News
How Old is Your Brain?
UD researchers, including DSI resident faculty member Austin Brockmeier, have found that measuring brain stiffness is a reliable way to predict brain age.
For the Record
DSI Faculty Council member Xiao Fang received the Internet and the Digital Economy Track Best Paper Award for his research, “Care for the Mind Amid Chronic Diseases: An Interpretable AI Approach Using IoT,” at the 2025 Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS).
Practicing Patient-Centered Care
University of Delaware computer science students have developed a digital interface as a two-way system that can help nurse trainees build their communication skills and learn to provide patient-centered care across a variety of situations. The work builds on previous research DSI resident faculty member Roghayeh Leila Barmaki, an assistant professor of computer and information sciences, completed with colleagues at New Jersey Institute of Technology and University of Central Florida in an NSF-funded project focused on empathy training for healthcare professionals using a virtual elderly patient.
UD a Top Producer of Fulbright U.S. Scholars
DSI faculty council member Saleem Ali and DSI affiliated faculty member Abhyudai Singh are among seven UD faculty selected for Fulbright awards for the 2024-25 academic year.
Mapping the Lewes Campus
Students in UD’s Environmental Field Robotics course, taught by DSI Faculty Council member Art Trembanis, completed a term project over the fall 2024 semester using cutting-edge autonomous technology to create a map of UD’s Hugh R. Sharp Campus in Lewes. One of the tools they utilized was the Ghost Robotics Vision 60 Quadrupedal Uncrewed Ground Vehicle (Q-UGV) — otherwise known as a “robot dog” or a terrestrial robot and affectionately nicknamed “Snoop.”
Boosting Student Motivation in Computer Science
UD researchers, led by DSI Affiliated Faculty member Teomara Rutherford, investigated changes in student motivation in first-year university CS courses to better support student learning.
Nigerian Cropland Expansion
UD assistant professor and DSI Resident Faculty member Kyle Davis (center) and doctoral candidate, DSSA Vice President and DSI Fellow Bhoktear Khan (center right), recently had a paper published in Sciences Advances that focuses on cropland expansion in Nigeria. Davis and Khan traveled to Nigeria to conduct fieldwork in 2024. During that time, they visited farmers’ fields and interviewed farmers about their farming practices.
Cultures Converge
More than 50% of graduate students in the Department of Medical and Molecular Sciences in UD’s College of Health Sciences are international students. DSI Training Working Group member Esther Biswas-Fiss, MMSC Professor and Department Chair, attributes the department’s diversity to students’ dedication to their professional goals.
For the Record
DSI Faculty Council member Jennifer Horney, founding director and professor of the epidemiology program in the College of Health Sciences and core faculty with UD’s Disaster Research Center, has been awarded a more than $400,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. The award, a first of its kind for UD, will allow Horney and her team to focus on translation and engagement around research on how the social service system adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Animal Bait and Switch
New research by DSI Affiliated Faculty member Josh Neunuebel found male mice who are being chased use female mice to distract their aggressors. Neunuebel’s group studies how communication shapes social behaviors, and what neural circuits process this information.
