The Wayne State University College of Engineering announces the addition of six outstanding researchers, scholars and assistant professors to its faculty. They are Leela Arava, mechanical engineering; Guru Dinda, mechanical engineering; Alexander Kotov, computer science; Mai Lam, biomedical engineering; Haipeng Liu, chemical engineering; and Jeremy Rickli, industrial and systems engineering.

Saeed Khan, an expert on Near East history, politics, and culture at Wayne State University, participated in a discussion on the Syria crisis and a possible military response.

This feature story examines Wayne State University's influence in Midtown and its efforts to revitalize Detroit. Wayne State officials and Midtown leaders exude confidence despite the city's filing for Chapter 9 bankruptcy in July. Dr. M. Roy Wilson, who took over as Wayne State's president on August 1 after working as an administrator at the National Institutes of Health and Creighton University, says bolstered student services and admissions requirements will help the university raise its graduation rate and send more graduates into the local economy. "Detroit is right smack what we do. This is where we live. We are Detroit," Wilson says. "Certainly if we had a lot more money and a lot bigger endowment, we could do a lot more. But it's in our mission." Wayne State Police Chief Anthony Holt also is noted for his efforts to ensure the safety of the campus and surrounding Midtown area. "The university has actively pushed this process very aggressively over the years," says Lyke Thompson, director of the university's Center for Urban Studies. "The university needs to make it happen, ... in order to make sure students and people know, coming to the university, that it's a safe, successful environment."

Cellphone use while driving has been widely studied, and there is plenty of data to back up the relationship between distracted driving and injury rates. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, a motorist is 23 times more likely to crash if texting while driving. Prevention is the first focus for Lt. Dave Scott, the crime prevention officer for the Wayne State University Police. As students return to campus, Scott said officers are reminding them to put cellphones away and skip listening to music on headphones while walking on campus. He said it not only promotes safer pedestrian behaviors and awareness, but it also reduces thefts and assaults. "The pedestrians, the bicyclists and the drivers are all competing for space on the roadway," Scott said. "Everybody has obligations they have to follow by law, and there are also common-sense behaviors they should be doing."

Amy Yakima will be dancing live before several million TV viewers for the female title of America's Favorite Dancer on Fox's "So You Think You Can Dance" (SYTYCD). If she wins when results are announced on the Sept. 10 show, she'll be making Michigan dance history. No other Michigan-bred dancer has advanced so far in modern-day network reality talent contests. "It will be great. It will be marvelous. So many people out in the world of dance started here in Michigan," said Detroit-based dance historian Harriet Berg, a longtime dancer and founder of the Michigan Dance Archives at Wayne State University's Reuther Library. At Wayne State University, dance majors currently are taking classes with choreographer/dancer Dwight Rhoden, who has choreographed routines for the show. "The students are falling all over themselves because they see him on SYTYCD and now they see him in our studio," said WSU dance professor Eva Powers. "You have an elevated celebrity status if you're on that show." "Judging by the skill of our new freshmen this year, it's quite remarkable how much more talented they are in all areas of dance," said Powers. Wayne State has about 100 students majoring in dance, she said, and interest in classes for general students has grown.

Two-year-old Damian Sutton of Washington Township died on Monday after he was allegedly shaken so hard by his mother's boyfriend that it caused severe brain damage and now officials are trying to raise awareness about shaken baby syndrome. Every year, thousands of babies are shaken and abused by a frustrated parent or caregiver. Generally, the frustration stems from the infant crying. "Our aim is to educate parents that all babies cry, some more than others, and that most crying is normal," says Dr. Dena Nazer, medical director of the child protection team at Children's Hospital of Michigan and assistant professor at Wayne State University. "If you are unable to soothe your baby and your baby does not have any other signs of being sick, you can ask another caregiver to take over. Make sure to always leave your baby in a safe crib on his back and take a minute for yourself. Never ever shake a baby."

Wayne State University researcher Mark Haacke is among the researchers studying the effects of brain concussions on NFL players. Former Detroit Lions quarterback Eric Hipple is among 10 former players who have had their brains studies with state-of-the-art MRI methods at Wayne State University.

Detroit native Big Sean is on the rise in the rap game, and has spanned the globe with performances, but took time out Thursday to pay some respect to where it all started. The 25-year-old Big Sean, whose real name is Sean Michael Anderson, visited students at Wayne State University. His effort to give back to his city coincides with a renewed focus on the goals of his new Sean Anderson Foundation, aimed at the advancement of the city's school-aged youth. He was interviewed inside the school's Hilberry Theatre by fashion designer Jeff Staple, of New York City-based Staple Design.

Matthew Bergin Jr., of Beverly Hills, and Jacob Snead, of Southfield are among more than 1,500 students who moved into residence halls at Wayne State University to take part in "Move-In Days," an annual tradition kicking off the new academic year for freshmen and upperclassmen living on campus.

State Bar of Michigan members will gather at the Lansing Center on Wednesday, Sept. 18, to honor the best in the legal profession. Among this year's "Champion of Justice Award" recipients is Wayne State University alum Eugene Driker, who has served on the University's Board of Governors for 10 years, including Chair from 2007-08. Professor Robert Sedler, winner of last year's John W. Reed Michigan Lawyer Legacy Award, commended Driker for his exemplary work as Chair of the Wayne State Law School Campaign for the 21st Century, which raised more than $15 million for the school and resulted in a major expansion of the building.

Detroit News feature columnist Neal Rubin takes a peek at a Detroit site that a team of Wayne State University, students led by Associate Professor of Archaeology Krysta Ryzewski, are exploring in an effort to substantiate or refute various legends. The location, Tommy's Bar & Grill, has been the focus of a flurry of stories that it may have been a speakeasy during Prohibition and a place where the Purple Gang operated. In addition, an uncovered tunnel running to the neighboring Fort Street Presbyterian church may suggest that it was a stop for the Underground Railroad. Wayne State's researchers and Preservation Detroit volunteers spent the summer exploring inside, outside and beneath the 144-year-old tavern and will be digging through records until December, when they time the release of their findings to the 80th anniversary of the end of Prohibition. "We haven't found the smoking gun of the Purple Gang," Ryzewski says. As she points out, "They were criminals. They didn't keep a lot of records."

An article by a team of researchers at Wayne State University's School of Medicine, Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute (KCI) and Henry Ford Hospital detailing a possible new basal cell marker in prostate cancer was selected for the Faculty of 1000 organization's F1000 Prime online directory of top articles in medicine and biology. Avraham Raz, PhD., professor of pathology, radiation oncology and oncology at the School of Medicine and KCI, is the principal investigator on the study "The significance of galectin-3 as a new basal cell marker in prostate cancer," featured in the August issue of Nature Publishing's Cell Death and Disease, an open access online peer-reviewed journal.

The 50th anniversary of the March on Washington takes place Wednesday. On Aug. 28th, 1963, nearly 250,000 people from around the country marched to the Mall in Washington D.C. to hear remarks from civil rights activists. The climax of the event was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech. One of the forces working to make sure the march took place was United Auto Workers President Walter P. Reuther. Mike Smith, UAW archivist at Wayne State University's Walter Reuther P. Library, spoke with WDET's Jerome Vaughn. Smith says Reuther provided invaluable assistance to march organizers.

Wayne State's star punter/kicker, Stefan Terleckyj, named the GLIAC First team as a punter and second team as a field-goal kicker last year, should help in giving the Warriors a leg up during this year's season. A soccer star who made the transition to football, Terleckyj had the highest punting average (41 yards) at Wayne State in 36 years. He had 12 punts of 50 yards or more. He enters the season as the school's all-time leader in points after touchdowns (139), points after attempted (141) and points by a kicker (238). He is tied for first in field goals made (33) with David Chudzinski.

Several Michigan universities - including Wayne State - are welcoming new leadership. Dr. M. Roy Wilson, WSU's 12th president for nearly a month, has been holding briefings with administrators to catch up on key issues. "I've been stopping as I walk, talking to faculty, students," Wilson told the Free Press. "I've been building in extra time to make sure I can do it. It's a good way for me to see the campus." (A photo of Wilson is included)

Media outlets highlight "move-in day" at Wayne State University and other institutions throughout the state.

WSU Professor and Director of Jazz Studies Chris Collins appeared on Channel 7's "Spotlight on the News." Collins, artistic director for the Detroit Jazz Festival, noted that WSU was one of the first universities in the country to have a Jazz Studies degree program.

A team of Wayne State University researchers are working on a technology that could quickly and significantly reduce the emission of mercury and other toxic substances by power plants into the Great Lakes basin - by letting consumers use power when it's being produced in the least toxic manner. Carol Miller, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Wayne State University's College of Engineering and co-director of the Urban Watershed Environmental Research Group at WSU, recently received a two-year, $557,000 grant from the Great Lakes Protection Fund for a project titled "Real-Time Energy Impact Monitors for Residential, Industrial and Policy Use." Her team will refine, test and market a novel technology that interacts with power grids to precisely estimate the emissions associated with current power uses and signals when cleaner forms of energy are available.

Paul Winters, Wayne State Warriors head coach, spoke with WDFN's Matt Shepard about the football program and the prospects for the upcoming season.

Small is big at Wayne State. The University is getting $200,000 from the National Science Foundation to start an undergraduate program in nanoengineering. It's a growing high-tech field, not only in research, but in jobs. Guangzhao Mao is a chemical engineer at Wayne State. She tells WDET's Pat Batcheller that students will learn how to work with things that are microscopic.