Focus EMU, August 11, 2009
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: r .-·"' ·r ' ,,.--. 1:, · • ' ··�� '''1 rr ' ; ·':'l·'· ·" '' 1' · · lf I 1 . I ' ;, J ,,/A·-'· ir:•· 1·· ''1 ;;,·;:"' � :.1 ••"\ 1 \/, 1 1 ·;. .. :.;_,;, , �., �\ � ..'->1 "-:� r J ,L�· ,u.\."' .;.: ::..1 r-,v�.. 'If EMU HOMI Cover Story The Princeton Review has named Eastern Michigan University a "Best Midwestern College" for 2010. It marks the seventh consecutive year that EMU has received the designation. Aug. 11, 2009 issue "We are thrilled to receive this designation because it is driven by how our The Princeton Review names students feel about Eastern," said EMU President Susan Martin. "It is a Eastern Michigan a 2010 "Best good yardstick for where we are and where we need to go. We pride Midwestern College" ourselves on our accessibility, affordability, diversity and strong educational experience; and all of those characteristics are evident in the student comments about EMU." By Ward Mullens The education services company selected EMU as one of 158 institutions it profiles in its "Best in the Midwest" section of its Web site feature, "2010 Best Colleges: Region-by-Region," that posted July 27. Eastern Michigan students' responses included: "The curriculum is designed to serve 'real people learning through discussion and interaction' and taking advantage of 'opportunities for education beyond the classroom, whether it's through SEVEN UP: For the seventh involvement in a student consecutive year, Eastern organization, attending diversity Michigan University has been programming or volunteering. named a 2010 "Best Midwestern There is always an opportunity to College" by The Princeton make a difference, and it is truly an Review. empowering experience." "EMU has 'a Student Center that is a great place to hang out with friends, eat, study, play video games, curl up with a good book, meet new people, and get homework done."' The 158 colleges The Princeton Review chose for this year's "Best in the Midwest" designations are located in twelve states: Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin. The Princeton Review also designated 218 colleges in the Northeast, 123 ir the West, and 141 in the Southeast as best in their locales in the company's 2010 Best Colleges: Region by Region section. The 640 college: named "regional best(s)" represent only about 25 percent of the nation's 2,500 four-year colleges. The Princeton Review does not rank the colleges in its 2010 Best Colleges Region by Region Web site section. The Princeton Review survey for this project asks students to rate their own schools on several issues - from the accessibility of their professors to quality of the campus food - and answer questions about themselves, their fellow students, and their campus life. Students are surveyed with more than 80 questions in categories such as "About Yourself," "Your Schools Academics/Administration," "Students," and "Life at Your School." For the complete EMU profile go to: http://www.princetonreview.com ',�I,,., !' V '( ''" ]''·' ),' ''] .. •K]' I,,·\\..:; J. 1 'f ,,·-: ·: \·. � ,�·''1, .. ,,, ,. ,' ]['''"'.'( �;J '\� ..,.:,: .. ,:-:., . .. .,. � =" r . ',:-_:... ·:::.\"' . <( '\ .:·>·1 ...: <(;�,- .., EMU HOMI I Feature When a child is diagnosed with autism, the diagnosis affects the entire family. And finding help with appropriate facilities can be difficult. Aug. 11, 2009 issue Eastern Michigan University is moving forward with the purchase of the EMU plans to move former Fletcher Elementary School in Ypsilanti. This will allow the Autism University to expand services for its Autism Collaborative Center and Collaborative relocate its Children's Institute. Center, Children's Institute The Ypsilanti School Board recently By Pamela Young approved the sale of the former elementary school to ........ Eastern _ Michigan for FOCU�� $2.2 million. Built in 1963, the 40,000 square-foot building will house both the EDUCATIONAL COLLABORATION: The former Autism Fletcher Elementary School will allow Eastern Collaborative Michigan University to move its Autism Center and Collaborative Center and relocate its Children's EMU'S Children's Institute. The Ypsilanti School Board recently Institute. It is approved the sale of the building to EMU for $2.2 expected to million. open in mid-to late fall 2009. "I'm elated over this entire endeavor. This is the concrete beginning of what we hope will be a lifetime of support to families with autism," said Pamela Lemerand, assistant professor of occupational therapy a'1d project director. "The center will have faculty and students from occupational, speech and music therapy, nursing, psychology, social work, dietetics, special education and recreation therapy. We'll start working with children and young adults, and grow from there." The Autism Center, in partnership with Easter Seals of Michigan, currently provides services for 40 families in the Bright Horizons building ocated at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Ann Arbor. The center's goals are to provide comprehensive services to persons with autism and their families; train Eastern Michigan students in areas of national shortages; continue research in the effectiveness of various interventions and be a community research center. When fully operational, the program will be the only one in the state and one of the only university-based autism programs in the country with a comprehensive, interdisciplinary approach to assessment and the provision of a full range of interventions. Lemerand said the goal is to reach 2,000 people in the first year or two. Services will be provided on a sliding scale. The EMU Children's Institute offers early childhood education for the children of EMU students, faculty, staff and surrounding communities. Currently located in the Rackham Building on Eastern's main campus, the institute serves approximately 150 children, ages 18 months old to six years, according to Ellen Gold, executive director of University Health Services. "We're excited about the move to Fletcher School. It is a true design for young people," said Gold. "It will be a good partnership because there are areas where we can collaborate with the Autism Collaborative Center. It also will improve on the quality of safety, security, access and programs. " According to Gold, it will take approximately 90 days to complete the process to get a new license for the Fletcher School site and the institute's relocation should be finalized by the end of fall semester 2009. EMU HOMI I Feature When Frank Fedel joined Eastern Michigan University's orthotics and prosthetics masters degree program in 2003, he was surprised by the lack of hard data that could show whether a prosthetic worked the way it was Aug. 11, 2009 issue meant to. Fedel research focuses on "I wanted to see something that said, 'OK, we're making a difference,"' improving efficiency said Fedel, an exercise science lecturer at EMU. "I come from a medical of prosthetic feet background (cardiac rehabilitation) where we needed to document that we had an outcome at the end of it - an EKG score that was more normal, a lower heart rate .... I thought we (in O&P) needed to move toward a more By Amy E. Whitesall objective, outcomes-based performance model." So Fedel Joined forces with a team ....Clnllf- of engineers from College FOCU�� Park Industries, a company in Fraser that makes prosthetic feet, to co invent and develop the Intelligent Prosthetic Endoskeletal Component System PROSTHETIC CALCULATIONS: Frank Fedel, an (iPecs) - a exercise science lecturer at EMU, measures the force device that of a prosthetic foot. Fedel and engineers from College can shed new Park Industries have co-invented iPecs, a device that light on the can measure gait analysis, reveal twisting, direction forces of of force and other parameters that will help clinicians everyday life and researchers refine the way a prosthetic limb fits on amputees and performs. and their prosthetics. Initially, iPecs will be a research tool, Fedel said. But, ultimately, he'd like to see it become as commonplace for amputees as heart rate monitors are to cardiac patients or blood sugar monitors are to diabetics. It would help those with prosthetics detect and head off potential problems as they get back to normal activities. Thus far, College Park has tested the device in university gait labs at Northwestern and Georgia Tech. The company received a $165,000 grant from the National Institutes for Health (NIH), through the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute Of Child Health & Human Development, to fund the first phase of the project. Senior research and engineering officer Mike Leydet says College Park hopes to have iPecs ready to release this fall. "In the past, when people with an amputation walked around, you'd have a person with experience in gait analysis look at someone with an amputation as they walked around and they'd say, 'OK, you look like you're walking normally,"' Fedel said. "Or if not, they'd try to adjust the prosthesis. But 'walking normally' is kind of a subjective thing." To get more meaningful measurements, researchers and prostheticists use gait labs that typically involve a lot of expensive equipment - force plates mounted in the floor, camera systems and computers to run complex calculations. The iPecs device, which is about the size of a Tim Horton's muffin, is incorporated into the prosthetic system, where it measures the force being transmitted from the ground into the person's leg. The device can monitor the position of the foot and tell which way the toes are pointing. It can reveal twisting, direction of force and other parameters that will help clinicians and researchers refine the way a prosthetic limb fits and performs. Fedel's biomechanics background helped steer iPecs' features and functions. The idea of attaching measurement devices to prosthetics goes back to the late 1960s, Leydet said. What makes iPecs different is that it combines standard strain gauges with cell phone technology so the device can provide an accurate measurement without battery packs and wires.