While most kids are wasting their time mastering Xbox, high schoolers Albert Foo and Sharath Anand are developing a new fire-fighting technology, one that extinguishes interior flames from outside the building. So far ExtinBreachR has landed them top science fair awards and a couple of small grants. But they've got bigger plans.

A trio of U-M architecture grad students were tasked with envisioning what the proposed $12 million rec center on Ypsilanti's Water Street property might look like. One plan highlights Ypsi's downtown, the other its park. Both are exciting and innovative approaches to urban development.

From visions of banana chairs to Compuware's recent hiring of an arts curator, companies are showing their humanistic side via art in the workplace. Art and design entrepreneurs Joy Naylor and Diane Bennett of Distinct Designs,Inc., a corporate interior design and art consultancy, offer up their perspective on local artists and art selection for businesses.