Our Stories
Our case studies, faculty profiles, and corporate engagement articles are shared here and in our monthly e-newsletters.
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SUCCESS STORIES
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...
Global CO2 Initiative Workshop spurs climate solutions with support from KPMG
One of the most critical strategies to fight climate change is to capture and remove carbon from the environment. Researchers at U-M are exploring various methods to do so and are identifying viable revenue generating opportunities as possible outcomes. The...
Language isn’t just business as usual at local startup realLINGUA
By Tess Postema From language professor to tech company founder If you’ve ever studied a foreign language, a persistent challenge quickly emerges: How to apply what you learn in the classroom - from conjugation exercises to endless vocabulary lists - to real-life...
U-M Students Mapping Ann Arbor Art
Every summer, the Ann Arbor Art Fairs draw artists and art aficionados from around the world to town. While this group descends upon and subsequently leaves town, still here after the crowds disperse is a vibrant and very visible art community in Ann Arbor. Students...
Pushing the limits of autonomous steering for extreme maneuvers
We don’t need to wait for fully autonomous vehicles to benefit from autonomous driving technologies. Life-saving technologies like this one will be preventing accidents in the future even in situations that require extreme maneuvering skills. You’re driving down the...
Etching a Partnership: IMRA America, U-M and A Nobel Prize Winner
Many at the University of Michigan were awaiting Nobel Prize winner Dr. Gerard Mourou’s lecture and reception when he returned to the school where he researched and taught for 18 years. Don Harter and Tak Omitsu, current and former staff at IMRA America, were no...
Glen DeVos on connecting with students, partnering with U-M, and a tech roadmap for the future
Glen DeVos (’83 MSE ME) serves as Senior Vice President, Chief Technology Officer and President of the Mobility and Services Group at Aptiv.He presented an automated driving tech talk to a packed room of U-M students recently. We took that opportunity to...
The Ford Motor Company Fund and U-M Ginsberg Center Partner for Intern and Community Support
Internships are a crucial component of a college student’s experience that provide opportunities to apply classroom learning in the real world. More internships than not go unpaid, making it hard for many students to participate, and putting those that don’t pursue...
Faculty Profile: Rebecca Cunningham wants to make the world safer for kids
Rebecca Cunningham is spearheading a research initiative to make the world a safer place for children. With $5 million in funding from the NIH, she’s undertaking the first firearm safety research in 30 years. A practicing emergency room physician and mother of five...
Polymer Polymath
By Tess Postema For Dr. John Nanos, the future is foaming with possibilities. Dr. Nanos is the owner, CEO, and formerly sole employee of Ann Arbor-based Nanosystems, Inc., a chemical company that develops specialty prepolymer materials used in a variety of consumer...
Accenture connects alumni and company giving to provide Wolverine Pathways room and board scholarships
Dean Brody goes blue. A proud U-M alum and an executive campus champion for the U-M/Accenture partnership, he keeps up with news and events at his alma mater, something made easier by his proximity working as a managing director at the Detroit-based offices of...
Toyota funds professorship in AI at U-Michigan
ANN ARBOR—A $3 million gift from Toyota Motor Corporation endows the first named professorship in artificial intelligence at the University of Michigan and provides additional funding to support AI and robotics faculty. The university’s Board of Regents has approved...
U-M professor’s artificial intelligence startup benefits from U-M grant to assist small Michigan businesses
by Tess Postema In a small, brick-walled office above Arbor Brewing Company, Dr. Jason Corso is quietly at work, converting oceans of raw video into useful metadata -- insights that could help prevent a car from hitting a cyclist in its blind spot, or identify the...
Ross Program Prepares Students for Careers of Tomorrow
Companies are continually looking for creative ways to engage top college students and find resources to solve problems that constrain their business. At the same time, there is a concerted emphasis by schools and colleges to provide students with an opportunity for...
Old National Bank helps U-M build a community of scholars and leaders
Increasing access to a college education is a contributor to developing a strong, dynamic and diverse workforce. Old National Bank is contributing to a program at the University of Michigan that is created to do just that. U-M’s Wolverine Pathways program is designed...
Amazon fulfills student experience
Can you really have too much of a good thing? Amazon may not think so, at least when it comes to working with the Tauber Institute for Global Operations. The behemoth online company previously dabbled with a project or two with the program, until they saw the kind of...
U-M, Toyota Research Institute partner in $2.4M project in hunt for new materials
With a $2.4 million investment from the Toyota Research Institute, University of Michigan researchers will develop computer simulation tools to predict automotive battery performance. The project is part of a four-year, $35 million investment with research entities,...
Bosch Embeds Themselves in Class
It is rare on campus for industry to get involved in the academic experience of an individual class, but in the case of Robert Bosch, doing so provides the real-world access needed to give the students in Mark Brehob’s Advanced Embedded Systems Design course the...
Seeing Your Ideas in Action
Since 2013, over 70 University of Michigan students on multidisciplinary teams have worked on pressing manufacturing issues at Detroit Manufacturing Systems (DMS). Doing so has filled an important role for the company – and for the students – in solving critical...
Harnessing the power of virtual reality to improve medical training
Your son fell on the playground at school and you find yourself in the emergency room with him. Medical staff are bustling around the triage area, and a seemingly large number of people are involved. The quality of care your son receives becomes top of mind. How...
NEWS
University of Michigan Credit Union is biggest supporter of U-M Hardship Fund
As the largest contributor to the University of Michigan's Emergency Hardship Program, the University of Michigan Credit Union demonstrates their commitment to support financial education, workshops and support for members of the university community. Read more......
Volker Sick is installed as the DTE Energy Professor of Advanced Energy Research
In a recent ceremony, Professor Volker Sick was installed as the DTE Energy Professor of Advanced Energy Research at the University of Michigan. The DTE Energy Professorship of Advanced Energy Research was established in September 2007 with a $2 million endowment...
The Greening of Gatorade
Inefficiencies in the Gatorade processing lines provided a great target for PepsiCo’s sustainability efforts. A Tauber team dug into the data, modified the process, and coordinated with multiple units to help PepsiCo slash absolute GHG emissions and water usage...
University pilots new partnership for electric scooters on campus
May 3, 2019 By Hanna Quinlan Public Affairs A one-year pilot agreement with Spin, a company owned by Ford Motor Co., has deployed 200 electric scooters throughout campus and surrounding neighborhoods. The pilot involving the University of Michigan, city of Ann Arbor...
UM Engineering Students Take Wraps Off 2019 MRacing Car at PDC
“These students had a full load of classes, and during peak times the team spent nearly 40 hours a week working on the car,” said George Halow, Ford executive champion, UM student vehicle teams. “It’s a real commitment and a labor of love that gets them to this...
New resource for industry: Key Research Initiatives at U-M
We have daily conversations with companies around a myriad of programs, projects and faculty at the University of Michigan every day. What we find is those conversations often involve a handful of primary U-M areas of expertise that are particularly relevant for the...
Staff Profile: Sheila Waterhouse asks a lot of questions
Our staff are central to the mission of the Business Engagement Center. As a means to get to know us and what makes us tick, our staff profile series is designed to offer insight into our team. Next in the series is Sheila Waterhouse, the communications and marketing...
U-M student wins prestigious Ford Alan Mulally Scholarship in Engineering
Anthony Zheng is one of ten nationwide recipients of the prestigious Ford Alan Mulally Scholarship in Engineering. The scholarship program awards 10 one-time $10,000 scholarships each year to outstanding sophomore or junior engineering students at leading universities...
Michigan Research Cores offers a new, searchable resource database
The University of Michigan’s Biosciences Initiative and Medical School Office of Research have partnered to create a powerful, searchable database with information on research cores across campus. The university is full of rich core resources, but they are often...
Cryptocurrency innovation: U-M to establish FinTech Collaboratory
ANN ARBOR—Financial technology research and education at the University of Michigan will get a boost with $1 million from Ripple's University Blockchain Research Initiative. The funding to U-M—one of 11 universities with new partnerships with Ripple—will support...
Welcome Amy Bellas to the BEC!
The Business Engagement Center is pleased to welcome Amy Bellas to our team and back to the University of Michigan. Amy's 20 years of industry and university experience will help her to facilitate relationships between corporations and faculty. She is responsible for...
Nick Miller on changes in corporate relations and juggling projects and baseballs
The BEC’s Nick Miller was employee #1 when we were created eleven years ago. As a foundational member of the team, he has shaped the BEC and evolved his role at the same time, growing from three employees to 13 and shifting from the center’s marketing manager to a...
Aptiv supports multiple student organizations with $40,000 gift
On campus last week, Aptiv representatives brought a check for their 2018 gift to support U-M students at the annual Scholarship Fellowship Luncheon. Aptiv's gift supports a variety of teams and student organizations as well as the College of Engineering's Career...
LSA’s Thomas Baird named next vice president for development
Thomas A. Baird, a longtime University of Michigan fundraiser, has been named the university’s next vice president for development. His appointment was approved Thursday by the Board of Regents. Baird, a U-M graduate and resident of Ann Arbor, has spent the last three...
Deloitte matches alumni giving and makes an impact at Ross
U-M alumni gifts make an even bigger impact when matched by their awesome employers. Deloitte personally delivered their annual matching gift to Ross Dean Scott DeRue. Thank you for helping U-M raise $5 billion in the Victors for Michigan campaign!
How to launch a driverless shuttle: U-Michigan shares insights in new case study
Mcity learned a lot over the last few months when implementing a driverless shuttle on campus. Our efforts at U-M can help others from re-creating the steering wheel....
Chris Fick on James Earl Jones, hugging trees, and why tech transfer rocks
The BEC's Chris Fick is a bit of a Renaissance man. His PhD in Bioenergetics and a MBA, c-level experience in a start-up, and a few years helping lead tech transfer efforts at U-M are balanced with a rich, musical, active family life. Given his background, he's the...
11th Annual University Research Corridor (URC) Economic Report (2018)
Michigan’s University Research Corridor, which includes U-M, contributed $18.7 billion to the state economy in 2017, an increase from $16.5 billion in 2015, according to a new report. The Anderson Economic Group also reported the URC, one of the nation’s top research...
New Master Research Agreement Between United Technologies and the University of Michigan
Dow, University of Michigan, Delta College Collaborate to Create New Innovation and Education Hub in the Great Lakes Bay Region
Delta College Announces Construction of New Campus Building in Downtown Midland; Dow, U-M Partner to Launch Andrew N. Liveris Innovation Institute; Collaboration Highlights Ongoing Commitment to Invest in the Great Lakes Bay Region MIDLAND, Mich. – June 21, 2018 – The...
Industry Partnership Feature: Ryan Eustice talks about his joint faculty/industry role
Across the University of Michigan’s campus there are creative and compelling examples that bring the research missions of the university and industry closer together. The role Ryan Eustice plays in both of those realms highlights how faculty can be a critical force...