Science and technology | Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy
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News

STPP to explore best practice in community engagement

Aug 1, 2023
As technologists and scientists increasingly engage with communities in order to enhance the societal benefits of their work, and demonstrate its public value, it is important to ensure that such engagements benefit the people they claim to serve....
community building pexels
Publication

Parthasarathy calls for reimagining the innovation process

Jul 19, 2023
The basic model of technological innovation in the U.S. has relied upon academic research and private sector commercialization. While the standard approach has stimulated macroeconomic growth, produced many valuable products, and created jobs,...
Shobita Parthasarathy
In the Media

Parthasarathy: ChatGPT reinforces human biases

Jun 18, 2023 WDET
Shobita Parthasarathy says ChatGPT simply reiterates language that humans have already created, and that often the ideas and biases that humans exhibit are reinforced by the tool. “[ChatGPT] is not magic. It’s also not an asteroid. It is us. It...
Shobita Parthasarathy
In the Media

Rabe says Alaska taking a "leap of faith" with carbon credits

May 23, 2023 Associated Press
Barry Rabe, Associated Press: Lawmakers cast the bill as allowing Alaska to have the best of both worlds — continuing to permit oil drilling, mining and timber activities while also stepping into the potentially lucrative market for sequestering...
Barry Rabe Teaser Display
News

Pretrial risk assessment tools found to be subjective and biased

May 4, 2023 Read the full brief
In their attempts to reform the cash bail system, jurisdictions across the country are turning to automated pretrial risk assessment tools that ‘predict’ if a defendant will be arrested for a new crime while waiting for trial or will fail to appear...
Gavel
In the Media

Ali discusses the state of intelligence spying today

May 3, 2023 CNN Audio
Ali, CNN Audio: "The volume of that information is staggering. And this is to me, one of the big challenges for not only our intelligence community, but pretty much any other country is there's so much information in this social media/Internet...
Javed Ali
News

Ford School joins Spelman College Research Day, lends support

Apr 25, 2023
In a return to her alma mater, Ford School interim dean Celeste Watkins-Hayes visited Spelman College to elevate the visibility of the Ford School at the nation’s top-ranked Historically Black College  and to strengthen the relationship between the...
Research day at Spelman University
News

STPP receives grant to study STEM-in-Society training

Apr 21, 2023
As science becomes more central to our daily lives—whether for predicting the impacts of climate change, transforming our physical and cognitive capabilities, or developing life-saving pharmaceuticals—socially responsible research and innovation are...
STEM on a blackboard
In the Media

Horner analyzes use of social media by local governments

Apr 9, 2023 Daily Telegram
Debra Horner, The Daily Telegram: "Back in 2012, only about 18 percent of local officials told us their governments used social media (including 48 percent of jurisdictions with more than 30,000 residents). In 2021, that was up to 29 percent...
Photo of the upper half of the northwest corner of Weill Hall
In the Media

Ali analyzes congressional hearing on threat of TikTok

Mar 23, 2023 ABC News
Javed Ali, ABC News: "There definitely is a lot of skepticism right now on the Hill, despite the claims from the TikTok CEO about these steps or actions the company has taken to minimize the risk. But I have been listening to the voices of my former...
Headshot of Javed Ali at Weill Hall's 4th floor Whitman Lounge
News

STPP gift to expand educational opportunities for undergraduates

Mar 22, 2023
The Science, Technology, and Public Policy (STPP) program has received a $250,000 gift to expand educational opportunities for undergraduates across campus. The gift comes from Phil (LSA ’87) and Julie (LSA ’88) Hollyer, parents of Keegan (Ford BA...
Glasses rest on a desktop with various coding windows open on a screen behind
In the Media

AI will 'turbocharge' inequalities in health care - Parthasarathy

Mar 16, 2023 Bridge Michigan
Shobita Parthasarathy, Bridge Michigan: "Health care systems don't even know what data they're missing. That (AI) gets integrated into medical care as a mechanism for achieving efficiency. But they do that without realizing that it's going to...
Professor Shobita Parthasarathy leads a discussion in the Betty Ford Classroom
In the Media

Parthasarathy on AI technology perils

Feb 28, 2023 Business Insider
Business Insider: Run-ins with users show some of the potentially troubling outcomes to expect when companies experiment with the public on new AI technologies, said Shobita Parthasarathy, a public policy professor at the University of Michigan, who...
Shobita Parthasarathy
Publication

Automated License Plate Readers widely used, subject to abuse

Feb 22, 2023
Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs) are being used by a growing number of public and private entities to track drivers’ movements and location. The use of the technology is almost entirely unregulated and can be subject to abuse, so some...
Surveillance Cameras
News

Gerber creates XR-enhanced online course on Future of Mobility

Feb 9, 2023
The University of Michigan's Center for Academic Innovation and Coursera have launched the first three in a set of 10 planned online learning opportunities that integrate extended reality technologies into the learning experience.  This launch is...
Elisabeth Gerber and the Future of Mobility
In the Media

Parthasarathy weighs in on implications of ChatGPT

Feb 6, 2023 Nature
Shobita Parthasarathy, Nature: "Besides directly producing toxic content, there are concerns that AI chatbots will embed historical biases or ideas about the world from their training data, such as the superiority of particular cultures, says...
Shobita Parthasarathy
In the Media

Stevenson links technological advancement to income inequality

Jan 20, 2023 The Economist
Betsey Stevenson, The Economist: "I think that's a fair assessment, and I think the question is, why? And that's where the complications come in. Some of that is from what economists call skill-biased technological change. So we've seen the wages of...
Betsey Stevenson
News

Announcing winter 2023 Ford School events

Jan 11, 2023
 The Ford School is pleased to announce an exciting lineup for the winter 2023 Policy Talks @ the Ford School series and other special public events hosted with partners from across campus. Events are free and open to the public unless otherwise...
Headshots of Peter Meijer, Jelani Cobb, Jeh Johnson, Andy Levin, and Angela Harrelson
News

Green discusses the fairness of algorithms at Harvard University

Jan 10, 2023
Postdoctoral scholar Ben Green recently joined Harvard University's Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society for a webinar focused on what fairness means in the context of algorithms and how fairness can be measured. Joined by other scholars...
Ben Green