On University at Buffalo Week: Speeding up drug discovery will have many benefits.

Tom Grant, assistant professor in the Department of Structural Biology in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, looks into doing so.

Faculty Bio:

Thomas Grant is a structural biologist whose research focuses on developing innovative analytical methods to uncover the structure and dynamics of biological macromolecules.

Trained at the University at Buffalo, where he earned a BS in Mathematical Physics (2007) and a PhD in Structural and Computational Biology (2013), Grant’s research combines rigorous quantitative training with experimental expertise in X-ray crystallography, small-angle scattering, and X-ray free electron laser methodologies.

His work integrates advanced computational algorithm development with cutting-edge experimental tools to generate high-resolution structural models and time-resolved “molecular movies,” illuminating how proteins and nucleic acids function within the cell and informing rational drug design.

In 2025, he was awarded a $2.18 million grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health, to create a new artificial intelligence-powered tool that improves scientists’ understanding of how proteins move and change shape within the human body.

Transcript:

In the United States, it often takes 10 to 15 years to develop a new drug from its initial discovery to market approval. In my lab, we’re working on an artificial intelligence-driven project called SWAXSFold that we hope will dramatically speed up this process.

So let me explain what SWAXSFold is.

A few years ago, Google DeepMind released an algorithm called AlphaFold. It has had a major impact in biomedical research, winning the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. AlphaFold predicts 3D protein structures. By identifying these structures, scientists can target them with drugs that treat disease.

But the reality is that many proteins are dynamic. They move around and can have many different shapes – that’s how they function and operate. This limits AlphaFold’s usefulness for drug discovery.

That’s where our expertise in “SWAXS” comes in. SWAXS stands for small- and wide-angle X-ray scattering.

SWAXS uses X-rays to take snapshots of proteins as they move around and change shape. It can see the different conformations a protein adopts, which is exactly what AlphaFold can’t do. So we’re developing SWAXSFold to integrate SWAXS data directly into this structure prediction process.

As you can imagine, this requires intense computational resources.

Our team is utilizing New York State’s supercomputing facility, Empire AI, to train SWAXSFold with our database of nearly a half million protein structures.

As SWAXSFold learns from AI, it will give us unparalleled insight on how proteins change their shape, function and operate. In turn, this will improve our ability to predict protein structures and, thus, make it much easier and quicker to identify drug targets that treat everything from cancer to Alzheimer’s disease.

Read More:

[UBuffalo] - Researcher’s AI-powered drug discovery tool supported by Empire AI

On University at Buffalo Week: Can we use AI to help give those with motor neuron diseases their voices back?

Rohini Srihari, professor of computer science and engineering at the School of Engineering and Applied Science, looks to do so.

Faculty Bios:

Rohini Srihari is a scientist, educator and entrepreneur.

A professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University at Buffalo, Srihari’s research and teaching focuses on artificial intelligence for social good, conversational AI, deep learning in natural language processing and other fields.

Her work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity and other agencies. She has worked extensively with the U.S. government in developing innovative multilingual text mining solutions.

Srihari’s recent research focuses on advancing the state-of-the-art in socialbots capable of engaging in empathetic, interesting and purposeful conversations. This also involves building trustworthy socialbots for combating disinformation, assisting the disabled and other purposes.

She has published over 100 research papers in computer science journals and conference proceedings. Her Google Scholar h-index is 40. She is also the author of two U.S. patents, one on multilingual text mining.

She has served as Chief Data Scientist at PeaceTech Lab, a non-profit incubated within the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, DC. She has also founded and directed technology start-ups, focusing on “big data” analytics solutions for various markets. Two of these companies were subsequently acquired by large media analytics companies.

Srihari received her B. Math degree from the University of Waterloo (Canada) and her PhD in Computer Science from the University at Buffalo.

Transcript:

People with motor neuron diseases such as ALS and cerebral palsy often lose the ability to speak. When this happens, they use modified keyboards or eyegaze tracking systems to communicate. But to speak, they rely upon augmentative and alternative communication devices. The late physicist Stephen Hawking is an example. Typically, people can generate about five words per minute with these devices due to their reduced motor abilities.

This limits them to simple exchanges such as: “I need a glass of water.” But what these people really want is to engage in meaningful conversation.

We can help with artificial intelligence, specifically an area of AI research known as personalization of large language models.

Large language models are the same technology powering ChatGPT and other popular chatbots. To personalize them, the chatbot needs to know a lot about the user. It needs to know their own experiences. It needs to understand their personality. It possibly needs to recognize the gestures that they use when communicating.

Here’s how it works. The user is talking to someone, the other person says something, the chatbot listens to what they say, and the speech is transcribed into text that’s fed into our chatbot. The chatbot then generates three possible responses for the user. The user either selects one of those responses as, “this is what I want to say,” or they can override that and say, “no, this isn’t what I meant.” So the goal is, with minimal input from the user, to be able to generate much longer responses, but also allowing the user to steer the conversation.

We’re already testing this technology with people whose communication is limited by motor neuron diseases. And we’re running the AI models through powerful supercomputers. We’re hopeful this technology will soon be ready for widespread use, improving the lives of countless people.

On University at Buffalo Week: Finding ways to reduce AI’s energy consumption can be crucial.

Sambandamurthy Ganapathy, professor of physics, explores how the human brain may have an answer.

Faculty Bio:

Sambandamurthy Ganapathy is a physicist who studies nanoscale materials and devices and how they relate to cutting-edge phenomena like superconductivity and resistive switching.

His experimental research group, which uses advanced nanofabrication techniques, designs and develops devices smaller than one micrometer that can explore the fundamental, microscopic mechanisms that dictate physical properties.

Ganapathy’s research examines electron transport in semiconductors and other atomic layers under ultra-low temperatures, high magnetic fields and other extreme physical conditions. It also investigates metal-insulator transitions, neuromorphic computing and superconductor-insulator transitions.

This work strives to unlock hidden quantum phenomena in novel states of matter which manifest when subatomic particles interact.

Transcript:

There’s nothing in the world as efficient as the human brain. It can store and process enormous amounts of information while using very little energy. That’s why my team and I are working on computing systems designed to mimic how the brain works.

This approach is called neuromorphic computing. It’s been around since the 1980s, but it’s gaining new attention as artificial intelligence makes computing more complex — and far more energy-hungry.

Computers and brains are already surprisingly similar. Computers have billions of transistors that switch on and off. Brains have billions of neurons that either fire signals or stay silent.

But there’s a major difference. In the brain, memory and processing happen in the same place. In traditional computers, they’re separated, so data has to constantly move back and forth. That takes a lot of energy. Neuromorphic chips aim to solve this by placing memory and processing much closer together, like the brain.

That’s where my research comes in. My team studies materials with unique quantum properties that could form the foundation of these new chips.

Neuromorphic computers won’t recreate consciousness, but they may solve problems in more human-like ways — especially when information is incomplete or uncertain.

In the near future, they’ll likely be used for specialized tasks, like self-driving cars. So don’t expect neuromorphic chips to power your smartphone anytime soon.

On University at Buffalo Week: Inclusive design works to eliminate friction for everyone, but how do we achieve it?

Jordana Maisel, Director of Research for the Center for Inclusive Design and Environmental Access (IDEA Center) at the School of Architecture and Planning, looks into this.

Faculty Bio:

Jordana Maisel is director of the Research for the Center for Inclusive Design and Environmental Access (IDEA Center) at the University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning.

She is an expert in universal design and issues related to the impact of the built environment on individuals’ health, particularly for older adults and people who have disabilities.

An associate professor of urban and regional planning, Maisel also has led research in areas such as public transportation, street infrastructure, building design and accessible housing policy. A frequent theme of Maisel’s work is evaluating the impact of inclusive design implementation.

Transcript:

Ever tried to read a sign you couldn’t understand?

Find a restroom that didn’t meet your needs?

Navigate a space that just wasn’t built for you?

That moment of friction — that feeling of being left out — is what inclusive design works to eliminate.

Because design is power. It determines who feels welcome, who can participate, and who gets left out. Inclusive design (also known as universal design) uses that power to create spaces that work better for more people.

Many people think inclusive design is just grab bars or ramps. Those are important, but they’re actually accessibility features. Inclusive design goes further. It’s a design process that improves human performance, health and wellness, and social participation across age, ability, language, and culture.

Take, for example, the Pittsburgh International Airport, the first transportation facility in the U.S. to earn innovative solutions for universal design, or isUD, certification. Think of isUD as the inclusive design equivalent of the LEED program for sustainable buildings. Developed by our Center, isUD helps projects go beyond minimal code requirements and toward meaningful usability for everyone.

At the Pittsburgh airport that includes adult changing tables in restrooms, intuitive digital signage, and a play area designed for children of all ages and abilities.

For more than four decades, our multidisciplinary team has advanced research and real-world projects that make environments more responsive, resilient, and inclusive. Most recently, we’re investigating ways the built environment can better respond to a changing climate and how AI advances can mitigate access challenges.

The future is more diverse, more dynamic, and more complex. As our communities evolve, our spaces must evolve with them. That’s the work of inclusive design.

On University at Buffalo Week: What can we learn from embracing historically marginalized students on campuses?

Stephen Santa Ramirez, associate professor of higher education at the Graduate School of Education, explores this.

Faculty Bio:

Stephen Santa-Ramirez is an associate professor of higher education at the University at Buffalo Graduate School of Education.

His experiences in U.S. higher education and student affairs include work in multicultural and LGBT+ affairs, residential life and housing services, and migrant student services. In addition to UB, Santa-Ramirez has taught for the Philadelphia Freedom Schools, Michigan State University, the University of Texas at Arlington, and Arizona State University.

Santa-Ramirez’s personal and professional experiences in higher education – and identity as a scholar-practitioner-advocate – have played formative roles in the development of his research agenda, which centers on the lives and knowledge of historically marginalized and economically neglected students. Broadly, he investigates the historical, ideological, and structural inequities that impact Black, Latinx, Indigenous, migrant and other marginalized communities.

By employing critical, student-centered, and asset-based frameworks, he investigates campus racial climate, transitions and belongingness of first-generation students of color, college student activism and resistance, and the various ways race, ethnicity, im/migration status and policy inform the educational experiences of collegians who are undocumented.

In addition to authoring a host of book chapters, some of his published peer-reviewed articles can be located in The Review of Higher Education, The Journal of Higher Education, Journal of First-generation Student Success, Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, Journal of College Student Development, among others. Additionally, he was the 2023 special issue editor for New Directions for Higher Education titled “Equitable and Humanizing Research, Policy, and Practice With and For Undocumented Collegians in the United States.”

Santa-Ramirez is a 2024-2026 co-chair of the Latinx Network via ACPA-College Student Educators International, an associate editor for the College Student Affairs Journal (CSAJ), and is on the ASHE 2026 conference leadership team as a co-chair for local and community engagement.

Transcript:

Growing up in a mixed-status family, I saw early on how immigration policy creates very real inequities. Those experiences shape my work today, which centers on the lives, knowledge and resistance of historically marginalized and economically neglected students.

As an educator, I’ve worked with students who are citizens, international students and undocumented students. Over time, I began to notice how often higher education relies on one-size-fits-all approaches — and how those approaches miss the realities undocumented students navigate every day. Seeing that pushed me toward advocacy and a central idea in my research called UndocuJoy as Resistance. It’s about highlighting joy, community and brilliance as powerful responses to systems that too often deny hope. At a time when immigration policy remains uncertain, uplifting these stories really matters.

My research looks at how structural inequities shape campus climate, first-generation students’ transitions, and their sense of belonging.

Educators and institutional actors should consider the whole student – beyond the classroom – and design culturally affirming peer mentorship programs, implement policies addressing racial profiling, and ensure campus environments are inclusive of students’ cultural identities.

Ultimately, my scholarship aims to push institutions toward accountability while remaining grounded in the voices and needs of marginalized communities.

Training faculty and staff in culturally sustaining advising practices and supporting Latinx research agendas, as well as those of other marginalized groups, is crucial for promoting retention, and for fostering a sense of belonging.

Undocumented students are already part of our campuses and communities. When we take time to learn from their experiences — the hard parts and the joyful ones — we share the responsibility of support, instead of leaving students to carry it alone.

Monday

Stephen Santa Ramirez, associate professor of higher education at the Graduate School of Education, explores what we can learn from embracing historically marginalized students on campuses.

Tuesday

Jordana Maisel, Director of Research for the Center for Inclusive Design and Environmental Access (IDEA Center) at the School of Architecture and Planning, discusses inclusive design

Wednesday

Sambandamurthy Ganapathy, professor of physics, determines how studying the human brain may be the answer to make AI more energy efficient.

Thursday

Rohini Srihari, professor of computer science and engineering at the School of Engineering and Applied Science, looks to AI to give those with motor neuron diseases a voice.

Friday

Tom Grant, assistant professor in the Department of Structural Biology in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, examines how speeding up drug discovery will have many benefits.

Catch up with The Academic Minute from 6/8 - 6/12

Monday

Carol Ritter - Cedar Crest College
A Solution to a Frustrating Dilemma for Crime-Scene Investigators

Carol Ritter is a full-time senior instructor in Forensic Science Program in the Chemical, Physical, and Forensic Sciences Department at Cedar Crest College in Allentown, Pennsylvania, where she also serves as the assistant director of the college’s Joni Berner Expert Witness Training Center and Crime Scene Lab.

Ritter teaches undergraduate and graduate-level courses in pattern evidence, DNA analysis, forensic biology, bloodstain pattern reconstruction and crime scene reconstruction. She began her career in 1997 with the Pennsylvania State Police Crime Laboratory, analyzing controlled substances, sexual assault, homicide cases, and bloodstain patterns. Certified by the American Board of Criminalistics, Ritter has testified over 50 times at the state and federal levels. She previously served as technical coordinator for the PSP serology section, auditing state labs and training law enforcement personnel.

Tuesday

Francisco Polidoro, Jr. - University of Texas at Austin
NASA’s 1969-71 Design Process Offers a Road Map for Today’s Breakthrough Inventions

Francisco Polidoro Jr. is a professor of management at The University of Texas at Austin’s McCombs School of Business. Polidoro has taught courses on technology strategy, technology transfer in the global economy, general management and strategy, and special issues in strategic management. Before working at McCombs, he taught corporate strategy and special issues in strategy at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business.

Wednesday

Adrienne Rhodes - University of Iowa
How Companies Can Keep Their CFOs

Adrienne Rhodes is assistant professor of accounting and Rocca Fellow at the University of Iowa’s Tippie College of Business. She earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from New Mexico State University and her PhD from Penn State.

Thursday

Ross Hollett - Edith Cowan University
Cutting through Cravings in 15 Seconds

Ross Hollett is a psychological scientist whose work examines how media exposure shapes social attitudes, body image and health behaviours. Primarily using experimental methods, his research investigates how junk‑food, alcohol and public‑health advertisements influence cravings and consumption intentions in real time. He also collaborates across disciplines such as marketing and computer science to advance research on fashion imagery and body image outcomes in women.

Friday

John Yates - Scripps Research Institute
Detecting Alzheimer’s Disease Through Changes in Protein Shape

John R. Yates III is the John Lytton Young Professor in the Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology at The Scripps Research Institute. He received a B.A in Zoology and an M.S. in Chemistry from the University of Maine at Orono. He obtained his Ph.D. in Chemistry at the University of Virginia in the laboratory of Donald F. Hunt with a dissertation entitled Protein Sequencing by Tandem Mass Spectrometry. He performed postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Leroy E. Hood at California Institute of Technology. At the University of Washington, he obtained the rank of Associate Professor with tenure before moving to The Scripps Research Institute in LaJolla, CA. His research interests include development of integrated methods for tandem mass spectrometry analysis of protein mixtures, bioinformatics using mass spectrometry data, and biological studies involving proteomics.

The Academic Minute airs on the WAMC Northeast Public Radio network at 7:30 a.m. and 3:56 p.m. weekdays.

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Funding support comes from the American Association of Colleges and Universities:

John Yates, John Lytton Young Professor in the Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology at The Scripps Research Institute, discusses this question.

Faculty Bio:

John R. Yates III is the John Lytton Young Professor in the Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology at The Scripps Research Institute. He received a B.A in Zoology and an M.S. in Chemistry from the University of Maine at Orono. He obtained his Ph.D. in Chemistry at the University of Virginia in the laboratory of Donald F. Hunt with a dissertation entitled Protein Sequencing by Tandem Mass Spectrometry. He performed postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Leroy E. Hood at California Institute of Technology. At the University of Washington, he obtained the rank of Associate Professor with tenure before moving to The Scripps Research Institute in LaJolla, CA. His research interests include development of integrated methods for tandem mass spectrometry analysis of protein mixtures, bioinformatics using mass spectrometry data, and biological studies involving proteomics. He is the lead inventor of the SEQUEST software for correlating tandem mass spectrometry data to sequences in the database and developer of the shotgun proteomics technique for the analysis of protein mixtures. His laboratory has developed the use of proteomic techniques to analyze protein complexes, posttranslational modifications, organelles and quantitative analysis of protein expression for the discovery of new biology. He has received numerous awards such as the American Society for Mass Spectrometry (ASMS) research award, the Pehr Edman Award in Protein Chemistry, the ASMS Biemann Medal, the HUPO Distinguished Achievement Award in Proteomics, Herbert Sober Award from the ASBMB, and the Christian Anfinsen Award from The Protein Society, the 2015 ACS’s Analytical Chemistry award, 2015 The Ralph N. Adams Award in Bioanalytical Chemistry, the 2018 Thomson Medal from the International Mass Spectrometry Society, the 2019 John B. Fenn Distinguished Contribution to Mass Spectrometry award from the ASMS, the 2019 HUPO Award in Discovery, and the 2024 Pittsburgh Society Award in Analytical Chemistry. Dr. Yates served as an Associate Editor at Analytical Chemistry for 15 years and is currently the Editor in Chief at the Journal of Proteome Research.

Transcript:

Alzheimer’s disease is one of the most challenging medical problems today. By the time symptoms such as memory loss appear, damage in the brain has often been developing for years. That makes early detection one of the most important goals in Alzheimer’s research.
A key feature of the disease is protein misfolding. Proteins are the molecular machines that carry out most of the work in our cells. For them to function properly, they must fold into precise three-dimensional shapes. In Alzheimer’s disease, some proteins lose their correct shape—a problem called proteostasis dysregulation.
Our research asked a simple question: Could these structural changes in proteins be detected in the blood? If so, might they serve as early warning signs of Alzheimer’s disease?
To investigate this, we analyzed blood plasma samples from more than 500 individuals, including healthy volunteers, people with mild cognitive impairment, and patients diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Using mass spectrometry, we measured thousands of proteins at once and examined subtle structural changes in proteins circulating in the bloodstream.
We then applied machine learning to identify patterns in these protein structures associated with Alzheimer’s disease. From this analysis, we discovered a small group of proteins whose structural changes appear to signal disease progression.
In particular, peptides derived from three proteins—C1QA, clusterin, and apolipoprotein B—formed a diagnostic panel capable of distinguishing healthy individuals, people with early cognitive impairment, and those with Alzheimer’s disease with more than 80% accuracy.
This work suggests that structural changes in proteins circulating in the blood may serve as conformational biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease. Such tests could eventually help doctors detect the disease earlier, monitor its progression, and identify patients who may benefit most from emerging therapies.
Detecting Alzheimer’s earlier could mean treating it earlier—and improving outcomes for millions of people worldwide.

Do you have a junk food craving?

Ross Hollett, psychology lecturer at Edith Cowan University, says a brief message may be able to cut right through it.

Faculty Bio:

Ross Hollett is a psychological scientist whose work examines how media exposure shapes social attitudes, body image and health behaviours. Primarily using experimental methods, his research investigates how junk‑food, alcohol and public‑health advertisements influence cravings and consumption intentions in real time. He also collaborates across disciplines such as marketing and computer science to advance research on fashion imagery and body image outcomes in women.

Transcript:

From Netflix to social media, most of us are exposed to a steady stream of food advertising everyday. While concerns are often raised about the impact of junk food advertising, evidence about how these messages influence adults in the moment has been surprisingly mixed. My colleagues and I set out to better understand what actually happens in the minutes after people see different types of food advertisements.

We showed 505 adults a single short advertisement, either a typical junk food commercial or a public health message discouraging junk food, and immediately measured their cravings and intentions to eat junk food. We also examined whether responses differed between adults with a body mass index in the normal range and adults classified as overweight or living with obesity.

Across all groups, one finding was clear: seeing a single junk food advertisement did not increase immediate cravings or intentions to eat junk food, even when the ad featured foods people said they enjoyed. But the opposite was true for health focused messages. Anti junk food advertisements reduced cravings and reduced intentions to eat junk food across all BMI groups.

We also discovered that the length and framing of these health messages mattered. For adults in the normal BMI range, a brief 15 second anti junk food message was more effective than a 30 second version. For adults classified as overweight or living with obesity, messages that encouraged healthy alternatives worked better than messages that criticised junk food.

This suggests that short, positively framed health messages may offer a practical advantage: they cost less to air, can be shown more frequently, and may resonate with the very people who stand to benefit most.

As unhealthy food marketing continues to dominate our media environment, even small, well targeted moments of positive health messaging may help tip the balance toward healthier choices.

Read More:

[Wiley] - Length and Framing of Anti-Junk Food Ads Impact Inclinations to Consume Junk Food Among Normal Weight, Overweight, and Adults With Obesity

Google Scholar

Adrienne Rhodes, assistant professor and Rocca Fellow in accounting at the Tippie College of Business at the University of Iowa, examines this question.

Faculty Bio:

Adrienne Rhodes is assistant professor of accounting and Rocca Fellow at the University of Iowa’s Tippie College of Business. She earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from New Mexico State University and her PhD from Penn State.

Transcript:

We’ve all heard about the mind-blowing pay packages public companies are giving their executives. They typically defend these practices by pointing to the difficulty in attracting and retaining executive talent, and there seems to be some credibility to this defense. In recent years chief financial officers, or CFOs, are stepping down in record numbers, and losing a key C-suite executive is costly for corporations. They take with them a raft of institutional knowledge and replacing them can be a long and costly endeavor.

The media has often speculated that high CFO turnover is due to their overwhelming responsibilities. In fact, the demands and scope of the CFO role have expanded in recent years. New regulations, put in place after a string of accounting scandals in the early 2000s, have increased the burden of financial reporting for CFOs. And in that same time, CFOs are increasingly expected to act as a strategic partner to the CEO; taking on responsibility for investor relations, cybersecurity, and other corporate risks.

In a recent study, my co-authors and I investigate what factors help firms retain their CFO and we look specifically at firms that delegate financial reporting to a Chief Accounting Officer. We find that when firms have a Chief Accounting Officer take the lead on financial reporting, they are nearly 20% less likely to have their CFO step down, greatly increasing the stability of firm leadership. Importantly, the benefits of a Chief Accounting Officer don’t only accrue to the firm. While CFOs who delegate accounting stay in their role longer, when they do depart, they are more likely to become a CEO themselves.

So when it comes to retaining executive talent, it’s not all about the money. Our study suggests that delegating financial reporting to a Chief Accounting Officer is a valuable resource to both the firm and the CFO.

Francisco Polidoro, Jr., professor of management at the University of Texas at Austin, looks at the design to learn more.

Faculty Bio:

Francisco Polidoro Jr. is a professor of management at The University of Texas at Austin’s McCombs School of Business. Polidoro has taught courses on technology strategy, technology transfer in the global economy, general management and strategy, and special issues in strategic management. Before working at McCombs, he taught corporate strategy and special issues in strategy at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business.

Polidoro has established himself as an esteemed researcher of strategic management, having won many international awards and honors for his work on technology strategy, technology and innovation management, entrepreneurship and innovation, social networks, and corporate venture capital. His research has appeared in the most prestigious management journals, including Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Administrative Science Quarterly, Organization Science, and Strategic Management Journal. In addition to being invited to speak in major international conferences in the field of strategic management, he has also been invited to present his research at numerous institutions in the U.S., Europe, and Asia, including Cornell University, Imperial College London, INSEAD, Johns Hopkins University, the London Business School, Seoul National University, Singapore National University, Stanford University, and the University of Pennsylvania.

Along with his academic interests in strategic management, Polidoro has an extensive history in the field of biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, as well as sociology in drug discovery and development. His expertise has been noted in research media such as Lab Manager, Pharmafile, and Big Think. Before his career in research and teaching, Polidoro gained extensive managerial experience in the automotive industry, where he worked for 13 years. During that time, he had several senior management positions at Mercedes-Benz and DaimlerChrysler and a variety of assignments in the U.S., China, Europe, and Latin America.

Polidoro received a Ph.D. in business administration from the University of Michigan. He also earned an MBA from Henley Business School in England, a postgraduate diploma in general management and industrial relations from Fundação Getulio Vargas in Brazil, and a diploma in French literature and civilization from the Université de Nancy II in France.

Transcript:

Today’s breakthrough inventions, such as the iPhone, blend interdependent features in unique ways to unleash tremendous value. But creating them is challenging. Improving one feature can worsen others, and it may not be feasible to explore all possible combinations. So, how does an organization design a complex product for which there is no template?

To gain insight into this question, we studied the creation of NASA’s space shuttle. The reusable spacecraft required integrating new solutions to many different features, such as fuel composition and payload capacity. We analyzed more than 7,000 pages from archives, including books, papers, and technical documents by NASA engineers.

We uncovered two interrelated processes that supported the creation of this breakthrough ––oscillation and accumulation:

• With oscillation, engineers focused on getting a specific feature and then stepped back from that solution to explore alternatives. They later returned to the initial solution with new insights. For example, in early iterations, they worked with liquid hydrogen and oxygen. Later, they reverted temporarily to an older fuel, kerosene, while they made progress on other features, such as payload capacity.

• With accumulation, they increased the number of features meeting expectations. For example, they gradually combined the fuel composition of early iterations with the desired payload capacity.

It sounds counterintuitive, but letting go of a solution for one feature creates the space for improving others. These insights can extend to many other settings, such as pharmaceuticals, in which creating breakthroughs requires masterful combination of interdependent features.

For example, a researcher might identify a new compound that targets a disease pathway but set it aside temporarily due to side effects. After resolving those issues, the researcher returns to the compound.

Raja Roy of the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Minyoung Kim of The Ohio State University, and Curba Morris Lampert of Florida International University also participated in this research.

Read More:

[ScienceDirect] - Creating a breakthrough invention: NASA’s internal knowledge generation for the Space Shuttle

Carol Ritter, senior instructor in the Forensic Science Program at Cedar Crest College, says a new method may help fix this problem.

Faculty Bio:

Carol Ritter is a full-time senior instructor in Forensic Science Program in the Chemical, Physical, and Forensic Sciences Department at Cedar Crest College in Allentown, Pennsylvania, where she also serves as the assistant director of the college’s Joni Berner Expert Witness Training Center and Crime Scene Lab.
Ritter teaches undergraduate and graduate-level courses in pattern evidence, DNA analysis, forensic biology, bloodstain pattern reconstruction and crime scene reconstruction. She began her career in 1997 with the Pennsylvania State Police Crime Laboratory, analyzing controlled substances, sexual assault, homicide cases, and bloodstain patterns. Certified by the American Board of Criminalistics, Ritter has testified over 50 times at the state and federal levels. She previously served as technical coordinator for the PSP serology section, auditing state labs and training law enforcement personnel.
Since joining the Berner Center, she as mentored students and taught courses in forensic pattern analysis, DNA analysis, and crime scene reconstruction. Her applied research focuses on bloodstain patterns, firearm-related patterns, and DNA analysis, bridging laboratory science with real-world forensic practice.
Cedar Crest College’s Joni Berner, Esq. ’75 Expert Witness Training Center and Crime Scene Lab provides real-world environments where first responders, legal professionals, and community partners can strengthen their skills in evidence preservation, courtroom testimony, and crime-scene investigation. The state-of-the-art facility features realistic spaces for training, practice, and collaboration, and has been designed to meet a critical justice-system need: preparing professionals to handle crime scenes and deliver courtroom testimony with confidence, accuracy, and integrity.

Transcript:

Anyone who has watched a crime-scene investigation on TV understands the importance of obtaining fingerprints and DNA when gathering evidence. What doesn’t often make it to the screen are some behind-the-scenes dilemmas about how to approach evidence containing both fingerprinting and DNA collection.

That’s because once fingerprint analysis is complete, DNA is typically collected from fingerprints by swabbing with water —but when Super Glue is used to enhance a print, the result is an excellent fingerprint, but DNA is trapped under the glue so swabbing with water often results in little to no DNA. In my lab, we are developing a chemical reagent that will help crime-scene investigators have it both ways – they would be able to perform a fingerprint and DNA comparison to help solve crimes more effectively.

DNA is considered to be the holy grail of crime-scene evidence. But that’s not always true--because, to have your DNA available in a database, usually you have to be charged with a felony. That’s not the case with fingerprints, which can be more widely available. Investigators usually get more hits or more understanding of who committed a crime based on a fingerprint database.

Our research explores a new method to cut through the glue with a reagent we’ve developed, enabling you to get a full DNA profile along with the fingerprint.

Choosing whether to collect DNA from a fingerprint or to just go for the print—and risk losing evidence during collection--represents a frustrating compromise for crime-scene investigators and labs. And it can limit the scope of an investigation.

As a forensic investigator, do you want to analyze the fingerprint or do you want to be able to do DNA analysis?

When our work is complete, investigators may no longer need to make that choice.

Read More:

Expert Witness Training Center

Cedar Crest Forensic Science Facebook

Carol Ritter, senior instructor in the Forensic Science Program at Cedar Crest College, says a new method may help fix a dilemma for crime scene investigators.

Tuesday

Francisco Polidoro, Jr., professor of management at the University of Texas at Austin, looks at past NASA designs for a roadmap to breakthroughs today.

Wednesday

Adrienne Rhodes, assistant professor and Rocca Fellow in accounting at the Tippie College of Business at the University of Iowa, examines the high turnover rate for CFOs and what to do about it.

Thursday

Ross Hollett, psychology lecturer at Edith Cowan University, says a brief advertisement may be able to cut right through junk food cravings.

Friday

John Yates, John Lytton Young Professor in the Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology at The Scripps Research Institute, discusses what protein shape can tell us about Alzheimer’s disease.

Catch up with The Academic Minute from 6/1 - 6/5

Monday

Marissa Bergh - New York University
How Housing Influences Nursing Home Moves

Marissa Bergh, BSN, RN, is a PhD student at NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing. Her research focuses how housing environments shape long-term care trajectories for older adults. Working as geriatric care nurse in New York City, she found her passion supporting older adults to age in their homes — regardless of if that home was a fourth-floor walk-up, a single-room occupancy unit, or a luxury high-rise. Recognizing the vast disparities within the healthcare system surrounding effective delivery of this care, she decided to pursue her doctorate degree at NYU to research how to improve the integration of housing services and long-term care.

Tuesday

Emiko Kranz - New York University
Discrimination Linked to Diminished Immune System Function

Emiko Kranz is a mixed Japanese American PhD student whose work draws on her background in cancer immunotherapy, ethnic studies, and community health science. As a PhD student at NYU’s School of Global Public Health, Kranz researches how discriminatory stress may impact immune health. With a particular interest in T cells, she aims to better understand how chronic discrimination can “wear down” our ability to fight off infections. Kranz is also interested in looking at how historical oppression has shaped neighborhoods, influencing the ways communities adapt to care for themselves and others.

Wednesday

Sewin Chan - New York University
Boomeranging Back to Parents Can Mean Moving Away From Opportunity

Sewin Chan is an economist whose research focuses on economic and financial risks faced by households as they interact with housing, labor and credit markets. She has studied mortgages and housing market risk, consumer credit behavior, pensions, work and retirement decisions, job loss, geographic mobility, and accessible housing.

Thursday

Joe Salvatore - New York University
Could You Match Inaugural Address Quotes to the Presidents Who Spoke Them?

Joe Salvatore is a Clinical Professor and Director of Educational Theatre at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, where he teaches courses in ethnodrama, verbatim performance, community-engaged theatre, and new play development, and co-leads the MA in Theatre for Social and Civic Engagement. He also serves as the Vice Chair for Academic Affairs for the Department of Music and Performing Arts Professions.

In 2017, Joe founded the Verbatim Performance Lab (VPL), which, under his direction, has created over 30 video and live performance projects exploring a range of political, cultural, and social topics and facilitated outreach and education programs throughout the United States. Current projects include an international research collaboration examining how interview-based verbatim performance interventions can disrupt discrimination in healthcare delivery; an ethnodrama exploring the impact of clergy sexual abuse on survivors’ spirituality and health; and an interview project examining perceptions of migration in the United States. Joe is the author of Creating Ethnodrama: A Theatrical Approach to Research (Guilford Press).

Friday

Christine Constantinople - New York University
How Animals Make Inferences

Christine Constantinople is an Assistant Professor in Neural Science at NYU. After obtaining a PhD in neurobiology from Columbia University, and postdoctoral research at the Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Dr. Constantinople joined NYU in 2019. Her lab studies the mechanisms by which neural circuits compute and represent cognitive variables for decision-making.

The Academic Minute airs on the WAMC Northeast Public Radio network at 7:30 a.m. and 3:56 p.m. weekdays.

It is also carried by:

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On New York University Week: How do animals make inferences?

Christine Constantinople, assistant professor of neural science, tests rats with juice rewards.

Faculty Bio:

Christine Constantinople is an Assistant Professor in Neural Science at NYU. After obtaining a PhD in neurobiology from Columbia University, and postdoctoral research at the Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Dr. Constantinople joined NYU in 2019. Her lab studies the mechanisms by which neural circuits compute and represent cognitive variables for decision-making.

Transcript:

To survive in a changing and unpredictable world, animals cannot simply react to stimuli they
encounter, but must make inferences that help them predict future outcomes, like when they
might encounter food or predators. This process is among the most important cognitive
operations that brains perform. To study how brains perform inference, we trained laboratory
rats on a task in which they revealed how much they valued different amounts of juice rewards
based on how long they were willing to wait for them. The task had hidden reward states with
different average rewards. In high reward states, rats were offered 3-5 drops of juice, and three
drops was disappointing. But in low reward states, rats could only expect 1-3 drops of juice, so
three drops was a big win. Indeed, rats waited less time for three drops in high versus low
reward states. We showed that rats inferred the reward state when deciding how long to wait:
for instance, they immediately changed their wait times following a single reward that revealed a state transition.
We trained hundreds of rats to perform this task using a high-throughput training facility
developed in my lab. The facility, which I call the “rat factory,” uses computers to train about 100rats per day. A major goal is statistical power and rigor.
We found that inactivating a part of the brain called the orbitofrontal cortex or OFC made rats worse at inferring the reward state. We used state-of-the-art silicon probe technology to record electrical signals from thousands of neurons in OFC, and identified neural correlates of single trial inferences. These results show that OFC supports inference based on prior knowledge, and lay the groundwork for figuring out how the OFC interacts with other brain regions to mechanistically implement inference.

On New York University Week: Think you can match inaugural address quotes to the presidents who spoke them? Think again.

Joe Salvatore, clinical professor and director of educational theatre, says it may be harder than you think.

Faculty Bio:

Joe Salvatore is a Clinical Professor and Director of Educational Theatre at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, where he teaches courses in ethnodrama, verbatim performance, community-engaged theatre, and new play development, and co-leads the MA in Theatre for Social and Civic Engagement. He also serves as the Vice Chair for Academic Affairs for the Department of Music and Performing Arts Professions.

In 2017, Joe founded the Verbatim Performance Lab (VPL), which, under his direction, has created over 30 video and live performance projects exploring a range of political, cultural, and social topics and facilitated outreach and education programs throughout the United States. Current projects include an international research collaboration examining how interview-based verbatim performance interventions can disrupt discrimination in healthcare delivery; an ethnodrama exploring the impact of clergy sexual abuse on survivors’ spirituality and health; and an interview project examining perceptions of migration in the United States. Joe is the author of Creating Ethnodrama: A Theatrical Approach to Research (Guilford Press)..

Transcript:

In the Verbatim Performance Lab, we ask actors to replicate the exact speech and gestural patterns of individuals in an original recording, such as a political speech or a public hearing, to investigate how the speaker’s gender, race and ethnicity might contribute to what a listener hears.

Our most recent experiment, The Inauguration Project, focused on how audiences engage with a president’s inauguration speech when the president’s identity is unknown. We took excerpts from five inaugurals since 1969 and had actors who are different-bodied than the presidents who delivered them perform them verbatim for an audience. We then invited the audience to guess which president was speaking. We conducted this performance experiment in New York City, Washington, DC, and Austin, Texas, with slight variations each time. One theme emerged: the decoupling of the president’s identity from the speech allowed the audience to hear the similarities between the presidents and their messages rather than their partisan differences.

One young woman remarked, with surprise, that she would have voted for Ronald Reagan based on a passage from his second inaugural address delivered by a young Black woman. When another audience heard the same excerpt performed by a mixed-race woman, 34% believed it was Joe Biden’s address. An excerpt from Bill Clinton’s second inaugural, delivered by a white woman, was attributed to George W. Bush by 42% of another audience. One audience member was slightly irritated at the similarities exposed by the anonymity, saying she listened to the speeches differently because they lacked the personalities behind them, which was precisely the point of the experiment.

When an audience hears an inaugural address in someone else’s voice and body, it prompts them to question why they perceive things the way they do. This critical engagement makes verbatim performance a powerful tool for understanding that *how* a message is delivered can be just as important as the message itself.

Read More:

Verbatim Performance Lab

On New York University Week: Boomeranging back to live with your parents may be necessary, but not helpful in the long term.

Sewin Chan, associate professor of public policy, explores why.

Faculty Bio:

Sewin Chan is an economist whose research focuses on economic and financial risks faced by households as they interact with housing, labor and credit markets. She has studied mortgages and housing market risk, consumer credit behavior, pensions, work and retirement decisions, job loss, geographic mobility, and accessible housing.

Transcript:

When young adults boomerang, or move back to their parents, we often think of millennials living in basements. To move beyond this stereotype and get a granular look at who these young adults actually are, my colleagues and I developed a new method to identify boomerangers.

We used the American Community Survey that’s conducted each year by the Census Bureau. By tapping into this enormous dataset, we could finally link personal demographics to the actual geography of where boomerangers are moving to.

What we found is that for young adults who’ve already left home, the option to boomerang acts like insurance. When there’s a major life event—like a job loss, a break-up, or a new baby—the parental home can serve as a vital safety net.

But as we dug into the geographic data, we found a troubling spatial trend. Usually, in a healthy economy, people move toward opportunity. If you lose your job in a struggling town, you head to a thriving city. But boomerangers often do the exact opposite. Because they’re moving back to their parents, their destination is determined by where Mom and Dad happen to live, and not by job prospects. We found that young adults are frequently staying in weaker labor markets, or moving away from higher-opportunity places towards weaker ones.

And the data shows this burden isn’t shared equally. Black and Hispanic young adults, and those from lower-income backgrounds, are much more likely to boomerang back to areas with higher unemployment and lower wages. Moving home might provide immediate help—like free housing or childcare—but it can also damage their longer-term career prospects.

By identifying these patterns, we’ve revealed another channel through which disadvantage can be passed down from one generation to the next.

Read More:

[Taylor & Francis Online] - Moving back: Spatial and demographic differences in boomeranging to parents

On New York University Week: Does discrimination affect our immune system?

Emiko Kranz, PhD student in the School of Global Public Health, says yes.

Faculty Bio:

Emiko Kranz is a mixed Japanese American PhD student whose work draws on her background in cancer immunotherapy, ethnic studies, and community health science. As a PhD student at NYU’s School of Global Public Health, Kranz researches how discriminatory stress may impact immune health. With a particular interest in T cells, she aims to better understand how chronic discrimination can “wear down” our ability to fight off infections. Kranz is also interested in looking at how historical oppression has shaped neighborhoods, influencing the ways communities adapt to care for themselves and others.

Transcript:

I grew up immersed in my grandparents’ storytelling; most memorably, my Granpa’s stories of what it was like growing up during World War II. He’d often describe life in “Camp”: when he, a 7-year-old U.S.-born citizen, was incarcerated along with over 120 thousand people of Japanese descent, due to what is now recognized as discriminatory wartime hysteria.
“It wasn’t bad,” he’d claim, because he held onto the Japanese value of gaman—to endure dire circumstances with dignity—but I always wondered how his body carried this gaman for the rest of his life.
Because my Granpa persevered, I get to be here today—talking about my research on how experiencing discrimination impacts health down to the molecular level. Many endure discrimination in subtle, “everyday” forms: maybe due to the color of our skin, who we love, or the faith that we hold. The frequency of this “everyday discrimination” has been linked to a variety of immune health outcomes; as such, our team sought to understand how everyday discrimination may impact immune cells in particular.
Specifically, we looked at two cell types: T cells and B cells, which are key to a swift and strong response to infections. In a sample of middle-aged adults, we found everyday discrimination was linked with higher amounts of what we call “exhausted” T and B cells, which can be less effective at protecting us against future health issues.
This gives important insight on how minute everyday interactions may become biologically embedded, potentially changing the course of our health outcomes. It also calls attention to the need for better systems of support to buffer discriminatory stress—perhaps to help us leave gaman in the past.

Read More:

[NYU] - Discrimination Linked to Diminished Immune System Function

[ScienceDirect] - Discrimination exposure and lymphocyte differentiation: Results from the health and retirement study

On New York University Week: How does housing affect which older adults go into a nursing home?

Marissa Bergh, PhD student at the Rory Meyers College of Nursing, takes a look at three ways.

Faculty Bio:

Marissa Bergh, BSN, RN, is a PhD student at NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing. Her research focuses how housing environments shape long-term care trajectories for older adults. Working as geriatric care nurse in New York City, she found her passion supporting older adults to age in their homes — regardless of if that home was a fourth-floor walk-up, a single-room occupancy unit, or a luxury high-rise. Recognizing the vast disparities within the healthcare system surrounding effective delivery of this care, she decided to pursue her doctorate degree at NYU to research how to improve the integration of housing services and long-term care.

Transcript:

The United States is grappling with an ongoing housing crisis that profoundly affects older adults. Today, 20% of older adults spend more than a third of their income on housing, and only 4% of U.S. housing units are considered age friendly. Without affordable, accessible housing, older adults may be unable to remain at home, making a nursing home move more likely.

To understand exactly what aspects of housing play a role in whether older adults end up in a nursing home, we synthesized nearly 25 years of research from a range of disciplines, including economics, sociology, and healthcare.

We found three key ways that housing shapes whether someone moves to a nursing home. First, housing costs and ownership status are key drivers of financial strain. Homeowners can leverage their home’s value to help fund community-based care, such as hiring a home health aide. Renters, by contrast, face far greater financial vulnerability: rising housing costs and limited affordable housing can price them out of their communities, making nursing home placement more likely. Second, as people age, their homes often can’t keep pace with their changing needs. When homes can’t be adapted to match declining mobility or memory issues, nursing homes may seem like the only safe alternative. Third, housing-related inequities compound risks for marginalized communities. Older adults in racially and socioeconomically marginalized communities disproportionately face housing challenges — including living in under-resourced neighborhoods, experiencing homelessness, and facing greater housing cost burdens — all of which increase their risk of nursing home placement.

Our review underscores that housing is a healthcare issue. Where someone lives shapes whether they can age in their community or move to a nursing home.

Read More:

[National Library of Medicine] - How Housing Influences Nursing Home Utilization in the United States: An Integrative Review

[McKnights] - When housing needs and skilled nursing demand intersect, where do real solutions live?

Monday

Melissa Bergh, PhD student at the Rory Meyers College of Nursing, takes a look at three ways housing can affect which older adults go into a nursing home.

Tuesday

Emiko Kranz, PhD student in the School of Global Public Health, says discrimination can affect our immune system health.

Wednesday

Sewin Chan, associate professor of public policy, explores how boomeranging back to live with your parents may be necessary, but not helpful in the long term.

Thursday

Joe Salvatore, clinical professor and director of educational theatre, says matching presidential inauguration quotes to those who spoke them may be harder than you think.

Friday

Christine Constantinople, assistant professor of neural science, tests rats with juice rewards to see how animals make inferences.

Catch up with The Academic Minute from 5/25 - 5/29

Monday

Beatrice Golomb - University of California San Diego
New Diagnostic Code for Gulf War Illness

Dr. Golomb is a Professor of Medicine at UC San Diego with over 15 years of experience treating veteran patients, including veterans with Gulf War Illness (GWI). She was the inaugural Scientific Director for the Congressionally directed Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses (RAC) and her research for RAND and with funding from the Department of Defense have expanded knowledge of exposure relations, mechanisms, markers and treatment for GWI. Dr. Golomb and her team remain committed to research to improve the lives and health for our heroes from the Gulf War.

Tuesday

Cole McFaul - Georgetown University
Pulling Back the Curtain on China’s Military-Civil Fusion

Cole McFaul is a Senior Research Analyst and an Andrew W. Marshall Fellow at Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET), where he mainly focuses on emerging technology competition in the Asia-Pacific and China’s science and technology ecosystem. Prior to joining CSET, Cole researched the political economy of China’s international engagement strategies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University. Cole holds a B.A. in Political Science and an M.A. in East Asian Studies from Stanford University.

Wednesday

Maria Steenland - University of Maryland
Stark Mortality Difference Between Pregnancy and Abortion

Dr. Steenland is an Assistant Professor in Family Science in the School of Public Health at the University of Maryland, College Park. She is a health services and health policy researcher focused on maternal and reproductive health policy in the United States. Her research uses

econometric methods to evaluate maternal and reproductive health programs and policies, with a particular focus on Medicaid policy. The overarching goal of her research is to identify policy options to increase the equity and quality of women’s health services. Her previous research

has examined the effect of Medicaid payment policies for immediate postpartum contraception, and expansions of Medicaid eligibility in pregnant and postpartum populations.

Thursday

Sriniwas Pandey - Binghamton University
Platform Recommendations and Diverse Opinions on Social Media

Pandey is a lecturer in the School of Computing at Binghamton University. He received his PhD degree in system science from Binghamton University. He holds bachelor's and master's degrees in computer science engineering from UTU India and IIITDMJ India, respectively. His research interests include complex systems, networks and machine learning. His research aims to comprehend the intricacies of eccentric behavior within society, focusing on identifying the underlying factors contributing to such behaviors and its impact on network dynamics.

Friday

Charlotte Hogg - Texas Christian University
What Sororities Can Tell Us About Belonging

Dr. Charlotte Hogg is a professor at Texas Christian University specializing in rhetoric and composition. She has authored, co-authored, or co-edited five books, most recently White Sororities and the Cultural Work of Belonging. Her work has also ap­peared in Inside Higher Education, The Washington Post, College English, Rhetoric Review, Peitho, and elsewhere. She teaches women’s rhetorics and literacies, creative nonfiction, and composition.

The Academic Minute airs on the WAMC Northeast Public Radio network at 7:30 a.m. and 3:56 p.m. weekdays.

It is also carried by:

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Funding support comes from the American Association of Colleges and Universities:

What can sororities teach us about belonging?

Charlotte Hogg, professor of rhetoric and composition at Texas Christian University, delves in the question.

Faculty Bio:

Dr. Charlotte Hogg is a professor at Texas Christian University specializing in rhetoric and composition. She has authored, co-authored, or co-edited five books, most recently White Sororities and the Cultural Work of Belonging. Her work has also ap­peared in Inside Higher Education, The Washington Post, College English, Rhetoric Review, Peitho, and elsewhere. She teaches women’s rhetorics and literacies, creative nonfiction, and composition.

Transcript:

What is it about sorority life that remains so appealing? Greek-life, even with its bad press, comprises roughly 10% of the college population nationally and as high as 50% on some campuses. I researched National Panhellenic Conference (aka historically-White) sorority life behind the highly curated recruitment videos to better understand what sorority systems can teach us about how subcultures enact belonging.

Belonging seeks to erase differences for insiders, leaving others as outsiders. This kind of ideological work is done rhetorically through creating a shared space of making meaning connected to cultural values. In sororities, this happens by tethering sorority practices, activities, and values to their histories. Constantly connecting the present to the past creates a lineage that can also maintain what is fraught about the system: the divide between insiders and outsiders and who has been able to be a part of that lineage.

Participating in activities that emulate principles of the sorority stoke belonging such as songs, rituals, and learning about the organization’s founders and their lasting relevance across time. Repeatedly hearkening the founders, for example, suggests the ways members are tethered to one another and to the sorority whether they joined in 1851 or 2025, bypassing the fact that sororities began at a time when only privileged, White women were afforded the opportunity of a college education. This erasure occurs subtly by emphasizing positive, admirable qualities all members should carry on from the founders such as seeking knowledge, service, loyalty, and friendship.

Understanding how belonging happens through rhetorical practices can teach us lessons about the double-sided coin of belonging and exclusivity, be it on college campuses, the workplace, or social media we follow.

What happens when platforms recommend opinions instead of users?

Sriniwas Pandey, lecturer at the School of Computing at Binghamton University, details this.

Faculty Bio:

Pandey is a lecturer in the School of Computing at Binghamton University. He received his PhD degree in system science from Binghamton University. He holds bachelor's and master's degrees in computer science engineering from UTU India and IIITDMJ India, respectively. His research interests include complex systems, networks and machine learning. His research aims to comprehend the intricacies of eccentric behavior within society, focusing on identifying the underlying factors contributing to such behaviors and its impact on network dynamics.

Transcript:

Although social media can serve as a civil digital meeting place, pockets of users with intense opinions that clash with others that have different views has become a common occurrence. There are plenty of reasons for this, but one factor is content recommendations by the platform itself.

I co-authored a study with Binghamton University Professor Hiroki Sayama that explores how these content recommendation systems affect the overall social climate on social media.

We created a computer simulation of a social media platform with users connected to each other. Each user had a default set of opinions. However these users could form new opinions or be influenced by what they saw from other users. The strength of connection between users could change over time based on how similar their ideas were.

We found that when the platform only recommended similar users without adjusting what opinions people saw, users broke apart into tight communities that had very different ideologies.

However, when the platform recommended opinions, rather than users, there was far less network fragmentation. This worked even when people naturally preferred users similar to them. This also led to more unusual or off-center opinions. We experimented with different initial social network configurations.

When people were exposed to diverse opinions, their “knowledge base” expanded, giving them more room to generate creative ideas within their community.

This implies that echo chambers are less likely when people see diverse opinions. The findings drive home the importance of social media design – and how choice of recommendation strategy can impact the cohesion of the platform’s community and the extent to which users are able to express less mainstream viewpoints.