Companies are adopting AI, how it can echo biases and spread misinformation
Wael Abd Almageed was interviewed and discussed the danger of misinformation spread
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Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Media Coverage
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Robots Deployed to Fight Toxic Alage
Isabel Rayas and Christopher Denniston were interviewed about their work in the Robotics Embedded Systems Lab
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USC Invests $1 Billion in New Computing School to Teach Ethical AI Use
Dean Yortsos was interviewed about “Frontiers of Computing” and how “Computer science, data sciences and AI have become essentially an extension of the original fundamentals.”
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How AI will change the workplace
Jon Gratch shared his research on how interacting with an AI changes human behavior
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USC Wants to Prepare Students for the Future of AI
Cyrus Shahabi was interviewed about how AI can address LA’s problems and the Frontiers of Computing Initiative
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University of Southern California Launches $1 Billion Advanced Computing Initiative
Forbes highlighted FOC and quoted Dean Yortsos saying “The world needs engineers and computer scientists to solve the grand challenges we face.”
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USC launches $1B-plus initiative in advanced computing
Viterbi to create a School of Advanced Computing and rename the Computer Science Department for benefactor Thomas Lord
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For Earth Day, Faculty Talk Sustainability Research on “Academic Minute”
Research by Bistra Dilkina, Thomas Petersen and Essam Heggy was featured.
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Maja Matarić Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Expert in socially assistive robotics joins leaders selected from academia, the arts, industry, policy, research, and science
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ChatGPT Email Scams
Wired published a piece by Barath Raghavan and a colleague
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How to Tell If a Photo Is an AI-Generated Fake
Wael Abd Almageed spoke to SA about the state of detection for AI generated images
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USC Launches AI Research Center
This article mentions that Bill Swartout will co-lead the new Center on Generative AI.
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Venmo users on discovering secrets on the app
A study conducted by experts at USC found that two in five Venmo users publicly revealed sensitive information
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Computer Science Student Named 2023 Apple Scholar in AI/ML
Published on March 8th, 2023Last updated on March 8th, 2023
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ChatGPT and Essays
Swabha Swayamdipta discussed the status of large language models.
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The Indian Researchers Whose Work Led To The Creation Of ChatGPT
The article mentions USC Viterbi computer science alumni, Ashish Vaswani and Niki Parmar, are key contributors to the research that led to ChatGPT
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Twitter ditches free access to data
Kristina Lerman was interviewed about the effects of Twitter API change on scientific research
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ChatGPT is great – you’re just using it wrong
Jonathan May contributed a piece on possible uses of ChatGPT
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Signal Processing Comes to the Senses
A haptic texture detection method developed by computer science doctoral student Shihan Lu, advised by Heather Culbertson, is featured in IEEE.
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AI tools can create new images, but who is the real artist
Wael Abd-Almageed commenting on A.I. generated art and other content.
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We Could Run Out of Data To Train AI Language Programs
Swabha Swayamdipta, an assistant professor of computer science, discusses ways to overcome data constraints for large language models.
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The Computer Scientist Who Finds Life Lessons in Games
Quanta interviews Shang-Hua Teng, a USC computer science professor who has twice won the Gödel Prize, a top honor in theoretical computer science, but often explores playful applications, like board games.
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These AI images look just like me.
Wael Abd Almageed was quoted about the future of deepfakes
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Does Your Middle-Class Tax Refund Debit Card Have a $0 Balance?
Cybersecurity expert Cliff Neuman was interviewed about how cards might be compromised
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Is ChatGPT a marvel or a farce?
Jesse Thomason was interviewed about the significance of ChatbotGPT
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Today’s interactive Google Doodle honors Jerry Lawson, a pioneer of modern gaming
The story mentions the USC Games’ Gerald A. Lawson Fund that was set up at USC Games to support the next generation of gamers
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Forget Spotify Wrapped, here’s how to make your own Spotify festival lineup
Computer Science student Anshay Saboo was featured in various outlets after launching his app Instafest, that went viral.
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Using AI to study 12 years of representation in TV
The latest report from Google, the USC SAIL Lab and Geena Davis Institute on media representation was highlighted.
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Dark Patterns
Cliff Neuman was interviewed about dark patterns and what consumers could do to protect themselves against online marketing practices.
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Designing Better Voting Systems, With a Little Help From the Animal World
Taking a cue from the animal world, USC researchers discovered a simple voting rule that optimally reflects voters’ opinions about candidates. Lead author Fatih Kizilkaya, a computer science doctoral student, discusses the IJCAI Distinguished Paper Award-winning work.
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Our Own Devices with Nandagopal Rajan
Jon May was featured in a podcast focused on developing tools for more civil online communication
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Amazon and USC name three new ML Fellows
PhD students will receive fellowship funding and be mentored by Amazon scientists.
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Homophobia Is Easy To Encode in AI
Research by Katy Felkner to mitigate AI bias towards the LGBTQ+ community was highlighted
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Student information remains at risk after massive cyberattack on Los Angeles Unified
Cliff Neuman was quoted on about a recent LAUSD cyber attack and why the district was targeted
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These robot engineers are inspired by cats (and dogs)
The labs of Francisco Valero-Cuevas and Quan Nguyen were featured in on “Techfor Good” segment on robots and biomimcry
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Privacy Phone Network Intended to Mask Your Identity
A startup by Barath Raghavan and Paul Schmitt was featured.
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Busting homophobic, anti-queer bias in AI language models
AI research by doctoral student Katy Felkner was highlighted.
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Disneyland Instagram Hacked
Cliff Neuman explains how the Disneyland hack may have occurred.
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Luminaries – Maja Matarić, Computer Scientist, Roboticist, AI Researcher
Professor Matarić is one of 6 scientists and engineers featured by Amazon in its MARS “Luminaries” series. Matarić is featured for her work in the field of socially assistive robotics.
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USC Games Expo 2022 to Feature World Premieres of Over 50 Student-Made Games
The upcoming USC Games Expo was featured
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Are your finances exposed? 2 in 5 Venmo users publicly reveal sensitive information
A study about personal information exposed on Venmo was featured
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USC scholarship aims to help Black, Indigenous workers enter games industry
The USC Games Gerald A. Lawson Endowment Fund for Black and Indigenous students was highlighted; The forthcoming Games Expo was highlighted.
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Ancient art meets AI for better materials design
Inspired by a type of origami, Viterbi researchers apply autonomous reinforcement learning to develop materials for wearable electronics.
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Extinct Ice Age Animals Will Be Digitally Resurrected In the Metaverse
A collaboration among the La Brea Tar Pits, NHLA and USC to apply AR as educational tools was highlighted.
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Cyberthreats from Russia
Cliff Neuman was interviewed about how the challenges of cyberwarfare and cyber defense
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USC Viterbi Launches Center for Autonomy and AI
New research Center led Rahul Jain and Jyo Deshmukh was highlighted
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21 Questions with Cheyenne Gaima
Day in the Life of a Skateboarder, Piercer, Poet and Coder
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Dream Machine
Maja Matarić discusses how robots can be used in school to increase social interaction and engagement.
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Our Future Robot Companions
Maja Matarić gave a virtual talk at the National Academy of Sciences Science & Entertainment Exchange
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USC Expands AI Education With New Research Center, Amazon Partnership
DotLA covered two pieces of Viterbi news this week, Dean Yortsos was interviewed adding, “some sort of a digital literacy will become as important as other general education requirements”
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Maybe Green Energy Needs Information Batteries Too
New research by Barath Raghavan was featured
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Can You Express Your Feelings Through A Haptic Armband, Just Like A Hug?
Professor Culbertson’s research on virtual touch was featured.
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New Synthetic AI Data May Improve Brain-Computer Interfaces
Research by Laurent Itti that applies the same method that is used to create deep fakes for the benefit of brain- machine interfaces for individuals with disabilities, was featured
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CIFellowships Support Post-Doctoral Research
Emmanuel Johnson and Jasmine Berry have received 2021 Computing Innovation (CI) Fellowships, which help recent and soon-to-be Ph.D. graduates launch their careers in uncertain economic times.
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“We are still here”
The Washington Post wrote about CS PhD student Lina Brixey’s efforts to use computer science to preserve the Choctaw language.
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Behavioral health AI predicts effectiveness of talk therapy
Research by the SAIL lab was featured
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More Than Words – Lina Brixey Uses AI to Preserve the Choctaw Language
Every two weeks a language dies. Lina Brixey, a member of the Choctaw Nation and a USC Viterbi Ph.D. candidate, is determined hers will not be next.
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Geena Davis Institute Expands Spellcheck for Bias Partnership with NBCU to Analyze Black and AAPI Representation
The SAIL Lab was mentioned for its collaboration with GDI to identify bias in movie scripts via development of Spellcheck for Bias
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Are women worse than men at salary negotiation?
USC researchers say this is a fallacy as their new study points to systemic bias on behalf of recruiters in salary negotiations.
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Researchers have begun to study the use of AI to help firefighters strategize controlled burns
Dot.LA featured research that Yolanda Gil, Bistra Dilkina and Michael Pazzani will work on with the San Diego Supercomputer Center to fight wildfires
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USC Computer Science Students Place Second in Capital One College Bowl Championship
After 10 weeks of competition, a USC team, including two computer science students, finished second to a trio from Columbia University in the final showdown.
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Racism and Automated Decision-Making
An opinion piece cited research by Aleksandra Korolova that concluded that Facebook served different ads to men and women
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A simple software fix could limit location data sharing
Research by Barath Raghavan regarding limiting location data sharing was featured
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Is DeepMind’s new reinforcement learning system a step toward general AI?
VentureBeat quoted Saty Raghavachary on scientists who claim to be able to train an AI system to play games without human interaction data.
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Microsoft Contributes to Gerald A. Lawson Fund
Microsoft’s X-Box Studios announced today that it will make a significant contribution to USC Games’ Gerald A. Lawson Endowment Fund for Black and Indigenous Students.
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IKEA furniture instructions just got easier, thanks to this robot
Research by Stefanos Nikolaidis and the ICARUS lab was featured.
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Computer Science Professor Wins ‘Test of Time’ Award for Influential Paper
Shang-Hua Teng co-authored a paper on smoothed analysis of algorithms, which offers a more realistic comprehension of algorithmic performance.
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Researchers create artificial intelligence to ‘imagine’ unseen objects
A research team at the University of Southern California has developed a new artificial intelligence system that uses human-like abilities to imagine never-before-seen objects.
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Robots suck at chopping stuff, but this research could change that
Researchers from NVIDIA and USC teamed up to make a simulation engine that could help autonomous robots with their cutting ability.
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Why Scientists Love Making Robots Build Ikea Furniture
Wired featured research by Stefanos Nikolaidis’a ICAROA lab that trains robots to build Ikea furniture.
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USC Study: Political Discourse on Twitter Helped Predict COVID-19 Outbreak Sites
KNBC-TV featured research by Kristina Lerman that linked political discourse on Twitter to future COVID-19 outbreaks.
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USC’s Pandemic-Tested 2020, 2021 Classes Graduate In Person
Radhika Agrawal, a 2021 graduate with a degree in computer engineering and computer science, was interviewed for participating in the In-person ceremony.
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San Antonio Native Unveils New Video Game Inspired by Latino Heritage
2021 CS graduate Sterling Rios was interviewed about a brand new video game he co-developed which was inspired by his indigenous Latino heritage.
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A Conversation with LA’s Head of IT
The City’s use of machine learning to automatically spot graffiti –a tool developed by IMSC–was featured .
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USC to Build New Computer Science Hub
Los Angeles Business Journal interviewed Dean Yortsos regarding the new computer science building
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Meet A Robotics Engineer
Stefanos Nikolaidis was featured on the CBS STEAM series for developing robotics for people who have disabilities
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Facebook Algorithm Shows Gender Bias in Job Ads, Study Finds
The Wall Street Journal featured research by Aleksandra Korolova and John Heidemann, along with doctoral student, Basileal Imana, on how Facebook serves different job ads to men and women.
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A Totally Bananas Idea? Planting Tropical Fruit Trees To Help Fight CA Wildfires
Barath Raghavan’s work in computational agroecology to fight CA wildfires was featured
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While text-generating AI can write like humans, it lacks common sense
AI software may be able to generate text that is grammatically correct and very human-like, but when it comes to common sense they’re still lagging severely behind us humans.
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2020 ACM Fellows Recognized for Work that Underpins Today’s Computing Innovations
Maja Matarić, Sven Koenig and Mike Zyda were recognized for “innovations that ushered in significant improvements across many areas of technology, industry and personal life”
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Tracking LA County’s COVID-19 Cases
Cyrus Shahabi was interviewed about California’s new contact tracing app.
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What Makes People Abuse Robots
Maja Matarić was quoted as to why people may mistreat robots.
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Tracking Viral Misinformation About the 2020 Election
Research by Emilio Ferrara found that during the 2020 Election season 13 percent of all accounts tweeting about conspiracy theories were automated.
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The next-generation bots interfering with the US election
Research by Emilio Ferrara on how bots were influencing discussions around the upcoming election was featured.
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Study identifies thousands of Twitter bots amplifying conspiracy theories ahead of the U.S. elections
Research by Emilio Ferrara on how bots are once again influencing discussions around the 2020 election was featured
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When AI is the Opposite of Sinister
STAT quoted Yolanda Gil on a new award that recognizes the positive impact of artificial intelligence.
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Digital Contact Tracing Stalls Out Nationwide
Pasadena Star-News quoted Cyrus Shahabi regarding the concerns around contact tracing apps.
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Wildfire-weary Californians, ‘tired of this being normal”
CNN featured Bistra Dilkina on how people may consider moving due to the impacts of climate change.
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Election 2020 Chatter on Twitter Busy with Bots and Conspiracy Theorists
New USC study finds that automated accounts and foreign interference are infesting social media conversations about the upcoming election.
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Alexander Spangher Wins Bloomberg Data Science PhD Fellowship
Spangher, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Computer Science at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, will use the fellowship to further his work in NLP and computational journalism.
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LA arson fires increasing amid COVID-19 pandemic
KABC-TV featured research by Crosstown, a collaboration between Viterbi and Annenberg, which found that arson fires in Los Angeles are on the rise.
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School district halts distance learning after ransomware attack
KTTV-TV interviewed Cliff Neuman regarding a ransomware attack affected a school district.
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Wildfire-weary Californians, ‘tired of this being normal,’ consider uprooting their lives
Computer Science Professor Bistra Dilkina, who has modeled migration patterns from sea-level rise, discusses climate-driven pressures as wildfires devastate the West Coast.
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AI Tool Can Plan Collision-Free Paths for 1,000 Warehouse Robots
USC computer science researchers and Amazon Robotics explored a solution to the problem of lifelong multi-agent path finding (MAPF), where a team of agents must be moved to constantly changing goal locations without collisions.
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Human Moderators Can’t Stop Online Hate Speech Alone. We Need Bots to Help
USC computer scientists developed a text classifier, which takes social media posts and predicts whether the text contains hate speech by looking at context as well as content.
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How AI can empower communities and strengthen democracy
Viterbi AI research that tries to help individuals who are homeless as well as robots to identify problems in infrastructure were featured
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The day the traffic died in Los Angeles
Researchers at USC’s Integrated Media Systems Center (IMSC), including Cyrus Shahabi, IMSC director and computer science professor, worked in partnership with Crosstown, a nonprofit news organization, to examine vehicle volume data across Los Angeles during the COVID-19 shutdown.
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AthenaHacks 2020
AthenaHacks was founded in 2016 by a group of USC seniors, led by computer science student Kelly Lampotang, with the idea of creating a friendly hackathon event to inspire more women coders and engineers to work together.
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Digital Contract Tracing to Contain the Coronavirus
As more places across California start to reopen, contact tracing is set to play a crucial role in containing the spread of the coronavirus. Cyrus Shahabi, USC computer science professor, discusses how much of the work could be done through digital contact tracing and how it would work. (Listen ~00:19).
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The World According to Namita
Namita Prakash is computer science major with a screenwriter minor