Researchers at UT Austin have been working on a project using advanced modeling to predict when certain electrical substations will be thrown offline during an extreme weather event. The goal is to help design a better, more resilient system by assisting energy companies, policymakers and state agencies in planning infrastructure investments during the next decade. The team has been focused on flooding from major hurricanes, but now, they are considering how the model could be tweaked to improve the state’s power grid in the face of a winter storm

Surveillance is happening all around us all the time. Businesses, governments, and nonstate actors are gathering information — whether it’s to sell us something on social media or screen us when we apply for a home loan. University of Texas at Austin and New York University researchers participated in a Good Systems panel last month where they discussed various types of surveillance and how this practice is sometimes obvious but also elusive.

Ethical concerns regarding modern technology seem to show up everywhere. These issues give rise to questions about whether industry is ready to face the challenges associated with AI and how ethical considerations can be implemented in the day-to-day workflow at technology companies.

As part of the Institute for Historical Studies' Climate in Context events, Planet Texas 2050 has collaborated with digital magazine "Not Even Past" on a series of posts and articles highlighting how history and archaeology are key to our work. This article introduces our grand challenge.

Texas officials knew winter storms could leave the state’s power grid vulnerable, but they left the choice to prepare for harsh weather up to the power companies — many of which opted against the costly upgrades. Dev Niyogi, a geosciences professor at the University of Texas at Austin and Planet Texas researcher, said climate scientists want infrastructure design to consider a “much larger spectrum of possibilities” rather than treating these storms as a rarity, or a so-called “100-year event.”

Experts say planning for the next weather event should involve looking back and looking ahead. Professor Dev Niyogi with the University of Texas Jackson School of Geosciences and Cockrell School of Engineering explains.

More than 100 researchers, over two dozen disciplines, Planet Texas 2050 generates new research, educational programs, community partnerships and tools to tackle some of the state's most pressing challenges.

Through all eras of human history, communities have confronted stresses related to climate change that have affected how and where they live. Studying past societies helps us recognize the long-term effects of these stresses, which can be hard to see in the moment. Explore how Planet Texas 2050 researchers are using the knowledge of the past to help prepare for the future.

Last year, Maria De-Arteaga joined the McCombs School of Business faculty as an assistant professor in the Information, Risk and Operations Management Department. During her Ph.D., she became increasingly concerned about the risk of overburdening or underserving historically marginalized populations through the application of machine learning. She's now devoted her career to understanding the risks and opportunities of using ML to support decision-making in high-stakes settings.

Whole Communities–Whole Health hosts its first ever research showcase, highlighting the important work we've been doing the last two years.