Newsroom Stories

Today, a group of the nation’s leading universities announced plans to launch a new, innovative program that transforms the model of online education. The new online education program, Semester Online, will be the first of its kind to offer undergraduate students the opportunity to take rigorous, online courses for credit from a consortium of universities. The program is delivered through a virtual classroom environment and interactive platform developed by 2U, formerly known as 2tor.

Washington University in St. Louis has taken a leadership role in helping to shape the future of online education by being a catalyst to bring together a consortium of the nation’s leading colleges and universities that plans to launch Semester Online. This program is a transformative new model for online education, offering undergraduate students the opportunity to take rigorous, online courses for credit from consortium schools.

Ann Kittlaus has been named assistant dean for communications at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis. She was a senior vice president at Fleishman-Hillard  in St. Louis and held several positions at government agencies in Washington, D.C.

Robert O. Heuckeroth, MD, PhD, has been named the Alumni Endowed Professor of Pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. He is a professor of pediatrics at the School of Medicine and a pediatric gastroenterologist at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.

During October, more than 180 faculty, students, and staff members participated in WUSTL’s second car-free challenge. Throughout the month, participants were encouraged to leave their cars in the garage and go “car-free” by using public transit, walking, biking, and carpooling.

Members of the Washington University in St. Louis community were recognized during the fifth annual James M. Holobaugh Honors ceremony Nov. 7 in Ridgley Hall’s Holmes Lounge. The award honors individuals and organizations that promote lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) equality, perform direct advocacy and service to the St. Louis metropolitan area and incorporate education and dialogue as part of their practice.

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.

The student-run local chapter of Locks of Love encouraged WUSTL community members to participate in the annual campus-wide hair drive Nov. 12. The drive yielded $600 and 26 hair donations. All hair and money collected is sent to the Locks of Love national organization, which aims to help restore self-esteem and confidence in children afflicted by disease-related, long-term hair loss.

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.

Everyone knows someone who overshares on social media, from constant updates about daily minutiae to an automatically generated stream of songs listened to, articles read, games played and other matters blast-broadcast through various applications. Intentional over-sharers may be a necessary nuisance in our wired world, but the days of the auto-generated social media stream may be numbered, says Neil Richards, JD, privacy law expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis.