Media Mention: Priya Kumar, The Washington Post
Where: The Washington Post, “As the internet gets scarier, more parents keep their kids’ photos offline”
Who: Priya Kumar, assistant teaching professor in the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST)
One Health Microbiome Symposium to convene experts for innovative discussions
Penn State’s One Health Microbiome Center will host the One Health Microbiome Symposium on May 30-31, 2024, at the Huck Life Sciences Building on the University Park campus.
Competition helps expose demographic and cultural biases in generative AI tools
Penn State’s Center for Socially Responsible Artificial Intelligence announced the winners of its first-ever “Bias-a-thon.” The competition, held Nov. 13–16, asked Penn Staters to identify prompts that led popular generative AI tools to produce biased or stereotype-reinforcing outputs.
$7M grant funds project to develop new ways to protect mushroom crops
A new grant for more than $7 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture will fund an upcoming project led by Penn State researchers, who aim to develop new pest management tools for mushroom crops.
$1.45M NSF grant to fund new research into how grasses thrive in dry climates
A new $1.45 million grant from the National Science Foundation will allow Penn State researchers, including undergraduate students, to explore how pores on plant surfaces work and might be engineered to enhance photosynthesis and efficient water use.
World Campus celebrates science and technology programs
Penn State World Campus is highlighting its science and technology programs during its 25th anniversary.
Most websites do not publish privacy policies, researchers say
Penn State researchers crawled millions of websites and found that only one-third of online organizations made their privacy policy available for review. They received the Best Student Paper award at the 23rd Association for Computing Machinery Symposium on Document Engineering, also known as DocEngr'23, for their work.
IST researchers earn best paper award at natural language generation conference
A paper authored by students and faculty from the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology received the Best Long Paper award at the 16th International Natural Language Generation Conference.
Media Mention: ‘Can You Hide a Child’s Face From A.I.?’
Where: The New York Times, “Can You Hide a Child’s Face From A.I.?”
New filtering approach may improve online health information experience
A Penn State research team has proposed a new information-filtering approach for predicting future health information needs of online community participants as they move through different stages in their illness. They published their approach in the IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics.
College of Information Sciences and Technology welcomes nine new faculty members
The Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology has welcomed nine new faculty members in 2023.
New course examines opportunities, challenges, concerns around generative AI
“Emerging Technologies in Popular Culture,” a new course offered by the Penn State College of Information Systems and Technology, invites undergraduates to explore the questions, opportunities and challenges related to generative artificial intelligence.
More engagement in tech design can improve children’s online privacy, security
Researchers led by the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology reviewed a body of research to better understand the problems and solutions of designing technology with children’s privacy and security in mind. They are presenting their findings at the Association for Computing Machinery Interaction Design and Children Conference
IST assistant professor Shomir Wilson receives NSF CAREER Award
Shomir Wilson, assistant professor in the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology, is the recipient of a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award from the National Science Foundation in recognition of his work, “Large-Scale Exploration and Interpretation of Consumer-Oriented Legal Documents.”
What is ChatGPT and what can it be used for?
Penn State artificial intelligence experts offer perspectives on some of the most frequently asked questions.
IST assistant professor Fenglong Ma receives NSF CAREER Award
Fenglong Ma, assistant professor in the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology, is the recipient of a 2022 Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award from the National Science Foundation in recognition of his work, “Automated Multimodal Learning for Healthcare.”
Artificial intelligence models aim to forecast eviction, promote renter rights
Two artificial intelligence-driven models designed by researchers from the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology could help promote the rights of low-income renters in the United States when facing forced eviction.
WPSU examines ‘sharenting’ and how it may open a digital door to unwanted guests
In the next episode of "Conversations Live," WPSU will take a look at “sharenting” and the possible vulnerabilities and consequences of parents oversharing their children’s lives online.
College of IST awards seed grants to 8 projects
The Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology recently announced eight projects that will receive funding from the college’s seed grant program.
Information Sciences and Technology faculty, staff recognized with annual awards
Faculty and staff in the College of Information Sciences and Technology were recognized at the college’s annual awards event this week. Recipients were nominated by their IST colleagues and selected by a review committee for their excellence in teaching, research and service.
On the Bridge — December 2022
A compilation of recent news, highlights, and achievements from the College of Information Sciences and Technology community.
NSF grant to help reimagine first-year experiences through diverse lens
A Penn State research team aims to meet the unique needs of increasingly diverse student bodies by reimagining first-year learning experiences in technology-related degree programs at U.S. universities, thanks to a new $296,804 grant from the National Science Foundation.
'Black box gaslighting' challenges social-media algorithm accountability
Kelley Cotter, assistant professor in Penn State's College of Information Science and Technology, examined ongoing debate between social media influencers who claim their content is algorithmically suppressed and the social media platforms that deny it but do not provide transparent information on how they operate.
New framework could help teachers personalize their professional learning
Digital badges used as emblems to indicate an accomplishment or skill is a concept familiar to online learners seeking advanced knowledge in their profession. For many learners, digital badges have been used as a motivation to continue along a prescribed path — often through workshop attendance or completion of required online learning modules.
Counting pandemic behaviors to inform public health decisions
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought many significant changes to people's lives, but one of the most visible signals of this has been the proliferation of masks and other face-coverings in public spaces.
IST faculty tips for post-pandemic instruction appear in EDUCAUSE Review
When remote teaching and learning abruptly replaced traditional classroom instruction at the start of the pandemic, innovations and adaptations were introduced that could be considered to continue in post-pandemic education, according to experts from the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology.
Canevez named 2020 Computing Innovation Fellow
Richard Canevez, a doctoral student in the College of Information Sciences and Technology at Penn State, has been named to the 2020 Class of Computing Innovation Fellows by the Computing Research Association (CRA) and its Computing Community Consortium (CCC).
Adapted teaching should continue in new post-pandemic normal, researchers say
According to researchers at Penn State’s College of Information Sciences and Technology, a new, post-pandemic normal is likely to emerge in higher education.
Data Science Community discussion to focus on machine learning in education
Penn State community members interested in data science are invited to the next Data Science Community meeting — scheduled for 1:30 to 2:30 on Monday, Oct. 12 — which will be a group discussion on the use of machine learning to improve learning analytics.
2019-20 Teaching and Learning with Technology Faculty Fellows project wrap-up
Last academic year, four Penn State instructors worked with teams from Teaching and Learning with Technology (TLT) to enhance the spaces where students learn.
IST student awarded Erickson Discovery Grant to further Tumblr research
Courtney Smith, a rising Penn State junior studying security and risk analysis, recently received a 2020 Erickson Discovery Grant to further her research on parasocial relationships between 18- to 25-year-old Tumblr bloggers and celebrities.
Center for Security Research and Education announces seed grant awardees
The Center for Security Research and Education (CSRE) has selected 13 interdisciplinary projects through its spring 2020 seed grant program. CSRE is providing a total of $300,000 in funding for the projects, with an additional $300,000 in matching and supplemental funding from other colleges, departments, and institutes.
Bringing an international conference online
With the shift of the International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development to a virtual format due to COVID-19, general chair Carleen Maitland led a team effort to bring the international conference online.
IST seed grants support tech projects related to COVID-19
The College of Information Sciences and Technology recently announced six projects that will receive funding from the college’s seed grant program. Each project will take different approaches to tackle various challenges and needs related to the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Improving qualitative data management by agencies responding to refugee crises
As of September 2019 there were approximately 330,000 Venezuelans that had fled to neighboring Ecuador amid an economic and political crisis in their home country.