Multimedia Features | The University Record

March 27, 2024

How do we measure poverty?

A new data map showcasing diverse indicators of poverty and well-being throughout Michigan highlights the key challenges confronting residents in different parts of the state and suggests interventions for the state’s most critical needs. In this video, Amanda Nothaft, Poverty Solutions director of data and evaluation, speaks about measures of poverty and how researchers use this data in their work.

Read more about the Poverty Solutions data map

March 26, 2024

Chinese art project

These are some of the Chinese art objects stored at the U-M Museum of Art, which was recently selected to house the renowned Chinese Object Study Workshops, which offer a vital platform for training graduate students enrolled in Ph.D. programs in the Chinese art field. UMMA will use its strengths in Chinese art scholarship and conservation, along with its extensive Asian art collection, to sustain and strategically advance the program, which was created by the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Asian Art. (Photos by Christopher Ankney, U-M Museum of Art)

Read more about the Chinese Object Study Workshops

March 25, 2024

Spring honorary degrees

Five leaders in the fields of writing, medicine, journalism and philanthropy are being recommended for honorary degrees at the Ann Arbor campus’ 2024 Spring Commencement. Top row, from left, are: Brad Meltzer, award-winning author; Alexa I. Canady, groundbreaking neurosurgeon; Robin D. Givhan, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist; and bottom row: philanthropists Stanley and Judith Frankel.

Read more about the Spring Commencement honorary degrees

March 20, 2024

Building with origami

U-M engineers have demonstrated how, for the first time, load-bearing structures can be made with origami modules that can fold compactly and adapt into different shapes. It’s an advance that could enable communities to quickly rebuild facilities and systems damaged or destroyed during natural disasters, or allow for construction in places that were previously considered impractical, including outer space. This video shows how the origami-based structures can work.

Read more about the abilities of origami

March 19, 2024

Artificial intelligence at U-M

In his monthly video message to the U-M community, President Santa J. Ono addresses the promise and challenges associated with generative artificial intelligence. The university has committed to being a leader in the development and appropriate use of GenAI. He also profiled Ravi Pendse, vice president for information technology and chief information officer, as this month’s Portrait of a Wolverine. Pendse co-sponsored U-M’s GenAI advisory committee and led development of the custom AI tools available to the university community.

March 18, 2024

Bridging academic worlds

When instructors step into the new extended reality stage at U-M’s Center for Academic Innovation, they can transport learners anywhere or to any time in the world. The center is building online learning opportunities so students can engage and dive into an immersive virtual journey. This video explores the capabilities of the new facility.

Unlocking creativity

The 28th Annual Exhibition of Artists in Michigan Prisons runs March 19-April 2 at the Duderstadt Gallery on North Campus. These are some of the 750 works of art by 490 artists that will be on display. The exhibition is put on by U-M’s Prison Creative Arts Project and features artwork by people incarcerated in Michigan prisons. (Courtesy of Prison Creative Arts Project)

Read more about the prison art exhibition

March 13, 2024

Hitting the evolutionary jackpot

More than 100 million years ago, the ancestors of the first snakes were small lizards that lived alongside other small, nondescript lizards in the shadow of the dinosaurs. Then, in a burst of innovation in form and function, the ancestors of snakes evolved legless bodies that could slither across the ground, highly sophisticated chemical detection systems to find and track prey, and flexible skulls that enabled them to swallow large animals. In this video, Daniel Rabosky, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology in LSA, explains this evolutionary explosion of snake diversity.

Giving Blueday 2024

U-M will celebrate 10 years of Giving Blueday on March 13. The annual day of giving is an opportunity for thousands of university supporters around the world to contribute to the U-M causes that matter to them. This video looks at what started 10 years ago and how the project is helping now.

Cold-case partnership

UM-Dearborn students in a criminology and criminal justice course are working with a local sheriff’s office on decades-old cold cases. This video explores the effort, within the College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters, that is one of various practice-based learning projects taking place in colleges across the Dearborn campus.