A $30,000 grant from Intel will fund a three-month adventure led by Wayne State University’s Department of Computer Science for teams to come up with Detroit-based uses for the Internet of Things. The Internet of Things (IoT) brings information and services from so-called cloud computing closer to the user by empowering objects to be technologically connected. A simple example might be a light or a thermostat that can both give and receive information online. More complex examples allow entire systems to interact with large data input. The Intel grant to create the Intel Internet of Things Innovators Lab makes Wayne State the home of only the third such lab in the nation. Twelve teams of two to three members each will be selected to use IoT equipment donated by Intel to identify Detroit data needs and create applications for the technology. Each team will have approximately three months to develop their application, and all developments will be judged and presented on March 25, 2016.  

Rayman Mohamed, associated professor in Wayne State’s Department of Urban Studies, and Bengt Arnetz, chair of Michigan State University’s Department of Family Medicine, co-wrote an op-ed about the impact of the M-1 Rail on public health in the region. Though the effects of the M-1 Rail system will have some positive impact in the region, there are no guarantees that the benefits will reach underserved and vulnerable populations along its length, according to the writers. “The M-1 Rail will likely have positive health outcomes. The challenge now is to design public policy interventions to harness these outcomes so that they benefit underserved and vulnerable populations that already live along its route.” On the positive side of the project outcomes are: pulling neighborhoods together, providing jobs for people who already live in the city, providing opportunities for physical activities, assuring the availability of affordable housing and providing access to all of the amenities that the M-1 Rail will make available.  

The United States is looking for a “tough, comprehensive and credible package of new sanctions” from the United Nations against North Korea, in response to what that country describes as a nuclear test. Fred Pearson, director of the Center for Peace and Conflict Studies at Wayne State University commented about the threat that North Korea poses. “They may exaggerate, somewhat, their accomplishment for effect — not that they haven’t entered the nuclear era — it certainly seems they have — but it would appear that they may be working on the hydrogen fusion bomb project – rather than having completed it,” said Pearson. “They are working on longer range missiles that could perhaps reach Hawaii or Alaska – but that isn’t there yet, what they can do quite clearly and they’ve made this clear with their test is reach Japan or South Korea and these are key US allies,” says Pearson. Pearson said his worry is the threat of United Nations sanctions — he says North Korea could turn around and sell any nuclear technology it has to terror groups like ISIS in retaliation. Pearson says the test put China in a difficult spot. The Chinese will want to condemn the test but have a stake in making sure North Korea doesn’t fall … bringing the west to its border.     Other media mentionshttp://mms.tveyes.com/Transcript.asp?StationID=2785&DateTime=1%2F6%2F2016+3%3A22%3A00+PM&LineNumber=&MediaStationID=2785&playclip=True&RefPage=

Lisa Keane has been named president and COO of Wayne State University Physician Group, Jack Sobel, M.D., dean of Wayne State University School of Medicine, announced Monday. Sobel said the experience of Keane, 52, who was executive vice president and COO of Chicago-based Northwestern Medical Faculty Foundation from 2005 to 2011, is critical to Wayne State’s financial turnaround efforts. “Lisa’s extensive leadership experience with prominent academic physician practice groups is essential to addressing the issues confronting (Wayne State medical school operations),” said Sobel in a statement. “She also will play a valuable role as dean of clinical affairs as we begin to reassess our contractual relationships with our hospital partners.”  

Go behind the scenes of major civic, community, and economic development efforts, and chances are you’ll find a Detroit Revitalization Fellow. This Wayne State University program places mid-career leaders into two-year, full-time positions in various organizations to further key programs and projects. To date, Fellows in the first two cohorts have worked at more than 30 organizations in metro Detroit, including Charles H. Wright Museum, the city of Detroit, and Henry Ford Health Systems. We find out more from Program Director Graig Donnelly.  

If “banishing” overused words is anathema to you, then you might appreciate this story. The Wayne State Word Warriors have issued their annual list of words they’d like people to use more often in 2016. Word Warrior Chris Williams tells WDET’s Pat Batcheller the English language has many good words that have been forgotten or overlooked.    

If everything goes the way Wayne State University Director of Athletics Rob Fournier hopes it does, construction will begin on the Ernie and Lula Harwell Baseball Stadium in the spring of 2016. With the $1.4 million goal to construct the stadium — named for the famed Detroit Tigers broadcaster and his wife of 62 years — having been reached, the project now awaits approval by the school’s Board of Governors in January. According to a press release, aside from the stadium being a replica of the original Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, it will provide grandstands, a press box, and a foyer to house baseball artifacts and memorabilia that trace baseball history for nearly a century. With the project having been in the works since June 2013, Fournier is glad that the concept is closer to being realized. “I’ve been plugging at it so long,” said Fournier, who, along with longtime friend and attorney of Ernie and Lula Harwell, S. Gary Spicer Sr., is the co-chairman of the campaign. “Excited that we realized the goal. What I now have anticipation for is getting that hole in the ground and getting the structure built. I’ve been living with the architectural drawings for a couple years now — but to be able to touch it, see it, go into it, that’s the part that I’m looking forward to.”    

Wayne State University has announced a $7.5 million commitment from Gretchen Valade in support of programming, teaching, and scholarship in jazz performance and education. The gift includes $5 million to renovate the university's Hilberry Theatre into a two hundred-seat jazz performance venue, to be renamed the Gretchen Valade Jazz Center. The project represents the final phase of the Hilberry Gateway Performance Complex, a nearly $50 million initiative designed to strengthen Wayne State's cultural presence in Midtown. The center also will host university events, serve as an educational hub for students and faculty, and play a role in programming for the Detroit Jazz Festival, of which Wayne State is the official educational partner. The gift also will create two endowed funds — the $1.5 million Gretchen Valade Endowed Chair in Jazz Studies will provide support for teaching and research to a distinguished jazz musician and educator on the faculty, while the $1 million Gretchen Valade Endowed Scholarship in Jazz Studies will provide scholarships for students working and performing in the Valade Center and pursuing degrees in jazz studies.    

Baseball fans in Detroit knew spring had arrived when they heard former Tigers Hall of Fame announcer Ernie Harwell recite the “Voice of the Turtle” to mark the start of the Grapefruit League season. Wayne State University athletic director Rob Fournier can’t wait to hear the first words of that stanza: “For, lo, the winter is past.” Come spring, Wayne State is expected to break ground on the construction of the Ernie and Lula Harwell Baseball Stadium. Wayne State recently announced it had raised the $1.4 million needed to complete the project, which was first announced in June 2013. “It’ll go to the Board (of Governors) this January for approval,” Fournier said. “And then we’ll break ground this spring.” Wayne State’s current field already pays tribute to the history of baseball. The former Tiger Stadium scoreboard is used there, and the outfield wall in leftfield is a replica of Boston’s Fenway Park. Harwell Field will provide grandstands, a press box and a foyer that will house some of Harwell’s baseball artifacts and memorabilia he collected over his distinguished career. The outer façade of the field will mirror Ebbets Field, where Harwell once worked calling games for the Brooklyn Dodgers. The new construction will be located adjacent to Brooklyn Street.     

Wayne State University has been awarded a $50,000 grant by the St. Baldrick Foundation to conduct childhood cancer research. The money will be used to enroll more children in cutting-edge clinical trials and to complete studies that are already in progress.     

A two-year contract extension for Wayne State University President M. Roy Wilson will keep him in charge of the university until at least 2020. "In just over two years, President Wilson has made a profound impact on Wayne State University, and his influence has been felt on every corner of the campus and throughout the community," university board Chair Gary Pollard said. "His quiet, thoughtful and experienced leadership is a model for inspiring people to come together to face the toughest challenges, and pursue the brightest opportunities. His expectations for Wayne State are high, but they start with his own expectations of himself. This drive has made him a success throughout his extraordinary career, and it is paying off now for Wayne State University." The new contract keeps Wilson's base salary the same. Wilson has lately brought in a number of high profile donations to the school, including: $40 million from the Ilitch family for the new Mike Ilitch School of Business; $25 million from alumnus Jim Anderson to form the James and Patricia Anderson Engineering Ventures Institute; $8.5 million from the Ilitch family for a surgery center in the School of Medicine; $7.5 million from Gretchen Valade to turn the existing Hilberry Theatre into a music space with flexible seating capacity of up to 400; and $2 million from alumnus Tom Tierney to transform the historic Hecker House into the Tierney Alumni House. Other media mentionshttp://mms.tveyes.com/Transcript.asp?StationID=8255&DateTime=12%2F16%2F2015+6%3A06%3A55+AM&LineNumber=&MediaStationID=8255&playclip=True&RefPage=

As a lifelong lover of jazz and her hometown music scene, Gretchen Valade has always been quick to put her money where her heart is. Now a $7.5-million gift from the Detroit philanthropist is set to be a transformative step for Wayne State University’s music program — while giving jazz music a high-profile stake in the city's blossoming Midtown district. The Gretchen Valade Jazz Center, to be formally announced Monday, will be part of the university’s Hilberry Gateway complex, an already planned performing arts project along Cass Avenue. A fund-raising campaign for the $50-million effort is ongoing. The Valade Center, envisioned by WSU officials as “a world-class jazz venue,” will occupy the existing Hilberry Theatre, a 51-year-old hall that will be converted into a music space with flexible seating capacity of up to 400. Once operational — likely within several years — the venue will be a teeming jazz hub, hosting shows by touring artists, giving a platform to hometown players, and serving as a working space for WSU music students and faculty. Valade’s contribution will immediately establish a $1.5-million endowed chair in jazz studies and a $1- million endowed jazz scholarship. “This puts the focus right on one of the things we really pride ourselves on, which is having a strong performing arts program,” said university President M. Roy Wilson, who called Valade’s gift the biggest arts donation in Wayne State history. The concept emerged from talks earlier this year between Valade and WSU officials about naming rights at the renovated venue. That grew into a commitment to a full-fledged jazz complex — a permanent anchor for the genre's storied Detroit legacy. "This is two great cultural institutions coming together to celebrate this American art form, this Detroit art form," said Matt Seeger, dean of Wayne State's College of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts. The Valade Center will also give WSU students the sort of large, acoustically sound performance space now lacking at the music school, Seeger said.  

Wayne State University is getting a $1.4 million grant to prepare elementary and middle school math teachers to teach in Detroit. The grant from the National Science Foundation's Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program will help WSU recruit and train 56 new math teachers to teach in Detroit classrooms. It's part of TeachDETROIT, a partnership between Wayne State, Detroit Public Schools, Henry Ford College and Wayne Westland Community Schools. The new program will train math teachers specifically to work in Detroit schools, with coursework that includes the history of the city's school system and neighborhoods. Participants will also learn about the city's African American communities and academic instruction methods that are "culturally responsive." "It's not generic good instruction. It's instruction that we know from experience and research to be effective for children of color living in poverty," said Jennifer Lewis, assistant professor of math education at WSU. Lewis said courses will take place inside the same Detroit schools where the program's participants will eventually teach. "This program will prepare them to teach math in a particular way, but beyond learning from the book and the instructor, they'll get to go into classrooms and try out ideas with children," she said. "You can't only know formulas that you've memorized. You also have to know when they make sense, what they're used for, how they help you make sense of the world you see," Lewis said. "That requires more extensive preparation, practice with students and intervention from instructors." http://michiganradio.org/post/wayne-state-gets-grant-prepare-math-teachers-detroit-classrooms#stream/0 http://mms.tveyes.com/Transcript.asp?StationID=2790&DateTime=11%2F11%2F2015+7%3A06%3A29+PM&LineNumber=&MediaStationID=2790&playclip=True&RefPage= http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/wayne-county/2015/11/11/wayne-state-grant-mathematics-teachers/75590512/ http://mms.tveyes.com/Transcript.asp?StationID=7785&DateTime=11%2F11%2F2015+10%3A25%3A46+PM&LineNumber=&MediaStationID=7785&playclip=True&RefPage= http://mms.tveyes.com/Transcript.asp?StationID=999&DateTime=11%2F11%2F2015+4%3A34%3A42+PM&LineNumber=&MediaStationID=999&playclip=True&RefPage=

Wayne State University has been recognized by Military Times among the "Best for Vets" 2016 rankings. Military Times indicated that based on survey results from participating schools, military and veteran students make up nearly 14 percent of the student populations, about 75 percent of schools have a veterans office and about 80 percent have a military or veterans club. Nearly 75 percent of the institutions provide military or veteran-related training to faculty, staff and students, while more than 84 percent of schools have at least one staff member who focuses on veteran-related measures "Best for Vets" rankings evaluated colleges based on a survey with more than 100 questions related to operations involving current and former service members and formed rankings in five categories: academic outcomes and quality, university culture, student support, academic policies and financial aid. The comprehensive assessment also takes into account data from the Veterans Affairs and Defense departments, IPEDS Data Center, College Scorecard and Cohort Default Rate Database.

A Detroit News editorial lauds Wayne State's Med-Direct program noting that the university recognizes the future shortage of doctors could seriously damage health care in America. "So it's getting aggressive about recruiting and training the next generation of physicians. It's new and ambitious Med-Direct program promises great rewards for both students and the community." Also mentioned in the piece is Wayne State's BUILD (Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity) program, which was started last summer. "It's hard to imagine how Wayne State could better use its scholarship funds. The university has a respected medical school that provides residents to hospitals throughout the region. This program should keep that pipeline full at a time when American students are turning away from medical studies. It's not unusual for a college to go after the best and brightest students. But this takes that initiative to a whole new level. WSU should be commended for recognizing a looming crisis, and aggressively working to get in front of it."

Rayman Mohamed, associate professor at Wayne State University's Department of Urban Studies and Planning, opined about the projected impact of the driverless car on the way we live. Mohamed writes: "A family with three cars will be able to get by with two or maybe even one, depending on their work and school schedules. White-collar workers will benefit from being able to work on the way to and from their jobs, allowing them to live in distant suburbs. The car could take one spouse to work and return home for the other. For all families, getting the kid to soccer at 6 p.m. would be done automatically. The days of ordering a Zipcar from your smartphone and having it turn up at your door 15 minutes later will eventually come. The result will be more "driving" even as fewer people own cars." Mohamed concludes: "The cost and time efficiencies of tomorrow's cars will make today's challenges of funding transportation infrastructure seem like a piece of cake."

Wayne State University's Mortuary Science Building will be the site of an open house from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. tonight. The annual family-friendly event, which is free and open to the public, will tours the, which houses the most advanced teaching and research resources in embalming, anatomy and restorative arts as well as the clinical laboratory science and pathologists' assistant laboratories. Visitors will also participate in hands-on activities that will expose them to academic and career opportunities in clinical laboratory science, forensics, mortuary science and pathology.

Safe drinking water was the topic of a panel discussion at Wayne State University today. Students at Wayne State's Law School presented the discussion. Speakers talked about why so many residents have trouble getting access to safe drinking water despite the fact that Michigan is surrounded by lakes. The focus of the discussion was on the unsafe drinking water in Flint and the shutoffs in Detroit. One panelist said the heart of the problem is the city's crumbling infrastructure pointing out the federal government has cut spending on water infrastructure by 75 percent since the 1970s.

If you have lived in Detroit's greater downtown for even a year, you've noticed rapid transformations taking place all around you. On any given day, it seems like a new small business opens up, a free event is happening at one of the district's many museums and cultural institutions, and more and more people are out walking through the area's public and commercial spaces. For safety, Wayne State University's police force increased its capacity and expanded its perimeter outside of the immediate campus to include the entire Midtown district, which caused major crime rates to plummet by more than 50 percent. The New Economy Initiative, a project of the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, launched and funded economic development programs to build a network of support for entrepreneurs and small businesses. They focused on growing entrepreneurial assets clustered in greater downtown and subsequently saw a boom in entrepreneurial programs like Techtown, Blackstone Launchpad at Wayne State University, Next Energy, Build Institute, ProsperUs, and ACCESS, as well as the development of the BizGrid, a collaborative entrepreneurship resource guide. The Live Midtown and Downtown incentive programs, funded by Hudson Webber, launched to give discounted housing for employees of a number of companies downtown and in Midtown like Henry Ford Health System and Wayne State University.

Wayne State University Law School will present a panel discussion Wednesday, Nov. 4, about safe drinking water in Michigan. The event, "Water as a Human Right: The Water Crisis in Michigan," will look at why residents of the state surrounded by the largest freshwater sources in the world are experiencing such difficulties accessing safe drinking water. The event, which is free and open to the public, will be from 12:15 to 1:15 p.m. in the Spencer M. Partrich Auditorium at the law school. Panelists will include: Bill Goodman, an attorney who won an injunction preventing the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department from shutting off water to the city of Highland Park; Curt Guyette, an investigative reporter for the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan; and Trachelle Young, an attorney who represents the Coalition for Clean Water regarding the water issues in Flint.