Policy Topics

Science and technology

Showing 31 - 60 of 636 results
In the Media

Kleinman on the hazards of facial recognition technology in schools

Oct 4, 2023 City & State
“One thing that’s different from a lot of these earlier kinds of surveillance technologies is the way that the data travels so far beyond the school where it’s coming from,” Kleinman said in an interview.  “The student data in these databases is...
In the Media

"Appropriative" patents a long-term problem - Parthasarathy

Sep 1, 2023 NPR Planet Money
The way that a lot of pharmaceutical companies got their knowledge was often from going to other countries and finding out about Indigenous knowledge and then coming back and testing that. So there's a famous case of Eli Lilly patenting a treatment...
News

Will courts limit the use of climate-combatting technologies?

Aug 30, 2023
Ford School professor Barry Rabe is concerned about how a set of recent court decisions mean for new climate technologies.  In a commentary piece for Brookings, Rabe notes that while the U.S. has been a world leader in accelerating the transition...
News

Ford School welcomes Yousif Hassan as faculty

Aug 21, 2023
Yousif Hassan will join the Ford School faculty as an assistant professor in January 2024. Hassan’s work examines the social, economic, and political implications of emerging technologies including artificial intelligence (AI) and data focusing on...
In the Media

Natural disasters can have an effect on climate skeptics - Raimi

Aug 3, 2023 Associated Press
Kaitlin Raimi, Associated Press: And highly visible events in places where they’re not normally expected — like heat waves in places without air conditioning infrastructure, or wildfire smoke on the East Coast and in the Midwest — can be more...
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....
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,...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...