Category: Campus News

04/14/09

Faculty and Staff Research Awards

Richard Hill-Rowley, Associate Professor of Earth and Resource Science, was recently funded for the following project: “Planning the Urban Alternatives House at the University of Michigan-Flint,” Kresge Foundation, $50,000

Jonathan Jarosz, Assistant Director University Outreach/Center for Applied Environmental Research, was recently funded for the following project: Planning for an Environmental Place-Based Education Hub in the Flint Area,” Great Lakes Fishery Commission, $14,762

Tendaji Ganges, Director, Educational Opportunities Initiatives, was recently funded for the following project: “Youth Empowerment Solutions for Peaceful Communities Program (YES),” Ruth Mott Foundation, $99,595        

Congratulations to our awardees!

02/24/09

Faculty awards

We are happy to announce that the following colleagues have recently received grants to support their projects:

  • Rose Casement, Associate Dean of Education and Associate Professor of Education, “Flint Smart Teachers as Role Models (STAR),” Mott Community College/Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, $29,004.
  • Brian Blume, Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior/Human Resources, “Transfer of Training: A Meta-Analytic and Integrative Review, Society for Human Resource Management, $10,000
  • Joel Rash, Program Manager, Office of Business & Community Partnerships, University Outreach, “Entrepreneurship Internship Program,” Michigan State University/Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, $3000

Congratulations to each of the recipients!

02/10/09

Award News

Congratulations to Jonathan Jarosz in University Outreach who recently received a $1,625 grant for the following project: “Artistic Activism.” Jonathan’s work is being supported by the Greater Flint Arts Council/Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs.

01/27/09

UM-Flint students to present at the American Chemical Society

UM-Flint undergraduates Anthony Vida, Alexander Findlater, Hyeonjin Cho, and Trisiani Affandi will be presenting results of their research projects at the American Chemical Society in Salt Lake City, Utah, March 21-24. 

Anthony will be presenting work from his project entitled “B-Amino acid conformational energies and solvent effect.” Alexander’s project is entitled “Ground and low-lying excited states of C2O4.”  Hyeonjin (or Katie, as she likes to be called) will present her work on “Theoretical studies of peptide nucleic acid (PNA) monomers”. Finally, Trisiani will present her work on “Ground state and low-lying exciting states of NIC2.” Dr. Jie Song is serving as faculty advisor for all four students.

Congratulations Anthony, Alexander, Katie, and Trisiani!

01/23/09

UM-Flint student to present at NCUR

University of Michigan-Flint Honors student Cameron Waites will present his paper at the 23rd annual National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) at the University of Wisconsin – LaCrosse on April 16-18, 2009. In doing so, Cameron will become the first student from the UM-Flint campus to ever present at the event. Dr. Maureen Thum is his advisor.

Waites’ paper “Pathetic Fool Or Political Operator: The Role of Polonius in Shakespeare’s Hamlet” explores the role of one of the playwright’s most misunderstood characters. The paper looks to examine how Shakespeare used Polonius as, according to Waites, “an astute manipulator who puts politics before personal relationships.” 

As an NCUR presenter, Waites will have 15 minutes to present his paper, in addition to a five minute session for responding to audience questions.

Established in 1987, NCUR has consistently been one of the largest national conferences for promoting undergraduate research, creative, and scholastic achievement. This three-day event draws thousands of visitors each year as well as hundreds of talented students representing over 400 colleges and universities nationally. Additonal information about NCUR can be found at http://www.ncur.org/.

Congratulations Cameron!

01/15/09

UM-Flint student publication featured

CSCAR consultant and doctoral student Brady West and UROP student Madhur Lamsal recently had a co-authored piece featured in both the New York Times, the Kansas City star, and the Ann Arbor News.  Brady and Madhur developed a statistical model for rating college football teams, leading to a paper “A New Application of Linear Modeling in the Prediction of College Football Bowl Outcomes and the Development of Team Ratings”, published in the Journal of Qualitative Analysis in Sports.

Congratulations Brady and Madhur!

01/13/09

Updated U-M Policy on ownership of student inventions

The language in the Tech Transfer Policy (SPG 303.4) concerning the ownership of student inventions has been updated to better reflect U-M’s existing student ownership practice and our commitment to student entrepreneurship.  The earlier Policy language provided that the University would claim ownership if the student was either an employee OR created the invention with “direct or indirect support of U-M-administered funds.” The new policy states that U-M will claim ownership of inventions ONLY when created in a student’s capacity as an employee (and where the invention relates to their employment).  Thus, any student-created invention, other than one made via employment or pursuant to a voluntary written assignment to the University, will belong to the student.

It is hoped this change in policy language will be attractive to students who should now feel free to bring their ideas into the campus setting without the perceived risk of U-M claiming ownership.  Direct comments or questions to:  Kenneth J. Nisbet, Executive Director U-M Tech Transfer, 734.763.0614, [email protected].

12/16/08

Bryer Research Fund Award

The Office of Institutional Advancement and Office of Research are pleased to announce the first recepient of the Dr. Ben F. Bryer Foundation Medical Research Fund award:

Dr. Joseph Sucic from the Department of Biology for his project “Subtilisin-like Proprotein Convertases and Metastasis.” Congratulations Dr. Sucic!

The Bryer fund was established by the family of Ben F. Bryer to encourage and support the medical research endeavors of University of Michigan-Flint faculty.  This research fund honors the accomplishments of Ben Bryer, surgeon, scientist, educator, author, and humanist, in his pursuit of medical knowledge.  Several excellent proposals were received and the Research and Creative Activity Committee selected Dr. Sucic’s proposal for the award ($6,795).  Special gratitude is extended to Dr. Bryer’s sister and foundation trustee, Bess Hurand, and her husband Arthur for making this fund possible. 

For more information about the Bryer award, please visit our website.

12/8/08

Research and Creative Activity Awards

In response to the fall 08 Request for Proposals, the Research and Creative Activity Committee (RCAC) received 10 proposals requesting more than $155,000 in funding.  In total, 6 awards were made and nearly $65,000 was distributed.  Below is a list of the Principal Investigators and titles for funded projects. 

  • Stephen Bernstein, English, Letters Home:  Alice Munro’s Poetics of Place
  • Guluma Gemeda, Africana Studies, The Education of Freed Slaves and the Building of Public Schools on the Sea Islands, 1861-1878.
  • Kazuko Hiramatsu, English, Preliminary Data Analysis of a Bilingual Child
  • Nathan Oaklander, Philosophy, C. D. Broad’s Philosophy of Time
  • Joseph Sucic, Biology, Metastasis as a Response to Environmental Stresses with a Tumor
  • Cristen Velliky, Communication & Visual Arts, The Development of a Unique Slip-Casting Body that has a Compatible Coefficient of Thermal-Expansion and Viscosity of Billet Cast Glass

The Winter 09 RCAC Request for Proposals will be issued February 2, 2009 with an application submission deadline of March 13, 2009.

Congratulations to the recepients!

10/21/08

Faculty Funding News

Congratulations to colleagues in SHPS who recently received notification from the Health Resource and Service Administration that the Flint Health Careers Opportunity Program (FHCOP) has been funded for $345,050 for the first year of the project with an additional $733,122 recommended for second and third years of the project. 

Betty Velthouse and Suzanne Selig will serve as the lead investigators of this project which aims to “develop a more competitive applicant pool in order to increase diversity among health professionals. The primary goal of the project is to provide disadvantaged students from a broad range of educational levels (i.e., elementary, middle, high school, associate degree, undergraduate, and graduate program) with the academic and social skills required to successfully compete for admission, enroll, progress, and graduate from health professions programs.”