University of Utah researcher and Operations and Information Systems professor Xiao Fang and his colleagues were faced with a mystery: What factors have fueled the explosive growth of Facebook and other social networking sites over the past two years?

On October 4, 2012, Facebook reported it had topped 1 billion users, while runners-up Google+ and LinkedIn cleared the 400 million and 175 million accounts, respectively. For the world’s most popular social network, Facebook, the past two years have seen user totals more than double.

A team of five accounting students from the David Eccles School of Business won the regional round of the FanTAXtic tax case competition run by the Deloitte Foundation, earning a January trip to Texas to vie against eight other schools from across the country in the finals.

The team from the U will be competing in Texas against the likes of Michigan State University, the University of Missouri, St. John Fisher College, the University of South Florida, the University of Southern California, the University of Texas and the College of William & Mary. 

Move over Nike Plus. University of Utah professor Stacy Bamberg of the Department of Mechanical Engineering is developing a shoe insole that can gather comparable data to Nike’s popular line of high-tech sneakers and does more than track laps and airtime. The new insole, which Bamberg calls the Rapid Rehab system, will eventually help correct walking problems for people with artificial legs, hip replacements and broken legs.