Multimedia Features | The University Record

April 23, 2024

ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Awards

The 2023 ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award recipients are, from left: Lulu Shang, biostatistics; Markus Borsch, electrical and computer engineering; Maria Ahmed, molecular, cellular, and developmental biology; Kayla Kroning, chemistry; Evan Radeen, English language and literature; Luis Flores, sociology; and Kevin Napier, physics. Not pictured: Salem Elzway, history; Alex Kapiamba, mathematics; and Graham Liddell, comparative literature. The awards recognize exceptional work produced by doctoral students for the high caliber of their scholarship and the significance and interest of their findings. (Shannon Shultz, Michigan Photography)

Digital wellness

Middle school students engaged in a two-day symposium at North Quad on Feb. 8 and 15 as part of a digital wellness program that is a collaboration among the Marsal Family School of Education, School of Information and School of Social Work. U-M students and scholars launched an interprofessional course in partnership with sixth-graders at Ann Arbor Public Schools to provide classroom and real-world engagement about digital wellness.(Photo by Niki Williams)

Read more about the digital wellness project

April 17, 2024

Surname order and grades

Knowing your ABCs is essential to academic success, but having a last name starting with A, B or C might also help make the grade. An analysis by U-M researchers of more than 30 million grading records from U-M finds students with alphabetically lower-ranked names receive lower grades. In this video, researchers Jun Li, Jiaxin Pei and Helen Wang discuss the study’s findings and how they arrived at them.

Trees to tables

Storm-damaged trees and others from across U-M are being turned into new, functional campus furniture. Associate professor Joseph Trumpey and his students are milling logs and working with wood from trees that include the historic Tappan Oak. The resulting conference and coffee tables will be placed around the Ann Arbor campus. In this photo, Trumpey (far left) and his students pose with one of their projects, a conference table. (Photo by Jen Hogan, Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design)

Better battery manufacturing

New chemistries for batteries, semiconductors and more could be easier to manufacture, thanks to a new approach to making chemically complex materials that researchers at U-M and Samsung’s Advanced Materials Lab have demonstrated. Their new recipes use unconventional ingredients to make battery materials with fewer impurities. This video illustrates how a robotic lab tests these new designs.

Read more about the new battery research

April 10, 2024

Ginsberg Building progress

Donors William and Inger Ginsberg sign a ceremonial beam April 5 for the new Edward and Rosalie Ginsberg Building being constructed on Central Campus to house the Edward Ginsberg Center for Community Service and Learning. The Ginsbergs donated $10 million toward the building’s construction in honor of William Ginsberg’s parents. The beam-signing ceremony marked the near completion of the building’s steel frame, and the signed beam will become a permanent part of the building. The project is expected to be completed by spring 2025. (Photo by Marc-Gregor Campredon, Office of University Development)

Read more about the Ginsberg Center’s new building

April 9, 2024

Look to Michigan

With the launch of Vision 2034, U-M’s strategic vision for the future, the university seeks to sharpen its impact and determine where it will go and what it will achieve. In this video, university leaders and students discuss the components of Vision 2034 that they believe will help show the world the excellence that U-M offers.

A vision for U-M

After a year of gathering input from the campus community, U-M has released its strategic vision for the next 10 years. In his April video message to the university, President Santa J. Ono outlines how the impact and commitment areas of Vision 2034 seek to make U-M “the defining public university, boldly exemplified by our innovation and service to the common good.”

Charging the future

Jeff Sakamoto, adjunct professor of mechanical engineering, and Neil Dasgupta, associate professor of mechanical engineering and of materials science and engineering, are at the helm of a pioneering effort to supercharge the electric vehicle industry. This video explores how, backed by an $11 million U.S. Department of Energy grant, their team is partnering with Oak Ridge National Laboratory and others to forge new paths in advanced battery fuel cell development and manufacturing, aiming to revolutionize efficiency and spur widespread adoption of electric vehicles.

April 1, 2024

AI in the classroom

Kas Kasravi (center), a lecturer III in industrial and manufacturing systems at UM-Dearborn, helps students in his prototype-design lab use AI to write code to create microcontrollers. Kasravi is among various U-M faculty members that are exploring how the fast-growing technology of generative artificial intelligence can aid how they teach, and how students learn. (Photo by Scott C. Soderberg, Michigan Photography)