OUR STORIES AND NEWS
Our monthly publication, MBusinessLink, features corporate engagement news, events and industry-relevant features.
View past editions of MBusinessLink here.
SUCCESS STORIES
How partnerships with industry helped make Mcity a mobility mecca
A Volkswagen Beetle named Herbie debuted in Disney’s 1968 movie, “The Love Bug,” and became one of the first and most popular self-driving cars. Almost 15 years later, a Pontiac Trans-Am named KITT made its entrance as a high-tech action hero that could...
Arts support in a pandemic
2020 was a tough year for the arts. And with no live performances or public gatherings, the University Musical Society (UMS) had to completely rethink how to keep the arts present in the lives of Michigan audiences. UMS has been presenting artistic performances on the...
Advancing medical care with XR technology
Technology from Microsoft helps Michigan Medicine adapt to medical education and care U-M’s ongoing partnership with Microsoft is having long term implications for the advancement of technology in healthcare, thanks to equipment that helps U-M deliver virtual...
Engagement Strategy: Aptiv’s student and team support pays dividends to all of us
As a top ranked university, hundreds of companies try to find ways to set themselves apart when recruiting University of Michigan students. Hiring a diverse technical team is of increasing importance, and companies particularly pursue talented underrepresented...
New campus recruiting programs offer a lot of upsides to students and companies
Recruiting talent to your company looks different than it used to, just like pretty much every other aspect of our businesses. With visits to campuses not happening and virtual events filling calendars, campus recruiting travel budgets may never return to...
U-Michigan, Ford open world-class robotics complex
The facility will accelerate the future of advanced and more equitable robotics and mobility ANN ARBOR—As robots and autonomous systems are poised to become part of our everyday lives, the University of Michigan and Ford Motor Company are opening a...
Robots, Students and Mars: the Mars Rover team covers ground outside FRB
The crisp, sleek design of the Ford Motor Company Robotics Building (FRB) is a big contrast to the red, rocky playground in the front yard. Named the Mars Yard, it is just what you’d expect: a testing site for robots seeking a rocky, grainy, uneven surface,...
Research partnership between U-M and Toyota Research Institute renewed for 5 years
Building on a successful five-year collaboration with University of Michigan faculty, Toyota Research Institute (TRI) will renew its research partnership with U-M for an additional five years, TRI announced today, with projects funded up to $3M...
Ethics and integrity in AI: a program at U-M educates future leaders on how to do it right
We report on a variety of industry engagement areas at the BEC. Sometimes they are active research projects or creative partnerships that provide unique advantages for our corporate partners. Sometimes, as in this case, it is because we come across a program at...
A consortium with Facebook seeks ‘Internet for All’ technology
If you’ve traveled abroad in remote locations – or driven across the Upper Peninsula – you know that internet connections in rural environments can be unstable or nonexistent. Facebook and the University of Michigan aim to fix that. In a collaboration with...
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...
NEWS
A new partnership between Microsoft and U-M to enhance digital inclusion in Detroit
By Eric Shaw Office of the Vice President for Research The Michigan Institute for Data Science at the University of Michigan will partner with Microsoft and the city of Detroit to expand digital equality by improving broadband internet access and affordability in...
Funding Opportunities in Research: Genentech Fellows at UROP
Undergraduate students have a unique opportunity to pursue research through the University of Michigan’s Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP). Over the past 30 years, UROP has served as a national model of access, diversity, and equity in...
Data Challenges Connect Faculty and Students with Exciting and Fun Research
What do youth health, climate change, and the coronavirus have in common? The answer: they are the themes of recent data challenges for U-M faculty and students, sponsored by the Michigan Institute for Data Science (MIDAS). A data set seeking solutions...
Toyota research institute launches next phase of collaborative research with Diverse roster of world-class academic institutions
Program Expands, Adding 13 New University Participants while Continuing Long-standing Collaborations with MIT, Stanford and The University Of Michigan One of the Largest Collaborative Research Programs by an Automotive Company in the World with Investment of More than...
Dow Sustainability Fellows Program extended at U-M through 2023
Jan. 25, 2021 Contact: Nicole Casal Moore, ncmoore@umich.edu ANN ARBOR—A $3 million gift from the Dow Company Foundation will continue the Dow Sustainability Fellows Program at the University of Michigan. The gift supplements the company's $13 million in...
Safety and member connections are priority for UM Autonomy
The competitive student teams at the College of Engineering’s Wilson Student Team Center are doing what the rest of us are doing: adapting to the challenges brought about by the pandemic. For these students who design, build and compete every year in addition to their...
Helping our team be mighty: Charmayne Wiley on continuous learning, making an impact, and reading menus
On small teams like ours at the BEC, everyone works collaboratively to pitch in and get the job done. Our administrative team works behind the scenes to make sure that partnerships happen in their support of our entire unit. Charmayne is one of the exceptional staff...
A Ripple Award Winner Who’s Making Waves
By Dimitra James Nisreen Bahrainwala is not your average undergraduate student. As a freshman at the University of Michigan, she co-established the Midwest Blockchain Consortium and co-founded Vivica, a blockchain company focused on solving the opioid crisis in...
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...