Board of Regents to meet May 15 at UM-Dearborn

The Board of Regents will meet May 15 in the Michigan Rooms East and West of Fairlane Center South on the UM-Dearborn campus. The meeting is tentatively scheduled to begin at 3:30 p.m. Members of the public also can watch a livestream of the meeting at umich.edu/watch/. To make comments during the meeting, one must attend in person. An agenda will be posted online at noon May 12 at regents.umich.edu/meetings/agendas/. Those wishing to sign up to speak at the meeting, or to submit written or video comments, must do so between 9 a.m. May 9 and 5 p.m. May 12. To sign up or learn more about the public comments policy, go to regents.umich.edu/meetings/public-comments/. People with disabilities who need assistance should contact the Office of the Vice President and Secretary of the University in advance at 734-763-8194. For more information, go to regents.umich.edu.

U-M research sheds national light on transportation insecurity

Nearly 1 in 5 adults in the U.S. lack access to reliable transportation, making it one of the country’s most common forms of material hardship, University of Michigan researchers say. In a new study published in Social Indicators Research, researchers found that 19% of adults nationally reported experiencing transportation insecurity in the past month — compared with 16% who reported food insecurity, 13% with unmet medical needs, 9% with housing insecurity, 7% facing difficulty paying bills and 4% with utility shutoffs. Transportation issues, they say, have been excluded from national conversations about material hardship for decades due to the lack of a reliable measurement tool. That gap has now been filled by the Transportation Security Index, a scientifically validated instrument developed by Alexandra Murphy, associate director of social science research at Mcity, and colleagues Alix Gould-Werth and Jamie Griffin. The research, conducted in collaboration with Natasha Pilkauskas, associate professor of public policy in the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and research associate professor in ISR’s Population Studies Center, utilized nationally representative survey data in 2022 to examine the comparison of transportation insecurity with other hardships and its impact on health. Read more on this research.

Type 1 diabetes research center to share $2.8 million in funding

Breakthrough T1D, formerly JDRF, the leading global type 1 diabetes research and advocacy organization, has awarded more than $2.8 million over three years for the Breakthrough T1D Center of Excellence at U-M and Oregon Health & Science University, creating the Breakthrough T1D U-M-OHSU Cardiorenal Center of Excellence. This funding will expand the existing U-M Center of Excellence to include Oregon Health & Science University and create a joint Center of Excellence that will build on the work completed over the last five years at U-M. It will be led by Matthias Kretzler, Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis Professor of Medicine, professor of internal medicine and research professor in Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics in the Medical School, and Rodica Pop-Busui of Oregon Health & Science University.

Feeling unheard: Marginalized voices ring out against emotion AI

Artificial intelligence is reshaping countless industries, but according to a new U-M study, not all groups consider it beneficial. Emotion AI or emotion recognition, which claims to enable machines to interpret human emotions, has sparked discomfort, particularly among marginalized groups, according to a comprehensive survey of a diverse U.S. population. This discomfort spans applications in health care, workplace settings, cars and even children’s toys. Marginalized communities — such as minorities and individuals with disabilities — express significantly lower comfort levels, indicating profound societal and ethical implications, the research indicated. The study found that while people are somewhat more comfortable with AI detecting happiness and surprise, widespread unease persists, especially around applications in social media, job interviews and consumer research. Read more on this research.

University Record will reduce its print and email publications for the summer

This is The University Record’s last weekly print edition of the winter semester. The Record will have a reduced schedule during the spring and summer semesters, with print editions published May 19, June 9 and 23, July 21 and Aug. 11. Regular weekly publication will resume with the start of the 2025 fall semester on Aug. 25. The daily Record email will continue through May 16, and then it also will shift to a weekly schedule for the summer. The email will be distributed each Wednesday starting May 21, and will resume daily publication Aug. 25. The Record website — record.umich.edu — will be updated throughout the week with news for faculty and staff, and the weekly email will include items added to the website during the previous week. Also, because there are fewer events on campus during the summer, the Record may suspend its online Coming Events feature starting May 21. Readers are encouraged to visit the Happening@Michigan events calendar at events.umich.edu for any events that do occur on campus during the summer.

— Compiled by Jeff Bleiler, The University Record