Our Work Is Local, but Our Impact Is Global

The importance of communicating the dangers resulting from impending climate collapse is perhaps the most vital issue to be communicated. This project seeks to explore the greeting card as an everyday cultural form that can be used to express ideas and connect people around the subject of climate change. 

This project examined how children from groups underrepresented in STEM programs understand, interact with, and evaluate AI-driven digital assistants. 

Spanning across a wide range of climatic regimes, Texas relies on water extracted from rivers and aquifers within its own borders. Climate change and population growth are adding unprecedented stress on Texas waters and other types of natural resources. Quantifying the nexus between natural resources, energy generation, and food production is critically important for sustainable regional planning. This need also echoes one of the primary pillars of PT2050—Understanding the spatiotemporal dynamics of water availability and other natural resources, in relation to energy production and urban demands. 

Information and cultural heritage professionals have become increasingly interested in using data science, machine learning, and AI applications in the management of data and operations at libraries, archives, museums.

When hurricanes strike the coast of Texas, one of the more significant, but often overlooked, challenges is the logistics of patient evacuation.  The complex process of choosing staging areas, hospitals to receive patients, and the resources needed for transport are further complicated by the uncertainty of hurricane forecasting.

Artificial intelligence systems increasingly automate and assist people in making managerial and governance decisions. AI manages worker routines and tasks, determines how to distribute resources within cities, and assists in transportation management.

One of the main tasks of any city government is to keep infrastructure such as roads, signs, accessibility ramps, and sewers in perpetual working order. The first step of maintenance is the timely identification of a problem. However, many infrastructure defects are left undetected and unattended for long periods of time

The widespread use of service robots has been predicted to be just around the corner for decades. This project seeks to overcome the prevailing technical and social hurdles to deploying these robots by building and studying them in communities where they will be used rather than just in laboratories and warehouses.

Advances in AI are shaping the future of work, but how can we ensure that employees, organizations, and society will benefit from the changes? Instead of automating tasks, which can reduce or eliminate the need for human workers, this project seeks to design smart hand tools that have embedded sensing and AI.

The Austin History Center, the City of Austin, and UT Libraries maintain substantial collections of scanned maps, which are needed for historical reference when conducting research or planning new projects. Unfortunately, these scanned maps can be difficult to use due to the challenges involved with discovering, processing, and analyzing map images in their current digitized form.