Following the racial and gender reckonings intensified by the #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo movements, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) has been the subject of significant public debate and widespread media attention. A new book from Rice University psychologists outlines the state-of-the-art science that makes the case for DEI.
Rice lab finds better way to handle hard-to-recycle material
Rice researchers have developed a new, energy-efficient upcycling method to transform glass fiber-reinforced plastic (GFRP) into silicon carbide, widely used in semiconductors, sandpaper and other products.
Data-processing tool could enable better early stage cancer detection
A team of Rice researchers has developed a tool that is better at integrating single-cell DNA and RNA data than more recent, state-of-the-art technologies. The findings could lead to better early stage cancer detection.
In September 2023, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona issued a warning call stating “Public schools are approaching a ‘make or break moment.’” This week, several North Texas schools announced potential school closures and staff position eliminations. Nationally, public schools lost over 1.2 million students to private and charter schools over the first two school years of the COVID-19 pandemic with Texas witnessing a 2.2% decline.
Rice’s Office of Innovation awards inaugural One Small Step Grants
The Office of Innovation at Rice announced four awardees of the inaugural One Small Step Grants, marking a significant milestone in accelerating the transition from lab to market for Rice-developed technologies. Launched in September 2023 the grant aims to support lab-stage projects across Rice, providing crucial capital for projects to spin out of the university and successfully attract investment from angel investors and venture capital.
The centers are the Rice Center for Nanoscale Imaging Sciences, Synthesis X Center, Center for Environmental Studies, Center for Latin American and Latinx Studies, and Center for Coastal Futures and Adaptive Resilience.
According to new research from Rice University and the University of Nebraska at Omaha, conservative-leaning job applicants indicate being less likely to pursue positions that require personal statements on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), and those negative reactions are not independent of anti-Black racism.
Rice researcher using statistics to shed light on the untold story of Africa’s Lake Chad Basin
Lake Chad, a large, shallow body of freshwater in North Central Africa, is vitally important to the livelihood of tens of millions of people living in the semi-arid, remote and impoverished region. Over the decades, the area’s inhabitants have adapted to extreme conditions affecting their water resources.
New CAAAS director Sherwin Bryant talks Black History Month, vision for center’s future
Sherwin Bryant is approaching his new role as director of the Center for African and African American Studies (CAAAS) with energy, enthusiasm and a vision that he said reflects the capacious and thoughtful energy that went into creating the center.
Widely used machine learning models reproduce dataset bias in Rice study
Rice researchers found two machine learning models widely used for immunotherapy research did not correct for bias present in the publicly available data used to train the models, which appears to favor higher-income populations.
New Rice research finds team coaching can improve health care and consequently save lives
Employee and team coaching are all the rage nowadays but are difficult to implement in the health care industry due to the specialized training required for most professions, including surgeries and other skilled medical care.
Live from the brain: Visual cues inform decision to cooperate
By combining behavioral and wireless eye tracking and neural monitoring, a team of Rice scientists and collaborators studied how pairs of freely moving macaques interacting in a naturalistic setting use visual cues to guide complex, cooperative behavior.
Though opioid overdose remedies are approved for over-the-counter usage, many Houston pharmacies have not made the lifesaving medication available, according to a report from Rice’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.
New Rice report offers options to improve ERCOT reliability
The reliability of electricity service in ERCOT has come under increased scrutiny since Winter Storm Uri in February 2021. Increasing demand will create issues, but there are several available “insurance” actions that will likely need to be called upon to ensure long-term reliability, according to a new report from Rice’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.
Rice’s Santiago Segarra wins NSF CAREER Award
Rice’s Santiago Segarra has won an NSF CAREER Award for his research on leveraging the structural properties of real-world data in order to boost AI effectiveness and utility.
