Advancing Assistive Technologies with AI
By Zoe Tseng For someone who is visually impaired, navigating an unfamiliar street can be challenging. Even going straight can be tough in an open space. Encountering obstacles, stairs, and intersections can potentially result in an unsafe situation. While aids, such as white canes or guide dogs are helpful, they can’t exactly tell someone who […]
Estimating the Improbable with PhD Student Zack Bezemek
By Maureen Stanton and Zoe Tseng Could oil price volatility cause a stock market plunge? What’s the risk factor of a new drug causing a seizure? How likely is it that a driverless car could crash into a bus? What’s common among these seemingly disparate topics is that they are “rare events” – low-probability incidents […]
“Do what excites you, and good things will happen”
BY GINA MANTICA Orran Krieger’s career has focused on solving challenging computing problems that impact society. Nearly ten years after he first had the idea for creating a truly “open” production cloud, Krieger’s vision has transformed into reality: a community of researchers, engineers, and information technology (IT) professionals are all working together to accelerate the […]
Graduate Student Fellow Awarded NIH Fellowship
BY GINA MANTICA Sleep can affect a person’s mood, memory, attention, and mental health. But what happens to the brain when someone falls asleep or wakes up is not well understood. Scientists at Boston University (BU) are working to determine how the brain controls these arousal state transitions, and hope that their research can inform […]
Junior Faculty Fellow Uses Economics to Understand Digital Privacy
BY GINA MANTICA Tesary Lin uses economics to better understand social problems. Lin’s interdisciplinary research draws not only on theories from economics and marketing, but also on insights from other disciplines, such as computer science and law. After she completed bachelor’s and master’s degrees in economics, Lin’s advisor suggested that she apply to business programs where […]
Junior Faculty Fellow Aims To Reduce Racial Disparity in Urban Interpersonal Gun Violence
BY: KAORI (CHRISTINE) YOH Jonathan Jay’s interest in solving public health problems stems from his time as a law student where he engaged with faculty who were passionate about addressing the impacts that policies have on people’s access to life-saving medical treatments. While working in global health policy, Jay realized the unique challenges and opportunities […]
Studying the biomechanics of voice disorders
Boston University researchers develop a new model for speech production that combines neural, physiological, and biomechanical information about vocal folds. BY GINA MANTICA Voice disorders don’t just change how a person sounds when they speak; they can also cause pain and impact a person’s wellbeing. Studying voice disorders in patients provides researchers with a snapshot […]
Can machine learning slow cognitive decline?
Boston University researchers developed a model that detects cognitive impairment accurately and efficiently from voice recordings. BY GINA MANTICA Alzheimer’s Disease diagnoses are timely and expensive, requiring hour-long in-person neuropsychological exams with trained clinicians that then transcribe, review, and analyze individuals’ responses. But researchers at Boston University developed a tool that could automate analyses and […]
Graduate Student Fellow Aims to Reduce Bias-Based Bullying in Athletics
BY: KAORI (CHRISTINE) YOH & GINA MANTICA Olivia Wyatt likes baseball so much that she once created her own class in high school around sports analytics. Now, Wyatt combines her interest in sport psychology with her background in data science to develop data-driven interventions aimed at reducing bias-based harassment in athletics. As a Graduate Student […]
Introducing our 2022 Awarded Institute Fellows
The Hariri Institute is excited to announce our 2022 awarded cohort of Junior Faculty Fellows and Graduate Student Fellows! These fellows are using computational tools to answer research questions in public health, counseling psychology, astronomy, finance and more. The Institute supports these computing and data-driven researchers by contributing to their research developments and connecting them […]