Innovation

  1. ‘A student I knew well was getting skinnier before my eyes’

    Transplant surgeon Michael Englesbe assumed anxiety was causing his research associate’s weight loss. But it was poverty. So he enlisted a crew to create the Shield Fund to support struggling medical students.

  2. Toddler with spina bifida meets paralympian: “She has crutches like me”

    A young patient’s reaction to a commercial featuring gold medalist and double amputee Jessica Long goes viral, leads to a Zoom introduction.

  3. Patient rounds get a technical upgrade

    Out of crisis comes opportunity — and with COVID-19 derailing traditional hospital rounds, U-M researchers have found a way to bring caregivers safely to the bedside.

  4. Choose your own adventure

    Experience an earthquake, frolic on Mars, and chase a robot up the stairs. It’s just another dazzling day at U-M’s Ford Motor Company Robotics Building, now open for mind-bending business.

  5. Sticking the landing on Mars: High-powered computing reduces guesswork

    NASA’s Mars Perseverance Rover touched down on the Red Planet’s surface Feb. 18. U-M’s Jesse Capecelatro has been working with NASA to better understand what happens during landings when surface particles are stirred up.

  6. How to make the robot revolution serve the people

    The Ford Robotics Building, at $75 million and 140,000 square feet, is set to open soon. Features include an indoor fly zone for autonomous aerial vehicles, an outdoor playground for walking robots, a high-bay garage for self-driving cars, and more.

  7. $9.95M for ‘smart intersections’ across Ann Arbor

    Ann Arbor will soon be home to more than 20 “smart intersections”—capable of gathering and transmitting information in real time to connected cars—as part of a University of Michigan effort to demonstrate the safety potential of connected and automated vehicles.

  8. U-M publishes free guides packed with advice and wisdom from COVID-19 patients, caregivers

    Practical tips for COVID-19 hospital and post-hospital care available for anyone to use, and for any hospital or health system to adapt and publish.

  9. ‘Holy grail’ battery doubles the range of electric vehicles

    Lithium metal batteries can double the capacity of today’s standard lithium-ion cells, and much of the existing manufacturing system is primed for production, say experts at U-M. Let’s roll!