News
Methane Mystery
DSI faculty council member Rodrigo Vargas, an ecosystem ecology and environmental change professor in the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, co-authored a study recently published in Global Change Biology, which explores where the methane produced in soils of tidal salt marshes goes. UD researchers took their project to the St. Jones Reserve, a tidal salt marsh near Dover that is part of Delaware National Estuarine Research Reserve that flows into the Delaware Bay.
Supporting Cybersecurity Scholars
UD Engineering receives $3.4 million from NSF’s Scholarships For Service program to support top-tier cybersecurity students and bolster professional development opportunities. UD’s new “Defending cyberspace through active learning” SFS program, is led by PI DSI Affiliated Faculty member Kenneth Barner (third from right) and co-PI DSI Affiliated Faculty member Nektarios Tsoutsos (third from left).
For The Record
DSI Faculty Council member Jennifer Horney, professor and founding director of the Epidemiology Program in the College of Health Sciences, has been appointed to the planning committee for the Communities, Climate Change, and Health Equity Workshop Series: Exploring Flood Adaptation Strategies to Support Health Equities.
‘Costless’ Mitigation
A new paper co-authored by DSI affiliated faculty member James Rising, assistant professor in UD’s School of Marine Science and Policy, looks at a report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that showed global greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced by at least half in 2030 at a cost of less than $100 per ton of CO2 equivalent. This study, however, points out that these estimates do not consider some hidden, underlying frictions that might prevent people from simply adopting a newer, greener technology to replace an older, more familiar one.
Explainable AI
University of Delaware computer scientist and DSI Resident Faculty member Xi Peng and oceanographer and DSI Faculty Council member Art Trembanis are using artificial intelligence and machine learning to analyze seafloor data from the Mid-Atlantic Ocean. The goal is to develop robust machine-learning methods that can accurately and reliably detect objects in seafloor data.
For The Record
Interdisciplinary disaster research involving the College of Health Sciences and the College of Engineering will be supported by a nearly $400,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). DSI Faculty Council member Jennifer Horney, professor and founding director of the Epidemiology Program, will work on research that aims to improve the ability of infrastructure and communities to withstand severe natural hazards.
Davis, Shores Named 2023 Gerard J. Mangone Young Scholars
Kyle Davis (left), DSI Resident Faculty member and assistant professor of geography and spatial sciences and plant and soil sciences, and Kenneth Shores, DSI Affiliated Faculty member and assistant professor in the School of Education, are the 2023 Gerard J. Mangone Young Scholars in recognition of being promising faculty and accomplished work as researchers by the University of Delaware’s Francis Alison Society.
At the Center of a Business Revolution
UD’s Financial Services Analytics (FSAN) doctoral program began with the first cohort of students in 2014. It forges a link between different fields of study and the corporate world via a partnership between the Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics, the College of Engineering and JPMorgan Chase. The program offers doctoral students financial support and access to top-notch facilities while they pursue an intensive program of research and learning with input from multiple disciplines. It’s competitive, with only a few students accepted every two years.
“As far as I know, there’s no (other) such a program at the Ph.D. level,” said Bintong Chen, DSI faculty council member and director of FSAN.
DSI Director Cathy Wu presents at UD Board of Trustees Meeting
Cathy Wu, director of the Data Science Institute and Unidel Edward G. Jefferson Chair in Engineering and Computer Science, presents on artificial intelligence, health equity and financial technology at the semiannual Board of Trustees meeting.
Wu defined artificial intelligence as “giving computer systems the ability to do things that typically require human intelligence” and explained the ways in which AI can be used to drive science and technology forward for the benefit of all.
Predicting Patterns
DSI Affiliated Faculty member Tarang Parekh, Epidemiology Assistant Professor, and colleagues used Google Trends search data to find a link between RSV searches and pediatric hospitalizations. The study, recently published in the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Hospital Pediatrics journal, is the first of its kind, showing lead-time predictions that could have significant ramifications on overburdened healthcare systems.
