Analytic methods

Ben Green, professor at the Ford School, explains why human oversight of algorithms, such as the one that runs Google's Gmail spam protection, does not always work. He cites how "the human overseers are on a tight schedule — they have many cases to...

During the Winter Term 2023, Ford School students were involved in projects with federal, state, county, city, and township governments, school districts, non-profit organizations, and commissions. They worked with the school’s numerous research...

The 2023 Public Policy and International Affairs (PPIA) Junior Summer Institute (JSI) has welcomed 23 students from 11 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. This year’s cohort will spend seven weeks taking classes, participating in...

Since World War I, defense funding has been a driver of social science’s growth. The dense ties between social science and defense agencies benefitted social research but also attracted decades of heavy criticism. This long and entangled history has...

Three Ford School faculty have developed exciting new online courses to equip learners and professionals around the globe with interdisciplinary skills that help them engage in and inform complex public policy decision-making processes. Elisabeth...

The use of large language models could transform many facets of modern life, including how policymakers assess public sentiment about pending legislation, how patients evaluate their medical care and how scientists could translate research findings...

Stephanie Sandoval-Pistorius is pursuing her PhD in neuroscience at Michigan Medicine, studying the molecular underpinnings of Parkinson’s disease. She will go on to UCSF for her postdoctoral training, where she will investigate pathological brain...

Beza Merid was a faculty affiliate with STPP when he became a research fellow in cardiology at Michigan Medicine. Now at Arizona State University, he appreciates how influencing innovation policy can create better health outcomes for underserved...

The Department of Justice's China Initiative was launched in 2018 to reduce theft of U.S. intellectual property funded by the government. A recent survey by the U-M Association of Chinese Professors (UM-ACP) found an increased sense of worry over...

Commenting on his recent research, Ben Green told Protocol, “The point is not to say: Let's just allow these algorithms to be used without the human oversight. But if we're only comfortable with these algorithms because we have human oversight, we...

Do algorithms help or hinder human decision-making? In a recent op-ed for The Hill, Ben Green, an assistant professor and postdoctoral scholar, argues that policymakers need to consider how humans interact with AI when regulating the use of AI in...

Machine learning is increasingly used for government decision-making to predict adverse outcomes. For instance, many cities and states in the U.S. have adopted pretrial risk assessments that inform decisions about whether to release criminal...

The routes and schedules of public transit, the presence or absence of sidewalks, the availability of different transportation options, and the design of highways that have divided cities—these are examples of aspects of transportation systems that...