Growing up in the Springwells neighborhood of southwest Detroit, Esther Guerrero can see the freeway from her backyard. She hears train whistles from nearby railroads mixed with boat horns from the shipping docks. Factory smoke from the Marathon plant and Zug Island hang in the air she breathes every day. “We’re neighbored by factories,” Guerrero said of her childhood home, where she still lives. “I didn’t really understand the impact of that environment until I started studying public health.”

Taubman College’s Bryan Boyer has been selected as the first faculty director of the new University of Michigan Center for Innovation. Set to open in downtown Detroit in fall 2027, the UMCI will be a world-class research, education, and entrepreneurship center designed to advance innovation and develop the necessary talent to grow Michigan’s economy.

A Detroit man regained his freedom from prison Tuesday, thanks to the work of the Michigan Innocence Clinic — 27 years to the day after his wrongful conviction in a murder case.

Detroit Metro Area Communities Study asked Detroiters about their general perceptions of AI as well as their support for specific municipal AI applications, including managing water and wastewater systems, assisting residents in finding government resources, monitoring neighborhood upkeep, identifying crime suspects and identifying missing children. The strongest support was for using AI to help find missing children.

Detroit native Jalen Rose, founder of the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy, sports analyst, and former U-M and NBA player, will be the main speaker at the May 2 U-M commencement ceremony in Ann Arbor. He will receive a Doctor of Humane Letters.

Leigh House, a doctoral candidate in Taubman College’s architecture program, received a Life-Changing Education Grant to research the impact of super-philanthropy on the built environment, as public funding for civic institutions has decreased over the years and been replaced by private donors.

Martin Murray’s research draws on Brightmoor, Delray, Mapleridge, Poletown, and Riverbend — neighborhoods challenged by vacancy, abandonment, foreclosures, and diminished municipal services. Murray says a “kind of triage” is occurring, with some areas willfully neglected so others can be prioritized.

On a sunbaked summer afternoon in Detroit, the difference between cool shade and hot asphalt pavement is more serious than you might think. 

Carina Gronlund knows this better than most. As an environmental epidemiologist at the University of Michigan School of Public Health and Institute for Social Research’s Survey Research Center, she’s spent years unraveling how the weather, air quality and housing shape the daily lives—and risks—of people across Michigan.

The Detroit Opera House is partnering with University of Michigan faculty and students to give sustainability a serious role on stage and back stage. Led by Sarah M. Oliver, associate professor of theatre and drama in the School of Music, Theatre & Dance, the project is fueled by a grant from the Graham Sustainability Institute.