Multimedia Features | The University Record

March 3, 2021

‘For Your Eyes Only’

At first glance, artist Yasmine Nasser Diaz’s installation in the U-M Institute for the Humanities Gallery looks like a typical teenager’s bedroom. Look a little closer, and a more complex story emerges. On view through April 16, “For Your Eyes Only,” designed to be viewed through the gallery window at 202 S. Thayer St., is a continuation of Diaz’s bedroom installation series.

Read more about ‘For Your Eyes Only’

March 2, 2021

Explaining COVID variants

Throughout the pandemic, the public has been bombarded with terms like vaccine schedule, variants, mRNA, and more. In this video, Jason Pogue, clinical professor of pharmacy, explains what COVID variants are and how effective current vaccines may be against them.

Read a Q&A about common vaccine terms and definitions

March 1, 2021

Giving Blueday 2021

Giving Blueday is an opportunity for the U-M community to come together in celebration and support of what’s great about U-M. The university’s 24-hour celebration of giving will take place March 10. This video shows how people give to the university programs and causes they care most about.

Health Disparities & Social Inequities

For nearly a year, the COVID-19 pandemic has ravaged the nation. Black communities have found themselves disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, highlighting the health disparities and social inequities that exist in our society. In this video of a Feb. 24 panel discussion, faculty members from Michigan Medicine and the School of Nursing and students from the Medical School and the School of Public Health discussed why these disparities exist, how they contribute to mistrust of medical systems, and what can be done to address them and impact change.

Read more about faculty insights on these issues

February 23, 2021

‘Dead zone’ research

Researchers lower a robotic laboratory to the bottom of Lake Erie’s central basin in July 2019 for a U-M study that showed nearly as much phosphorus was released from muddy lake-bottom sediments into the surrounding waters as that entering the lake’s central basin each year from rivers and tributaries, increasing the severity of Lake Erie’s central-basin dead zone. (Photo by Hanna Anderson)

‘Tensegrity’ on display

Indexer II is a stainless steel sculpture on North Campus at the south end of the reflecting pool near the Mortimer E. Cooley Building. A gift of the engineering class of 1950, the sculpture by Kenneth Snelson represents “tensegrity,” a combination of tension and integrity. The Record periodically highlights pieces of public art at U-M. Learn more about this piece, or browse an online collection of public artworks.

‘Solving for equity’

A new pilot course at the College of Engineering is aiming to make education more equitable. The course exposes students to advanced robotics concepts without prior education barriers in curriculum. This video shows how the course aims to invite in rather than “weed out.” It teaches linear algebra — critical for coding but typically not taught until after four semesters of calculus — in an applied setting, and brings in students from historically Black colleges to learn remotely alongside U-M students.

Read more about flipping the script on engineering education

February 15, 2021

Virtual care

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, many people were concerned about their access to health care. Up until March 2020, Medicare did not allow patients to connect using their smartphones from home. But as the pandemic began to unfold and shelter-in-place measures were instituted across the country, Medicare has removed barriers, which has allowed Michigan Medicine to respond to the rapidly growing interest in telehealth visits. This video shows how it has streamlined operations and is training more providers.

Africa Week

The university will bring together leaders in higher education, industry and government for a weeklong series of discussions on the key issues and opportunities that aim to help shape Africa in the coming decades. U-M Africa Week is a five-day virtual conference that will run Feb. 15-19. Among the sessions will be a reunion of U-M African Presidential Scholars Program alumni including Priscilla Kolibea Mante, a UMAPS alumna and now a senior lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana. (Photo courtesy of Priscilla Kolibea Mante)

Art Connects Kids

Students in Melanie Manos’ Detroit Connections: In the Classroom course in the Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design faced the question of how to connect kids with creative activities and art education while so many K-12 students were studying remotely. They created Art Connects Kids, a website brimming with original art projects for families to do together at home. The image above was created using the “Painting Minimalist Landscapes” project prompt on Art Connects Kids.