs

A 3D bioengineered model of lung tissue built by U-M researchers is poking holes in decades worth of flat, Petri dish observations into how the deadly disease pulmonary fibrosis progresses. Some clinicians are concerned that critically ill COVID-19 patients may develop a form of pulmonary fibrosis after a long stay in the ICU.  Researchers are searching for better treatments.… Read More »

Recording classes: (Some) rules of the road

By | September 14, 2020
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U-M classes are overwhelming being taught remotely this semester. This means that some instructors may, for a variety of reasons, wish to record their classes. The Safe Computing website has guidelines for instructors who plan to record class activities. Recordings where students can be identified—from in-person sessions or remote instruction via Zoom, BlueJeans, or any other videoconferencing application—are:… Read More »

Course aims to train future leader against cyber crime

By | September 11, 2020
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skull and crossbones over a voting booth

In the course “Cybersecurity for Future Leaders” (EECS 498 / PUBPOL 475), students will gain a better understanding of the science, technology, public policy, and national security considerations behind cybersecurity in order to protect the very tenets of democracy. Election security will be one of the course’s six focus areas this fall 2020. The course is taught from… Read More »

Disinformation, misinformation, and fake news Teach-Out

By | September 11, 2020
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Ben Nimmo

In a new Center for Academic Innovation Teach-Out, Ben Nimmo, director of investigations at Graphika, an online social media monitoring company, outlines tactics everyday people can use to anticipate, spot, and react to disinformation from potential “threat actors.” He calls it the “Four D’s” — Dismiss, Distract, Distort, and Dismay. The Disinformation, Misinformation, and Fake News Teach-Out helps people understand the… Read More »

Some children at higher risk of privacy violations from digital apps

By | September 10, 2020
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(iPad screen showing a child's game with a cartoon dog working a food stand and a monkey sitting at a desk with books. The iPad is held by a child's hands.)

Although federal privacy laws prohibit digital platforms from storing and sharing children’s personal information without verifiable parental consent, a study led by U-M researchers finds that those rules aren’t always enforced, and privacy violations are most likely to affect children from lower-education households. Children raised by parents without college degrees showed two to three times higher rates of… Read More »

U-M receives grants to improve solar storm forecasting software

By | September 3, 2020
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(Close-up image of the sun wit bright spots in the bottom left and top right.)

Solar storms and other space weather events have the potential to impact society on a national or global scale. U-M researchers lead two multimillion-dollar projects to improve forecasting by developing next-generation space weather modeling software. Funded by the National Science Foundation and NASA, the U-M projects aim to accurately predict solar storms and coronal mass ejections and to… Read More »

CoE researcher uses machine learning to improve brain imaging

By | September 2, 2020
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(Portrait of Melissa Haskell smiling.)

Melissa Haskell, an ECE postdoctoral researcher, was awarded the Ruth L. Kirschstein Postdoctoral Individual National Research Service Award from the National Institutes of Health for her work using machine learning to improve functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Many factors, including movement, can affect the quality of an fMRI, which is used to measure and study brain activity. Haskell works to… Read More »