Dustin Chandler's 4-year-old daughter, Carly, loves to swing. But, as she gets older, he feared this simple pleasure would be taken away from her since the swing can only handle 25 pounds. Carly suffers from the rare neurological condition CDKL5, and her disabilities make it impossible for her to use a traditional playground swing. Five Wayne State University freshman engineering students - Ahmed Alhamdani, Jennifer Ferrari, Lance Harmer, Taylor Heilig and David Tes and industrial design student Steven Patterson designed a swing that can accommodate Carly as she grows. Now known as "the swing kings," Alhamdani, Ferrari, Harmer, Heilig and Tes started working on the project for their biomedical engineering class with Professor Michele Grimm, Patterson joined them as an independent study. "Our main goal of the project was to come up with a swing design that would enable users to continue using the swing as they grew older," Alhamdani wrote. "The Wayne State group of students really took an interest in it. They've been great, they deserve all the credit," Chandler said. "It's a neat thing. It's hard to describe that feeling to know they're so committed to helping people they've never met. It's something special."

Former U.S. Sen. Carl Levin is delivering the keynote address today during the Wayne State University Law School commencement to be held at the Detroit Opera House. WSU recognized Levin with an honorary degree in 2005.

A man who had been blind for 50 years allowed scientists to insert a tiny electrical probe into his eye. The man's eyesight had been destroyed and the photoreceptors, or light-gathering cells, at the back of his eye no longer worked. Those cells, known as rods and cones, are the basis of human vision. Without them, the world becomes gray and formless, though not completely black. The probe aimed for a different set of cells in the retina, the ganglion cells, which, along with the nearby bipolar cells, ferry visual information from the rods and cones to the brain. No one knew whether those information-relaying cells still functioned when the rods and cones were out of service. As the scientists sent pulses of electricity to the ganglion cells, the man described seeing a small, faint candle flickering in the distance. That dim beacon was a sign that the ganglion cells could still send messages to the brain for translation into images. That 1990s experiment and others like it sparked a new vision for researcher Zhuo-Hua Pan of Wayne State University. He and his colleague Alexander Dizhoor wondered if, instead of tickling the cells with electricity, scientists could transform them to sense light and do what rods and cones no longer could. The approach is part of a revolutionary new field called optogenetics. Optogeneticists use molecules from algae or other microorganisms that respond to light or create new molecules to do the same, and insert them into nerve cells that are normally impervious to light. By shining light of certain wavelengths on the molecules, researchers can control the activity of the nerve cells.

A key resource for entrepreneurs is Techtown Detroit, a business accelerator and incubator that leverages Wayne State University's research and technology, business insight and student talent. Between 2007 and 2014, Techtown Detroit served 1,116 companies, raising over $107.26 million in start-up capital and contributing 1,190 jobs to the local economy. A total of 21 companies were created in 2014 alone. Techtown Detroit has a message for those considering locating in Detroit: "If you're a business owner, we can help you, regardless of what your needs are," said Ned Staebler, TechTown's president and CEO. He said that Detroit has one of the most "robust business support networks in the country." Restaurants and coffee shops are flourishing, but there's a huge need for more, creating significant opportunities for those interested in the retail industry, said Staebler. Digital health care and the electrification of vehicles are also fast-growing industries in the city, he said.

WDET and its partners in the Detroit Journalism Cooperative (DJC) will continue exploring the city's recovery from bankruptcy and ongoing financial issues with an additional $500,000 in support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Launched at the beginning of 2014 with funding from Knight Foundation and Ford Foundation through funding to ZeroDivide on behalf of Renaissance Journalism, the partnership also includes convening partner Bridge, Detroit Public Television, Michigan Radio and New Michigan Media. In mid-April, Detroit Journalism Cooperative content created by WDET and Bridge Magazine earned 26 awards in the annual Society of Professional Journalists Detroit chapter journalism competition. Earlier this year, WDET won "Public Radio Station of the Year" and collected 10 individual category awards in the Michigan Association of Broadcasters (MAB) Broadcast Excellence Awards for work in 2014. In addition, WDET's Sandra Svoboda's DJC work inspired the Wayne State University Graduate Public Administration program to name her its 2015 Distinguished Alumnus.

In the first Health Works segment, Deena Centofanti was at the Wayne State University Physician Group at the Troy campus to highlight Women's Health Week. Dr. Maribeth Mateo, WSU Department of Family Medicine and Public Health Sciences, talked about the need to get an annual physical examination. "You might think you are feeling really well, but sometimes there might be something underlying that you just don't know," she said. "You might take the way you are feeling as normal, but maybe they are not really normal. You need to get checked out." Mateo returned to the Fox 2 studios in segment two to further discuss the physical examination process and test results.

Wayne State University is holding its annual E-waste Day collection Thursday just in time for spring cleaning. The program, which began in 2010, has shipped more than 1.5 million pounds of old electronics for recycling. The university is encouraging people to bring any old cellphones, computer monitors, fax machines and most other electronics not being used. However, refrigerator units, major appliances and any items containing oil or Freon will not be accepted. The event will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in parking lot 11, north of Palmer on Cass Avenue between Antoinette and York streets. Volunteers will be on site to help drivers unload items.

Comedian Louie Anderson will headline a celebration Friday, May 15, to benefit Make Your Date, a Detroit regional program fighting preterm birth. The event will be at MGM Grand Detroit, with Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan serving as honorary chairman of the gala. "Stand Up For Make Your Date with Louie Anderson" begins at 6:30 p.m. and includes cocktails, dinner and Anderson's performance. Proceeds benefit Make Your Date, launched by the City of Detroit in 2014. The Detroit Medical Center, Wayne State University and other key partners designed the initiative to help expectant mothers deliver healthy full-term babies. The program provides a consistent approach among local health care providers in how they deliver support and care to expectant mothers. The program builds on existing regional talents, such as the Perinatology Research Branch of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development/National Institutes of Health at Wayne State University and the Detroit Medical Center.

The Detroit Lions have received production in recent years from a Wayne State running back. Now, they'll try to see if Desmond Martin can follow in Joique Bell's footsteps. The Lions plan to sign Martin, who went undrafted this year, to a contract Tuesday, according to his agent D. Todd Williams. Martin had a tryout during rookie minicamp last week. The 5-foot-11, 221-pound Martin is a different player than the powerful 5-foot-11, 229-pound Bell, who went undrafted in 2010 and has been with the Lions since the end of 2011. But both were highly productive with the Warriors as Martin ran for 1,578 yards and 16 touchdowns in 2014.

Attorney General Bill Schuette created a task force to end it. Senator Judy Emmons holds survivor forums to help spread awareness about it. Now, Wayne State University is holding a special summit that they hope will help bring an end to sex trafficking in Michigan. Man Up, a three-hour event to be held on Saturday, May 16, will call for the end of sex trafficking by asking men to stop using the services of prostitutes and pimps, which would help end sex trafficking. The event will feature three speakers: Award-winning journalist and author Victor Malarek; sex trafficking survivor Leslie F. King; and Michigan State Police Detective Sgt. Edward Price. The event begins at 9 a.m. inside the Student Center Ballroom.

Detroit Today host Stephen Henderson and guests Frederic Pearson and Eugene Driker talked about the Urban Public Policy Resolution Conference taking place today and tomorrow at Wayne State University. The conference, sponsored by Wayne State University and the Center for Peace and Conflict Studies, will explore the latest approaches and concepts of professional conflict resolution for intractable policy disputes related to cities. Bankruptcy mediator Judge Gerald Rosen and Attorney Eugene Driker are the featured keynote speakers.

Nearly 200 business, community, legal and political leaders gathered Tuesday, May 5, to celebrate former U.S. Sen. Carl Levin's new roles at Wayne State University Law School and Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP. Wayne Law and Honigman hosted the cocktail reception at the Detroit Institute of Arts. Levin will serve as chair of the newly launched Levin Center at Wayne Law, distinguished legislator in residence for the law school and senior counsel at Honigman. The Levin Center will educate future attorneys, business leaders, legislators and public servants on their role overseeing public and private institutions and using oversight as an instrument of change. Speaking at the reception were Wayne Law School Dean Jocelyn Benson; Honigman Chairman and CEO David Foltyn; Eugene Driker, Wayne Law class of 1961, chair of the Levin Center's Advisory Board, a founding member of Barris Sott Denn & Driker PLLC and a former member of the WSU Board of Governors; and Levin.

A future in which cricket chips could be found on the shelves of an American grocery store next to their potato- and corn-based peers might not be that far off -- or at least that's the hope of a number of start-ups selling food products that incorporate edible insects as key ingredients. A new paper published in the journal Food Quality and Preference argued that current strategies to focus on insects' environmental and nutritional benefits are falling short. Instead, the authors suggest, the insects should not be treated as something that must be "hidden" and should also be presented in a way that's pleasing to all the senses -- as all food should be. Julie Lesnik, an anthropology professor at Wayne State University who specializes in entomophagy, told The Huffington Post that many Westerners have been taught from a young age to associate insects with the spread of disease or to think of them as agricultural pests, "a stigma translated into disgust and then we don't eat them." Further, from an evolutionary perspective, Lesnik notes that when humans first arrived in both Europe and America, it would have been covered in ice to such a degree that insects were not available as an edible resource. Today, thanks to our colder winters, most insects are still not available year-round, compared to the warmer climates where bug-eating is much more commonplace.

Three Wayne State University 2015 graduates share their personal stories about pursuing a degree during a "Making the Grade" segment hosted by WWJ co-anchor Greg Bowman. In another news segment, WWJ morning anchor Roberta Jasina talks about the planned commencement ceremonies and honorary degree recipients. WDET noted the graduation events during a morning broadcast.

Detroit has a family leading a dominant softball program. Wayne State made its fourth straight NCAA Tournament this week, thanks to a father and daughter. Gary Bryce has been the head coach for three decades. His daughter, Emily, scored the winning run in the Warriors conference championship game.

Every fall, graduate students and professors from Wayne State University team up to uncover stories of a past Detroit as part of their archeology research "Unearth Detroit." Over the years, WSU's anthropology department has found objects around downtown Detroit ranging from glass bottles, leather shoes, hair accessories, dining ware to arrowheads and moccasins. "Most of these excavations have been salvage type or rescue type excavations that were done in advance typically really quickly in advance of proposed development projects around the city," said Tamara Bray, professor of anthropology and director of the Grosscup Museum of Anthropology. "There's a whole bunch of procedures in place for trying to save whatever kind of information could be saved from archeological sights prior to their destruction in conjunction with the development." The current exhibit at WSU's Grosscup Museum of Anthropology is titled, "Follow the Lines: Environmental Legacy, Health and Fishing the Detroit River," and explores the history and impact of fishing along the Detroit river. The exhibit also includes health and safety tips for those who eat fish from the Detroit river. The museum is open to the public from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and is located on the first floor of Wayne State University's Old Main building.

Herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1), or oral herpes, is a virus that affects more than 70 percent of the world's adult population. Although there are treatments to relieve its symptoms and shorten their outbreaks, the virus remains dormant after recovery within the trigeminal ganglion of the nervous system and can reappear at a later date. With the help of a $1.8 million, five-year grant from the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health, Haidong Gu, Ph.D., assistant professor of biological sciences in Wayne State University's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, aims to garner more genomic information about HSV-1 and develop an understanding on how it employs multifunctional proteins to disrupt host defenses and escape immune surveillance. In particular, Gu and her team will look at infected cell protein 0 (ICP0), which plays a leading role in the tug-of-war of HSV-1 infection with nuclear domain 10 (ND10), the site of DNA virus transcription and replication. "The results of this study on ICP0 functions will lead to a better understanding of the virus-host interactions for herpetic diseases," said Gu. "In addition, we aim to understand infectious diseases caused by HSV-1, and ultimately develop knowledge of the cellular defense mechanisms of host defenses that could lead to new anti-herpes treatments."

On May 7, Wayne State University graduating senior Nazmine Sohi, 21, of Shelby Township, will speak during her class's 10 a.m. graduation ceremony at Ford Field. More than 3,800 students will graduate in two ceremonies. Sohi, who will graduate with a Bachelor of Science degree in food and nutrition, plans to attend medical school in Virginia in the fall and become a dermatologist. This summer, she said, she plans to launch an e-course about topics pertaining to healthy living and positivity. She said she was surprised and excited to learn that her application had been selected for the student commencement speech. "It's really humbling because a lot of people applied for it," she said. Rasheda Williams, Wayne State University information officer, said the special events department went through a screening process to determine whose application would be selected. Besides academic achievements, Williams said the university, as an urban institution, also looks at what students are doing in the community. "I definitely think (Sohi) is ambitious and represents what Wayne State is all about - having well-rounded students that are actively engaged in the community, that are pursuing academics but are involved in activism."

The Southeast Michigan Purchasing Managers Index climbed 1.8 points in April to 66.3, hitting its highest level in the last six months. The three-month average is up to 62.3, with values above 50 suggesting economic growth. "In April, three specific indices lead the way," Timothy Butler, associate professor of supply chain management at Wayne State University's School of Business, said in a news release. "Notably, the production, new orders and employment indexes all posted numbers above 60, which signals healthy growth in the Southeastern Michigan economy." In the April, travel costs, equipment parts and petroleum were up in price, while plastics, resin and copper were down. The index is a research partnership between the business school and the Institute for Supply Management - Southeast Michigan.

What is the future of dance? Time will tell, but it's pretty clear that technology will play a large role. To prepare dancers, colleges have started incorporating more production and media courses into their curriculum. These are resources artists can use to better promote themselves, bring creativity to their choreography and help launch supplemental careers. Wayne State University offers a B.S. in dance performance or dance education and a B.F.A.in dance. Technology courses are integrated into all four years of study. Students learn how to edit images, sound and video in classes like dance production and issues and trends in contemporary dance. They also gain e-mail marketing and web skills.