For decades, colleges, government agencies and foundations have experimented with recruitment and retention efforts designed to increase diversity in engineering programs. However, the efforts have not significantly boosted the number of women, students of color, individuals with disabilities and other underrepresented groups studying and earning degrees in STEM and engineering fields. Latino, Black, Native American and Alaska Native students are […] … learn more→

How much do you engage with others when you’re out in public? Lots of people don’t actually engage with others much at all. Think of commuters on public transportation staring down at their phones with earbuds firmly in place. As a professor of social psychology, I see similar trends on my university campus, where students often […] … learn more→

I’ve been a relatively slow-adopter of the genAI movement in academia. For a while now I’ve been under the (misguided?) perception that if I used genAI in any way to conduct my research, I would somehow be cheating or proving to myself that all-too-common intrusive thought that maybe, just maybe, I’m not as good at […] … learn more→

The film “Plan 75” presents a dystopia about a hypothetical Japanese government proposal that would allow those over 75 to end their lives with “logistical and financial” support, thereby reversing the aging of the population. The elderly are seen as a useless burden . Ageism is discrimination based on age. The term was coined by American gerontologist Robert Butler in 1969. No one […] … learn more→

Children and teenagers of any age who sip or taste alcohol with their parents’ permission are more likely to engage in risky drinking in young adulthood. That was the finding of a new study my colleagues and I published in the journal Addictive Behaviors. In the study, we examined questionnaires filled out annually between 2009 and 2018 […] … learn more→

Those who think that the initial exclamation mark ( ¡ ) is a prerogative of the Spanish language are mistaken. In 1668, John Wilkins suggested using that same mark to mark any statement that should not be interpreted literally, which, in short, he defined as the punctuation mark of irony . It may seem paradoxical that two centuries later, […] … learn more→

We are witnessing a progressive growth of artificial intelligence (AI). Actually, what has grown and been massively deployed since November 2022 is one of its branches: generative AI (GenAI) . This artificial intelligence is capable of generating text, images, and videos, adapted to the format and purpose we desire. For example, texts to promote products on social […] … learn more→

It’s nearly impossible to use the internet without being asked about cookies. A typical pop-up will offer to either “accept all” or “reject all”. Sometimes, there may be a third option, or a link to further tweak your preferences. These pop-ups and banners are distracting, and your first reaction is likely to get them out […] … learn more→

Every new tool we humans invent is born with the intention of fulfilling a specific need. But all tools have the potential to end up producing the opposite effect to the one intended when used excessively. This is what the philosopher Marshall McLuhan called the ” Law of Reversal ,” according to which any human tool or tool, when […] … learn more→

Science fiction has already flirted with an idea as disturbing as it is fascinating: the possibility of sharing thoughts and emotions. For example, in X-Men , Professor Charles Xavier uses his ” Cerebro ” machine to detect mutants all over the planet and speak to them telepathically. And in Avatar , the Na’vi connect with Eywa (something similar to a collective consciousness) through […] … learn more→