5/18
Penn in the News
A round-up of Penn mentions in local, national, and international media.
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Penn In the News
A radical new model of the brain illuminates its wiring
Danielle Bassett of the School of Engineering and Applied Science spoke about how neuroscience has led to a greater understanding of the brain’s networks and how to treat a variety of conditions. “Hopefully, with an understanding of the individual differences in the brain, we will have a better lever on how to predict human responses to a particular intervention,” she says, “and then not have to have people go for a year through different kinds of medication before we find one that works for them.”
Penn In the News
National Science Foundation invests $104 million to launch four new engineering research centers
Cherie Kagan of the School of Engineering and Applied Science spoke about the Penn-led IoT4Ag center’s work: “We need new technology to meet the challenges of a world with a growing population and changing climate. We simply need to produce more crops for every drop of water or Joule of energy we’re currently using to realize a food, energy and water-secure future.”
Penn In the News
Philadelphia needs more contact tracers
Lyle Ungar of the School of Engineering and Applied Science and Angela Duckworth of the School of Arts & Sciences called for Pennsylvania to hire thousands more contact tracers to slow the spread of COVID-19. While it’s an expensive proposition, they say it’s still less costly than “the $225 million in grants to small businesses affected by the pandemic and the estimated $5 billion in tax revenue that Pennsylvania is expected to lose through June of next year.”
Penn In the News
Canceled plans and staying home: How can students make the most of a coronavirus summer?
Vanessa Z. Chan of the School of Engineering and Applied Science wrote an op-ed about how students can still have a productive summer by taking online classes, picking up new hobbies, and creatively solving social problems.
Penn In the News
There are 3 things we have to do to get people wearing masks
Angela Duckworth of the School of Arts & Sciences, Lyle Ungar of the School of Engineering and Applied Science, and PIK Professor Ezekiel J. Emanuel wrote an op-ed about how best to persuade people to wear protective face masks. “It’s not too late to apply three basic principles from behavioral science: make it easy, understood, and expected,” they write, “and we’ll soon see face masks everywhere, saving lives.”
Penn In the News
The Origami Mask Project's engineers are designing DIY face masks for COVID-19
Shu Yang of the School of Engineering and Applied Science spoke about the The Origami Mask Project, which is developing simple, easy DIY face masks.
Penn In the News
Mapping the social network of coronavirus
PIK Professor Duncan Watts spoke about the limits of predictive modeling in confronting the spread of disease. “It may seem like a small thing at the time, but after the fact you say, ‘Oh yeah, that was hugely important,’” he said of the unexpected factors.
Penn In the News
This AI breakthrough in antibiotics might one day save your life
César de la Fuente of the School of Engineering and Applied Science commented on new MIT research that might speed up antibiotic discovery. “I think it’s a breakthrough in a field of much unmet need,” he said. “After all, no new classes of antibiotics have been discovered for decades. This one is definitely structurally different from conventional antibiotics.”
Penn In the News
Can algorithms help judges make fair decisions?
Michael Kearns of the School of Engineering and Applied Science said algorithms force us to be more detailed in our decision-making. “You should never expect machine learning to do something for free that you didn’t explicitly ask it to do for you, and you should never expect it to avoid behavior that you want it to avoid that you didn’t tell it explicitly to avoid,” he said.
Penn In the News
Experts warn smartphone voting is ‘extremely risky,’ yet here it comes
Matt Blaze of the School of Engineering and Applied Science weighed in on a Washington state district’s plans to implement smartphone voting. “This extremely risky decision runs counter to the findings of the authoritative National Academies ‘Securing the Vote’ study, which represents the consensus of experts,” he said.