News Staff

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Author Archives: News Staff

Online court tool that reduces disparities, virus spread wins annual U-M innovation award

By | September 1, 2020
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JJ Prescott

For developing technology that’s helping to democratize the justice system while decreasing the spread of COVID-19, U-M law professor J.J. Prescott has earned this year’s Distinguished University Innovator Award. Prescott launched the U-M Online Court Project years ago to design and build technology to help people resolve minor disputes with the government and courts online and without the… Read More »

Student’s COVID-19 data model reaches CDC

By | August 31, 2020
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Sabrina Corsetti

U-M senior Sabrina Corsetti‘s efforts to model the pandemic’s spread using a machine learning algorithm has now been included in those being aggregated for the CDC’s weekly projections. Corsetti had her previous research halted when U-M suspended in-person classes and labs back in March. Thomas Schwarz, one of Corsetti’s research professors, happened to be modeling the pandemic’s data… Read More »

Michigan IT Governance/CoP activity for August and September

By | August 31, 2020
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Michigan IT CoPS AND SERVICE GOVERNANCE

Michigan IT communities of practice (CoPs) are groups where like-minded IT professionals can share information, experiences, and ideas around a particular topic in support of the university’s missions. Below is a summary of August 2020 Governance & CoP meetings, as well as upcoming meeting information for September. To learn more or to add an upcoming meeting to your… Read More »

Michigan Medicine introduces touchless check-in experience

By | August 28, 2020
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Hand holding mobile phone with welcome screen.

Michigan Medicine is constantly looking for ways to improve the patient experience, even during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. One way the organization is doing just that is by optimizing eCheck-in and introducing mobile arrival, touchless processes that allow patients to skip the line when they arrive for an appointment. The changes launched on August 26. Prior to an… Read More »

Student teams create two new video games over the summer

By | August 27, 2020
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Desolation Place, Bloom

Videogame development is a hot topic at Michigan. This summer two teams of U-M undergrads, working remotely because of the Covid-19 outbreak, conceived, designed, and developed two videogames: Desolation Place—a 3D first-person stealth horror game, and Bloom: Tome of Power—a first person shooter inspired by genre defining games such as DOOM, Hexen, and Dusk. Advised by CSE lecturer… Read More »

LSA Technology Services chooses TeamDynamix to enhance customer experience

By | August 26, 2020
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Customer support staff carrying communication icons

In summer 2019, LSA Technology Services began investigating work management platforms (ticketing systems) as a way to enhance the customer experience. The LSA Technology Services team placed a high priority on increasing collaboration both internally and externally as they evaluated tools, vendors, and software solutions. The team sought out departmental partners across the college and worked with Information… Read More »

$1.8M DARPA project aims to protect vehicles from hackers

By | August 25, 2020
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Ironpatch logo

From cars to space shuttles to drones, keeping vehicle electronics systems updated and free of security vulnerabilities is exceedingly difficult, according to Baris Kasikci, a professor of computer science and engineering. “It’s a little bit of a mess,” said Kasikci. “Traditionally, you fix the bug in the source code, you rebuild the software and you redeploy it. But… Read More »

Electronic health records: More demands, same amount of time

By | August 24, 2020
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Man in lab coat with stethoscope holds clock in front of his face.

A team of researchers from U-M recently published a paper in the Journal of General Internal Medicine documenting electronic medical record time demands faced by general internists at Michigan Medicine. The findings build on other studies showing that primary care providers nationwide face the highest number of incoming tasks on electronic health records systems. Lead author Laurence McMahon, chief of general medicine at U-M,… Read More »

Boardwork in online classes

By | August 20, 2020
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smartphone on a stack of books, pointing down toward a hand writing on a piece of paper

Boardwork is an essential part of any course that requires free-hand writing, for example math or languages with non-Latin scripts. If you support faculty who use boardwork as part of their teaching, here are two options from LSA Technology Services that achieve the same effect online.  Digital whiteboard: The first option is to use an electronic whiteboard. This… Read More »

Enabling fairer data clusters for machine learning

By | August 20, 2020
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(Photo of a very large, dark room filled with glowing computers.)

Research published recently by CSE investigators can make training machine learning (ML) models fairer and faster. With a tool called AlloX, Mosharaf Chowdhury and a team from Stony Brook University developed a new way to fairly schedule high volumes of ML jobs in data centers that make use of multiple different types of computing hardware, like CPUs, GPUs,… Read More »

Ecology in the digital age: U-M students use machine learning for summer research

By | August 20, 2020
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(Image with flowers on the left, one large purple Wild Bergamont flower with thin petals reaching upward with five smaller photos of similar purple flowers listed at the bottom, and a graph on the left which shows a spike from June to August in the “Seasonality” tab. There are three other tabs: “History,” “Sex,” and “Plant Phenology.” Above those tabs is information on the observations the data reflects, including “Top Observer” (aaron carlson), “Top Identifier” (pynklynx), “Last Observation” (August 05, 2020) and “Total Observations” (13,033).)

Prior to the pandemic, enrollment for spring and summer field classes at the U-M Biological Station were at an all time high. Students eagerly planned to live away from home, at the BioStation near Douglas Lake in Pellston, Michigan. When the university announced that spring and summer courses would be virtual, faculty and staff at the BioStation had… Read More »

Organize your course in a consistent pattern

By | August 12, 2020
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(Screengrab of the full article which offers advice on organizing course material online.)

LSA Learning and Teaching Technology Consultants have shared tips for structuring course material in a way that feels grounding and reliable to students while teaching online.  Consultants write that organizing materials and activities in Canvas can help both online and hybrid classes go more smoothly for both students and instructors. It’s important that students know where to find… Read More »

Mathieu receives 2020 Henry Russel Award

By | August 12, 2020
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(Portrait of Johanna Mathieu smiling.)

Johanna Mathieu, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, has received a U-M Henry Russel Award for her extraordinary record of accomplishment in scholarly research, as well as excellent record of contributions as a teacher. This award, established in 1925, is considered the University’s highest honor for faculty at the early to mid-career stages of… Read More »

U-M startup unveils new LEDs for high-efficiency, high-performance displays

By | August 12, 2020
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womans hand showing smartwatch

Brighter, crisper screens that draw half the power and lasts twice as long are possible with NS Nanotech’s next-gen LEDs. University of Michigan startup NS Nanotech has announced the creation of a smaller, more energy-efficient light-emitting diode that aims to offer brighter, crisper displays for massive signs, mobile phones and other devices. The company, whose technology is based on research… Read More »

Achieving career readiness through gameful learning at UM-Dearborn

By | August 11, 2020
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Throughout their time on campus, students learn through not just academics — but through all aspects of their experience. Many times, however, they do not recognize these moments for growth and for developing skillsets that will greatly aid them in the future. Leaders at U-M Dearborn recognized this issue — and filled that need. The Talent Gateway at… Read More »

Study finds facial recognition technology in schools presents problems, recommends ban

By | August 11, 2020
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Research reveals inaccuracy, racial inequity and increased surveillance are the touchstones of a flawed technology. Facial recognition technology should be banned for use in schools, according to a new study by the University of Michigan’s Ford School of Public Policy that cites the heightened risk of racism and potential for privacy erosion. The study by the Ford School’s… Read More »

UM-Dearborn’s ‘Blue Bytes’ helping students build cybersecurity skills

By | August 10, 2020
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(Graphic of three people, the one in the middle turned with their back to the camera, interspersed with graphics of a phone, a laptop, and a few keyboard keys.)

Assistant professor of computer science Birhanu Eshete says he didn’t know what kind of response he’d get when fellow professor Di Ma asked if he’d try to get a student organization going to support their burgeoning cybersecurity program. So he started simple, sending out an email inquiry to gauge if there was any interest. Within a couple hours,… Read More »