A group of researchers at the University of Texas at Austin, including several affiliated with Good Systems, are exploring what influences trust in health information about COVID-19, hoping to help with public health messaging about how to minimize the spread of the virus.

The School of Information at The University of Texas at Austin is pleased to partner with Good Systems, a UT Grand Challenge, Huston-Tillotson University, and government and community organizations in Austin for the Public Interest Technology University Network Social Justice Informatics Faculty Fellows Program. This city-wide collaborative effort will bring together faculty fellows with diverse expertise in social justice and public interest technology who will partner with local organizations, producing collaborative cross-institutional research teams working toward achieving social justice in Austin.

University of Texas at Austin researchers are in the middle of a study looking at where people get their health information, specifically on COVID-19, and if they trust it to be true. Findings show older adults had more accurate, factual information about COVID-19 than the younger adults did — to a significant level.

In the future, Texas is expected to face increasing exposure to a wide range of climate-driven natural disasters — most notably deadly catastrophic flooding from hurricanes, storm surges, and extreme rain events.

A message from Heather Houser, outgoing Chair of Planet Texas 2050.

The Planet Texas 2050 theme organizing committee shows its support for the City of Austin's Climate Equity Plan. We also request that the UT Austin President’s Sustainability Steering Committee integrate climate equity-related goals and strategies into the university Sustainability Master Plan.

Our dirty, smelly wastewater could hold something very valuable: the key to tracking COVID-19 hot spots in Austin before diagnostic testing is able to identify outbreaks. The novel coronavirus is a fecally shed virus, which means its signature shows up in our waste. Because of this, University of Texas researchers are hoping they can track its spread by studying human feces.

In a first-of-its-kind study, UT, the City of Austin, the community organization Go! Austin/Vamos! Austin, and St. Edward’s University, will creatively examine long-standing problems in neighborhoods that have worse outcomes in response to climate-related issues because of inadequate infrastructure and investment.

To protect ourselves and others during the COVID-19 pandemic, most of us have had to shift our everyday lives to our homes. This has led to a steep drop in the amount of physical activity our kids are getting.