Tag Archives: research

University alliance receives $51.5 million in funding from Defense Threat Reduction Agency

By | June 29, 2020
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The Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s (DTRA) has announced it is rewarding $51.5 million of funding to the newly formed Interaction of Ionizing Radiation with Matter University Research Alliance (IIRM-URA) program.  IIRM-URA is comprised of 12 universities and 8 partner institutions, national laboratories, and industrial companies. The University of Michigan is one of IIRM-URA’s four permanent university members.  IIRM-URA… Read More »

Innovative monitoring technology predicts patient emergencies before they happen

By | June 29, 2020
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From the fight against the novel coronavirus to ICU transfer and patient rehabilitation, the Michigan Center for Integrative Research in Critical Care (MCIRCC) is developing intelligent prediction software to support health systems. Technology is transforming every corner of the health care industry, including the way clinicians monitor patients. Current systems have demonstrated that early detection of patient deterioration… Read More »

Matthew Belz receives fellowship to improve the safety of autonomous systems

By | June 19, 2020
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Matthew Belz

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 »

New machine learning method improves testing of stem-like tumor cells for breast cancer research

By | June 19, 2020
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(Illustration of growing cancer tumor.)

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 »

UMSI researchers awarded COVID-19 data science grant to study student mobility patterns

By | June 19, 2020
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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 »

U-M launches effort to collect blood samples from COVID-19 survivors and patients for research

By | June 11, 2020
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Vici Blanc, Ph.D., director of the U-M Central Biorepository, lifts a rack of blood samples out of the dedicated freezer for COVID-19 samples.

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 »

Lights in the labs — and eyes — of researchers coming back to work

By | June 11, 2020
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A staff member has her temperature checked before returning to a lab.

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 »

UROP adapts research projects to remote experience

By | May 26, 2020
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A model program at the University of Michigan that allows first- and second-year undergraduates to participate directly in research was disrupted by the COVID-19 crisis.  While leaders of the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) moved quickly to help many students transition to online experiences to finish the academic year, not everyone could continue their projects. But as the… Read More »

$5.2M for digital twins of nuclear reactors could bring down nuclear energy costs

By | May 26, 2020
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Safe and more affordable nuclear energy is the goal of a new project led by the University of Michigan, bringing together researchers who specialize in nuclear energy technology and computer science. The study, which will develop AI-enhanced “digital twins” of nuclear reactors, is funded with a three-year, $5.2 million grant from the Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy. The project… Read More »

Research on human biases in AI learning earns best student paper award

By | May 26, 2020
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The project demonstrated that a certain bias in humans who train intelligent agents significantly reduced the effectiveness of the training. A team of researchers working to more effectively train autonomous agents earned the Pragnesh Jay Modi – Best Student Paper at the International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems (AAMAS 2020). Led by second-year Ph.D. student Divya… Read More »

Special COVID-19 Propelling Original Data Science (PODS) grants

By | May 18, 2020
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MIDAS logo

Last week, the Michigan Institute for Data Science (MIDAS) announced the awardees of its COVID-19 data science grants. Seven interdisciplinary teams, chosen from 49 submissions, received funding for COVID-19 research. With data science methods at the core, these teams combat the pandemic in varied and creative ways, including better clinical decisions for in-patients, strategies to improve testing, data-driven guidance… Read More »

New wearable health tech research center announced

By | May 7, 2020
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data synchronization of health book between smartwatch and smartphone in male hands

As heart disease and stroke remain the leading causes of death worldwide, a new U-M research initiative aims to investigate how mobile health (mHealth) technology, such as smartwatches and smartphones, can be used to study and improve health behaviors among hypertensive populations. “Mobile technology has changed nearly all aspects of our lives. There is great hope that mHealth… Read More »

Why we adopt then abandon online safety practices

By | April 28, 2020
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Creative binary code and digital padlock background. Programming and password concept.

To find out why people adopt and then sometimes abandon online safety measures, researchers from the School of Information surveyed more than 900 people about their use of 30 commonly recommended practices to guard against security, privacy, and identity theft risks. The team found that security practices like avoiding clicking on unknown links or emails were much more… Read More »

Probing tech’s soft underbelly

By | April 27, 2020
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Portrait of Dr. Kevin Fu.

On any given day in Kevin Fu’s laboratory at the College of Engineering research investigators might use an antenna to fool the lab’s sensor into giving a false temperature readings or a laser light beam to inject false voice commands in a voice-controlled assistant from a distance of 300 feet. Unlike many cybersecurity troubleshooters, Fu is not looking… Read More »

U-M researchers train tech tool to find relationship clues from written conversations

By | April 27, 2020
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Mental concept with thinking process, relationships

Social scientists have identified 10 dimensions to describe the nature of human relationships but little research has focused on how these concepts are expressed through written language, and what role they have in shaping social interactions. New research from U-M and Nokia Bell Labs has used crowdsourcing and a tech tool to detect how these characteristics are expressed… Read More »

Extreme interest in crowdsourced projects requires more traditional management

By | April 24, 2020
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Businessman with idea on laptop rasing money via internet to support project.

Collaborative crowdsourcing has become a popular way to advance a technology idea or to spin it off for new uses, but U-M research shows when faced with extreme interest, team leaders must often rely on traditional organizational management structure to get the work done. When a collaborative crowdsourced project is thrust into the limelight, the impact—or shock—of so… Read More »

Computer scientists employ AI to help address COVID-19 challenges

By | April 16, 2020
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illustration of coronavirus

The coronavirus pandemic has changed the world around us and is affecting our health, our economy, our social interactions, and so much more. Faculty and students affiliated with the AI Lab in Computer Science and Engineering have partnered with clinicians and experts from other disciplines to bring their expertise to assist with the outbreak and to help find… Read More »

Federal Court rules in favor of UMSI professor in discrimination research case

By | April 8, 2020
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modern login form interface design with username and password

A federal court has cleared the way for academic researchers, computer scientists, and journalists to continue work that investigates online company practices for racial, gender or other discrimination. The ruling means that those who research online companies no longer have to fear prosecution for the work they do to hold tech companies accountable for their practices, said Christian Sandvig, professor… Read More »