Cummings School faculty and students are taking advantage of new technology for remote learning and more Digital pathology—scanning a slide containing a blood, fluid, or tissue sample so it can be viewed onscreen and shared or stored electronically—is not new. But it has had some serious shortcomings that have limited its use for teaching—especially during a time when remote learning suddenly became important. Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine recently invested in a new online platform that overcomes those problems to revolutionize how its faculty can use it for teaching and research.

Applicant pool is most diverse on record, with interest in all programs rising across the board A Tufts undergraduate education is appealing to a larger and more diverse pool of students than ever before, according to figures released by the Office of Undergraduate Admissions this week. Vying for a place in the Class of 2025 were more than 31,190 first-year applicants, a 35 percent increase over last year. This year’s applicant pool is also the most diverse on record; for the first time, students of color comprise a majority of U.S. applicants: 51 percent, said JT Duck, dean of admissions and enrollment management.

Faculty create international partnerships to bring global experiences into their virtual classrooms Study abroad programs may be paused amid COVID-19, but students can still get a taste of international cultures and advance their language studies almost as if they were living abroad. That’s thanks to faculty across Tufts who have formed global partnerships to create experiential learning opportunities that are virtual, cross-cultural, and interdisciplinary.

Jennifer O’Malley Dillon, J98, recalled her Tufts softball days and shared lessons from the virtual campaign trail as part of Tisch College’s Distinguished Speaker Series As campaign manager for President-elect Joe Biden, Jennifer O’Malley Dillon, J98, often told her team, “We can do hard things.” That mantra came from her Tufts Softball coach, the incoming White House deputy chief of staff told an audience at Tufts last night as the first guest in the 2021 Distinguished Speaker Series from the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life.

Designing lunar landing gear helps a Tufts engineering student on path to a job with NASA Developing parts for a probe or a crew capsule that can land safely on the Moon is no easy task. Make a small error in your design, and a smooth touchdown can become a catastrophe. It’s not for the faint of heart—yet Colby Azersky, E19, EG20, a PhD student at Tufts School of Engineering, embraced the challenge this past summer as an intern at NASA Langley Research Center.

Resilience reflects digital infrastructure and citizen trust, according to Fletcher School study While all countries suffered economically in 2020, they didn’t suffer equally, according to research from The Fletcher School. The United States, South Korea, and the UAE each took smaller hits to economic growth than other advanced nations in the year that was defined by the COVID-19 pandemic. A country’s economic resilience was often a reflection of how digitally advanced it was, coupled with the amount of trust its citizens placed in institutions, the government, and digital systems, according to Fletcher Dean of Global Business Bhaskar Chakravorti.

As COVID-19 changed the world, the university pivoted quickly to keep students learning and everyone safe If the spring semester of 2020 was a sprint in the face of COVID-19, the rest of the year was a marathon—or maybe a triathlon, as Tufts responded to a global pandemic unparalleled in recent history. In March, Tufts quickly brought coursework online, closed residence halls, paused most laboratory research, and halted non-emergency clinical services. The challenges mounted as the pandemic’s duration and severity became clearer.

Third- and fourth-year medical students and dental students in patient-care settings start to receive vaccination shots at Tufts Medical Center Beginning on Jan. 6, some medical and dental students at Tufts started receiving the first dose of COVID-19 vaccines. Third- and fourth-year medical students and dental students involved in direct patient care are eligible to receive the vaccine based on CDC and Massachusetts state criteria. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were offered at Tufts Medical Center Jan. 5-7. The vaccinations come in a two-shot sequence; second shots will take place three or four weeks after the first shots, depending on which vaccine is used.

The numbers aren’t in yet, but it’s likely that many children have put on the pounds during COVID-19, with potential long-term consequences There’s plenty of talk of the COVID 20—meaning the extra weight that adults are putting on during the pandemic. But what about children? Even before the pandemic, the percentage of American children who have overweight or obesity—defined as body mass index (BMI) being in the 85th to 95th percentiles for children of the same age and sex—was startingly high, and early evidence is suggesting the pandemic may make matters even worse.