Rotello among recipients of CVIP Technology Development awards

Chemistry professor Vincent Rotello is among the recipients of $25,000 awards from the Commercial Ventures and Intellectual Property (CVIP) Technology Development Fund administered by the President’s Office.
 
The awards for groundbreaking faculty inventions, which were announced March 25 by President Robert L. Caret, went to eight projects across the five-campus UMass system. The $200,000 in funding is generated through commercial licensing ventures in partnership with a contribution from the President’s Office.
 
“These are the discoveries that help change the world for the better, create

5 to receive Distinguished Alumni Awards at State House ceremony

The Alumni Association will honor three graduates, Congressman Richard Neal and a faculty member with this year’s Distinguished Alumni Awards on Wednesday, April 3 at 11:30 a.m. in the Great Hall of the State House.
 
Alumni Association board president Ron Grasso will present the awards, which are the association’s most prestigious recognition for alumni, faculty and friends. This year’s recipients have translated their UMass Amherst experience into distinguished achievement in their field of endeavor, bringing honor to the campus, which is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year.
 
This

Campus, town agree on measures to improve public safety this spring

Campus and town officials agreed March 21 on a set of measures to improve public safety this spring, including funding for two additional ambulances, joint police patrols and a joint, police mobile field force designed to prevent large-scale disturbances.
 
“The university is committed to working with the town to ensure that the safety and civility of our shared community is protected,” said John Kennedy, vice chancellor for University Relations.

Robot-delivered speech and physical therapy succeeds in test

In one of the earliest experiments using a humanoid robot to deliver speech and physical therapy to a stroke patient, researchers in Communication Disorders and Computer Science saw notable speech and physical therapy gains and significant improvement in quality of life.
 
Regarding the overall outcome, speech language pathologist and study leader Yu-kyong Choe says, “It’s clear from our study of a 72-year-old male stroke client that a personal humanoid robot can help people recover by delivering therapy such as word-retrieval games and arm movement tasks in an enjoyable and engaging way.”
 

New UMass Poll finds strong support for minimum wage increase, assault weapons ban

The results of a new national UMass Poll released March 18 show strong public support for an assault weapons ban and a broad consensus in favor of a higher federal minimum wage. Additionally, President Barack Obama enjoys high personal favorability, while House Speaker John Boehner is viewed as equally unfavorable.
 
Respondents were asked about a variety of topics, including which issues they viewed as most important, about how favorably they view various government officials, and their personal views on a number of hot-topic issues such as minimum wage, gun control, the Voting Rights Act,

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