News Room

To open campuses—and keep them open throughout the fall—college administrators must assess risks beyond the potential spread of coronavirus. Many schools plan extensive testing and contact tracing. But campus leaders must also know the ability of local health systems to contend with an outbreak and also be able to prevent panic if—and more likely, when—infections are diagnosed, says Sheldon H. Jacobson, a founder professor of computer science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an expert in data-driven risk assessment.

Dr. Julie Swann says we’re still in the first wave. Dr. Swann is the head of the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at North Carolina State University where she studies how government leaders respond to a pandemic -- without overwhelming hospitals-- the efficient distribution of food and vaccines, and safe reopening businesses and schools.

Nearly 2.3 million Americans have been infected with the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, and about 120,000 of them have died. With stay-at-home orders beginning to ease, the number of new cases confirmed each day is rising in some of the nation’s most populous states, including California, Texas and Florida.

Millikin University's new president, James Reynolds, did not grow up planning a career in academia. His original career plans was to be a scientific researcher. Reynolds will officially take over leadership of the university on July 1, replacing Patrick White, who is retiring after serving as president since 2013. Reynolds is coming from Wilmington (Ohio) College, where he served as interim president from August 2011 to February 2012, when he was named president.

Defective "taptic engines" slowed the rollout of the Apple Watch. It wasn’t long after pre-orders for Apple’s much-anticipated Watch began that trouble emerged. Reportedly within hours of going on sale on April 10, the wait times jumped by weeks and then months. Some models eventually were listed simply as unavailable. A hint at one of the problems came in late April, when the Wall Street Journal reported that the Watch’s taptic engine – a key component designed by Apple that reproduces the sensation of being tapped on the wrist – was defective in models produced by AAC Technologies in China. That severely limited the Watch’s availability.