Author: Neil Schoenherr

The team registration deadline for the Olin Sustainability Case Competition is Friday, Dec. 7. Open to all WUSTL students, this year’s competition, “Blight, Flight, and Urban Plight,” hopes to stimulate sustainable development of vacant land in the City of St. Louis.

First round submissions for the Sustainable Land Lab competition, sponsored by WUSTL and the City of St. Louis, are due Monday, Dec. 10. Teams are encouraged to propose innovative projects that transform vacant lots in St. Louis into assets that advance sustainability.

Coming up with creative, fresh ideas does not necessarily imply that theywill ultimately be put into practice. However, the odds of one’s ideas making it into practice are better when people are driven to push their ideas through the organization and are savvy networkers, finds new research from Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis.

That’s not a new parking meter or air pump for your tires outside of Brauer Hall — it’s a charging station for electric vehicles. This first charging station on the Danforth Campus is another step in the university’s commitment to sustainability. A ceremony to celebrate the installation is set for 3:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 29, outside of Brauer Hall. A station also is planned for the Millbrook Parking Facility and more may follow, depending on demand. 

Mantis shrimp, aggressive, predatory sea crustaceans, have among the most sophisticated vision of all animals. A group of researchers, including Viktor Gruev, PhD, want to recreate that vision to make a specialized camera that could bring more precision to biomedical imaging and weapon targeting in defense.

WUSTL employees interested in learning about evening and part-time graduate programs are encouraged to attend a lunch-and-learn session at noon on Dec. 6 in the Danforth University Center.

Detecting whether a patient will have acute kidney injury could become as simple as dipping a paper test strip printed with gold nanorods into a urine sample, a team of Washington University in St. Louis researchers has found.

Alum Robbie Garrison (left), of MMBiosensing, LLC, talks with Ken Harrington, managing director of the Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, following the selection of Garrison’s firm as one of seven finalists for the 2012 Olin Cup during a ceremony Nov. 8 in Simon Hall.

There are currently a record 52 military veterans enrolled at Olin Business School Of those, 32 are enrolled in the Yellow Ribbon Program. Established by the federal government in 2008, the program allows institutions of higher learning in the United States to voluntarily enter into an agreement with the Department of Veterans Affairs to fund tuition and fee expenses at their school.

The annual Olin Sustainability Case Competition kicks off at 4 p.m. today in Simon Hall. This year’s case will revolve around vacant land use in St. Louis. Open to all Washington University graduate and undergraduate students, the OSCC provides participants with a chance to learn about practical, real-world applications of corporate responsibility and sustainability concepts so that they can make an impact in the world around them.