This I-Corps project will identify the commercial potential for using Bluetooth low energy (BLE) beacon technology to provide new and low-cost location-based services. A BLE beacon actively broadcasts Bluetooth signals, which can be received by nearby Bluetooth-enabled smartphones. Thus, mobile applications can leverage the beacons that are installed at different locations to detect people's…

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the U.S., with over 34,000 new HPV-related cancers diagnosed annually, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. An HPV vaccine, which was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2006, is recommended as part of routine vaccinations for school-aged children. However, the vaccine's…

This project will study diabetes dedicated social networks. It aims to harness diabetes patients' online social behaviors from multiple networks to predict their biomarker measurements such as glycated hemoglobin and fasting blood glucose. This project will provide a paradigm shift from exploration to prediction compared with state-of-the-art research on diabetes dedicated social networks,…

Securing cyberspace is one of the most significant challenges confronting our society today. This award to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) will build on the Illinois Cyber Security Scholars Program (ICSSP). The initial program recruited, prepared, and placed top-notch undergraduate level engineers into the government’s cybersecurity workforce. With this renewal, ICSSP…

Associate Professors Yang Wang and Yun Huang are spearheading a project in collaboration with experts from the University of California-Berkeley and Stanford University to help ensure emerging artificial intelligence (AI) development proceeds in a democratic manner that is mindful of underserved groups. PhD student Tanusree Sharma is also leading this initiative as a critical component of her…

One of the enduring attractions of books is their ability to stand witness to their own presence through time and space. A history of social interaction is marked on the pages of a book; a folded corner, a stain from a careless reader's cup of coffee, and a thoughtful comment in the margin accrue and transmit something of where the book has been, with whom, and under what circumstances.…

The U.S. scientific workforce is aging - the average age of both US academics and medical school faculty increased to the late 40s, from the early 40s in 1970. This aging is troubling because people are seen to make important scientific contributions early in their careers. Moreover, the U.S. is turning to innovation as an economic driver, and the aging of the population will both increase and…

With support from the Environmental Chemical Sciences Program of the NSF Division of Chemistry, the researchers will develop machine learning models to predict the reactivity of thousands of organic contaminants (OCs) in engineered (water) and natural (soil and sediment) environments. To assess and mitigate risks associated with this vast number of OCs, accurate predictive models are needed to…

This project will research the needs of professional data curators and blind patrons. In partnership with the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, Posit Public Benefit Corporation, the Chart2Music open-source project team, the Data Curation Network, and the National Federation of the Blind, JooYoung Seo will develop a multimodal data representation system. Through needs assessments…

Mapping Information Access is a collaborative academic research project to study and understand the landscape of information access and availability in public schools and libraries in the United States.

There are more than 18,000 public school districts and more than 9,000 public library systems in the US. Each of these institutions is as a central node of information access for the…