When Andreana Holowatyj was a doctoral student in Detroit, she encountered a patient in the clinic diagnosed with cancer who was also experiencing homelessness. Though he had free treatment, he could barely afford to get on the bus to make his appointment. This interaction inspired her to ask what “the burden of cancer looked like” […]
Topic: Student Innovation @ the U 2019
Utah Student Robotics
Utah Student Robotics is building a robot for NASA’s yearly robot mining competition. The team originated as a group of students in the mining department who wanted to try their luck in the competition. Now, the team is multi-disciplinary, with students from electrical engineering, computer science, mechanical engineering, mining engineering and more. The team is […]
Hydroponic Gardening
Dylan Wootton, a senior biomedical engineering student at the University of Utah, is the project manager for the Hydroponic Team at Lassonde Studios. The team designs and builds hydroponic gardens inside the building, growing plants in nutrient rich water solutions. “We’re able to grow plants faster and in a more sustainable manner than through traditional […]
Thirst Drinks Now on Campus
An entrepreneur from an early age, University of Utah senior Ethan Cisneros has capitalized on yet another opportunity from his connections from being a student entrepreneur as he opens the third location of his business, Thirst, on the University of Utah campus. Just over two years ago, Cisneros launched what has become a thriving drink […]
From Court to Class in Vietnam
Though the opportunity to become a student-athlete is often taken for granted in the United States, less privileged countries’ youth dream of this lifestyle — which is where Santiago Sierra stepped in. A recent kinesiology graduate from the U, Sierra was a member of the tennis team and is now partnered with Coach for College, […]
Training Future Foster Parents
Ryan Dickison, Clay Diffrient, Sophia Gagakuma, Cheryl LaMar and Kyle Whittle are students pursuing a master’s of education in the instructional design and Education Technology Program. These students are working to update training materials for potential foster parents with Utah Foster Care. They learned that many prospective caregivers were not retaining information from existing training […]
Education through Eye-Gaze Tech
Cheri Blue is a first-year Ph.D. student studying special education. Her research, drawing on nine years of experience working as a speech-language pathologist in public schools, focuses on augmentative and alternative communication. Blue is researching the use of eye-gaze controlled communication systems. Eye-gaze devices use infrared trackers to detect eye movement, enabling users to make […]
Environmentally Friendly Refuge
The University of Utah campus and community puts environmental impact and sustainability in high importance. Quaid Harding, president of the U’s Beekeeping Association and an undergraduate studying biology, is working to further this goal through installing a pollinator demonstration garden on campus. The garden will tackle many key environmental and social issues on campus: reducing […]
Battling Food Insecurity
Connor Keller, a senior majoring in political science, noticed his peers struggling with food insecurity. “I started to research the problem and found that it’s very prevalent,” Keller said. “Across the country, around 30-40 percent of students skip a meal once a week.” Those who are food insecure do not have reliable access to healthy, […]
Crepes with Culture
University of Utah students Daniel Damiani and Felipe Perrotti did not plan to make crepes when they first got the idea to start a food truck. Luckily, the idea of crepes took off and the U’s Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute awarded them a Get Seeded grant and a place in the Company Launch program to enlighten […]