michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Monday, October 23, 2017
ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
UpRound, a new University of
Michigan student organization
for any undergraduate student
interested
in
learning
more
about venture capitalism, hosted
its first annual training and a
competition on Saturday.
Engineering
sophomore
Jonah Erlich founded the group
along with LSA junior David
Silverman, Business sophomore
Adarsh
Rachmale
and
LSA
senior Bradley Baum. Elrich said
the group decided to start the
organization
after
competing
in a similar one competition at
Carnegie Mellon University.
“We need to teach the broader
university about what venture
capital
is,
and
engage
the
community with what’s going on
in the entrepreneurial ecosystem
today,” Elrich said.
Erlich and Silverman are
members of the Entrepreneurial
Leadership Program and wanted
to open up the world of venture
capitalism and entrepreneurship
to any University students.
“We founded this six months
ago and it’s been a sprint ever
since,” Erlich said. “(The Ross
School of Business) ran a similar
competition and we came in and
said, ‘Look, we think we would
do a great job at appealing to a
wider audience and getting more
students involved that aren’t in
Ross,’ and they took a chance
on us, and we increased the
application numbers.”
The co-founders said they
were
expecting
about
50
applicants, but received over 80.
“We
hosted
three
open
training
sessions,”
Silverman
said. “Through those three,
the dinner and tonight, we will
have over 200 different students
interact with UpRound in some
capacity.”
To those involved in the
organization, UpRound’s large
applicant
pool
suggests
the
University might be a growing
hub
for
entrepreneurial
innovation and high growth
potential investments.
“If you look at Silicon Valley,
the model of it is that you have
Stanford and Berkeley feeding
San Francisco and here we have
the power of (the University of)
Michigan; we have the research
powerhouse
to
fund
Grand
Rapids and to fund Detroit,”
Silverman said.
The UpRound competition
serves as a publicity event and
training for students because
it brings venture capitalists to
the University to engage with
students, witness the talent and
expose students to successful
businessmen and women, many
of whom were University alumni.
“Bringing them here to see the
Michigan ecosystem in addition
to
having
this
competition,
they’re realizing that this is
a place to start investing in,”
Silverman said.
Ann
Arbor
resident
Areel
Al-Lami, who was born in Ann
Arbor but raised in Saudi Arabia,
has seen immigrant communities
in Ann Arbor struggle with
language barriers, false cultural
assumptions
and
a
lack
of
technological
literacy,
which
she believes could be alleviated
through diversity initiatives.
She attended the Traveling
Innovation Hour’s fourth meeting
of the year to discuss her ideas with
a group of people who could offer
diverse opinions and solutions.
The Traveling Innovation Hour
met Friday morning to discuss
initiatives in education with an
intimate group of University of
Michigan
faculty,
professors
and students. The new initiative
is co-hosted by the Office of
Academic Innovation and seeks to
start a conversation on the issues
students and faculty face in the
classroom.
Traveling
Innovation
Hour
is open to the public and serves
as preparation for the Academic
Innovation Initiative Summit on
November 14. Friday’s meeting
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INDEX
Vol. CXXVII, No. 14
©2017 The Michigan Daily
N E WS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
O PI N I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
S U D O K U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
CROS SWO R D. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
SPORTS..........B-SECTION
BUSINESS
Office of
Academic
Innovation
has kickoff
ACADEMICS
The new initative offers
diverse solutions to many
issues facing classrooms
ZAYNA SYED
For the Daily
ROBERT BUECHLER/Daily
Students participate in the UpRound Conference at the Ross School of Business Saturday.
Student organization hosts event on
venture capitalism, entrepreneurship
UpRound hosts competition to mock pitch and investment consideration process
RACHEL LEVY
Daily Staff Reporter
Unhappy Valley
The Michigan football
team suffered a blowout
loss at Penn State, as
Saquon Barkley and Trace
McSorley dashed Michigan’s
postseason aspirations.
» Page 1B
michigandaily.com
For more stories and coverage, visit
See INNOVATION, Page 3A
Each week, The Michigan Daily
will be publishing a wrap-up of
the most important bills proposed
in Michigan Legislature over the
past seven days:
SB 620: This bill would amend
a 1976 law on sexual education to
require the teaching of consent
in sexual education programs in
school, to address sexual assault,
bystander
intervention
and
dating violence.
State
Sen.
Curtis
Hertel,
D-East Lansing, proposed the
amendment to the bill, calling it
“Yes Means Yes” legislation in
the press release on his website.
“College-aged women are four
times more likely than any other
age group to face sexual assault.
When we send our kids off to
college, we should worry about
their grades and how they are
going to pay for their books, not if
they will be sexually assaulted,”
Hertel said in the press release.
The bill aims to clarify the
definition of consent, including
what it looks like in a committed
relationship.
SB 629: This bill seeks to
modify the sexual education
See WRAP-UP, Page 3A
Weekly MI
state house
legislative
wrap-up
GOVERNMENT
Bills introduced this week
aim to protect environment,
change state vehicle code
COLIN BERESFORD
Daily Staff Reporter
Though many might think the
future of mobility lies in flying
cars and jetpacks, experts say
the future entails dependence on
equity of mobility companies and
policy framework needed for a
revolution.
At
least,
that’s
what
professionals in transportation,
economics,
energy
and
the
environment discussed Friday
for the University of Michigan
Energy Institute’s fourth TE3
Conference.
The
conference
featured
multiple
researchers
who
presented
their
work
and
conclusions before the crowd
of roughly 150 faculty members
and
students.
Following
the
presentation of research projects,
there were panel discussions
and Q&A sessions for audience
members to have an exchange
with
the
presenters.
There
were
also
frequent
breaks
where attendees had informal
conversation and networked.
The
conference
brought
scholars from other universities
like Arizona State University
and the University of Chicago
to speak about their work in
each field in order to present
an interdisciplinary view of the
future of transportation.
Engineering
Junior
Matt
Jankowski spoke to The Daily
about the benefits of having the
conference include work from
a wide array of fields saying,
“I’m glad that attention is being
devoted to looking at (autonomous
vehicles) in an interdisciplinary
way,
because
when
new
Conference
touts future
of mobility,
environment
See CONFERENCE, Page 3A
Over 150 faculty and students discussed
interdisciplinary research on transport
AARON DALAL
Daily Staff Reporter
Charles Blow discusses role of
media during Trump presidency
Over 1,000 gather for talk hosted by Humility by the Age of Self-Promotion organization
Discussing the role the media
played
—
and
continues
to
play — in Trump’s election and
presidency was the central theme
of The New York Times’s visual
op-ed columnist, Charles Blow’s
talk “President Donald Trump,
Arrogance and Democracy,” Friday
evening.
Blow
was
greeted
with
a
standing ovation by an audience
of over 1,000 people in Rackham
Auditorium
after
having
been
invited
to
the
University
of
Michigan by the Humility in the
Age of Self-Promotion Colloquium,
in conjunction with many other
local organizations such as the
Michigan Radio and the Ann Arbor
District Library.
Jamie Vander Broek, a librarian
for the School of Art & Design at
the University and one of the event
organizers, explained she and
her fellow co-workers felt it was
important to invite Blow to speak
because of his in-depth research
on the Trump administration. She
said she hoped it would allow the
community a chance to discuss the
importance of humility.
“We really wanted someone
to talk about Trump because it’s
something that last year has become
an everyday news topic,” Vander
AMARA SHAIKH
Daily Staff Reporter
See MEDIA, Page 3A
MAX KUANG/DAILY
New York Times Op-Ed columnist Charles Blow speaks in Rackham Friday.
Read more at MichiganDaily.com