Category Science & Technology
Contactless thermometer helps monitor student health
A prototype “contactless” thermometer was created by borrowing the sensor from a commercially available thermometer and adding a microcontroller and distance sensor controlled by open-source code.
Research effort driving advances to combat traumatic brain injuries
A team of researchers led by University of Wisconsin–Madison mechanical engineer Christian Franck is working on better ways to detect concussions and better protective equipment to prevent them.
Vaccine arrives at UW Health
UW Health received its first doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine the morning of Monday, Dec. 14. By early afternoon, the first doses were given to frontline medical personnel.
UW–Madison leads DoD-funded effort to restore vision to injured service members and people with disease
The technology will be based on a system in which human induced pluripotent cells are used to generate light-responsive eye cells called photoreceptors along with the cells that support them.
Celebrate with winter 2020 graduates during virtual commencement ceremony
The prerecorded ceremony will be released at 11 a.m. central time on Dec. 13 and will remain available on the web so people anywhere can watch it at a time most convenient to them.
Multiple gene edits and computer simulations could help treat rare genetic diseases
Research in biomedical engineer Kris Saha's lab efficiently corrected multiple mutations responsible for Pompe disease, advancing the CRISPR genome-editing field.
Research provides tools for achieving the ‘how’ of well-being in daily life
A new framework introduced by UW–Madison's Center for Healthy Minds provides evidence that people can weather life’s ups and downs with resilience, and that the brain and body can change and adapt.
A look at vaccine development and distribution
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a terrible impact, but it also has inspired one of the greatest scientific efforts in generations, spurring researchers around the globe to produce multiple potential vaccines in a short time.
New game helps refugee camp kids become academic ‘stars’
Once a refugee himself, senior Joel Baraka has invented "5 STA-Z" — a board game for students across sub-Saharan Africa that turns learning into fun.
UW–Madison recognized for its water- and energy-saving initiatives
The heating and cooling plant improvements stem from an upgraded cleaning system for heat exchangers covering over 50,000 tons of the campus’s central plant chillers.
Bird’s-eye view of geology using drones offers new way to protect groundwater
Researchers at the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey are spending a little less time on the ground and more time in the air — looking at the ground. What they're finding could help improve water quality.
2020 AAAS Fellows at UW–Madison apply scholarship to science, policy
The honor, dating back to 1874, is for members of the national organization who are nominated by their peers and recognized for their efforts to advance science and society.
Get tips on applying for science journalism fellowship Dec. 3
For 10 weeks in the summer, fellows work as full-time science journalists in top newsrooms around the country. Past fellows have gone on to be leading journalists, educators, policymakers and researchers.
New solvent-based recycling process could cut down on millions of tons of plastic waste
Multilayer plastic materials are ubiquitous in food and medical supply packaging, but are impossible to recycle using conventional methods. Researchers are making progress in changing that.
Researchers videotape hundreds of classrooms in 8 countries to study teaching
Essential to the study’s success are observation systems designed by Courtney Bell, a UW–Madison learning sciences professor who directs the School of Education’s Wisconsin Center for Education Research.
Banking on patient samples to advance COVID-19 research
In the spring of 2020, when UW–Madison instruction moved online and most research became remote, efforts picked up at the UW Carbone Cancer Center Translational Science Biocore BioBank.
UW researchers’ evaluation puts MGE net-zero carbon goal on path to limit global warming
If actions similar to the Wisconsin utility's plan were also taken around the world, the researchers say, "it would be effective at keeping the planet under 1.5 degrees warming.”
UW in top 25 for study abroad and international students
UW–Madison moved up three spots, from No. 18 to No. 15, on the 2020 Open Doors Report’s ranking of U.S. universities and colleges for total students studying abroad.
Native November: In new First-Year Interest Group, students connect with the land through Indigenous lens
Instructor Dan Cornelius is "trying to help students connect to place, so that no matter where they are, they’ll think more deeply about the land and its history.”
Quick, routine coronavirus testing reassures both campus and volunteers
Unlike other testing on campus, which is more likely to attract people who are sick or who believe they’ve been exposed to COVID-19, Jon Temte’s program constantly re-tests a stable population of volunteers — even when they feel fine.