Multimedia Features | The University Record

July 24, 2023

A focus on sustainability

President Santa J. Ono’s July video message focuses on some of the many efforts underway at U-M to promote sustainability and environmental action. Efforts include working with vacant land in Detroit, combating harmful algal blooms in the Great Lakes and promoting environmental action in Michigan communities. He also highlights Sara Mills, director of community empowerment at the Graham Sustainability Institute, as this month’s Portrait of a Wolverine.

Learn more about U-M’s sustainability efforts at Planet Blue

July 19, 2023

Impact of U-M research

The U-M research enterprise plays a key role in accelerating economic activity across Michigan and beyond. Grants awarded to U-M faculty were used, in part, to purchase $400 million worth of research-related goods and services last year from companies nationwide, accelerating innovative projects and supporting employment across large and small businesses. This video explains how U-M research drives economic growth and enhances workforce development.

Read more about the impact of U-M research

July 14, 2023

New solar car

Terry Li, lead vehicle engineer for the 2023 Michigan Solar Car Team, pushes the team’s latest vehicle, Astrum, into position for a photo shoot in Ann Arbor. The team unveiled its first three-wheeled, bullet-style vehicle July 14. Astrum is scheduled to race in this year’s Bridgestone World Solar Challenge, a biannual, 1,800-mile race from Darwin on Australia’s northern coast to Adelaide on the country’s southern coast. The race begins Oct. 22. (Photo by Jeremy Little, College of Engineering)

3 Cubes in a Seven Axis Relationship

Aspiring to surpass the limits of form through technology, Philip Stewart created 3 Cubes in a Seven Axis Relationship, a 14,000- pound, 25-foot-tall kinetic sculpture. The piece on North Campus was commissioned by the College of Engineering to honor the late Charles Vest, a U-M alumnus and former CoE dean and provost, and former president of the National Academy of Engineering and MIT. The Record periodically highlights pieces of public art at U-M. Learn more about this piece.

Browse an online collection of public artworks at U-M

July 5, 2023

A business plan to expand local health care

The William Davidson Institute is helping improve access to health care in the agriculturally driven border community of San Luis Río Colorado in Sonora, Mexico, and elsewhere. Earlier this year, WDI conducted due diligence on expansion and business plans of Grupo OSME, a privately run medical clinic business to finance construction of a medical complex. In addition, as this video explains, at the time of this project, WDI also was developing a Healthcare Delivery Management Training program, and OSME requested training for its management team from WDI. As a result, OSME and a Ghanaian hospital were the first to participate in the course.

Read more about this effort to expand health-care access

June 27, 2023

Bassoons in the forest

Participants of the New Bassoon Institute performed composer and bassoonist Brad Balliett’s “Arboretum,” a collection of 13 bassoon solos and duets, each representing a different tree, in the Heathdale section of the Nichols Arboretum on June 15. This video explores how the performances were synchronized by each soloist or duet at various locations in the Arb.

June 23, 2023

Electric buses join the fleet

A 40-foot, electric bus and a 60-foot articulated electric bus are shown outside the new Dean Road Transportation Center on North Campus. They are among four new battery-powered electric buses that have arrived on the Ann Arbor campus as a step in a broader effort to decarbonize U-M’s vehicle fleet. The new buses will be put into regular service this fall. (Photo courtesy of Logistics, Transportation & Parking)

A focus on research

President Santa J. Ono focuses on the variety and impact of U-M’s research enterprise in his June video message. Highlighted efforts include a recently announced Quantum Research Institute, the Semiconductor Talent Action Team and a new Electric Vehicle Center. Ono also profiled Innovation Partnerships, U-M’s office that helps to commercialize university inventions and technology. It is led by Kelly Sexton, associate vice president for research – innovation partnerships, this month’s Portrait of a Wolverine.

June 16, 2023

Rehab ready

The HEART Clinic, a no-cost U-M student and faculty clinic, provides health care access to the uninsured and underinsured in Flint and Genesee County. This video highlights the work of the clinic, which has helped hundreds of people with services ranging from physical therapy, occupational therapy, nursing and rehab programs for stroke patients and those with Parkinson’s disease. It is staffed by UM-Flint graduate students in occupational therapy and physical therapy and undergraduate nursing students, all supervised by licensed clinicians.

Combating antibiotic resistance

Identifying whether and how a nanoparticle and protein will bind with one another is an important step toward being able to design antibiotics and antivirals on demand, and a computer model developed at U-M can do it. This video explores how the new tool could help find ways to stop antibiotic-resistant infections and new viruses — and aid in the design of nanoparticles for different purposes.