Are tomorrow’s engineers ready to face AI’s ethical challenges?

Ethics is often neglected in engineering education, two researchers write, despite mounting questions about how to responsibly design artificial intelligence programs.

Erin A. Cech, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Michigan • conversation
April 19, 2024 ~9 min

AI can now attend a meeting and write code for you – here's why you should be cautious

Microsoft Copilot can summarise meetings and even formulate arguments. But as good as that sounds, we shouldn’t blindly trust its accuracy.

Simon Thorne, Senior Lecturer in Computing and ​Information Systems, Cardiff Metropolitan University • conversation
Jan. 2, 2024 ~6 min


What are APIs? A computer scientist explains the data sockets that make digital life possible

How do all the different pieces of digital technology you use every day – weather apps, online banking, games and so on – talk to each other? Via application programming interfaces, or APIs.

Tam Nguyen, Associate Professor of Computer Science, University of Dayton • conversation
Sept. 26, 2023 ~4 min

What are digital twins? A pair of computer modeling experts explain

A digital twin is to a computer model as live video is to a still photo. These virtual replicas can be used to understand and make predictions about a wide range of complex systems, including people.

Nalini Venkatasubramanian, Professor of Computer Science, University of California, Irvine • conversation
June 1, 2022 ~4 min

Do mushrooms really use language to talk to each other? A fungi expert investigates

New research has found what may be language in electrical impulses transmitted between mushrooms.

Katie Field, Professor in Plant-Soil Processes, University of Sheffield • conversation
April 14, 2022 ~8 min

Nickel oxide is a material that can 'learn' like animals and could help further artificial intelligence research

The ability to store information is central to learning and the field of artificial intelligence. Researchers have shown how a unique material shows basic learning properties similar to that of slugs.

Shriram Ramanathan, Professor of Materials Engineering, Purdue University • conversation
Dec. 21, 2021 ~5 min

Data science education lacks a much-needed focus on ethics

Undergraduate programs are springing up across the US to meet the burgeoning demand for workers trained in big data. Yet many of the programs lack training in the ethical use of data science.

Torbet McNeil, Ph.D. candidate in Educational Policy Studies and Practice, University of Arizona • conversation
Sept. 8, 2021 ~5 min

Bilingual people with language loss due to stroke can pose a treatment challenge – computational modeling may help clinicians treat them

Computational modeling can predict language therapy response in bilingual people with aphasia. In the future, this could help clinicians identify the best language for treatment.

Claudia Peñaloza, Researcher, Aphasia Research Laboratory, Boston University • conversation
Aug. 31, 2021 ~5 min


How explainable artificial intelligence can help humans innovate

AI algorithms can solve hard problems and learn incredible tasks, but they can't explain how they do these things. If researchers can build explainable AI, it could lead to a flood of new knowledge.

Forest Agostinelli, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, University of South Carolina • conversation
Jan. 13, 2021 ~7 min

Women equal men in computing skill, but are less confident

The gender gap in computing performance has dramatically narrowed, but a confidence gap remains.

William Wagner, Associate Professor of Accountancy & Information Systems, Villanova University • conversation
Sept. 28, 2020 ~4 min

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