Learning Innovation

Nikhil Ghosh, a U-M computer science engineering student, collaborated with the SEAS Student Center to develop a series of online games that advance sustainable solutions. This project was ignited by Kim Elliott, assistant dean at SEAS.

SEAS Professor Steven Yaffee created a video-based training tool/simulation for facilitating collaborative public decisions that he currently uses in his class on negotiation.

SEAS Associate Professor Mark Lindquist developed Land.Info, a decision support system built using the Unity 3D video game engine that was co-created with residents of Detroit, MI. Land.Info allows users to interactively design using realistic 3D visualization of a location and provides real-time metrics as design decisions are made. This demo video of Land.Info was developed by the Digital Landscapes Lab at SEAS.

SEAS Professor Bill Currie developed MONDRIAN, a computer model of wetland community and ecosystem ecology. It is a complex, spatially explicit, individual-based model initially developed for ecological research. It is used to synthesize and better understand the interactions among plant populations, plant communities including invasive species, and ecosystem processes.

SEAS Assistant Professor Brian Weeks created Skelevision in an ongoing effort to measure the skeletal functional traits of the world’s birds. The data are generated by photographing museum skeleton specimens and then use a deep-learning neural network to identify the various bones and measure them.

SEAS Professor Inés Ibáñez has been using an app called Woody Plants Study Map with students taking the Woody Plants course. Through this app, one can discover 117 species of trees, shrubs, and vines in the U-M Nichols Arboretum. While these data were originally collected for use by the Woody Plants course, it is now available to the public.