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.
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.
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.
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.
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Most websites do not publish privacy policies, researchers say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.
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.
Human body movements may enable automated emotion recognition, researchers say
Penn State researchers combined computing, psychology and performing arts to develop an annotated human movement dataset that may improve the ability of artificial intelligence to recognize the emotions expressed through body language. Their work was featured on the cover of the journal Patterns.
Media Mention: “Chat GPT for Software Security — How it Assists Attackers & Security Analysis”
Where: Cyber Security News, “ChatGPT for Software Security: How It Assists Attackers & Security Analysts”
Media Mention: “Going Phishing on Campus”
Where: Inside Higher Ed, “Going Phishing on Campus”
Who: Shomir Wilson, assistant professor in the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST)
IST researcher among recipients of $29 million fusion energy sciences grant
Romit Maulik, assistant professor in the Penn State College of IST, is one of 19 recipients funded with this U.S. Department of Energy grant and will explore machine learning for improved nuclear fusion disruption mitigation.
Human abstractness may make smart contracts smarter, researchers report
Smart contracts, or computer programs that automatically execute certain agreed-upon actions when agreed-upon conditions are met, are considered safer for online transactions than traditional contracts, but they are not error-proof.
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.
Media Mention: ‘AI Will Heighten Cybersecurity Risks for RIA’s’
Where: WealthManagement.com, “AI Will Heighten Cybersecurity Risks for RIAs”
Center for Socially Responsible AI awards Big Ideas Grants to five projects
The Penn State Center for Socially Responsible Artificial Intelligence awarded more than $212,000 to advance five interdisciplinary research projects as part of its Big Ideas Grant program. Awarded projects feature researchers from six departments across four colleges and institutes.
What’s next on 'HumIn Focus'? Upcoming episode addresses questions about A.I.
A series of questions about the wide-ranging potential of artificial intelligence, as well as its limitations and myriad impacts, represents the focus of the seventh episode of "HumIn Focus," which will make its streaming debut on June 16, and its WPSU-TV premiere on June 24.
What’s next on 'HumIn Focus'? Upcoming episode addresses questions about AI
A series of questions about the wide-ranging potential of artificial intelligence, as well as its limitations and myriad impacts, represents the focus of the seventh episode of "HumIn Focus," which will make its streaming debut on June 16, and its WPSU-TV premiere on June 24.
Perception of human emotion in movement focus of $2 million NSF grant
A Penn State-led research team received a $2 million National Science Foundation to study how machines perceive and process human body language. The research could stimulate advancements in health care applications, including the design of caregiving robots.
Positive triggering method reduces nationality bias in large text generators
Large language models that use internet files to learn how to respond to user prompts about different countries worldwide repeat biased ideas – both positive and negative – found online. Using positive trigger words, like “hopeful” and “hardworking,” when entering prompts can retrain the models and result in less biased responses
Transparent labeling of training data may boost trust in artificial intelligence
Showing users that visual data fed into artificial intelligence (AI) systems was labeled correctly might make people trust AI more, according to researchers. The findings may also pave the way to help scientists better measure the connection between labeling credibility, AI performance and trust.
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.
AI lab for low-resource communities earns 2023 Engagement and Scholarship Award
The RAISE Lab in the College of Information Sciences and Technology, which focuses on leveraging artificial intelligence to imagine a brighter future for low-resource communities around the globe, has received the 2023 Penn State Award for Community Engagement and Scholarship.
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.
Center now offering social responsibility consultations for AI researchers
Penn State’s Center for Socially Responsible Artificial Intelligence is now offering social responsibility consultations to University researchers engaged in AI-related research.
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.
Center issues seed grant call for 'Big Ideas' in socially responsible AI
Penn State’s Center for Socially Responsible Artificial Intelligence is inviting short proposals for a special off-cycle round of "Big Idea Grant" seed funding earmarked for early concepts and research that has transformational potential.
Beyond memorization: Text generators may plagiarize beyond 'copy and paste'
Language models, possibly including ChatGPT, paraphrase and reuse ideas from training data without citing the source, raising plagiarism concerns, according to a Penn State-led research team that conducted the first study to directly examine the phenomenon.
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.
New AI tool helps provide better care to pregnant women in Kenya
A new AI-based tool developed by a team of researchers from Penn State and Jacaranda Health has been shown to improve health outcomes for new and expectant mothers in Kenya by providing better and more immediate access to maternal health care services.
Center for Socially Responsible AI awards seed funding to 6 projects
The Penn State Center for Socially Responsible Artificial Intelligence recently announced the results of its third seed funding competition. The center awarded $145,000 to advance six interdisciplinary research projects that feature researchers from eight colleges and institutes.
Researchers propose methods for automatic detection of doxing
A new automated approach to detect doxing — a form of cyberbullying in which certain private or personally identifiable information is publicly shared without an individual's consent or knowledge — may help social media platforms better protect their users, according to researchers from Penn State's College of Information Sciences and Technology
Novel 3D imaging model may show path to more water-efficient plants
A new computational pipeline for analyzing three-dimensional imaging data can help biologists more accurately and quickly see how the cells in a plant’s leaves respond to the environment and identify plants that more efficiently use water, according to researchers.
High-tech tool to perform low-cost health screening for newborns and mothers
A new, $1.9 million grant from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering will allow Penn State researchers to develop artificial intelligence-based software that can evaluate the health of a newborn and their mother with only a photograph of the baby’s placenta.
Grant to explore using computers to help groups make better decisions
National Science Foundation grants to Penn State and Iowa State could lead to an interactive, computer-aided, decision-support tool that can help groups of people make better choices.
Researchers to use $1.2 million grant to study early Alzheimer’s detection
A team of Penn State-led researchers received a $1.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to help fund a project to develop a machine learning system for early Alzheimer’s disease detection.
AI language models show bias against people with disabilities, study finds
The algorithms that drive natural language processing technology — a type of artificial intelligence that allows machines to use text and spoken words in many different applications — often have tendencies that could be offensive or prejudiced toward individuals with disabilities, according to researchers at the Penn State College of Information
Project aims to use artificial intelligence to turn health data into predictions
A $599,883 grant from the National Science Foundation could help scientists use machine learning algorithms to use large amounts of data to guide decisions on a range of issues, from disease spread to economic meltdowns to social unrest.