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Category: Business/Technology

Statistics don’t support UW-Milwaukee shuttering materials engineering program

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Materials engineering programs typically have dozens of students, not hundreds.  To put this into perspective, however, the Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts an average of just 10 job openings per year for neurologists in Wisconsin. Hopefully, no one would suggest that UW-Madison should stop training neurology residents, since most of us recognize that medical specialists are essential to the kind of society we want to have.

University Research Park and Forward BIOLABS Partner to Power Madison’s Science and Tech Startups

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Madison Magazine

Partnering with Forward BIOLABS — one of the many tenants that call the research park home — URP helped create a new shared coworking lab incubator in Madison. Forward BIOLABS offers turn-key life science labs, fully equipped, maintained and supported with networking, training and other growth services aimed at startups.

“With millions of dollars of shared lab equipment, Forward BIOLABS is an ideal place to get started,” said Aaron Olver, managing director of the University Research Park. “And MERLIN Mentors creates customized volunteer mentor teams to help companies achieve liftoff.”

UW report links housing stress to worsening health in Wisconsin

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The Badger Herald

Housing financial stress has been rising among Wisconsin residents, and it is tied to an increase in negative health outcomes, according to a report from the University of Wisconsin-Extension.

The report found that housing instability is linked to worsened mental and physical health and may cause food insecurity, physical exhaustion, hypertension and lowered fertility. While this stress is more common among renters than homeowners, the consequential health impacts were linked more with older homeowners, co-author of the report and associate professor in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics Tessa Conroy said.

This Wisconsin-founded group is keeping tabs on global nuclear proliferation

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Wisconsin Public Radio

“Almost 40 years ago, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison named Gary Milhollin, who had worked as a judge on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, had an idea that more needed to be done to prevent countries from building weapons of mass destruction,” said Valerie Lincy, executive director of the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control. “He created the organization with the mission of stopping the spread of these weapons by stopping trade in items that can be used to make them. We’ve been working with that mission ever since.”

Dairy cows tested for avian flu ahead of WI fairs

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WEAU 13 -- Eau Claire

“With county fairs, there’s always a lot of movement of cattle whether it’s within the county or if there are open shows,” Jerry Clark, a crops and soils educator with UW-Madison’s Division of Extension, said. “These cattle are moving across county lines and so it’s just another way that fairs are doing their part.”

Campaign ad utilizes artificial intelligence, prompting the question: What impact will AI have on the 2026 election?

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Spectrum News

“The models that we’re seeing right now are able to create content that is incredibly persuasive, and incredibly hard to detect as AI generated. It’s impossible to predict just how corrosive this will be to political discourse in this country,” said Annette Zimmerman, a professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. “It’s just not feasible for ordinary citizens to do a ton of extra research on which content is actually legitimate.

Can A.I. quicken the pace of math discovery?

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The New York Times

“I think we’ll learn a lot about what the capabilities of various A.I. protocols are from how well we can get them to generate material that’s of interest,” said Jordan S. Ellenberg, a mathematician at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who is part of a team applying for an Exponentiating Mathematics grant. “We have no intuition yet about which problems are going to be hard and which problems are easy. We need to learn that.”

‘We know what to do’: Wisconsin fairs continue bird flu testing requirements for cows

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Wisconsin Public Radio

Keith Poulsen, director of the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, said the impact was disappointing last year, especially given the amount of work exhibitors put into getting an animal ready for show.

“I’m hoping that with one year of experience under their belt, they feel more comfortable to be able to submit that testing and make sure that we have robust cow classes in these shows,” said Poulsen, whose lab processes all of the avian flu samples taken in the state. “It’s part of our culture, and we missed that last year.”

Riots, police dogs and campgrounds. What to know about a batch of bills passed in the state Senate

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Already, a group of researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Realta Fusion, a Madison-based nuclear startup, have developed a fusion device in Stoughton that creates the same kind of reaction that fuels the sun and stars. The process is much different than fission, the nuclear reaction that powers current nuclear reactors and the atomic bomb.

Milwaukee police might trade 2.5M mugshots for facial recognition technology

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Wisconsin Public Radio

Alan Rubel, who studies the ethics of data and surveillance and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, highlighted the fact that MPD wants a trade, rather than purchasing the tech.

“That’s going to be very useful for that company,” he said.

“We’ve collected this data as part of a public investment, in mugshots and the criminal justice system, but now all that effort is going to go to training an AI system,” he added.

How AI helps us fact-check misinformation on the air

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Wisconsin Watch

Earlier this year, I worked with Gigafact using Parser to process 24 hours from the same hosts the week after this year’s Super Bowl. We came up with a list of claims in two hours.

Wisconsin Watch and Gigafact presented that case study in using AI at a recent Journalism Educators Institute conference hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication. We’ll present it again this week at the Investigative Reporters and Editors conference in New Orleans.

Bud Selig, Shel Lubar, Steve Marcus receive Herb Kohl Service Award–highlighting their friendship

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Allan “Bud” Selig, Sheldon Lubar and Stephen Marcus each received the Herb Kohl Service Award from the Milwaukee Jewish Federation on June 11. Roughly 550 people from the Jewish community, and the greater Milwaukee community, attended the Pfister Hotel event.

Each award winner knew Kohl personally from their childhood, or from attending the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

I found power, confidence and calm at a poker table full of men

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HuffPost

Poker puts into focus the same gender dynamics that can create anxiety for women in a patriarchal society, says Jessica Calarco, a sociologist, professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and author of ”Holding It Together: How Women Became America’s Safety Net.” “You’re expected to read the room, stay composed, and manage risk — much like women do every day in a world that asks them to carry everything without appearing to struggle,” she tells me.

Wisconsin state lawmakers, industry experts share concerns about proposed limits to AI regulation

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Wisconsin Public Radio

University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Annette Zimmermann is a political philosopher of AI and co-lead of the school’s Uncertainty and AI research group.

“Much like many other experts working in this area, I’ve been deeply concerned about imposing such a heavy handed blanket ban on any sort of state-based efforts to effectively regulate this space,” Zimmermann said. “Right now, unfortunately, we’re in a regulatory landscape where we are heavily relying on individual states to think very hard about how to protect ordinary citizens and consumers from these kinds of harmful outputs.”

A UW-Madison researcher studied social media’s impact on teens. The Trump administration cut the grant.

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The Daily Cardinal

The University of Wisconsin-Madison lost at least $12 million in federal research grants since the start of the Trump administration, forcing faculty and researchers to shut down projects, lay off staff and scale back scientific progress.

Dr. Ellen Selkie, an assistant professor at UW-Madison and principal investigator on a now-defunded National Institute of Health-funded study, said her team enrolled more than 325 adolescents from across Wisconsin and collected comprehensive data to explore a question they believed to be at the center of national concern: How does social media affect youth mental health?

South Milwaukee Repair Café to offer free fixes for clothes, electronics and bicycles

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Rodriguez Morris earned her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin – Madison in environmental and civil engineering with a specialty in sustainability.

“As an engineer you love to tinker, fix things, and try to learn,” she said, adding that from a sustainability perspective she wants to extend the usable life of items.

Rising housing costs are forcing some Wisconsinites to delay medical care, new report says

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Wisconsin Public Radio

Rising housing costs have been forcing some Wisconsinites to delay medical care, which can lead to negative health outcomes for residents and communities.

That’s according to a new report from the University of Wisconsin-Extension as part of a project examining livability in rural communities led by Tessa Conroy, associate professor of agricultural and applied economics at UW-Madison.

Envoys from UW-Madison CALS engage with dairy, crop industries in Thailand

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Wisconsin State Farmer

When a Thai princess was looking to reinvigorate her country’s dairy industry, she quickly turned to the University of Wisconsin-Madison for help. The UW-College of Agricultural and Life Sciences answered her invitation with experts from the departments of animal and dairy sciences, and biological systems engineering. They, with financial support from Thailand, recently put their boots on the ground to start an exchange of ideas that will benefit both nations.

Wisconsin celebrates Dairy Month as state trade exports reached $8.2 billion last year

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Spectrum News

Chuck Nicholson is an associate professor of agriculture and economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He said 20% of the milk produced ends up outside the U.S.

Nicholson said he doesn’t expect the dairy export market with China to be significantly impacted for the time being and that’s a good thing for Wisconsin.

“Cheese is definitely important as an export product, and it’s obviously quite important in Wisconsin. The other part about that is that with cheese typically comes whey, and we’re also a major exporter — from the State of Wisconsin — of whey products, and China is also a major market for our whey products as well,” Nicholson said.

Yogurt product recalls that affected millions

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The Takeout

Incidentally, if you’re trying to figure out how to find these kinds of dairy recalls, you might want to visit the website of the University of Wisconsin’s Center for Dairy Research, which maintains a Dairy Recall Tracker. It’s regularly updated with any new recall notices from the Food and Drug Administration, letting you find about any new food recalls quickly and easily. It’s a handy tool that can help you figure out what dairy products should and shouldn’t be in your fridge.

Rising housing costs could be pricing people out of college in Wisconsin

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

We also found something we did not expect: a gender gap in how students respond to rising housing prices. University enrollment among male students drops sharply as housing costs rise. For female students, the pattern is different. In some cases, female enrollment actually increases, perhaps because women see education as a long-term investment worth making, even in tough times. But when tuition and housing costs rise together, even that resilience begins to falter.

The internet is littered with advice. What’s it doing to your brain?

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Vox

“Research has overwhelmingly found that advice is really beneficial, and that people tend to under-utilize advice, usually causing them to make lower quality decisions,” says Lyn van Swol, a professor of communication science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies advice and information-sharing in groups. The catch, she notes, is that most of that research looks at advice from one, two, or three other people, not dozens, hundreds, or thousands of strangers on TikTok: “It’s overwhelming — it’s like a fire hose of advice.”

‘It does kind of make me the breadwinner’: stay-at-home mom charges husband $2,700 a week for household labor — sparking a debate on TikTok

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Moneywise

Of course, not every household follows the traditional gender roles. But data from the University of Wisconsin-Madison finds that women still spend twice as many hours doing physical housework as their male partners.

It doesn’t stop there. Allison Daminger, an assistant professor of sociology, found in her research that in 80% of opposite-sex couples, women shoulder most of the cognitive labor — things like managing family calendars, planning meals and checking on homework.

5 myths about food expiration dates and best-by labels

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The Washington Post

Kathy Glass, who recently retired as associate director at the Food Research Institute at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, said she respects “use-by” dates and other storage guidance (like an ideal fridge temperature) on refrigerated products, particularly those designed to be eaten cold.

“Many manufacturers have researched spoilage versus safety to determine those dates,” she said. On those keep-cold products, she said the phrase “use by” signals “they’ve done their studies to demonstrate that if you would use it by that particular date, and you kept it at a good refrigeration temperature, it should be safe.” Food should be refrigerated between 35 and 40 degrees, she said.

UW-Madison computer science prepares to relocate, meet ‘AI moment’

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The Cap Times

When he looks at Morgridge Hall, though, he’s filled with excitement. The newly built facility will soon house UW-Madison’s School of Computer, Data & Information Sciences, or CDIS.

Arpaci-Dusseau recently took over as director of the rapidly growing school. Enrollment nearly doubled from the 2018-19 academic year to about 6,200 students in 2024-2025. The school also houses the university’s two largest majors: computer sciences, followed by data science.

Lawmakers unveil bold plan to build game-changing energy device in unexpected location: ‘An incredible opportunity for the future’

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The Cool Down

A group of researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison has been working with local Realta Fusion to make fusion energy a reality, but they’re not the only ones, according to a report by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Three of the 45 companies working on fusion are already based in Wisconsin, and new bills supporting the advancement of this promising clean energy technology could draw even more to the area.

Expert: Cellcom outage highlights infrastructure issues in rural areas

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NBC 26

A University of Wisconsin–Madison professor says the recent Cellcom outage may be exposing a larger problem: insufficient investment in communication infrastructure, particularly in rural regions.

Professor Parmesh Ramanathan, who teaches electrical and computer engineering, says many networks lack backup systems to keep services running when critical lines go down.

Survey finds Wisconsin farmers value sustainable practices

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Wisconsin Public Radio

A recent survey of Wisconsin’s farmers found that 56 percent of them believe climate change is happening. Another 26 percent think it isn’t happening, and 18 percent are unsure.

Michael Bell, the University of Wisconsin-Madison professor who helped conduct the study, said attitudes and behaviors don’t always match up. Bell found encouragement in how the farmers are acting, not their beliefs. The same survey asked farmers if they are practicing any of 15 different sustainable agricultural practices.

Elissa’s journey: A young mom’s relentless battle for life after colorectal cancer hit

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USA Today

As Elissa and Russell said their vows, Xu and Cain were working to build HistoSonics, the company they’d formed in 2009 with Tim Hall, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and J. Brian Fowlkes, a professor of radiology and biomedical engineering at U-M.

Their company created the Edison System, a device with a robotic arm that delivers precision histotripsy treatments using a specialized, high-powered ultrasound transducer through a tub of water.

I joined Meta during its ‘year of efficiency.’ I used 4 strategies to get promoted and grow my salary by $300,000 in 2 years.

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Business Insider

In the summer before I graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, I had the opportunity to intern with Meta. I loved the scale of the projects the company worked on, and I returned to the company full time as a software engineer in 2023 — Meta’s “year of efficiency.”

Wisconsin GOP lawmakers praise Trump order restricting funds for ‘gain-of-function’ research

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Wisconsin Public Radio

Still, other researchers argue broad restrictions on gain-of-function research could stifle studies that could ultimately protect people from risky viruses. The University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Medical College of Wisconsin testified against the bill last year.

“Gain-of-function experiments allow investigators to understand the complex nature of host-pathogen interactions that underlie transmission, infection, and pathogenesis and can help attribute biological function to genes and proteins,” a UW-Madison spokesperson said in a statement to WPR.

UW-Madison conducts a wide range of health and disease studies, including research that helps track viruses like avian influenza. The university is assessing how the order and related NIH guidance might affect research on campus, the spokesperson said.

Federal cuts threaten Wisconsin farm safety center for children, rural communities

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Wisconsin Public Radio

“Without the continued research that’s made possible with federal funding, it would set us back,” said John Shutske, an agricultural safety and health specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “We’ve seen over the last several decades a pretty dramatic decrease overall in our farm fatality rate. And while I think [the number of deaths] would probably plateau, I don’t think we would be able to continue to make the kind of progress that we’ve had.”

Stretch of dry weather is a welcome change for Northeast Wisconsin farmers

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FOX 11, Green Bay

Kevin Jarek, regional crops and soils educator with UW-Madison’s Division of Extension for Outagamie & Winnebago counties, noted, “If I were to go to counties like Shawano and Waupaca, especially the western parts of those counties, they get much lighter in soil. It’s a sandy loam texture, whereas here as we get closer to Lake Michigan, we tend to have a lot of clay.”

With UW-Madison roots, Google office in Wisconsin works on data centers, chips for AI

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Wisconsin Public Radio

Whenever you do a Google search or send a Gmail, an office in Madison, Wisconsin has a supporting role.

The office, in a nondescript commercial building overlooking Wisconsin’s Capitol, is more than 2,000 miles from Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, California. But it’s home to over 100 engineers at work on designing hardware and software for the tech giant’s data centers.