1. 2019 University of Michigan Black Celebratory

    Mark Rivett posted May 20, 2019

    Lt. Governor Garlin Gilchrist II, Dr. Veronica Wilkerson Johnson, Dr. Kedra Ishop, Dr. RaShonda Flint, and Deirdre Spencer

    From left to right: Lt. Governor Garlin Gilchrist II, Dr. Veronica Wilkerson Johnson, Dr. Kedra Ishop, Vice Provost for Enrollment Management, Dr. RaShonda Flint, Asst. Dean for Undergraduate Education and Academic Affairs, and Deirdre Spencer, Librarian, Arts and Humanities, University Library

    Tyrone E. Winfrey, Dr. Veronica Wilkerson Johnson, and Charles Ransom

    From left to right: Tyrone E. Winfrey, Sr., Founder and President of Le Tour Detroit, Dr. Veronica Wilkerson Johnson, and Charles Ransom, UM Multicultural Studies Librarian, University Library

    On Saturday, May 4, 2019, UM Lansing Service Center Director, Dr. Veronica Wilkerson Johnson, participated in the 2019 UM Black Celebratory which celebrates the commonalities and differences that characterize the experiences of African/African American graduates at the University of Michigan. This event acknowledges the value and uniqueness of the African/African American community and commemorate the accomplishments of students that participate in Black Celebratory.

    Lt. Governor Garlin Gilchrist II and Dr. Veronica Wilkerson Johnson

    From Left to Right: Lt. Governor Garlin Gilchrist II and Dr. Veronica Wilkerson Johnson

    Dr. Veronica Wilkerson Johnson and Dr. Lester P. Monts, Arthur F. Thurnau

    From left to right: Dr. Veronica Wilkerson Johnson and Dr. Lester P. Monts, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Music; former Vice Provost for Academic Affairs (1993-2014)

    Dr. Veronica Wilkerson Johnson and E. Royster Harper

    From Left to Right: Dr. Veronica Wilkerson Johnson and E. Royster Harper, Vice President for Student Life


  2. Wolverine Caucus – Artificial Intelligence (AI): Where Are We, Where Are We Going, and What Should We Be Worrying About?

    Mark Rivett posted March 21, 2019

    Tuesday, April 16, 2019

    Mackinac Room, 5th Floor, Anderson House Office Bldg.
    124 N. Capitol Avenue, Lansing, MI 48933
    11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

    View PDF

    View Presentation PDF 1

    View Presentation PDF 2

    View Presentation PDF 3

    Are you looking forward to driverless vehicles, robots, computers and machines that guide your life? Fasten your seatbelt, for we are headed into the AI age. Recent years have witnessed tremendous progress in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI), with significant impact on the fields of medicine, education, transportation and more. Advances made in AI include everything from machines that can learn and process language, robots that have vision and human-computer interaction, to cars that drive us autonomously. As we look at the current state of AI, and all of the implications for our lives, many wonder what the future holds. Please join us as University of Michigan experts share recent progress in Artificial Intelligence, and give us a road-map to what lies ahead and what we should know.

    rada mihalcea

    Rada Mihalcea, Professor EECS, College of Engineering

    Professor Rada Mihalcea is the Director of the University of Michigan AI Lab and the Language and Information Technologies group (LIT@UMich). Her work focuses on Natural Language Processing, Multimodal Processing, and Computational Social Sciences. Her research portfolio includes areas such as computational sociolinguistics, multimodal sensing and tracking of human behavior, joint modeling of language and vision, multilingual natural language processing, multilingual subjectivity, sentiment, and emotion analysis and computational humor.

    John E. Laird

    John E. Laird, John L. Tishman Professor of Engineering, Computer Science and Engineering

    Professor John E. Laird is the John L. Tishman Professor of Engineering in the Computer Science and Engineering Division of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the UM College of Engineering. He received his B.S. from the University of Michigan in 1975 and his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University in 1983. He was a member of the research staff at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center from 1984 to 1986. Since 1986, he has been on the UM faculty. He is the founder of Soar Technology, an Ann Arbor company specializing in creating autonomous AI entities.

    Walter S. Lasecki

    Assistant Professor, University of Michigan
    Director, CROMA Lab
    Computer Science & Engineering, EECS (primary), School of Information

    Walter S. Lasecki is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the UM College of Engineering where he directs the Crowds+Machines (CROMA) Lab. He and his students create interactive intelligent systems that are robust enough to be used in real-world settings by combining both human and machine intelligence to exceed the capabilities of each. These systems help people become more productive, and improve access to the world for people with disabilities. Dr. Lasecki received his Ph.D and M.S. from the University of Rochester in 2015 and a B.S. in Computer Science and Mathematics from Virginia Tech in 2010. He has previously held visiting research positions at Carnegie Mellon University, Stanford, Microsoft Research, and Google[x].


  3. VP of Government Relations talks strategy, forming relationships with new lawmakers

    Mark Rivett posted January 24, 2019

    Leah Graham and Alyssa McMurtry/Michigan Daily

    Read full article at The Michigan Daily

    The Michigan Daily sat down with Cynthia Wilbanks, vice president of the Office of Government Relations, to discuss the University of Michigan’s efforts to work with officeholders and agencies at the local, state and federal level. Wilbanks and her office manage interactions with government officials in regard to legislative and regulatory policy that affects the University and its programs.

    Cynthia Wilbanks

    Cynthia H. Wilbanks: Vice President for the Office of Government Relations

    “In this office, it’s relationships that are really the foundation of our work,” Wilbanks said. “We use opportunities that are both formal and informal to establish those relationships and they come in lots of different settings, so it’s not always going up to the state capital, it’s not always visiting with offices in Washington. It’s a variety of ways that we work on those relationships and the same is true for the community relations work.”