The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way the University of Michigan works on many levels, but it also has galvanized activity across the university as a broad range of academic, research and administrative units apply their expertise to this worldwide crisis.
These synopses offer a glimpse into the variety of activity underway. Go online to follow the links at the end of each story to learn more.
26 U-M students from across the U.S. document their lives in quarantine
Students producing their final project in David Turnley’s winter 2020 documentary photography class at the Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design and the Residential College were supposed to earn the trust of a stranger, and work with them to document their lives over the course of five weeks.
The pandemic changed that. Abiding by quarantine and social distancing recommendations, Turnley directed his students to turn their cameras inward — to document themselves and those closest to them during this historic moment.
There are photographs of tearful goodbyes as U-M seniors realized their time in Ann Arbor had come to an abrupt end. Photographs of family meals. Relatives peering through panes of glass. Moments of boredom, anxiety and worry.
Read more about the students’ project and see a video.
— Sydney Hawkins, Michigan News
Face shield design guides makers in addressing PPE shortage
Face shields can extend the life of virus-filtering N95 masks, which are in critically short supply around the world. And U-M is doing its part using 3-D printers to produce them.
A face shield design shared recently by Michigan Medicine and the College of Engineering sets a standard of quality for 3-D printing of this kind of protective gear. Doctors and engineers identified the need for face shield specifications through the COVID-19 Rapid Reaction Steering Committee.
Meanwhile, Taubman College’s fabrication lab staff members have made and collected donations of 3-D-printed bands as part of an effort to produce face shields — based on open-source designs approved by the National Institutes for Health — for use by Michigan Medicine staff.
Read more about the College of Engineering effort.
Read more about the Taubmam College effort.
— Kate McAlpine, College of Engineering,
and Taubman College
U-M startup’s work could aid COVID-19 antibody test
COVID-19 antibody testing that’s portable, fast, cheap and highly precise — four attributes that are usually mutually exclusive — could be possible with a microfluidic device invented at U-M and developed by U-M startup Optofluidic Bioassay.
A microfluidic device, or “lab on a chip,” shrinks multiple lab functions onto a single chip just millimeters or centimeters in size. The technology enables faster results with smaller sample sizes.
U-M researchers have demonstrated they can detect synthetic COVID-19 antibodies and they’re working with researchers at a hospital in New Jersey on experiments with human blood from COVID-19 patients.
Read more about this undertaking.
— Nicole Casal Moore, Michigan News
Study explores COVID-19 anxiety, depression, substance use
More than one in four adults (28 percent) said they have used alcohol or drugs to feel better during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new U-M study that tracked behaviors a week after the World Health Organization announced the pandemic in mid-March.
Adults are using various coping strategies to deal with mental and physical health concerns related to uncertainty with the pandemic. The concerns include feeling tired or having little energy, trouble sleeping and relaxing, and feeling hopeless and afraid, said Shawna Lee, the report’s lead author and associate professor of social work.
— Jared Wadley, Michigan News
Releasing older prisoners with violent records poses little crime risk
A new U-M study indicates that many prisoners serving sentences for violent crimes are actually at little risk of committing further crime — especially the older prisoners most at risk from COVID-19.
Researchers say this is a high-stakes question, because more than half of the inmates in state prisons — and more than two-thirds of those over age 55 — are serving sentences for violent crimes.
Older prisoners in particular are highly vulnerable to the spread of the coronavirus behind bars. The CDC has recommended social distancing, but it’s nearly impossible in crowded prisons and jails.
— Jared Wadley, Michigan News
K-12 online learning platform from U-M sees dramatic rise in use
Use of the Collabrify Roadmap Platform, a set of free, customizable digital learning tools developed by the Center for Digital Curricula at the College of Engineering, has exploded since the COVID-19 crisis closed K-12 schools across the state.
Roadmaps provide teachers with scheduling templates that can be customized to include all the activities that would normally take place in their classrooms. The system guides students through the day, points them to the resources they need to complete their work and enables them to collaborate with teachers and each other.
The platform also provides a searchable repository of online lessons developed and vetted by teachers.
Read more about this platform.
— Gabe Cherry, College of Engineering
