The effort builds on the investments made as part of the AI focus area of the Wisconsin Research, Innovation, and Scholarly Excellence (RISE) Initiative, which has strengthened faculty hiring, research capacity, and foundational infrastructure. And it complements the July launch of the College of Computing & Artificial Intelligence.

“Artificial intelligence is already reshaping higher education,” says Provost John Zumbrunnen. “Our responsibility is to lead with a human-centered approach to readiness: one that views AI as a tool to amplify — not replace — the unique curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking of our Badger community.”

Rather than communicating abstract principles, the initiative’s goals include creating practical expectations for how people across the institution should engage with these tools — “wisely, ethically, and in service of the public good,” according to Zumbrunnen.

The Year of AI Readiness and Competency will follow three guiding principles: AI augments human capacity, rather than replaces it; decisions should be deliberate, rather than reactive; and campuswide coordination should leave room for local implementation within schools, colleges, and divisions. The effort will culminate in clear institutional guidance and recommendations for sustained leadership in 2027 and beyond.

Willis won a Grammy and sold 60 million records, and the new space will inspire UW–Madison students to blaze their own trails. Willis Wonderland Foundation

The late Allee Willis ’69 cowrote the megahit “September” for Earth, Wind & Fire in 1978. She went on to sell 60 million records, earn a Grammy Award, and score the Broadway production of The Color Purple, for which she earned a Tony Award nomination. Now, her archive is coming to the UW’s Mills Music Library, including photographs, handwritten lyrics, and her 1986 Grammy.

The donation is coupled with a $1.5 million gift to campus from the Willis Wonderland Foundation that will fund the construction of a multidisciplinary makerspace in Memorial Library called the Allee Willis Creativity Commons, as well as ongoing programming and technology upgrades in the UW Libraries’ Digital Scholarship Hub. Together, the forthcoming space and endowment will be dedicated to transforming the artist’s creative vision into a reality for UW–Madison students.

“As Allee’s example shows us, some of the most meaningful work comes from bringing different ways of thinking together and simply seeing what happens next,” says Erla Heyns, UW dean and vice provost of Libraries. “In other words, the Creativity Commons will be a place where the next Allee Willis might get their start.”

Along with songwriting, Willis was a visionary multimedia artist, a set designer, and a digital pioneer who launched the first interconnected social network in cyberspace, called willisville, in 1993.

The Allee Willis Creativity Commons will invite UW–Madison students to test the limits of their imaginations and blaze their own trail. To be housed on the second floor of Memorial Library, the 3,245-square-foot space will channel Willis’s signature aesthetic, complete with a candy-colored exterior and items from the artist’s collection of atomic kitsch.

Expected to open in mid-2028, the Creativity Commons will be anchored by an expansive creativity zone that includes flexible setups for programming, community events, and independent study. A dedicated makerspace will support the creation of physical media and art. Most dramatic, though, is The Studio, which will include state-of-the-art podcasting and music production equipment, giving students, researchers, scholars, and the larger community the chance to tell their own stories.

Under Byrne’s leadership, UW men’s cross country earned 14 Big Ten conference championships. UW Athletics

Mick Byrne, one of the most accomplished coaches in Wisconsin athletics history, has retired after 18 years with the Badgers. Byrne was the director of cross country and track and field — and, with 14 conference championships, the winningest coach in Big Ten men’s cross country history.

“Being a part of such a historic program has been a privilege of a lifetime,” he says.

Under Byrne’s leadership, Wisconsin captured the NCAA men’s cross country championship in 2011, earned 14 NCAA individual titles, and finished on the podium at the NCAA championships nine times. His men’s and women’s teams claimed 18 Big Ten team championships and 95 Big Ten individual titles, while producing 121 first-team all-American honors. He earned numerous Coach of the Year honors at the national, regional, and conference levels, reflecting the consistency and excellence of his programs.

Byrne’s impact extended to the international stage, with seven former Badgers competing in the Olympics. Most recently, five of his former athletes represented their countries at the 2024 Olympics in Paris, underscoring his role in developing talent capable of competing at the highest level in the world.

Beyond competitive success, Byrne’s legacy is defined by his commitment to the holistic development of student-athletes. His programs emphasized accountability, academic achievement, and personal growth, resulting in 19 Academic All-Americans and hundreds of student-athletes excelling both on the track and in the classroom.

“Mick has not only developed champions in sport on the course and track, but also in life,” says Deputy Athletic Director Marcus Sedberry. “His influence will be felt for generations through the student-athletes he mentored and the foundation he built.”

Byrne’s replacement is Chris Solinsky ’07, a former Badger track star who won four Big Ten titles and 14 all-American honors, helping lead the UW to national titles in cross country and indoor track.

The rise of artificial intelligence and its career impact played a key role in this year’s list. Althea Dotzour

UW–Madison has again been named a “new Ivy” by Forbes magazine, honored as one of 20 public and private universities across the United States that are best “preparing and graduating the talent that employers will see in this new era.”

The UW also received the recognition in 2024, but this year, the rise of artificial intelligence and its career impact played a key role in the list. Forbes surveyed more than 100 C-suite and hiring executives. One respondent said that the ideal graduate entering the workforce in the age of AI will be grounded in an education that emphasizes the very human traits of “complex emotional intelligence, radical adaptability, and visionary creativity to orchestrate AI tools rather than compete with them.”

UW–Madison has made AI a priority, building on decades of investment in scholarship, research, and teaching and the university’s strengths in computer, data, library, and information sciences and statistics. Faculty and researchers across the university are approaching AI from different angles, from business and engineering to health care and public systems. The UW’s AI Hub for Business is also forging strong partnerships with Fortune 500 companies as well as smaller enterprises.

“We are looking to build a future that belongs to all of us: preparing our students, strengthening our research, serving our state, and fulfilling the Wisconsin Idea in the digital age,” says Provost John Zumbrunnen.

UW–Madison was one of four Big Ten schools named to the “new Ivy” list.

Eichorst (right, with interim Chancellor Eric Wilcots) has had a front-row seat to the major changes in college athletics. Bryce Richter

In July, UW–Madison hired Shawn Eichorst as its new director of athletics. During a turbulent time in college sports, the university is turning to a veteran administrator with both local ties and a track record of growth at other major institutions, most recently the University of Texas.

“In this rapidly evolving, ever-changing landscape of college athletics, it was paramount that we find an individual with a tremendous amount of experience and a tremendous amount of success at the highest levels,” said interim Chancellor Eric Wilcots when Eichorst was formally introduced.

The job represents a homecoming for Eichorst, a Wisconsin native who played football at UW–Whitewater and later rose in the administrative ranks at Wisconsin Athletics from 2006 to 2011 under Barry Alvarez. He succeeds Chris McIntosh ’04, MS’19, who departed UW–Madison in April to become the Big Ten Conference’s deputy commissioner for strategy.

At Texas, Eichorst served as deputy athletic director and chief operating officer for a department that earned the Learfield Directors’ Cup as the top-achieving broad-based program in five of the last six years. During his eight-year run, the Longhorns won 87 conference championships and 17 national titles. The football program regained powerhouse status by reaching the national semifinal in 2023 and 2024.

Eichorst previously served as the athletic director at the University of Miami and the University of Nebraska. He’s had a front-row seat to the major changes in college athletics, where student-athletes can now profit from their name, image, and likeness and receive direct revenue-sharing payments from universities. At his introductory event, Eichorst, a first-generation college graduate, emphasized the importance of being part of an elite academic institution that prepares student-athletes for what comes after their playing days. He added that he wants to recenter the value of education in college athletics.

“There is truly nothing like Wisconsin and the pride that comes with being a Badger,” Eichorst said. “I believe Wisconsin represents everything that is great about higher education and college athletics — the academic excellence, the competitive distinction, the integrity, the commitment to serving one another.”

Research has consistently shown that exercise benefits overall mental health. Jaime Espinoza

Working out before sitting down with your therapist may help make your therapy session more effective, according to a new study from UW–Madison researchers.

The study was part of a five-year project funded by the National Institutes of Health to support the treatment of major depressive disorder, which affects roughly eight percent of U.S. adults and 20 percent of adolescents between 12 and 17 years old. It was led by Jacob Meyer MS’11, PhD’15, an associate professor of kinesiology in the UW’s School of Education, with support from Simon Goldberg PhD’17, an associate professor in the school’s Department of Counseling Psychology and a faculty member with the Center for Healthy Minds.

“Research has consistently shown that exercise benefits overall mental health,” Meyer says. “This work aims to see how directly linking exercise and therapy could support better therapy outcomes for millions of people around the world.”

The team assessed two groups of 18- to 65-year-old adults with major depressive disorder. One group watched a 30-minute segment from a nature documentary immediately before therapy; the other group watched the same segment while completing a moderate-intensity cycling workout before therapy.

Results published in the Journal of Affective Disorders indicated that 30 minutes of moderate exercise before a therapy session was associated with a stronger therapist-client connection and greater client initiative.

“So far, we’re seeing that exercise priming could be a low-cost way to support psychotherapy,” Meyer says. “This work reflects UW–Madison’s strength in bringing exercise science and mental health treatment together to solve real-world problems.”

Goldberg’s study tested how household rules for internet use could help curb negative effects. Hannah Sandvoid

Mom and Dad’s relationship with the internet may impact their adolescents’ mental health, according to a study coauthored by UW–Madison psychiatry professor Shiri Raphaely and Simon Goldberg PhD’17, a Center for Healthy Minds faculty member and an associate professor in the Department of Counseling Psychology.

The researchers found that when parents spend a lot of time online, their teens tend to show more signs of depression, including suicidal ideation. The link between parent internet overuse and teen depression persisted even when the researchers factored out unhealthy internet usage on the part of the teens themselves.

“These results support the sobering possibility that how parents are engaging with technology impacts their children’s well-being,” says Goldberg.

The study involved some 4,500 parent-and-adolescent pairs. It also tested how household rules for internet use could help curb negative effects. When rules around time online were unclear and rules about content were loose, adolescent depression tended to increase.

Ultimately, these insights could lead to solutions to help reduce the potentially harmful effects of problematic technology use on children.

During Science Hall’s renovation, much of the Robinson Map Library’s collection will be in storage, but its aerial photos will be available — including this image showing a popular local peninsula. Robinson Map Library

If you want to see all of Wisconsin — its towns, lakes, fields, and hills — then you can either jump in the car and spend a few weeks driving backroads, or you can jump online and spend a few minutes with the Arthur H. Robinson Map Library’s aerial photo collection.

The Robinson Map Library is UW–Madison’s cartography collection. It holds about 300,000 maps, as well as globes, atlases, and gazetteers. And it has the largest collection of aerial photos shot in Wisconsin: 260,000 prints and more than 100,000 high-resolution digitized photos, dating back to the 1930s.

The library is named for Arthur Robinson MA’38, a legendary cartographer and UW geography professor. For many years, its home has been in Science Hall, but while that building is undergoing an extensive renovation, the library has moved to the Computer Sciences building on West Dayton.

That exile is expected to last about three years, so most of the library’s maps — about 195 cabinets full of them — have gone into long-term storage.

But the aerial photos take up less space, and they’re unique, according to librarian Jaime Martindale.

“No one else has them,” she says. “They’re a Wisconsin collection and they’re very popular.”

While at Computer Sciences, the Robinson Library’s staff can continue digitizing photos to make them available to the public. To view them, patrons can visit maps.sco.wisc.edu and look at the library’s Wisconsin Historic Aerial Image Finder app.