The National Institutes of Health awarded Fairfax-based health technology company Vibrent Health $39 million to develop the technology backbone for the NIH’s All of Us research program, which will gather health information of about 1 million Americans to be used for research studies. The company has partnered with Dartmouth College, the University of Virginia, ICF, Eureka, the University of California and HackerOne to contribute machine learning, technology innovation, research expertise and emerging cybersecurity approaches for the project.
In-person classes are now under way at the University of Virginia, but look quite different than past years. Although the University of North Carolina and James Madison University shifted classes entirely online after experiencing a rise in COVID-19 cases, some UVA students say their first day of in-person classes went well.
Nearly 4,000 students are back on Grounds as in-person classes started on Tuesday. Virtual courses started two weeks ago when the University of Virginia announced it was going to have to delay the start of in-person instruction.
UVA’s Center for Politics will host two panels Wednesday in conjunction with the recent airing of a new documentary series called “Dismantling Democracy.”
Greg Roberts, University of Virginia dean of admission, says the inability to give in-person tours due to COVID-19 precautions has been a challenge with a silver lining. “UVA is a beautiful place. If students visit, they are more likely to apply here,” says Roberts. “How you replicate that is not easy.”
The qualified immunity doctrine has evolved in a series of court decisions, said Rachel Harmon, a professor at UVA’s School of Law and author of the forthcoming book, “The Law of the Police.” “Over the last 10 years, [court decisions have] made it increasingly difficult to overcome qualified immunity,” she said. Now qualified immunity “protects all but plainly incompetent officers or officers who knowingly violate the law,” she said.
Many activities – from concerts to church to doctor visits – can now be experienced from the safe bubble of our vehicles. Experiencing life via automobile has long been a part of America. But the evolution of car culture has had a lot of “twists and turns,” said Peter Norton, an associate professor in UVA’s Department of Engineering and Society.
There’s no doubt that many colleges have become increasingly out of reach for many students. But this year, the precarious financial health of colleges, competition for a smaller number of domestic students, and historically low borrowing rates make for a “buyer’s market” for many college students. Some colleges are getting creative. The University of Virginia is even throwing in a January term course and a course in the first summer session of 2021, at no additional cost.
Dave Johnson is the founder of Icarus Medical, a new biomedical manufacturer located in downtown Charlottesville that manufactures light weight knee and joint braces using 3-D printing technology. With his engineering background from the University of Virginia, he spent five years working and developing a brace that uses adjustable tension with elastic bands to counter the pressure that is usually placed on the knees when they bend.
Archie L. Holmes has been selected as the next executive vice chancellor of academic affairs for the University of Texas System. Holmes has been serving as associate provost at the University of Virginia since 2013. Since 2007, he was a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the university.
Professor of economics at the University of Virginia Ed Burton joined the show to discuss the latest news on the economy.
The idea of a blockbuster like “Mulan” opening in theaters overseas but not in the US was inconceivable only a few months ago. The move could be a “transformative” moment for Hollywood, according to Aynne Kokas, an associate professor at the University of Virginia and author of “Hollywood Made In China.” “The U.S. is the largest box-office market in the world. It likely will not maintain that title this year if the COVID restrictions continue,” Kokas said.
After a long summer and two weeks of virtual instruction, UVA students are finally stepping back on Grounds for that in-person experience that the university has worked to pull off. In-person instruction kicks off Tuesday.
“A Biden administration promises an ambitious family policy agenda,” said W. Bradford Wilcox, a UVA sociologist and director of The National Marriage Project, who is also an Institute for Family Studies scholar. “Their intentions seem good and they recognize that working families need help today. But many of their policies would push us in a direction that devalues the work of caring for young children in the home in favor of a vision that privileges the role of the state and the market when it comes to caring for kids.”
“The Trump administration was a disappointment when it came to family policy,” said W. Bradford Wilcox, a UVA sociologist and director of The National Marriage Project and an Institute for Family Studies scholar, who typically champions moderate and conservative policy. “We made limited progress on the child tax credit, but otherwise the Trump administration failed to deliver on key family policy objectives like paid parental leave.”
The American Heart Association has honored a doctor and professor at the University of Virginia School of Medicine for his work on high blood pressure. Dr. Robert M. Carey has been named a Distinguished Scientist of the American Heart Association for his contributions to cardiovascular research.
Money can solve plenty of problems, but is cancel culture one of them? Meredith Clark, an assistant professor of the Black experience in U.S. media at the University of Virginia, thinks Barstool Sports founder Portnoy is right when he says that the megarich are still uncancelable. Rowling, after all, doubled down, releasing another essay in July about trans women and biological women being different. “J.K. Rowling is definitely insulated by virtue of her wealth. You’ve seen even folks like Daniel Radcliffe say he can’t be aligned with her, and she’s still holding on,” Clark says.
As lockdown orders took hold across the nation, Lalin Anik, an assistant professor of business administration at the University of Virginia, set out to learn more about the effect of quarantine on FOMO. What she found in her research, which she hopes to publish this winter, is that FOMO, like many things in 2020, hasn’t gone away. It has just moved online.
Three Black men and women. Three different experiences. Three different feelings. But much of the same pain. “There’s trauma in seeing a Black man who could have been my brother, my father, and my son having died with a knee on his neck,” Johari Harris, a research assistant professor at the University of Virginia, said.