News Center

The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) is pleased to announce that for summer 2010 we will again offer the RISE (Research Internships in Science and Engineering) and RISE professional programs. Scholarships are awarded to American and Canadian undergraduates (RISE) and graduate students (RISE professional) in the fields of biology, chemistry, physics, earth sciences (geology), and engineering. RISE has established itself as an outstanding opportunity to combine serious research with a rewarding study-abroad experience.

The application deadline for both programs is January 31, 2010.

To find out about eligibility and the application process, as well as to read reports from past participants, please visit: www.daad.de/rise and www.daad.de/rise-pro. Please note students may only apply for one of the two programs and not for both at the same time. Please email all queries about RISE and RISE professional to: rise@daad.de and rise-pro@daad.de respectively.

Science for the Fun of It: Chasing Ionized Matter Around the Lab and the Universe 

This talk will be a tour of some of the high points of my travels through a few intellectual neighborhoods, and of things I found fun along the way. Having begun college with the intent to become a philosopher, I was lured away by the joy of doing physics. Then I discovered that in physics I could also get paid!

This got me into grad school at Johns Hopkins, where I connected with a planetary spectroscopist (Warren Moos) who was applying his instruments in new ways to plasmas (ionized gasses). This led to work on magnetic fusion plasmas at Livermore lab, where unfortunately big decreases in funding closely followed my departure to go play with lasers. Laser fusion was fun until I got tired of my boss and took an opportunity to begin applying big lasers to basic science.

A few years later the focus of this science became astrophysics – using big lasers to simulate exploding stars (in some sense). Michigan has been a great place to work with outstanding students while exploring the implications for astrophysics of the high-pressure dynamics we can create with big lasers. Henry Smith Carhart was likewise a meanderer – trained as a physicist, he got involved in electricity and ended up founding the electrical engineering department at Michigan.

Reception to follow

The University of Michigan Center for Entrepreneurship and MPowered present Robert Wolfe, Co-Founder of Moosejaw, "No One Knows What They're Doing Including Me."

The presentation will be all question-answer focusing on anything from Michigan football, general trivia, the growth of Moosejaw, Robert's secret new venture and why haven't those wigs the Founding Father's wore come back into fashion.

PRESENTER: Robert Wolf, Co-Founder of Moosejaw. A couple months after graduating from Michigan, Robert founded Moosejaw in 1992. Moosejaw is known for reinventing the outdoor industry through branding, notable marketing and embracing social networking before there was a such thing as social networking.

Starting with a single hole-in-the-wall outdoor store, Robert turned Moosejaw into a $40 million a year multi-channel retailer with seven shops, six mail order catalogs per year, two mobile websites and five online websites.

Moosejaw was named an Internet Retailer Top 100 Website (2008 and 2007) and an Ad Age Top 50 Marketer (2008). Moosejaw has been recognized by Forrester Research, IBM, Bizrate, Ad Age, Internet Retailer, New York Times, New York Times Magazine, and Entrepreneur Magazine as innovators in social-networking, e-commerce, personalized marketing, emerging technologies and other nice sounding things.

Robert and his brother and sister sold most of Moosejaw in 2007. Robert is still an owner, on the board and does most of the creative at Moosejaw. Robert and his brother are started a new venture which is a secret so I can't write about it here but Robert will talk about it and it'll be great. It might not be great but it'll be at least decent.

Free and open to the public.

Come celebrate the accomplishments of student entrepreneurs for the 1000 Pitches Competition. Award ceremony will be followed by a light reception and a chance to mingle with fellow finalist, faculty, and sponsors.

Abstract:  This talk will cover recent trends and techniques in state-of-the-art feature film visual effects. As a recent case study, I will talk about the "Sandstorm" effects system which was developed at Sony Imageworks for Spider-Man 3. Sandstorm was used to model, animate, simulate, and render hundreds of millions of sand grains per frame to create the Sandman character. Sandstorm was designed to push the limits of visual fidelity, and therefore complex tasks took several hours of computation on high-end CPUs. The enormous gains in computational throughput afforded by modern programmable GPUs allows for many of these techniques to be run interactively on consumer-level GPUs. I will present recent work at NVIDIA developing fluid simulation, volume rendering, and ray tracing systems that deliver quality comparable to that seen in feature films, but at interactive rates. The talk will conclude with a discussion the issue of convergence between films and video games, and important research topics to the future of both.

Biography:  Jonathan Cohen is a Senior Research Scientist at NVIDIA, where he develops methods for using NVIDIA's massively parallel GPUs for scientific computing and real-time physical simulation. Prior to joining NVIDIA, he spent several years working in the Hollywood feature film visual effects industry, where he developed software for films including "Spider-Man 3" and "The Chronicles of Narnia." He was awarded a Technical Academy Award in 2007 for his work in fluid simulation for visual effects. Jonathan received an undergraduate degree from Brown.

The program is offered to  pre- and postdoctoral researchers from the five countries of the US, UK, France, Germany and Canada. Held over a 2-month period in the summer, the program provides the participants with an orientation in Japanese language and culture and an opportunity to do cooperative research at a Japanese university or research institute. The orientation is held at the Graduate University for Advanced Studies during the first week of the program.

More details are available online at : http://www.jsps.go.jp/english/e-summer/

The East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes (EAPSI) provide U.S. graduate students in science and engineering: 

1) first-hand research experiences in Australia, China, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Singapore or Taiwan; 2) an introduction to the science, science policy, and scientific infrastructure of the respective location; and 3) an orientation to the society, culture and language.

More details are available at: http://nsfsi.org/
Applications are now open. The deadline to apply is December 8, 2009.

Eligible students must be enrolled in joint Bachelor/Master's programs must have graduated from the undergraduate degree; or a research-oriented master's or Ph.D. degree program (including joint degree programs).

In this beginning workshop, we will show step-by-step basic PowerPoint 2007 skills such as: inserting slides, creating slides, modifying your presentation, adding clip art, adding color, animating text and graphics, deleting slides, printing. You also get presentation tips! This is an exciting class if you are a beginner user or just want a refresher. Questions are encouraged.

*Limited seating to 12 participants*

The Michigan Mobile Phone Ensemble (or MiPhos) is presenting its premiere public concert featuring all new works by students in Performing Arts Technology and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at University of Michigan.

MiPhos was developed during a new multi-disciplinary course taught during the Fall 2009 semester. It merges engineering practices, mobile phone programming, and sound synthesis with new music performance, composition and interactive media arts. Students designed and developed their own new mobile phone instruments and composed new electronic music works exploring the creative potential of their own technical creations.

This concert will be held in the Britton Recital Hall in the E. V. Moore Building on North Campus (School of Music, Dance, and Theater).

Gail Deneszczuk and Laura Rowe of Advancement Services offer guidance on event planning in this one hour session. 

This event planning session will cover how to determine what type of event to have and who to invite based upon the purpose of the event and the audience to be reached.  It will also cover how to go about the basic logistics of planning the event, including an event planning timeline, tips for staffing the event and for choosing the right caterer.  Bring your lunch and your questions.

The University of Michigan Center for Entrepreneurship, Office of Student Affairs and MPowered present Student Entrepreneurs of the Year.

In this workshop, we will practice incorporating content from many types of files. Sometimes, you may want to bring in text directly from Word, at other times you may want to merge slides in from other shows or from Excel. Also included is importing movies, sounds and of course graphic files into your PowerPoint presentation. Participants will learn how to do more advanced animation effect options, such as simultaneous movement of more than one element at a time, and to publish their show to a web page. You will also learn how to use hyperlinks and action buttons to enhance your presentation. Questions are encouraged.

*Limited seating to 12 participants*

In this workshop, we will continue to learn exciting new ways to present. We will work with Master slides, creating a photo album, learning how to annotate a PowerPoint presentation, and working more with Word Art and SmartArt. Questions are encouraged.

The AAU/Chinese Scholarship Program is targeted at AAU university undergraduate seniors interested in graduate study at a Chinese university, but the program is also open to undergraduate students who would like to study at a Chinese university as an undergraduate for one or more years. The overall program is designed to be a flexible program that will meet students’ needs and interests.

The Chinese Government Scholarship Program will cover tuition and fees, provide dormitory housing and a living allowance. Scholarship students will be required to meet the cost of travel to and from China.

To learn more, visit: http://en.csc.edu.cn/

Specific questions about the program should be directed to Ms. LIU Xiao, at mailto:liuxiao@sino-education.org or 202-495-2259.

Engineering graduates and their guests are invited to attend a brunch reception hosted by the College prior to the University-wide Winter Commencement, which is held at the close of the fall term. Graduates and candidates of the Summer or Fall Term of the current year are eligible to participate. Pre-registration is necessary.

This brunch reception is an opportunity for graduates and their guests to celebrate with their families, fellow degree holders and College faculty and administrators. There will not be a formal program or series of speakers.

The next brunch reception will take place on Sunday, December 20, 2009. 

 Click on the link below for additional information and registration form.