Mocktails or Cocktails? Having a Sense of Purpose in Life Can Keep Binge Drinking At Bay

A new study from Yoona Kang and Emily Falk reveals that having a sense of purpose in daily life can influence college students’ decisions on day-to-day alcohol consumption.

Communication
Marketing
Psychology

Consensus and Contagion in Society

Edgar Dobriban awarded 2023 Sloan Research Fellowship

Congratulations to Edgar Dobriban for being named a 2023 Sloan Research Fellow! Awarded this year to 126 early-career scientists, the Sloan Research Fellowships are among the most competitive awards available to researchers.

Statistics

Ubiquity of Data

How Analytics Can Boost Competitiveness in Sports

Data and analytics are increasingly being used to help maximize fan experiences and for team owners to determine the value of players, but also to enhance player safety. Eric Bradlow and FanDuel CEO Amy Howe discuss how analytics can benefit teams, players, and customers while ensuring the necessary data protections.

Marketing

Ubiquity of Data

Is social media good or bad for social unity?

In a new paper in Social Issues and Policy Review, Sandra González-Bailón and Yphtach Lelkestake stock of the existing studies across multiple fields that interrogate social media’s effect on social cohesion, establishing what we know to date.

Communication

Consensus and Contagion in Society

How species partnerships evolve

Symbiotic relationships are everywhere in nature. In the journal Evolution, Erol Akçay and co-authors consider the evolutionary dynamics that govern how two forms of specialization—cooperative or antagonistic—as well as generalist symbioses arise, persist, or wane in a model framework using game theory.

Biology

Ubiquity of Data

Wharton Researchers Build Algorithm to Help Fight Sex Trafficking

Hamsa Bastani and Pia Ramchandani are using machine learning to shine a light on sex trafficking: they spent countless hours running trials, examining the results, and redesigning the algorithms to get everything right. The ultimate goal, they said, was to “train” the algorithms to hit the right target through the right keywords.

Operations Information and Decisions

Social Norms for Algorithms

Through the lens: A digital depiction of dyslexia

Artist-in-residence and visiting scholar Rebecca Kamen has blended AI and art to produce animated illustrations representing how a dyslexic brain interprets information, inspired by network visualizations from Dani Bassett and Ph.D. candidate Dale Zhou.

Bioengineering
Electrical and Systems Engineering

Ubiquity of Data

ASSET Center Inaugural Seed Grants Will Fund Trustworthy AI Research in Healthcare

Penn Engineering’s newly established ASSET Center aims to make AI-enabled systems more “safe, explainable and trustworthy” by studying the fundamentals of the artificial neural networks that organize and interpret data to solve problems. The center will be funding projects from Dani Bassett, Lyle Ungar, and Edgar Dobriban.

Bioengineering
Computer and Information Science
Electrical and Systems Engineering
Statistics

Ubiquity of Data

Turning Ugly Duckling Customers Into Beautiful Swans

Peter Fader shares insights about using retail data, boosting customer lifetime value, and his latest book on “The Customer-Base Audit: The First Step on the Journey to Customer Centricity” in this interview with Women's Wear Daily.

Marketing

Ubiquity of Data

The Physics of Us

“We’re using physics principles to understand life and living matter,” says Eleni Katifori, who studies vasculature in plants and animals. “But we are also using living matter as an inspiration to discover new physics, for asking the right questions or new questions.”

Physics and Astronomy

Ubiquity of Data

News

Mocktails or Cocktails? Having a Sense of Purpose in Life Can Keep Binge Drinking At Bay

Edgar Dobriban awarded 2023 Sloan Research Fellowship

How Analytics Can Boost Competitiveness in Sports

Is social media good or bad for social unity?

How species partnerships evolve

Wharton Researchers Build Algorithm to Help Fight Sex Trafficking

Through the lens: A digital depiction of dyslexia

ASSET Center Inaugural Seed Grants Will Fund Trustworthy AI Research in Healthcare

Turning Ugly Duckling Customers Into Beautiful Swans

The Physics of Us