Study Questions Benefits of Social Networks to Disaster Response

Communication Within Groups Not as Helpful as Anticipated

Faced with a common peril, people delay making decisions that might save lives, fail to alert each other to danger and spread misinformation. Those may sound like behaviors associated with the current pandemic, but they actually surfaced in experiments on how social networks function in emergencies. Hirokazu Shirado, an assistant professor in Carnegie Mellon University's Human-Computer Interaction Institute, said he had expected his experiments to show that social networks, such as neighbors, work groups and extended families, would improve decision-making by giving people actionable information. "What we found is that social networks make things worse," said Shirado, who began the research while a member of the Human Nature Lab at Yale University. A paper on their work appeared this week in the Proceedings of the Royal Society A. Gathering data about social networks in the midst of a crisis is difficult, so Shirado devised a game in which online participants had an economic stake in making a decision whether to evacuate in the face of danger. He recruited 2,480 subjects and organized them into 108 groups, comparing how decision-making varied between networked groups and isolated individuals. Participants received $2 at the outset of the 75-second experiment. If nothing happened, they could keep the $2 at the end. But if there was an impending disaster, they could leave the game and retain $1. If they failed to evacuate and disaster struck, they lost everything. They also received 10 cents for every other player who made a correct decision on whether to leave the game. The participants thus had every incentive to choose correctly and were encouraged to communicate with each other. One member of each social network group also received the correct information about impending danger. Compared with the isolated individuals, the networked players consistently tended to resist evacuation, regardless of whether the danger was real or not. Communication didn't improve decision-making so much as it delayed it, Shirado said. The networked players also generated misinformation, even though nobody had an incentive to do so. One of the problems, he said, is that players didn't realize that they often used different strategies. A player who accepts "no news is good news," for instance, might think that all is safe simply because he hasn't heard anything. He might then send "safe" signals to other members of the group even though danger lurked. In other cases, players might be unable to learn the truth because the players adjacent to them all had bad information. Shirado has used the same game as an educational tool in his CMU classes, including one instance just before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. He recalled one student was skeptical, arguing that there was no reason why the players couldn't choose correctly. But about 70 percent of the students — including the skeptic — erred in their decisions. "Inside the networks, people could not understand why this was happening," he added. Social media — one type of social network — was not included in the study, but might actually improve performance, Shirado said. Though individuals tend to follow like-minded people on social media, it's also easy to connect with others who might fall outside normal social networks, providing a way around some of the barriers that form within networks. Shirado said he hopes to find ways of improving the performance of social networks. "We cannot live without social networks," he explained. "I'm interested in how social networks can provide a benefit to individuals." He acknowledged that one of the shortcomings of his experiment is that it was too simple and involved people who were randomly assigned into networks. Future experiments will require players to play several times with the same network of individuals, so they might learn who to trust. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Tata Consultancy Services, the Nomis Foundation, the National Institute of Social Sciences and the National Institutes of Health provided support for this research.

Temel Selected as WEF Young Scientist

Program Recognizes Rising-Star Researchers

Zeynep Temel, a robotics researcher who uses inspiration from nature to design novel means of motion and locomotion for tiny robots, has been named by the World Economic Forum to its Young Scientists Class of 2020. Temel, an assistant professor in the Robotics Institute, and Stephanie Sydlik, an assistant professor of chemistry, are the latest Carnegie Mellon University faculty members to join the WEF's Young Scientists community. The distinction recognizes scientific rising stars under the age of 40 who are pursuing high-impact research. "I am very excited to be a part of the WEF Young Scientists community and incredibly honored to be representing CMU," Temel said. "It will be a great adventure to learn from amazing scientists and develop projects that will improve the state of the world. " Temel, who joined the CMU faculty in 2019, focuses on small biological systems, such as insects, that can repeatedly achieve incredible speeds and accelerations and/or exert great force. She uses analytical and computational models, as well as physical prototypes, to test hypotheses and explore bio-inspired designs. This work has included the fabrication of tiny jumping and swimming robots. In her Zoom Lab, Temel is developing advanced manufacturing techniques for producing these devices, as well as embedded sensors and actuators to add control mechanisms and intelligence to them. She anticipates applications in such areas as milliscale surgical robots, search-and-rescue swarm robots, and space exploration. Temel earned a Ph.D. in mechatronics at Sabanci University in Turkey and was a post-doctoral researcher at Harvard and Brown universities before joining CMU. Normally, members of the Young Scientists community attend the WEF's annual Meeting of the New Champions in China during the summer, but the event has been canceled this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. "We are looking forward to working with the Class of 2020 Young Scientists to help leaders from the public and private sector better engage with science and in doing so, help young researchers become stronger ambassadors for science, which the world needs now and will continue to need post-COVID-19," said Alice Hazelton, the WEF's program lead for Science and Society.

CMU Joins Roborace Autonomous Racing Championship

A student team from Carnegie Mellon University is joining the upcoming season of Roborace, an international competition involving autonomous, electrically powered vehicles. CMU's Roborace team includes students and alumni from the Language Technologies Institute (LTI) and Robotics Institute, as well as the Information Networking Institute. It will be the first U.S. team to join Roborace and anticipates competing in a Roborace event later this year. "Having the opportunity to work on cutting-edge projects such as this is what attracted me to Carnegie Mellon," said Jimmy Herman, an ex-NFL athlete now enrolled in the LTI's Master of Computational Data Science (MCDS) program. "We are pushing to innovate and create technology with impact potential beyond the racing domain," he added. "Roborace provides an excellent platform to push the limits of autonomous driving systems, and it allows the public to see advancements in artificial intelligence in a more engaging way than driving statistics." Carnegie Mellon has been a leader in autonomous driving research for four decades, and claims such notable achievements as its 2007 victory in the $2 million Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Urban Challenge, an autonomous street race. CMU researchers continue to work with a variety of automakers and autonomous vehicle firms to advance the field. Roborace supplies a platform for the competition, including venues, vehicles, compute platforms and sensor stacks, while teams bring their AI algorithms to compete head-to-head on a level playing field. The CMU team will join five other organizations competing in the 2020-2021 series. "The CMU team's goals align perfectly with Roborace's, which is to accelerate the development of autonomous technology through competition," said Chip Pankow, Roborace's chief championship officer. "The technology in our cars and competition structure has been created to expose teams to a variety of edge-case scenarios that are relevant to real-world problems facing the industry today." "Professional master's students in CMU's School of Computer Science bring to the team a diverse set of backgrounds in artificial intelligence, ranging from computer vision and natural language processing to robotics and reinforcement learning," said Anirudh Koul, a MCDS alumnus and the team's coach. Roborace is the world's first racing series for autonomous driving systems. It was created to accelerate the development of autonomous software by pushing the technology to its limits in a range of controlled environments, and to educate and inform the world about autonomous driving. The coming season is the second development season for Roborace, with its 2020-2021 schedule expected to comprise twelve championship rounds. In the 2019 development season, Roborace hosted six events throughout the UK and Europe, providing a variety of challenges in the areas of performance, object avoidance, localization and precision. Teams delivered close competition that included a season-opening world's first: a completely autonomous racing pass as competition vehicles overtook each other at the Circuito Monteblanco racetrack in Spain.

Recent SCS Grad Will Travel to Austria as Fulbright Grantee

Vaidehi Srinivas, who recently graduated with a bachelor's degree in computer science, will head to Austria as one of seven Carnegie Mellon University students selected as 2020-2021 Fulbright Student Grantees. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the Fulbright U.S. Student Program is intended to "increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries" by enabling grantees to live, work and learn with people of a host country. Winners are selected based on a number of factors, including their proposal, academic record and personal qualifications. Srinivas and other members of the latest Fulbright cohort would typically begin this fall, but the pandemic has pushed start dates back to at least Jan. 1, 2021. The Fulbright program for 2019-2020 grantees was suspended in March. "I had toyed with the idea of finding a job abroad for a year or two after graduation, but I wasn't sure how I would find one," Srinivas said of her decision to pursue a Fulbright grant. "My dream job was either doing research or teaching, since I want to go to graduate school, and I've loved being a teaching assistant at CMU. In the fall, I asked my advisors if there was some way I could do research abroad for a year, and they suggested I apply to the Fulbright. "When I found out Austria had a joint English teaching assistant and research program, I was so excited. It was exactly what I was looking for," said Srinivas, who minored in German studies. Srinivas said she will be teaching English in a secondary classroom part-time and working on a research project in the algorithms group at the University of Vienna's Computer Science Department. Carnegie Mellon provides resources for students to pursue nationally competitive scholarships and fellowships, like the Fulbright program offerings. Experiences like these can help them develop skills in research, teaching and cross-cultural communication skills valuable to employers. "We are sending some of our top students out into the world, which raises CMU's profile internationally," said Stephanie Wallach, assistant vice provost for undergraduate education and head of undergraduate research and national fellowships in CMU's Fellowships and Scholarships Office. As a first-year student in the School of Computer Science, Srinivas said she wasn't sure where studying computer science would take her. "I wanted to study computer science, but I wasn't sure of anything beyond that: what area, what career or where I saw myself in four years. I was intimidated by all the brilliant people around me, and not sure if I could live up to their example," she said. "But in addition to being brilliant, the community here has been really supportive. I am always amazed by the professors who go out of their way to get to know you, the TAs and fellow students you meet in office hours who help you when you are struggling, and other staff and community members who go the extra mile to help you out, even if they didn't know you before."

WQED's "The Robot Doctor" Brings CMU Expertise to PA High School Students

What do you picture when you think of a robot? That's the first question asked by "The Robot Doctor" — a new series created by Carnegie Mellon University educators, RobotWits, the Pennsylvania Rural Robotics Initiative and WQED. Airing on PBS stations across Pennsylvania, the eight-episode program is geared toward high school students who may lack access to a computer during school closures, and who live in underresourced areas with limited STEM opportunities. "We're going to explore how robots solve the problems that allow them to be useful in the world. We'll do this with nothing more than the math concepts you may already know: geometry, trigonometry, basic algebra and a few concepts from physics," Jonathan Butzke says in the first episode. Butzke, an alumnus of CMU's Robotics Institute, hosts the show and is lead robotics researcher for RobotWits. Each 14-minute episode includes key concepts, example problems and take-home assignments. "We are closing the digital divide by creating no-tech and low-tech robotics and STEM content to support educators, students and families during school closures and beyond," said Rachel Burcin, the project co-lead and global programs manager in the Robotics Institute. "At the core of what we are doing is supporting teachers and contributing to equity and inclusion. We are creating accessible and customizable materials that can be used now and throughout the school year." "'The Robot Doctor' doesn't rely on access to robotics kits, or even high-speed internet since it is broadcasting on public television. The homework and math problems can be worked out with a pen and paper," said Maxim Likhachev. The co-leader of the project is an associate professor in the Robotics Institute and the National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC), and director of the Search-Based Planning Laboratory (SBPL) at CMU. He also founded RobotWits, a Pittsburgh-based technology company focused on self-driving solutions. Likhachev said to reinforce the importance of math concepts, the show takes them out of abstraction by offering real-world examples. "If you have a robot arm, how do you know where its end is — that's just a series of sine and cosine operations that are being taught in schools," Likhachev said. Other episodes discuss how a robot knows where it is in the world, how it follows a line, and the importance and use of different measurement systems, which reflects feedback received from some math teachers about what they wanted to see in the show. Likhachev said to make the program entertaining for teenagers, they showcase a lot of cool robotics applications from various industries and from Likhachev's lab. "The second episode shows an aerial vehicle falling down. Jonathan Butzke built that himself in my lab while pursuing his Ph.D. My favorite videos are the ones where they fail and crash because it's more fun to watch than when it all goes perfectly," Likhachev said. In addition to reinforcing math concepts, Likhachev said another goal of the program is to remove barriers and encourage students to pursue STEM careers by addressing the perceived complexity of robotics. "There are a lot of people outside urban areas for whom high-tech careers in robotics seem to be inaccessible. That's who we're targeting, and we're showing that the actual math behind it is all being taught in high school. By pursuing those STEM degrees, it's much closer than you would think," Likhachev said. "One of the incredible strengths of this project is the broad partnerships from policy, industry and education," Burcin said. Her team has been working closely with the PA Rural Robotics Initiative on the series. "Geographically, we're not that far from CMU and a hub of STEM careers, but to our kids, those opportunities can feel really distant," said Tim Heffernan, founder of the PA Rural Robotics Initiative, a public-school consortium that provides STEM opportunities to students across the commonwealth and prepares them for STEM careers. "Any time we get a chance to engage with CMU it's amazing because it brings it closer to home and brings opportunities into their grasp. I really feel like this project does that," he said. Heffernan noted that many of the teachers he works with are looking for opportunities to bring more robotics into their classroom. "We're all starting to move past that initial club mentality, where we started. We all see that STEM isn't a fad or an add-on, it can be a core piece of curriculum," he said. While PA Rural Robotics has seen a jump in engagement from schools in the past few years, physical robots and participation in robotics competitions can cost tens of thousands of dollars. "'The Robot Doctor' is something easily scalable and affordable. You can engage large numbers of kids, and educators don't need to be roboticists to facilitate it. And in reality, there isn't a surplus of STEM teachers running around," Heffernan said. To assist educators, Likhachev and his team at RobotWits are providing a variety of direct supports and opportunities for feedback. The team hosts a weekly live Zoom meeting for teachers, plus they're providing teaching assistants and access to a system to help set up lesson plans. A hotline is also being developed. Heffernan said the series is a great way to empower the teachers he works with. "It's not just 'Here's a video.' It's 'Here's a resource created by a world-class institution and amazing people,' and that's not it. You can engage them one-on-one to better understand how to use this in your classroom. And as a teacher, we always want to be the best we can for our students," he said. "The Robot Doctor" premiered May 6 with new episodes airing every Wednesday through June 24 at 7:30 p.m. on WQED-TV. A full broadcasting schedule and archived episodes can be found on WQED's website.

Maxwell Wang Awarded Hertz Fellowship

The Fannie and John Hertz Foundation announced today that Maxwell Wang is one of the recipients of the 2020 Hertz Fellowship. Wang, a M.D./Ph.D. student at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, is one of 16 researchers to receive the prestigious award, chosen from more than 800 applicants from 24 universities across the nation. Hertz Fellows receive up to five years of research funding, giving them the freedom to pursue innovative ideas. At CMU, Wang is studying machine learning and neuroscience, working with mentors Avniel Ghuman, Max G’Sell and Rob Kass. He is conducting research to understand how brain networks change during neuro-interventions, such as deep brain stimulation, and to link these changes to endpoints such as symptom improvement and adverse side-effect profiles. He plans to use the Hertz funding to further explore how brain functioning is assessed. Once he completes another machine learning course, Wang will apply to enter the joint Ph.D. program in neural computation and machine learning, which is offered jointly by the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition and the Machine Learning Department. Wang began his career as an electrical engineer, earning a bachelor’s degree from Washington University in St. Louis. He said that taking a cross-disciplinary approach to research makes for better and more interesting science. "One of the biggest advantages of this community is that people come from so many different backgrounds. You have scientists, engineers, clinicians, data scientists — the brain is where all of these fields come together, and where we can make something truly amazing happen," Wang said. Richard Steinman, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, helped Wang with his application for the Hertz Fellowship. "Maxwell has an uncanny ability to absorb material and suggest next steps in an experimental, design or analytical process," Steinman said. "He is ferocious about learning and doing good," he said. More than 50 CMU students and faculty have earned Hertz Fellowships over the years. Stephanie Wallach and Richelle Bernazzoli of CMU’s Fellowships and Scholarships Office helped Wang prepare for the extensive interview process. The Hertz Fellowship also provides lifelong mentoring and networking support for fellows, connecting them to a community of more than 1,200 leaders in science and technology. Wang said he has already benefited from the guidance of mentors. "I am very thankful to the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University. They both helped me tremendously. Ever since I came to Pittsburgh I’ve been thinking about the kinds of problems I want to tackle. What I want to accomplish in my life has completely changed since coming here, and I’m incredibly grateful for the guidance I’ve received," he said.

Nearly Half of the Twitter Accounts Discussing 'Reopening America' May Be Bots

CMU Researchers Say Sophisticated, Orchestrated Bot Campaigns Aim To Sow Divide

Scrolling through your Twitter feed, it may not be obvious when you come upon a bot account — something that is more likely to occur in the era of COVID-19. Carnegie Mellon University researchers have discovered that much of the discussion around the pandemic and stay-at-home orders is being fueled by misinformation campaigns that use convincing bots. To analyze bot activity around the pandemic, CMU researchers since January have collected more than 200 million tweets discussing coronavirus or COVID-19. Of the top 50 influential retweeters, 82% are bots, they found. Of the top 1,000 retweeters, 62% are bots. The monitoring of tweets is ongoing and collections from Facebook, Reddit and YouTube have been added to the research. "We're seeing up to two times as much bot activity as we'd predicted based on previous natural disasters, crises and elections," said Kathleen Carley, a professor in the School of Computer Science’s Institute for Software Research and director of the Center for Computational Analysis of Social and Organizational Systems (CASOS) and Center for Informed Democracy & Social - Cybersecurity (IDeaS.) Carley said multiple factors contribute to the surge. First, more individuals have time on their hands to create do-it-yourself bots. But the number of sophisticated groups that hire firms to run bot accounts also has increased. The nature of the pandemic matters, too. "Because it’s global, it’s being used by various countries and interest groups as an opportunity to meet political agendas," she said. Carley's research team uses multiple methods to determine who is or isn't a bot. Artificial intelligence processes account information and looks at things such as the number of followers, frequency of tweeting and an account's mentions network. "Tweeting more frequently than is humanly possible or appearing to be in one country and then another a few hours later is indicative of a bot," Carley said. More than 100 types of inaccurate COVID-19 stories have been identified, such as those about potential cures. But bots are also dominating conversations about ending stay-at-home orders and "reopening America." Many factors of the online discussions about “reopening America” suggest that bot activity is orchestrated. One indicator is the large number of bots, many of which are accounts that were recently created. Accounts that are possibly humans with bot assistants generate 66% of the tweets. Accounts that are definitely bots generate 34% of the tweets. "When we see a whole bunch of tweets at the same time or back to back, it's like they're timed," Carley said. "We also look for use of the same exact hashtag, or messaging that appears to be copied and pasted from one bot to the next." A subset of tweets about "reopening America" reference conspiracy theories, such as hospitals being filled with mannequins or the coronavirus being linked to 5G towers. "Conspiracy theories increase polarization in groups. It’s what many misinformation campaigns aim to do," Carley said. "People have real concerns about health and the economy, and people are preying on that to create divides." Carley said that spreading conspiracy theories leads to more extreme opinions, which can in turn lead to more extreme behavior and less rational thinking. "Increased polarization will have a variety of real-world consequences, and play out in things like voting behavior and hostility towards ethnic groups," Carley said. The research team cannot point to specific entities behind the orchestrated attempts to influence online conversations. "We do know that it looks like it's a propaganda machine, and it definitely matches the Russian and Chinese playbooks, but it would take a tremendous amount of resources to substantiate that," Carley said. Carley adds that not enough is known to develop a counter measure. Blocked accounts can resurface, and the nature of the network is such that you can’t just attack at individual points. But she said average users can do a lot to help protect themselves from bot influence. There is no guarantee, but closely examining an account can offer indications of a bot, such as sharing links with subtle typos, many tweets coming out very quickly, or a user name and profile image that don’t seem to match up. "Even if someone appears to be from your community, if you don't know them personally, take a closer look, and always go to authoritative or trusted sources for information," Carley said. "Just be very vigilant."  

Nearly Half of the Twitter Accounts Discussing 'Reopening America' May Be Bots

CMU Researchers Say Sophisticated, Orchestrated Bot Campaigns Aim To Sow Divide

Scrolling through your Twitter feed, it may not be obvious when you come upon a bot account — something that is more likely to occur in the era of COVID-19. Carnegie Mellon University researchers have discovered that much of the discussion around the pandemic and stay-at-home orders is being fueled by misinformation campaigns that use convincing bots. To analyze bot activity around the pandemic, CMU researchers since January have collected more than 200 million tweets discussing coronavirus or COVID-19. Of the top 50 influential retweeters, 82% are bots, they found. Of the top 1,000 retweeters, 62% are bots. The monitoring of tweets is ongoing and collections from Facebook, Reddit and YouTube have been added to the research. "We're seeing up to two times as much bot activity as we'd predicted based on previous natural disasters, crises and elections," said Kathleen Carley, a professor in the School of Computer Science’s Institute for Software Research and director of the Center for Computational Analysis of Social and Organizational Systems (CASOS) and Center for Informed Democracy & Social - Cybersecurity (IDeaS.) Carley said multiple factors contribute to the surge. First, more individuals have time on their hands to create do-it-yourself bots. But the number of sophisticated groups that hire firms to run bot accounts also has increased. The nature of the pandemic matters, too. "Because it’s global, it’s being used by various countries and interest groups as an opportunity to meet political agendas," she said. Carley's research team uses multiple methods to determine who is or isn't a bot. Artificial intelligence processes account information and looks at things such as the number of followers, frequency of tweeting and an account's mentions network. "Tweeting more frequently than is humanly possible or appearing to be in one country and then another a few hours later is indicative of a bot," Carley said. More than 100 types of inaccurate COVID-19 stories have been identified, such as those about potential cures. But bots are also dominating conversations about ending stay-at-home orders and "reopening America." Many factors of the online discussions about “reopening America” suggest that bot activity is orchestrated. One indicator is the large number of bots, many of which are accounts that were recently created. Accounts that are possibly humans with bot assistants generate 66% of the tweets. Accounts that are definitely bots generate 34% of the tweets. "When we see a whole bunch of tweets at the same time or back to back, it's like they're timed," Carley said. "We also look for use of the same exact hashtag, or messaging that appears to be copied and pasted from one bot to the next." A subset of tweets about "reopening America" reference conspiracy theories, such as hospitals being filled with mannequins or the coronavirus being linked to 5G towers. "Conspiracy theories increase polarization in groups. It’s what many misinformation campaigns aim to do," Carley said. "People have real concerns about health and the economy, and people are preying on that to create divides." Carley said that spreading conspiracy theories leads to more extreme opinions, which can in turn lead to more extreme behavior and less rational thinking. "Increased polarization will have a variety of real-world consequences, and play out in things like voting behavior and hostility towards ethnic groups," Carley said. The research team cannot point to specific entities behind the orchestrated attempts to influence online conversations. "We do know that it looks like it's a propaganda machine, and it definitely matches the Russian and Chinese playbooks, but it would take a tremendous amount of resources to substantiate that," Carley said. Carley adds that not enough is known to develop a counter measure. Blocked accounts can resurface, and the nature of the network is such that you can’t just attack at individual points. But she said average users can do a lot to help protect themselves from bot influence. There is no guarantee, but closely examining an account can offer indications of a bot, such as sharing links with subtle typos, many tweets coming out very quickly, or a user name and profile image that don’t seem to match up. "Even if someone appears to be from your community, if you don't know them personally, take a closer look, and always go to authoritative or trusted sources for information," Carley said. "Just be very vigilant."  

Gibbons Will Receive ACM's Kanellakis Award

The Association for Computing Machinery has announced that Carnegie Mellon University's Phillip Gibbons, professor in the Computer Science and the Electrical and Computer Engineering Departments, will receive the Paris Kanellakis Theory and Practice Award. Gibbons will share the award with Noga Alon of Princeton University and Tel Aviv University, Yossi Matias of Google and Tel Aviv University and Mario Szegedy of Rutgers University. The award recognizes them for their seminal work on the foundations of streaming algorithms and their application to large-scale analytics. In a series of papers published in the late 1990s, Gibbons and his colleagues pioneered a framework for algorithmic treatment of streaming massive datasets, the ACM said. Their algorithms remain the core approach for streaming big data and constitute an entire subarea of the field of algorithms. The concepts they introduced are routinely used in a variety of data analysis tasks in databases, network monitoring, usage analytics in internet products, natural language processing and machine learning. Gibbons joined the CMU faculty in 2015. He previously had been principal research scientist at Intel Labs Pittsburgh and was the principal investigator for the Intel Science and Technology Center for Cloud Computing. He was a member of the technical staff at Bell Laboratories from 1990 to 2001. The Kanellakis Award honors specific theoretical accomplishments that have had a significant and demonstrable effect on the practice of computing. Previous CMU recipients include faculty members Edmund M. Clarke, Randy Bryant, Daniel Sleator and Gary L. Miller and SCS alumnus Kenneth McMillan.

Liu Wins 2020 Open Phil AI Fellowship

Leqi Liu, a Ph.D. student in the School of Computer Science's Machine Learning Department, has been chosen as a 2020 Open Phil AI fellow. She is one of 10 students across the U.S. to receive a fellowship. The Open Phil AI Fellowship, organized by the Open Philanthropy Project, supports the research of a small group of promising machine learning researchers over five years, and fosters that community with a culture of trust, debate, excitement and intellectual excellence. Liu's research, advised by Assistant Professor Zachary Lipton, aims to develop learning systems that can infer human preferences from their behaviors and help humans achieve their goals. In particular, she is interested in bringing theory from social sciences into algorithmic design. Before pursuing her Ph.D., Liu received an M.S. in machine learning from CMU and a B.A. in computer science and mathematics from Bryn Mawr College and Haverford College.

CMU Trauma Care Researcher Joins Fight Against COVID-19 in NYC

One expects a Green Beret medic to readily respond to calls for help, so it's not that surprising that Luke Sciulli packed his bags in early April and left Pittsburgh for New York City, an epicenter for the COVID-19 pandemic, to volunteer in a field hospital. Sciulli, a senior research analyst in the School of Computer Science's Auton Lab, explains his motivations more humbly: his house had burned down and he was living in a camping trailer. When he heard that former Special Forces medics and medical personnel were opening an ad hoc hospital in New York, he figured, why not? Whatever his motivation, Sciulli began work April 16 at the NewYork-Presbyterian Ryan F. Larkin Field Hospital, named for a Navy SEAL and medic who took his own life three years ago after suffering traumatic brain injury. Located in an indoor soccer stadium at Columbia University, the temporary hospital  served as a step-down unit for COVID-19 patients, providing a place for the recovering patients to convalesce a few more days before heading home. "It's been successful and has served a lot of patients," said Sciulli, who provided treatment as well as being a unit leader and hospital supervisor. The hospital closed May 15, as the number of patients began to dwindle. Since joining the Auton Lab in October 2019, Sciulli has been involved in two sister projects: TRAuma Care in a Rucksack (TRACIR) and Autonomous Delivery of Trauma Care in the Field (RoboTRAC), together a joint effort by CMU and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. The researchers are developing an autonomous trauma care system that fits in a backpack and can treat and stabilize soldiers injured in remote locations. Artur Dubrawski, a research professor who runs the Auton Lab, said Sciulli's experience as a medic in Afghanistan, Ukraine and a couple of African nations has been invaluable to the project by providing insights into battlefield care. RoboTRAC, Dubrawski said, will be "a robotic version of Luke." Even while he volunteered with the COVID-19 patients, Sciulli continued to work on RoboTRAC in his off-hours. "I keep asking him to stay safe and healthy," Dubrawski said during Sciulli's sojourn, "and I sincerely hope he listens to these requests, and that he will be back home soon and sound." Sciulli's own field exploits came to a sudden end in January 2018 when he was caught in a collapsing building in southern Afghanistan. He was left with broken bones in his neck, shoulders and pelvis. He also experienced traumatic brain injury, which made his service at the Ryan F. Larkin hospital — and the chance to meet Ryan's father — particularly meaningful to him. While Sciulli was recuperating from his Afghanistan injuries in Walter Reed Medical Center, Dr. Ron Poropatich, a retired U.S. Army colonel and director of Pitt's Center for Military Medicine Research, visited him and talked to him about the TRACIR program. As Sciulli's recuperation progressed and he began to look for ways to get closer to home in Beaver County, he connected again with Poropatich, who put him in touch with Dubrawski. When he began work on TRACIR and RoboTRAC, Sciulli said he had some hesitation about trying to develop robotic technology that would replace a person with years of specialized training. But as he's become more deeply involved in the project, he's realized the potential for an intelligent autonomous device that could stabilize a wounded soldier long enough for evacuation. "This is the future of military medical intervention," said Sciulli, who officially retires from the U.S. Army on May 18. "We're pushing the envelope on something I never would have thought of myself. We're making it happen." Sciulli emphasizes that this use of AI and robotics is important for saving the lives of Americans who are in combat situations around the world every day. "Even though I can't help by being there with them," he added, "I can help now by doing things such as the TRACIR and RoboTRAC projects — and that's what I'm going to do."

Four SCS Faculty Members Named University Professors

Four faculty members from the School of Computer Science have been elevated to the rank of University Professor, the highest distinction a faculty member can achieve at Carnegie Mellon University. The newly appointed University Professors are Jessica Hodgins, Kathryn Roeder, Tuomas Sandholm and Mahadev Satyanarayanan. They join three other CMU professors who are being honored this year: Allen L. Robinson of the College of Engineering, Susanne Slavick of the College of Fine Arts, and Joe William Trotter Jr. of the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences. The new University Professors will be recognized at a future event. "University Professors are distinguished by international recognition and for their contributions to education, artistic creativity and/or research," said Provost Jim Garrett. "Each University Professor exemplifies a high level of professional achievement, and an exceptional commitment to academic excellence at our university." Garrett said the professors were nominated and recommended by academic leaders and faculty who have achieved the designation of University Professor.

Self-Healing Devices Gain or Regain Function After Being Cut

Composite Material Enables New Types of Sensors, Actuators

A "smart" polymer cast that automatically seals itself around a broken arm, a membrane that can sense where it has been cut, and pneumatic actuators that can be cut and reconfigured into different shapes are some possible applications for a new self-healing material developed at Carnegie Mellon University.The composite material has unique characteristics that allow it to heal and make it possible for devices made from it to regain their functionality — or gain new functionality — after being cut. When the cut ends of the material are placed back together, the pieces reconnect and the seam between them eventually disappears.The research team, led by Lining Yao, assistant professor in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII), and Mohammad Islam, professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE), have demonstrated the material's self-healing qualities by building a variety of sensors and actuators. And they are working on new applications that enable devices to self-assemble and self-actuate."We're definitely trying to push the bounds of people's imaginations," Yao said.Other researchers have developed self-healing materials, Islam noted. In most cases, those materials rely on the flow of reagents for healing. Reagents encapsulated within the material, for instance, might be released after the material is cut and repair the damaged areas.The newly developed material works differently. It combines two materials — polyborosiloxane (PBS), a self-healing polymer, and multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), which provide conductivity. Surprisingly, this hybrid material doesn't flow when cut. It retains its shape, yet can self-heal.Because the material is functional when it heals, it may be possible to design sensors or other electrical devices as modules that can be assembled or rearranged as necessary, Islam said."You can build things sort of like LEGO pieces," he said. It might also be possible to design devices that can be produced as standard sheets or in other forms and then cut into a desired shape for use.One of the proof-of-principle devices created thus far, for instance, is a soft controller that responds to touch. In normal mode, one such controller can detect a finger press. Connecting and healing two controllers lengthwise can create a keyboard. Two connected controllers, when wrapped around a person's wrist, can serve as a slider device."Now, if I cut it into four pieces, each one will respond to my finger," Yao said. And, after use, the pieces can heal together to form the original two controllers.A pneumatic actuator made from the material might bend in one direction. As the researchers have demonstrated, it's possible to cut it in the middle, turn the bottom half 180 degrees and reattach it to create an actuator that bends into an "S" shape.Islam said there are limits to this ability to rearrange pieces in these electrical devices. "We can reconfigure, but not rewire," he explained. But it's also possible to design redundant circuits into the devices to maximize the degree to which users can customize them.The researchers reported on the material and their first set of devices last fall at the Association for Computing Machinery's Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST) in New Orleans. They now are working on applications that involve self-actuation and self-assembly."I foresee a possibility that the interfaces we encounter in our daily lives will become more and more autonomous, more like a 'life-form' that helps us rather than something that is used by us," said Koya Narumi, a Ph.D. student at the University of Tokyo who was a visiting student in Yao's Morphing Matter Lab at CMU. He and Fang Qin, a master's student in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, were the lead authors of the study.One idea for the material is to build a reusable arm cast that molds itself around a broken arm and heals its seam. Such a cast might adjust itself over time to speed healing."Self-healing is an interesting concept that opens the team's imagination to explore more intelligent interfaces," Qin said.Islam emphasized that the research has been strengthened by involving researchers across disciplines."We (in materials science and engineering) could make the material in a simple sense, but Lining has huge expertise in designing systems," he said. "By having this collaboration, we can do things we couldn't do by ourselves."In addition to Yao, Islam, Qin and Narumi, the research group included Siyuan Liu and Huai-Yu Peter Cheng, both Ph.D. students in MSE; Jianzhe Gu, a Ph.D. student in the HCII; and Yoshihiro Kawahara, an engineering professor at the University of Tokyo.This research was supported by Carnegie Mellon's Manufacturing Futures Initiative, made possible by the Richard King Mellon Foundation; the Carnegie Bosch Institute; and Pennsylvania's Department of Community and Economic Development.

CMU's First AI Grad — From 32 Years Ago

This week, Carnegie Mellon University will confer degrees on the first graduates of the School of Computer Science's undergraduate program in artificial intelligence, but it won't be the first time CMU has awarded an AI degree. It was 32 years ago that Jared Leinbach claimed his bachelor's degree after completing a self-defined major in AI. "There was a wave of excitement at the time about AI," recalled Leinbach, a software developer who has started several companies. "Neural networks" was the buzzword then and CMU was a hotbed of research, having just hired one of the leading researchers in the area, Jay McClelland, as a psychology professor. Leinbach arrived at CMU in 1984 as a mechanical engineering student, but after four semesters he decided to switch to what is now the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences, which allowed self-defined majors. He and his adviser came up with a plan that involved a number of computer science, cognitive psychology, linguistics and philosophy courses, as well as a couple of classes at the University of Pittsburgh. "It was a bit of a heavy lift to get professors in all these disciplines to read and approve my plan," Leinbach said. Though AI at the time was not the commercial success it is today, many of the concepts and applications he explored in his studies are remarkably similar to those of the present day. His AI degree helped open doors during his career, much like a CMU computer science degree, though most of his work has not involved AI. His most recent company, Asset Technologies, develops software and modeling tools for the financial industry. "Today would be very different for graduates of the AI program," Leinbach said. "Any large technology company now has an AI department. I imagine graduates will have a great situation when they look for jobs." His only regret about his degree may be that he failed to follow up on an offer at graduation to continue his AI studies as a master's student. "But I was 21, I had a girlfriend and a motorcycle and I didn't want to load more on my plate," he added.

CMU's Iris Lunar Rover Meets Milestone for Flight

Student-Designed Robot Will Land on the Moon in 2021

Carnegie Mellon University students who designed and built a small, boxy robot, called Iris, have achieved a major milestone: their robot passed its critical design review by NASA and is on track to land on the moon in the fall of 2021."We are moving forward … we're going to the moon," a triumphant project manager, Raewyn Duvall, told Iris team members during a Zoom meeting following the review.Officials at NASA and Astrobotic Inc., whose Peregrine lander will deliver the robot to the lunar surface, performed the review. Duvall, a Ph.D. student in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, said the process resulted in a few small design revisions, which the team is now incorporating.The team will replace prototype parts with flight components this summer, as they test the robot to prove that it can withstand the trip to the moon without causing problems for Peregrine or other payloads aboard the lunar lander."This is going to be an exciting summer," said William "Red" Whittaker, professor in the Robotics Institute and director of the Field Robotics Center.Once the robot passes the payload acceptance review this fall, the team will deliver the fully flight-ready Iris to the company by the end of the year so it can be integrated with Peregrine."The vision, design and implementation for this robot are driven by amazing student power — unprecedented for a space venture of this ambition and technical challenge," Whittaker said. "It requires the highest standards of commitment, collaboration and cross-disciplinary skill, as well as incredible resourcefulness."The four-wheeled Iris, which weighs about four pounds, will be America's first robotic rover to explore the moon's surface. Although NASA landed the first humans on the moon and has explored Mars with rovers, it has yet to launch a lunar rover. Russia and China have both operated unmanned rovers on the moon.Last year, NASA awarded a contract to Pittsburgh's Astrobotic to deliver 14 scientific payloads to the vicinity of Lacus Mortis, or Lake of Death, a large pit the size of Pittsburgh's Heinz Field. In a separate agreement with CMU, Astrobotic has agreed to deliver Iris and a CMU arts package called MoonArk on that mission.

Carnegie Mellon Launches New Undergraduate Degree in Human-Computer Interaction

HCI Major Addresses Growing Demand for Expertise in Technology and Design

Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science (SCS) will offer a new undergraduate degree in human-computer interaction (HCI) beginning this fall. Among the first of its kind in the nation, the program will produce HCI specialists with a strong foundational knowledge of computer science and wide-ranging skill in developing digital technologies that solve problems and benefit humans. "We'll be training individuals poised to innovate at the intersection of people and technology, with the goal of making the world a better place," said Jodi Forlizzi, Geschke Director and professor in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII.) The HCII is a world leader in a wide range of research areas, including innovative interaction techniques, advanced learning technologies, transformative games, accessibility, digital technologies in healthcare, sensing and fabrication, transportation and mobility, usable privacy and security, and social computing. "The HCI field has grown tremendously, and it now seems right to view it as its own area of expertise instead of an amalgam of other disciplines," said HCII Professor Vincent Aleven. As the use of digital technologies continues to expand beyond mobile applications and websites into conversational interfaces, the internet of things and augmented/virtual reality, there is an ever-growing demand for people with advanced technical skills who also excel at user-experience design. "Design isn't just about getting the thing right. It's about designing the right thing and solving the right problem. You must know design and technology to come up with solutions," Aleven said. "HCI methods can help you imagine things and quickly build prototypes to test for the best solution. Undergraduates who earn this degree will have the skills to build innovative, sophisticated technologies. They will master many methods to investigate people's needs, foster the trust of the people they're designing for, ideate, and create designs and technologies that address needs and make a difference." Students accepted into SCS can declare the HCI major in their first year, typically in the spring semester. All SCS students take first-year courses in core computer science competencies, allowing them to make informed choices when it is time to declare a major. In additional to the HCI undergraduate degree, SCS offers bachelor's degrees in computer science, artificial intelligence (launched in 2018) and computational biology (launched in 2017). Applications will be accepted from current SCS students who wish to transfer into the new degree this coming fall. In their second year, HCI major students will take core HCI classes and electives. More technical courses will focus on learning low- and high-tech prototyping processes, while methodology courses will allow students to study humans, organizations, groups and societies to learn to evaluate the effectiveness of different technologies. "Through elective courses, there is really room for tailoring the degree to the student's interests, whether it be digging deeper into tech, honing design skills or focusing on the human side, such as psychology or business," Aleven said. The HCI major will also provide ample research experience for interested students, including a sequence of mentored independent work. When they graduate, students who take that path will have experienced a full cycle of research — from conception of research questions, research design and execution to presentation and publication of results, contributions and practical impact. HCI undergraduates interested in careers in industry will be poised to grow into strategic roles that demand a broad skillset, and are likely to end up in product management positions earlier in their careers than purely technical students. CMU has long been a leader in computer science education, offering the first university-level course in computer programming in 1958, launching the first Ph.D. program in robotics and creating the world's first Machine Learning Department. The undergraduate degree in artificial intelligence was the first of its kind in the country. Aleven said the university has also pioneered approaches to design-based research. "If you're not just interested in nifty technology, but in making technology do the right thing in a way that helps humans, this is the degree for you," Aleven said. "We're building on CMU's strengths and its aptitude for creating interdisciplinary teams." "I am excited to see what the inaugural year of the HCI degree holds," Forlizzi said.

Carnegie Mellon, Pitt Researchers Launch Ventilator Project

Low-Cost Device Could Address Current and Future Shortages

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine are developing a new, low-cost ventilator they say will address the ventilator shortage, both now and in the future, that has been made evident by the COVID-19 pandemic. Dubbed Roboventilator, the device will employ CMU-developed robotic technologies and advanced sensors, filling the gap between the expensive sophisticated mechanical ventilators used in intensive care units and the current low-cost alternatives with limited capabilities being approved emergently by the Food and Drug Administration. "We've already developed robotic and sensor technology that can detect force even as it drives an air pump," said Howie Choset, professor of robotics at CMU. "When that is paired with air-management controls developed by Keith Cook, a CMU professor of biomedical engineering, we believe we can build a closed-loop system that can provide customized and appropriate ventilation to people with respiratory failure from COVID-19." Choset and Cook are working with pulmonary and critical care physician Jason Rose, an assistant professor of medicine and bioengineering at Pitt, to develop the Roboventilator. Working with CMU's existing manufacturing partner Foxconn, the team is designing the ventilator with current global supply-chain limits in mind. If there is a significant disruption in the supply of one of the critical device components, the team already has identified alternatives that are available or easily fabricated. The researchers are pursuing sponsors for the effort and, in the meantime, have begun a crowdfunding campaign to get the project underway. "All of us are aware that ventilators are essential for treatment of the patients who are most seriously ill from COVID-19, and we know that this pandemic will be with us for a long time, with the potential for several waves of disease," Choset said. "We are working to make the Roboventilator available in time to help meet these great needs and prepare for the worst with COVID-19. "We're convinced the need for low-cost, easily deployable, fully functional ventilators is not limited to just this moment or just this disease," he added. "This is a machine that could save lives from emerging pathogens we haven't even encountered yet, or help provide a care option to patients in resource-stretched health systems around the world." The Roboventilator employs a modular design with a relatively low number of parts assembled with a high degree of automation. The team estimates it would take about an hour to assemble each unit and the cost could be between $500 and $750 each. Choset co-directs the Robotics Institute's Biorobotics Lab and has started several companies, including one that builds an FDA-approved robotic device for head and neck surgery. One of his spinoff companies, Hebi Robotics, produces modular robotic components that might be used in the Roboventilator. Lu Li, a project scientist in the Biorobotics Lab, also is part of the Roboventilator team. Cook, of the Biomedical Engineering Department, has expertise in advanced respiratory support, including the design and development of artificial lungs, liquid ventilation hardware and techniques, and animal models of lung disease. Rose is a physician-scientist who actively rounds in the ICU, caring for critically ill patients who often require mechanical ventilation, such as COVID-19 patients with respiratory failure. His main research interests include carbon monoxide poisoning, vaping-related acute lung injury, and the discovery and development of novel drugs.

"Five Big Ideas in AI" Featured in NSF Video Showcase

CSD's Touretzky Leads National Effort To Define K-12 AI Curriculum

A project to develop an artificial intelligence curriculum for grades K-12 headed by David Touretzky, a research professor in the Computer Science Department, will be featured in the National Science Foundation-funded 2020 STEM for All Video Showcase, which will be online May 5–12. The video, "Sparking AI Curiosity With the AI4K12 Initiative," looks at how to engage K-12 students by introducing them to Five Big Ideas in AI. "AI technologies are all around us," Touretzky said. "From facial recognition to voice assistants to self-driving cars, AI has become part of our everyday lives. Children need to understand how these technologies work, and how they will shape their futures. The STEM for All Video Showcase is a great way for us to reach out to teachers who want to incorporate AI into their curriculum." Touretzky leads the AI for K-12 Initiative (AI4K12), which was established by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence and the Computer Science Teachers Association to determine what students should know about AI and be able to do with it. AI4K12 has received NSF support. Now in its sixth year, the annual video showcase will feature more than 170 innovative projects aimed at improving STEM learning and teaching that have been funded by the NSF and other federal agencies. During the weeklong event, researchers, practitioners, policy makers and members of the public are invited to view the short videos, discuss them with the presenters online and vote for their favorites. Last year's STEM for All Video Showcase is still being accessed, and to date has had over 76,000 unique visitors from 181 countries. The showcase is hosted by the Technical Education Research Centers (TERC), in partnership with a number of governmental agencies and education groups.

Carnegie Mellon Tackles the Digital Divide, Connects High-Need Students to Wi-Fi

CS Pathways Partners With Meta Mesh Wireless Communities To Aid Remote Learning

When Kristopher Hupp started teaching high school social studies in the Cornell School District in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, his classroom had a chalkboard and a PC with a floppy disc drive.Twenty years later, he's the district's director of technology and instructional innovation, responsible for leading the transition to remote learning in response to the spread of COVID-19. While all of Cornell's classrooms have fast and reliable internet, not every student has a device like a Chromebook, and many lack reliable internet access at home."My stress level was through the roof," Hupp said. "Lots of waking up in the middle of the night, trying to stay on top of all of the email and phone communication with families and trying to find devices, and making sure they got wirelessly connected."And the Cornell School District isn't alone. According to Pittsburgh Public Schools, 46% of homes in its district don't have access to reliable Wi-Fi. A 2018 survey found that as many as 60% of some Pittsburgh neighborhoods have no internet access, and many other urban, suburban and rural homes lack connectivity."Many of the most underresourced learners can't get online," said Ashley Williams Patton, director of Carnegie Mellon University's Computer Science Pathways program.To support the transition to remote learning, CMU CS Pathways is partnering with Pittsburgh-based nonprofit Meta Mesh Wireless Communities to provide free access to Wi-Fi in high-need communities across the Greater Pittsburgh Area, starting with a pilot program in Coraopolis.Maggie Hannan, associate director of CMU's Simon Initiative, co-leads the effort with Patton. "Now is a critical time to invest in communities that have long been underserved, provide immediate relief, and build long-term partnerships with educators and leaders as they negotiate this massive disruption," Hannan said."COVID-19 did not create the digital divide, but it is highlighting existing inequities in the education system. We're trying to come up with solutions that aren't band-aids. Because what happens after that? We're attempting to create a solution that doesn't go away," Patton added.The plan is to go neighborhood by neighborhood where there is a high concentration of need and provide a wireless network. Areas including Homewood and New Kensington are slated to follow the Coraopolis pilot."It's Meta Mesh's technology. We're using our contacts and resources to amplify the work they're doing and provide the resources they need to do it," Patton said.Adam Longwill is the founder and executive director of Meta Mesh Wireless Communities. His organization has spent the past seven years providing nearly 10 million square feet of wireless connectivity to high-need areas in the region. One way to do that is by creating mesh networks using relay devices and donated broadband from the community."The public network is safely segmented, bypassing the host network. Donors likely don't even notice a change in bandwidth," Longwill said.Meta Mesh can also install towers to strategically direct donated broadband from KINBER, a statewide nonprofit ISP. "It requires having a clear line of sight. Imagine bouncing a bunch of lasers with mirrors into targeted parts of the community," Longwill noted.Patton said her team is in crisis-management mode and working to get communities connected "as fast as we can, any way we can." To create a long-lasting solution, the Coraopolis relay network can eventually be reconfigured using existing devices to provide permanent free Wi-Fi in public spaces.Longwill said that with all classes moving online, many students have been left in the dust. His organization is looking for a variety of volunteers, including installers, to help scale up and meet the need for connectivity."We have what we need to monitor and upgrade equipment and respond to outages," he said. "Our system can deploy tens of thousands of access points, routers and switches on the same platform."Meta Mesh's Outreach Coordinator Becky Zajdel said the scale of the problem is hard to imagine. "Now people are forced to realize that the digital divide is real and a salient issue, and forced to admit that internet access is a human right," she said.Initial support for the project was provided by the Hopper Dean Foundation, which originally granted the funding to CMU CS Pathways to support initiatives that had to be canceled due to COVID-19, including the AI4All summer camp, and other programs dedicated to diversity, equity and inclusion. Hopper Dean has generously allowed the money to be appropriated for this emergency-response project.CMU CS Pathways has been hard at work addressing many needs in schools, such as a lack of devices, in-class teaching assistance, and mental wellness for teachers and students. The team is also part of a larger CMU initiative, the Sustaining Equity in Education Network (SEEN), which comprises members from the Simon Initiative, CREATE Lab, the Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) and the School of Computer Science (SCS). The collaboration aims to help educators working through the COVID-19 pandemic.Those who wish to support SEEN's work can give to the SCS Outreach Fund, which supports the college's efforts to inspire and empower kids to study computer science, regardless of their school district or background. In light of COVID-19, current emphasis is on helping schools make an equitable transition to remote learning."We haven't shifted our focus at all, we've just adapted for the current environment," Patton said. "Our mission is always to provide resources and a pathway for students to make informed decisions about their own futures. We've just changed our delivery model. We're prioritizing the same relationships and neighborhoods. We can be this reflexive because we've spent years supporting students who are often left out of these conversations."The Cornell School District has already begun remote learning. Hupp said they've been handing out work packets and trying to develop other creative solutions until the wireless network is up and running — a day he said he can hardly wait for."I feel like it means these students have a chance to continue to learn, continue to move forward," Hupp said. "But then also looking long term after this crisis is over, it allows them a little more equity."