Feb. 2, 2021
Spartan Engineering experts featured in the media in January
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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.

Dean Kempel on:
WDET Detroit
WILX TV 10 Lansing
Associated Press
CNBC
Computer World
Crain's Detroit Business
dBusiness Detroit
Detroit Free Press
Detroit News
Entrepreneur
Forbes
Mashable
MSUToday
Oprah Magazine
People
TechCrunch
WDIV TV 4 Detroit
WJR Radio Detroit
WLNS TV 6 Lansing
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.

Altmetric lists 135+ media worldwide
Australian Broadcast Company, Sydney
AzoCleanTech
Futurity
MSUToday
Science Daily
The Conversation
World Economic Forum
• Yadu Pokhrel also published research in Nature Communications in January, reporting on mitigating floods in extreme weather.
MSUToday
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.
WHYY PBS Philadelphia
• 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.”
Intelligent Living

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.
WKAR podcast
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.
Talking Michigan Transportation Podcast
WKZO Kalamazoo
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.
MSUToday
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.
MSUToday
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.
dBusiness Detroit
MSUToday
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.
dBusiness Detroit