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December 2011
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December 31, 2011
Ringing in 2012
Happy New Year from the University of Michigan!
Photo: Lin Jones, U-M Photo Services
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December 28, 2011
‘Tis the season
Now that finals have officially ended and semester break is upon us, there are several closings or reduced hours at offices and buildings across the U-M campuses. Regular hours resume at most locations on Jan. 3.
Photo: Lin Jones, U-M Photo Services
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December 24, 2011
‘Tis the season
Now that finals have officially ended and semester break is upon us, there are several closings or reduced hours at offices and buildings across the U-M campuses. Regular hours resume at most locations on Jan. 3.
Photo: Scott R. Galvin, U-M Photo Services
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December 23, 2011
Flume Room
In the basement of Dana Hall resides an interesting new addition to the School of Natural Resources and Environment. The $1 million U-M "Flume Room," the largest facility of its kind in North America, has 150 experimental stream channels that are used to study how environmental change impacts freshwater habitats like rivers and streams.
Photo: Austin Thomason, U-M Photo Services
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December 22, 2011
Death in early America
“So Once Were We,” an exhibit showing in the Great Hall of the William Clements Library through Feb. 17, explores American practices and traditions for coping with death, from the early years of European exploration and discovery to the early 20th century and the burgeoning modern funeral industry.
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December 21, 2011
Kenyan Collaboration
A U-M initiative, known as the Kenya Summer Research Program, that includes participants from the Schools of Dentistry, Medicine and Public Health as well as the Colleges of Pharmacy, Engineering, and LS&A worked on a range of health-related projects in Meru, Kenya this past summer. Many of the faculty, students, and staff involved plan to return next summer to build upon initiatives that were started.
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December 20, 2011
Jumpstart on success
The opportunity to help low-income, at-risk preschool students meet their educational needs is inspiring U-M students from across campus to join Jumpstart, a collaboration between U-M's School of Education and AmeriCorps. Student volunteers meet weekly with children who are a year away from kindergarten to strengthen their language, literary and social skills.
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December 19, 2011
Three more degrees to master
U-M will offer three new master’s degrees in fall 2012. A master of health informatics will be offered jointly by the School of Information and the School of Public Health (pictured). An online program leading to a master’s degree in dental hygiene will be offered by the Rackham School of Graduate Studies and the School of Dentistry. The College of Engineering and the Stephen M. Ross School of Business will offer a joint program in entrepreneurship.
Photo: Lin Jones, U-M Photo Services
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December 16, 2011
An open letter to President Obama
U-M President Mary Sue Coleman has written an open letter to President Barack Obama calling for elected officials, university presidents, business leaders, philanthropists and parents to collaborate on making higher education affordable for all. "The cost of attending college is one of the most serious matters facing a country that seeks to strengthen its global competitiveness," she writes.
Photo: U-M Photo Services
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December 15, 2011
Life before computers
Before computers took over campus, many U-M students completed term papers in typing rooms at the end of the semester. Now, late-night paper writing can be conducted on one of the hundreds of computers available in the “fishbowl” in Angell Hall. State-of-the art printers produce clean, white pages where any mistakes can be fixed with a few keystrokes and another quick print.
Photo: Bentley Historical Library
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December 14, 2011
Diving into a prehistoric era
Under the cold clear waters of Lake Huron, U-M researchers have found a five-and-a-half foot-long, pole-shaped piece of wood that is 8,900 years old and may provide important clues to a mysterious period in North American prehistory. The research team on the project is led by John O'Shea, a professor of anthropology and Guy Meadows, a professor of physical oceanography.
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December 13, 2011
Rediscovering the spirit
“Convergence” is among integrated media works presented in the exhibit George Kushiator: Cultural and Spiritual Rediscovery through Dec. 21 at the International Institute African Studies Center. U-M African Presidential Scholar Kushiator’s works draw on the values of his native Ghana in West Africa to rediscover the existence of the spirit man within the current cultural environment.
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December 12, 2011
1 day, 100 projects
Every semester, undergraduate engineering students showcase their capstone design projects during Michigan Engineering’s Design Expo on North Campus. This year, the team video that generates the most "likes" on the Michigan Engineering Facebook wall by Dec 13 will win $500. There will also be an award for the best project video determined by judges from the Multidisciplinary Design Program.
Photo: Marcin Szczepanski, University of Michigan CoE Multimedia Producer
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December 9, 2011
Sweet 16 bound
The No. 22-ranked U-M volleyball team is heading to its fourth Sweet 16 in the past five years after knocking off No. 6 Stanford, 3-1, in the second round of the NCAA Tournament last week. The Wolverines will face Florida in the regional semifinal on Dec. 9 in Gainesville, Fla. Go Blue!
Photo: Martin Vloet, U-M Photo Services
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December 8, 2011
Person or spambot?
Are You a Human, a firm created by Stephen M. Ross School of Business master’s students, has developed a better way for websites to verify that a user is a person and not a spambot. The group recently received first place in the student category of the Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition and is the first feature of a new series highlighting innovation stories at U-M.
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December 7, 2011
Classic meets modern
The U-M Department of Theatre & Drama closes out the fall semester with “The Beaux’ Stratagem,” a play written by George Farquhar in 1707, adapted by Thornton Wilder in 1939 and Ken Ludwig in 2004. Created by three theatrical voices centuries apart, this comedy melds both classic and modern sensibilities into a seamless whole. The play runs Dec 8-11 at the Power Center.
Photo: Peter Smith Photography
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December 6, 2011
If these cars could talk
A $14.9 million program run by U-M's Transportation Research Institute is testing the safety of vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure wireless communication. This study, the largest of its kind, examines cars that can "talk" to each other and to the roads, traffic lights and signals around them and evaluates how well they ease traffic congestion, reduce crashes and save time and fuel.
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December 5, 2011
Our global campus
U-M was ranked No. 8 nationally for the size of its international student body in 2010-11 according to the Institute of International Education. This strong showing highlights an important part of the university's mission to not only encourage students and faculty to explore the world, but to also bring the world to Michigan by attracting talented students from overseas.
Photo: Lon Horwedel, U-M Photo Services
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December 2, 2011
Is that you, Aunt Bea?
A U-M evolutionary biologist and a graduate student have discovered that paper wasps have specialized face-learning abilities similar to those used by humans. With brains less than a millionth the size of humans', they are able to recognize individual wasps by their unique facial patterns. This is the first time that such a high level of visual learning has been demonstrated in an insect.
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December 1, 2011
An unforgettable journey
Ten Ross School of Business first-year Master of Business Administration (MBA) students recently went on a ten-day tour of Alaska led by four second-year students. The trip was part of the school’s M-Trek program that offers student-run adventure trips to incoming students as a way to meet fellow classmates and start building friendships before formally starting the MBA program.