Belle Wraps Up Michigan Road Scholar Tour
Each year, the Michigan Road Scholar Tour takes faculty from the University of Michigan on a five-day traveling seminar throughout the state of Michigan. This educational tour is meant to expose faculty to Michigan’s current state of affairs in topics ranging from economy and government to education and health.
Designed to increase knowledge and understanding between the university and the diverse communities in our state, the tour brings faculty members to locations the majority of U-M students call home. The tour is also meant to encourage university service to the public outside of Ann Arbor, and suggests ways faculty can address state issues through research, scholarship, and creative activity.
MCIRCC’s Analytics Architect, Ashwin Belle, PhD, was one of the faculty selected to participate in this year’s Road Scholar Tour which wrapped up in May. He was one among 27 U-M faculty members who traveled nearly 1300 miles and visited two peninsulas, eight cities, one island, and two rivers. Here’s what Ashwin had to say about his time on the road (and water):
Being a part of the 2017 Michigan Road Scholar Tour provided me the opportunity to understand the various tangential aspects of Michigan’s societal, economic and political backbone. It showed me the different spokes of the Michigan wheel and how it all runs. The tour gave me a fantastic opportunity to connect with a variety of people including community leaders, entrepreneurs, educators and politicians from across the state.
Most of medicine is practiced not in large tertiary hospitals such as Michigan Medicine, but rather in small community hospitals scattered across the country. One of the great motivators of my work is knowing that the products my team and I develop are intended to ultimately contribute towards providing clinical decision support to caregivers, improve patient outcome, save lives and produce cost savings for both patients and our health system alike in all types of clinical settings. This Road Scholar experience has presented the direction and guidance required for me to craft a path towards expanding my work and its potential impact to much broader scope. I intend to integrate the knowledge I have gained from this experience into my work and personal life and ensure to give back to the community by addressing and participating in solving our great state’s key issues.
The annual Michigan Road Scholar Tour is funded by the U-M office of the Provost and receives tour planning and staffing from the U-M Office of the Vice President for Government Relations.