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Monday, February 9, 2015
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Bloomington Bummer
200 students
build consumer
products at second
annual Makeathon
By JING JING MA
Daily Staff Reporter
The Art and Architecture
Building buzzed with energy
Saturday afternoon as students
sketched designs, drilled wood
and wired hardware. More than
200 students tried their hands at
building physical products rang-
ing from collapsible skis to stress-
relieving stones.
Makeathon, held Friday and
Saturday, is an annual competi-
tion where students team up to
brainstorm and create innova-
tive products. Participants com-
peted in one of three categories:
Health & Wellness, Environment
& Energy and Entertainment &
Toys.
MPowered, a student orga-
nization that promotes student
entrepreneurship, launched the
competition in 2013. MPow-
ered is also responsible for simi-
larly focused events, including
MHacks, 1000 Pitches and Start-
up High School.
Last year, the University of
Michigan-Dearborn
hosted
Makeathon, with about 100 par-
ticipants. This year, the event
doubled in size and was held on
North Campus.
Art
&
Design
sophomore
Arwin Wang, Makeathon direc-
tor, said the event’s change in size
yielded a minor change in focus
as well. To give the event a more
defined
purpose,
Makeathan
featured three themes: Health &
Wellness, Environment & Energy
and Entertainment & Toys.
“Last year the event was very
open-ended and people could cre-
ate whatever they wanted,” she
said. “We want people to come
up with innovative ideas and cre-
ative ways to create a product that
solves a real problem.”
Students streamed into the
auditorium of the Art and Archi-
tecture Building for the event’s
closing ceremony Sunday after-
University hosts
discussion with
alumni, state
economic adviser
By IRENE PARK
Daily Staff Reporter
In recent years, colleges across
the nation, including the Univer-
sity, have started offering degrees,
certificates and classes geared
toward
entrepreneurship
and
innovation.
Friday
afternoon’s
#UMichChat Twitter event fea-
tured four panelists who discussed
entrepreneurship in Michigan.
The Twitter talk is the Uni-
versity’s fourth; previous events
featured E. Royster Harper, vice
president for student life, and a dis-
cussion on social media and jour-
nalism.
Kelly LaPierre, managing direc-
tor of Desai Accelerator; Engineer-
ing Prof. Thomas Zurbuchen, the
University’s senior counselor for
entrepreneurship; University alum
Jeffrey Sorensen, co-founder of
U.S Supreme Court
justice talks gender,
prominent cases
By SHOHAM GEVA and
TAYLOR WIZNER
Daily News Editor and
Daily Staff Reporter
U.S. Supreme Court Justice
Ruth Bader Ginsburg spoke
about her life and opinions on
Supreme Court cases at Hill
Auditorium Friday morning as
part of the annual Tanner Lec-
ture.
Speaking to a full auditorium
of over 3,000 students, faculty
and community members, Gins-
burg discussed the issues that
have defined her career, such as
gender and voting equality.
Ginsburg, who was appointed
to the Supreme Court by Presi-
dent Bill Clinton in 1993, has
seen
several
landmark
civil
rights cases during her time on
the Court. These include United
States v. Virginia, which dis-
cussed
whether
state-funded
educational institutions could
refuse to admit women, and Shel-
by v. Holder, which considered
portions of the Voting Rights
Act. During her time as a law-
yer, she litigated multiple major
cases concerning several aspects
of gender discrimination.
Law Prof. Scott Hershovitz
and Assistant Law Prof. Kate
Andrias, who were both former
clerks for Ginsburg, moderated
the Q&A discussion-style event,
using their own questions and
some supplied by the audience
prior to the event.
Andrias began the Q&A, ask-
ing why Ginsburg went into law
when so few women were in the
field.
Ginsburg said she was inspired
by the atmosphere around civil
rights, citing in particular the
Red Scare during the 1950s,
which led to many individuals
being arrested on suspicion of
Communist ideology.
“The idea was that lawyer is
the profession, but it’s also some-
thing that arms you with the skill
to make things a little better for
other people,” she said.
She added that her choice
lay between business and law
school, and her graduate school
of choice, Harvard, had not yet
opened its business school up to
women.
At a time when there was very
little mention of women’s status
in the law, Ginsburg said she sub-
sequently began her legal focus
on gender equality in the 1960s,
while she was teaching at Rut-
gers University and serving as a
volunteer lawyer with the Amer-
ican Civil Liberties Union.
Rather than being self-initiat-
ed, she said both a student push
for a class on gender equality law
and a growing number of com-
plaints to the ACLU concerning
gender equality drew her atten-
tion to the subject.
Her first foray into the area
came when the legal director
from the New Jersey ACLU affil-
Muslim Student
Association dinner
features traditional
cultural elements
By EMMA KILBANE
For the Daily
Celebrating achievement and
faith, the Muslim Student Asso-
ciation hosted their annual ban-
quet Friday night with a menu
of traditional Arab cuisine and
a lineup of speakers and perfor-
mances.
The event, held in the North
Campus
Research
Complex,
drew about 200 alumni, stu-
dents and other guests who
gathered to celebrate MSA
accomplishments during the
past semester.
Many guests wore traditional
clothing in nearly every color of
the spectrum, and crystals often
adorned the hijabs, or heads-
carves attendees wore.
The
MSA,
comprised
of
approximately 250 active mem-
bers, works toward building a
Muslim community on campus
through community service,
social
connections,
religious
enrichment, social justice and
interfaith relations.
The banquet also featured
keynote speaker Amjad Tarsin,
a University alum who is cur-
CAMPUS LIFE
TECHNOLOGY
ALLISON FARRAND/Daily
Ruth Bader
Ginsburg
speaks at
Hill Auditorium
JAMES COLLER/Daily
LSA sophomore Tahany Alsabahi and LSA freshman Noor Abughoush eat at the Muslim Student Association’s
annual banquet Friday at the North Campus Research Complex.
See TWITTER, Page 2A
See BANQUET, PAGE 2A
See MAKEATHON, Page 3A
See RBG, Page 3A
N O T O R I O U S
Program draws
creative minds
to N. Campus
At banquet, Muslim group
celebrates past semester
Twitter chat
focuses on
business and
innovation
INDEX
Vol. CXXIV, No. 62
©2015 The Michigan Daily
michigandaily.com
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ARTS...........................5A
SUDOKU..................... 2A
CL ASSIFIEDS...............6A
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