Category Archives: Campus News

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NSF award supports minority STEM students

By | April 12, 2017
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A consortium of Michigan universities and community colleges — including U-M — was awarded a five-year, $4.25 million grant by the National Science Foundation to help increase participation and graduation rates among underrepresented minorities in science, technology, engineering, and math fields. Derrick Scott, director of inclusion and multicultural engineering programs for the Center for Engineering Diversity and Outreach at… Read More »

EHR improves patient care

By | April 11, 2017
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Doctor holding iPad showing medical record

According to U-M researchers, hospitals that voluntarily participated in value-based health care reforms, such as the Meaningful Use of Electronic Health Records program, were better at keeping patients from returning to the hospital within 30 days for three common diagnoses than the government’s mandatory program that penalizes acute care facilities for high readmission rates. Andrew Ryan, associate professor in the School… Read More »

Trump’s tweets preserved for posterity

By | April 5, 2017
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Screenshot of Trump twitter page

Mr. Trump’s personal Twitter account has found itself at the center of a number of controversies and attracted the attention of traditional media, critics, and supporters alike, says Josh Pasek, a U-M communication studies professor. Now, the National Archives and Records Administration has confirmed that President Trump’s tweets will be preserved for posterity, in keeping with the Presidential Records Act. Traditionally, the president speaks to… Read More »

Netflix goes global

By | April 5, 2017
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global map showing Netflix in most countries except China, N. Korea & Syria.

In just a decade, Netflix has grown from a video service with seven million U.S. subscribers to one that reaches 93 million people worldwide. In her book, Portals: A Treatise on Internet-Distributed Television, U-M communications professor Amanda Lotz explores how Netflix and other internet-distributed video services forced the existing television industry to radically change its practices. During the early 2000s,… Read More »

Text your way to better health

By | April 5, 2017
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Illustration of smiling face surrounded by images of fruits, vegetables, sporting equipment

The U-M Center for Health Communications Research and the National Cancer Institute have developed a text messaging program called Tips4Health that aims to promote healthy habits in people that sign up. The U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center is using the service to deliver behavioral interventions for smoking cessation, healthy eating, and physical activity. A text messaging program to encourage colon cancer screening… Read More »

Bentley digitizes Daily

By | April 4, 2017
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Front page of the first issue of the of the "U of M Daily," September 29, 1890.

The Bentley Historical Library has unveiled 12 decades of Michigan Daily history through a new online database that contains searchable digital copies of the historic newspaper. The first online search of the digitized Daily was performed by President Mark Schlissel during a reception Thursday at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library. “This effort celebrates and preserves 125 years… Read More »

Michigan IT joins Myspace

By | April 1, 2017
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Myspace logo

Social media is an ever-changing landscape of exciting options. There’s Friendster, Orkut, Vine, and Yik-Yak just to name a few. But no social media platform is as leading edge, new, and cool as Myspace. That’s why the Michigan IT Steering Committee has created a Michigan IT Myspace account! Some of the standout features of Myspace include: Friends — Connect with… Read More »

Big Ten Geoportal

By | March 31, 2017
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Photo of old map from 1700 showing North America.

Scholars and researchers have a new way to find and compare geospatial data and maps: the Big Ten Academic Alliance Geoportal. “The ease of use is wonderful, but what’s really new and different here is a search that allows you to compare contemporary data to old maps,” said Mara Blake, spatial and numeric data librarian at the U-M… Read More »

UM-Flint announces new online-only grad program

By | March 30, 2017
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Side view of open laptop with book inside with fanned pages.

Pending final approvals, the UM-Flint School of Education and Human Services will launch a new online Master of Arts in Inclusive Education degree program in Fall 2017. Offered in an interactive, completely online format for the convenience of working educators, courses will be taught by doctoral-level education faculty members who have significant classroom teaching experience. The program aims to… Read More »

Contact Center CoP presents at ACUTA

By | March 28, 2017
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ACUTA logo

Lisa Callihan (LSA IT customer experience manager) and Jennifer Herron (ITS infrastructure business planning lead) presented at the 46th ACUTA (Association for College and University Technology Advancement) Annual Conference on March 20 in Chicago, IL. Their presentation focused on their effort to create, maintain, and grow a Community of Practice (CoP) for U-M’s contact centers, in partnership with the Michigan IT… Read More »

Location sharing on Google Maps

By | March 25, 2017
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Screenshots of two phones showing Google Maps location sharing interface.

Google Maps recently rolled out real-time location sharing that lets you select which contacts to share with and how long you want to keep them in the loop. The added convenience for users also has an upside for Google. “Mapping, very granular mapping, could actually be a bigger source for ad revenue than search,” says Erik Gordon, who studies… Read More »

Digital dependencies

By | March 24, 2017
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Group of young people sitting on stairs outside, all checking their phones.

Do you find yourself incapable of controlling an incessant urge to look at your smart phone or other electronic device? You’ve got company. Nearly nine out of 10 Americans report being so tethered to their digital gadgets that they constantly or often check their email, texts, and social media accounts, a new poll shows. The problem may stem from… Read More »

Cyberwar strategy and game theory

By | March 24, 2017
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Three male army personnel sitting at computer screens.

Whether a nation should retaliate against a cyber attack is a complicated decision, and a new framework guided by game theory could help policymakers determine the best strategy. The “Blame Game” was developed in part by Robert Axelrod, a professor at the Ford School of Public Policy who is well known for solving a version of the classic… Read More »

Can Siri replace your friends?

By | March 23, 2017
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CU photo of wooden table with people's hands, mobile devices, coffee, water glass, and purse.

By now, we’re all familiar with the storyline in which a person replaces relationships with a digital device. A recent study co-authored by Carolyn Yoon, professor of marketing at U-M, sought to see exactly how much a humanlike digital device might replace humans. Yoon and her colleagues hoped to find out how devices that replicate human characteristics — such… Read More »

App helps with food allergies

By | March 23, 2017
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photo of grilled salmon and vegetables on a white dinner plate.

A project started by U-M students Ish Baid and Michael Copley can make daily life easier for people with food allergies or special diets. They are the co-founders of the Edible Project app that helps people with diet restrictions find restaurants and meals they can enjoy without worrying about allergies or ingredients. The idea was prompted by Copley’s severe dairy allergies. Edible Project… Read More »

Crystal visions

By | March 23, 2017
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Professor Joanna Millunchick standing in her lab demonstrating VR glasses.

Joanna Millunchick, professor of materials science and engineering, is working to change the way people visualize crystal structures. In the video below, Millunchick and her development partner, Duncan Abbot, CEO of Gwydion Inc., explain how an app that centers on virtual and augmented reality, technology more frequently used for video games, can create a new affordable platform that… Read More »

Silver screens

By | March 22, 2017
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Close up photo of a piece of transparent film being held by a tweezer, soft-focus of Prof. Guo in the BG.

L. Jay Guo, professor of electrical engineering and computer science, has developed a “stainless” silver film that could change the way touchscreens and flat or flexible displays are made, and also help improve computing power. By combining silver with a little bit of aluminum, the U-M researchers found that it was possible to produce exceptionally thin, smooth conductive layers… Read More »