• Technology for One-Armed Cooks
• U-M Flint Partnership Launched
• MSU, U-M, Wayne State Create University Research Corridor
• CoE Plays Key Role in Ethics Study
• Progress & Promise: 150th Anniversary Campaign Progress
• Tauber Manufacturing Institute Changes Name

Technology for One-Armed Cooks

Student Charles Covey-Brandt helps reporter Nancy Davis as she tries her hand (and only one hand) at being a one-armed cook.

A heaping spoonful of business and design solutions plus a dollop of teamwork were a recipe for success as people sliced and diced their way through mountains of vegetables and cheese during an event at Michigan Engineering's Computer Science and Engineering Building. At first blush, that doesn't sound very newsworthy, but the story does have an interesting twist: The cooks were allowed to use only one arm.

The event, a competition called "One-Handed Kitchen," was the highlight of the 2006 Integrated Product Development course, which brings together students from the College of Engineering, the Stephen M. Ross School of Business, and the School of Art & Design. The course, sponsored by the Joel D. Tauber Institute for Global Operations, challenged eight multi-discipline student teams to design, build and present self-contained food preparation systems that allow people to prepare a complete meal with the use of just one arm. "One-Handed Kitchen" also required each team to create a webpage to market its system. Two additional components of the event demanded that teams design a manufacturing process and estimate the fixed and variable costs of production. During product reviews leading up to the contest, designers and engineers from industry critiqued the students' designs and offered advice on improvement.

U-M Flint Partnership Launched

The College of Engineering and UM-Flint College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) have formed a partnership to foster success among promising students by increasing the number of science, technology, engineering and math degrees granted by both institutions to non-traditional students. This agreement provides UM-Flint CAS students with a guaranteed transfer admission into the College of Engineering, provided they meet certain transfer requirements.

This partnership builds on several existing collaborative educational, outreach and advising/mentoring programs. The first two to three years will consist of completion of early coursework at UM-Flint CAS. At the end of the second year, students will have the option of transferring directly to the College of Engineering or remaining a third year at UM-Flint to pursue a dual degree program in science or mathematics from UM-Flint coupled with a Michigan Engineering degree in one of 15 disciplines.

MSU, U-M, Wayne State Create University Research Corridor

The University of Michigan, Michigan State University and Wayne State University announced the creation of the University Research Corridor (URC), an ongoing collaboration that will help transform, strengthen and diversify Michigan's economy. In the process, the URC intends to strengthen the state's emerging role in globalization.

The Corridor universities bring more than $1.3 billion in federal research grants into Michigan each year. Over the past five years, the universities have announced an average of one invention every day. You can read about the URC at http://www.urcmich.org.

CoE Plays Key Role in Ethics Study

The College of Engineering is part of the multi-institutional E3 team that's undertaking a four-year study of ethics education for engin­eering undergraduate students. (E3, a group of engineering educators and educational researchers, has collaborated since 2000 to understand the underlying causes of academic dishonesty in engineering undergraduate populations.) The study unites Michigan Engineering, Lawrence Technological University, California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo, and specialists in ethical development. The coalition will assess curricular and extracurricular activities that relate to ethics, and then determine how to improve the ethical decision-making capabilities of engineering undergraduates.

Researchers will interview students, faculty and administrators at 20 institutions that offer engineering degrees. Those institutions will range from private specialty schools to large public research universities. By the end of the project, team members will have surveyed more than 4,000 students and 150 faculty/administrators to assess the impact of various inputs on ethical development. The motivation for the study arose from 40 years of national research which showed that levels of academic dishonesty and cheating are higher in undergraduate engineering than in almost all other disciplines.

Progress & Promise: 150th Anniversary Campaign Progress

Progress & Promise: 150th Anniversary Campaign gifts and pledges now total approximately $233 million. This figure includes gifts to be matched by the President's Donor Challenge, which supports need-based financial aid and endowed professorships. The Challenge is an opportunity for donors to increase the impact of their gifts.

The campaign kicked off publicly in May 2004 with a well-defined theme - the acknowledgement of the undisputed progress Michigan Engineering has made and fostered throughout its history, and its bright promise for continued excellence in education, research and service.

Tauber Manufacturing Institute Changes Name

There's new stationery at the Tauber Manufacturing Institute. Why? The Institute has a new name: the Joel D. Tauber Institute for Global Operations. But only the name has changed; its mission remains the same: to develop strong business leaders who understand complex operational issues and technical aspects of manufacturing.

Created in 1993, the Institute is a joint venture between industry, the College of Engineering and the Stephen M. Ross School of Business. Over the years, the Institute has been a testament to the benefits of a multidisciplinary education, promoting academic understanding and cooperation across disciplines to produce well-rounded graduates.