Title
Topic
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‘Accelerating Neural MCTS Algorithms Using Neural Sub-Net Structures’
“Neural MCTS algorithms are a combination of Deep Neural Networks and Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) and have successfully trained Reinforcement Learning agents in a tabula-rasa way. … However, these algorithms … take a long time to converge, which requires high computational power and electrical energy. It also becomes difficult for researchers without cutting-edge hardware to pursue Neural MCTS research. We propose Step-MCTS, a novel algorithm that uses subnet structures, each of which simulates a tree that provides a lookahead for exploration.” Find the paper and full list of authors in the International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems…
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‘Sustainable HCI Under Water: Opportunities for Research with Oceans, Coastal Communities and Marine Systems’
“Although the world’s oceans play a critical role in human well-being, they have not been a primary focus of the sustainable HCI (SHCI) community to date. In this paper, we present a scoping review to show how concerns with the oceans are threaded throughout the broader SHCI literature and to find new research opportunities. We identify several themes that could benefit from focused SHCI research, including marine food sources, culture and coastal communities, ocean conservation, and marine climate change impacts and adaptation strategies.” Find the paper and full list of authors at the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.
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‘Rapid Convergence: The Outcomes of Making PPE During a Healthcare Crisis’
“The U.S. National Institute of Health (NIH) 3D Print Exchange is a public, open-source repository for 3D printable medical device designs with contributions from clinicians, expert-amateur makers, and people from industry and academia. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the NIH formed a collection to foster submissions of low-cost, locally manufacturable personal protective equipment (PPE). We evaluated the 623 submissions in this collection … [and] found an immediate design convergence to manufacturing-focused remixes of a few initial designs affiliated with NIH partners and major for-profit groups.” Find the paper and full list of authors at ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction.
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‘OPTIMISM: Enabling Collaborative Implementation of Domain Specific Metaheuristic Optimization’
“For non-technical domain experts and designers it can be a substantial challenge to create designs that meet domain specific goals. This presents an opportunity to create specialized tools that produce optimized designs in the domain. However, implementing domain-specific optimization methods requires a rare combination of programming and domain expertise. … We present OPTIMISM, a toolkit which enables programmers and domain experts to collaboratively implement an optimization component of design tools.” Find the paper and full list of authors in the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems proceedings.
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How a deep dive into the internet’s vital protocols earned a ‘Best Paper’ honor
Milton Posner, for the Khoury College of Computer Science, details how “A Formal Analysis of Karn’s Algorithm,” a paper written by professor Cristina Nita-Rotaru, PhD. student Max von Hippel, and “Lenore Zuck at the University of Illinois Chicago, and Ken McMillan at the University of Texas at Austin,” has won a best paper award for its exploration of a protocol important to the basic functioning of the internet.
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Ozone Tattoo project empowers citizen scientists to track pollution in their communities
The revolutionary Ozone Tattoo project, created by professor Dietmar Offenhuber, teaches observers how to identify the specific damage patterns of ground-level ozone on plant leaves. The project is now a Falling Walls 2023 award winner.
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Understanding human decision-making during supply chains shortages
“Research conducted by mechanical and industrial engineering associate professor Jacqueline Griffin, professor Ozlem Ergun, and professor Stacy Marsella [in the Khoury College of Computer science, titled] ‘Agent-Based Modeling of Human Decision-Makers Under Uncertain Information During Supply Chain Shortages’ was published in the proceedings from the 2023 International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems.”
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Hajjar receives leadership award for contributions to civil engineering education
“The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has awarded … Jerome F. Hajjar, CDM Smith Professor and chair of the department of civil and environmental engineering at Northeastern University, the 2023 Thomas A. Lenox Excellence in Civil Engineering Education (ExCEEd) Leadership Award for extraordinary leadership in civil engineering education. The award was presented at the Civil Engineering Division Banquet at the 2023 Annual Conference of the American Society for Engineering Education in Baltimore, Maryland.”
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Developing new generation of intelligent tutoring systems for advanced manufacturing
“Mechanical and industrial engineering assistant professor Mohsen Moghaddam is leading a $850K NSF grant for ‘Accelerating Skill Acquisition in Complex Psychomotor Tasks via an Intelligent Extended Reality Tutoring System.’ Project collaborators include Northeastern University co-principal investigators Kemi Jona, assistant vice chancellor for digital innovation and enterprise learning, Casper Harteveld, associate professor of game design and associate dean of the College of Arts, Media and Design and Mehmet Kosa, postdoctoral research associate working with Casper. This project builds upon the ongoing research of the PI at the intersection of AI and augmented, virtual, and mixed reality, sponsored by NSF, DARPA, and…
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Air Force Office of Scientific Research provides $540K grant for video anomaly detection
“Electrical and computer engineering and Khoury College of Computer Science professor Yun Raymond Fu received a $540,000 Air Force Office of Scientific Research grant to address video anomaly detection through deep learning and perturbation techniques.”
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Wanunu receives $2M grant for ‘single-molecule’ protein identification
“Meni Wanunu, associate professor of physics and bioengineering affiliated faculty member, received a $2,000,000 R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)/National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) for ‘Asymmetric Single-Chain MspA Nanopores for Electroosmotic Stretching and Sequencing Proteins.’ … [Wanunu and collaborators] will develop a next-generation single-molecule protein sequencer based on engineered high-resolution nanopores. Protein identification and/or single-molecule protein sequencing from minute amounts could revolutionize our understanding of health by providing a picture of the molecular state of the cell at the level of its most functional molecules.”
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Advancing distributed optimization for non-convex problems
“Mechanical and industrial engineering assistant professor Shahin Shahrampour has received a $500,000 NSF grant, in collaboration with Texas A&M University, to address ‘Consensus and Distributed Optimization in Non-Convex Environments With Applications to Networked Machine Learning.'”
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Improving efficiency of data-centric computing
“Electrical and computer engineering professor Edmund Yeh was awarded a patent for ‘Network and Method for Servicing a Computation Request.'”
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Minkara serves as moderator for intersection of disability panel
“Bioengineering assistant professor Mona Minkara served as a moderator for the ‘Intersection of Disability Panel’ at the Disrupting Ableism and Advancing STEM: A National Leadership Summit held on June 5, 2023.” Click on “Learn More” to watch the video.
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Understanding cell transitions in tumor development
“University distinguished professor Herbert Levine, physics and bioengineering, in collaboration with Brown University and MD Anderson Cancer Center, is leading a $1,200,000 NSF grant for determining the ‘Regulation of Cellular Stemness During the Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition (EMT).'”
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‘Predictors and Consequences of Pro-Environmental Behavior at Work’
“Increasingly, people are looking for meaning through their jobs, for employers that have a positive impact on the world, and for workplaces that promote mission-driven behavior. One such mission that is a growing priority is addressing climate change, especially for younger cohorts entering the workforce. Addressing the climate crisis will necessitate substantial changes at all levels of society, including organizational change. This paper examines individual, social, and contextual variables that are associated with pro-environmental behavior (PEB).” Find the paper and full list of authors at ResearchGate.
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‘Microbial Chemolithoautotrophs are Abundant in Salt Marsh Sediment Following Long-Term Experimental Nitrate Enrichment’
“Long-term anthropogenic nitrate (NO3−) enrichment is a serious threat to many coastal systems. Nitrate reduction coupled with the oxidation of reduced forms of sulfur is conducted by chemolithoautotrophic microbial populations in a process that decreases nitrogen (N) pollution. However, little is known about the diversity and distribution of microbes capable of carbon fixation within salt marsh sediment and how they respond to long-term NO3− loading. We used genome-resolved metagenomics to characterize the distribution, phylogenetic relationships, and adaptations important to microbial communities within NO3− enriched sediment.” Find the paper and full list of authors at FEMS Microbiology Letters.
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‘Workforce Ecosystems and AI’
“Companies increasingly rely on an extended workforce (e.g., contractors, gig workers … and technologies such as algorithmic management and artificial intelligence) to achieve strategic goals and objectives. When we ask leaders to describe how they define their workforce today, they mention a diverse array of participants, beyond just full- and part-time employees, all contributing in various ways. … Our ongoing research on workforce ecosystems demonstrates that managing work across organizational boundaries with groups of interdependent actors in a variety of employment relationships creates new opportunities and risks for both workers and businesses.” Find the paper and full list of authors…