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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

