The National Science Foundation has awarded the
University of Missouri in Columbia a US$5.2
million grant over five years to establish the Advancing
Research and its Impact on Society (ARIS)
Center. The center will work with scientists to help
them demonstrate the impact of their research
in their communities and society. Partners for the
new ARIS Center include Brown University, Duke
University, Iowa State, Madison Area Technical
College, Michigan State, Northeastern University,
Northwestern University, Oregon State, Rutgers
University, and University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Singapore’s National Research Foundation and
Infocomm Media Development Authority have
awarded a S$4.5 million (approximately US$3.27
million) research grant to Singapore Management
University. SMU has used these funds to
establish the Centre for AI and Data Governance.
The center will support the work of the school’s
Advisory Council on the Ethical Use of Artificial
Intelligence and Data, established in June 2018.
Housed within the SMU School of Law, the center
will offer seminars, deliver education, and conduct
research projects in three subject areas: AI and society,
AI and industry, and AI and commercialization.
It will link faculty expertise across SMU’s Lee Kong
Chian School of Business, School of Information
Systems, and School of Social Sciences, as well as
work with business and government agencies.
Rice University in Houston, Texas, has opened
a data science lab where students will work with
companies, academic labs, government agencies,
and nonprofits to translate their data into
actionable ideas. The Center for Transforming Data
to Knowledge (D2K Lab) is supported by a US$4
million gift from Rice alumnus Kevin Harvey and
his wife, Catherine. The lab will provide courses and
events that link students with organizations that
need help interpreting their data.
The National University of Singapore (NUS)
School of Computing has opened the CRYSTAL
(Cryptocurrency Strategy, Techniques, and Algorithms)
Centre, a lab and think tank dedicated to
exploring blockchain technology. Scholars at the
CRYSTAL Centre will conduct research on topics
such as verification and testing techniques, privacy,
cryptocurrency trading, and peer-to-peer network
designs. The center has partnered with Dekrypt
Capital, Blockchain at Berkeley at the University
of California Berkeley, and Blockchain at NTU at
Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.