The Lawfare Podcast: Chris Inglis (Bryan Cunningham Interviewed)

Chris Inglis, former National Cyber Director in the White House, sat down for his first interview as a private citizen with David Kris, Lawfare contributor and former assistant attorney general for the National Security Division, and Bryan Cunningham, Lawfare contributor and executive director of the University of California, Irvine’s Cybersecurity Policy & Research Institute. They talked about a wide range of cyber topics, including the newly minted National Cyber Strategy, protection of critical infrastructure, cyber insurance, competition in the international front, and more.

Listen to the podcast: https://www.lawfareblog.com/lawfare-podcast-chris-inglis

UC Irvine alumni Paul and Jo Butterworth pledge $35.5 million to Donald Bren School

Record gift will support programs fostering ICS student success and achievement

“I was considering not going to the university unless I received financial aid, because I didn’t have any money. But when UCI came through with a package to help out, that made all the difference in the world,” says alumnus Paul Butterworth, shown here with his wife, Jo Butterworth, also a UCI graduate. “This is what inspired us to pledge support for students – so they can follow their dreams despite their financial situations.” Roland Lane
[Read more…]

Singh Talks ChatGPT and More on Popular Machine Learning Podcast

The TWIML AI Podcast, originally launched by Sam Charrington in 2016 as This Week in Machine Learning & AI, is a popular podcast highlighting the “top minds and ideas from the world of ML and AI to a broad and influential community of ML/AI researchers, data scientists, engineers, and tech-savvy business and IT leaders.” On Jan. 23, 2023, Charrington sat down with a faculty member of UC Irvine’s Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences (ICS) for a podcast titled, “AI Trends 2023: Natural Language Proc — ChatGPT, GPT-4 and Cutting Edge Research with Sameer Singh.”

[Read more…]

University of Colorado Boulder News: “ICS Alumna Leysia Palen recognized as rare ‘distinguished professor’ by CU system

Leysia Palen, professor in the Department of Computer Science and the founding chair of the Department of Information Science (2015-19), has been recognized as a distinguished professor, the highest recognition given by the University of Colorado system.

Since the award was established 45 years ago, only 136 professors have been recognized in this way across all four campuses.This rare distinction recognizes the three pillars of professorship: research, teaching and service. Palen said it was deeply meaningful to be awarded for all these dimensions she cares about.  

Read the full story on the University of Colorado Boulder website.

TechGuide: “Computer Science Degree Expert Advice with Aditi Majumder”

Aditi Majumder, UCI professor of computer science said, “Today computers are being used in every wake of life. Blue collar jobs are reducing while white collar ones that use computers are increasing. … the society is in need of a workforce that can build and sustain this infrastructure that keeps human life going today. Therefore, a bachelor’s in CS is in great demand today. … Programming and discrete mathematics are two key skills required in computer science.”

Read the full story at TechGuide.

UCI News: “An early warning system for future pandemics?” (Chen Li mentioned)

Can Twitter be used to detect pandemics before they take off?

To find out, researchers at UCI and UCLA are sifting through millions of tweets (and other data) from the months leading up to COVID-19’s big splash, looking for anomalies and patterns that would have provided an early warning of the virus.

Chen Li, a professor of computer science who’s leading the effort at UCI, likens the project to “weather forecasting, where advances in big data technologies and information analysis have resulted in better forecasts that are further out.” A pandemic early detection system could enable “faster responses in public health, medicine and government,” he says.

Read the full story on UCI News.

Daily Pilot: “UC Irvine tests new technology to help seniors during Thursday’s California ShakeOut” (Nalini Venkatasubramanian quoted)

The idea for “CareDEX” was born. The technology was developed by Nalini Venkatasubramanian, a professor of computer science at UC Irvine and Nikil Dutt, a Distinguished Professor of computer science, Sharad Mehrotra, a Chancellor’s Professor of computer science, Lisa Gibbs, a clinical professor of geriatrics [and chief, division of geriatrics and gerontology, family medicine] and geriatrics project scientists. “The idea was creating information preparedness, which allows us, senior care facilities, first responders, the government and other stakeholders to keep track of priorities and needs of the older adults. 

Read the full story on the Daily Pilot (may require a subscription).

UCI and BlackBerry Win NSF Convergence Accelerator Grant

The National Science Foundation has awarded $750,000 to a multidisciplinary team from the University of California, Irvine’s Cybersecurity Policy & Research Institute (CPRI), its Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences and BlackBerry to address the challenges around secure communications on public 5G networks.

The funds are being allocated under the NSF convergence accelerator program, which supports projects that tackle national problems.

[Read more…]

BBC: “The Computer Errors From Outer Space” (Sangeetha Abdu Jyothi quoted)

In early September 1859, the most intense geomagnetic storm ever recorded raged in the planet’s atmosphere. … If such an event were to occur in the future, it could theoretically damage power lines and internet cables across many regions, says Sangeetha Abdu Jyothi, [computer science assistant professor] at the University of California, Irvine. “There is also this risk of charged particles causing data corruption,” she adds. “Right now, the actual extent of damage, it’s very difficult to predict.” Daniel Whiteson, [physics and astronomy professor] also at the University of California, Irvine, agrees, adding that such an incident could potentially be “catastrophic” and that our understanding of the physics inside the Sun is not well-developed enough to allow us to be able to predict major solar ejections well in advance.

Read the full story on the BBC: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20221011-how-space-weather-causes-computer-errors