Researchers have combined location density with real-world mobility data to predict the risk of infection from COVID-19 at specific locations with unprecedented accuracy. At USC, researchers are advocating for a new approach to predict the chance of infection from Covid-19: combining anonymized cellphone location data with mobility patterns — broad patterns of how people move…

Researchers have found a new approach to incorporating the larger web of relevant data for predictive modeling for individual and community health outcomes. While data on such «macro» factors is critical to tracking and predicting health outcomes for individuals and communities, analysts who apply machine-learning tools to health outcomes tend to rely on «micro» data…

Researchers have created lightning-fast computer software that can help nations track and analyze pandemics, like the one caused by COVID-19, before they spread like wildfire around the globe. The group of computer science and mathematics researchers says its new software is several orders of magnitude faster than existing computer programs and can process more than…

A new, automated, artificial intelligence-based algorithm can learn to read patient data from electronic health records. In a side-by-side comparison, scientists showed that their method accurately identified patients with certain diseases as well as the traditional, ‘gold-standard’ method, which requires much more manual labor to develop and perform. «There continues to be an explosion in…

Social media sites continue to amplify misinformation and conspiracy theories. To address this concern, an interdisciplinary team of computer scientists, physicists and social scientists has found a solution to ensure social media users are exposed to more reliable news sources. In their study published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, the researchers focused on the…

Artificial intelligence has proven to be an important tool in preventing the spread of COVID-19 — at least for Greece. A special algorithm dubbed Eva helped Greek health officials identify high-risk travelers and get them tested. «It was a very high-impact artificial intelligence project, and I believe we saved lives by developing a cutting edge,…

Computer scientists have developed an app that allows state and federal inspectors to detect devices that steal consumer credit and debit card data at gas pumps. The devices, known as skimmers, use Bluetooth to transmit the data they steal. «All criminals have to do is download the data from the comfort of their vehicle,» said…

Engineers have demonstrated a method for ensuring that an increasingly popular method of genetic identification called »DNA fingerprinting» remains secure against inadvertent mistakes or malicious attacks in the field. The technique relies on introducing genetic »barcodes» to DNA samples as they are collected and securely sending information crucial to identifying these barcodes to technicians in…

Data privacy laws require encryption and, in some cases, transforming the original data to ‘protected data’ before it’s released to external parties. Data privacy laws require encryption and, in some cases, transforming the original data to «protected data» before it’s released to external parties. But for researchers like Matthew Schneider, PhD, an assistant professor of…

New research has identified characteristics and gender-specific behaviors in kids that could lead them to become juvenile hackers. The researchers assessed responses from 50,000 teens from around the world to determine predictors of hacking and are the first to dig into gendered differences from a global data set. «We know much about the scope of…