Policy Topics

Science and technology

Showing 271 - 300 of 665 results

The Moral Divide: Parthasarathy investigates difference in U.S. and European patent systems

Dec 7, 2018

When it comes to the patent system, the U.S. and Europe are having very different conversations. As Professor Shobita Parthasarathy explains in her new book, Patent Politics, patents for biotechnology such as gene editing are approached from a...

Ford School hosts faculty roundtable with Sen. Peters on issues related to emerging technologies

Nov 2, 2018

Faculty from the Ford School and around the University joined an expert roundtable with Senator Gary Peters (D-MI) on Wednesday. Sen. Peters called on faculty to provide insight into some of the rapidly-moving emerging technologies that intersect...

U.S. Senator Gary Peters (D-MI) at a roundtable hosted by the Ford School and shown here with Shobita Parthasarathy and Bob Axelrod.

Shobita Parthasarathy calls for patent regulation in rapidly-advancing gene editing

Oct 26, 2018

Shobita Parthasarathy, professor of public policy at the Ford School, is keeping tabs on the upcoming International Summit on Human Gene Editing in Hong Kong. In her October 23, 2018 piece for Nature titled “Use the patent system to regulate gene...

Times of India publishes Q&A with newly-promoted Shobita Parthasarathy

Jul 3, 2018

The Times of India published a Q&A with Shobita Parthasarathy titled, "Indian-Americans need more role models in public policy, says Indian-origin professor at University of Michigan." The interview, written by Mandira Banerjee from Michigan...

Shobita Parthasarathy’s book wins Robert K. Merton Book Award

Jun 13, 2018

Professor Shobita Parthasarathy’s book, Patent Politics: Life Forms, Markets, and the Public Interest in the United States and Europe, has been awarded the prestigious Robert K. Merton Book Award. The award, given by the Science, Knowledge, and...

Faculty appointments, promotions grow and strengthen the Ford School

May 17, 2018

Earlier this afternoon, the University of Michigan Board of Regents approved several key faculty appointments at the Ford School, as we continue to grow and strengthen our outstanding faculty.Shobita Parthasarathy has earned a promotion to professor...

Justin Wolfers’ social media engagement featured in University Record piece

Mar 19, 2018

A March 5 article by Safiya Merchant in The University Record, “#SocialScholars: Professors show power of public engagement,” highlights the growing use of social media among University of Michigan professors. Merchant writes that social media...

Mills: When is wind energy technology sustainable within rural communities?

Feb 27, 2018

The 2018 book The Handbook of Sustainability and Social Science Research includes a piece by Sarah Mills entitled: "Wind energy and rural community sustainability." Abstract Because it is a carbon-free source of electricity, wind energy is...

Kostyuk co-authors Lawfare piece on “Evaluating the U.K.’s ‘Active Cyber Defence’ program”

Feb 21, 2018

Stuart Russell and Nadiya Kostyuk co-authored a February 14 piece for the Lawfare Blog: “Evaluating the U.K.’s ‘Active Cyber Defence’ program.” Kostyuk is a doctoral candidate in the Ford School’s public policy and political science joint PhD...

News

Poverty Solutions announces 2018 grantees, including two Ford School projects

Jan 31, 2018

Poverty Solutions has announced its grant awards for 2018 and two Ford School professors, Shobita Parthasarathy and Kristin S. Seefeldt, have been chosen as Faculty Grant Award recipients. Parthasarathy’s project, “The Politics of Technology...

Alan Deardorff's "Comparative advantage in digital trade" published in Cloth for Wine?

Jan 31, 2018

Professor Alan Deardorff's "Comparative advantage in digital trade" was published as a chapter in Cloth for Wine? The Relevance of Ricardo's Comparative Advantage in the 21st Century, edited by Simon J. Evenett and released by the Centre for...

Joy Rohde publishes article in Isis on “Pax Technologica” during the Cold War

Jan 13, 2018

Joy Rohde's "Pax Technologica: Computers, international affairs, and human reason in the Cold War" was published in Isis in December. Abstract From the late 1960s to the early 1980s, a team of U.S. political scientists and computer...

News

Students gain deeper understanding of policymaking through Integrated Policy Exercise

Jan 11, 2018

The Senate committee chair was overthrown, a protest stalled a House committee vote, and a single vote made the difference in protecting the environmental safety of the Great Lakes--all during the Ford School’s three-day Integrated Policy Exercise...

State & Hill

"Discourse: Ford School faculty in the news," from the fall 2017 issue of State & Hill

Dec 25, 2017

With a series of regulatory changes, the Trump administration is taking us in the wrong direction, making student loans riskier, more expensive, and more burdensome for borrowers. Susan Dynarski on "The wrong way to fix student debt." The New...

Kostyuk explores potential for North Korea to use cyberattacks as force multiplier

Dec 4, 2017

In an op-ed published in the Washington Post's "Monkey Cage," Would cyberattacks be likely in a U.S.- North Korea conflict? Here's what we know, Ford School doctoral candidate Nadiya Kostyuk and U-M professor Yuri Zhukov (political science) explore...

Susan Dynarski in New York Times: Put away your laptops to learn more during lecture

Nov 28, 2017

In a November 22 article for the New York Times’ Economic View column, "Laptops are great. But not during a lecture or a meeting," Susan Dynarski reviews the research on electronic note taking during college lectures: Do these aids help or harm...

News

NSF award: Kaitlin Raimi uses behavioral insights to reduce household energy consumption

Sep 13, 2017

Kaitlin Raimi and colleagues from the College of Engineering (SangHyun Lee) and College of Literature, Science, and the Arts (Philip S. Hart) have received a $330,000 award from the National Science Foundation to explore a new technique designed to...

NSF award: Developing new techniques to detect financial market manipulation

Sep 11, 2017

Michael Barr and colleagues from the College of Engineering (Michael Wellman) and Ross School of Business (Uday Rajan) have been awarded a $670,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to develop new techniques to identify financial market...

Nonprofit Quarterly highlights Parthasarathy in “Patents and profits in public settings”

Aug 10, 2017

This month’s Nonprofit Quarterly highlights Shobita Parthasarathy’s work in “Patents and profits in a public setting: Who should benefit financially?” The article quotes from Parthasarathy’s recent Conversation piece, “How to make sure we all...

The Conversation: Parthasarathy proposes patent policy for nonprofit, university leaders

Jul 19, 2017

In a July 19 piece for The Conversation, Shobita Parthasarathy encourages research universities and nonprofits to establish “intellectual property governance committees.” These committees--comprised of patent lawyers; ethicists; citizens; and...

New "teach-outs" pay homage to U-M's game-changing, Vietnam-era "teach-ins"

Apr 21, 2017

On March 24th, 1965 at 8:00PM, about 3,500 faculty and students at the University of Michigan launched the first ever “teach in,” despite bomb threats and condemnation by the Michigan state legislature and Governor George Romney. For twelve hours,...

State & Hill

DE&I: Building on the longstanding success of faculty research and policy engagement

Apr 19, 2017

A key pillar of the Ford School’s recently released Strategic Plan for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) is to build on the longstanding success of faculty research and policy engagement in this space. Here’s a quick snapshot of just a few of...

Rabe in MLive on Trump's plan to review auto industry fuel economy targets

Mar 17, 2017

An MLive article published on March 15, “University of Michigan professors discuss Trump’s fuel economy review,” discusses President Trump’s plan to challenge the current Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) emissions targets that were central to...

News

U.S. News and World Report posts previously-released grad school rankings

Mar 14, 2017

In rankings originally published in March 2016, the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan is recognized in the top ten of America’s “public affairs” programs. According to the re-released U.S. News and World...

Michigan News release: Axelrod on "the blame game" for measuring cyber attack response

Mar 2, 2017

Whether a nation should retaliate against a cyber attack is a complicated decision, and a new framework guided by game theory could help policymakers determine the best strategy. The "Blame Game" was developed in part by Robert Axelrod, a...

National Academy of Sciences taps Rohde for SBS committee on national security research

Feb 17, 2017

The National Academy of Sciences has appointed Joy Rohde to serve on an 18-member committee tasked with carrying out a two-year study sponsored by the Office of the Directorate of National Intelligence (ODNI). The study, titled “Social and...

Parthasarathy in The Conversation: Obama’s socially engaged science and tech policy

Dec 21, 2016

Shobita Parthasarathy’s December 18 piece for The Conversation is on “Obama administration’s big science and tech innovation: Socially engaged policy.” Parthasarathy says President Obama’s science and technology legacy should include “much more...

State & Hill

Fulfilling the public good: Shobita Parthasarathy on innovation in science and tech

Dec 20, 2016

It seems like a straightforward question. If we produce more innovation, and quickly, then society will benefit. Our economy will grow because there will be markets for new technologies, and citizens will also benefit from access to the technologies...

State & Hill

Entrepreneurial alumni: Ford School alums share winning strategies in social innovation

Dec 18, 2016

Erin Zaikis "Make sure that you're curating people in your life that will have your back and want you to succeed. Being an entrepreneur is the loneliest task, but also the most rewarding." Erin Zaikis (BA...

State & Hill

Hacking for global health: Tackling wicked problems, like avian influenza, with creativity

Dec 17, 2016

Chiang Mai wasn't Annie Maxwell's (MPP '02) first introduction to the EpiHack. As president of the Skoll Global Threats Fund, which pioneered the "epidemiology hackathon" in 2013, Maxwell had heard a good deal about them. They were multi-day events...