Category Archives: Computer Science
Former TWU math, computer science chair Rose Marie Smith had … – Texas Woman’s University
Nov. 1, 2023 DENTON Rose Marie O'Brien Smith, Texas Woman's University alumna, former chair of TWU's Departments of Mathematics and Computer Science, professor emerita and for whom a scholarship for student teachers was named, passed away on Sept. 15, 2023. She was 89 years old.
The Rose Marie Smith Endowed Scholarship was established by the North Texas Council of Teachers of Mathematics to honor Smith. This endowment provides two annual scholarships for students during their student teaching experience in mathematics and computer science.
"We wanted to acknowledge all that Dr. Smith had done to support mathematics education," said Catherine Banks, TWU senior lecturer emeritus and president of theNorth Texas Council of Teachers of Mathematics. "This yearly scholarship is given to a student to help them during their semester ofstudent teaching."
Rose Marie O'Brien was born March 3, 1934, in Beaumont. After high school, she earned a bachelor's degree in music from Lamar University. She met Charlie Smith on a blind date, and they were married by Charlie's father the day after they graduated from Lamar.
They moved to Grapevine, where they taught math and music. She was invited by TWU for its National Science Foundation program promoting women in the sciences. After completing the program, Smith earned a master's degree in math from TWU, then a PhD in education from Oklahoma State, accomplishing all this while becoming a mother of three daughters.
She worked at TWU as vice president of public affairs and a math professor, ultimately becoming chair of the Mathematics Department. She also spent a year in Washington, D.C., overseeing the NSF's National Teacher's Appreciation program.
"Rose Marie was very open, honest and a very caring individual," Banks said. "I remember her being a great mentor to both students and faculty. Rose Marie was especially a great mentor to those who were mathematics education faculty. She helped develop the curriculum that was used in the classes to prepare students to become great mathematics teachers and she mentored the faculty to help deliver the curriculum. School districts would want to hire our students because they knew they were very well trained.
"I appreciated the mentoring that Rose Marie gave me when I was a new faculty member," Banks added. "She was one of the faculty who encouraged me to help create,develop andbecome the director of the Science and Mathematics Center for Women at TWU. The Centerwas known for our support of local science and math teachers. We also created the Access to Careers in the Sciences Camps for girls in grades 6-11, encouraging girls to pursue a science or math career. Rose Mariecontinued to mentor me andsupported my efforts and guided me in writing grants for the Center and the ACES camps."
Smith was also the accompanist for the Denton Community Chorus, and sang in the choir at Denton's First United Methodist Church. Smith retired in 1996, and she and her husband moved to Galveston. Charlie passed away in 2018.
Rose Marie passed away with her daughter Connie at her side.
She is survived by her brother, John O'Brien of Dallas; daughter Rozanne and her husband Michael Alvernaz of Missoula, Montana; daughter Connie and her husband Glenn Norton of Natalia, Texas; daughter Jennifer of Natalia; two grandchildren, Crystal and her husband Lee Calver of Waxahachie; and Patrick Norton and his wife, Jasmin, of San Antonio; and four great-grandchildren, Eva, Kyle, Deegan and Declan Calvert of Waxahachie.
Services for Smith were held in San Antonio.
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Former TWU math, computer science chair Rose Marie Smith had ... - Texas Woman's University
AIs carbon footprint can be managed, computer science professors say – Yale Daily News
Eleven months after ChatGPTs release, Yale computer science professors discussed the carbon footprint associated with artificial intelligence and how growing industry management might better control its energy use.
Hanwen Zhang 1:59 am, Nov 01, 2023
Staff Columnist
Ellie Park, Photography Editor
ChatGPT has acquired over 180.5 million users and set a record for the fastest-growing consumer application in history, all while stirring fears about job replacement and plagiarized essays since its release last November. Nearing its one-year launch anniversary, though, ChatGPTs carbon footprint has garnered concern by computer scientists.
With studies projecting large-language models like ChatGPT to potentially consume between 85.4 to 134.0 TWh of electricity the equivalent of Sweden or Argentinas annual electricity use by 2027, the growing energy demands of artificial intelligence could likely make it a sneaky electricity guzzler. Foretelling its future, however, is still complicated. The News reached out to Yale computer science professors, who acknowledged the concerns regarding AIs high energy consumption but also pointed to ways it could attain greater electrical efficiency.
The problem of AI is a sub-specialization of just the general issue of how much carbon or energy computing requires, computational biology professor Mark Gerstein told the News.
Gerstein explained that the problem of AIs energy-use is not entirely new. He added that large-scale data centers and cryptocurrency mining are other notorious consumers of energy, which makes AIs computational efficiency concerns no different from those of its predecessors.
The heart of AIs energy problem lies in its huge operational demands, according to Amin Karbasi, professor of electrical engineering and computer science. Karbasi explained that large-language models are most energy-intensive in their training phase, during which researchers input massive datasets to refine hundreds of billions of parameters. This training process which ultimately allows models to predict word placement or develop sentences can take weeks and requires thousands of graphics processing units. This makes for staggering figures of electricity consumption, Karbasi said.
Data center electricity use has accounted for one percent of global electricity use in recent years, according to a recent paper published in CellBy the papers projections, AI could account for anywhere between 0.3 to 0.5 percent of the worlds electricity use four years from now.
By comparison, cryptocurrency mining another energy-intensive process in which computers perform complex math problems to verify transactions consumed an estimated 161 TWh of electricity last year, or 0.6 percent of the worlds electricity use.
Stephen Slade, professor of computer science, said that AIs carbon footprint is not impossible to fix or at least to reduce. Extrapolating from the current electricity usage of large-language models often does not consider the potential effects of scale or increased algorithmic efficiency, he explained. Advancing AI doesnt always entail more GPUs.
Its one thing for the hardware to become more powerful, Slade told the News. But theres a greater impact made in software if you can get algorithms that are more efficient.
Increasing algorithmic efficiency has been the focus of Karbasis lab. In a collaboration with Google and Carnegie Mellon University, Karbasi added that the simpler algorithms developed by his team have helped ease some of the more taxing computational processes used by AI while attaining the same results. By streamlining the AIs self-attention unit the mechanism that allows large-language models to assess the relative importance and order of words in a sentence his lab has lowered some computation demands by 50 times their original amount.
Karbasi said that smarter algorithms could eventually compress some AI onto local edge devices such computers and smartwatches, many of whose applications must connect to outside servers. By migrating AI onto individual computer processing units, devices might decrease their reliance on cloud networks and reduce the strain on its servers.
According to Gerstein, training models with imprecise calculations or even embedding certain capabilities within devices could help increase AIs energy efficiency. Gerstein added that most processes, such as facial recognition and email, currently require pushing data onto the cloud which makes the processing more inefficient..
Karbasi said he predicts that most AI models will likely be consolidated in the future, which would also drive down energy demands. AI models would be maintained by just a handful of large enterprises, on which users could then fine tune with their own data on these pre-trained models. While Karbasi noted that fine tuning can be very expensive, he said it is much more efficient than training individual models from scratch.
In the meantime, Karbasi added that smaller models can be extremely beneficial for understanding larger ones at the scale of ChatGPT or Bard. By acting as guinea pigs for potential improvements that accelerate the training process, his labs models have helped Google experiment with new methods and fixes to increase efficiency, he said
As their data centers increase, companies like Google and Amazon have also made attempts at any hardware and physical improvements they can, said Gerstein. He added that strategically positioning certain chips or placing data centers in cooler locations have helped mitigate some of the energy concerns, especially as computers have increased their complexity and power over the decades.
Earlier this year, Alphabet chairman John Hennessy had mentioned that an exchange with a large-language model cost 10 times more for the company than a standard Google search.
GPT-4, OpenAIs latest system, can score a 90th percentile in the Uniform Bar Exam.
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AIs carbon footprint can be managed, computer science professors say - Yale Daily News
Conor Krystad BS’22 fine-tuned his love of computers at Willamette – willamette.edu
It was love at first sight for Conor Krystad BS22, and those first impressions of Willamette University have paid off.
Krystad, who majored in Computer Science and minored in Data Science, Mathematics, and Psychology, turned his passion for computers into a job right out of college as a software developer engineer with Cambia Health Systems in Portland. The company even allowed him to delay his start date so he could enjoy a little summer vacation and let him work remotely in San Diego.
During the college selection process, Willamette caught Krystads eye right away. I went on college tours and spent a day at Willamette, where I met Professor of Computer Science Haiyan Cheng, Krystad says. After doing an overnight with some first-year students in the dorms, Krystad knew the college was right for him. It felt like an open and welcoming community, and I thought I could make friends here. His conversation with Professor Cheng sealed the deal and she continued to make a big difference in his studies and career choice.
I showed up at Willamette knowing that I wanted to be a computer science major, Krystad continues. Ive been playing around making mods for Minecraft for a number of years. I knew thats what I wanted to do.
Meeting and studying with Willamettes dedicated professors helped Krystad decide which parts of computer science fascinated him most. Professor Cheng probably had the greatest impact on me: She was a great mentor for me over one summer when I had an internship with her. And her Analysis of Algorithms class, where youre blending computer science and mathematics, was fantastic.
Krystad also highlights Stanford Professor Emeritus and 202021 Mark and Melody Teppola Presidential Distinguished Visiting Professor Eric S. Roberts for challenging him to think critically about the field of computer science. His Computer Ethics class was probably my favorite in Computer Science. It was more humanities-focused, but thats the sort of thing a Computer Science degree at a liberal arts institution offers. Krystad says the liberal arts focus continues to be relevant today, for example, with subjects like the Therac-25 bug a bug in a medical device that caused overdoses that killed several people from radiation poisoning the current focus on J. Robert Oppenheimer and the role of science and computers in the creation of the atomic bomb, and some of the less favorable applications for my particular field.
Assistant Professor of Computer Science Calvin Deutschbein, who arrived during Krystads last year at Willamette, also made an impression, with his course Introduction to Cybersecurity. The course asked such questions as, What purpose does cybersecurity serve and why, and who benefits from it? and Why do cybersecurity breaks happen? Kyrstad adds.
When it came time to find a job, Krystad again credited Cheng for her help. After sending out plenty of resumes, he got a response from Cambia through a contact of Chengs. I don't think thats a coincidence that thats the one that I got the interview with, and that was the one where I ultimately got this job.
Today, Krystad works as a backend Java developer with a team of four others, managing insurance claims, converting them to different file formats, and saving them on databases. He plans to stick with the company but admits his interests in computer science are all over the place.
I think these large language models are pretty cool, and youre hearing about them in the news all the time. So perhaps I may go into the field of computational linguistics, which thanks to Professor Deutschbein, I still have a soft spot for.
Whats Krystads advice for prospective students and incoming first years? Willamette is about the people you meet and the connections you make, more so than your set of technical skills. In addition, Krystad notes that he loved some of the courses he took beyond his key interests, like Neuroscience class and Medical Anthropology. His key advice? Going to a liberal arts college, you should study broadly and differentiate yourself that way.
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Conor Krystad BS'22 fine-tuned his love of computers at Willamette - willamette.edu
Notre Dame computer scientists receive NSF award to reduce opioid … – University of Notre Dame
University of Notre Dame computer scientists within the Lucy Family Institute for Data & Society and the College of Engineering have received an award of $300,000 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support the development of a new machine learning framework used to offer personalized dietary recommendations to address the national opioid epidemic.
Although opioid users are offered medication assisted treatment (MAT), which can effectively reduce opioid misuse and addiction, diet is an importantand often overlookedfactor in recovery.
Relapse is common because the side effects from the medication, compounded by a lack of proper nutrition, accelerate depression and anxiety, says Yanfang (Fanny) Ye, associate director of applied analytics for the Lucy Family Institute for Data & Society and Collegiate Associate Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Notre Dame. When treatments combine MAT methods with an increased focus on proper diet, opioid users are more likely to make a successful recovery.
As principal investigator for the project, Ye explains the necessity to develop dietary interventions to help recovering users: Data has the ability to help people remain fully-committed to opioid recovery by providing them with education on what foods they need to eat to stay mentally and physically healthy. The award complements another current research project which usesadvanced artificial intelligence techniques to tackle the online opioid trafficking crisis and received a $1 million four-year grant from the NSF in 2022.
Nitesh Chawla, founding director of the Lucy Family Institute for Data & Society and Frank M. Freimann Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, is a co-investigator on the project. Also joining Ye and Chawla is Chuxu Zang, assistant professor of Computer Science at Brandeis University. The team will use the data generated from online crowd-sourcing and business review platforms such as Yelp, to develop a dietary standard which incorporates multifactorial conditions, such as diet preference and nutrient diversity. The personalized dietary guide will be directly available to recovering opioid users, and can also aid clinicians in developing recovery care plans.
Chawla describes the opioid epidemic as one of societys wicked problems. He notes that the projects goal of alleviating the crisis aligns with Notre Dames goal of advancing human understanding through scholarship which seeks to heal, unify, and enlighten.
Currently, most health insurance plans do not cover dietary nutrition services for opioid misuse and addiction recovery and the programs may primarily target socially privileged groups, which thereby potentially widens health inequality. Chawla explains. By developing effective yet affordable solutions to facilitate personalized dietary recommendations against opioid misuse and addiction, this project is one of the many ways that the Lucy Family Institute is embarking on an initiative to leverage data-driven insights to bridge the gap in healthcare disparities.
The resulting framework developed from the project will accelerate personalized dietary nutrition intervention as a supplementary treatment for reducing opioid overdose and will work to provide solutions to eliminating the national opioid crisis.
Learn more at Yes-Lab.org.
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Christine Grashorn, Communications SpecialistNotre Dame Research / University of Notre Damecgrashor@nd.edu / 574.631.4856research.nd.edu / @UNDResearch
About the Lucy Family Institute for Data & Society
Guided by Notre Dames Mission, the Lucy Family Institute adventurously collaborates on advancing data-driven convergence research, translational solutions, and education to ethically address societys wicked problems. As an innovative nexus of academia, industry, and the public, the Institute also fosters data science access to strengthen diverse and inclusive capacity building within communities. Our vision is to become the preeminent intellectual beacon, inspiring collaborative, equitable, and impactful data innovations as a global force for good.
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Notre Dame computer scientists receive NSF award to reduce opioid ... - University of Notre Dame
From Ideas to Impact: Symposium on Digital Therapeutics – Dartmouth News
TheClinically-Validated Digital Therapeutics: Innovations in Scientific Discovery, Clinical Applications, and Global Deploymentevent convened health care leaders across academia, government, and industry at the Hanover Inn on Oct. 25.
Hosted by theCenter for Technology and Behavioral Health, the digital heath summit, now in its second edition, is the only one of its kind situated in an academic institution. Besides clinical and computer science researchers, it brings together diverse stakeholdersproviders, regulators, payers, and investors, as well as representatives from global pharmato create pathways for translating ideas in the space of digital health to impact.
In her welcoming remarks at the eventPresident Sian Leah Beilockemphasized the urgency in realizing the potential of digital health in tackling mental health issues and other areas of health care.
While acknowledging that technology has played a role in exacerbating the mental health crisis, she believes that it can be a part of the solution as well.
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Ideas are wonderful, but we have to be able to have impact, we have to be able to scale, and that only happens when we have all of us in the room together.
Attribution
President Sian Leah Beilock
We cant wait, is what Im saying to you today. We cant wait given our shortage of health care professionals. We cant wait given this crisis. We dont have time to sit back and watch this play out, President Beilock said.
Events like the digital therapeutics symposium, which bring together every part of the health care ecosystem, Beilock said, are crucial catalysts that spark real dialogue, collaborations, and innovations that can propel health practices to the next level.
Ideas are wonderful, but we have to be able to have impact, we have to be able to scale, and that only happens when we have all of us in the room together, said Beilock. Dartmouth is the kind of place where this should happen and were so proud to facilitate it. This is the time to be thinking about how we can really push the needle.
President Sian Leah Beilock welcomes participants to the summit on Oct. 25 at the Hanover Inn. (Photo by Kata Sasvari)
Digital therapeutics is still a confusing term to people because it can mean so much, said Andy Molnar, CEOof theDigital Therapeutics Alliance, a trade organization serving the digital therapeutics industry.
Encompassing everything from developing electronic medical record systems to using wearable devices and other mobile technology to track and manage chronic conditions like diabetes, digital therapeutics has recently been defined by the International Organization for Standardization as health software intended to treat or alleviate a disease, disorder, condition, or injury by generating and delivering a medical intervention that has a demonstrable positive therapeutic impact on a patients health.
It is really clear what the potential is, but it is really hard to get there, said Molnar who summarized the current state of digital therapeutics in the U.S. and around the world and outlined the policy goals of the Digital Therapeutics Alliance.
Event speakers included representatives from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. In addition to panel discussions that deliberated various paths and strategies to get health plan providers on board and the role of global pharma in scaling evidence-based digital therapeutics, the afternoons final session and subsequent poster presentation highlighted innovations in digital health at Dartmouth.
Nicholas Jacobson, assistant professor of biomedical data science, andCTBH Director Lisa Marschpresented preliminary results on their efforts to use mobile sensing data to assess behavioral patterns of people suffering from opioid use disorder with a view to designing effective therapeutic supports and interventions.
Catherine Stanger, professor of psychiatry and biomedical data science, described her work on a pilot program that provides financial interventions and health coaching to motivate behavior change in young adults with type 1 diabetes, the age group with the highest risk for hospitalizations.
Michael Heinz, a postdoctoral fellow at the Artificial Intelligence and Mental Health Lab who has developed an AI-driven therapist called Therabot now undergoing its first clinical trial, and Jacobson presented research on generative AI and large language models in mental health.
Finally,Barry Schweitzer, associate director of the Magnuson Center for Entrepreneurship, spoke about the Dartmouth Innovation Accelerator for digital health launched this year with the mission to accelerate the real world implementation of novel clinically validated digital therapeutics and other digital health tools developed by data innovators. Born out of discussions initiated at last years digital health summit, the accelerator has organized events to support and mentor budding entrepreneurs at Dartmouth.
The talks and discussions were not centered on academia, which is what a lot of conferences tend to be, saidSukriti Ghosh, a PhD student in quantitative biomedical sciences. This was a good way to see the different perspectives in the field and learn about diverse opportunities the field offers.
In her final comments Marsch noted that several speakers highlighted ongoing efforts to explore alternatives paths that stakeholders are devising to get effective, clinically validated tools into the hands of people that use that them even as they wait for positive developments in the payer space that creates a broader coverage framework.
We know that theres great value in this space, said Marsch. We need to work together to distinguish hype from technologies that can drive the field forward and make a big impact in peoples lives.
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From Ideas to Impact: Symposium on Digital Therapeutics - Dartmouth News
The 2023 WLA Prize Award Ceremony to be Held in Shanghai on Nov. 6 – Yahoo Finance
Shanghai, Nov. 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The 2023 WLA Prize Award Ceremony will take place in Shanghai on November 6, with an impressive attendance of over 300[1] experts and scholars, including the world laureates, academicians, senior scientists, young scientists, and professionals from 25 countries and regions. The ceremony will also be live-streamed online.
The World Laureates Association Prize (WLA Prize) is an international science prize established in Shanghai, in 2021, initiated by the World Laureates Association (WLA), managed by the WLA Foundation, and exclusively funded by HongShan. It aims to recognize and support eminent researchers and technologies worldwide for their contributions to science. Each year, the WLA Prize is awarded in two categories: "Computer Science or Mathematics" and "Life Science or Medicine", with the total award for each Prize being RMB 10 million.
The 2023 WLA Prize in Computer Science or Mathematics recognizes two scientists: Arkadi Nemirovski, the John P. Hunter, Jr. Chair Professor at the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology, and Yurii Nesterov, Professor Emeritus and Senior Scientific Researcher at the Center for Operations Research & Econometrics and Mathematical Engineering Department at the Universit Catholique de Louvain, "for their seminal work in convex optimization theory, including the theory of self-concordant functions and interior-point methods, a complexity theory of optimization, accelerated gradient methods, and methodological advances in robust optimization."
The 2023 WLA Prize in Life Science or Medicine recognizes three scientists: Karolin Luger, Professor and Jennie Smoly Caruthers Endowed Chair of Biochemistry at the University of Colorado Boulder, Daniela Rhodes, Emeritus Group leader at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, and Timothy J. Richmond, Professor of Crystallography of Biological Macromolecules (Emeritus) at ETH Zrich, "for elucidating the structure of the nucleosome at the atomic level, providing the basis for understanding chromatin, gene regulation, and epigenetics."
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Continuing last year's tradition, the ceremony will be held at the Opening Ceremony of the 6th WLA Forum, an annual scientific event which also features WLA Prize related academic lectures and dialogues starting from Nov. 5. The 2023 WLA Prize laureates will deliver academic lectures talking about their award-winning work.
"I have only been to China once, a long time ago, and I am excited to go back. With respect to the ceremony, I view this as a big celebration for the nucleosome," comments Prof. Luger. She also expresses her expectations to the 6th WLA Forum: "The forum sounds super interesting and I am really looking forward to stimulating discussion and to meeting new people."
This opinion is echoed by Prof. Nemirovski. He has "no doubts the organizers will make the Ceremony and the Forum a great success." While Prof. Nesterov also believes "it will result in a very interesting and productive exchange of opinions on the most important challenges of our life."
For more latest updates, please follow us at: https://www.thewlaprize.org
Relevant Information:
About the WLA Prize
The World Laureates Association Prize (WLA Prize) is an international science prize established in Shanghai, in 2021, initiated by the World Laureates Association (WLA), managed by the WLA Foundation, and exclusively funded by HongShan. The WLA Prize aims to recognize and support eminent researchers and technologists worldwide for their contributions to science. It is intended to support global science and technology advancement, address the challenges to humanity, and promote society's long-term progress. Each year, the WLA Prize is awarded in two categories: "Computer Science or Mathematics" and "Life Science or Medicine", with the total award for each Prize, which may be divided among up to four laureates, being RMB 10 million.
About the World Laureates Association
The World Laureates Association (WLA)is a non-governmental and non-profit international organization. It is one of the world's highest-profile organizations of laureates with three missions: "promote basic science, advocate for international cooperation, and support the development of youth." Upholding the vision of "Science and Technology for the Common Destiny of Mankind," the WLA actively foster close scientific exchange among esteemed scientists and scholars around the globe.
About the WLA Foundation
The WLA Foundation is a non-public charitable foundation that supports all WLA missions and activities by bringing together social forces.
About HongShan
HongShan is a leading venture capital and private equity firm investing across technology, healthcare and consumer sectors. Since 2005, HongShan has been fostering entrepreneurship and innovation, backing more than 1,500 companies around the globe with transformative technologies, disruptive business models and high-growth potential. To date, more than 160 HongShan portfolio companies have listed on public stock exchanges, while nearly 130 private portfolio companies have reached unicorn status. It adheres to nurturing scientific talents and entrepreneurs, inspiring technology-driven enterprises, and fulfilling its social responsibilities in the fields of scientific and technological innovation. As the exclusive sponsor of the World Laureates Association Prize (WLA Prize), HongShan is dedicated to promoting scientific progress and industrial development in China and for humanity as a whole.
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The 2023 WLA Prize Award Ceremony to be Held in Shanghai on Nov. 6 - Yahoo Finance
Forging climate connections across the Institute | MIT News … – MIT News
Climate change is the ultimate cross-cutting issue: Not limited to any one discipline, it ranges across science, technology, policy, culture, human behavior, and well beyond. The response to it likewise requires an all-of-MIT effort.
Now, to strengthen such an effort, a new grant program spearheaded by the Climate Nucleus, the faculty committee charged with the oversight and implementation of Fast Forward: MITs Climate Action Plan for the Decade, aims to build up MITs climate leadership capacity while also supporting innovative scholarship on diverse climate-related topics and forging new connections across the Institute.
Called the Fast Forward Faculty Fund (F^4 for short), the program has named its first cohort of six faculty members after issuing its inaugural call for proposals in April 2023. The cohort will come together throughout the year for climate leadership development programming and networking. The program provides financial support for graduate students who will work with the faculty members on the projects the students will also participate in leadership-building activities as well as $50,000 in flexible, discretionary funding to be used to support related activities.
Climate change is a crisis that truly touches every single person on the planet, says Noelle Selin, co-chair of the nucleus and interim director of the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society. Its therefore essential that we build capacity for every member of the MIT community to make sense of the problem and help address it. Through the Fast Forward Faculty Fund, our aim is to have a cohort of climate ambassadors who can embed climate everywhere at the Institute.
F^4 supports both faculty who would like to begin doing climate-related work, as well as faculty members who are interested in deepening their work on climate. The program has the core goal of developing cohorts of F^4 faculty and graduate students who, in addition to conducting their own research, will become climate leaders at MIT, proactively looking for ways to forge new climate connections across schools, departments, and disciplines.
One of the projects, Climate Crisis and Real Estate: Science-based Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies, led by Professor Siqi Zheng of the MIT Center for Real Estate in collaboration with colleagues from the MIT Sloan School of Management, focuses on the roughly 40 percent of carbon dioxide emissions that come from the buildings and real estate sector. Zheng notes that this sector has been slow to respond to climate change, but says that is starting to change, thanks in part to the rising awareness of climate risks and new local regulations aimed at reducing emissions from buildings.
Using a data-driven approach, the project seeks to understand the efficient and equitable market incentives, technology solutions, and public policies that are most effective at transforming the real estate industry. Johnattan Ontiveros, a graduate student in the Technology and Policy Program, is working with Zheng on the project.
We were thrilled at the incredible response we received from the MIT faculty to our call for proposals, which speaks volumes about the depth and breadth of interest in climate at MIT, says Anne White, nucleus co-chair and vice provost and associate vice president for research. This program makes good on key commitments of the Fast Forward plan, supporting cutting-edge new work by faculty and graduate students while helping to deepen the bench of climate leaders at MIT.
During the 2023-24 academic year, the F^4 faculty and graduate student cohorts will come together to discuss their projects, explore opportunities for collaboration, participate in climate leadership development, and think proactively about how to deepen interdisciplinary connections among MIT community members interested in climate change.
The six inaugural F^4 awardees are:
Professor Tristan Brown, History Section: Humanistic Approaches to the Climate Crisis
With this project, Brown aims to create a new community of practice around narrative-centric approaches to environmental and climate issues. Part of a broader humanities initiative at MIT, it brings together a global working group of interdisciplinary scholars, including Serguei Saavedra (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering) and Or Porath (Tel Aviv University; Religion), collectively focused on examining the historical and present links between sacred places and biodiversity for the purposes of helping governments and nongovernmental organizations formulate better sustainability goals. Boyd Ruamcharoen, a PhD student in the History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology, and Society (HASTS) program, will work with Brown on this project.
Professor Kerri Cahoy, departments of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (AeroAstro): Onboard Autonomous AI-driven Satellite Sensor Fusion for Coastal Region Monitoring
The motivation for this project is the need for much better data collection from satellites, where technology can be 20 years behind, says Cahoy. As part of this project, Cahoy will pursue research in the area of autonomous artificial intelligence-enabled rapid sensor fusion (which combines data from different sensors, such as radar and cameras) onboard satellites to improve understanding of the impacts of climate change, specifically sea-level rise and hurricanes and flooding in coastal regions. Graduate students Madeline Anderson, a PhD student in electrical engineering and computer science (EECS), and Mary Dahl, a PhD student in AeroAstro, will work with Cahoy on this project.
Professor Priya Donti, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science: Robust Reinforcement Learning for High-Renewables Power Grids
With renewables like wind and solar making up a growing share of electricity generation on power grids, Donti's project focuses on improving control methods for these distributed sources of electricity. The research will aim to create a realistic representation of the characteristics of power grid operations, and eventually inform scalable operational improvements in power systems. It will give power systems operators faith that, OK, this conceptually is good, but it also actually works on this grid, says Donti. PhD candidate Ana Rivera from EECS is the F^4 graduate student on the project.
Professor Jason Jackson, Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP): Political Economy of the Climate Crisis: Institutions, Power and Global Governance
This project takes a political economy approach to the climate crisis, offering a distinct lens to examine, first, the political governance challenge of mobilizing climate action and designing new institutional mechanisms to address the global and intergenerational distributional aspects of climate change; second, the economic challenge of devising new institutional approaches to equitably finance climate action; and third, the cultural challenge and opportunity of empowering an adaptive socio-cultural ecology through traditional knowledge and local-level social networks to achieve environmental resilience. Graduate students Chen Chu and Mrinalini Penumaka, both PhD students in DUSP, are working with Jackson on the project.
Professor Haruko Wainwright, departments of Nuclear Science and Engineering (NSE) and Civil and Environmental Engineering: Low-cost Environmental Monitoring Network Technologies in Rural Communities for Addressing Climate Justice
This project will establish a community-based climate and environmental monitoring network in addition to a data visualization and analysis infrastructure in rural marginalized communities to better understand and address climate justice issues. The project team plans to work with rural communities in Alaska to install low-cost air and water quality, weather, and soil sensors. Graduate students Kay Whiteaker, an MS candidate in NSE, and Amandeep Singh, and MS candidate in System Design and Management at Sloan, are working with Wainwright on the project, as is David McGee, professor in earth, atmospheric, and planetary sciences.
Professor Siqi Zheng, MIT Center for Real Estate and DUSP: Climate Crisis and Real Estate: Science-based Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies
See the text above for the details on this project.
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Forging climate connections across the Institute | MIT News ... - MIT News
Introducing New USM Student Clubs: Google Developer and … – The University of Southern Mississippi
Tue, 10/31/2023 - 04:02pm | By: Ivonne Kawas
New student clubs at The University of Southern Mississippis (USM) School of Computing Sciences and Computer Engineering (CSCE) aim to ignite the talents of the next generation of innovators and prepare students for todays dynamic tech industry: Google Developer Student Club and Robotics and Intelligent Machines.
Google Developer Student Club
The first university chapter of its kind in Mississippi, USMs Google Developer Student Club (GDSC) was established to provide a platform for students to learn, grow, and innovate together. Whether you're a coding maestro, a design enthusiast, or simply curious about the latest tech trends, the clubs activities are tailored to bridge the gap between different academic backgrounds and tech-driven ambitions.
Yaju Shrestha, who is majoring in computer science and applied economics, is serving as the GDSC club lead. He shares that the idea to start the club originated from a casual conversation among his friends, as they all have a common aspiration: pursuing careers in either software development or machine learning.
My introduction to GDSC came through LinkedIn, where I learned about another university chapter working on projects to bridge the gap between academia and industry, said Shrestha.
Intrigued, my friends and I decided to establish a club with a dedicated focus on these emerging fields.
Our vision was to create a space where students could explore and learn beyond the classroom. We understood that a club simulating the real-world coding environment would empower students to broaden their horizons, Shrestha added.
Shrestha later applied to lead a GDSC chapter at USM, with Dr. Nick Rahimi serving as the club's faculty advisor.
After navigating through various application processes and interview rounds, we finally received the green light to officially launch our chapter, said Shrestha.
In the upcoming academic year, the club will offer a myriad of activities and events, including regular tech talks and workshops on a variety of Google technologies; hackathons and hackathon preparation workshops; industry speaker events with Google engineers and other tech professionals; mentorship programs to connect students with experienced developers; and social events to build community and network with other students.
Students will have the opportunity to collaborate with industry professionals, attend conferences, and engage in real-world applications of Google technologies, said Dr. Rahimi, assistant professor in the CSCE. For example, students can apply to attend Google-sponsored conferences, such as I/O and DevFest. They can also participate in USM hackathons and other events, where they will have the opportunity to work on real-world projects using Google technologies.
Shrestha highlights that the clubs activities will focus on skill development, so students can excel in the fast-paced tech industry.
By creating an ecosystem where members acquire versatile skills, club members will be able to excel in the dynamic technological landscape. Ultimately, our vision is to inspire a new generation of fearless thinkers and creators who will shape the technological future, benefiting both students and the broader USM community, he said.
How to Join?
Students interested in joining the GDSC can initiate the process by contacting the club lead, Yaju Shrestha, via email.
The Google Developer Club is open to all students, regardless of their academic background or experience level. It is a student-led organization, and members are encouraged to take ownership of the club and its activities. The club is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive community where everyone feels welcome and supported.
Robotics and Intelligent Machines Club
USMs Robotics and Intelligent Machines Student Club aims to broaden the participation in technology applications aroundrobotics and machinesamong the campus community.
Muhammad Sabih Ul Hussnain, who is majoring in computer science, is serving as the president of the Robotics Club. He shares that the inspiration behind starting the club was the desire to be a part of a community that focuses on programming and electronics.
Ive always been interested in robotics. My interest stems back to 8th grade, when I started making small projects like a quadruped robot and other stuff. When I got to USM, I realized there wasnt a robotics club and there were a lot of students interested in joining a STEM club with a focus on programming and electronics, he said.
Hussnain attended the club's inaugural meeting for this semester, where it became official, and he was chosen to serve as the president, with Dr. Jose Martinez Cruz serving as the club's faculty advisor.
When students join theclub, they have access to several robots for learning experiences, said Dr. Martinez, assistant teaching professor in CSCE. Most of the robots that theclubhas, are small factor forms of industrial applications, so it will be easy for students to later engage in work environments wereroboticsapplications are part of the routine.
In the upcoming academic year, the club will offer different activities and events, including testing of different robotic assemblies for ground and underwater applications; participating in robotic competitions as volunteers, judges, or participants; and attending lectures with experts in the roboticsfield to learn about its applications in the industry.
Hussnain highlights that he is looking forward to facilitating future partnerships with other groups on campus.
How to Join?
Students interested in joining the club, can initiate the process by emailing USM Robotics Team.
Students from all backgrounds and any major are welcome to join. The only requirement is to have an interest in contributing to the development of technology. Current president is Muhammad Sabih Ul Hussnain and vice president is Nathan Anderson.
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Introducing New USM Student Clubs: Google Developer and ... - The University of Southern Mississippi
Petsko receives National Medal of Science – ASBMB Today
In October, President Joe Biden awarded the National Medal of Science and the National Medal of Technology and Innovation to 20 Americans who have made exemplary achievements in science, technology and innovation to strengthen the nations well-being. Among those awarded the National Medal of Science was Gregory Petsko, who has been an American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology member since 1987.
Petsko
The National Medal of Science is the nations highest scientific honor. Since 1959, it has been bestowed on individuals deserving of special recognition for their outstanding contributions in biology, computer sciences, education sciences, engineering, geosciences, mathematical and physical sciences, and social, behavioral, and economic sciences, in service to the nation.
Petsko is a professor of neurology at Brigham & Womens Hospital and Harvard Medical School. In his early career, Petskos lab was dedicated to understanding enzymes catalytic activity and structure. He and his colleague Dagmar Ringe made foundational discoveries in structural biology, including obtaining the first time-lapse images of the complete catalytic cycle of cytochrome P450 at an atomic resolution using low-temperature X-ray crystallography.
Since the early 2000s, his research has focused on finding treatments for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimers, Parkinsons and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. His team developed a gene therapy for the most common form of ALS. This gene therapy induces overexpression of the nonsense-mediated decay factor UPF1 and reduces neuronal toxicity in human cell culture and rodent models of ALS. In addition, Petsko and his colleague Scott Small have developed therapeutics for Alzheimers and Parkinsons. All of these therapies will soon be tested in clinical trials.
His many awards include the Siddhu Award and the Martin J. Buerger Award from the American Crystallographic Association, the Pfizer Award in Enzyme Chemistry from the American Chemical Society, the Lynen Medal, the McKnight Endowment for Neuroscience Brain Disorders Award, a Guggenheim fellowship and the Max Planck Prize.
He is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. In addition, Petsko is a past president of the ASBMB and also of the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
The press release from the White House stated: Those who earn these awards embody the promise of America by pushing the boundaries of what is possible. These trailblazers have harnessed the power of science and technology to tackle challenging problems and deliver innovative solutions for Americans, and for communities around the world.
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Grants to spur innovations in generative AI, computational science … – The University Record
Research teams at the University of Michigan will share $575,000 to facilitate high-impact research across a broad range of domains, including sustainable energy, pandemic response, ultra-powerful computing, and generative artificial intelligence for science and education.
The Michigan Institute for Computational Discovery and Engineering, a unit within the Office of the Vice President for Research, recently awarded funds to seven research teams as a part of its Catalyst Grants program.
This years Catalyst Grants focus on the development of novel generative artificial intelligence techniques for scientific applications. These projects are not just highly innovative, but also strategically important to U-M, particularly with respect to our evolving relationship with national laboratories, said MICDE Director Karthik Duraisamy, professor of aerospace engineering and of mechanical engineering.
U-M is leading the narrative in the development and deployment of generative AI across the spectrum of academic missions, and these projects are directly responsive to that ideal.
Since its Catalyst Grants program was launched in 2017, MICDE has supported a broad spectrum of research in computational science and engineering.
Our objective is to initiate these projects and support U-M researchers from the development of their conceptual ideas to making a global impact, said Vancho Kocevski, managing director of MICDE.
MICDE awarded grants for the following projects for 2023-24:
Liyue Shen, assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science; Jeff Fessler, William L. Root Collegiate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and professor of applied physics, of biomedical engineering and of radiology; and Qing Qu, assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science, will develop novel techniques to improve the training and sampling efficiency of generic diffusion models and introduce computationally efficient diffusion models for high-dimensional data to further enhance data, memory and time efficiency.
Michael Hayashi, clinical assistant professor of epidemiology; and Joseph N.S. Eisenberg, professor of epidemiology and of global public health, will develop a novel interdisciplinary approach that draws from modeling frameworks from both health and social sciences to capture the feedback between policymakers, members of the public, and disease transmission to prepare policymakers for the next pandemic.
Jeremy Bricker, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering; Ayumi Fujisaki-Manome, associate research scientist at the Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research; Seymour Spence, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering; and Yulin Pan, assistant professor of naval architecture and marine engineering, will develop a novel high-fidelity and computationally efficient approach to predict the dynamic response of floating offshore wind turbines and a short-term early warning technology in extreme sea conditions based on deep learning.
Brendan Kochunas, assistant professor of nuclear engineering and radiological science; and Xinyu Wang, assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science, will use program synthesis methods to take mathematical algorithm descriptions as input and produce functionally correct and performant code using machine learning, a novel approach in scientific computing.
Raj Rao Nadakuditi, associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science, will develop a generative AI-based feedback and coaching chatbot that can transform the training of hundreds of computational scientists- and engineers-in-training at U-M.
Venkat Viswanathan, associate professor of aerospace engineering; and Vikram Gavini, professor of materials science and engineering and mechanical engineering, will train a foundation model on the largest available chemical dataset to achieve accuracy similar to quantum mechanical computational methods and will fine-tune the model for tasks relevant to electrolyte design.
Mosharaf Chowdhury, associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science,aims to develop Oobleck, a resilient hybrid-parallel training framework, to enable resilient distributed training of large generative AI models with consistently high throughput even in the presence of failures.
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Grants to spur innovations in generative AI, computational science ... - The University Record