Category Archives: Campus News

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Google.org supports UMSI health equity research

By | September 14, 2020

Google.org announced that a team of School of Information (UMSI) researchers has been selected to receive funding as part of the company’s efforts to support projects using innovative artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics to help understand COVID-19 and address its impacts.  Faculty members Tiffany Veinot, Vinod Vydiswaran, Lorraine Buis, and Anna Laurie will receive $200,000 in funds to… Read More »

3D modeling could help develop treatments for lung disease caused by COVID-19

By | September 14, 2020

A 3D bioengineered model of lung tissue built by U-M researchers is poking holes in decades worth of flat, Petri dish observations into how the deadly disease pulmonary fibrosis progresses. Some clinicians are concerned that critically ill COVID-19 patients may develop a form of pulmonary fibrosis after a long stay in the ICU.  Researchers are searching for better treatments.… Read More »

Course aims to train future leader against cyber crime

By | September 11, 2020

In the course “Cybersecurity for Future Leaders” (EECS 498 / PUBPOL 475), students will gain a better understanding of the science, technology, public policy, and national security considerations behind cybersecurity in order to protect the very tenets of democracy. Election security will be one of the course’s six focus areas this fall 2020. The course is taught from… Read More »

Disinformation, misinformation, and fake news Teach-Out

By | September 11, 2020

In a new Center for Academic Innovation Teach-Out, Ben Nimmo, director of investigations at Graphika, an online social media monitoring company, outlines tactics everyday people can use to anticipate, spot, and react to disinformation from potential “threat actors.” He calls it the “Four D’s” — Dismiss, Distract, Distort, and Dismay. The Disinformation, Misinformation, and Fake News Teach-Out helps people understand the… Read More »

Some children at higher risk of privacy violations from digital apps

By | September 10, 2020

Although federal privacy laws prohibit digital platforms from storing and sharing children’s personal information without verifiable parental consent, a study led by U-M researchers finds that those rules aren’t always enforced, and privacy violations are most likely to affect children from lower-education households. Children raised by parents without college degrees showed two to three times higher rates of… Read More »

U-M receives grants to improve solar storm forecasting software

By | September 3, 2020

Solar storms and other space weather events have the potential to impact society on a national or global scale. U-M researchers lead two multimillion-dollar projects to improve forecasting by developing next-generation space weather modeling software. Funded by the National Science Foundation and NASA, the U-M projects aim to accurately predict solar storms and coronal mass ejections and to… Read More »

CoE researcher uses machine learning to improve brain imaging

By | September 2, 2020

Melissa Haskell, an ECE postdoctoral researcher, was awarded the Ruth L. Kirschstein Postdoctoral Individual National Research Service Award from the National Institutes of Health for her work using machine learning to improve functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Many factors, including movement, can affect the quality of an fMRI, which is used to measure and study brain activity. Haskell works to… Read More »

Online court tool that reduces disparities, virus spread wins annual U-M innovation award

By | September 1, 2020

For developing technology that’s helping to democratize the justice system while decreasing the spread of COVID-19, U-M law professor J.J. Prescott has earned this year’s Distinguished University Innovator Award. Prescott launched the U-M Online Court Project years ago to design and build technology to help people resolve minor disputes with the government and courts online and without the… Read More »

Student’s COVID-19 data model reaches CDC

By | August 31, 2020

U-M senior Sabrina Corsetti‘s efforts to model the pandemic’s spread using a machine learning algorithm has now been included in those being aggregated for the CDC’s weekly projections. Corsetti had her previous research halted when U-M suspended in-person classes and labs back in March. Thomas Schwarz, one of Corsetti’s research professors, happened to be modeling the pandemic’s data… Read More »

Michigan Medicine introduces touchless check-in experience

By | August 28, 2020

Michigan Medicine is constantly looking for ways to improve the patient experience, even during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. One way the organization is doing just that is by optimizing eCheck-in and introducing mobile arrival, touchless processes that allow patients to skip the line when they arrive for an appointment. The changes launched on August 26. Prior to an… Read More »

Student teams create two new video games over the summer

By | August 27, 2020

Videogame development is a hot topic at Michigan. This summer two teams of U-M undergrads, working remotely because of the Covid-19 outbreak, conceived, designed, and developed two videogames: Desolation Place—a 3D first-person stealth horror game, and Bloom: Tome of Power—a first person shooter inspired by genre defining games such as DOOM, Hexen, and Dusk. Advised by CSE lecturer… Read More »

$1.8M DARPA project aims to protect vehicles from hackers

By | August 25, 2020

From cars to space shuttles to drones, keeping vehicle electronics systems updated and free of security vulnerabilities is exceedingly difficult, according to Baris Kasikci, a professor of computer science and engineering. “It’s a little bit of a mess,” said Kasikci. “Traditionally, you fix the bug in the source code, you rebuild the software and you redeploy it. But… Read More »

Electronic health records: More demands, same amount of time

By | August 24, 2020

A team of researchers from U-M recently published a paper in the Journal of General Internal Medicine documenting electronic medical record time demands faced by general internists at Michigan Medicine. The findings build on other studies showing that primary care providers nationwide face the highest number of incoming tasks on electronic health records systems. Lead author Laurence McMahon, chief of general medicine at U-M,… Read More »

The most vital IT investments today are the boring ones: Michigan Medicine CIO on remote work, automation, and data analytics

Michigan Medicine CIO Andrew Rosenberg, MD, is focused on finding methods to sustain the unprecedented level of remote work and clinical care during the pandemic while keeping an eye on the data analytics and IT investments the system will need to drive efficiencies and cost-savings in the future. In a recent article with Becker’s Health IT, he discusses… Read More »

Enabling fairer data clusters for machine learning

By | August 20, 2020

Research published recently by CSE investigators can make training machine learning (ML) models fairer and faster. With a tool called AlloX, Mosharaf Chowdhury and a team from Stony Brook University developed a new way to fairly schedule high volumes of ML jobs in data centers that make use of multiple different types of computing hardware, like CPUs, GPUs,… Read More »

Ecology in the digital age: U-M students use machine learning for summer research

By | August 20, 2020

Prior to the pandemic, enrollment for spring and summer field classes at the U-M Biological Station were at an all time high. Students eagerly planned to live away from home, at the BioStation near Douglas Lake in Pellston, Michigan. When the university announced that spring and summer courses would be virtual, faculty and staff at the BioStation had… Read More »

Organize your course in a consistent pattern

By | August 12, 2020

LSA Learning and Teaching Technology Consultants have shared tips for structuring course material in a way that feels grounding and reliable to students while teaching online.  Consultants write that organizing materials and activities in Canvas can help both online and hybrid classes go more smoothly for both students and instructors. It’s important that students know where to find… Read More »

Mathieu receives 2020 Henry Russel Award

By | August 12, 2020

Johanna Mathieu, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, has received a U-M Henry Russel Award for her extraordinary record of accomplishment in scholarly research, as well as excellent record of contributions as a teacher. This award, established in 1925, is considered the University’s highest honor for faculty at the early to mid-career stages of… Read More »