Wayne State Fall 2010 : Page 6

on campus } fall 2010 autumn hues start of classes crisp leaves homecoming midterms football green and gold tailgates thanksgiving ﬁnal exams URC creates Accelerate Michigan The University Research Corridor joined with a local roundtable organization to create Accelerate Michigan, which will help align university research with the business needs of large companies. The URC, composed of Wayne State, the University of Michigan and Michigan State University, is working with Business Leaders for Michigan on the project. Both groups will hold monthly meetings to oversee Accelerate 6 FALL 2010 www.alumni.wayne.edu

On Campus

URC creates Accelerate Michigan The University Research Corridor joined with a local roundtable organization to create Accelerate Michigan, which will help align university research with the business needs of large companies. The URC, composed of Wayne State, the University of Michigan and Michigan State University, is working with Business Leaders for Michigan on the project. Both groups will hold monthly meetings to oversee Accelerate Michigan, which also aims to increase university funding from private industry. The three URC universities receive just 4 percent of their research dollars from private industry. In comparison, the North Carolinabased Research Triangle universities get 12 percent. The Accelerate Michigan project is focused on second-stage companies, rather than startups, in creating more systematic relationships between the businesses and universities. researcher looks at Big Bang origins A Wayne State researcher has devised a groundbreaking measurement technique that could vastly improve physicists’ understanding of the first microsecond of the Big Bang. The research, conducted by physics and astronomy Professor Sergei Voloshin, could provide insight to fundamental questions about the universe. Voloshin successfully performed a measurement indicative of violations of mirror symmetry during conditions similar to those of the early universe. If confirmed by other experiments, the discovery may lead to answers to some of the major questions in physics, such as why the universe is composed of matter Rather than antimatter and the what is the mechanism that generates the masses of protons and neutrons. Wayne State: a great place to work Wayne State was named one of the best colleges in the nation to work for, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. The journal, a top source of news for college and university faculty members and administrators, recognized Wayne State for its compensation and benefits among large universities with 10,000 or more students. The results were based on a survey of more than 42,000 employees at 277 colleges and universities. bioengineering program joins college The College of Engineering welcomed its first undergraduate biomedical engineering students this semester. The new undergraduate degree program results in the college’s full biomedical engineering program — from freshman level to Ph.D. The approximately 20 undergraduates who started the program in fall had to complete requirements for acceptance: at least a 3.5 high school grade-point average overall and in math and science, and at least a 29 on the math ACT exam. Biomedical engineering is a relatively new field encompassing the application of engineering to the understanding of human physiology and how the body responds to outside forces. It is estimated that approximately one-third of Wayne State’s biomedical engineering graduates will work for biomedical engineering companies, one-Third will go on to medical school and the other third will go into other graduate or professional programs. insect wings subject of research Insect wings originally were formed out of lobes used to glide to the ground from tall vegetation, not from ancestral gills, according to a Wayne State researcher. The findings provide support to one side of a decades-long debate on the origin of insect wings. They support the Paranotal Theory of wing evolution, which states that wings originally arose to provide a softer landing for insects falling or jumping out of vegetation. The research, conducted by Associate Professor Aleksandar Popadiæ, opposes the Exile Theory, which states that wings were dorsal appendages formed out of ancestral gills. electric vehicle stations come to TechTown The first of about 500 free electric-vehicle charging stations is in TechTown. The charging station, outside NextEnergy in Wayne State’s research and technology park, is one of approximately 500 provided by California-based Coulomb Technologies for use throughout southeast Michigan. The company plans to install 4,600 chargers throughout the United States. University Press called ‘innovative’ Wayne State University Press was named one of the country’s 17 most innovative university presses by the Huffi ngton Post. The newsite/blog specifi cally cited the University Press’ regional focus and ability to discover new voices. World-renowned poet, author and political activist Nikki Giovanni, fi rst row center, spends the afternoon on campus with longtime friends. Giovanni, who was at Wayne State in September to speak one-on-one to doctoral fellows in the university’s KCP Future Faculty Fellowship Program, took a break from the day’s activities to play cards with friends. Later that evening she did a lecture, “An Evening With Nikki Giovanni,” in the Community Arts Auditorium, where she signed copies of her most recent children’s book, Rosa. Named in honor of Rosa Parks, the book reached No. 3 on The New York Times bestseller list at the time of her lecture.

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