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Pictured: ���سԹ� System President Mun Y. Choi poses with mascots from the four campuses.

Faculty, staff and students demonstrate the valuable contributions the University provides the citizens of Missouri

“We owe it to every Missourian to share how we can improve their lives through our research,” UM System President Choi said as he welcomed elected officials and state agency leaders on Wednesday, February 28, during the UM System’s inaugural Legislative Showcase.

More than 50 legislators joined faculty, staff and students from all four campuses, extension and the health system to learn firsthand about the impact that they create for Missouri and global communities. In addition, the public officials were asked to share with their constituents the important work being conducted at MU, UMKC, S&T and UMSL, through Extension and healthcare programs that serve all 114 counties.

The event was made possible by generous sponsors and industry partners including: The Missouri 100, Cerner and the Tiger Institute, Brinkmann Constructors, Ameren, Missouri Soybean Association, UMKC Trustees, Olsson Associates and McCownGordon Construction, LLC.

As part of the program, Choi introduced members of the inaugural class of Presidential Engagement Fellows who will travel throughout the state to engage with Missouri communities about their research and the ways it can contribute to their lives, learn about the perspectives of our citizens and accomplish the highest objectives of the university’s land-grant mission.

“We have the obligation and honor to carry the benefits of university research beyond the classroom and laboratories,” Choi said.

Exhibits on display were sectioned into themes that focus on the value the UM System brings, collectively to the state: Feeding Missourians, Engaging Missourians, Protecting Missourians, Caring for Missourians, Enhancing Innovation through Partnerships, Preparing Missourians for Life and Work

Event photos can be found at .

Specific exhibits included:

1. Precision Agriculture and its Role in Farming Today
   MU Extension has educated Missouri crop producers and their advisors on the use of precision agriculture technologies and drones. Precision agriculture is a technological approach to farming that emphasizes the benefits of georeferenced data for optimized management. Drones continue to show results as a tool for scouting and decision aid for crop producers.
2. Soybean Cyst Nematodes
   Soybean Cyst Nematodes (SCN) cost Missouri producers millions of dollars a year as more than 75% of Missouri fields suffer from this damaging pest. Dr. Melissa Mitchum and her MU CAFNR lab are tackling the micro terror head‐on by moving science from the laboratory into the field.
3. Show-Me-Select Replacement Heifer Program
   MU’s Show-Me-Select Program is recognized nationally as a model in the land grant system for translational research with immediate impacts on the industry. The program provides cattle producers with tools to enhance reproductive performance, genetic potential and ultimate profitability of cowherds across the state, with impacts on Missouri’s economy exceeding $150 million.
4. Impact and Engagement Website
   MU Extension has developed an interactive website that provides a searchable inventory of MU faculty and student initiated programs, activities and educational opportunities that bring valuable knowledge and resources directly to the people and communities of Missouri. Engagements and impacts can be viewed statewide, or filtered by county, or school or legislative district.
5. National Security
   UMKC has led several energy efforts under a large defense program in collaboration with three other universities including the development of a neutron detection instrumentation for military and commercial use, licensed and transitioned by U2D Inc., a Missouri company. The development team has won industry awards for the instrumentation. In all, the program produced two PhDs now working at national laboratories, and a number of MS graduates who are supporting local companies or seeking further education in physics programs.
6. INSPIRE – University Transportation Center
   INSPIRE UTC, a 10-university consortium led by Missouri S&T, addresses various challenges in the highway and railway system, including aging infrastructure. This project provides leadership in research, education, workforce development and technology transfer aimed at infrastructure inspection and preservation solutions with advanced technologies for a sustainable and resilient transportation system.
7. Translational Precision Medicine Complex
   To cure the incurable, scientists from different fields must work together to pioneer next-generation advances. The $200-250 million Translational Precision Medicine Complex (TPMC) – in planning stages – will take advantage of MU’s longstanding culture of multidisciplinary teamwork by integrating biomedical research under one roof to “translate” scientific advances made in the lab into new drugs, devices and treatments. TPMC will integrate a bench-to-bedside model with precision medicine, a revolutionary approach to disease treatment that delivers customized patient care based on an individual’s genes, environment and lifestyle. 
8. Pharm to Farm
   The UMKC Pharm to Farm program trains enthusiastic pharmacy students who plan to return to their farming communities how to deliver on-site farmstead medication assessments, lead public health outreach and education events in rural areas, and collaborate with rural practitioners. The Pharm to Farm program collaborates with Missouri AgrAbility Project and MU Extension.
9. Rural Track Pipeline Program/Springfield Clinical Campus/Simulation Center
   Missouri has a shortage of physicians especially in rural communities. The MU School of Medicine is addressing the shortage through the Rural Track Pipeline Program, the Springfield Clinical Campus Expansion and the Shelden Clinical Simulation Center. The Russell D. and Mary B. Shelden Clinical Simulation Center offers simulation programs to improve patient care and safety, explore new research opportunities, and provide lifelong learning experiences to health professionals in all areas of care and throughout Missouri.
10. A Commitment to Health in Our Communities
    MU Health Care serves Missouri citizens through various outreach efforts including the Health Network of Missouri, MPact Health, Charity Care, Outreach Clinics, Unique Patients Served, Medicaid Patient Count, Missouri Telehealth Network and Show-Me ECHO, and Ellis Fischel Cancer Center's Mammogram Van.
11. Tiger Institute and Cerner
    In partnership with MU Health Care and Cerner, the Tiger Institute for Health Innovation improves the health of Missourians both within UM System and with partners throughout the state by connecting health care providers with each other and with patients to improve quality, lower costs and increase access to health services.
12. Mo-Sci
    As experts in custom high-tech glass development, Mo-Sci Corporation commercializes revolutionary high-tech glass products in partnership with manufacturers to benefit the health care, energy, automotive, defense and industrial sectors. Mo-Sci is a Missouri-based privately held company that partnered with Missouri S&T to successfully leverage the university’s technology transfer process.
13. Project Lead the Way
    Missouri S&T is a leading affiliate university with Project Lead the Way (PLTW), a provider of teacher training, professional development and resources for counselors and administrators in Missouri to help educate the next generation of STEM leaders – the students in elementary, middle and high schools. PLTW continues to grow rapidly in Missouri with more than 700 programs to be offered this year.
14. Solving Problems through Experiential Learning (3-D printing lab/SURF)
    MU Engineering offers many opportunities for students to use what they learn in the classroom and apply it in preparation for the workforce. Student's Underwater Robotics Foundation (SURF) is a competition team that manufactures marine robotics projects. The Department of Bioengineering students designed and developed a 3D-printed laparoscopic training unit for surgical residents to transmit images from inside a body.
15. Fostering Entrepreneurship
    Entrepreneurship opportunities are vast across the UM System campuses. Vital to this is collaboration among faculty and staff to ensure students are exposed to experiences that will prepare them through curriculum, extracurricular activities and community programming. UMSL Accelerate, KCSourceLink, The Bridge, Missouri Innovation Center and iCorps are just a few entrepreneurial resources available to students systemwide.
16. Student Veteran Success
    The UM System campuses have made a significant investment of time, resources and programs to support the success of veterans on their campuses. These efforts, paired with GI tuition funding, are paying off as student veterans enroll and succeed at markedly higher rates. Our student veterans are among our best students and they become some of our best graduates.

Entertainment for the event was provided by a UMKC jazz trio of string bass, guitar and saxophone talents under the direction of Bobby Watson and Dan Thomas from the Conservatory of Music and Dance Jazz Studies students.

Members of the Mizzou Homecoming Steering Committee shared are sharing one of their favorite traditions, Buck’s Tiger Stripe ice cream, made fresh on the MU campus.

Photo opportunities were available for guests with all four campus mascots: Mizzou’s Truman the Tiger, UMKC’s Kasey the Kangaroo, Missouri S&T’s Joe Miner and UMSL’s Louie the Triton. And, Mizzou Athletics representatives including: Athletic Director Jim Sterk, Barry Odom, Mizzou Football Head Coach, Drew Lock, Mizzou Football Senior, starting quarterback and team captain from Lee’s Summit, Brian Smith, Mizzou Wrestling Head Coach, and J’Den Cox, Mizzou Wrestling Assistant Coach, and three-time NCAA wrestling champion and Olympic bronze medalist from Columbia.