“It’s a really unique way of 

expressing yourself creatively,” 
Palermo said. “There’s nothing 
quite as risk-filled ... it can go 
really well or really bad. And 
when it goes really well, there’s 
nothing more satisfying.”

Risk-taking paid off as well 

for Paperback Rhino, a student 
group from the University of 
Iowa, who followed receSs. As 
part of their performance, the 
group interviewed a member 
of the audience and acted out 
sketches based on that audience 
member’s activities that day, 
including getting brunch at 
Angelo’s, ditching her friends to 
see a movie and receiving a poem 
from a stranger.

Independent improv comedy 

groups Wet Bus and Alterboyz, 
both from Chicago, closed the 
first part of the festival. Both 
groups elicited a reaction from 
the audience by improvising 
sketches 
from 
audience 

suggestions 
of 
cheese 
and 

blueberry beer, respectively.

Leila Gorstein, a member of 

Alterboyz, said connecting to 
the audience is one of the most 
important parts of improv.

“For audience members, it’s 

really enjoyable to watch people 
living the human experience 
in a way that they can relate to 
and understand,” Gorstein said. 

“That’s the most fun part about 
it, to take things from your life 
and use it in a human way.”

Midnight Book Club and 

ComCo, two students groups 
from the University, opened 
the second part of the festival. 
Midnight Book Club improvised 
a sketch based on the audience 
topic suggestion of “infant,” 
while ComCo performed improv 
games 
like 
“Four 
Square” 

consisting 
of 
four 
improv 

sketches based on audience 
suggestions.

Upright 
Citizens 
Brigade 

Touring Company, a New York 
City group featuring Michigan 
alum Mike Kelton, ended the 
festival by improvising a two-act 
performance.

The group’s first act involved 

the details of an interview with 
an audience member, a senior 
from the School of Music, 
Theatre & Dance, about her 
experiences at the University, 
including Greek life, the brutality 
of acting classes and professors 
that make students cry. The 
second act incorporated text 
messages that audience members 
volunteered to read aloud.

LSA 
freshman 
Jeff 

Sondheimer said he enjoyed the 
spur-of-the-moment nature of 
improv.

“(Improv comedy) is real 

genuine comedy that has to be 
witnessed to really understand 
and get the value of,” he said. 
“I think it’s definitely prime 

entertainment. It’s good, safe 
fun.”

Fox, one of the coordinators 

of the event, said the hosts 
aimed to create a fun, enjoyable 
atmosphere and promote the 
camaraderie that comes from 
improv comedy.

“Getting to see each other 

play and see how other teams 
approach the same thing is the 
most rewarding thing,” Fox 
said. “And for people who are 
interested in pursuing theater, 
film, comedy and improv, I 
hope that they get the chance to 
meet a bunch of people who are 
interested in and doing the same 
things that they want to do ... 
and take the event as a chance to 
look at a bunch of people who do 
things that you love at a very high 
level.”

In addition to performing, 

the visiting improv groups said 
they took the festival as an 
opportunity to improve their 
routines by learning from the 
other groups.

“Seeing 
other 
people’s 

styles really opens your mind,” 
Palermo said. “We’re going to be 
talking a lot about what we saw 
from the other groups, what we 
liked about what they did ... and 
incorporate ideas that drive what 
they do”.

“We all come from a different 

background,” said Gaby Dixon, 
another member of Alterboyz. 
“But making people laugh is a 
very universal thing.”

3-News

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Monday, March 28, 2016 — 3A

Low-fidelity mannequins are 

similar to those used for teaching 
CPR because they do not give 
any feedback to the students, 
simulation specialist Ben Oliver 
said. 
Mid-fidelity 
mannequins 

have a few more capabilities, but 
cannot react like a human would.

High-fidelity mannequins are 

the most sophisticated of the 
three and are able to emit fluids 
such as artificial blood, vomit 
and sweat. They can also react 
to medication distribution, have 
pupils adjustable to light like a 
human’s eyes would and can give 
birth.

Clinical Instructor Maureen 

Westfall said Nursing instructors 
are 
able 
to 
program 
the 

mannequins either before or 
during the students’ simulation 
experience. In obstetrics, for 
example, she can program how 
many contractions the mannequin 
has while giving birth and how 
often.

“The focus of simulation is 

really problem-based learning,” 
Westfall said. “You use problem-
based learning in relation to 
objectives we create.”

Though the mannequin can 

react on its own in certain cases, 
the instructors often adjust the 
scenarios based on the students’ 
performance, 
Westfall 
said. 

She added that students should 
recognize signs and symptoms of 
medical issues the mannequins 
exhibit through clues provided 
by instructors. Each simulation 
session is recorded so students 
can look back and review their 
experience later.

“It’s safe space for us to 

help coach the students into 
managing these patient situations 
appropriately,” Westfall said.

During a planned simulation 

day, students come into the 
simulation room — usually in 
pairs — while other students 
watch the simulation via cameras. 
Michelle Aebersold, director of 
the Clinical Learning Center, said 
the students not participating can 
also play roles, such as a “frantic 
parent,” to make the simulation 
more challenging. Following 
the simulation, the students 
all gather for a debriefing to 
discuss how it went.

“If you don’t make these 

things 
challenging 
enough, 

then you don’t get the emotions 
involved and then it’s not a 
good experience and students 
don’t really get as involved 
in it and the learning doesn’t 
occur,” Aebersold said.

Nursing 
junior 
Sarah 

Brzezinski said she thinks it 
is beneficial to have hands-on 
experience that is safe for both 
the student and patient, while 
still difficult.

“You 
come 
into 

(simulations) and you never 
go unchallenged,” Brzezinski 
said. “If you do everything 
perfectly in sim, then you’re 
not learning and we’re not 
going our job. So I think it’s 
really good that they push us 
and they continue to challenge 
us and I think it’s very effective 
for the clinical setting.”

Aebersold said the overall 

benefit of simulations is that 
they can reduce the amount of 
time students need to spend in 
the clinical setting with real 
patients, with little effect on 
the students’ learning.

“We can effectively replace 

time in the actual clinical 
environment with simulation; 
up to 50 percent of those hours 
can be replaced by simulation, 
with no change in those pass 
rates on those state boards,” 
she said.

Nursing junior Jade Curl said 

working with the mannequins is a 
unique but effective experience.

“It feels real,” Curl said. “You 

don’t feel like you’re pretending. 
You walk in and you hold their 
hand and when you talk to them, 
you look them in the eye. It’s really 
odd thinking about how you act in 
the sim, because you don’t think 
about it. You just act like this is a 
real person. You give them respect. 
You’re excited when the baby 
comes out and the baby is fine.”

Because it can be difficult to get 

used to the robotic characteristics 
and mechanical sounds of the 
“patients,” students have to sign 
a fictional contract, agreeing they 
will treat them as if they were real.

“Sometimes 
it’s 
a 
learning 

curve for students to wrap their 
head around the fact that they 
should treat this robot as a real 
person,” Westfall said. “But what 
I’ve observed over time is that 
that is pretty short-lived because 
the learners we do have here are 
highly motivated and want to do 
well and want to understand … 
They really do act as if the patient 
is a real person.”

Westfall said the mannequins 

also have the capability of dying, 
though this is usually part of a 
planned learning experience so 
as not to be traumatic for the 
students.

“It’s most important because it’s 

a great stepping stone to patient-
care exposure for the students,” 
Westfall said. “It provides an 
excellent lead-in to the real clinical 
environment and it promotes 
more 
confidence 
once 
the 

student is in the real clinical 
environment.”

Nursing junior Rebecca Ford 

said simulations are something 
she will never forget.

“Nothing sticks in your head 

the way it does when you screw 
up in sim,” Ford said. “Being 
able to get an interactive 
experience 
makes 
you 

remember things way more 
than reading it or someone 
teaching it to you, especially if 
you messed up the first time. 
That’s the coolest thing about 
sim — we’re allowed to mess 
up and it’s OK; we talk about it 
and learn from it.”

IMPROV
From Page 1A
SIMULATOR
From Page 1A

the way I want it.”

Afternoon 
Delight 
prides 

itself on its consistency, its 
ingredients and its customer 
service. Hackett said all the 
food is homemade, and the staff 
is very well adjusted to serving 
customers during lunch rushes.

“It gets very hectic during 

the 
rushes,” 
he 
said. 
“It’s 

controlled chaos, though; the 
staff is organized and prepared 
for it. Every week it’s the same, 
and they are more than willing 
and ready to tackle it. We are 
big on customer service and 
consistency.”

RESTAURANT
From Page 1A

“Access to data, the different types 
of data and the way you put that 
data to use, as well as the increasing 
interconnection of businesses due 
to communication, play a vital role 
in economic growth.”

Following 
his 
address, 

Chandrasekaran took questions 
from the audience, noting the 
importance of transparency and 
cybersecurity in maintaining a 
successful business, as well as the 
significance of the relationship 
between India and China.

“China is certainly a great 

market; it is a great place,” 
Chandrasekaran 
said. 
“Going 

forward, China and India need to 
look to see what we can do together 
to improve our business relations. 
Both nations can look to each other 
to try and notice what successes 
that businesses from both nations 
have had in IT services and attempt 
to replicate those practices, and 
push for reform.”

Mukesh Aghi, the president of 

the U.S.-India Business Council, a 
Washington, D.C.-based advocacy 
organization, also spoke at the 
event 
about 
future 
business 

opportunities between the two 
nations. 

Aghi 
said 
because 
of 

India’s rapid urbanization and 
modernization, there will also be 
a need for foreign investment in 
Indian infrastructure.

“Roughly 400 million Indians 

have migrated from rural to 
urban areas,” Aghi said. “This is 
the largest migration in human 
history, ever. And that means that 
cities will have to build roads, 
hospitals, a better education and 
security 
system, 
housing 
and 

transportation system. That is a 
tremendous challenge, but also 
a tremendous opportunity for 
multinational investment.”

On Saturday, the conference 

featured panels on brand building 
in India, the textile industry in 
India, current issues in the Indian 
economy 
and 
managing 
the 

institutional legal environment for 
businesses.

Sinha, the featured speaker 

on Saturday, spoke about the 
economic turbulence in India 
following reform policies in 1991 
in which India’s finance minister, 
Manmohan 
Singh 
presented 

reforms 
changing 
business 

regulations.

Sinha 
shared 
stories 
from 

his tenure as finance minister, 
saying that the two decades of 
economic instability in the country 
are largely attributed to lack of 
government support for economic 
reform policies.

“In 
India, 
economics 
and 

business is a slave to politics,” 
Sinha said. “Much of what has 
been causing our periods of 
economic troubles has been a lack 
of political consensus over the 
proposed reform policies. This is 
something that you can see in all 
major parties.”

Ahuja 
said 
the 
conference 

should be important for students 
in understanding the ever-growing 
international business world and 
globalization.

“We want to broaden people’s 

understanding of India, and the 
U.S. business relationship with 
India,” Ahuja said. “We have to 
prepare our students for the global 
marketplace, and since India is the 
second-largest population in the 
world, a very young population, 
India is rapidly becoming the 
country of the future.”

Wiesenberger, a member of Izzat, 
said the team has been working 
on their numbers since September, 
adding that his past experiences 
with dance contributed to his 
decision to participate here.

“I really enjoyed the Bollywood 

and Bhangra style (in high school) 
so I decided to continue that at U 
of M,” he said. “And it’s nice to see 
the consolidation of all the Indian 
(performing arts) in one show 
where everyone supports each 
other.”

LSA sophomore Dhara Gosalia, 

public relations chair of Sahana, 
said Michigan Sahana created a 
TBS planning committee this year 
to ease the huge undertaking of 
organizing the show, which also 
requires long-term planning.

“We usually have to start looking 

for venues a year in advance,” 
Gosalia said.

ROSS
From Page 1A

DANCE
From Page 1A

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

