(Mis)Informed Voters
Robocalls that sound just like the president but aren’t. Videos of political figures doing or saying things they’ve never done. Social media posts created by ChatGPT, not humans.
Media Mention: Shomir Wilson
Where: The Charlotte Observer, 'Over the top' ad features a fake Mark Robinson. What to know about AI in political ads.
Non-Western cultures misrepresented, harmed by generative AI, researchers say
Penn State and University of Washington researchers found that AI models may cause cultural harms that go beyond surface-level biases
Media Mention: Dana Calacci
Where: The Washington Post, “Why killer AI is such an alluring horror villain”
Tanusree Sharma recognized by SOUPS 2024
Tanusree Sharma, assistant professor in the College of IST, recently received the 2024 John Karat Usable Privacy and Security Student Research Award for her research contributions while a stude
IST, Meteorology join forces to understand destructive thunderstorms in the US
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — An interdisciplinary team of Penn State researchers received a three-year, $499,796 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office (DOE) of Science to study processes in destructive thunderstorms over the continental United States.
Media Mention: Lizhen Zhu
Where: Psychology Today, ’AI Performance Enhanced With Human Developmental Psychology’
IST Undergrad Research Published in Interacting With Computers
Aidan Engleka earned a bachelor’s degree in human-centered design and development (HCDD) from the College of IST in 2023. More than a year later, the research he contributed to as an undergraduate student has been published.
Peng Liu reappointed to cybersecurity professorship
Peng Liu has been reappointed as Raymond G. Tronzo, MD Professor of Cybersecurity in the College of Information Sciences and Technology. The professorship — named for late Penn State alumnus Raymond G.
Justin Silverman recipient of Tronzo Medical Informatics Endowment
Justin Silverman, assistant professor, is the recipient of the prestigious Raymond and Diana Tronzo Medical Informatics Endowment in the College of Information Sciences and Technology, effective July 1, 2024, through June 30, 2027.
Three IST doctoral students accepted to linguistic diversity fellowship
Human technology, such as smart voice assistants or computer-based intelligent tutoring systems, is largely based on standard American English and the misconception that there is a single, idealized variety of American English. This conflicts with the linguistic diversity of language users.
Claim replicability may help prevent harms caused by ML
The ability of a model to duplicate its performance is how machine learning (ML) scientists traditionally justify the validity of their research claims.
Media Mention: James Wang, Lizhen Zhu
Where: Psychology Today, “AI Performance Enhances With Human Developmental Psychology”
Peng Liu reappointed as the Raymond G. Tronzo, MD Professor in Cybersecurity
Peng Liu has been reappointed as the Raymond G. Tronzo, MD Professor in Cybersecurity. The professorship is named for late Penn State alumnus Raymond G. Tronzo and is funded through a $1 million gift from his wife, Diana.
Nick Giacobe leading global education effort with Kazakhstan
In collaboration with Penn State Global, Nick Giacobe, associate teaching professor in the College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST), will travel to Kazakhstan to meet with cybersecurity students, faculty, researchers and leadership.
Lee Giles, Jack Carroll among Research.com best computer scientists
Lee Giles, David Reese Professor of Information Sciences and Technology, and Jack Carroll, distinguished professor, were included in the Research.com 2023 Ranking of Best Scientis
Dongwon Lee featured in National Academies workshop
Professor Dongwon Lee, acting interim associate dean for research and director of doctoral programs in the College of IST, participated in a virtual National Academies workshop on April 11.
Doctoral student story discusses digital privacy and data ethics
A story by Sanjana Gautam, a doctoral student of informatics in the College of IST, appeared in Medium on April 27.
Media Mention: Vasant Honavar
Where: Penn State News, Infrastructure, consultation for multi-site studies using electronic health data
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 professor in the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST)
Media Mention: Greg Kruczek, Voice of America
Where: Voice of America (VoA), “Iraq’s Christians cancel Easter celebrations to support Cardinal Sako”
Edge Discovery magazine profiles Vasant Honavar
Vasant Honavar, professor in the College of Information Sciences and Technology, Huck Chair in Biomedical Data Sciences and Artificial Intelligence, and founding director of the Center for Art
Informatics student to attend MIDAS future leaders summit
Siyu Wu, a graduate student pursuing a doctorate in information in the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology, was selected to attend the Future Leaders Summit hosted by the Michigan Institute for Data Science (MIDAS). The event offers outstanding graduate students, postdocs and early-career faculty from around the U.S.
Media Mention: Nora O’Toole
Where: The Daily Collegian, “TEDxPSU conference encourages students to ‘bring about the change’ they want to see”
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.
IST Professor Alan Peslak receives Meritorious Award for research excellence
Penn State Scranton Professor of Information Sciences and Technology Alan Peslak has been recognized with a Meritorious Paper Award for his outstanding contributions at the Information Systems and Computing Academic Professionals (ISCAP) Conference.
Penn State Scranton professor wins conference award for research excellence
Penn State Scranton Professor of Information Sciences and Technology Alan Peslak has been recognized with a Meritorious Paper Award for his outstanding contributions at the Information Systems and Computing Academic Professionals (ISCAP) Conference.
True: Fact checkers tend to agree on validity of news claims, researchers say
Fact-checking organizations like Snopes and Politifact have generally agreed on the validity of news claims, according to researchers from the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology.
Trained AI models exhibit learned disability bias, IST researchers say
Artificial intelligence tools, such as sentiment analysis and toxicity detection models, often exhibit biases toward people with disabilities, according to a new paper from researchers in the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology. The work won the Best Short Paper Award from the Association for Computation Linguistics.
Penn State Berks’ Abdullah Konak named IST Faculty Member of the Year
Abdullah Konak, distinguished professor of information sciences and technology at Penn State Berks, was recently named the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology Statewide Faculty Member of the Year. He was presented with the award at the fall IST faculty meeting on Oct. 27.
What if Alexa or Siri sounded more like you? Study says you’ll like it better
The more Siri or Alexa sounds like you, the better you'll like the service, according to researchers. The multi-institutional team published their findings in the current issue of the International Journal of Human-Computer Studies.
$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.
Nittany AI Challenge Ideation Workshop set for Nov. 30
The Nittany AI Challenge Ideation Workshop: Agriculture and Environmental Sustainability on Nov. 30 will connect students with experts and local nonprofit leaders in agricultural and environmental sustainability to explore how artificial intelligence and machine learning can be used to address real-world problems in the field.
$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.
Renaissance Fund honors Barbara and Edgar Farmer, raises funds for scholarships
Penn State’s 47th annual Renaissance Fund celebration on Nov. 1 honored local community leaders and education pioneers Barbara and Edgar Farmer. The event hosted more than 300 attendees and helped to raise $193,364 for endowed scholarships to benefit students with financial need.
World Campus celebrates science and technology programs
Penn State World Campus is highlighting its science and technology programs during its 25th anniversary.
Penn Staters invited to compete to find bias in generative AI tools
Penn State’s Center for Socially Responsible Artificial Intelligence will host “Bias-a-thon,” a competition to expose biases in current-day AI tools. The virtual event will take place from Monday, Nov. 13, to Thursday, Nov. 16, and is open to anyone with an active Penn State email address.
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.
Trustees committee discusses AI and its implications for higher education
Artificial intelligence (AI) opportunities far outweigh the challenges for use at universities, according to Penn State Executive Vice President and Provost Justin Schwartz. He led a panel discussion on AI and its implications for higher education at the Board of Trustees’ Committee on Academic Affairs, Research and Student Life meeting on Oct.
Penn State partners with Gov. Shapiro to shape AI governance and strategy
Penn State has partnered with Gov. Josh Shapiro to provide expert guidance on artificial intelligence (AI) strategies and governance. This partnership aims to leverage Penn State's AI expertise and resources to help shape responsible AI standards for state agencies, aligning with the growing importance of AI technology in governance.