Derek Smith Journalist Profile

Articles

The Criterion Collection

1 month ago | slantmagazine.com | Derek Smith |Derek Smith

A careful balancing act between character study and romantic comedy, Joan Micklin Silver’s 1988 film Crossing Delancey strikes a beguilingly effervescent tone in spite of its main character, Izzy (Amy Irving), being so prickly and intransigent. This can largely be attributed to Silver and screenwriter Susan Sandler’s willingness to depict Izzy as a woman who lives life on her own terms, discovering herself as she discovers her power.
$5M to improve testing, durability and noise levels of wave energy devices, offshore wind

Jan 14, 2025 | news.umich.edu | Derek Smith

Devices that create electricity from wave motion and offshore winds could become sturdier, quieter and easier to test at near-ocean-ready sizes, with four new grants to the University of Michigan.
Blue Water Healthy Living

Jan 14, 2025 | bluewaterhealthyliving.com | Derek Smith

Pictured here is a wonderful photo of the Tashmoo,(circa 1935) its decks are crowded with excited passengers, as it readies for departure from the Harsen’s Island pier, outward bound for the White Star dock in Port Huron. It appears everyone has on their Sunday finery, having spent a relaxing, sun-filled day with the family at Tashmoo Park. During the summer months, approximately 250,000 people would travel to the island to enjoy the amenities offered by the island and its park.
The Criterion Collection

Jan 9, 2025 | slantmagazine.com | Derek Smith

Even in its most buoyant moments, Stephen Frears’s The Grifters retains a palpable, stifling air of desperation and moral rot. The trio of grifters at the center of the 1990 crime thriller are introduced via a visual triptych, in which each of them are donning designer sunglasses and a slick outfit as they ready themselves for their respective cons. But despite their suave appearances, these schemers—Lilly (Anjelica Huston), Roy (John Cuscack), and Myra (Annette Bening)—aren’t living large.
Battery-like computer memory keeps working above 1,000°F

Dec 9, 2024 | techxplore.com | Derek Smith

Computer memory could one day withstand the blazing temperatures in fusion reactors, jet engines, geothermal wells and sweltering planets using a new solid-state memory device developed by a team of engineers led by the University of Michigan. Unlike conventional silicon-based memory, the new device can store and rewrite information at temperatures over 1,100°F (600°C)—hotter than the surface of Venus and the melting temperature of lead.
Battery-like computer memory keeps working above 1000°F

Dec 9, 2024 | news.umich.edu | Derek Smith

Study: Nonvolatile electrochemical memory at 600 ºC enabled by composition phase separation (DOI: 10.1016/j.device.2024.100623) Computer memory could one day withstand the blazing temperatures in fusion reactors, jet engines, geothermal wells and sweltering planets using a new solid-state memory device developed by a team of engineers led by the University of Michigan.
The Criterion Collection

Nov 26, 2024 | slantmagazine.com | Derek Smith

Eight years before Barbra Streisand appeared in the 1976 version of A Star Is Born, she dazzled audiences in William Wyler’s Funny Girl with an awe-inspiring performance of intense vulnerability and carefully modulated broad humor that announced to the world that she was, much like her character, Fanny Brice, born to be a star.
The Criterion Collection

Nov 17, 2024 | slantmagazine.com | Derek Smith |Chuck Bowen

Hollywood’s pre-Code era saw filmmakers venturing out on the frontiers of free expression, testing the limits of humor and taste in their depictions of social and sexual mores with relatively little organized interference.
Up to 30% of the power used to train AI is wasted: A software tool could help fix that

Nov 7, 2024 | techxplore.com | Derek Smith

A less wasteful way to train large language models, such as the GPT series, finishes in the same amount of time for up to 30% less energy, according to a new study from the University of Michigan. The approach could save enough energy to power 1.1 million U.S. homes in 2026, based on Wells Fargo's projections of AI power demand.
Up to 30% of the power used to train AI is wasted: Here’s how to fix it

Nov 7, 2024 | news.umich.edu | Derek Smith

Study: Reducing energy bloat in large model training (DOI: 10.1145/3694715.3695970) A less wasteful way to train large language models, such as the GPT series, finishes in the same amount of time for up to 30% less energy, according to a new study from the University of Michigan. The approach could save enough energy to power 1.1 million U.S. homes in 2026, based on Wells Fargo’s projections of AI power demand.