Featured Stories

  • Finding belonging on campus

    Nov 10, 2020

    While Lydia Pinkham’s journey to Ann Arbor may be uncommon, the story of how she found success on campus is resoundingly familiar. Pinkham served in the United States Coast Guard as a Petty Officer Machinery Technician Second Class. She was stationed in Seattle, Virginia, and Florida, and deployed for missions to places like the Bering Sea and the Central Pacific along Central and South America.

    Learn more about student veterans

  • Of Splendid Ability

    Nov 3, 2020

    Canadian by birth and a graduate of Flint High School, Mary Henrietta Graham’s accomplishments went far beyond being the first Black woman to enroll at Michigan.

    Learn more about her story

  • Voting counts

    Oct 29, 2020

    Students at the School of Information worked this summer on a project to streamline the absentee voting process at four municipalities in Michigan.

    Learn more about this project

  • U-M satellite city clerk’s office

    Oct 26, 2020

    The UMMA satellite city clerk’s office has been registering between 150 and 200 students per day. As of Oct. 13, more than 2,600 students have registered and more than 2,900 have voted either in person at UMMA or by returning their ballot to the museum’s drop box.

    Learn more about this project

  • Forever marching on

    Oct 19, 2020

    For its 123rd season, the leaders of the Michigan Marching Band have worked to creatively translate its music and traditions to the virtual space, while also keeping community ties strong for its 400 student members at a time when they need it most.

    Learn more about their efforts

  • A table for 12, six feet apart

    Oct 12, 2020

    A group of faculty and students recently created an outdoor, socially distanced instructional space to activate the inner courtyard at the Art and Architecture Building, home of the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning and Stamps School of Art & Design.

    Learn more about this reimagined outdoor courtyard

  • Prenatal safety net

    Oct 5, 2020

    Despite efforts to improve maternal and children’s health care, preterm birth rates in Michigan have risen five years in a row. Through a partnership with the University of Michigan Department of Family Medicine, U-M doctors, residents, nurses, midwives and administrative staff help provide safe and respectful care so new moms and their babies can get the healthy start they need.

    Learn more and view other U-M: Stories of our State

  • Movement science students test latest tech

    Sep 28, 2020

    U-M students in an in-person Kinesiology class use the latest wearable technology to conduct mini-experiments on the body's reaction to wearing a mask during exercise, as part of a course studying many types of health tech devices.

    Learn more about this class

  • Origami microbots

    Sep 21, 2020

    Origami principles can unlock the potential of the smallest robots, enhancing speed, agility and control in machines no more than a centimeter in size. U-M researchers have demonstrated that behavioral rules underpinning the Japanese art of folding can expand the capabilities of these machines, creating potential for greater use in fields as diverse as medical equipment and infrastructure sensing.

    Learn more about this research

  • A parliament of owls

    Sep 14, 2020

    Are you wondering WHOOO took first place and is thereby named the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology’s photographer at large for 2019—2020? Look no further than graduate student John David Curlis, who was on the prowl for owls with camera in tow when this parliament serendipitously peeked from their arboreal nest.

    View the EEB Photographer at Large photos

  • Helping K-5 Students Thrive Online

    Sep 7, 2020

    K-5 teachers and students throughout Michigan are building thriving learning communities online by using free deeply-digital, standards-aligned curricula and platform developed by the U-M Center for Digital Curricula. The center’s highly-interactive, inquiry-oriented, colorful, visual curricula engages students and supports synchronous collaboration, whether they are at home or at their school.

    Learn more and view other U-M: Stories of our State

  • Wolverine Culture of Care

    Aug 29, 2020

    To provide the best campus experience possible in the context of this historic threat to the health and well-being of all, we understand that consistently making safe and healthy choices to keep the entire community as safe as possible is a collective responsibility shared by students, faculty, staff and Ann Arbor residents.

    View the commitment

  • Transparent solar panels for windows

    Aug 24, 2020

    In a step closer to skyscrapers that serve as power sources, a team led by University of Michigan researchers has set a new efficiency record for color-neutral, transparent solar cells.

    Learn more about this new carbon-based design

  • Sticking the landing on Mars

    Aug 17, 2020

    During descent, exhaust plumes fluidize surface soil and dust, forming craters and buffeting the lander with coarse, abrasive particles. This action presents a host of variables that can jeopardize a landing. Our current understanding of those millions of interactions is based on data that is, in some cases, 40 to 50 years old.

    Learn about new high-powered computer simulations

  • Safe, Prepared and Ready to Go Blue!

    Aug 10, 2020

    All U-M students who are returning to campus this fall are following a series of new protocols and making a commitment to care for themselves while respecting the health of others. Important safety measures include enhanced social distancing, pre-arrival testing, and test, isolation and quarantine plans.

    View FAQs about preparing for fall

  • A new robotic prosthetic leg

    Aug 3, 2020

    A new robotic prosthetic leg prototype offers a more natural gait while also being quieter and more energy efficient than other designs. The key is the use of new small and powerful motors, originally designed for a robotic arm on the International Space Station.

    Learn more about this engineering research

  • Michigan coyotes

    Jul 27, 2020

    For Michigan coyotes, “What’s for dinner” depends on what the neighbors are having. Coyotes in most of the Lower Peninsula are the “top dogs” in the local food chain, but in the Upper Peninsula, coyotes coexist with gray wolves and play a subordinate role in the food web.

    Learn more about this study

  • Mail Art

    Jul 20, 2020

    At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent canceled in-person classes, arts faculty at U-M were forced to rethink their curriculum beyond the studio. While most classes relied on new technologies for course adjustments, Toby Millman turned to a more tried and true resource: the United States Postal Service.

    Learn more about this mail art project

  • MAGNIFYING THE MICROAMAZON

    Jul 13, 2020

    Deep in the Peruvian Amazon rainforest, microorganisms are thriving within a river so hot, it boils. U-M graduate student Rosa Vásquez is exploring the Boiling River’s ecosystem, searching for genetic clues that explain how these organisms have evolved to survive in their scalding surroundings.

    Learn more about this field expedition

  • Tiny brains, big surprise

    Jul 6, 2020

    Paper wasps eavesdrop on fighting rivals to rapidly assess potential opponents without personal risk. This new finding adds to mounting evidence that even mini-brained insects have an impressive capacity to learn, remember and make social deductions about others.

    Learn more about this research

  • A virtual visit to the museum

    Jun 29, 2020

    With doors still closed, University of Michigan’s three major museums both prepare for the future and continue to engage visitors “at home.”

    Learn more about their virtual offerings

  • Our plans for Fall

    Jun 22, 2020

    U-M will offer a mixture of in-person and remote classes structured to reflect our commitment to promoting public health while fulfilling our fundamental mission of transformative education. Campus Maize & Blueprint

    View our Campus Maize & Blueprint

  • Gyroscope for navigating without GPS

    Jun 15, 2020

    A small, inexpensive and highly accurate gyroscope, developed at the University of Michigan, could help drones and autonomous cars stay on track without a GPS signal.

    Learn how this gyroscope was developed in the Lurie Nanofabrication Facility

  • Seven Last Words of the Unarmed

    Jun 5, 2020

    Though the song and accompanying documentary premiered nearly five years ago, the recent deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor have led many to revisit or discover the work for the first time. “It is unreal to me that we worked on this project so long ago, yet somehow resonates even more now than it did then…” said Eugene Rogers.

    Learn more and view the educational resources

  • Giving respectful help to reach goals

    Jun 1, 2020

    For more than 30 years, U-M alumna Amy Good, CEO of Alternatives For Girls, has dedicated herself to helping girls and young women in crisis or at-risk for abuse, homelessness or human trafficking. Makiya, an AFG participant, found a job through the program and is staying in the shelter space.

    Learn more about this Detroit nonprofit