Multimedia Features | The University Record

June 4, 2018

Driverless ride

The Mcity Driverless Shuttle, a research project at U-M, launched Monday on North Campus. The shuttle will run on 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday-Friday, weather permitting. There is no cost to riders, and the two shuttles will cover a one-mile route at the North Campus Research Complex roughly every 10 minutes.

May 28, 2018

Bloomin’ peonies

more images

The Nichols Arboretum peony garden has begun its annual transformation from green shoots to waves of white, pink and red as it bursts into nearly 10,000 blooms. At the beginning of this week, the main beds of herbaceous peonies were beginning to open. The tree peonies are still blooming in the surrounding beds. The peony garden offers a spring display from sunrise to sunset daily from approximately Memorial Day, when these pictures were taken, to mid-June. (Photos by Joseph Mooney)

May 22, 2018

Robotic suits

At the first Applied Collegiate Exoskeleton Competition, the requested attire was circuits and motors. Teams from five schools recently gathered at U-M to tune-up, learn and demonstrate their powered mechanical suits, or exoskeletons, which augment the wearer’s strength and abilities. In this video, members of the U-M team explain the goal of the competition and how it worked.

May 17, 2018

Images4Earth

more images

In celebration of everything that makes Earth great, the School for Environment and Sustainability is showcasing photos taken by students, staff and faculty. This image, captured by SEAS master’s degree student Carol Maiones, shows three female lions in Kenya’s Nairobi National Park eyeing zebras in the background. This photo was the winner of the animals portion of the Images4Earth contest.

May 15, 2018

Water on a Jupiter moon?

Europa, a moon of Jupiter, has long been suspected of hiding a global ocean beneath its icy surface, and U-M researchers have now found the strongest evidence yet to suggest it has plumes ejecting water from its subsurface into space. In this video, Xianzhe Jia, associate professor of climate and space sciences and engineering, explains how data collected during NASA’s 20-year-old Galileo mission is helping provide new insights into Europa.

May 13, 2018

Solar probe

In this video, Justin Kasper, associate professor of climate and space sciences and engineering, prepares a model of the Faraday cup for testing prior to this summer’s Parker Solar Probe launch. Kasper is principal investigator for the investigation that will measure the solar wind. The cup is tested in a vacuum chamber and hit with light from four modified IMAX projectors and particles from an ion gun — all to ensure it will operate in the sun’s atmosphere.

May 10, 2018

Coastal sustainability

Allison Steiner (right), associate professor of climate and space sciences and engineering, and earth and environmental sciences, was in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to discuss her research on harmful algal blooms. Her project focuses on enhancing sustainability in coastal communities threatened by harmful algal blooms by advancing and integrating environmental and socio-economic modeling. Steiner is speaking here with Dawn Tilbury, assistant director of the National Science Foundation Directorate for Engineering, and a U-M professor of mechanical engineering, and electrical engineering and computer science. (Photo by Madeline Nykaza, Washington Office)

May 9, 2018

Patent insights

Bryce Pilz (second from left) speaks at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday at a conference about how current patent laws and regulations are stifling innovation. Pilz, director of licensing for U-M’s Office of Technology Transfer, cited two examples of medical diagnostic tests developed at U-M that failed to get patent protection, hindering the development of those technologies. The conference focused on ways Congress and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office can improve the situation. (Photo by Mike Waring, Washington Office)

May 8, 2018

‘We Want a Veto’

The International Institute’s annual photo contest offers a window onto the unique places where students affiliated with the institute and its 17 centers and programs have gone to intern and study abroad the previous year. This photo by Matt Harmon, titled “We Want a Veto,” took first place in the Not Just a Tourist category. “Warsaw erupted when its government almost passed a bill that would put the Polish Supreme Court under government control. The people did not stay silent,” Harmon said.

May 7, 2018

Carbon pricing

When China formally announced plans to establish a national carbon market in December, it was double the European Union’s carbon market and 10 times the size of California’s cap-and-trade system. The effort to create a market for carbon pricing has been littered with stories of many failures but also some successes over the last two decades. In this video, Barry Rabe, the J. Ira and Nicki Harris Family Professor of Public Policy, discusses why political support for a carbon price remains one of the heaviest lifts in American politics and beyond.