J. Reuben Clark Law School
Professor Stephanie Barclay from the J. Reuben Clark Law School has been selected out of thousands of attorneys to be one of four clerks for Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch during the 2021 term. Barclay, a BYU graduate herself, was hired on staff as a professor in 2018 after working for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. During her first year on campus, she received the Professor of the Year award from second and third-term law students. “I’m excited to be exposed to new ideas and perspectives about a range of legal issues while at the Supreme Court,” Barclay said. “And I look forward to sharing things I learn with my BYU Law students when I return.”
College of Fine Arts and Communications
HFAC galleries Director Jason Lanegan was recently recognized at RootsTech for his ability to capture his family history in his artwork. For over a decade, Lanegan has been making artwork based on the idea of religious reliquaries. He collects items relating to his ancestors, like dirt from a family land and family trinkets, to create his reliquaries and share his family history. Lanegan said his work has been a turning point in his life and encourages everyone to participate in genealogy and learn about their own family history.
The Social Shakeup organization recognized BYU Professor and Y-Digital Manager Adam Durfee as the social media innovator of the year. Durfee received the award for creating a social media chatbot to give the public reliable, up-to-date information on Utah’s wildfires last summer. Durfee said the campaign was successful because it existed to help people, not sell a product. He credits the work of the Y-Digital students, who he said played a large role in the campaign’s success. “These students, though they aren’t recognized in this award, need to know that their willingness to work on this project was instrumental in its success,” Durfee said.
Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering
BYU engineers have set out to make friendlier, soft robots with NASA funding. Their current model, named King Louie, is made from fabric that can inflate and deflate with an interior similar to a bike tire. King Louie’s arms and torso are controlled by microchips that connect to a computer system dictating its movements. The goal is to make people more comfortable around robots when they have been potentially harmful in the past. NASA is interested in soft robots for the possibility of lighter, easily compacted technology that can be used in space travel and research.
Marriott School of Business
A team of BYU Marriott MBA students won second place at the Adam Smith Society’s Smith Soc Case Comp. The competition challenged BYU and nine other top business schools to develop a potential business solution to an issue regarding driverless cars. Over six days, the Marriott team developed an attainable solution for the case and presented it to judges. Their unique ideas ultimately led to their success as they took home a prize of $4,000.
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