Category: In the Headlines

The University of Florida is increasing its focus on artificial intelligence, from the classroom to campus events. UF is holding its inaugural AI Days starting Thursday to showcase how it is building an AI-focused university. The events come as UF is integrating AI into its curriculum, providing students with a growing number of options to develop AI-related skills to prepare them for the workforce.

Juan Gilbert, Ph.D., has pledged to help create a more supportive and inclusive computer-science environment for Black students, and continues that work as chair of the Department of Computer & Information Science & Engineering. He thinks that vision is why the university ranks top in terms of the number of computer science PhDs awarded to Black students, and why it boasts the largest proportion of Black computer-science faculty members at any predominantly white institution in the United States.

For scientists, Hurricane Ian, which roared onto Florida’s southwest coast on September 28, 2022, as a Category 4 storm with winds of 250 kilometers per hour, has been both a research opportunity and an ordeal.

Florida is among the first states to adopt a K-12 artificial intelligence, or AI, education program designed to prepare its youth for the growing global demand for an AI-enabled workforce. The framework for the public school coursework was designed with help from UF faculty, including Christina Gardner-McCune, who modeled it after the Artificial Intelligence for K-12 Initiative, or AI4K12.

Patrick Traynor, Ph.D., Professor and John H. and Mary Lou Dasburg Preeminent Chair in Engineering in the Department of Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE), and Logan Blue, a Ph.D. student in CISE, write in The Conversation about why detecting audio deepfakes may be even more important than catching video deepfakes.

University of Florida Transportation Institute (UFTI), in collaboration with the Florida Department of Transportation and campus and city partners, will study a suite of emerging technologies that can save lives by providing timely warnings to drivers and pedestrians about one another — before an encounter becomes fatal.

Jeremy A. Magruder Waisome, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Engineering Education, says, “My journey at UF could be summarized by community.”

Using a $7.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), a team of researchers led by the University of Florida will examine the needs of marginalized and vulnerable populations among security and privacy technologies. The project, supported by the NSF’s Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace Frontiers program, seeks to develop foundational design principles to mitigate harm and improve benefits to these populations based on foundational computer science, social science theory, and direct collaboration with marginalized and vulnerable populations.

The University of Florida and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency have entered an agreement to study how artificial intelligence and machine learning applications (AIML) can be used to detect and deter malicious agents that infiltrate computer networks. The work will be carried out by researchers associated with UF’s Florida Institute for National Security.

Erika Moore, Ph.D., the Rhines Rising Star Assistant Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, shares her experiences with student debt and why she believes students should have more training in financial literacy.