Archives - Aurek Ransom

Late-night television owes much of its success to politics, experiencing a boom every four years during presidential campaign season. Why is this so? Satire gives political topics an oft-needed note of levity. We can laugh at the folly of the political process and at the figures that inhabit the political sphere. There’s a deep irony […]

Loosening his blue-and-yellow diamond-patterned necktie and easing comfortably into his leather wingback armchair, UR President Joel Seligman was shaken out of his brief pre-Convocation respite by the realization that he had forgotten to compose his speech. Seligman groaned, digging the bases of his palms into his temples. He glanced at his watch: 20 minutes until […]

Rochester television station WHEC News10NBC released two videos on Wednesday, April 22 that showed Marketplace Taxi employees referring to UR students using expletives and racial slurs. The employees were recorded using derogatory language upon ending calls with students. The videos were recorded by former Marketplace Taxi driver Christine Van Orden. Marketplace Taxi is promoted by […]

U.S. Representative Louise Slaughter of New York’s 25th congressional district recently prevented a $7.5 million funding cut to UR’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE) for the 2016 fiscal year. The LLE is slated to receive $68 million in funding, the same amount appropriated for the  2015 fiscal year. According to an April 16 press release […]

UR’s Human-Computer Interaction research group (HCI) developed a wearable technology that delivers real-time feedback on speaking ability. The technology, named “Rhema,” makes use of the heads-up display capabilities of Google Glass to notify a speaker if they need to adjust their pace or volume. Assistant Professor of Computer Science Ehsan Hoque is the senior author […]

Grant Dever and Melissa Holloway have been elected 2015-2016 Students’ Association (SA) president and vice president, according to unofficial results posted on the SA elections website late Wednesday evening. Dever and Holloway won by a margin of 546 votes over opponents Ethan Bidna and Erinmarie Byrnes. Out of the 1,318 votes cast in the presidential […]

An app co-developed by URMC researchers was unveiled on March 9 at an Apple keynote event. The app, dubbed mPower, is designed to collect real-time data from those suffering from Parkinson’s disease. The study is expected to gather data from tens of thousands of users and illuminate otherwise unexplored facets of Parkinson’s disease, unobtainable through […]

UR Facilities & Operations will be replacing entrance doors on several River Campus buildings during UR’s spring break. The repairs are slated for the external entrance to the tunnels in Dewey Hall, the main entrance doors of Hylan Hall on the Science Quad, and the first-floor entrance to Hutchison Hall that faces Wallis Hall. Construction […]

A URMC research team led by professor of Environmental Medicine Dr. Irfan Rahman released a study on the health hazards of e-cigarette vapors that suggests that their inhalation can lead to lung damage. The study, published on Feb. 6 in the scientific journal PLOS ONE, shows that e-vapors can cause damage to lung cells in […]

  An early morning fire at Rochester’s Carnegie Building on Tuesday, Jan. 27th, prompted the closure on Wednesday of UR’s Memorial Art Gallery (MAG). During its closure, the MAG ran air scrubbers to protect artwork from potential soot and smoke damage. “The closing was purely precautionary,” MAG Public Relations Specialist Meg Colombo said, “and it […]