Multimedia Features | The University Record

October 4, 2017

Making fitness trackers work for you

Popular fitness trackers don’t inherently make us move. Rather, it’s the way that exercise makes us feel that ultimately motivates us to get active. In this video, Michelle Segar, director of the Sport, Health and Activity Research and Policy Center, explains how finding the right “why” and the right “way” will help people get the most out of their fitness tracker.

October 3, 2017

Precision Health at U-M

Precision Health at the University of Michigan, a new initiative that President Mark Schlissel announced Tuesday, will bring together researchers from across the university to facilitate new and exciting research on health solutions. In this video, the initiative’s co-directors — Sachin Kheterpal, Gonçalo Abecasis and Eric Michielssen — discuss the goals of Precision Health, what it will do and how it promotes multidisciplinary collaboration.

October 2, 2017

Construction robots

Robots haven’t been equipped to deal with the changing elements of on-site construction work, but recently U-M researchers have developed modeling techniques that allow a robot to adjust to differences from a project’s original model and update its plan of action, all without additional programming. In this video, Vineet Kamat, professor of civil and environmental engineering, and doctoral candidate Kurt Lundeen explain the possibilities of this development.

September 29, 2017

Yoga in the Big House

Diane Barbeau, a yoga instructor for MHealthy, leads some of the more than 1,200 people who attended Yoga in the Big House at Michigan Stadium on Friday. The event, sponsored by MHealthy, Rec Sports, and University Health Service/Wolverine Wellness, is part of U-M’s yearlong bicentennial celebration and showcased the university’s ongoing commitment to personal well-being among faculty, staff and students. (Photo by Roger Hart, Michigan Photography.)

September 28, 2017

Flexible classrooms

The advantage to a flexible classroom is the ability to allow the classroom to disappear, everyone is in the front of the room no matter where they are. Utilizing the mobility of the furniture, professors can arrange their classes in a way that strengthens learning. In this video, Cindy Finelli, associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science and of education, postdoctoral researcher Aaron Johnson, and Steve Yalisove, professor of materials science and engineering, explain the benefits of this approach.

September 27, 2017

Defining Excellence

In support of U-M’s diversity, equity and inclusion strategic plan, units representing a cross-section of the university have highlighted their progress in the video series, “Defining Excellence: Michigan’s Commitment to Diversity, Equity & Inclusion,” which includes this introduction from Vice Provost for Equity & Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer, Robert Sellers. View the full series.

September 26, 2017

Promoting digital access

Michael Furlough (left), librarian and executive director of the HathiTrust, speaks with U.S. Rep. Gregg Harper, R-Mississippi, prior to testifying at a hearing Tuesday in Washington, D.C., about the role of federal depository libraries and the federal government. HathiTrust, administered by U-M, is a consortium of more than 130 university and research libraries that focuses on providing digital access to document. Furlough urged Congress to encourage the use of digital databases as effective substitutes for many documents sought by the public. (Photo by Caroline Walker, House Administration Committee)

September 25, 2017

Confronting the climate crisis

“MC²: Michigan & the Climate Crisis” is a weeklong series of events focused around the topic of climate change and how it affects us politically, economically, socially and culturally. In this video, John Vandermeer, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, and students discuss how the activities will confront one of the most pressing problems affecting the world today.

September 24, 2017

Home sweet HomeLab

The U-M HomeLab, housed within the Institute for Social Research’s BioSocial Methods Collaborative, is geared toward helping researchers study how people interact with their environment — and with each other. HomeLab looks and feels like a complete apartment, but it is outfitted with technology that allows researchers to observe how people live. In this video, Alicia Carmichael, research process manager at the collaborative; Richard Gonzalez, the collaborative’s director; and Jacqui Smith, professor of psychology, discuss what happens at HomeLab.

September 21, 2017

EarthFest 2017

Carmela Marie Brown (center), associate director of new student services and orientation advising for LSA, and Jeff W. Kampf, research laboratory specialist lead for LSA, talk with Madelyn Celovsky about the Permaculture Design Team during EarthFest on Thursday. The annual event, billed as a “party for the planet,” focused this year on personal wellness while promoting sustainability initiatives and opportunities. (Photo by Elisse Rodriguez, Public Affairs)