Stories
UW–Madison’s Tech Exploration Lab: Where the classroom meets the real world
Co-Directed by WID faculty Kevin Ponto, the lab is built around a simple expectation: Students come to build, test and refine projects with real problems in mind.
Tracing life’s hidden histories
Associate Professor Claudia Solís-Lemus of the Department of Plant Pathology leads a lab in the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery focused on producing novel methods and models to reconstruct the Tree of Life.
Table talk with a multilingual twist
At UW’s Language Tables, students practice dozens of languages in a welcoming community outside of class. This video features WID's Laura Red Eagle from the Illuminating Discovery Hub's Indigenous Language table.
Artist-in-Residence: Viviane Silvera with See Memory
Viviane Silvera joins UW–Madison as the Division of the Arts’ Spring 2026 Interdisciplinary Artist-in-Residence from April 13–24, in partnership with the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery. Silvera is an interdisciplinary artist and filmmaker whose work bridges painting, neuroscience, and mental health. Working across film, animation, and visual art, she explores how memory is formed, altered, and healed, translating complex scientific ideas into deeply human stories. Her residency activates collaborations across the arts, sciences, and health fields through public events, classroom engagements, and community-centered workshops exploring memory, caregiving, perception, and creative resilience.
Announcements
24 Hours with WID
The Wisconsin Institute for Discovery is abuzz 24 hours per day. From “eureka” moments in the middle of the night to methodical pipetting in the middle of the day, to gathering diverse ideas from across the globe in the early evening, something is always happening in our interdisciplinary sphere. Enjoy a sampling of the important work we do in each of these 24 hours and please come back periodically as we refresh with new profiles.
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