Melvin Washington is an alumnus of the Ford School’s Master of Public Policy Program and the Science, Technology, & Public Policy Graduate Certificate Program. In his role as a Program Associate at the Vera Institute of Justice, he puts this passion...
Pursuing energy and climate innovations grows ever more critical, but must include the involvement and participation of marginalized, vulnerable communities from the beginning.
That's the message Ford School professor and director of the Science,...
The Ford School marked Black History Month by lifting up Black voices with a series of discussions about identifying inequities in society and seeking policy solutions to address them. Research centers, student groups, faculty, staff, and alumni all...
On February 25, Shobita Parthasarathy testified before the U.S. House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, and Related Agencies. The hearing included four invited experts to speak about energy and climate innovation issues....
Barry Rabe comments on the relatively unknown Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which plays a prominent role in overseeing the nation's pipelines, natural gas infrastructure, and more: "I would put FERC in the basket of agencies that have...
As facial recognition technology has become more commonplace in law enforcement, some schools have considered implementing facial recognition technology on their respective campuses. However, after public backlash over privacy concerns, many...
Noting fierce partisan debates over the science behind COVID-19, Shobita Parthasarathy comments that "These are really values debates masquerading as scientific debates. And putting them into the language of science is bad for science, but it is...
As the Biden administration embarks on its first hundred days, experts from the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy have produced a series of policy briefs on key issues. Download a PDF of this brief or read the web-formatted version...
Emphasizing a need to pay attention to marginalized communities, Shobita Parthasarathy says "Giving people more involvement in decision-making about what research is prioritized and how it is carried out could help "align government's values with...
As the Biden administration embarks on its first hundred days, experts from the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy have produced a series of policy briefs in their areas of expertise.
All of the prepared briefs can be downloaded...
As California begins its transition to a battery powered electrical grid, Catherine Hausman comments that "these large-scale batteries can bring a real boost to grid reliability, and they can support zero-carbon electricity's integration into the...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
"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...
“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...
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...
“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...
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...
“This was a game-changer for us,” said Kwaku Osei, the CEO of Farmacy, a food app startup focused on user’s dietary needs. Osei was one of five social entrepreneurs of color in the Detroit metro area matched with Masters students from the Ford...
Since the implementation of the governor’s stay at home order, Ann Arbor’s vehicle traffic has declined markedly. Ann Arbor city council members may consider vehicle street closures in an effort to expand space available for pedestrians and cyclists...
U.S. competitiveness in global research and development (R&D) is hampered by political bias and a lack of diversity, according to Ford School professor Shobita Parthasarathy. She spoke at a February 25 meeting of the National Academy of Sciences,...
Shobita Parthasarathy has called for serious patent system reforms in a July 31 article she authored in The Conversation. Such reforms, she said, could "include increasing opportunities for the public to participate in patent decision-making,...
Joan and Sanford Weill Hall Annenberg Auditorium (1120)
A wide-ranging discussion with technologist Alondra Nelson, reflecting on her time in the White House, her role as a social scientist involved in shaping science and technology (and particularly AI), her insights into the policy process, and specifically her work on the open access and AI Bill of Rights initiatives.
Do you want to learn how science and technology policy is made? Are you interested in the social and ethical implications of developments like facial recognition, gene editing, or autonomous vehicles? Are you concerned about the increased politicization of science and research funding?
Do you want to learn how science and technology policy is made? Are you interested in the social and ethical implications of developments like facial recognition, gene editing, or autonomous vehicles? Are you concerned about the increased politicization of science and research funding?
Do you want to learn how science and technology policy is made? Are you interested in the social and ethical implications of developments like facial recognition, gene editing, or autonomous vehicles?
STPP Lecture Series,
Policy Talks @ the Ford School
Join us for a conversation on deploying science, technology, and data for the public good, with Kumar Garg, senior managing director at Schmidt Futures and former assistant director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Professor Shobita Parthasarathy.
