Events

SOUTHFIELD, Mich. – On Saturday, Sept. 19, Lawrence Technological University (LTU) will host the national championships to determine who will represent the United States at the World Robot Olympiad (WRO) to be held Nov. 6-8 in Doha, Qatar.

The competition will be held at the Don Ridler Field House on LTU’s campus at 21000 West Ten Mile Road in Southfield. The opening ceremony begins at 9 a.m., and the closing ceremony is scheduled to start at 4:40 p.m. The event is open to the public, and admission and parking are free.

For more information, go to www.wroboto.us.

WRO started in Singapore in 2004, and this is the second year the United States will send a team. Nearly 20,000 elementary, middle and high school students as well as university teams from over 50 countries are participating.

Eighty-eight teams competed in state qualifiers here in the United States, and 43 teams have advanced to the national finals from California, Florida, Texas, New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Louisiana, Washington and Michigan.

WRO-USA differs from many other robotics competitions because the winners will represent the United States in international competition. “Being selected to represent your country really means something. The American teams will be competing against the best teams from around the world,” said LTU Professor CJ Chung, who is coordinating the national competition for the second time.

Last year three students from Canton and Northville won a bronze medal in the WRO competition held in Russia, while a team from LTU finished fifth in the university division.

Chung, who teaches computer science, was selected to lead WRO-USA last year because of his leadership role in LTU’s Robofest competition. Like WRO, Robofest makes it fun for students to learn important principles of science, technology, engineering and math, known as the STEM subjects.

“Robotics is a game changer in many fields including education, since it provides a true interdisciplinary hands-on STEM learning environment,” Chung said. “Our country needs many more people with technology knowledge and skills, and student competitions like the WRO can help us achieve that goal.”

In this year’s WRO competition, students must build and program a robot that can dive and explore under the sea for pearls, or collect five artifacts in an unknown environment, or collect supplies and deliver them.

In the open category the task is to create robots that can help humans explore for natural resources in potentially hazardous environments.

WRO General Secretary Claus Ditlev Christensen of Denmark will give opening remarks at LTU and observe the WRO-USA finals.

Eric Pope
Managing Editor, University News Bureau
Lawrence Technological University
(248) 204-2210
(313) 505-6508 (cell)
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SOUTHFIELD, Mich. – “The Future of Transportation: Roads, Bridges and Transit” is the topic of this year’s President’s Symposium at Lawrence Technological University on Tuesday, Sept. 22, at 7 p.m.

The panel discussion will be moderated by Lawrence Tech alumnus Kirk Steudle, director of the Michigan Department of Transportation. The panelists will be:

• Chuck Gulash, director of the Collaborative Safety Research Center of Toyota Motor Engineering and Manufacturing North America Inc.
• J. Gary Smyth, executive director of the North American Science Labs, Global Research and Development of General Motors Company.
• Michael Ford, CEO of the Regional Transit Authority of Southeast Michigan.
• Jay Baron, president and CEO of the Center for Automotive Research.
• Douglas Patton, executive vice president for engineering and chief technical officer for DENSO International America, Inc.

The panelists will be asked how technology can be leveraged to solve transportation issues.

LTU President Virinder Moudgil founded the annual symposium in 2012 to provide a multi-disciplinary approach to major challenges facing the Metro Detroit region.

“The big challenge of the next few decades will be to find ways to harness technology to deal with the various challenges facing our society. Transportation is one of the top priorities, especially here in Michigan,” Moudgil said.

The symposium will be held in the Mary E. Marburger Science and Engineering Auditorium in LTU’s Science Building, 21000 West Ten Mile Road in Southfield. Admission is free, but seating is limited. There will be a reception at 6:30 p.m.

Reservations should be made at lawrencetech.net/2015symposium.

Lawrence Technological University, www.ltu.edu, is a private university founded in 1932 that offers more than 100 programs through the doctoral level in Colleges of Architecture and Design, Arts and Sciences, Engineering, and Management. The Brookings Institution ranks Lawrence Tech fifth nationwide for boosting graduates’ earning power, PayScale lists it among the nation’s top 100 universities for graduates’ salaries, and U.S. News and World Report places it in the top tier of best Midwestern universities. Students benefit from small class sizes and a real-world, hands-on, “theory and practice” education with an emphasis on leadership. Activities on Lawrence Tech’s 102-acre campus in Southfield, Michigan, include over 60 student organizations and NAIA varsity sports.

Eric Pope
Managing Editor, University News Bureau
Lawrence Technological University
(248) 204-2210
(313) 505-6508 (cell)

facebook.com/lawrencetechu
twitter.com/lawrencetechu

SOUTHFIELD, Mich. – “Mathematical Biology and the Revolution of 21st Century Science” is the topic of the 2015 Walker L. Cisler Lecture, which will be delivered by Professor Trachette Jackson of the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor on Wednesday, April 1, at 7 p.m. at Lawrence Technological University.

The event, which is free and open to the public, will be held in the Mary E. Marburger Science and Engineering Auditorium in LTU’s Science Building. For more information, call (248) 204-3500.

Mathematical biology, the mathematical modeling of phenomena in the biomedical sciences, is one of the fastest growing areas in applied mathematics. In this introduction to the field, Jackson will highlight its historical successes and showcase ways in which mathematics and high-powered computing are used to tackle some of the biggest biological challenges.

Jackson is an award-winning teacher and scholar whose research in mathematical oncology has received international attention. In 2003, she became the second African American woman to receive the prestigious Alfred P. Sloan Research Award in Mathematics.

The main focus of her research is combining mathematical modeling and in vivo tumor vascularization to gain a deeper understanding of tumor growth and vascular structure at the molecular, cellular and tissue levels.

LTU’s annual Walker L. Cisler Lecture is dedicated to the improvement of science education and is generously supported by the Holley Foundation. It honors Cisler for his leadership at Detroit Edison from 1954 to 1971 and his dedication to improving the quality of life for people around the world.

Lawrence Technological University, www.ltu.edu, is a private university founded in 1932 that offers more than 100 programs through the doctoral level in its Colleges of Architecture and Design, Arts and Sciences, Engineering, and Management. PayScale lists Lawrence Tech among the nation’s top 100 universities for the salaries of its graduates, and U.S. News and World Report lists it in the top tier of best Midwestern universities. Students benefit from small class sizes and a real-world, hands-on, “theory and practice” education with an emphasis on leadership. Activities on Lawrence Tech’s 102-acre campus include over 60 student organizations and NAIA varsity sports.

“American Dreaming: Detroit’s Golden Age of Automotive Design,” the first comprehensive exhibition to offer a look inside the design studios of Detroit’s automakers from 1946 to 1973, will run from April 17 to May 2 at Lawrence Technological University.

The exhibition will be open 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from noon to 5 p.m. on Sundays in the gallery of LTU’s University Technology and Learning Center, 21000 West Ten Mile Road, Southfield. Admission is free.  read more