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Innovation

#1 in the U.S. for third year in a row

For the third straight year, U.S. News & World Report has ranked ASU No. 1 on its “Most Innovative Schools” list, ahead of No. 2 Stanford and No. 3 MIT. ASU again topped the list based on a survey of peers: College presidents, provosts and admissions deans around the country nominated up to 10 colleges or universities that are making the most innovative improvements to curriculum, faculty, students, campus life technology or facilities.

Relationships To work or not to work: What Mom wants is best

The center of a mother’s life tends to be her family, but if Mom is unhappy about staying home with the kids or about working outside the home, then she may suffer, according to new ASU research published in the Journal of Family and Economic Issues. The study showed that the best-adjusted mothers were the ones who pursued the lifestyle they wanted and that mothers who regretted staying at home consistently fared the worst psychologically.

Mayo Clinic School of Medicine opens in Valley

The Mayo Clinic and Arizona State University Alliance for Health Care, aimed at transforming medical education and health care, celebrated an important next step this summer, as the Mayo Clinic School of Medicine in Scottsdale welcomed its first cohort of 50 students. The school’s curriculum includes courses on the science of health care delivery, jointly developed by experts at the Mayo Clinic and ASU.

Fresh water pumps through the newly installed solar lift irrigation system.

Students help farmers solve irrigation problem

In the Hindu Kush Himalaya region, approximately 210 million smallholder farmers engage in a practice known as rain-fed agriculture. However, 80 percent of the annual rainfall in the area occurs during the annual four-month monsoon, so costly infrastructure is required to transport water from distant sources during the rest of the year. A group of ASU students implemented solutions-based projects to help local farmers support their farms beyond the monsoon, including a solar-powered lift irrigation system.

Study reveals ways to stay healthier on planes

Air travel may be the quickest way to get to your vacation destination, but it’s also one of the speediest ways for infectious diseases to spread between people, cities and countries. So what will minimize your chances of getting sick? One ASU team turned to applied math and computing tools for the answer.

The researchers found that a random, two-lengthwise-sections boarding technique results in the lowest number of new infections — whereas the commonly used three-sections technique, with passengers boarding by first class, middle zone and back section, is actually the worst strategy. Plane size matters, too: Planes with fewer than 150 seats are better at reducing new infections.

Roundabouts: practical yet polarizing

In the right conditions, traffic roundabouts have been known to increase safety, lower crash severity and reduce traffic delays. But despite their demonstrated safety in other states, they’re a highly polarizing traffic feature in Arizona, which is why ASU engineering professor Mike Mamlouk decided to study their effects in the Grand Canyon State. His team found that singlelane roundabouts decreased the total accident rate by 18 percent and the injury rate by 44 percent per year. To Mamlouk’s surprise, two-lane roundabouts increased the total accident rate by 62 percent — but these accidents were less severe, and the injury rate decreased by 16 percent.

ASU professor’s poem part of U2 tour

Fans who attended shows on U2’s Joshua Tree Tour 2017 got a little taste of Arizona: ASU Regents’ Professor Alberto Rios’ poem, “The Border: A Double Sonnet,” was projected on giant video screens during preshow segments of the Irish rock band’s current world tour. The Arizona State Poet Laureate describes the poem as “simply 28 ways of looking at the border wall that don’t get reported in the news.” Find the full poem at poets.org/ poetsorg/poem/ border-double-sonnet.

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Bhavik Patel, a mechanical engineering senior and peer mentor at Tooker House, demonstrates the use of an Amazon Echo Dot.

1st-of-its-kind tech program comes to campus

ASU and Amazon are bringing a voice-technology program to the Tempe campus that will surround students with the technology at home and in class. Engineering students living in the new Tooker House will each have an Amazon Echo Dot, as part of the first voiceenabled, learning-enhanced residential community at a university. Students can take courses that teach new concepts focused on building voice-user interfaces, joining the larger community of voice developers.