UW researchers devise a new way to monitor heat stress.

As extreme heat gripped much of the world in summer 2023, farmers tried to keep cows from overheating with electricity-gobbling barn fans and misting machines that sucked thousands of gallons of water. To develop a smarter and less expensive alternative, a team of UW–Madison researchers is using an innovative electrical device called an eTag to monitor the temperature of individual cows in real time and gain a better understanding of their behavior under stress.

“The overarching objective of this project is to detect and mitigate heat stress in dairy cattle, because it is a daunting challenge in terms of economics, animal welfare, and environmental aspects,” says Younghyun Kim, a UW associate professor of electrical and computer engineering.

Kim and his team implanted temperature sensors about the size of a rice grain at the base of the cows’ necks. Connected to small devices clipped to the animals’ ears, the sensors delivered real-time temperature data every five minutes. Every time the cows visited the milking parlor, wireless charging coils recharged the devices.

Ultimately, the researchers hope to take the eTags out of the equation and develop a low-cost system that relies only on cameras in barns to identify overheated cows. They could be integrated into a smart barn system that automatically deploys cooling measures for individual cows or zones of a barn, reducing both electricity and water costs.

The Wisconsin Center for Origins Research will put students on the cutting edge of the biggest questions in origins-of-life research. Danielle Lawry

To tackle the biggest questions, it helps to have a big team. And there aren’t many questions more massive than the ones related to the origins of life on Earth and whether other worlds — the ones we already know and the ones we have yet to discover — could someday support life.

“This is one of humanity’s biggest existential questions: Are we alone in the universe?” says Richard Townsend, UW professor of astronomy. “Even if the only other thing in the universe is single-celled organisms or some weird sort of crystalline silicon life, it doesn’t matter. It’s a complete philosophical game changer.”

The team Townsend is currently assembling could be a complete game changer, too. The Wisconsin Center for Origins Research is a new multi-disciplinary group that includes researchers from astronomy, chemistry, integrative biology, geoscience, bacteriology, botany, and atmospheric and oceanic sciences.

“The study of life’s origin on Earth and potential origin elsewhere in the universe is catching fire now, thanks to new theories, novel experimental approaches, and the excitement of upcoming solar system exploration,” says David Baum, a professor of botany who studies the evolution of living organisms. “The UW has great strength in this area, but until now we have not been well coordinated.”

Astrochemist Susanna Widicus Weaver was recruited to Madison in 2020. Shortly thereafter, a more expansive origins-of-life cluster of faculty positions was approved, resulting in three new assistant professors flocking to UW–Madison. Betül Kaçar, a professor of bacteriology, is an astrobiologist who studies ancient DNA. Thomas Beatty, a professor of astronomy, studies signs of life on exoplanets. Zoe Todd, whose appointment is split between chemistry and astronomy, studies early Earth chemistry and the delivery of biomolecules via impacts from comets and meteorites.

The Wisconsin Center for Origins Research will put students on the cutting edge of the biggest questions in origins-of-life research.

“We will offer experiences that give students skill sets they can’t develop anywhere else,” says Widicus Weaver.

And maybe, just maybe, they’ll answer some of the universe’s biggest questions.

Bryce Richter

Last September, UW–Madison dedicated a striking aluminum sculpture called Effigy: Bird Form by the late UW professor and Ho-Chunk Nation artist Truman Lowe MFA’73. Lowe created the sculpture in 1997, inspired by ancient Ho-Chunk mounds. Before finding its permanent home near Van Hise Hall, it was showcased at Phoenix’s Heard Museum and the White House. “This is my attempt to pay my respects, to celebrate the longevity of our history and our traditions,” Lowe said of the work. “We have endured, and I know we will survive.”

For Pham, every piece of paper tells a story. Bryce Richter

Most of us use paper products without thinking much about them. But for artist Veronica Pham MFAx’24, every piece of paper tells a story.

Pham entered the MFA program in the UW’s School of Human Ecology with a passion for papermaking. Her father was a refugee from Vietnam, so she gravitated toward traditional Vietnamese techniques. A trip to Vietnam in 2022 allowed her to learn the art from master practitioners: harvesting fiber in the jungle, stripping off the bark, boiling it, beating it, mixing it in a slurry, forming the sheets, pressing them, and letting them dry. This beautiful process produces the paper used in Vietnamese rituals — and sadly, it’s vanishing from the earth.

“Since the 1980s,” Pham says, “hand papermaking traditions in Vietnam have been in rapid decline as a result of industrialization and wars.”

Pham hopes to keep the craft alive, but with a personal twist. Her own papermaking incorporates plants from her home base in the Midwest — including regional mulberry and hemp — that came to North America via Asia, just as her own parents did. Through her art, she is reflecting on her family’s journey and her own identity.

“I’m embedding a kind of information into the paper,” Pham says. “It’s a way of talking about migration and healing through the tradition of papermaking.”

Pham credits UW professor Mary Hark with helping to clarify her artistic approach. This March, in an MFA thesis exhibition at the School of Human Ecology’s Ruth Davis Design Gallery, she’ll celebrate tradition while also showcasing a distinctive sensibility. Expect thin sheets of handmade paper that integrate spun mulberry threads — a.k.a. the “information” embedded in the paper.

Just don’t expect any of the works to look alike.

“One sheet of paper,” Pham says, “is never the same as the last sheet of paper.”

Danielle Lawry

Since the 1880s, young Wisconsin farmers have journeyed to UW–Madison to learn the tricks of the trade at a weekslong agricultural training program known as the Farm and Industry Short Course. This past fall, they headed to River Falls instead.

Although the traditional residential program has officially moved to UW–River Falls, UW–Madison continues to serve as a partner and share its agricultural research and expertise. The newly configured, 16-week short course teaches the fundamentals of dairy farm operations and animal management, with participants earning up to 24 degree credits in their first year.

At the same time, UW–Madison is developing other farmer-education programs with greater flexibility and a wider variety of topics. These short courses include Ag Forward, a five-day program focused on the latest agricultural research findings; the Turfgrass Apprenticeship Program, which includes a traineeship at a golf course or other turf facility; and Spanish for Dairy Industry, online language courses that can help farming professionals communicate better with Spanish-speaking workers.

“Much has changed about farming and the world since the first short-course students came to Madison,” says Glenda Gillaspy, dean of the UW–Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. “Today, by working together, we can serve more people and better leverage the unique features of each campus.”

Holsey: “This program sends a strong message that our students are important to the state’s flagship university.” Bryce Richter

Beginning this fall, UW–Madison will offer financial support to cover the full cost of pursuing an undergraduate degree for state residents who are enrolled members of federally recognized Wisconsin Indian tribes. The commitment covers not only tuition and fees but also housing, meals, books, and other educational expenses. Additionally, a five-year pilot program will cover in-state tuition and fees for students pursuing a law or medical degree who are Wisconsin residents and enrolled members of federally recognized Wisconsin tribes.

Together, the two new initiatives will be called the Wisconsin Tribal Educational Promise program. The program does not rely on taxpayer funding but is supported by other institutional resources, such as private donations.

“As a university, we are deeply committed to a future of mutual respect and cooperation with the American Indian tribes in Wisconsin,” says Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin. “This program is another tangible, meaningful step in that direction.”

As university leaders developed the initiatives over the past year, they consulted with the Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Council, a consortium that includes the tribal chairperson or president of each of the 11 federally recognized American Indian tribes in Wisconsin. Mnookin met with council members three times to discuss the proposed program, and changes were made based on those conversations. In October, the council unanimously voted to support the Wisconsin Tribal Educational Promise program.

“The creation of this program marks a significant step in the partnership between the American Indian tribes in Wisconsin and UW–Madison,” says Shannon Holsey, president of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians and chairwoman of the Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Council. “While several other states have programs with similar goals, we are not aware of another effort that goes this far financially to help Native students afford higher education. This program sends a strong message that our students are important to the state’s flagship university.”

Since 2016, a Native Nations working group at UW–Madison has sought to create educational networks, respectful research relationships, and culturally responsive engagement programs with the Native Nations of Wisconsin. In 2019, the university installed the Our Shared Future heritage marker on Bascom Hill, pledging a shared future of collaboration and innovation with the Ho-Chunk Nation, on whose ancestral land the university sits.

Popp: “I wanted to get into UW–Madison so badly that it inspired me all through high school in everything I did.” Bryce Richter

For a class assignment in fifth grade, Tanner Popp x’27 penned a letter to his future self. He would become a veterinarian, he wrote, and would attend the UW.

“I wanted to get into UW–Madison so badly that it inspired me all through high school in everything I did,” says Popp, of Coloma, Wisconsin.

That hard work paid off. Today, Popp is a freshman at his dream school. He was also one of 977 students new to campus last fall — 829 freshmen and 148 transfer students — benefiting from Bucky’s Pell Pathway, the university’s newest financial aid initiative.

The program is designed to guarantee Wisconsin residents financial support — after other scholarships and grants — to cover not only tuition and fees but also housing, food, books, and most other educational expenses. Eligibility is based on whether a student qualifies for Federal Pell Grants, which play a crucial role in expanding college opportunity for students in low-income households.

“Many Wisconsin residents have the misapprehension that UW–Madison will be financially out of reach,” says Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin, who announced the initiative last year. “Bucky’s Pell Pathway makes sure that if Pell-eligible students do the hard work to get accepted here, we will meet their full financial need.”

Popp is among the exceptional students in this first class of Bucky’s Pell Pathway recipients. He graduated in the top 10 of his class at Westfield High School — and just like his fifth-grade self, he still wants to be a veterinarian.

Bucky’s Pell Pathway expands on Bucky’s Tuition Promise, now in its sixth year. That program guarantees scholarships and grants to pay for tuition and segregated fees for Wisconsin residents with household adjusted gross incomes of $65,000 or less — about half of the state’s households.

“Almost one in four Wisconsin residents new to campus this fall will be covered by either Bucky’s Tuition Promise or the new Bucky’s Pell Pathway,” says Derek Kindle, vice provost for enrollment management. “Our emphasis on providing access to a top-notch educational experience is helping to retain and support some of the state’s most impressive students.”

UW researchers will use a camera system and sophisticated algorithms to date Leonardo’s drawings. Wellcome Images

Leonardo da Vinci may have been a genius, but he was also a hot mess, at least in terms of organizing his works. When he died in 1519, the Renaissance master left behind 7,000 pages of undated drawings, scientific observations, and personal journals, more or less jumbled up in a box. Ever since, art historians have tried to make an accurate timeline of the various documents now held in collections across the world.

A new system developed by a UW–Madison engineer could help in that centuries-long effort.

William Sethares, a UW professor of electrical and computer engineering, and Elisa Ou MS’19, PhDx’24 are using a camera system and sophisticated algorithms to match the undated drawings and writings to others with established dates. The two are also working on a project dating the works of Dutch painter Rembrandt, and they believe their system is applicable to any artwork or document on preindustrial paper.

Idiosyncratic markings on paper made before the mid-19th century allow the researchers to group artworks from the same batch of paper and date the works if at least one is firmly dated. Seeing these markings with the naked eye is difficult, however, especially on delicate paper covered with ink, paint, or writing. That’s why Sethares helped develop a hardware and software system called the watermark imaging system, which can compare markings with others in a database to see if there is a match.