Policy Topics

Science and technology

Showing 211 - 240 of 659 results

In the Media

Parthasarathy ponders cell "ownership"

Jan 5, 2021 NPR Planet Money

Ford School professor Shobita Parthasarathy believes that as a matter of public policy, people should have more control over what researchers can do with their cells. In a recent segment on NPR's Planet Money, she noted that you can find human...

Professor Shobita Parthasarathy leads a discussion in the Betty Ford Classroom

News

Parthasarathy profiled: why we need to diversify expertise

Jan 5, 2021 Public Books

In a Public Books Public Thinker profile, Shobita Parthasarathy discusses what drew her to science and technology policy, gene patents and testing, COVID-19, and the role of diversity and activism in science/technology to regain public trust. In...

In the Media

Granholm appointment an embrace of green-economy advocate, says Rabe

Dec 16, 2020 Bridge Michigan

Rabe and other political and industry experts told Bridge Michigan that Granholm’s appointment is both a strategic nod to Rust Belt states whose industries will have to shift dramatically to achieve Biden’s climate agenda, and an embrace of an early...

In the Media

Rabe urges Biden administration to prioritize methane in climate policy

Nov 30, 2020 Brookings Institution Planet Policy

"The Biden administration could declare that America is finally ready to lead on methane mitigation. It could design a suite of world-class regulatory and disclosure tools to minimize methane releases for as long as oil and gas continue to be used,"...

In the Media

Role of states in meeting U.S. climate goals remains front and center, says Rabe

Nov 26, 2020 E&E News

"We've seen this back-and-forth on state action linked to the likelihood of serious congressional action on the issue," said Rabe. "I think the question of states remains front and center. The question then becomes their ability to deliver on...

In the Media

Rabe: G.M. dropping support for Trump climate rollbacks a huge pivot, big step

Nov 23, 2020 The New York Times

“This is about as bold as it gets,” said Rabe. “This huge pivot, so closely following an election result, particularly from a firm like General Motors, is a big, big deal. This is the first big industrial step toward the next president. Are other...

News

Hampshire receives PIT-UN challenge grant to create knowledge network, expand student opportunities

Nov 20, 2020

The field of Public Interest Technology is growing — putting technology to the use of social justice, the common good, and the public interest. Ford School professor Robert Hampshire has just received his second grant from the Public Interest...

News

Public Interest Technology gets a boost with challenge grant for the Ford School and computer science

Nov 13, 2020

The Science, Technology, and Public Policy (STPP) program has received a challenge grant from the Public Interest Technology University Network (PIT-UN), which will contribute to its “Rethinking Computer Science Education: Bringing Public Interest...

Glasses rest on a desktop with various coding windows open on a screen behind

News

Parthasarathy addresses relationship between politics and science in Nature podcast series

Nov 12, 2020

A three-part podcast series by Nature explores the intimate relationship between politics and science. The series, ‘Stick to the science’: when science gets political aims to look at why a journal of science needs to address politics. Shobita...

News

The presidential transition and the first hundred days of the Biden administration - Experts advisory

Nov 11, 2020

Contact: Daniel Rivkin, [email protected], +1-917-817-6323 ANN ARBOR — Experts at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan are available to discuss the 2020 vote, the presidential transition process, and the policy...

In the Media

Parthasarathy comments on using facial recognition technology in schools

Nov 3, 2020 WIRED

"These technologies are least accurate among students who are already marginalized in schools,” Parthasarathy says. She notes that school officials are often ill-equipped to handle the security and privacy of children’s biometric data and ensure the...

In the Media

Michigan Proposal 2 may not go far enough to protect personal digital data - Parthasarathy

Oct 30, 2020 Detroit Public Radio WDET

“I’m not sure that Proposal 2 goes far enough at this moment when we have more and more electronic data we’re generating and more and more interest from not only law enforcement but the private sector to collect our data,” said Shobita...

News

Parthasarathy says Nobel winners break barriers, court controversy with their discoveries

Oct 8, 2020

The winner of the 2020 Nobel Prize for Chemistry to the first all-female team for their development of the CRISPR genome editing technique shines a light on both the lack of women at the top ranks of science and technology and on the controversial...

In the Media

Stange skeptical of national university system of online courses

Oct 7, 2020 Market Watch

“When you’re enrolling in college, you are buying some of my time,” Stange said. “If you put 1,000 people into a classroom and you buy a thousandth of my time, you’re going to get a lot less of that.” Kevin Stange is not sure a federal system...

In the Media

Ali highlights long-term challenge of addressing online radicalization

Oct 5, 2020 WLS Chicago

"There's nothing illegal about being highly radicalized or having some of these, we would consider, some dangerous ideas in their heads or even shared between members. So, this is a real challenge on the detection and then disruption perspective,"...

In the Media

Surveillance in virtual classrooms exacerbates technological racism, increases student anxiety

Sep 25, 2020 WUOT

“These kinds of technologies tend to disproportionately burden students of color who are already often assumed to be somehow deviant... and so these technologies tend to exacerbate that kind of racism by rendering it quantitative and technological...

Publication

Parthasarathy’s report shows innovation policy ignores marginalized communities

Sep 23, 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed policymaking biases that have ignored poor and marginalized communities, argues Ford school professor Shobita Parthasarathy. In a paper, Innovation Policy, Structural Inequality, and COVID-19, published in the...

In the Media

Green: City governments more skeptical of tech tool promises

Sep 21, 2020 Wired

“People in city government are much less wowed by the promises of shiny tech tools than they used to be,” says Ben Green. He attributes that to growing distrust of large tech companies, and smart city projects that have underwhelmed or imploded,...

Publication

Government science boards are seen through a political lens - study

Sep 9, 2020

The current debate about federally-funded scientific research reflects an ongoing trend: What people think of the scientists who advise the federal government partially depends on their own political persuasion and where the scientists work. That is...

News

Considering inequities and disparities is essential for innovation in fighting COVID-19

Sep 2, 2020

“Disparities, distrust in health systems and other complexities must be explicitly factored into solutions” to the COVID-19 pandemic, Ford School professor Shobita Parthasarathy writes in the latest issue of Nature. Governments around the world...

News

Joy Rohde selected as an Institute for Advanced Study Scholar

Sep 2, 2020

Today’s debates about the use of big data, algorithms and computer models in policy-making have deep historical roots. Historian and Ford School professor Joy Rohde argues that the intersection of computing, social science, and public policy is as...

News

Students to examine cyber attack threats to elections, infrastructure, national security

Aug 20, 2020

The National Counterintelligence and Security Center highlights an array of threats to Americans that could come from cyberattacks by U.S. adversaries, including Russia, China and Iran. According to the government's experts, these countries and...

News

Meet our new faculty: Ben Green

Aug 10, 2020

Ben Green was selected as one of six University of Michigan Society of Fellows for a three-year appointment. He will be an assistant professor at the Ford School working on a book project and teaching students. His research focuses on the social and...

Publication

Facial recognition technology in schools presents multiple problems, shows limited efficacy

Aug 10, 2020

Facial recognition (FR) technology should be banned for use in schools, according to a new study by the Science, Technology and Public Policy program (STPP) at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. The study...

Dozens of security cameras pointed at one person

Detroit students take on robotics challenges with University of Michigan virtual mentoring

Jun 25, 2020

The Ford School and the College of Engineering Michigan Engineering Zone (MEZ) launched a STEM Summer Camp on June 24. Fifty-five Detroit high school students will study robotics and other STEM subjects this summer as part of an expansion of...

Student participants in the Michigan Engineering Zone

Alumni spotlight

Ford School alum partners with Hong Kong government to monitor quarantine compliance while protecting citizen privacy

Jun 18, 2020

During the COVID-19 quarantine, Hong Kong mandated that all local residents and foreigners remain in designated zones at all times. Government officials were faced with a technical challenge to ensure citizen compliance without invading privacy, all...

Alumni spotlight

Meghan Rowley (BA ‘18) assists Latin American governments on technology, fighting corruption during COVID-19

Jun 8, 2020

In many countries, longstanding government practices came to a halt amid COVID-19 restrictions. Ford School alum Meghan Rowley (BA '18), Latin America program associate at the International Republican Institute (IRI), has been helping to implement...

Alumni spotlight

Eric Rodriguez (MPP ‘19) innovates to reach vulnerable populations in San José with virtual local assistance center

May 29, 2020

Meeting the needs of vulnerable populations during the COVID-19 crisis was Ford School alum Eric Rodriguez’ (MPP ‘19) top priority. As senior executive analyst for the City of San José, Rodriguez launched the first virtual local assistance center...

Ethical and logistical problems raise questions about COVID-19 antibody test efficacy

May 29, 2020

As stay-at-home orders expire across the United States, a reliance on antibody testing seems to be a key element of keeping people safe and avoiding a resurgence of COVID-19. Antibody testing is being touted as a way to know whether locked-down...

News

Hampshire receives NSF grant to address food insecurity during the pandemic

May 27, 2020

Ford School professor Robert Hampshire works at the intersection of public policy and engineering, with a specific focus on using better transportation systems to overcome inequities in society. Since early fall 2019, he and his colleagues had been...