Dark Energy Survey completes six-year mission

A global research effort to map a portion of the sky in unprecedented detail is coming to an end, but the task of learning more about the expansion of the universe has only just begun. Bhuvnesh Jain will continue to lead a team in studying these images for several more years.

• Physics and Astronomy

What Motivates Workers in the Gig Economy?

The gig economy offers tremendous flexibility for workers and companies, but it also comes with a host of unknown factors for both parties. A new study co-authored by Gad Allon looks at how drivers for a ride-hailing firm make labor decisions and aims to improve predictions about labor supply and more effective financial incentives.

• Operations Information and Decisions

Thoughts from a medical ethicist on gene editing babies

Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) is science’s most efficient methodology to modify chromosomes to express different properties through the genes that carry information. Penn Today spoke with Jonathan Moreno about CRISPR and where he predicts the future of the technology is headed.

• History and Sociology of Science
• Medical Ethics and Health Policy
• Philosophy

Where do comets originate?

new technique developed by Bhuvnesh Jain and a team of astronomers may allow scientists to measure radiation from celestial bodies that are only theorized to exist. Indeed, the team presents an intriguing detection of radiation that may well originate from the source of comets around nearby stars.

• Physics and Astronomy

ACUS Announces New Initiatives on the Use of Artificial Intelligence in the Federal Administrative Process

• Law
• Political Science

2018 ACM Fellows Honored for Pivotal Achievements that Underpin the Digital Age

Congratulations to Sanjeev Khanna for being named a 2018 ACM Fellow for his contributions to approximation algorithms, hardness of approximation, and sublinear algorithms. ACM Fellows are composed of an elite group that represents less than 1% of the Association’s global membership.

• Computer and Information Science

How to Find Value in Every Customer

Customers are not monolithic. There are high-value customers, low-value ones, and plenty who fall in the middle, but they all matter for businesses that want to make the most out of them. Peter Fader discusses his new book, The Customer Centricity Playbook: Implement a Winning Strategy Driven by Customer Lifetime Value.

• Marketing

The Warren Center welcomes its newest affiliate, Ron Berman

Ron Berman is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Wharton School with a focus on quantitative marketing. He is interested in online advertising, social media, e-commerce and marketing strategies of young companies.

• Marketing

Linguistic red flags from Facebook posts can predict future depression diagnoses

Analyzing social media data shared by consenting users across the months leading up to a depression diagnosis, the researchers of a new PNAS study, including Lyle Ungar, found their algorithm could accurately predict future depression.

• Computer and Information Science

Sampath Kannan Wins India Research and Engagement Fund Grant for ‘Safe Internet of Things’

Sampath Kannan’s project, titled “The Safe Internet of Things,” will foster partnerships between Engineering and leading institutions in India to study how increasingly interconnected “smart” devices can be designed with built-in protections against malicious attacks and privacy breaches.

• Computer and Information Science