Author Archives: News Staff
A study conducted by U-M professor of public policy Brendan Nyhan suggests that the effect of fake news on the 2016 election has been overestimated. Using laptop/desktop web traffic data from a nationally representative online panel allowed Nyhan and his colleagues to measure who visited fake news sites before the 2016 election with unprecedented precision. “Relatively few people consumed this form… Read More »
From understanding the influence of congressional members’ Twitter accounts to discussing why the global crude oil price rose again after 2016, the second annual Data for Public Good Symposium will showcase the unique ways in which students, faculty, staff and community members have analyzed and assessed data to benefit others. The conference takes place 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Feb.… Read More »
The IT Security Community and Michigan IT staff are invited and encouraged to attend an information session about vulnerability management and data & device disposal February 22.
Financial technology research and education at U-M will get a boost with $1 million from Ripple’s University Blockchain Research Initiative. The funding will support academic research, technical development, and innovation in blockchain, cryptocurrency, and digital payments. Ripple enables global money transfers using blockchain. With the funds, U-M will establish the FinTech Collaboratory to build curricula in the booming… Read More »
In an advance that could one day provide a comprehensive, publicly available window into worldwide internet censorship, a team of researchers at U-M has turned public internet servers across the globe into automated sentries that can monitor and report when access to websites is being blocked. Censored Planet, a first-of-its-kind system, has begun collecting data on three different… Read More »
MiDAS, an algorithm-based administration and fraud collection system implemented by the state of Michigan, ran without human intervention between 2013 and 2015. During that time, it accused about 50,000 Michiganders of unemployment fraud. A 2017 review by the state found that more than 90 percent of those accusations were false. A growing number of people have been harmed… Read More »
In September, 2018, the university completed the move of more than 20 million museum specimens from its zoology, paleontology, and anthropology collections to a state-of-the-art collections and research facility on Varsity Drive. Not as well known, however, is that a second large move was occurring at the same time—this one digital. LSA Technology Services team members John Torgersen… Read More »
As a researcher of computing education at the College of Engineering, Mark Guzdial sees the growing role computing plays in every layer of people’s lives. “I suggest that programming is a literacy,” he writes in a recent essay on the goals of his field. “It’s a way of expressing thought, communicating with others, and testing and exploring new ideas.” Computing… Read More »
Search the web for information about what to feed your new puppy, and you’ll soon start receiving ads from pet food companies. Or read an article about a cruise ship, and you’ll start seeing vacation travel offers in your news feed. This monitoring of online activity might be off-putting for some, but research shows that many of us… Read More »
As part of its work supporting faculty member Anita Gonzalez with an online course, Academic Innovation has developed a tool that allows learners to share their text- or image-based work with other learners in an easy and open manner, and to also receive robust feedback from other learners. “Because of the nature of our learners’ work in the course,… Read More »
H.V. Jagadish has been appointed director of the Michigan Institute for Data Science (MIDAS), effective February 15, 2019. Jagadish, professor of electrical engineering and computer science, was one of the initiators of an earlier concept of a data science initiative on campus. “I have a longstanding passion for data science, and I understand its importance in addressing a… Read More »
Official medical records are protected by strict privacy laws. But everyone who wears a fitness tracker, uses a health app, shops online, searches the internet for health information, or posts about their health creates a “shadow record” of that data. A team led by U-M researchers Nicholson Price and Kayte Spector-Bagdady reviewed current laws and regulations surrounding these… Read More »
U-M’s College of Literature, Science, and the Arts has created a new Digital Studies Institute that was approved by the Board of Regents in December and is now serving students.
Cue the love+data puns. The Office of Academic Innovation invites the U-M community to the first Academic Innovation Data Showcase on February 14.
Registration is open to participate in Hacks with Friends, a two-day Michigan IT hackathon happening March 7–8. Prepare to pitch your ideas online February 11–15.
Miss out on Privacy@Michigan? Don’t worry, you can watch the recording and catch up on the online conversation. We’ve also uploaded digital copies of many of the printed handouts distributed at the event.
Allison McDonald, a third-year PhD student in CSE, has received a 2019 Facebook Fellowship.
Check out this summary of highlights from the 2018 Michigan IT Symposium where LSA Technology Services staff represented a variety of topics.
After months of using BlueJeans to stay connected, virtual exchange students in the M²GATE program finally got to meet in real life.
Eric Michielssen stepped down from his position as associate vice president for research – Advanced Research Computing on December 31, 2018. He served in that leadership role for almost six years. Michielssen will return to his faculty role in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in the College of Engineering. Read more on the ARC-TS website: