Environment
Winners in Mobile Apps Challenge announced
It just got easier to find parking space on campus or to harvest power from your mobile phone using applications developed by U-M students and staff. Apps that let people create digital copies of their event tickets, organize task lists, and meet people with shared interests through location-based social networking are among the winners in the 2010 Michigan Mobile Apps Challenge. The competition was sponsored by Apple Inc., Google, Information and Technology Services (ITS), Computer Science and Engineering, and the Office of Technology Transfer. "We were really impressed by the quality of apps and the expertise of applicants this year," said Holly Nielsen, director of enabling technologies and services at ITS. "Creativity and ingenuity is thriving at U-M. This competition serves as an excellent platform for showcasing it." [Read more...]
U-M’s water theme semester explores ways to preserve and protect the Earth’s water
Water covers 70 percent of the Earth, makes up more than half of the human body and is necessary for life. But only 3 percent of Earth's water is fresh and less than 1 percent is available for human use. The University of Michigan's winter 2011 Water Theme Semester will give students and community members a chance to dive into the complex issues related to water. The semester is sponsored by U-M's College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, the Program in the Environment, the Exhibit Museum of Natural History, the Graham Environmental Sustainability Institute and the Michigan Society of Fellows. [Read more...]
Refrigerator ottoman, diabetic medication, party tracking app among 1,000 Pitches winners
Kristen Adamowski had the idea while lamenting the space in her dorm room. "I thought it would be awesome if I could save space by combining my ottoman and my refrigerator into one," said Adamowski, a freshman in the University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. Judges in the 1,000 Pitches business idea contest agreed, and on Sunday morning, Adamowski became one of 10 students to win $1,000 in the contest that attracted more than 3,000 ideas from students across the university. Students submitted their pitches through YouTube remotely or at pitch stations set up across campus. "It was incredible," she said. "Winning has given me that much more motivation to take the refrigerator ottoman idea further." [Read more...]
Ice-age reptile extinctions provide a glimpse of likely responses to human-caused climate change
A wave of reptile extinctions on the Greek islands over the past 15,000 years may offer a preview of the way plants and animals will respond as the world rapidly warms due to human-caused climate change, according to University of Michigan ecologist Johannes Foufopoulos and his colleagues. The Greek island extinctions also highlight the critical importance of preserving habitat corridors that will enable plants and animals to migrate in response to climate change, thereby maximizing their chances of survival. [Read more...]
Predicting sea level rise: Understanding how icebergs form could lead to better forecasts
In an effort to understand how fast sea level could rise as the climate warms, a University of Michigan researcher has developed a new theory to describe how icebergs detach from ice sheets and glaciers. This process of "iceberg calving" isn't well understood. While scientists believe it currently accounts for roughly half of the mass lost in shrinking ice sheets, current sea level rise models don't take changes in iceberg calving into account in their predictions, says Jeremy Bassis, an assistant professor in the Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences. [Read more...]
Three faculty receive presidential awards
Three U-M researchers are among the 85 recipients of the current year's Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the nation's highest honor for professionals at the outset of their independent research careers. The faculty members are Haoxing Xu, assistant professor in the Department of Molecular, Cellular, & Developmental Biology; Jerome Lynch, associate professor in the departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; and Shelie Miller, assistant professor at the School of Natural Resources and Environment. [Read more...]
Addressing Climate change: Cultural shift needed similar to smoking, slavery
Despite scientific evidence of climate change, it will take a significant cultural shift in attitudes to address the situation, says a University of Michigan researcher. The shift would be much like what has happened with recent cigarette smoking bans and even similar to the abolition of slavery in the 19th century. "The present reality is that we tend to overlook the social dimensions of environmental issues and focus strictly on their technological and economic aspects," said Andy Hoffman, the Holcim (U.S.) Professor of Sustainable Enterprise at the Ross School of Business and School of Natural Resources and Environment. "To properly address climate change, we must change the way we structure our organizations and the way we think as individuals." [Read more...]
UM-based Michigan Sea Grant awarded $1.5 M to help restore Great Lakes
University of Michigan-based Michigan Sea Grant has been awarded more than $1.5 million from the federal government to lead two Great Lakes restoration projects that will restore native fish habitat and help clean up marinas across the region. "For years, we've used the Great Lakes as dumping grounds—letting pollution from farm fields, sewers and factories flow into the lakes, overharvesting fish, and building on valuable wetlands," said Jim Diana, a U-M professor of fisheries and director of Michigan Sea Grant, which is based at the U-M School of Natural Resources and Environment. [Read more...]
1,000 Pitches business idea contest kicks off with plans for pitch stations across campus
A sunscreen applicator for your back. An education funding system more equitable than property taxes. A pillow alarm clock that's harder to sleep through than the one on your nightstand. These were some of the first submissions to the third annual 1,000 Pitches idea contest, organized by students and designed to fuel entrepreneurship at the university. "What we really want to do in this competition is to create a cultural movement on campus, where we get everyone to think more entrepreneurially and more innovatively," said 1,000 Pitches project director Prateek Garg, a sophomore majoring in industrial and operations engineering and business. [Read more...]
New $46-million labs to enable research at frontiers of mechanical engineering and nanotechnology
A next-generation nano-mechanical engineering lab complex at the University of Michigan will enable researchers to study the forces at work at the smallest scales and to advance nano-technologies in energy, manufacturing, healthcare and biotechnology. The three-story complex will include 60 lab modules and space for 18 professors in a 62,880 square-foot addition to the G.G. Brown Laboratories on Hayward Street on North Campus. "Michigan Engineering has always been strong in traditional large-scale mechanical engineering areas including automotive research. This new facility will propel us to the next level. It will allow researchers to pursue exciting projects at the frontiers of mechanical science and engineering, where the discipline intersects with nanoscience and biology," said David Munson, the Robert J. Vlasic Dean of Engineering. [Read more...]