Florian Schaub, an assistant professor at U-M and a privacy expert, notes in a recent article that the patchwork of U. S. laws and regulations that govern data collection and privacy leave loopholes for companies to exploit. For example, Federal laws strictly protect medical, financial, and education-related records. However, online services, apps, and data collection by emerging technologies… Read More »
Undocumented immigrants tend to be careful about public life: They limit contact with authorities, keep close-knit circles, and avoid loitering too long in parks, supermarkets, shows and other public gatherings. Some even avoid driving altogether. But when it comes to their smartphones, they struggle to apply this instinctive caution, according to a study by the U-M School of… Read More »
The Flint ITS annual report for FY17 was published in January 2018 and is now available online. Flint ITS is made up of 33 staff, as well as students, working across ten units who have come together to create major positive change on the University of Michigan Flint campus. Among their major achievements and stats for the year:… Read More »
J. Alex Halderman, a professor of computer science and engineering at U-M, helped create a video on the vulnerability of U.S. electronic voting systems called, “I Hacked an Election. So Can the Russians.” The video is part of a series by the New York Times on voting in America, which will run until Election Day in November. Calling the… Read More »
After a nationwide search, the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts recently announced that Cathleen Curley will be the college’s new chief information officer as of April 24, 2018. Curley is currently the executive director of strategy & planning at Information and Technology Services. She is known for her passion, strategic thinking, creating a collaborative work environment, and… Read More »
U-M’s Precision Health initiative is accepting applications for Investigators Awards of up to $300,000 each over two years to support research projects that advance the field of precision health. Precision Health expects to fund up to 12 Investigators Awards in 2018 as well as additional new projects in 2019. The awards are open to U-M full-time faculty members… Read More »
Last year, Michigan IT News reported that ITS and HITS were doing away with uniqnames and re-implementing Computing Center IDs (CCIDs): All access to computing resources will be via CCIDs, the 4-character mainframe login ID. More details on the transition from uniqname to CCID will be announced in a future issue of this newsletter. The future is now! Work… Read More »
The first-ever Gupta Family Hackathon for Health Communication brought together more than 120 participants over the weekend of March 23-25 to help address real-world problems related to health communication. The result: 30 new solutions, from apps and websites to devices and electronic medical record innovations. Four of those ideas emerged as winners, but all hold the potential to keep moving forward toward… Read More »
U-M School of Information (UMSI) faculty and PhD students have been awarded two Best Papers and three Honorable Mention designations for this year’s Computer-Human Interaction (CHI) conference, a significant recognition in the field. The Association for Computing Machinery’s CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems is the premier international conference of human-computer interaction. This year, “CHI 2018: Engage with… Read More »
Concern about Facebook’s power in society – and in politics – has skyrocketed in the wake of revelations that users’ data was used in targeted political ads in advance of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Other tech giants have also sparked concern: Google, Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft have all faced objections from users, the public, and even government agencies. But in a recent article, Amanda Lotz,… Read More »
According to a new report from the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health, parents may struggle balancing the need for independence with appropriate supervision as children hit the “tween” stage between early elementary grades and the teenage years. And modern technology has changed the ground rules. Nearly all parents of tweens ages 9-12 agree that… Read More »
“Applied Data Science with Python,” an online course specialization developed by four professors at the School of Information, has won a major award from Coursera, a leading online learning platform. Christopher Brooks, Kevyn Collins-Thompson, Daniel Romero, and VG Vinod Vydiswaran won Coursera’s Outstanding Educator Award for Innovation for the highly successful specialization. Romero accepted the award at the Coursera Partners Conference at Arizona State University… Read More »
During the upcoming Michigan Union Renovation Project, the Computer Showcase flagship store will temporarily relocate to Shapiro Undergraduate Library this spring. The final day at the Michigan Union will be Commencement Saturday, April 28, 2018. In early May, Showcase will reopen on the first floor of Shapiro. Customers can enter through the lobby past the Information Desk. This… Read More »
In an guest post for Inside Higher Ed, James DeVaney, associate vice provost for academic innovation, writes that the real innovation of the MOOC (massive online open courses) era is not the unbundling of academic degrees that first captured massive attention, but rather the re-bundling that results from serious academic R&D—the creation of new communities and credentials for all levels.… Read More »
Online learners may soon have three new U-M master’s degree options through a partnership with Coursera. In a joint announcement with the online platform, the School of Information said its Master of Applied Data Science under development will build upon the school’s leadership in offering programing courses online, including several on Coursera. The Master of Public Health offering from the School… Read More »
School of Information experts are sounding the alarm on a potential information apocalypse, a state when fake news and altered videos on social media and elsewhere effectively end social reality as we know it. To address this growing concern and bring some of the brightest minds together to brainstorm creative solutions, U-M has formed the School of Information… Read More »
Over the last few years, artificial intelligence has helped push the envelope in terms of technological advancements in the financial industry. For example, consumers can use facial recognition to log in to financial apps and use voice commands to check their balances. In an article on Forbes.com, Jason Mars, a computer science professor at U-M and the CEO of Clinc,… Read More »
U-M’s new, interdisciplinary Data Science Master’s Program is taking applications for its first group of students. The program is aimed at teaching participants how to extract useful knowledge from massive datasets using computational and statistical techniques. The program is a collaboration between the College of Engineering (EECS), the College of Literature Science and the Arts (Statistics), the School of Public… Read More »
Pennsylvania’s congressional map was among the most gerrymandered in history. Experts like LSA political science professor Jowei Chen used data analyis and computer modeling to help change that situation. Chen’s computer programs create alternative maps based on a series of geographic constraints: maps that are compact in shape, preserve county and municipal boundaries, and have equal populations. They’re drawn,… Read More »
A new tool employing augmented reality (AR) developed at the School of Information (UMSI) simplifies and shortens the physical-to-digital process for mobile app interaction designers. ProtoAR, developed by Michael Nebeling, UMSI assistant professor, allows designers to work with physical prototypes using paper and clay such as Play-Doh, then easily transition to digital prototyping using their mobile phones’ cameras.… Read More »