UMMA extends hours, invites visitors to ‘Claim Your Space’
The U-M Museum of Art will welcome back visitors this fall with longer hours and new exhibitions that uphold an empowering theme. The museum’s newly launched “Claim Your Space” campaign encourages visitors from U-M and the greater southeast Michigan community not only to feel a sense of belonging, but to imagine themselves engaging with the museum in new ways, said Christopher Ankney, UMMA director of marketing and public relations. “We want to recognize that there are many who haven’t felt welcome or haven’t seen themselves represented on the museum walls in the past,” he said. “We want people to know that everyone’s story and experience has meaning and a place in history — and we’re working to right that wrong.” As part of UMMA’s commitment to welcome a broader audience to engage with the museum, it will be open until 8 p.m. four nights a week starting Sept. 7. The later hours will be in effect Thursdays through Sundays. UMMA currently requires all visitors to wear a mask and to complete a ResponsiBLUE health questionnaire screening upon entry. For more information, visit umma.umich.edu.
MICDE awards 20 Ph.D. student fellowships for 2021-22
Twenty Ph.D. students have been awarded fellowships by the Michigan Institute for Computational Discovery and Engineering at the University of Michigan for the 2021-22 academic year. Since 2014, MICDE has offered fellowships to current and prospective students whose research involves scientific computing techniques and practices and aims to advance computational discovery. Fellows are required to attend MICDE seminar series events and present a poster at the MICDE annual symposium. Fellowships carry a $4,000 stipend and augment other sources of funding. Besides the monetary value, fellowships facilitate closer engagement in scholarly exchange beyond a recipient’s home department, promote connections with world-class specialists and peers in computational science, and encourage deeper academic pursuit. For a full list of 2021-22 MICDE fellowship recipients and their projects, visit micde.umich.edu/micde-fellowships/.
Michigan Drug Discovery announces five projects for funding
Researchers from across U-M are investigating approaches to treat pain, cancer and infection, with new funding from Michigan Drug Discovery. Drug Discovery has selected five projects to fund this year, including a first-of-its-kind project grant to facilitate work on the optimization of advanced lead molecules for treating pain. Project grants are designed to support more advanced drug discovery projects and represent a shared commitment on behalf of principal investigators and MDD to a team-based, collaborative effort to advance the science over multiple years. Michigan Drug Discovery grants support work in five university drug discovery core laboratories: the Center for Chemical Genomics, Center for Structural Biology, and Natural Products Discovery Core in the U-M Life Sciences Institute; and the Pharmacokinetics Core and Vahlteich Medicinal Chemistry Core in the College of Pharmacy. Learn more about the projects.
NameCoach pronunciation tool now available in Canvas
NameCoach, a tool that allows students and faculty to create audio recordings that help peers better pronounce their names, currently is available in all officially provisioned Canvas courses, Information and Technology Services has announced. The program can be used to both record one’s own name and to listen to name recordings made by others within Canvas. The tool has two parts: NameCoach Recorder, which allows users to record their own name, and NameCoach Roster, which allows students and instructors to listen to and learn the names of others in a Canvas course. Making an effort to learn other students’ names can have a major impact on their experience in the classroom. For students with diverse identities especially, it can help combat feeling invisible or like they don’t belong. While this initial launch of NameCoach is focused on supporting the teaching and learning mission, ITS is working to incorporate NameCoach functionality into other applications used by the U-M community in the coming months. Additional details can be found at its.umich.edu/academics-research/teaching-learning/namecoach.
Campus transit changes for fall term take effect
Logistics, Transportation & Parking has introduced a service change in support of the fall term and increased activity on campus. Fixed routes operating this fall on campus include: Campus Connector, Bursley-Baits Loop, Green Road-NW5 Loop, Northwood Loop, Oxford-Markley Loop and the Stadium-Diag Loop. Michigan Medicine fixed routes include: Med Express, Wall St.-NIB & Express, Crisler Express and Glazier Express. Preventative measures that remain in place on the campus bus system include: face coverings are required; transit routes designed for passenger trips to be completed in approximately 15 minutes or less; moveable shields installed as a barrier between passengers and drivers; drivers will take advantage of stops to open doors for increased ventilation; increased air filtration and open windows for all buses; and cleaning and disinfection protocols for frequently touched surfaces inside the bus. Learn more information.
— Compiled by James Iseler, The University Record
