Author Archives: News Staff
High-touch, hands-on engagement programs are continuing to connect students with community organizations by finding more creative ways to serve and offer programming. Although COVID-19 has paused and scrambled many engagement activities and programs, Leaders of Project Community in the Department of Sociology; Citizen Interaction Design out of the School of Information; the College of Literature, Science, and the… Read More »
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, many jurisdictions have been examining new voting technologies for the upcoming presidential election. It appears, however, that these technologies are not secure. University of Michigan and MIT election security researchers have found vulnerabilities in OmniBallot, an internet voting and ballot delivery system which 14 states are either using or plan to… Read More »
This MiXR Studios podcast explores nuclear engineering and the recreation of the decommissioned Ford Nuclear Reactor in virtual reality with Brendan Kochunas, assistant professor of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences at U-M. In 2003, the Ford Nuclear Reactor was decommissioned. This forced U-M students to find and visit other reactors for hands-on learning. To enhance the learning goals… Read More »
Ph.D. student Trevor Odelberg received a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship for his research on low power circuits and devices. By combining low-power energy circuits with energy harvesting systems, the need for battery replacements (and batteries altogether) can be reduced, enabling new applications in big data and The Internet of Things. “It’s just physically impossible to… Read More »
optiMize, a student-led incubator at the University of Michigan, launched a $25,000 Community Aid Relief Fund in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The relief fund aims to provide mutual aid and community-based projects in Washtenaw county. Students at U-M, Eastern Michigan University, and Washtenaw Community College were eligible to apply for up to $5,000 in funding. optiMize received… Read More »
Ph.D. student Matthew Belz received a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship for a new research project to create a jamming-resistant radar chip to improve the safety of autonomous vehicles. Belz will begin the project in the fall. Currently, he is finishing a project joint with the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab to design a specialized circuit to… Read More »
Prof. Euisik Yoon’s research group has developed a new, faster method to identify cancer stem-like cells (CSCs), which could help improve the effectiveness of cancer treatments. CSCs can develop tumors and cause a cancer relapse after a patient’s treatment. CSCs are generally resistant to chemotherapy and radiotherapy, so therapeutics that directly target CSCs may improve the success of… Read More »
Todd Allen has officially been elected as the Vice-Chair/Chair Elect of the Nuclear Engineering Department Heads Organization (NEDHO). NEDHO is comprised of 36 different nuclear engineering departments. It describes itself as “a loosely formed alliance of heads (chairs) of nuclear engineering schools, departments, and programs in North America. NEDHO was formed to provide a forum for discussion, coordination,… Read More »
The Michigan Institute of Data Science (MIDAS) recently awarded three University of Michigan School of Information (UMSI) researchers COVID-19 data science grants. Research fellow Quan Nguyen, assistant professor Christopher Brooks and assistant professor Daniel Romero will receive funding for “Students’ mobility patterns on campus and the implications for the recovery of campus activities post-pandemic.” This project will examine… Read More »
Signers of an open letter raise the alarm on interpersonal and institutional racism as well as racial bias occurring from improper development and use of computing technology. A coalition of black computer scientists has drafted an open letter to the computing community, calling for action to address systemic and structural inequities. They ask for equal partnership in the leadership… Read More »
Almost overnight, the sleep and wake patterns of nearly four billion people may have changed because of COVID-19-spurred lockdowns. A free app built by University of Michigan researchers will help users understand their own sleep rhythms, shedding light on how their biological clock is responding to lockdowns, and give tips about how to shift their potentially disrupted rhythms… Read More »
Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) recently announced SilverCloud, an online tool that provides access to mental health resources to students and faculty. The program features a series of modules individuals can work through at their own pace. Although the program is not intended to replace in-person mental health help, SilverCloud is designed to help students and faculty with… Read More »
This week’s MiXR Studios podcast explored nursing simulations and extended reality (XR) from Second Life in discussion with Michelle Aebersold. Michelle Aebersold, a U-M clinical professor of nursing, spoke about her journey into XR and her efforts to build multi-user simulations at the School of Nursing, starting with Second Life and continuing today using virtual reality (VR). She… Read More »
Project Healthy Schools is a community-Michigan Medicine collaboration designed to reduce childhood obesity and improve the current and future health of Michigan’s youth. Through lessons and wellness activities, Project Healthy Schools enables middle school students to increase physical activity, eat healthier, and understand how nutrition and activity influence their lifelong health. When Gov. Gretchen Whitmer canceled classroom instruction… Read More »
The system can add more flexibility to task management apps to help learning users make informed decisions about their time. Keeping a handle on life’s many demands is hard on its own. Part of growing up is learning how to handle planning and scheduling – and with a world of apps to help, it’s gotten easier for teens and… Read More »
A new application for an ongoing NSF project could bolster contract tracing efforts. With an approach that combines big data, network science and stochastic systems, a Michigan Engineering professor is working to develop algorithms that can quickly and accurately identify COVID-19 “patient zero” as the virus spreads to new places or resurges, and reconstruct its spread with limited… Read More »
The U-M Medical School needed an online tool for limited submissions and bridge fund applications. They were struggling with using email and storing a large number of documents on various servers. It wasn’t very open or transparent. InfoReady solved all of those problems.
Tawanna Dillahunt, University of Michigan School of Information (UMSI) associate professor, was announced as an inaugural recipient of The Computing Research Association’s Committee on Widening Participation in Computing Research (CRA-WP) Skip Ellis Early Career Award. The award is given to a person who identifies as a member of an underrepresented group in computing who has made significant contributions… Read More »
By donating a few teaspoons of blood, COVID-19 survivors can help U-M researchers find a way to defeat the disease that made them ill. 800 COVID-19 patients cared for at U-M’s Michigan Medicine have already donated more than 17,000 samples; now, it is open to participants who are not Michigan Medicine patients. By studying these samples and more,… Read More »
Michigan Engineering labs are reopening after COVID-19’s ten week ramp down, allowing faculty, staff, and graduate students to continue aspects of their research that couldn’t be completed at home. Reopening the labs means different things to different people. For example, Steve Forrest and his group can continue printing heart cell arrays that could rapidly replace scarred tissue after… Read More »