Sampath Kannan named 2019 AAAS Fellow

Sampath Kannan is among a cohort of 443 distinguished scientists recognized with the honor from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Election as a Fellow of AAAS, the world’s largest scientific society, is an honor bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers.

Computer and Information Science

Socially Aware Algorithms Are Ready to Help

Better coding, not just laws and regulations, is the solution for tech’s failure to address the needs of actual humans, writes Aaron Roth and Michael Kearns in their Scientific American op-ed.

Computer and Information Science

Social Norms for Algorithms

A New Initiative on the Economics of Digital Services: Providing a Foundation for Evidence-Based Decision-Making

On November 3, 2019, the Knight Foundation made a $350,000 investment in a new project at Penn as part of a $3.5 million initiative to inform the national debate on rules, norms and governance of the internet and digital platforms. Rakesh Vohra and Christopher Yoo share details on their project.

Electrical and Systems Engineering
Law

Resilience in Networked Systems

Pushing medical science forward, with bioethics

Alongside Nursing Dean Antonia M. Villarruel, Penn President Amy Gutmann and PIK Professor Jonathan Moreno discussed their new book “Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven but Nobody Wants to Die” at the Smilow Center for Translational Research.

History and Sociology of Science
Medical Ethics and Health Policy
Philosophy

Ubiquity of Data

Advancing algorithmic care

Experts from Penn, including bioinformaticist Jason Moore, shared their perspectives on the role of advanced algorithms and AI in health care and what the future holds for digital health technologies at the Pennovation Center's event on “Advancing Algorithmic Care.”

Biomedical Informatics

Social Norms for Algorithms

Streaming endures growing pains

Just in time for the launch of two new streaming services from Disney and Apple, video on demand (VOD) has gone from golden age to a state of buffering. Peter Fader joined Penn Today to discuss the state of video streaming and what’s ahead for the burgeoning media format.

Marketing

Ubiquity of Data

Changing Societal Behavior

Damon Centola joins the Dollars and Change podcast to discuss his book “How Behavior Spreads”—a look into how changes in societal behavior occur. His findings offer insights for those looking to harness networks for social change.

Communication

Consensus and Contagion in Society

The culture of coworking spaces

As Penn sociologist David Grazian discovered through hundreds of hours of fieldwork, despite today’s digital work-anywhere economy, having a physical place to conduct business still matters.

Sociology

Ubiquity of Data

Your Data Is Shared and Sold…What’s Being Done About It?

Even as businesses seek to self-regulate, data privacy laws remain necessary because companies have to be prodded to adopt them. Michael Kearns, Sebastian Angel, and Aaron Roth discuss how companies collect and use data, and potential privacy solutions.

Computer and Information Science

Ubiquity of Data

Driven by Data

Big data—the analysis of extremely large data sets that reveals patterns and associations—is at the forefront of the modern research process. Penn Arts & Sciences' new program, Data Science Hangout, gives undergraduate students a chance to work with faculty mentors, like Bhuvnesh Jain.

Physics and Astronomy

Ubiquity of Data

News

Sampath Kannan named 2019 AAAS Fellow

Socially Aware Algorithms Are Ready to Help

A New Initiative on the Economics of Digital Services: Providing a Foundation for Evidence-Based Decision-Making

Pushing medical science forward, with bioethics

Advancing algorithmic care

Streaming endures growing pains

Changing Societal Behavior

The culture of coworking spaces

Your Data Is Shared and Sold…What’s Being Done About It?

Driven by Data