Research, learning, and impact
The Ford School is home to or co-sponsor of a growing number of active, multi-disciplinary research centers and initiatives leveraging the knowledge and expertise across the University of Michigan. They serve as a...
Artificial intelligence—AI for short—is all over the news lately. And for good or ill, it has implications for us all.
Two University of Michigan professors—Nigel Melville from the Ross School of Business and Shobita Parthasarathy from the Ford...
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...
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...
Nationwide, police departments are integrating facial recognition technology into their investigative processes. The technology has been criticized as "exacerbating racist policies," because of false identification, especially among African American...
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...
As ChatGPT hits three months in operation, its reach and uses continue to widen along with a range of efforts and research to grasp and anticipate the upside and downside of using artificial intelligence to do what humans would normally do.
Ford...
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...
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...
Elected officials from local, county, and state government came to the Ford School to hear about the potential for collaborations with their offices and the School’s faculty, research centers, and students.
Fifteen members of the Michigan State...
The Graham Sustainability Institute’s Carbon Neutrality Acceleration Program (CNAP) announced $1,160,000 in funding for six new faculty research projects. CNAP is a multi-year, multimillion-dollar program created in 2020 with a $5 million gift from...
ChatGPT, Microsoft’s artificial-intelligence (AI) algorithm, has been subject to intense scrutiny since its launch in November, becoming instantly popular because it was made free and easily accessible. Proponents are amazed at its ability to...
With the guidance and support of the Ford School’s research centers, graduate and undergraduate students are creating a real-life impact in a range of areas by working with external partners. The Ford School is deeply integrated with a wide range of...
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...
The University of Michigan is currently in an interim period between its strategic plans for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), with the next plan set to launch in early fall 2023. The Ford School community did not pause, however, and is hard...
Three Ford School faculty have developed exciting new online courses to equip learners and professionals around the globe with interdisciplinary skills that help them engage in and inform complex public policy decision-making processes. Elisabeth...
A new massive open online course available on Michigan Online will help STEM and policy professionals, community organizers, and students understand how injustices can become embedded in technology and associated policies. “Justice and Equity in...
India's top court upheld a woman's right to an abortion up to 24 weeks into pregnancy, regardless of marital status, a widely hailed decision by women's rights activists.
The right to abortion has proved contentious globally after the U.S....
Ford School assistant professor Ben Green, and an affiliate of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, says that if algorithms are to improve society, focusing only on whether they’re mathematically “fair” won’t get us...
In an era when the Indian government has prioritized women's menstrual health and movies like Netflix's "Period. End of Sentence" are garnering worldwide attention, the distribution of disposable sanitary pads to women in India's rural areas has...
Through the Ford School’s Science, Technology, and Public Policy (STPP) Program, ECE PhD student Trevor Odelberg is studying how engineers can take better responsibility for the way their research impacts society.
As the character Dr. Ian Malcolm...
Research at the University of Michigan finds law enforcement technology aimed at detecting gunshot sounds and notifying police in close to real time raises serious concerns about accuracy, effectiveness, cost and systemic bias.
The policy brief...
The Ford School is pleased to announce an exciting lineup for the fall 2022 Policy Talks @ the Ford School series and other special public events hosted with partners from across campus. We are hosting distinguished policymakers, scholars,...
Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) released a preliminary policy recommendation that would allow for the use of facial recognition technology during criminal investigations. According to Public Source, the draft policy is "intended to guide CMU’s use...
Have you opened up your browser to see ads for a product you were just talking about with a friend? Does it seem like your electronic devices are tracking you? You are not alone, and they are, says Professor Shobita Parthasarathy on WDET's Culture...
Parthasarathy and the Science, Technology, and Public Policy program chart a unique course for impact
By Jennifer Conlin
In 2005, when Shobita Parthasarathy saw a position advertised to create a new policy program in science and technology at...
Shobita Parthasarathy, professor of public policy and director of the Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program, discussed the ethical concerns surrounding the lawsuit filed against Thermo Fisher Scientific by the family of Henrietta Lacks...
By Daniel Rivkin
Does it make sense for 40,000 people to travel from all over the world to attend a conference intended to reduce greenhouse gasses? Among the attendees, including 100 heads of state, at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow,...
Ford School professor Shobita Parthasarathy was highlighted in a Q&A with Nature magazine, acknowledging recent research on Large Language Models (LLMs) by the Science, Technology, and Public Policy program's Technology Assessment Project....
