State Roundup

East Lansing Michigan St. planning $40M bioengineering facility EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- Michigan State University is moving forward with plans to build a new $40 million bioengineering facility that is expected to be mostly funded by the state. A date for construction to start on the project hasn't yet been set, the Lansing State Journal reported. The East Lansing school's Board of Trustees on Friday authorized the administration to plan for the facility on the south end of campus. The building would be located near the school's Life Science building and the Clinical Center, and would connect to both. The idea is to place research in close proximity to potential collaborators, said Leo Kempel, associate dean for research in the College of Engineering. "By putting it on the part of campus where it's going, it's really well positioned for us to collaborate with colleagues in human medicine and nursing and osteopathic medicine," Kempel said. The project was spurred by a $30 million capital outlay approved last year by the state. The school, which already has three buildings and a major building addition under construction, will cover the remaining costs. The project needs final board approval before construction starts. The project is unlike some recent projects on Michigan State's campus. The school has turned to private donations to finance building projects such as the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum and the Bott Building for Nursing Education and Research. With the expansion at its Plant and Soil Sciences Building, however, the university decided to invest its own money with hopes the project would bring in grants. There are similar opportunities with the bioengineering facility project, as well as the opportunity to help Michigan's economy improve. According to a memo distributed to the Board of Trustees, bioengineering and engineering health sciences "have significant opportunities for increased federal research funding, as well as for technology transfer to the private sector" that could benefit the state. Saginaw Group plans '100 Days of Nonviolence' in Saginaw SAGINAW, Mich. (AP) -- A group is planning a "100 Days of Nonviolence" campaign for Saginaw in the wake of violent crime in the city. The campaign starting Oct. 8 includes public service announcements and educational efforts, Pastor Larry Camel, president of Parishioners on Patrol, told The Saginaw News. The campaign runs through Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Jan. 16. "We're sending out positive messages, talking about nonviolence and Dr. Martin Luther King's dream and living the reality of that dream, that we need to live together and put our weapons down," he said. Members of Parishioners on Patrol plan to visit area schools to pass out T-shirts and flyers spreading the anti-violence message. A prayer vigil for crime victims is planned for Oct. 28 and the third annual Parishioners on Patrol Stop the Violence March is Oct. 29 The campaign follows a similar effort in Birmingham, Ala. According to FBI crime statistics, Saginaw had 1,393 violent crimes including rape, murder, robbery and assault in 2009. FBI statistics for Saginaw from 2010 haven't yet been released. Mesick Man charged in eco-protest: Case is too old MESICK, Mich. (AP) -- A Detroit-area man accused of damaging logging equipment in an environmental protest wants the charges dismissed, saying his rights are being violated because the incident happened more than a decade ago. Jesse Waters is accused of setting fire to logging equipment and a flatbed trailer near Mesick (ME'-sick) in Wexford County in late 1999 or early 2000. Waters' attorney says it's hard to build a defense because the years have eroded his client's memory of that period. John Royal also says it's hard to find people who knew the St. Clair Shores man back then and could help. Prosecutors haven't responded yet. The case is in federal court in Grand Rapids. Environmental activists Frank Ambrose and Marie Mason have admitted roles in the Mesick incident. They're in prison. East Lansing MSU licenses software to catch fingerprint fraud EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- People who try to hide their identities by changing their fingerprints could run into a roadblock because of new technology that Michigan State University developed and is licensing to a security company. Engineering and computer science professor Anil Jain headed a team that developed the software. It's being licensed to Morpho, a unit of the Paris-based Safran group, Michigan State announced Friday. Terms of the deal weren't released. "The technology ... can help law enforcement and border control officials detect these altered fingerprints," said university spokesman Tom Oswald. Jain says authorities worldwide encounter people who have surgery or other "extreme measures to alter their fingerprints to avoid being identified by automatic fingerprint recognition systems." "The technology can raise a flag so that officials can then perform a secondary inspection to reveal the person's true identity," he said. Other researchers working on the project were Soweon Yoon, a computer science and engineering doctoral student at Michigan State, and Jianjiang Feng, a former Michigan State postdoctoral fellow who is now at Tsinghua University in China. Morpho's website describes the company as "one of the world's leading suppliers of identification, detection and e-document solutions." "This transfer is the most recent development of our long and fruitful history of scientific collaboration with MSU," Jean-Christophe Fondeur, vice president for research and technology director of Morpho's biometrics department, said in a prepared statement. "We deeply appreciate Professor Jain's commitment to the advancement of biometrics, and we are very happy to support his research." Such technology transfers are an increasingly important aspect of university operations, said Charles Hasemann, interim executive director of MSU Technologies. "MSU's extensive intellectual property portfolio also includes inventions related to alternative energy, agriculture, medicine, engineering, and rare isotope research," he said. Published: Tue, Sep 13, 2011