Imagine getting into a car, putting the directions into your phone, then just sitting back with ease while no one is behind the wheel. That is now reality as self-driving/autonomous cars are now fully operating on busy roads across the U.S.
Kirsten Simms and Ava McNaughton were eager to get back on the ice less than 12 hours after the end of their journey from Milan to Madison. Laila Edwards and Caroline Harvey were eager to give themselves a day off before getting back into the routine with the University of Wisconsin women’s hockey team.
As a group of University of Wisconsin–Madison students made their way from campus to the Madison Municipal Building earlier this month, they walked on sidewalks, crossed downtown streets and rode the bus.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s sustainability-focused hiring and research initiative will have a new home at the Wisconsin Energy Institute led by professor of plant and agroecosystem sciences Chris Kucharik.
The RISE-EARTH initiative is one of several hiring and research priorities from campus administration across disciplines like artificial intelligence and human health.
The visit follows a partnership announcement between the Public Service Commission and UW’s Department of Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics to study nuclear energy opportunities in the state.
Inside the University of Wisconsin Nuclear Reactor Tuesday morning, Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers peered over the shoulders of student operator Nick Tierney, a senior majoring in nuclear engineering, to eye the array of instrumentation on the reactor control panel, then climbed the stairs to look down into the reactor’s cooling pool.
The Morgridge Institute for Research’s leader, Brad Schwartz, is retiring after more than a decade, the UW-Madison-based nonprofit announced Tuesday.
The Morgridge Institute is a private biomedical research hub housed in the taxpayer-supported Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery.
While serving as CEO for 13 years, Schwartz expanded its research footprint in partnership with UW-Madison and recruited top scientists.
Attention is also put on the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The university is noted for its First Wave Hip Hop and Urban Arts Scholarship Program, which provides a four-year, full tuition scholarship for incoming students for artistic programs.
The University of Wisconsin La Follette School of Public Affairs is set to move into the historic UW Music Hall, set to be renamed Herb Kohl Hall in honor of the late Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., according to UW News.
According to UW News, Herb Kohl Hall is expected to open in 2029 and will represent Kohl’s legacy and honor the contributions he has made to the La Follette School and his commitment to furthering education.
The inspiration for one of four new public art proposals on the edge of the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus came from a 6-year-old boy named Luke.
“We go birding when we’re in Madison,” said artist Jason Klimoski, who with his wife, Lesley Chang, founded the architecture firm StudioKCA. “When we go to the Arboretum or Vilas Park, robins make that ‘cheerio’ sound: ‘Cheerio, cheerio, cheerio.'”
Wisconsin’s state universities are set to have new policies on campaigning in residence halls for the first time in nearly 40 years.
The Board of Regents, which oversees the Universities of Wisconsin system, last reviewed and approved the schools’ policies in 1988, when Ronald Reagan was president, floppy disks were popular and the movie “Die Hard” was released in theaters.
It’s gearing up to be an action-packed summer at the Kohl Center.
UW Athletics and FPC Live announced this week that Shinedown and Phish will perform at the venue later this year. Shinedown is coming to town on May 16 while Phish will have shows on July 7 and 8.
Tickets for Shinedown will go on sale on Friday and tickets for Phish go on sale Feb. 27.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison has required international students with partial or full teaching assistant appointments to prove their English fluency for decades, but now, amid heightened federal funding uncertainty, some international graduate students say departments are using the test to force them out.
Consequences for failing the language test differ by department and year, and this year, some students say those consequences have become increasingly punitive.
University of Wisconsin online master’s in Education and Engineering were ranked 8th and 11th best in the U.S., according to U.S News and World Report rankings.
The UW education program’s No.8 national ranking makes it the highest-ranked program in the Midwest. UW also ranked well in specific online master’s degree programs, including holding the No. 2 in Educational Administration and Supervision.
State utility regulators and the University of Wisconsin-Madison are partnering to explore potential nuclear energy projects in Wisconsin.
UW-Madison and the Public Service Commission will conduct a siting study to evaluate the suitability of various sites and the impact of projects on local economies. The study will also look at different reactor technologies, including both traditional nuclear power, advanced small modular reactors and fusion energy.
Rudin has incorporated lectures about EDS into the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s medical school curriculum, hoping to expand awareness in academia. He’s also given lectures to various clinical departments to “sensitize” them to the condition and helped create an addition to UW Health’s electronic records that can help assess, diagnose and begin treatment for people with EDS.
Like most schools, UW started out small with just a couple of buildings – North Hall and South Hall – on Bascom, a hill in Madison where the campus was established. And though agriculture was part of the mission from the beginning, the School of Agriculture at the university we now take for granted began much later.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Alpine Team has been carving down slopes for more than a century, starting as ski jumpers in 1919 and evolving into today’s modern alpine squad.
Dozens of University of Wisconsin-Madison students, faculty and alumni marched from Library Mall up Bascom Hill Friday to demand stronger protections for immigrants and international students on campus.
University of Wisconsin-Madison faculty are raising concerns over new workload requirements set to begin next fall that were passed as part of Wisconsin’s latest state budget negotiations.
Volunteers gathered on Lake Mendota over the weekend to clean litter piles left on the ice following a party on the lake’s surface that took place in spite of the cancellation of Lily’s Classic, which was set to take place Saturday.
A party on Lake Mendota Saturday left the lake covered in garbage after the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a fraternity could not reach an agreement to host its annual hockey tournament fundraiser.
Mitch Daniels, former Indiana governor and past president of Purdue University, spoke Monday at the University of Wisconsin–Madison as part of the La Follette School of Public Affairs’ Spring Spotlight series.
Warner Park’s off-leash dog park is closed until further notice after it was reported that a dog got sick and died after visiting there, City of Madison officials said Monday. Madison park rangers called UW vet clinic and Public Health Madison & Dane County.
Madison-area hockey fans cheered on the Team USA women’s team Monday afternoon as they took on Sweden in the semifinals of the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympic Games.
The La Follette School of Public Affairs plans to move into one of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s oldest buildings and rename the facility after former U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl.
A 19-year-old UW-Madison student was arrested Sunday for recording videos of people using the restroom at his residence hall, UW-Madison police said.
Former U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl’s foundation is donating $30 million to UW-Madison’s La Follette School of Public Affairs to modernize Music Hall, which will be renamed Herb Kohl Hall in honor of the late politician and businessman.
The University of Wisconsin athletic department traditionally has been self-supporting financially, but that could change under a bill going through the state Assembly. Wisconsin would get $14.6 million annually from the state toward athletics facilities debt service under a measure that also would codify in state law name, image and likeness policies already in place at the school.
In addition to the UW-Madison hockey players competing in the Winter Olympics for the gold medal, five other Wisconsin athletes are competing. See how they’re doing.
A student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison also tested positive for measles last week; an update from the university on Friday confirmed that the student was no longer contagious and provided a list of times and places, both on and off campus, “where they may have inadvertently exposed others to measles.” The university called for exposed unvaccinated students to quarantine for three weeks in accordance with local public health guidance.
UW-Madison took second place among public universities on Time Magazine’s list of World’s Top Universities, UW officials said Tuesday.
The school took spot #20 for the overall worldwide list.
The rankings, generated by Statista, focused on academic capacity and performance, innovation and economic impact, and global engagement.
“UW–Madison’s value lies not just in our direct teaching and research, but also in the impact our graduates have when they go out into the world and our contributions in advancing knowledge across the globe,” says UW interim Provost John Zumbrunnen. “It’s encouraging to see this value acknowledged in the Time rankings.”
University of Wisconsin-Madison community members from Minnesota say the recent escalation of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Minneapolis has left them feeling frightened, angry and helpless — while also prompting renewed conversations about community, resistance and collective action.
Many Badgers come from Minnesota due to an in-state tuition reciprocity agreement, with about 10%of the UW-Madison undergraduate population calling Minnesota home.
The Universities of Wisconsin has named a temporary successor for UW-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin.
College of Letters and Science Dean Eric Wilcots will serve as interim chancellor starting May 17 as Mnookin begins her departure to lead Columbia University, UW system President Jay Rothman announced Wednesday.
Mitch Daniels, a former Republican governor of Indiana and president of Purdue University, says there are three attitudes toward higher education: those who say it is running smoothly, those who want reform, and those calling for a nationwide overhaul.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison has lost at least $27 million in federal research money since President Donald Trump upended the funding landscape in academia.
It’s the first time the state flagship has put a price tag on its losses since the Trump administration began cutting existing projects, delaying grant reviews and reducing the number of new projects getting funding.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison Habitat for Humanity organization celebrated a milestone on Saturday with its 30th annual Souper Bowl fundraiser, bringing together community members and students for a family-friendly tradition that supports affordable housing in Dane County.
The event, held at Madison West High School, offered attendees the opportunity to purchase tickets and choose from more than 100 handmade ceramic bowls to fill with soup and take home as keepsakes.
University of Wisconsin student Henry Fries has built an igloo on Lake Mendota using hand-cut ice blocks.
Fries, an igloo builder and architect, drew inspiration from his childhood.
“I kind of started out with ice force and steel force as a kid, and really enjoyed it, but came to university here at UW and there has been a lot of snow, so I ended up getting an ice off for Christmas, and I on a win said, You know what? Go cut some ice and build an igloo,” Fries said.
The University of Wisconsin–Madison recently held its Winter Carnival on Saturday, a cherished campus tradition organized by Hoofer clubs.
The event featured Rail Jam, a freestyle skiing and snowboarding competition that attracted large crowds of competitors and spectators. Dave Elsmo, director for Outdoor UW, highlighted the event’s deep roots and organization.
Almost every day for the last 24 years, my father and I have traded emails about Dictionary.com’s Word of the Day. We started the tradition when I was in fifth grade and he was 38, just a few years older than I am now. The rules are simple: Once we review the chosen word and its example sentences, whoever reads the email first forwards it to the other, including a short sentence typed up to put the day’s special word to use.
Infleqtion, a global leader in quantum sensing and quantum computing, announced research results from a collaboration with the University of Wisconsin–Madison that demonstrate a more reliable way to measure individual quantum bits, or qubits, without interrupting ongoing circuits. The work addresses one of the central challenges in quantum computing by enabling faster computation cycles while preserving fragile quantum states.
As students return to campus this semester, professors are once again evaluating how artificial intelligence can, and cannot, be a tool for learning in their classrooms.
Despite concerns about generative AI impeding learning, some professors at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are choosing to address and even integrate AI into their course syllabi.
Universities of Wisconsin President Jay Rothman says artificial intelligence is no longer an abstract idea, but is now transforming how the state’s public universities operate.
Rothman penned an op-ed on the future of AI and higher education Monday ahead of the Thursday Board of Regents meeting where he said there will be a “robust discussion” on the topic.
Some students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are gearing up for a collaboration with national brands ahead of the 2026 Super Bowl.
Members of the student a cappella group Fundamentally Sound are getting flown out to San Francisco for a collaboration with the NFL, Marriott Hotels and a secret artist.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison will send five current players from the women’s hockey team and seven past players, the most the school has ever sent to a single Olympics (UW-Madison sent 11 players to the 2022 Games in Beijing). Four of the current players will suit up for Team USA; one, freshman Adéla Šapovalivová, will play for Team Czechia.
Two locations have been added to the list of possible exposure to measles in Madison, Public Health Madison & Dane County announced Tuesday, after the county recorded its first measles case of 2026 Monday.
A UW-Madison student living in an off-campus apartment tested positive for measles, the university said Monday, and 4,000 people who may have been exposed have already been notified.
UW-Madison is seeking approval to increase the budget for its Lakeshore Nature Preserve visitor and research facility by $4.7 million, citing setbacks from higher tariffs and inflation on building materials.
The UW Board of Regents on Friday will consider raising the budget for the Frautschi Center, named after the late UW-Madison alumnus and Madison philanthropist W. Jerome Frautschi, who died Jan. 10.
“We’re working to gather a better-than-ever understanding of seasonal changes and how flora and fauna respond, not just in winter but year-round,” said Kyra Shaw, DNR research scientist and Snapshot Wisconsin phenology project coordinator.
Shaw, who holds a doctorate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, helped roll out this latest initiative of the project over the last year or so.
Our newest hire, as of mid-January, is Francesca Pica, a super-sharp graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a native of Rice Lake. You may recognize her byline. Last summer, she put her data skills to use on our investigative team, including work on an excellent story about the millions spent by state lawmakers on private attorneys.
In addition to the business closings, a student walkout and rally is scheduled for 2 p.m. Friday at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Library Mall, followed by a march and rally at the Capitol at 3:30 p.m.
She recalled the first time she did a drop-off. “I see a literal ice agent walking around, and he just walks right past me. I’m just not on his radar,” she said. She is white, and had on a red University of Wisconsin T-shirt. “But, yeah, I go up to this apartment, and this mom was on the verge of tears, who’s been at home with her kids in a stuffy apartment for, like, a month, you know?”
“Miracle on Ice” remains a lingering light over any American triumph in the winter games. A Netflix documentary called “Miracle: The Boys of ’80” debuts Jan. 30 to again stir up the emotions of that incredible victory for the USA men’s hockey team over the Soviet Union in the medal round of the 1980 games.
It’s a triumph that almost certainly doesn’t happen without major contributions from Wisconsin.
In October, Harvard indicated it would significantly reduce the number of new PhD students it admitted. Yale, Columbia, Brown, the University of Southern California, Boston University, and the University of Pennsylvania are examples of schools that also scaled back, rescinded, paused or stopped new admissions. Large public universities — such as the University of Wisconsin, Michigan State University and the University of Washington— took similar steps.
IKEA has dozens of other pickup locations around the country, including at Loyola University in Chicago and near the campuses of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan State University in East Lansing and at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
For UBS, located on the eastern edge of the UW-Madison campus, it gets a flat fee from IKEA for each order.
The University of Wisconsin–Madison began its spring semester during the coldest stretch of the year, sending students back to campus bundled in layers.
One UW Ph.D. student from South India said the frigid temperatures made her feel “like an onion,” layered again and again to stay warm. Her friend from Kentucky said she was not used to wearing boots or layering so much clothing.
As energy-hungry data centers pop up all across Wisconsin and the nation, fusion startups, including one in partnership with UW-Madison, are working to bring a new energy source to market to meet the colossal need.
The village will be named for Madison philanthropists Ellen and Peter Johnson, who helped Agrace expand two decades ago and created an endowed professorship at UW-Madison dedicated to improving palliative care. They’re the lead donors with a $7 million donation, as they view the dementia village as a “kinder approach” to memory care.
Dane County’s drug task force seized a sedan as part of a narcotics investigation, while Madison police seized $7,700 in cash in another case.
The task force is a collaboration of the Madison Police Department, the Dane County Sheriff’s Office and the University of Wisconsin-Madison Police Department with a focus on dismantling and disrupting drug trafficking.
Former University of Wisconsin basketball player Freddie Owens is preparing to release a memoir next month that traces his path from Milwaukee’s North Side to the NCAA tournament and, eventually, a long career in coaching.
The book, “Echoes of Stark Park,” draws its name from the Milwaukee park where Owens spent much of his childhood and where he says basketball became both a refuge and a guide.
Multiple states, including California, Massachusetts and New Jersey, have implemented similar “converse-1983” laws, according to the University of Wisconsin Law School.
Anderson is a professor at UW-Madison and Edgewood College. She also serves on the Board of Directors for the Oregon Area Food Pantry.
