Since the state enacted one of the most aggressive film incentives in the country in 2008, filmmakers have been lining up to make movies in Michigan, including at the U–M. In the last three years, 16 feature films were shot in the greater Ann Arbor area, including nine on campus. Among them are Conviction, Trust, Salvation Boulevard, and The Double. The incentives offer up to a 42 percent tax credit to film companies spending at least $50,000 in the state.

Attracting film companies to the region has helped boost the local economy, says Lee Doyle, director of the U–M Film Office. According to the Michigan Film Office’s latest annual report, seven films that completed shooting in and around Ann Arbor in 2009 reported expenditures of almost $46 million and generated over 2,000 jobs.

The incentive program has also created opportunities for U–M students and graduates. Instead of leaving for Los Angeles, about 80 percent of graduates pursuing a career in film or television are now staying in Michigan, says Jim Burnstein, the head of U–M’s screenwriting program. "They love Michigan and want to be part of its rebirth."

Sultan Sharrief One of those is Sultan Sharrief, whose film Bilal’s Stand was accepted to the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. The project, which grew out of his work as a U–M student, tells the story of a Detroit high school student pursuing his dream of higher education. To help nurture and retain young talent such as Sharrief, U–M, Michigan State University, and Wayne State University recently formed the Michigan Creative Film Alliance to help build an infrastructure of skilled professionals who can support a self–sustaining film industry in the state.

To learn more about filming on the U–M campus, visit www.vpcomm.umich.edu/film.

Highlights

  • The world–reknowned Royal Shakespeare Company marked its fourth visit to U–M March 20–31. The collaboration, which focused exclusively on the play development process, included 16 actors and a nine–member creative team who developed three new works, including the reconstruction of a "lost" play credited to Shakespeare.
  • Inspiring students to pursue careers in automotive engineering was one of the goals behind a new technology exhibit that ran September 9–17 at the Duderstadt Gallery on North Campus. The GM/U–M Institute of Automotive Research and Education sponsored the event.
  • U–M film students and recent graduates came from as far away as Los Angeles and New York to gather at the 2009 Traverse City Film Festival. The group presented two short films made for a Screen Arts and Cultures class.
  • U–M burn surgeon Mark Hemmila reported at a September conference that treating second–degree burns with a nanoemulsion lotion sharply curbs bacterial growth and reduces inflammation. The formulation was developed at U–M and is licensed to U–M spin–off NanoBio Corp.
  • U–M launched a new website, www.montage.umich.edu, to promote appreciation of the power and relevance of the arts and creativity in people’s lives. The multimedia site features university cultural news, faculty profiles, think pieces, and student stories.
  • U–M Health System researchers will lead a $10.25 million, five–year effort to study nephrotic syndrome, a rare disease that causes kidney failure. The syndrome contributes to nearly 12 percent of cases of kidney failure at an annual cost of more than $3 billion.
  • As part of an ongoing effort to improve the way it conducts business, U–M launched a benchmarking study at its Ann Arbor campus to examine a number of its administrative functions. The study collects data in key areas ranging from technology allocation to staff mixes using various survey tools and interviews.
  • Tech Transfer launched the Michigan Venture Center to enhance U–M’s venture creation capability, and plans a faculty start–up accelerator unit at the NCRC. U–M is among the nation’s leaders in creating start–up ventures based on university technology.
  • At this year’s MPowered 1,000 Pitches entrepreneurship competition, students from across campus submitted 2,165 ideas for new products, businesses, or social ventures. Each of the nine winners received a $1,000 prize. Organizers believe it is the largest pitch contest in the world.
  • Ann Arbor–based U–M spin–off HistoSonics Inc. secured $11 million in financing to develop a novel medical device that uses tightly focused ultrasound pulses to treat prostate disease. The five company founders and device co–inventors are all from U–M.
  • Six engineering students at UM–Dearborn were among the first developers to adapt Ford Motor Co.’s new SYNC application programming interface for in–car voice–controlled smartphone mobile apps. The two resulting apps included SYNCcast, which lets users enjoy internet radio in the vehicle, and a navigation app called FollowMe.
  • A 9–cubic millimeter sensor developed at U–M can operate nearly perpetually on solar power. The device, which is 1,000 times smaller than comparable commercial systems, could enable new biomedical devices and vastly improve current environmental sensor networks.
  • TechArb, a small–business incubator for student entrepreneurs, found a permanent home in November with the help of the College of Engineering’s Center for Entrepreneurship and various private partners. TechArb’s space in McKinley Towne Centre will be between internet giant Google and economic development group Ann Arbor SPARK.
  • U–M faculty and staff authors who would like to publicize their books can do so through Books in Print, a new website (www.ns.umich.edu/books) hosted by the Office of the Vice President for Communications.
  • U–M’s multiyear IT strategy, NextGen Michigan, kicked off in February. The plan aims to develop a world–class IT infrastructure that will advance U–M’s academic, clinical, and research programs while reducing costs.
  • Research by a U–M team about potent muscle–building hormones called IGFs (insulin–like growth factors) could lead to new treatments for muscle–wasting diseases, ways to prevent muscle loss caused by aging, and potential new insights into cancer biology.
  • Nine faculty members were honored on May 3 with the second annual Teaching Innovation Prize. Each of the five winning project teams, selected from a field of 58 entries, received $5,000. The prize is sponsored by the Office of the Provost, the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching, and the U–M Libraries.
  • The Scribble, an electronic doodle pad that animates your drawings, won a toy design competition organized by the College of Engineering’s Center for Entrepreneurship. The four–member student team from the School of Art & Design received a $2,500 prize. The idea for the device grew out of a focus group that asked third–graders what they wanted from Santa.
  • A free iPhone app that provides access to news, events, and other university information, became available on mobileapps.its.umich.edu, a new website created to encourage and support mobile computing needs at U–M.
  • Crain’s Detroit Business and the Detroit Regional Chamber named U–M Nonprofit Employer of the Year. The award, presented for the first time, recognizes U–M’s innovative Development Summer Internship Program.
  • The School of Art & Design’s ongoing video series, PLAY, received an Emmy Award in the arts and entertainment category. The award marks the fourth Emmy in three years for the series, which can be seen on cable television’s Michigan Channel.
  • Rare Egyptian mummy masks and a spectacular Tiffany chandelier were just some of the treasures on display during the 2009–10 theme year, "Meaningful Objects: Museums in the Academy." Sponsored by LSA, the theme year celebrated the contributions of U–M’s 12 museums to local intellectual, cultural, and social life.
  • A report released in May by The Science Coalition cited U–M spin–off companies Arbor Networks and Health Media, Inc. as examples of highly successful companies that trace their founding to breakthrough university research sponsored by a federal agency.
  • Tonic, a digital media company, acquired the popular DoGood iPhone application developed last year by the U–M student–run company Mobil33t. The free app provides a daily virtuous deed suggestion for the close to 70,000 people who have downloaded it so far.
  • U–M named Victor Strecher, a professor at the School of Public Health and the Medical School, Distinguished University Innovator for 2010. Strecher was the founder of HealthMedia Inc., which health care giant Johnson & Johnson acquired in 2008.
  • In fiscal 2010, U–M researchers reported 290 new inventions. U–M Tech Transfer licensed 97 technologies, matching their all–time high, and added 10 new start–ups to the 93 ventures created in the last 10 years. Royalties increased 16 percent to $17.5 million while total revenues reached a record $39.8 million, largely due to a onetime revenue payment.