Operators of large computer clusters have long searched for an efficient way to share server memory to speed up application performance. Now, U-M engineers led by Mosharaf Chowdhury, assistant professor of computer science and engineering, have developed open-source software that lets servers instantly “swap” memory from other servers in the cluster when they run out, instead of writing to slower storage media… Read More »
Nearly 350 health care IT professionals from 11 different health systems recently gathered in Ann Arbor to share ideas and knowledge to improve patient care. The EHR Michigan User Group, or eMUG, is a collection of health systems in Michigan that use Epic electronic health records software. The 2017 eMUG conference was hosted by Michigan Medicine Health Information Technology &… Read More »
Recent research from the U-M School of Information (SI) shows that men who hope to get women to respond to them on online dating sites have a better chance if they create profiles that are more like the women they hope to attract, and yet can show they are distinct from other males. “Specifically, she is more likely to… Read More »
M-Write, a program built on the premise that students learn complex material by writing, will expand in fall 2017 to add automated text analysis (ATA) to its digital toolkit. M-Write was created by U-M professor of English Anne Gere, director of the Sweetland Center for Writing, and Ginger Shultz, assistant professor of chemistry. M-Write helps students develop their conceptual… Read More »
Jeff DeGraff, a clinical professor of business administration at the Ross School of Business, doesn’t believe that the web is truly as accessible and democratic as many would have us believe. According to DeGraff, the web is no longer the free and open space it was a decade ago. “It’s now a feudal system run by a handful of… Read More »
Apple has acquired data mining and machine learning company Lattice, co-founded by Michael Cafarella, a professor of computer science at U-M, and Chris Re, a professor of computer science at Stanford. (Cafarella was the co-creator of Hadoop, a widely used big data processing technology.) According to the Lattice website, the startup was born out of a Stanford research… Read More »
U-M chemists, led by Stephen Maldonado, associate professor of chemistry, have developed a greener, cheaper way to make single-crystalline semiconductor films, components at the heart of all of our electric gadgetry. Single-crystalline films of inorganic semiconductors are the bedrock of nearly all electronics, including smartphones, computers and solar panels. The fastest integrated circuits feature transistors consisting of germanium films… Read More »
The SecondLook™ Series, an award-winning educational tool that fosters self-review and evaluation, is expanding beyond histology to include mobile applications for musculoskeletal anatomy, neuroanatomy, and oral radiology. The technology behind the SecondLook™ Series was a collaboration between the Health Information Technology & Services (HITS) education and training group and Michael Hortsch, associate professor of cell and developmental biology and associate… Read More »
Challenges of ridesharing among low income populations, personalization of health improvement technology, and possible explanations for why we aren’t overwhelmed with choice when shopping online are among the research papers School of Information faculty, alumni, and current students shared at the Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Human-Computer Interaction Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, May… Read More »
James DeVaney, associate vice provost for academic innovation, thinks the myth that universities are slow to embrace change and edtech companies are always agile is limiting the collective potential of the wide range of actors seeking positive change in higher education. He believes that examining the difference between partnerships and vendor relationships is the key to moving past this paradigm and… Read More »
Soccer games, family vacations and reports of good grades are OK for social media sharing. Posts with baby photos or references to significant others — not so much. This is what children said when asked what their parents can share about them online, according to research from the School of Information. “You might expect that children don’t want their… Read More »
Growing evidence suggests that screen time may have some negative consequences for young children’s development. In a new study of nearly 900 children between six months and two years old, researchers found that those who spent more time using handheld devices were more likely to have delays in expressive speech, compared to children who didn’t use the devices… Read More »
Have you placed your pre-order for Faculty and Staff Appreciation Day yet? If not, don’t worry. We’re still taking advance product reservations through 9 a.m. on Monday, May 15. If you prefer, visit either store between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. on Appreciation Day, Wednesday May 17, to shop for one-day discounts on select Apple products—on top of… Read More »
A new study from U-M School of Information researchers looks at how Facebook “Buy/Sell/Trade” groups work and why they are successful. The research team focused on “Mom-to-Mom” groups (also called Mom-2-Mom or M2M), in which mothers buy and sell gently used baby items, such as clothes, toys, and books. They offer the items for porch pick-up (PPU) on a… Read More »
Growing up in Los Angeles, U-M student Jake Fleshner and his brother liked to visit a local deli, and then nearby stores before heading home. These local businesses often attracted similar customers, so why weren’t they promoting each other to their customer bases? That question eventually led to creating Spade America—a mobile app that lets consumers scan discounts as… Read More »
A new U-M study suggests that when it comes to digital privacy, children often do not see the negative consequences of someone tracking items belonging to someone else. Lead author Susan Gelman, professor of psychology and linguistics, says digital privacy is of growing concern, given the increasing use of technological devices that track object locations, revealing personal information regarding… Read More »
Sean DeMonner, John Johnston, and Zhen Qian from ITS Teaching & Learning represented U-M at the annual Unizin Innovation Summit April 19–20 in Denver. The Unizin Innovation Summit is a two-day conference for members of the consortium to present their work on the implementation of Unizin services, and to discuss issues around the developing the next generation digital… Read More »
Would you rather unlock your smartphone with a plain four-digit PIN or with a series of emojis? For example, is it easier (and just more fun) to remember “🐱💦🎆🎌” than “2476”? Smartphone users commonly use emojis to express moods and emotions in emails and text messages. But there had been no formal study of how easy emoji passwords were to… Read More »
In the early days of the internet, U-M student Jeff Masters and Perry Samson, his College of Engineering professor, developed an idea to bring real-time weather information to our daily lives through an online resource that would come to be known as Weather Underground. It all started in 1991 with Hurricane Bob and a single Sun 4/110 workstation… Read More »
Parents can toss out the owner’s manual for that new smartphone or tablet—they can get all the digital assistance they need from their teens. According to Jan Van den Bulck, professor of communication studies at U-M, more children are guiding their parents on how to use digital media, especially newer media forms such as smartphones, tablets and apps. But… Read More »