Researchers in surgery and dentistry are exploring a cancer stem cell vaccine. A physicist, an artist, and a composer are creating a multimedia event inspired by dark energy. Two teams of engineers and environmental scientists are looking into whether hydraulic fracturing could contaminate drinking water. These researchers all received grants from MCubed, a two-year, $15-million pilot that funds interdisciplinary collaboration at U-M.

U-M Tech Transfer recorded more agreements with commercialization partners than ever before in fiscal year 2012. Meanwhile, entrepreneurs launched 11 new startups last year, eight of which are headquartered in Michigan.

Video: Engineering students are developing video games as therapeutic tools to benefit children with autism. Game play helps improve motor skills, focus, and social interaction.

Award-winning U-M researchers have produced the world’s fastest two-legged robot with knees, which could one day lead to powered prosthetic limbs and exoskeletons that let wheelchair-bound people walk again. In addition, two-legged robots could potentially respond to disasters and conduct dangerous missions on uneven terrain.

Ann Arbor is home to a first-of-its-kind test of “smart” technology that allows vehicles and highway infrastructure to communicate with each other. The goal is to help reduce crashes and improve traffic congestion.

For a year-and-a-half, a U-M surgeon and her team turned the operating room into a laboratory—the first anywhere to apply the auto industry’s lean model of manufacturing to head and neck surgery. The outcome? Focusing on efficiency and profitability can enhance staff morale, resident education, and patient care.

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In the past five years, the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, and Wayne State University have pumped more than $300 million toward auto-related projects that help enhance vehicle quality and safety, improve engine efficiency and performance, and reduce fossil fuel use. It’s all part of their mission as partners in the University Research Corridor.

Video: Can a car really get 3,300 miles to the gallon? The University of Michigan’s Supermileage Team is on its way to proving it can—with a lawnmower engine. “Fuel efficiency is one of those issues prevalent in society today,” says chief engineer and team co-founder Brett Merkel. “[This technology] can have far-reaching effects and be implemented in just a few years.”

University of Michigan professors will offer free online courses on such diverse topics as finance, electronic voting, computer vision, and fantasy and science fiction using a new web-based platform called Coursera.