September 25, 2019
Good Systems

Designing AI Technologies that Benefit Society

Artificial Intelligence (AI) improves our everyday lives. AI could end civilization as we know it. AI will create new jobs. AI will cause job losses. AI is revolutionizing transportation. AI causes aviation disasters. AI can help level the playing field in society. AI can exacerbate existing…
September 24, 2019
Good Systems

AI Is Tricky: An Interview with Tim Hwang

When people hear the term artificial intelligence or AI, there may be a tendency to think of the latest “Terminator” movie or fall for the hype of menacing machines controlling our existence and destroying humanity.
September 17, 2019
Whole Communities–Whole Health

The Heart of the Matter: Why Relationships Belong in Research

Relationship building. Sometimes this phrase seems trite, or as my mom would say: “¿con qué se come eso?” (“What do you eat that with?”) That was her shorthand for asking how something was useful or how it would solve a problem. Seldom do we talk about what drives creating, nurturing, and being in…
June 4, 2019
Planet Texas 2050

Field Notes: Something’s Happening to the Weather

I'm spending the night in the small town of Muleshoe, Texas, in the Llano Estacado, a region west of Lubbock and Amarillo. I’m interviewing farmers to hear how they talk about the environment where they live and work, the terms and phrases they use, the stories they tell.
February 14, 2019
Planet Texas 2050

Imagining Solutions-Driven Community Centers

We work at the Austin Community Design and Development Center (ACDDC), where our work focuses on affordable housing development and community initiatives that contribute to a healthy and equitable built environment. We want to emphasize the ‘community’ aspect of what we do, because we work…
February 14, 2019
Planet Texas 2050

Q/A: Fourth National Climate Assessment and Texas

Geology Professor Jay Banner, one of the authors of the federally mandated climate report released this past November, sat down with Spectrum News Austin’s Karina Kling to talk about what the climate and economic predictions mean for Texas and the southern U.S.
November 27, 2018
Whole Communities–Whole Health

Children Are Researchers, Too

“This is unhealthy food to eat. It has a lot of sodium.”
October 19, 2018
Planet Texas 2050

Can We Leave it All Behind?

There was once a town called Myous, on the coast of what is now Turkey. It was a Greek town near the mouth of the Maeander River, under the control of the much larger city Miletus. The ancient travel writer Pausanias tells us that an inlet of the Mediterranean initially gave it access to the sea…
October 18, 2018
Whole Communities–Whole Health

Making Research Useful in Real-Time

From the first moment I heard about Bridging Barriers, UT’s grand challenge initiative, I was excited. The UT Center for Health Communication is built on interdisciplinary partnerships across campus, and being part of a Bridging Barriers project would be another way to make important connections…
October 16, 2018
Whole Communities–Whole Health

Giving You the Whole Picture

How many people have heard about the 1,797 scientific studies that have examined the connection between home air quality and child breathing problems such as asthma? Has anyone read them all? I doubt any researcher has, much less the average parent who has a child with asthma — and yet parents are…