From innovative teaching approaches to research accomplishments, opportunities for artistic expression and more, there’s no shortage of stories to tell about what’s happening at UAB. Review some of the year’s best below, and visit uab.edu/reporter and uab.edu/news to read hundreds more.
Humanities and social sciences unite to build an app that brings to life the struggles faced by former offenders in order to make the case for change. The project was made possible by funding from the College of Arts and Sciences’ Interdisciplinary Team Proposal program.
With a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation and innovative genetic techniques, UAB algal expert Stacy Krueger-Hadfield, Ph.D., is uncovering clues to the success of a coastal ecosystem engineer.
Students in a Department of Art and Art History course taught by Professor of Painting Gary Chapman learned a new set of skills this semester. With instruction from a local pin-striping expert, the students added some flair to a black Ford Ranger, which Associate Professor of Graphic Design Doug Barrett plans to donate to WBHM 90.3 FM through its vehicle donation program.
Harper Nichols is not able to grip with one hand. In this colorful self-portrait project, titled "holding / self portrait," she shows all the things she holds throughout a day with her arm — an artistic choice that influenced not only her creative practice, but how she relates to others.
Enrollment is up more than 300% in the Department of Computer Science. Students and alumni of the B.A. and B.S. programs in computer science, like Carlos Rivas-Valencia (pictured), explain what attracted them to the field and to UAB.
Aiming to help improve care and experiences for Arabic-speaking patients, Sumayah Abed, M.D., assistant professor of family and community medicine and family physician at UAB Medicine Hoover, spent hours of personal time translating medical education documents into Arabic, often emailing her father in Iraq to double-check her work. The documents now are available for all UAB physicians to utilize.
There are more refugees worldwide today than at any point in recorded history — more than 100 million, according to UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency — and the problem can seem both hopeless and abstract. But on June 25, UAB public health graduate student Agok Ayuen, who was born in a refugee camp in Kenya, helped the public get a glimpse of into life as a refugee during the World Refugee Day Simulation Event — and how they can help refugees in Alabama and beyond right now.
The Marching Blazers stopped by a UAB Football practice to teach them "Blazer Victory," UAB's fight song.
Known for using discarded materials and found objects to create sculptures and densely layered assemblages, Alabama artist Thornton Dial often used family, daily life, the Civil Rights Movement and other history as subjects. "I, Too, Am Alabama" was presented in AEIVA Sept. 9-Dec. 10.
Urine analysis can indicate health problems like organ perfusion and kidney issues, but collection has proved difficult for these two vulnerable patient populations. David Askenazi, M.D., professor and the W. Charles Mayer Endowed Chair in Pediatric Nephrology, long wondered why that issue hadn't been addressed: "Then it dawned on me — why can’t we do it in Birmingham?” Together, UAB and Children's of Alabama have launched Zorro-Flow Inc., a startup from the Harbert Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, bringing the idea from paper sketches to a physical device.
Researchers hack adaptive cruise control — then show how to make it safer. Driver assistance tech that comes standard on new vehicles can be tricked into causing accidents — but there is a way to alert humans in time. A UAB grad student and his mentor shared their findings this fall at a global conference.
UAB history students and faculty are contributing to the Beth-El Civil Rights Experience, an effort by the congregation of Birmingham's Temple Beth-El to share the experiences of members of the city's Jewish community during the era, including an attempted bombing in 1958.
With the help of the Comprehensive Snakebite Program, Raela Wells was up and moving only two months after a copperhead bit her twice, causing her leg to swell and become immobile — just in time for her November wedding.
Michelle Wooten, Ph.D., assistant professor of physics, needed an activity that could both foster connections in astronomy courses while helping students connect to the material. Her solution? Incorporating artistic assignments into her scientific curriculum — a practice becoming more commonplace within science education.
