July 17, 2023

“The echo chamber is very strong,” and a mega-analysis of headlines shows members of the public “need to be more conscious consumers of news,” says Jiebo Luo, a professor of computer science, who spearheaded the research. (Getty Images photo)

A team of researchers led by Jiebo Luo, a professor of computer science and the Albert Arendt Hopeman Professor of Engineering, recently applied artificial intelligence in an interesting way that could help us all become better media consumers. The team used machine learning to analyze 1.8 million headlines from major US news outlets to understand discrepancies between how media across the political spectrum present stories differently.

The researchers found that news stories about domestic politics and social issues are becoming increasingly polarized along ideological lines. Previous studies dissecting the differences among outlets were limited in scope and used small sample sizes, but machine-learning techniques allowed the researchers to study a vast sample of headlines from 2014-2022 across nine representative media outlets.

As Jiebo says, “For consumers, it’s useful to know this information because the echo chamber effect is very strong and people are used to only listening to things they like to hear. Showing the divergence and the increased partisanship may make them aware that they need to be more conscious consumers of news.”

Congratulations to the research team for this impactful study. Read more at the News Center.

NEW TECHNIQUE MAY HELP ACHIEVE MASS PRODUCTION FUSION ENERGY

View through the OMEGA laser’s 20-cm disk amplifiers at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics. In a scaled-down, proof-of-principle experiment, Rochester researchers used the laser to demonstrate a critical step in the dynamic shell concept. (University of Rochester photo / J. Adam Fenster)

Researchers at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE) have, for the first time, experimentally demonstrated a method called dynamic shell formation, which may help achieve the goal of creating a fusion power plant. The researchers, including Igor Igumenshchev, a senior scientist at LLE, and Valeri Goncharov, a distinguished scientist and theory division director at LLE and an assistant professor (research) in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, discuss their findings in a paper published in Physical Review Letters.

Valeri first described dynamic shell formation in a paper in 2020, but the concept hadn’t been demonstrated experimentally. In a scaled-down, proof-of-principle experiment, Igor, Valeri, and their colleagues used LLE’s OMEGA laser to shape a sphere of plastic foam that had the same density as deuterium-tritium liquid fuel into a shell, demonstrating a critical step in the dynamic shell concept.

Congratulations to the research team on this exciting development. Read more at the News Center.

CMAP SUMMER SCHOOL

Seventeen undergraduate students from top universities across the country participated in the Discovery Science Center Summer School for Matter at Extreme Conditions in the Laboratory and the Cosmos from June 25 to July 1.

The Center for Matter at Atomic Pressures (CMAP), a National Science Foundation Physics Frontiers Center at the University of Rochester, recently hosted undergraduates from colleges and universities across the country for an opportunity to learn more about the physics of extreme states of matter. The Discovery Science Center Summer School for Matter at Extreme Conditions in the Laboratory and the Cosmos was an intensive week-long residential summer program that brought 17 students from top schools to our campus.

Alejandro Porras Diaz ’25 (mechanical engineering) attended the camp alongside others from Brigham Young University; University of California, Davis; University of California, Los Angeles; University of California, Berkeley; Cornell University; Rutgers University; Brown University; Idaho State University; University of Florida; Jackson State University; and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

The students got immersed in the science of extreme pressure and high-energy-density physics, used python to understand recent discoveries in astrophysics, planetary science, and quantum materials, accessed interdisciplinary computational, educational, and research tools and techniques, and learned from CMAP’s leading physicists, astrophysicists, and planetary scientists.

Led by Professor Pierre-Alexandre Gourdain from the Department of Physics and Astronomy, this was an important step for students with bright research careers ahead. Thanks to all who supported the summer camp.

Have a great week!

Your dean,
Wendi Heinzelman