Why Our Brains are So Good at Seeing Causality (and What AI Requires to Catch Up)

Despite huge advances, current AI systems have trouble figuring out causation: the relationship between cause and effect. Konrad Kording spoke with CIFAR about strategies to use machine learning systems to model causality and how likely it is that the field of AI will reach artificial general intelligence in the next decade.

• Bioengineering
• Neuroscience

Q&A: The mysterious flying objects

For more than a month, residents in New Jersey, parts of Pennsylvania, and New York have spotted unidentified flying objects, which local residents refer to as “drones,” hovering over neighborhoods, critical infrastructure and even restricted sites. To learn more about the mysterious flying objects, Penn Today spoke with Vijay Kumar.

• Computer and Information Science
• Electrical and Systems Engineering
• Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics

Nikolai Matni Receives 2024 IEEE Control Systems Society Best Paper Award

Congratulations to Nikolai Matni for receiving the 2024 IEEE Transactions on Control of Network Systems Best Paper Award. Matni’s work advances research in network systems, with significant implications for autonomous systems, cyber-physical networks and distributed control.

• Electrical and Systems Engineering

Amy Gutmann Hall: The New Home for Data Science and AI at Penn

Located on the NE corner of 34th and Chestnut Streets, Amy Gutmann Hall brings together Penn's efforts to harness AI and data science to advance interdisciplinary teaching and research. The building is the new home for the Warren Center, and represents a “new chapter in Penn’s leadership in the AI and data science revolution."

Why Income Inequality in America Is Hurting Collective Happiness

What does income inequality in America have to do with happiness? And more generally, what is the right way to think about the relationship between money and happiness? A recent study by Matthew Killingsworth offers some surprising answers.

• People Analytics

Penn Professor Wins Prestigious Award for Drone Research

Drones continue to evolve as an important way to aid and support humans. In this interview on PHL17 Morning News, Vijay Kumar discusses his research to enhance a drone’s reach and his recent John Scott Award. "We do things that benefit humankind," says Kumar.

• Computer and Information Science
• Electrical and Systems Engineering
• Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics

NeurIPS 2024 Papers from Warren Center Faculty Affiliates

Fifteen papers from Warren Center faculty affiliates, including three Spotlight papers, have been accepted to the Thirty-Eighth Annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS 2024). A huge congratulations to these affiliates for their impressive research.

• Bioengineering
• Computer and Information Science
• Electrical and Systems Engineering
• Neuroscience
• Operations Information and Decisions
• Statistics

Is ‘Bypassing’ a Better Way to Battle Misinformation?

New research from Dolores Albarracín and Annenberg Public Policy Center postdoctoral fellow Javier Granados Samayoa explores an innovative approach to countering the impact of factually incorrect information called “bypassing.”

• Communication
• Health Management
• Nursing
• Psychology

C4R Raises the Bar in Scientific Rigor Through Interdisciplinary Collaboration

Rigor in how science is done and how results are analyzed and communicated is essential for science to be useful in the real world. The Community for Rigor (C4R), with leadership from Konrad Kording and Damon Centola, aims to teach the principles and practices of scientific rigor to a broad audience.

• Bioengineering
• Communication
• Neuroscience
• Sociology

Grumpy Voters Want Better Stories—Not Statistics

In the aftermath of the 2024 U.S. presidential election, polling has once again come under fire. Duncan Watts believes that Trump benefited from a broad anti-incumbent trend seen in elections worldwide; that sentiment swung enough undecided voters to his tally to win him the swing states needed for victory.

• Communication
• Computer and Information Science
• Operations Information and Decisions