Mikey Lacroix, 20, son of Evelyn and John Lacroix, owners of Ski Ward in Shrewsbury, is the 12th-ranked U.S. snowboard cross, or boardercross, racer, a rising star with serious Olympic aspirations and a business major at UMass Lowell, who takes each spring semester off to compete.

The Born to Run Foundation made its first prosthetic donation recently to 3-year-old Isaak Depelteau of Amherst, N.H. Isaak's new prosthetic running leg was officially presented by foundation founder Noelle Lambert, a senior at UMass Lowell who lost her left leg in a moped accident on Martha's Vineyard in 2016.

A new digital archive -- launched at UMass Lowell on Dec. 4 -- documents the history, culture and experiences of people of Southeast Asian origin living throughout the area.

The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded a three-year, $1 million grant to a team of researchers led by a UMass Lowell mechanical engineering professor that is working to develop renewable fuel additives from sawdust and other wood byproducts.