News

Tulane to use artificial intelligence to study how nation’s schools are responding to coronavirus

The U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences has awarded the National Center for Research on Education Access and Choice (REACH) at Tulane University a $100,000 contract to collect data from approximately 150,000 school websites across the country to see how the nation’s education system is responding to the coronavirus pandemic.

Go spy a kite: a good quarantine hobby, expert says

While everyone is still isolating, quarantining or keeping socially distant, there might be enough time to fit in a new hobby, one with a Tulane connection: raptor reporting.

Tulane chemistry department makes hand sanitizer, donates to healthcare facilities and nursing homes

As hospitals and healthcare workers are in urgent need of personal protective equipment (PPE) and supplies, several departments and organizations at Tulane University are doing their part to help, including the Department of Chemistry.

Corinne Gibb, Tulane research associate, and Paolo Suating, Tulane PhD student, have been making hand sanitizer in the chemistry department’s lab and giving it to local healthcare facilities and nursing homes.

The idea stemmed from Twitter, Gibb said.

Tulane offers special scholarships to returning Peace Corps volunteers and Fulbright Student Grantees

Tulane University is announcing a special initiative to make graduate study more accessible to U.S. Peace Corps volunteers (PCVs) and Fulbright student grantees called back from international placements because of concerns over the spread of COVID-19.

Destination Antarctica: Research takes Tulane professor to Florida-sized glacier

The massive Thwaites Glacier, on the continent of Antarctica, is more than 7,000 miles from Blessey Hall, the Tulane University building where geologist Brent Goehring teaches such classes as Isotopes in the Environment, Geologic Dating Methods and Physical Geology.

But the Thwaites Glacier— a Florida-sized mass of ice that is melting at nearly twice the rate it did in the mid-1990s — is where Goehring spends part of the year studying how the glacier may be contributing to global sea-level rise.

Tulane professor hopes to demystify artificial intelligence

Nicholas Mattei, an assistant professor of computer science at Tulane University, wants to change the way people think about artificial intelligence.
 
“I hope to ground the conversation about the impacts of artificial intelligence and technology on our society,” Mattei said. “Much of the popular conversation in this area at times seems breathless and preys on the most fantastical elements of people’s imagination. I want to demystify AI and what its impacts on society are – or could be.”
 

First Student Receives River Science and Engineering Graduate Certificate

Two years ago, the School of Science and Engineering initiated a new department, the Department of River-Coastal Science and Engineering.   As the department’s first educational mission, the department stood up an accredited graduate certificate program in River Science and Engineering, which entails the completion of 15 hours of river-related graduate course work, covering topics such as stream restoration, river modeling, river mechanics and data collection and analysis methods in riverine environments.

New student organization aims to support Latinas, underrepresented groups in geoscience

The geosciences field in the U.S. is historically dominated by white men, but in recent years, there have been significant gains in terms of gender balance. For example, the National Science Foundation’s 2018 survey reported a 55.8% increase in women earning geoscience doctorate degrees since 2009. Likewise, a 2019 report from the American Geosciences Institute showed an increase in women’s participation in geoscience occupations from 22.5% in 2005 to 33.1% in 2018. However, despite these strides, racial disparities continue to persist.

Tulane University launches new coronavirus research program to develop a vaccine and advanced diagnostics

From working to develop one of the first nonhuman primate models for the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) to designing new therapeutic strategies and nanotechnology-based tests to rapidly diagnose infections, researchers at Tulane University are responding across disciplines to the emerging coronavirus epidemic.

Tulane math professor leads effort to map spread of coronavirus

James “Mac” Hyman, the Evelyn and John G. Phillips Distinguished Professor in Mathematics at Tulane University, is using mathematical models to better understand and predict the spread of COVID-19 and to quantify the effectiveness of various efforts to stop it.