People want to maintain a sense of agency and control over how their personal digital data is handled after they die, according to new research from UBC computer scientists. As more and more of our daily lives intersect with digital spaces, the issue will become more pressing.
UBC leads development of promising treatment for COVID-19 variants
The new anti-viral drug could improve COVID-19 survival rates — and is highly effective against multiple variants — according to a new study by microbiologists at UBC and Université de Sherbrooke.
Baking AI ethical statements into research
The 2021 AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence introduced a policy asking authors to write an ethical statement on the impact of their work. The policy was spearheaded by UBC computer scientist Dr. Kevin Leyton-Brown: “These policies help put ethics on the agenda for everybody.”
Aerosols have three liquid phases
UBC chemists have discovered three liquid phases in aerosol particles, changing our understanding of air pollutants in Earth’s atmosphere. This information could lead to better predictions of air quality and improved atmospheric modelling.
Exciting Entomology
Discover UBC’s vast entomological collection and learn about the incredible diversity of insects. June 6, 2021
UBC Book Club The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks tackles the intersection of race, science and society—read and discuss. May 2021
Ethical Indigenous AI
Indigenous scholars discuss developing Hua Ki’i. The object recognition app translates images into Indigenous languages. Video
Will we be able to tell if we're talking to a robot?
While voice user interfaces such as Siri and Alexa are common nowadays, designers are trying to make their conversations even more natural. UBC researchers explain how we can design interfaces that ‘talk’ better.
How a knee injury led to a career
After Iyad Salloum (BSc ‘14, MPT ‘16) injured his knee in first year, the care and reassurance he received at UBC inspired him to become a physiotherapist. During his undergrad, he focused his studies on physiology and neuroscience, which are the bedrock of his practice.
Helping students find the right path
Maisie Morsara (BSc '06) talks about her journey from biochemistry to becoming an academic advisor. “There are a lot of external factors influencing students,” she says. “Sometimes they’re not really listening to what their heart wants.”
Notes
UBC computer science graduate Taus Noor (BSc '20) was named a top young entrepreneur in the 2021 Forbes Asia 30 under 30.
Chemist Dr. Russ Algar is the recipient of UBC’s Charles A McDowell award, which recognizes excellence in pure or applied research by a young faculty member.
UBC mathematician Dr. Ailana Fraser has been awarded the 2021 CMS Cathleen Synge Morawetz Prize for her work on geometric calculus of variations, conformal geometry, and partial differential equations.
UBC Science alumna Larissa Chiu (BSc '21) has won an inaugural McCall MacBain scholarship for a fully funded master’s or professional degree at McGill.
UBC chemists and VGH researchers were part of a team recognized with an BMO Capital Markets Innovators’ Challenge award for their work creating an inexpensive opioid detector.
Key component of COVID-19 vaccine developed at UBC
Acuitas Therapeutics, a UBC spin-off co-founded by biochemist Dr. Pieter Cullis, developed the technology that allows the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccine to enter human cells. Dr. Cullis hopes to use this same technology, which delivers messenger RNA to targeted cells, to treat other diseases.
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