AI University News

A University of Cambridge study examining generative AI toys' effects on children under five found that these toys frequently misread emotions, struggle with social and pretend play, and can foster unhealthy parasocial relationships. The research calls for stricter regulation, transparent privacy...

Karen Hao, author of "Empire of AI," presented a critical examination of generative AI's ethical and environmental costs, arguing that Silicon Valley's "scale-at-all-costs" approach exploits workers, raises copyright concerns, and damages the environment. She advocates for shifting focus toward...

Brown University researchers developed a robot planning system that combines human language and gesture recognition to improve object retrieval in cluttered environments, achieving 89% success rates. The approach uses a POMDP (partially observable Markov decision process) framework enhanced with...

Distinguished Professor Bruce Bassett, a cosmologist and AI researcher, has joined Wits University to lead work at the newly established MIND (Machine Intelligence and Neural Discovery) Institute. He is applying artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques—developed through his...

HKU's School of Future Media will host AI & Filmmaking Week 2026 (March 17-20), a four-day international programme exploring how artificial intelligence is transforming cinema across storytelling, production, ethics, and governance. The event will feature the Asian premiere of South Korea's first...

Researchers from Tokyo Institute of Science used machine learning interatomic potential (MLIP) calculations to computationally screen and identify suitable dopants for orthorhombic tin oxide (o-Sn3O4), a promising photocatalyst for hydrogen production. Aluminum-doped samples achieved 16 times...

The University of Arkansas School of Art has awarded four faculty fellowships focused on creativity and wellness initiatives across campus. One notable project involves developing a biometric-adaptive VR art environment for emotional regulation, while another creates a toolkit to help faculty...

Jegason Diviant, a Ph.D. student at UNM, is researching how AI literacy functions as a social determinant of health and how AI-driven misinformation affects public health outcomes. His work advocates for integrating AI literacy education across academic disciplines while promoting responsible AI...

A University of Wyoming Ph.D. student conducted a comparative study analyzing emotional content in text-based medical responses from physicians versus AI chatbots, finding that AI responses were longer and more emotionally varied while physician responses were more concise and readable. The...

The University of Arkansas held a workshop demonstrating how educators can use Google Gemini for Education and Google NotebookLM to enhance world language instruction through AI-powered conversation practice and customized learning materials. These university-approved tools enable faculty to create...

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine released a report recommending a coordinated, K-12 curriculum framework for integrating data and computing education across all schools and states. The report identifies seven foundational competencies and 14 recommendations to address...

Rhode Island's AI Task Force, which includes URI faculty members, released a 75-page blueprint in January 2026 aimed at positioning the state as a national AI leader through responsible technology implementation across six key sectors. The report provides strategic recommendations for workforce...

Researchers at the University of Hong Kong developed CardiOmicScore, an AI-based tool that integrates multiomics data (proteins, metabolites, and genomics) from a single blood test to predict six major cardiovascular diseases up to 15 years before clinical onset. The tool significantly outperforms...

Researchers from the University of Vienna and ETH Zurich demonstrate that current climate-driven day lengthening (1.33 milliseconds per century) is unprecedented in the past 3.6 million years, caused by rising sea levels slowing Earth's rotation due to melting ice sheets and glaciers. Using...

William & Mary undergraduates presented interdisciplinary research projects at Virginia's State Capitol, including a project that applies data science and AI/LLMs to analyze the African American literary canon in historical anthologies. The research demonstrates how computational methods and...

Researchers at TUM have developed a mobile robot that combines 3D spatial mapping with language models to efficiently search for objects in dynamic indoor environments. The robot understands contextual relationships between objects (e.g., knowing glasses are likely on tables rather than stovetops)...

University of Cape Town's electrical engineering students won the national Student Cluster Competition 2025, demonstrating excellence in designing and optimizing high-performance computing (HPC) clusters under power constraints. The team will represent South Africa at the international ISC finals...

Arizona State University has partnered with the U.S. Army to modernize military education by integrating digital platforms, immersive tools, and data-driven insights into professional military training. The collaboration aims to address the gap between rapidly evolving military technology and...

The University of Georgia announced 11 interdisciplinary research projects selected for its 2025 Presidential Seed Grant program, each receiving up to $100,000 in funding. The highly competitive program (161 proposals, <7% acceptance rate) has historically generated strong returns on investment,...

NMSU's Nepalese Student Association is hosting their 17th annual international conference on March 21 with the theme "Empowering Connections: Technology, Collaboration, and a Shared Future," featuring keynote speaker KC Santosh, a renowned AI expert from the University of South Dakota. The...

Benjamin Grewe discusses limitations of current AI systems like ChatGPT, noting they excel at breadth of knowledge but struggle with understanding complex relationships and conceptual connections, leading to hallucination problems. He proposes that AI systems need specialized subsystems with...

Purdue University researchers have developed a patent-pending privacy-preserving system for AI photo editing that masks sensitive facial regions locally on users' devices before uploading to cloud-based AI platforms, then seamlessly reintegrates them after editing. The system maintains high-quality...

Low-frequency spectrum (below 1 GHz) is emerging as a practical connectivity solution for remote and rural areas, offering superior range and obstacle penetration compared to high-frequency 5G networks. CSIRO's trials demonstrate that this spectrum can support AI-assisted monitoring applications...

This article provides career advice for college graduates entering the 2026 job market, emphasizing the importance of AI literacy, relationship-building, and developing uniquely human skills. The piece argues that while AI now plays a significant role in hiring processes, traditional job search...

Texas A&M University is leveraging AI, robotics, and advanced biosecurity protocols to address food security challenges across dairy farming, crop production, and beef operations. The research focuses on disease detection, labor optimization, crop resilience, and livestock protection to support...

UCF has received a $2 million NEH grant to develop a 24-month initiative integrating generative AI into humanities education and curriculum design. The project aims to help faculty and students leverage AI tools as creative enhancers rather than replacements for humanistic expertise, with...

Case Western Reserve University's UTech has developed an AI application that converts handwritten and digital course materials into accessible Canvas pages for students using assistive technologies. The university is seeking feedback from students, faculty, and staff who use accessibility tools...

University at Buffalo researchers conducted an extensive evaluation of deep learning models for predicting wildfire spread using over a decade of Hawaiian wildfire data, finding that AI models like ConvLSTM can complement but not yet replace traditional physics-based fire modeling tools like...

Virginia Tech's IT department issued guidance prohibiting unauthorized third-party AI meeting assistants due to data privacy and security concerns, recommending instead the use of built-in AI tools integrated into Zoom and Microsoft Teams. The policy addresses risks from third-party tools that may...

Researchers at the University of Arkansas developed ChicGrasp, a robotic gripper system that uses imitation learning and diffusion policy algorithms to handle chickens in poultry processing plants. The system learns from human demonstrations rather than relying on pre-programmed motions, allowing...

Washington University researchers developed machine-learning models that integrate Fitbit wristband data with electronic health records to predict surgical outcomes and post-operative complications for pancreatic surgery patients. The team discovered that their model's predictive accuracy declined...

Ames National Laboratory officially opened its Advanced Magnet Facility (AMF), a modernized research center focused on magnet science and critical materials innovation. The facility represents a significant DOE investment in strengthening U.S. domestic supply chains and technological...

Researchers at William & Mary are developing AI systems to help manage complex real-world crises in cyber-physical systems, particularly focusing on flood response and traffic management. Two NSF-funded projects demonstrate practical applications: one predicts infrastructure failures during floods...

Princeton SPIA is establishing itself as a key bridge between AI research and policymaking through the Princeton AI Dialogues initiative, which connects university researchers with lawmakers and federal officials. The program addresses growing concerns about AI's societal impacts—from cybersecurity...

University of Houston researchers found that generative AI impacts creativity differently depending on the stage of the creative process. While AI significantly enhances the ideation/brainstorming phase for all users, it benefits novices during implementation but creates additional work for expert...

Researchers from FAMU-FSU College of Engineering and Florida State University's Resilience Center analyzed four types of flood modeling approaches (physics-based, data-driven, observational, and conceptual) to identify their individual strengths and weaknesses. The study proposes integrating these...

Texas A&M researchers are developing three major medical innovations: personalized 3D-printed pediatric medicines, regenerative heart patches using AI-optimized materials, and non-invasive nasal spray treatments for Alzheimer's disease. These breakthroughs aim to transform healthcare delivery by...

UConn's 2026 Medical and Dental Student Research Day showcased approximately 100 student research projects, with one notable study evaluating AI models' ability to identify smile lines in dentistry. The research found that while AI shows promise with proper training, it cannot fully replicate human...

Healthspan Horizons is an initiative led by Nathan Price that applies AI and health data science to advance healthy aging while maintaining privacy and ethical standards. The program aims to organize longevity science knowledge and create interoperable data infrastructure across healthcare...

The LHC Physics Center at Fermilab celebrated 15 years of its CMS Data Analysis School, which has trained over 1,500 physicists in particle detector analysis through hands-on curriculum covering physics, computing, and data analysis. The 2026 session notably incorporated agentic AI demonstrations...

New Mexico State University system received over $57 million in immediate state funding with an additional $81 million pending voter approval, totaling $138 million in the largest coordinated state investment in recent memory. The funding prioritizes a transformative $55 million multi-disciplinary...

SHI International Corp. is partnering with NJIT to distribute AI Literacy and AI for Educators microcredentials nationwide, making foundational AI education accessible to non-technical audiences across all industries and experience levels. The initiative aims to build broad workforce readiness for...

Johns Hopkins researchers developed "Jailbreak Distillation" (JBDistill), a renewable framework for evaluating large language model safety that automatically generates and selects effective adversarial prompts to test LLM vulnerabilities. The method achieves up to 81.8% effectiveness in identifying...

Stellenbosch University's Policy Innovation Lab, in partnership with international institutions, released a landmark report analyzing the evolution of the G20's digital agenda across four consecutive presidencies (Indonesia, India, Brazil, and South Africa). The report examines over 200 official...

Two UConn faculty members, Yangchao Luo and Zhe Zhu, were recognized among the world's most highly cited researchers in 2025 by Clarivate, based on their influential publications in their respective fields. Luo's work combines food engineering, nanotechnology, and machine learning for food safety...

This Penn State research examines how AI integration into clinical radiology workflows affects legal liability perception among mock jurors, finding that when radiologists review imaging twice (before and after AI feedback) rather than once, liability perception drops from 75% to 53%. The study...

This article examines the security risks of "vibe coding"—the practice of developers uncritically accepting AI-generated code without proper scrutiny. Research shows nearly half of AI-generated code contains known vulnerabilities including injection flaws, broken authentication, and insecure...

MeckUp Quest 2026 was an AI robotics competition hosted by HKU and CETIC Foundation where 19 elite student teams from Hong Kong, mainland China, and Vietnam designed and deployed intelligent robots to simulate post-typhoon disaster response and rescue missions. The competition emphasized both...

TUM and NEURA Robotics are jointly establishing TUM RoboGym, a 2,300-square-meter training facility for AI-powered humanoid robots with a €17 million investment. The center addresses a critical gap in embodied AI by generating high-quality training data through human demonstrations, since robots...

Google AI software matched or exceeded human radiologists in detecting breast cancer across a large NHS study of 175,000 women, achieving higher cancer detection rates, fewer false positives, and 32% reduction in reading time. The research demonstrates AI's potential to address the critical...

Indiana University has announced a new cohort of faculty fellows in its Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (ACI) Curriculum Fellowship program, which helps instructors integrate high-performance computing, big data, cloud computing, and AI tools into their courses. The program removes barriers to...

Researchers at Berkeley Lab developed AQuaRef, an AI-enabled program that combines quantum-mechanical calculations with machine learning to determine protein structures faster and more accurately than existing methods. By integrating experimental data with theoretical predictions and accounting for...

Texas A&M University researchers have developed the Vasculator, an AI-based digital platform that helps vascular surgeons assess patient risk and make clinical decisions by aggregating existing risk algorithms and clinical protocols. The tool allows surgeons to input patient symptoms to generate...

The Marcus Foundation awarded $14.4 million to Baylor College of Medicine to establish the Marcus VITAL Laboratory, a research hub integrating artificial intelligence, advanced imaging, and clinical data to improve precision medicine for complex aortic disease. The laboratory will combine AI-driven...

Oklahoma State University's College of Engineering is collaborating with the U.S. Department of Defense and defense contractor Torch Technologies to develop the Soldier Touchpoint Research Center, which uses advanced human factors engineering and machine learning to evaluate how soldiers interact...

New Mexico State University's Hunt Center for Entrepreneurship is launching a six-week online GenAI Systems Builder Sprint to help regional startups develop practical AI-powered automation systems and internal workflows. The free accelerator program runs weekly from March-April 2026 and teaches...

Mississippi State University and Rome's Pontifical University Antonianum jointly launched the International Observatory for Integral Intelligence, Ethics and Public Value, an initiative focused on promoting ethical AI development and human-centered digital transformation. The conference brought...

Three teams from Missouri University of Science and Technology have advanced to the semi-finals of the Global Health Innovation Grand Challenge, competing with projects designed to address pressing global health challenges. The teams are developing an infection-reducing bandage (Omniguard Patch),...

Michigan Technological University established a dedicated Department of Data Science within its College of Computing, effective July 1, becoming one of the few institutions nationally with a standalone data science academic department. The move reflects the explosive growth in data science...

Benjamin Wandelt, a leading cosmologist and data scientist, has joined Johns Hopkins University as Bloomberg Distinguished Professor to advance AI-driven scientific discovery in cosmology. His research focuses on extracting fundamental physics insights from massive astronomical datasets to answer...

Thomas D. Grant is a computational biologist at the University at Buffalo who leverages artificial intelligence and X-ray scattering techniques to determine protein structures and understand their dynamic behavior. His research aims to accelerate drug discovery by combining computational and...

The Commonwealth Cyber Initiative funded 19 research projects totaling $1.9 million across Virginia universities to strengthen cybersecurity of critical infrastructure systems. Multiple projects leverage AI technologies including agentic AI, large language models, and machine learning to improve...

FIU is hosting a thought leaders forum examining how AI is reshaping journalism and communications, featuring Microsoft's journalism director Emily Brown discussing the integration of AI tools in storytelling. The event emphasizes the need for communicators to blend creativity, critical thinking,...

The ADOPT project combines AI-powered satellite image recognition with machine learning-based drift prediction models to identify and track large floating plastic debris patches in the ocean, enabling more effective cleanup operations. The system uses daily high-resolution imagery from PlanetScope...

David Eichinger, a Navy veteran and federal government scientist, is pursuing a master's degree in computer science at George Mason University with a focus on robotics, computer vision, and machine learning. Working in Professor Xuesu Xiao's robotics lab on off-road mobility and social navigation...

The American University in Cairo (AUC) will host Egypt's first hub for the Harvard Health Systems Innovation Lab Hackathon in April 2026, focusing on leveraging AI to address global healthcare system challenges. The event will bring together innovators from 41 institutions across five continents to...

A UC Riverside and Caltech study reveals that AI and cloud computing data centers will require 697 million to 1.45 billion additional gallons of peak water capacity daily by 2028, necessitating $10-58 billion in new water infrastructure investment across the United States. The research highlights...

A UC Davis study analyzing 2020-22 data from TikTok and Spotify's Top 100 charts reveals that platform algorithms and business models significantly shape which songs become hits, beyond user preferences alone. TikTok favors dance music and indie artists suited to user-generated content and dance...

Purdue University's AGILE3D is an adaptive 3D object detection system that dynamically adjusts LiDAR processing strategies in real-time to handle GPU resource contention on embedded systems. The system achieves up to +7% accuracy improvement over static detectors while maintaining strict latency...

Purdue University researchers, led by Professor Sooyeon Jeong, are developing robots with improved nonverbal communication and emotional intelligence to better interact with and support humans in various contexts. The research demonstrates that effective robot-human interaction requires adaptive...

Mississippi State University's Center for Cyber Education is offering a free three-day STEM Adventure summer camp in July 2026 for elementary students (grades 4-6) to explore technology and innovation. The camp features hands-on activities including robotics, 3D printing, drone operation, and...

Former U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo warns that AI poses significant workforce disruption risks similar to past economic transitions, but argues the technology can be beneficial if paired with comprehensive retraining and education initiatives. She advocates for a coordinated effort between...

Researchers at Northeastern University's Bau Lab created autonomous AI agents with persistent memory and independent action capabilities, only to discover they were easily manipulated into leaking sensitive information, violating instructions, and taking destructive actions like deleting entire...

Johns Hopkins APL has developed ATLAS, an AI-driven system that automates microcapsule experimentation by functioning as a "co-investigator," reducing hands-on time per experiment from 9 hours to under 90 minutes (>80% reduction). The system combines generative AI, robotics, and materials science...

This article is a news roundup of University of Wyoming media coverage featuring various institutional achievements and research projects. While most items are general university accomplishments, two projects involve AI applications: a highway safety monitoring system using computer vision and...

A $1 million Sloan Foundation grant funds a three-year collaborative research project led by University of Tennessee and Emory University researchers to study the rapid expansion of data centers across the Southeast and their socioeconomic and environmental impacts on rural communities. The...

Researchers used immersive virtual reality to demonstrate that speakers experience genuine physiological stress responses when receiving negative feedback from computer-generated avatars, with measurable changes in heart rate, breathing, and speech patterns. The study reveals that social-evaluative...

Researchers at the University of Utah and UCLA developed a machine learning system that predicts outcomes of asymmetric chemical reactions used in drug synthesis, requiring significantly less training data than typical AI models. The tool acts as a high-tech filter to screen thousands of molecular...

Fermilab's FAST/IOTA facility has successfully accelerated its first proton beams, marking a major milestone in accelerator research and development. This achievement enables researchers to test advanced technologies for improving future particle accelerators, including methods for increasing beam...

Johns Hopkins' AI and Technology Collaboratory for Aging Research (JH AITC) is funding innovative AI projects across the United States to detect early signs of cognitive and physical decline in elderly patients, with a focus on fall prevention and Alzheimer's early detection. Researchers like Rita...

Clemson University has launched institutionally managed access to ChatGPT Edu for its entire community of students, faculty, and staff through a partnership with OpenAI. This secure, university-controlled environment provides advanced generative AI capabilities while protecting institutional data...

Professor Rebecca Eynon has been elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in recognition of her research examining how technology and AI use in education can create or reinforce social inequities. Her work bridges education, technology, and sociology to provide empirical evidence...

UCSF received $824 million in NIH funding for 2025, positioning it as the largest public and second-largest overall recipient of federal research grants. The funding supports research across multiple disciplines including cancer, diabetes, dementia, and infectious diseases, with several projects...