A commitment to K-12 computer science

CSforAll, a national summit dedicated to expanding computer science courses for all students, took place at Washington University Oct 16-17. The event brought in about 300 teachers and administrators from school districts across Missouri and Southern Illinois.

Water, water, everywhere

Water is the key to life. But for city planners, water poses a profound question. How do we ensure residents a constant supply of fresh, clean water while also protecting vulnerable areas from flooding? This week, design professionals from around the country will gather in St. Louis for the ninth annual XTreme LA (Landscape Architecture) Challenge, hosted by the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth to speak at Veterans Day Celebration

U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, an Army veteran and double amputee, and Robert A. McDonald, former secretary of veterans affairs, will take part in the university’s Veterans Day celebration at 6 p.m. Friday, Nov. 10, in Edison Theatre. It’s more good news for Washington University veteran groups, which also successfully lobbied the university to hire its first veteran student services advisor.

Engineers to study better design for robotics, autonomous technology

Xuan “Silvia” Zhang and Christopher Gill, both faculty in the School of Engineering & Applied Science at Washington University in St. Louis, received a four-year, $936,504 grant from the National Science Foundation to study how to orchestrate modular power in a modular manner at the mesoscale, an area that has not yet been studied.

Cells’ mechanical memory could hold clues to cancer metastasis

In the body, cells move around to form organs during development; to heal wounds; and when they metastasize from cancerous tumors. A mechanical engineer at Washington University in St. Louis found that cells remember the properties they had in their first environment for several days after they move to another in a process called mechanical memory.

New work by Heather Bennett at Bruno David

“Photos of Gifts,” a new exhibition by Heather Bennett, lecturer in art in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, is on view through Nov. 11 at the Bruno David Gallery, 7513 Forsyth Blvd.

$10 million gift supports personalized medicine

The School of Medicine has received a $10 million commitment from longtime benefactors George and Debra Couch to support research that advances personalized medicine. In recognition of their generosity, the research building at 4515 McKinley Ave. has been named the Debra and George W. Couch III Biomedical Research Building.