This isn’t your kids’ VR headset. Researchers at the University of Iowa Operator Performance Laboratory are using augmented reality to assess how the proliferation of technology in the cockpit is affecting pilots’ concentration. They’re also using it to make difficult helicopter landings safer.

José Diaz, from Melrose Park, Illinois, is graduating from the UI with a degree in finance and will soon be working at JPMorgan & Chase’s Chicago office. Diaz came from humble beginnings and is positioning himself to make a difference in the lives of the underprivileged and marginalized groups.

Alumni from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop won an exceptional number of national literary awards in this year’s awards season. The novels of three alumni in particular—Adam Haslett, Garth Greenwell, and Yaa Gyasi—received numerous honors. Workshop director Lan Samantha Chang says alumni were heavily represented in all categories of literary award.

Trowbridge Hall has a new, permanent home for its meteorite collection. Professor Ingrid Ukstins worked with UI sophomore Zachary Luppen to organize the nearly 100 meteorites into a single exhibit. The collection includes a 110-pound chunk of the Tilden Meteorite, pieces of which landed in Tilden, Illinois, in 1927.

A team of Iowa MBA full-time students finished in fourth place among 15 teams in a business analytics case competition sponsored by the Tippie College of Business.

Sydney Hofferber is graduating from the UI equipped to help people get the care and assistance they need. The Cedar Rapids, Iowa, native is receiving a degree in health and human physiology and engaged social innovation, and she’s already designed a successful educational video about the value of breastfeeding.

In her first year at the University of Iowa, Erin Maier took an astronomy class on a whim. Now, after receiving numerous grants and assembling a UI telescope in the Arizona desert, she’s graduating with a Bachelor of Science in physics and astronomy and will soon pursue a doctorate.

Sixteen University of Iowa students and alumni have been awarded Fulbright U.S. Student Program grants to conduct research, attend graduate school, undertake creative projects, or serve as English teaching assistants abroad in 2017–18, breaking the UI’s previous record of 15 set last year.

Sean Seelau earned degrees in philosophy, worked for years in the telecommunications industry, then in his forties decided to return to school. Now he’s graduating from the UI with a BA in mechanical engineering and is the first graduate to receive the UI’s new Certificate in Naval Hydrodynamics.

The UI Office of the Provost announced Friday, May 5, the final candidate for the position of dean of the UI College of Nursing. Julie Johnson Zerwic, executive associate dean of the College of Nursing at the University of Illinois at Chicago, will visit campus May 8–9.

Mousa Abuissa first saw the UI campus when he was on a vacation with his parents and sister, who had traveled from Syria to visit his uncle in Iowa City. Nearly eight years later, and after also completing a BA in music, he’s receiving a Doctor of Pharmacy degree.

After graduating from the University of Texas at Austin, joining the military, and working as an intelligence analyst, Lindsay Danielson came to the University of Iowa to earn a JD—and with a husband and kids in tow. Now graduating from Iowa Law, she already has a job lined up.