Educators from three Iowa high schools participate in a two-week professional development institute at the University of Iowa to learn to implement the Engineer Your World curriculum, which engages students in hands-on engineering experiences.

Thanks in part to a new residency program to train students in the intricacies of creating public art, boarded-up windows, concrete walls, and fertilizer bins will become canvases for large-scale art projects in 10 Iowa communities. One city also will welcome a large-scale, solar-powered sculpture to its downtown plaza.

Grants and other funding that support University of Iowa research and scholarship reached an all-time high in FY19, bolstered in part by increased support from the Department of Defense and the National Science Foundation. Total external funding to the UI increased 6%, or $34.8 million, to an unprecedented $588.8 million.

The UI is continuing its exploration of a potential public-private partnership (P3) with its utility system, moving forward from the request for qualification stage to the request for proposal stage. The campus community will have two new opportunities to share feedback about the proposal.

Corinne Peek-Asa, associate dean for research for the University of Iowa College of Public Health and professor in the Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, will deliver Iowa’s 37th annual Presidential Lecture on Feb. 16, 2020.

An Iowa study finds that training parents how to improve communication with their children about safe driving reduced the probability of future unsafe driving incidents by as much as 80 percent, especially when combined with onboard vehicle-monitoring technology.

The University of Iowa’s International Programs office produces a series of 10 pre-arrival webinars for incoming students that provide information about being successful at UI and life in Iowa City and the U.S.

A select group of first-year students from rural Iowa communities is learning about research as Rural Scholars. The program was created five years ago by Scott Shaw, associate professor of chemistry, who wasn’t exposed to research as an undergraduate.

Death notices for current and retired UI employees. Links to online obituaries provided when available.

A record 19 University of Iowa students 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 2019–20, with an additional two students selected as alternates.

The University of Iowa has won the single largest externally funded research project in its history, a $115 million contract awarded to Craig Kletzing, professor in the UI Department of Physics and Astronomy. Kletzing’s team will study the connection between the magnetic fields of the Earth and sun.

The University of Iowa’s State Fair Working Group seeks faculty, staff, and student volunteers for the UI booth at the Iowa State Fair Aug. 8–18 in Des Moines.