Our Work Is Local, but Our Impact Is Global

Traditional long-term research projects share results with participants at the end of a study, but oftentimes the information they receive is too little, too late. To address that, Whole CommunitiesWhole Health is developing an interactive smartphone app that will translate raw data collected during the study into actionable, real-time information.

This project designs and prototypes new ways to find, interpret, and evaluate online information with the goal of helping to combat rampant misinformation. It studies how people evaluate and integrate information from disparate online sources, focusing on fact-checking as it relates to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

This project examines how human-centered approaches to assess bias and fairness can address a critical gap to inform research on algorithmic fairness. 

The rise of social media and the growing scale of online information has led to a surge of intentional disinformation and incidental misinformation. It is increasingly difficult to tell fact from fiction, and the challenge is more complex than simply differentiating fake news from simple facts.

This project examines the temporal dynamics of emotional appeals in Russian campaign messages used in the 2016 election on Facebook and Twitter. 

The Whole Communities–Whole Health team has built and tested a smart device that uses environmental sensors to better understand how indoor air quality affects family health by measuring indoor air pollution, carbon dioxide levels, humidity, and temperature in real-time.

Migration to urban centers across Texas continues at a breakneck pace, placing immense strain on systems such as water, housing, transportation, and energy while exacerbating inequality. Part of the solution to this is to build more regenerative cities, or places that diversify economies, reduce waste, prevent toxicity, and rebuild natural systems by keeping products and materials in use longer.

This project investigated how data ethics can be a point of departure in designing and evaluating good systems, examining the contradictions and pressure points among various data practices. 

Climate change and pollution affect some populations more severely than others, and the disparities are often stark. Our urban planning and public health researchers are working with frontline communities to understand the consequences of carbon emissions for health, as well as the challenges and opportunities behind decarbonization strategies.

Preliminary findings suggest that the pandemic has resulted in changes in the frequency of health behaviors. The lessons learned from this research will be incorporated in the broader Whole Communities–Whole Health cohort study with input from potential participants and community members.