Cybersecurity

UC Noyce Initiative-funded researcher Gene Tsudik was recently (April 11) awarded a 2024 Guggenheim Fellowship. He joins 186 other American and Canadian scientists and scholars receiving this highly competitive honor this year.

Tsudik is a Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at UC Irvine. His research interests include many topics in computer security, privacy and applied cryptography. Some of his recent work is focused on security (especially, malware-resistance) for the burgeoning global ecosystem of so-called Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices.

UC Noyce Initiative researcher Chen-Nee Chuah was recently (April 18) selected to be a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, or AAAS, the world's largest multidisciplinary scientific society. The prestigious honor is a lifetime achievement and is reserved for researchers who have made significant advancements to science or its applications.

A few years ago, UC Noyce Initiative researcher and UC Berkeley public health scholar Ziad Obermeyer found that an algorithm that affected health care for millions of patients routinely gave wealthier, white patients better access to care for chronic conditions compared to sicker, less affluent Black patients. 

In honor of International Women’s Day on March 8, the University of California, Davis, College of Engineering recognized some key female engineers  in recognition for how they inspire inclusion in engineering. Among those recognized were two researchers from the UC Noyce Initiative: Child Family Professor in Engineering Chen-Nee Chuah and Associate Professor Marina Radulaski.

The following are excerpts from the Q&A featuring Chuah and Radulaski:

Two UC Noyce Initiative researchers are co-authors of a recently published a collaborative study investigating the extent to which interactions with smart speakers, like Amazon's Echo devices, are being used for ad targeting.

In mid-2022, Instagram began asking an assortment of its users to complete a survey about their race, ethnicity and gender. By the end of the year, a huge number of people had filled out the survey, which was part of a new effort to ensure that the social media platform was fair and inclusive.

Behind the scenes, Professor Dawn Song, PhD, an expert in computer security and privacy, was helping ensure that the sensitive data was staying safe while still enabling researchers to analyze it.

On May 4, 2023 the U.S. National Science Foundation announced it will be making a $140 million investment to establish seven new National Artificial Intelligence Research Institutes; one of institutes will include the involvement of three UC Noyce Initiative funded researchers.

Online life has become increasingly mediated by Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Nearly 70% of all videos watched on YouTube are recommended by its AI algorithm, and that number is even higher on social media services like Instagram and TikTok. Though these AI algorithms can help users find content that’s interesting to them, they raise serious privacy concerns and there is growing evidence that people are being radicalized by some of the recommended content they consume online.