Multimedia Features
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December 15, 2021
iNaturalist Challenge
Read more about the challenge and view other photosThis autumn, students, faculty and staff in LSA’s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology teamed up for an iNaturalist Challenge to observe and photograph some of the surrounding biodiversity. The activity helps participants open their eyes a little wider to the natural world. Three teams competed to see which could observe the most species. Siliang Song, a graduate student instructor and Ph.D. student, photographed this seven-spotted lady beetle.
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December 14, 2021
Detroit Center for Innovation
Read more about the DCIThe Detroit Center for Innovation, a future world-class research and education center anchored by U-M, will now be built in The District Detroit, situated between the city’s downtown and Midtown. The center, which initially was to be built on the former Wayne County Jail site, will be part of the university’s growing footprint in and around Detroit, where the university was founded in 1817. As part of the three-building DCI development, U-M will operate an approximately $300 million, 200,000-square-foot center focused on academic programs and research related to fields in which advanced technology is increasingly critical. (Artist’s rendering courtesy of Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates)
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December 13, 2021
Mammals on the menu
Read more about how snakes evolved after the asteroidModern snakes evolved from ancestors that lived side by side with the dinosaurs and that likely fed mainly on insects and lizards. Then a miles-wide asteroid wiped out nearly all the dinosaurs and roughly three-quarters of the planet’s plant and animal species 66 million years ago. A recent U-M study shows early snakes capitalized on that ecological opportunity, rapidly and repeatedly evolving novel dietary adaptations and prey preferences. This video explains how evolutionary biologists figured this out.
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December 10, 2021
Leinweber Computer Science and Information Building
Read more about the new Leinweber Computer Science and Information BuildingThe Board of Regents on Dec. 9 approved schematic drawings for the new 163,000-square-foot Leinweber Computer Science and Information Building on North Campus. The building will, for the first time, bring together under one roof the School of Information and the College of Engineering’s Computer Science and Engineering Division. In addition to being an innovative learning environment for students, the facility represents a convergence of disciplines that will strengthen collaboration, foster innovative research partnerships and lead to the development of breakthrough technologies. This drawing shows a view of the north elevation, looking west. (Image courtesy of Architecture, Engineering and Construction)
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December 9, 2021
High cost of auto insurance
Read more about Poverty Solutions’ latest analysisMichigan’s auto insurance reform law has contributed to an 18 percent drop in average premium costs from 2019-20, according to a new analysis by Poverty Solutions at U-M. However, Michigan still has the most expensive auto insurance in the United States, and a 2019 law has failed to reduce disparities in cost by race and geography. This video explains why auto insurance rates in Michigan are so high.
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December 7, 2021
‘Let Woman Choose Her Sphere’
Read more about the concert and related eventsA Dec. 8 concert by the University Concert Band — featuring special guest speakers, singers and composers — uses the centenary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment as an opportunity to showcase the broader fight for equality throughout this country’s history to the present day. The free concert begins at 8 p.m. in Hill Auditorium and also can be viewed online via a livestream. In this video, Courtney Snyder, associate director of bands and associate professor of conducting, talks about the concert and the special music chosen for the event.
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December 6, 2021
“Plan of the Fort at De Troit”
Read more about this historical artifactThe Clements Library has announced the acquisition of a previously unattainable map, “Plan of the Fort at De Troit,” which was drawn for the British Commander in North America in 1761 during the French & Indian War. In this video, the Clements Library’s Mary Pedley, adjunct assistant map curator, highlights some of the plan’s significant features.
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December 3, 2021
‘Unseen Worlds’
Read more about the”Unseen Worlds” installationWith COVID-19, microorganisms have migrated from natural science and medicine onto center stage in politics, history and civil society. Through the artistry of Jim Cogswell, professor of art, microorganisms can now be seen as art in “Unseen Worlds,” a colorful vinyl mural on the windows of U-M’s Museum of Natural History. In this video, Cogswell discusses the project that presents microscopic creatures in a size and manner that invites discovery.
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December 2, 2021
Turning up the heat
Read more about the funding and the benefitsAndrew Gayle, a mechanical engineering Ph.D. candidate, places a solar-transparent aerogel into a device that will apply an atom-thick coating for use in solar-thermal power plants. The U.S. Department of Energy is providing $3.1 million to one U-M team and $300,000 to another team for projects that are working to improve heat-trapping materials for solar thermal energy, which could help the United States meet a goal of cutting solar energy costs in half by 2030. (Photo by Evan Dougherty, Michigan Engineering)
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December 1, 2021
Inspiring transformation
Watch four University Diversity & Social Transformation Professors discuss their workU-M faculty members historically have made significant contributions to excellence through their commitments to promoting diversity, equity and inclusion. Nineteen professors have been recognized for their contributions in these areas as University Diversity & Social Transformation Professors. In this video, Robert Sellers, vice provost for equity and inclusion and chief diversity officer; and Tabbye Chavous, director of the National Center for Institutional Diversity, discuss the professorships and their important role.
