Akbar Sayeed, a professor of engineering at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, won’t return to the classroom next semester, according to the Wisconsin State-Journal, if he returns to campus at all following his two-year suspension for creating a “toxic” environment for students in his lab.
November 15, 2019
Top Stories
UW sees voter increase, wins awards for voter turnout
The Big Ten Voting Challenge was created in 2017. It’s a nonpartisan initiative in which 14 universities of the Big Ten Conference compete to see who has the highest voter turnout.
Research
Holy sh*t! A smart toilet could be a treasure trove of health data
If it calls to mind some of the worst excesses of the Internet of Things — catalogued, perhaps rather aptly, by the “InternetOfShit” Twitter accounts — fear not. The team of metabolism scientists, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Morgridge Institute for Research envision, claim that analyzing urine samples could aid care patients and ensure they’re getting proper medical treatment. Their findings were published this week in the journal Nature Digital Medicine.
UW-Madison developing ‘smart’ toilet to help cure health problems
UW-Madison scientists say ‘smart’ toilets could have the ability to change our health – for the better.
Campus life
Med student mom sees need in lactation spaces at UW
There are nearly 50 indexed lactation rooms across the UW campus. That is “not enough,” according to Jen Dittrich, the parent resource specialist at UW.
UW-Madison professor known for toxic lab that led to student’s suicide returning to campus next year
According to the Wisconsin State Journal, John Brady was a research assistant for Akbar Sayeed’s lab in the College of Engineering. Various graduate students reported that the working conditions under Sayeed’s teaching were both toxic and harmful.
SSFC approves Black Voice budget
$52,268 budget unanimously approved.
Immigration, Human Rights Panel highlights impact of migration, policy changes
The immigration and human rights panel “From Awareness to Action: Immigration’s Impact on Children from Madison to the Northern Triangle of Central America,” took place Thursday at the Pyle Center.
Crime and safety
Langdon Resource Officer resigns from MPD ahead of position removal in January
“When I started to find out more about the politics, how charges were being issued in our community, how certain decisions were being made, I ultimately couldn’t believe in some of those things anymore and had to make the decision to step down,” Figueroa said.
Agriculture
Wisconsin leads the nation in dairy farm closures. Meet the banker who tries to help her fellow farmers avoid that fate.
Noted: Johnson originally set her sights a little further than the farm. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in agricultural journalism and took a sales job with two radio stations in Janesville.
Health
CDC: The number of Americans dying from antibiotic-resistant “superbugs” vastly underestimated
Quoted: “In a short period of time the CDC is finding those predictions are probably not too far off,” Dr. David Andes, a Professor of Infectious Disease in the Department of Medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told Salon.
Business/Technology
As Utilities Cut Carbon Emissions, Some Transitioning Faster To Renewables
Quoted: However, Greg Nemet, public affairs professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and affiliate with the Wisconsin Energy Institute, said the cost of batteries now looks like solar around a decade ago.
UW Experts in the News
Property taxes are single largest tax for Wisconsin residents
Quoted: University of Wisconsin-Madison professor and sociologist Sarah Helpern-Meekin studies instability in peoples’ lives. This includes the role policy can play in affecting the instability around family members or financial situations.
She said for families working with a more fixed income, including those who are low income, have to make tough choices about where to cut back.
Renters can often face higher rents, but homeowners often must make the tough decision of whether to stay where they are or move.
“The options are often limited,” she said. “You need to pay your property taxes to hold onto your home, so you have to make some decisions about what it’s worth to you to hold onto your home if paying those property taxes is not feasible.”
Why are weather apps still so unreliable?
Quoted: As such, professional meteorologists are not monitoring and updating it,” Jordan Gerth, honorary fellow at the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, tells Mic.
The Census Is Going Digital, Bringing The Threat Of Disinformation Campaigns
Quoted: The polarized rhetoric surrounding the failed push for a citizenship question has turned the census into a hot button trolls can push, according to Young Mie Kim, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who has studied Facebook ads.
Obituaries
Edwin Stephan Sold Sea Cruises to Middle-Class America
Edwin William Stephan Jr. , known as Ed, was born Dec. 15, 1931, in Madison, Wis. He studied mathematics, accounting and economics at the University of Wisconsin but didn’t finish his degree before being drafted into the Army.
UW-Madison Related
How mechanical engineering could revolutionize the study of preterm birth
When the discomfort didn’t pass, Zapata—then a medical student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison—phoned a triage line, where a nurse assured her she was experiencing false labor pains. Then she noticed blood trickling between her legs.
The Rise of the Battleground Campus – POLITICO
“In an election that could come down to a point or two either way in Arizona or Wisconsin, turning out voters at ASU, University of Wisconsin-Madison and other college campuses in these states could easily make the difference,” said Andrew Baumann, a pollster for Global Strategy Group, a consulting firm that spent 2018 trying to figure out what makes the would-be college voter tick for Tom Steyer’s NextGen.
The Rise of the Battleground Campus
“In an election that could come down to a point or two either way in Arizona or Wisconsin, turning out voters at ASU, University of Wisconsin-Madison and other college campuses in these states could easily make the difference,” said Andrew Baumann, a pollster for Global Strategy Group, a consulting firm that spent 2018 trying to figure out what makes the would-be college voter tick for Tom Steyer’s NextGen.