SUCCESS STORIES
A New Student Team Takes Off
Michigan Engineers build what they need, and what Parker Trombley and his team needed was a competition. Trombley, a senior in the College of Engineering, is a founder and member of Michigan Vertical Flight Technology (MVFT), a multidisciplinary student design...
Best Practice in Partnership: Toyota and U-M connect on critical issues facing our community
Toyota Motor North America (TMNA)* is the University of Michigan’s second largest corporate partner. Connections in research and philanthropic support of students, student organizations, and programs are found in most schools and colleges across campus. The...
Can your vote be hacked? U-M faculty and students are helping make sure that won’t happen.
As we get closer to the national election, the integrity of the US election process continues to be front and center in the news. While many voters are opting for mail-in ballots, many still plan to vote in person. Ensuring the integrity of that process is...
UMCU Gift to Michigan Medicine Supports COVID-19 Needs
On her first day working from home and settling into an uncertain and troubling few months, Nell Dority, Senior Director of Corporate Relations for the Business Engagement Center, was asked to find financial support for the University of Michigan’s and Michigan...
PNC Foundation Gift to C.S. Mott Supports Frontline Healthcare Workers
COVID-19 has shown the true colors of a number of organizations. The quick responses to fund community organizations, hospitals, and programs to support the neediest among us has been nothing short of wonderful. PNC is one of the organizations that has stepped up to...
Summer Sabbaticals Lead to New Collaborations
Building on meaningful research collaborations over the past few years, Ford Motor Company and the University of Michigan are continuing the successful Ford-University Summer Sabbatical Program in 2020. Designed to help junior faculty establish stronger industry...
Making it safer to bike alongside autonomous cars
Biking in Michigan presents fundamental challenges, given underserved roads and seemingly endless winter seasons. While spring brings more cyclists out in droves to enjoy the return of warmer weather, both drivers and cyclists spent the entire year dodging potholes....
Orbiting Ann Arbor: the BEC helps an alum connect and give back
EDIT: In October 2020, R2 Space renamed the company Orbital Effects. Reuben Sorensen is excited to be here. The timing could be better, since COVID-19 has his team working from home, but he’s still bounding through 2020 at the speed of light, a fitting thing for a...
CS student research and industry connections hit home – from home.
The group picture looked different at this year’s Explore Computer Science Research poster presentation and industry panel. Rada Mihalcea, the Janice M. Jenkins Collegiate Professor of Computer Science and Engineering and co-leader of U-M’s Girls Encoded program which...
The Opportunity is all yours
LSA’s Opportunity Hub offers companies a creative approach to student engagement and recruiting The Opportunity Hub at U-M’s College of Literature, Science and the Arts has been a fascinating young program to watch develop. What began as student internship...
U-M student project helps reduce time to market for new pharmaceuticals
The Challenge Pfizer is currently addressing two industry-wide disruptions: an increasing difficulty to deliver blockbuster drugs and a shift towards precision medicines for cancers and rare diseases. These shifts led to two bold initiatives by CEO Albert Bourla. The...
deBedout helps U-M aerospace students soar
Collins Aerospace, a division of United Technologies, is on campus a lot these days. With a five-year Master Research Agreement at the College of Engineering, the company is pursuing research partnerships with U-M faculty in a variety of departments. While faculty...
The secret advantage on campus that we want you to know about
Companies often ask us for ways to find a competitive advantage in recruiting U-M students. While our advice is tailored to the needs and priorities of the company, some of our general advice is for companies to brand themselves to specific student "customer segments"...
Corporate Partner Profile: Dave Harwood, DTE Energy
DTE Energy is one of U-M’s closest corporate partnerships. Our executive champion and alum, Dave Harwood, works tirelessly to build a deep, strong, mutually beneficial relationship with the university. And sometimes he comes to campus to join the band and teach a...
Ford Day @ U-M
Hundreds of students, dozens of Ford recruiters, and top leadership and engineers from the Ford Motor Company were on hand this week for the annual Ford Day on the University of Michigan’s Ann Arbor campus.Events and activities were held at the College of...
What makes a good partnership? Key advice from Toyota’s executive champion at U-M.
U-M alum Jeff Makarewicz is passionate about U-M, helping students find their passion (hopefully in engineering), and how Toyota can live their values through U-M partnerships. We sat down with him recently to learn more about what makes a good industry partner, how...
Toyota inspires Wolverine Pathways interns
On a gorgeous Friday afternoon in the peak of Michigan vacation season, a group of high school students weren’t at the beach or at home playing video games, they were hard at work in a corporate conference room at Toyota Research & Development’s Ann Arbor...
Shared Priorities: Corporate Support for the Michigan Engineering Zone
Companies and campuses both recognize the need for a diverse talent pool in STEM fields, and the Michigan Engineering Zone (MEZ) is doing something about it. Leveraging industry mentors, funding partnerships, community engagement, and University of Michigan students,...
U-M funding helps precision dentistry startup GreenMark Biomedical make its mark
By Tess Postema Cavities are the great unifier. According to a comprehensive study by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 90% of adults in the U.S. have or have had a cavity, while 1 in 4 has untreated cavities. What if there was a way to simultaneously...
It’s a Match: PNC Foundation and the Ginsberg Center
A matchmaking mechanism identifying connections between U-M resources and community needs gets funding from a like-minded organization to maximize local impact. Nonprofit organizations play an important role in helping to address a host of related challenges...
3D Modeling Representations, David Fouhey, TRI and a Cat
David Fouhey wants your computer to be as smart as your cat. He’s working pretty hard to make it happen, and he’s got a big group of U-M students on board in his Computer Vision class in the College of Engineering and some great research collaborations to help make...
NEWS
Great Lakes Discovery RFP open for therapeutic research proposals
Earlier this year, U-M and Deerfield Management announced the creation of Great Lakes Discovery, a new alliance to commercialize U-M therapeutic projects that hold promise in developing potentially life-saving drugs and disease treatments. Through Great Lakes...
Did you know Stella Wixom plays golf?
As we all work remotely and engage with faculty, corporate partners and our colleagues in new ways, we still need connections with each other. We need community in times when we can’t be together. All the more reason to continue the BEC Staff Profile series, and what...
U-M Student Awarded Ford Alan Mulally Scholarship
University of Michigan student Alex Thayer is one of ten national recipients of the annual Alan Mullaly Scholarship. Named after former the Ford Motor Company CEO, the scholarship is funded by the Ford Motor Company and the Ford Motor Company Fund in his honor. Thayer...
Amazon makes corporate gift to U-M philanthropic venture fund
June 23, 2020 Contact: Jeff Karoub jkaroub@umich.edu Amazon is contributing $200,000 to the Accelerate Blue Fund, a University of Michigan philanthropic venture fund—representing the first corporate gift received by the fund that aims to help develop and commercialize...
U-M industry partners are helping lead the way through crisis
By Stella Wixom, Senior Executive Director Our team at the University of Michigan Business Engagement Center was founded over 12 years ago to create a centralized place for companies to access the university. We work tirelessly to match priorities of individual...
Op/Ed: Company Commitments in the Age of COVID
By Sheila Waterhouse, BEC Communications Director I have a spreadsheet that makes me happy. I scroll through cells and columns and it warms my heart. It is a list of hope for me. We all need that these days, and oddly one of the places I find it is in this...
Faculty Profile: Emily Mower Provost
Mower Provost talks about getting awards, doing industry research, understanding human behavior - and Star Wars. Emily Mower Provost recently received the 2020 Toyota Faculty Scholar Award and is one of the most fascinating faculty members we know. Her research uses...
Rebecca Cunningham appointed vice president for research
Rebecca Cunningham, an emergency medicine physician whose research addresses critical issues ranging from firearm violence to opioid abuse, has been appointed vice president for research. Rebecca Cunningham Cunningham, who has served in an interim capacity since June...
Zero Emissions Bus Ride
It’s not common to see a double bus in Ann Arbor, certainly not one that is a battery-powered one. A group of students, faculty and staff got a chance for a very cool bus ride around campus to check out the technology and learn about potential applications at the...
Rich Strader on mobility, research, and connecting campus to Corktown
The Ford Motor Company and the University of Michigan have been integrally entwined for over 100 years. Today, dozens of Ford leaders engage with U-M on a weekly basis. Rich Strader, the Vice President at Ford Mobility Platforms and Products, is one of them. Rich...
U-M Students Engaged in DTE Energy Contest
By Ann Zaniewski The University Record and Lou Blouin UM-Dearborn University of Michigan senior Morgan Provax has been researching energy policies at different universities. Soon, she’ll visit and evaluate three Ann Arbor campus buildings — George G. Brown...
Meet Umesh: He’d rather listen than talk
The British born, biscuit loving Umesh has a predilection for the BEC’s mission and the people he works with. Umesh has been a critical member of the Business Engagement Center almost since our inception. He initially served in corporate and foundation relations at...
U-M and TRI researchers provide control software to ensure autonomous vehicles stay in their lane
A joint research project between the University of Michigan and Toyota Research Institute was awarded a Best New Application Paper Award by the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society for their work developing reliable control systems for Lane Keeping and Adaptive Cruise...
Campus leaders on the future of education, creative engagement, and rebuilding a vibrant community
Stella Wixom, Senior Executive Director of the Business Engagement Center, sat down recently with the School of Education's Dean Elizabeth Moje to learn more about The School at Marygrove and how and why this should be on the radar of corporate partners in Detroit....
APPLE/U-M HEARING STUDY TO FOCUS ON SOUND EXPOSURE IN DAILY LIFE
Contact: Nardy Baeza Bickel, 734-763-0368, nbbickel@umich.edu ANN ARBOR—Noise exposure has often been associated with occupational activities that lead to hearing loss: the banging noises at construction sites, airplanes lifting off at airports, loud machines in...
New $300 million U-M research and education center to anchor 14-acre Detroit Center for Innovation in the heart of Detroit
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and Wayne County Executive Warren Evans joined together with Stephen M. Ross, philanthropist and chairman of Related Companies, Matt Cullen, CEO of Bedrock and University of Michigan President Mark...
U-M Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning and Guardian Industries announce research partnership
October 29, 2019 Ann Arbor, MI The University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning and Guardian Industries announce a new collaborative research partnership in advanced glass materials. An award from Guardian will result in two...
How does industry inform academia, and vice versa? George Halow shares his vision.
For decades, George Halow worked closely with the University of Michigan to recruit the leaders and best for Ford Motor Company. Now he is a faculty member of practice in the College of Engineering to teach students what he’s learned. Q: Can you speak to your...
U-M researcher partners with Apple to study how noise exposure impacts hearing
Sept. 10, 2019 Contact: Morgan Sherburne, 734-647-1844, morganls@umich.edu ANN ARBOR—A University of Michigan researcher is partnering with Apple to learn how noise exposure impacts hearing. The Apple Hearing Study will be available to participate in through a new...
Staff Profile: Amy Bellas on staying positive, the BEC team, and cleaning up Superfund sites
Amy boomeranged back to the University of Michigan after years in industry in environmental engineering. Her familiarity with the inner workings of the corporate world, including running her own business with her fiance, combined with her deep knowledge of the...
Spotlight on Kelly Sexton
Sexton on the changing landscape of technology commercialization, attracting VCs to the Midwest, and what's next for the business environment at U-M. When it was announced that Kelly Sexton would be joining the University of Michigan as Associate Vice President -...