UAB Briefs: Hill Student Center wins design award, UAB joins Innovation Corps
Welcome to another installment of UAB Briefs after a two-week summer break.
In this weekly online feature, we keep track of interesting people and events on campus.
Know people, places and programs on the UAB campus that deserve a mention?
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A winning design
The UAB Hill Student Center received the 2017 Merit Award from the American Institute of Architects chapter in Birmingham at the group’s Design Awards ceremony on June 22, according to a university news release.
The facility was designed by the firms Herrington Architects and Hastings & Chivetta Architects.
The original Hill University Center, named after former UAB President S. Richardson Hill, was built in 1983. It was demolished in 2013 to make way for a new facility, but some elements of the original building remain.
The new Hill Student Center, completed in 2015, measures 162,000 square feet and includes upgraded dining facilities, a ballroom, a theater, a bookstore and a student service center.
The Design Awards were created to celebrate the best architecture in Birmingham and to honor architects, consultants, contractors and clients who collaborate to improve the built environment.
From the lab to the marketplace
The National Science Foundation has designated UAB as an Innovation Corps Site to strengthen local innovation and encourage creative teams of students, staff, faculty and researchers to push new technology into the marketplace, according to a UAB news release.
UAB will be one of 67 NSF-funded I-Corps Sites nationally that provide such research teams with advice, training, infrastructure, networking opportunities and some funding.
The initiative, announced in late June, will connect UAB Medicine and other STEM areas with the Collat School of Business, including the Bill L. Harbert Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
The goal is to immerse science, technology, engineering and math students on campus into the world of commercialization.
Fighting the effects of aging
UAB has hired a distinguished research from Columbia University Medical Center in New York.
Ronald M. Lazar, Ph.D., formerly a professor of neuropsychology at Columbia, is now director of the Evelyn F. McKnight Brain Institute in the UAB School of Medicine – one of four McKnight Brain Institutes in the nation.
These institutes work to translate discoveries from basic biomedical research into processes and products to minimize the negative effects of aging on learning and memory.
The UAB McKnight Institute currently has 30 investigators, and Lazar intends to expand the faculty.
Lazar will also hold the Evelyn F. McKnight Endowed Chair for Learning and Memory in Aging.
Showing of their research
The UAB Office of Undergraduate Research will host nearly 200 student presentations during its Summer Expo at the Hill Student Center on Thursday, July 20, from 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
The expo showcases the research and service learning work produced by UAB undergraduates and other students in UAB summer research, REU and other programs.
Undergraduates are given the opportunity to present their work to an audience.
The expo showcases the academic endeavors of undergraduates from more than three-quarters of the majors offered at UAB.
Collat School of Business Assistant Professor Stephen Yoder will offer a a keynote address in which he will discuss the best ways for students to leverage their undergraduate research experiences.
For details, go to uab.edu/undergraduateresearch/expo.