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...
Molly Kleinman, WEMU: Molly Kleinman is a member of the Ann Arbor Transportation Commission. "As it turns out, people want to live on streets that are safe and where they are not experiencing cars flying down them all day."
Kleinman says by...
Shobita Parthasarathy, NPR Planet Money: :"Shobita Parthasarathy is a professor of public policy at the University of Michigan. She says this practice had been going on for a long time."
PARTHASARATHY: The way that a lot of pharmaceutical...
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...
A former foreign minister to Mali, a leading educational economist, a tech entrepreneur who explores indigenous technoscience are among the outstanding new faculty that add depth to the Ford School and connect student education, rigorous academic...
Molly Kleinman, Bridge Detroit: Molly Kleinman, managing director of the Science Technology and Public Policy Program at the University of Michigan, said the data BridgeDetroit obtained through FOIA doesn’t put accuracy concerns to rest. Kleinman...
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....
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,...
During the Winter Term 2023, Ford School students were involved in projects with federal, state, county, city, and township governments, school districts, non-profit organizations, and commissions. They worked with the school’s numerous research...
The 2023 Public Policy and International Affairs (PPIA) Junior Summer Institute (JSI) has welcomed 23 students from 11 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. This year’s cohort will spend seven weeks taking classes, participating in...
Shobita Parthasarathy, WDET: Shobita Parthasarathy is the director of the University of Michigan’s Science, Technology and Public Policy Program as well as a professor of Public Policy and Women and Gender Studies. She says ChatGPT simply...
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...
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...
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...
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...
