Science/Technology

August 15, 2022

Orion Schwab: Innovating for Maine

Black Bear alumni, faculty, staff, and students are among Maine’s most productive innovators and entrepreneurs. In this month’s column, we hear from Orion Schwab, a rising senior and computer science major at UMaine who spent the summer as a fellow in the Innovate for Maine program run by the Foster Center for Innovation. Innovate for…

August 9, 2022

VEMI Lab Earns Federal Prize, Invited to White House for Self-Driving Car Research

The VEMI Lab’s pursuit of an inclusive smartphone software platform for self-driving cars earned them a $300,000 prize and an invitation to the White House. The lab won the prize in phase two of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Inclusive Design Challenge with its Autonomous Vehicle Assistant (AVA) smartphone technology. VEMI leads the group designing…

June 21, 2022

Ty Delargy ’22: Putting Real in Virtual Reality

Black Bear alumni, faculty, staff, and students are among Maine’s most productive innovators and entrepreneurs. In this month’s column, we hear from Tyler Delargy ‘22, the founder of Real Time Reality, a company with a mission to stream real people — securely — to virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality (AR) spaces. For Delargy, who…

May 17, 2022

Dorothy Klimis-Zacas: Bridging Wild Blueberries and Biomedical Innovation

Black Bear alumni, faculty, staff, and students are among Maine’s most productive innovators and entrepreneurs. In this month’s column, we hear from Dorothy Klimis-Zacas, professor of clinical nutrition, cooperating faculty in the School of Biomedical Sciences, and associated faculty at the UMaine Institute of Medicine whose research focuses on berry bioactive compounds and their role…

April 17, 2022

Celebrating the Innovators of UMaine

Black Bear alumni, faculty, staff, and students are among Maine’s most productive innovators and entrepreneurs. In this month’s column, we recognize the inaugural class of Foster Center Innovation Award winners, who were honored at a ceremony on April 14 as part of Maine Impact Week. The Innovation Awards were developed to recognize and celebrate the…

March 14, 2022

“What If The Moon Didn’t Exist?” Webinar on March 31

UMaine astrophysicist Neil Comins will present a webinar “What If The Moon Didn’t Exist?” on March 31 at noon.  Without the Moon, Earth would be significantly different from what it is today. Renowned scientist and author Dr. Neil Comins will explain the evolution of the Earth-Moon system and the Moon’s profound effects on our planet…

December 10, 2021

Stephen Gilson and Elizabeth DePoy: An expansive vision of mobility

Black Bear alumni, faculty, staff, and students are among Maine’s most productive innovators and entrepreneurs. In this month’s column, the husband-and-wife team of Stephen Gilson and Elizabeth DePoy, both professors of interdisciplinary disability studies and social work at UMaine, provide updates on the adaptive mobility device they invented in 2013. Called the Afari, the sleek,…

November 12, 2021

UMaine is planning the “Factory of the Future”

Boosted by $35 million in federal funding for research, UMaine expects to expand large-scale innovative additive manufacturing, or 3D, technology.  The plans include an addition to the existing Advanced Structures and Composites Center in order to accommodate “multiple printers, multiple robots working together as a team” to build things, according to Habib Dagher, executive director…

October 15, 2021

Constellations and the Christmas Star Webcast

Shawn Laatsch, director of the Versant Power Astronomy Center and Jordan Planetarium shared the stars, constellations, and planets visible in our winter skies. Participants learned how to find these objects in their own backyard, got a special look at a special December planetary conjunction, and looked at what the famed Christmas star might have been.…

October 15, 2021

UMaine PhD Candidate’s Algorithm Links Physical Markers to Diagnose Breast Cancer

Black Bear alumni, faculty, staff, and students are among Maine’s most productive innovators and entrepreneurs. In this month’s column, Kendra Batchelder ‘11, ‘13G, a University of Maine Ph.D. candidate in computational biomedicine, discusses her work in the Computational Modeling, Analysis of Imagery and Numerical Experiments (CompuMAINE) lab with lab director and professor of biomedical engineering…