Condoleezza Rice Delivers 2011 Goff Smith Lecture

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice explored world situations, especially the effect of Middle East upheaval on oil prices, in the 2011 Goff Smith Lecture March 30 in Rackham Auditorium.

Career Fair a Hit

The 2011 winter Engineering Career Fair brought record-breaking participation from 140 companies interested in hiring talent from the College of Engineering. The count was a significant increase from the 106 companies that participated in 2010.

New Name for CRLT Engineering North

The Center for Research on Learning and Teaching North (CRLT North) has been renamed CRLT in Engineering (CRLT-Engin) to reflect the partnership that was established in 2004 between the main CRLT and the College. The Center delivers high-quality professional development programs for faculty and student instructors, and consults with individuals and units wishing to promote a culture of outstanding teaching and learning.

Expansion of Wilson Center Nears End

The expansion of the Wilson Student Team Project Center is now substantially complete. This 10,000 square-foot addition to the Engineering Programs Building will provide facilities for instructional design/build/test projects and will house many of CoE’s student teams.

High-Tech Incubator Gives Start-Ups a Place to Grow

In January 2011, U-M officially opened its Venture Accelerator at the North Campus Research Complex to provide laboratory and office space, as well as business services and resources, for new businesses based on U-M technology.

Governor Presents Clean Energy Prize Awards

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, along with Gerard Anderson, DTE Energy president and chief executive officer, presented awards to teams of student entrepreneurs who topped the Clean Energy Prize competition. This year’s competition began with 23 teams from seven Michigan colleges and universities. DTE Energy and U-M established the event in 2008 to encourage entrepreneurship in Michigan and the development of clean-energy technologies. The Masco Corporation Foundation and The Kresge Foundation are founding sponsors and continue to support the competition along with UBS Investment Bank, Google, Huron River Ventures and GM Ventures.

Center for Entrepreneurship Goes Coast to Coast

During spring break 2011, the Center for Entrepreneurship and members of the Ann Arbor entrepreneurial community traveled to New York City and the San Francisco Bay Area to connect U-M students, faculty and staff with alumni, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and industry leaders. Participants came from the more than 100 student companies and nearly 150 students that applied.

Navy Picks CoE for Education Center

The U.S. Navy has selected Michigan Engineering to lead the new Naval Engineering Education Center. The Center will train the next generation of naval systems engineers. Fifteen top colleges and universities will form this consortium. Hands-on internship and opportunities to learn at sea will be central to the effort. Read our feature story to learn more.

DOE to Establish Energy Frontier Research Center at U-M

The University of Michigan is home to an Energy Frontier Research Center with a mission to explore new materials that better convert solar energy to electricity. The center, funded by DOE for five years, is one of two in Michigan (the other at Michigan State University) and 46 across the nation. The White House announced the selections, which came from a pool of 260 applications that the DOE Office of Science received in 2008.

CoE Fans Start Young

Some Michigan Engineering fans are younger than expected. Here’s a note from one of them.

Social Entrepreneurship Class Combines Learning with Helping

The Intro to Social Entrepreneurship class combines entrepreneurship, social need, technology and business in order to create a sustainable company that can help to solve a social problem. In addition to classroom work, student teams spend hours in Ann Arbor’s Bryant neighborhood, the poorest in Ann Arbor, working with residents to identify problems and develop businesses to address them. The approach worked in Detroit last year, when a student company, Get Fresh Detroit, figured out how to get fresh produce into Detroit stores in neighborhoods that didn’t have easy access to fruits and vegetables.

1,000 Pitches – a Home Run

The third annual 1,000 Pitches contest, a competition run by student organization MPowered Entrepreneurship to create a culture of entrepreneurship on campus, drew close to 300 ideas – a home run in anyone’s book. Students competed in 10 categories; the winner in each category got $1,000.

Expect Respect Program

This year marked the launch of the College of Engineering’s Expect Respect Program and the development of the Expect Respect Resource and Response Team (ER3 Team) to help the Michigan Engineering community understand harassment and discrimination and their impact, and to assist individuals who believe they might have experienced or witnessed an act of harassment or discrimination. For more info, visit http://www.engin.umich.edu/expectrespect.

Michigan Engineering Instrument Orbits Mercury

On March 17, Michigan Engineering’s Fast Imaging Plasma Spectrometer (FIPS) was onboard NASA’s Mercury MESSENGER as the spacecraft became the first to orbit the solar system’s innermost planet. FIPS will analyze ions and solar winds in Mercury’s magnetosphere, the magnetic bubble that protects the surface of the planet from solar radiation. MESSENGER will orbit Mercury every 12 hours, collecting data from the harsh thermal environment.

IPD Challenge 2010: Pooper Scoopers

The Integrated Product Development class challenged 10 teams of U-M students to research, design and develop a better pooper scooper for pet owners whose tool of choice has been a flimsy plastic bag. The “beat the bag” competition attracted cross-disciplinary teams from the Ross School of Business, the School of Art & Design, the A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, and the College of Engineering. Teams responded with devices such as the Caddy, DooDad, Pooch Pouch and Canine Canteen. The students marketed their high-tech pooper scoopers to potential consumers at a trade show. Find out more.