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Michigan State University
Michigan State University

College of Engineering

Feb. 2, 2021

January 2021 Media Report

Spartan Engineering experts featured in the media in January

(Some links may have already expired.)

Apple and MSU have partnered to launch the tech giant's first U.S.-based Developer Academy in Detroit. Dean Leo Kempel said the college and MSU will help Apple in its efforts to enlarge the diverse community of Detroit-based innovators.

Media talked with Engineering Dean Leo Kempel during the Apple-MSU partnership announcement.

Dean Kempel on:

Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering Yadu Pokhrel is leading global research on how climate change could affect water availability and drought severity in the years to come. MSU Postdoctoral researcher Farshid Felfelani contributed to the international findings published by Nature Climate Change.

Yadu Pokhrel is making international news with two recent research publications.

Yadu Pokhrel also published research in Nature Communications in January, reporting on mitigating floods in extreme weather.

University Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Ramani Narayan:

  • is among the international experts interviewed in a PBS story on The Miracle and Menace of Plastic. He is quoted on the complexity of using green plastics to solve environmental issues and why it's not an easy fix.
  • is quoted in Intelligent Living regarding a new compostable bioplastic cup that is finally able to hold boiling liquids. Narayan called the University of Akron research a "disruptive technology."
Mechanical engineering graduate Steve Kiefer has very personal reasons why he is advancing technology to fight distracted driving.

Russ White of WKAR interviewed Steve Kiefer on the work he is doing as a father and GM executive to end distracted driving. Kiefer created a foundation after his son was killed by a distracted driver. Kiefer is a mechanical engineering graduate, a member of the MSU Engineering Alumni Association Advisory Board, and is GM's key executive at MSU.

MSU Foundation Professor Peter Savolainen was featured on "Talking Michigan Transportation" podcast, where he provided analysis on why more people died on Michigan roads in 2020 even with significantly fewer miles traveled. Start at the 10:00 mark in the podcast to hear MSU's traffic safety expert.

A $2.5 million gift to MSU from Spartans Claudia and Larry Leinweber has endowed the Leinweber Software Scholars Fund. Undergraduate scholarships will support computer science and engineering students from underserved areas in Michigan, especially more rural counties.

MSU and Stanford researchers have upgraded their Trojan Horse therapies to fight one of the world's leading causes of death. Led by Bryan Smith, an associate professor of biomedical engineering, the team is building on its nanoscopic tubules that carry drugs to fight atherosclerotic plaques involved in cardiovascular disease.

A team of researchers led by Changyong Cao has created stretchable energy-storage devices using a specialized printing technology, innovative materials and the centuries-old art of origami. The "4D printing" approach will help power stretchable devices.

The legal challenges in the water crisis in Flint near an end as a federal court reviews a $641 million resolution that could be the largest such disposition in Michigan. Flint and state officials had due warning that using the Flint River for community water was a bad idea. In a published study of the Flint water crisis, Susan J. Masten, a professor of civil and environmental engineering professor at MSU, cited two red flag warnings that officials ignored.

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