Research

New Smithsonian-�鶹��Ƶ opportunity offers students a pathway to conservation science

Colleen Rich — Wed, 29 Oct 2025 18:43:54 +0000

New Smithsonian-�鶹��Ƶ opportunity offers students a pathway to conservation science Colleen Rich Wed, 10/29/2025 - 14:43

From cloning endangered black-footed ferrets to using drone technology to track wildlife to caring for red pandas up close, researchers at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute are working at the forefront of conservation science. As a global leader in conservation research, the Smithsonian-�鶹��Ƶ School of Conservation (SMSC), which is a partnership between �鶹��Ƶ and the Smithsonian, offers hands-on experiences to undergraduate students that few other institutions can match.

Photo by Cristian Torres/Office of University Branding

Now, students across the country can apply to take part in this kind of hands-on opportunity thanks to a ten-week summer research experience at SMSC through the National Science Foundation-funded Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program.

The 2025 REU Saving Critically Endangered Species and Habitats: Next-Generation Education, Research, and Training for Conservation Biologists is only the second REU awarded to George �鶹��Ƶ. The program is led by College of Science dean and principal investigator Cody W. Edwards, alongside biology professor and co-principal investigator David Luther.

At the Smithsonian’s Front Royal, Virginia, site, 10 participants will take part in field-based conservation projects. These students will work on developing strategies to preserve endangered species and acquire skills applicable to careers in conservation biology.

“One of the best things about George �鶹��Ƶ is the wide range of backgrounds and experiences our students bring, along with the access we provide to top-tier research thanks to our location and partnerships with leading institutions like the Smithsonian,” said Edwards. “Hosting an REU allows us to expand that access nationwide, reaching students who are passionate about conservation and eager to make an impact, but who may not yet be aware of the opportunities available at George �鶹��Ƶ.”

Edwards said the REU will act as an “amplifier,” offering a launchpad for students who have the passion and potential but lack exposure to advanced training in the field.

“This learning opportunity is incredibly difficult to replicate as you get both a world-class education, along with an expanded network of top industry professionals,” said Edwards. “Many students apply to work with Smithsonian scientists and researchers at George �鶹��Ƶ, and now this REU provides a broader pathway to do that.”

Participants will engage with researchers and mentors like Edwards and Luther in a collaborative setting that blends fieldwork and lab-based research. Through these collaborations, students will deepen their research experience, gain critical career skills, grow professional networks, and generate findings with potential to impact conservation efforts globally.

“Everyone I’ve met got their start with the help of a good mentor,” said Luther. “People can do a lot of good work on their own, but having someone to guide you early on, someone who helps shape how you approach problems, work through challenges, and make sound decisions is invaluable. That’s why I think this grant and the research experience it offers undergraduates is so special.”

Students will focus their work in one of three core areas aligned with the school’s expertise: assessing and monitoring wild populations, studying ecological resilience in the face of environmental threats, or improving the care and management of species in human care.

The SMSC is distinguished by its rich history of renowned experts and visionary faculty dedicated to educating and inspiring the next generation of conservation leaders. Over the years, the school has welcomed some of the most influential figures in environmental science. The late Jane Goodall, a global icon of wildlife conservation, visited the campus in 2017, 2018, and 2019 to share her insights and engage with students. George �鶹��Ƶ’s Department of Environmental Science and Policy was also home to the legendary Thomas Lovejoy, often referred to as the “Godfather of Biodiversity,” who mentored some of SMSC’s current faculty.

“What excites me most about the REU is the opportunity it creates, not just for the individual students, but for the broader conservation community,” Edwards said. “Their work can spark new ideas and help drive forward conservation initiatives beyond their own project, and builds networks of individuals who can collaborate to drive big changes.”

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College of Science

Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute

Research

New program reduces burnout in dementia caregivers, novel research evaluation proves

Taylor Thomas — Wed, 29 Oct 2025 12:41:27 +0000

New program reduces burnout in dementia caregivers, novel research evaluation proves Taylor Thomas Wed, 10/29/2025 - 08:41

In This Story

Y. Alicia Hong, PhD

As the old saying goes, you cannot pour from an empty cup. To give time and energy to others, it is vital to attend to one’s own well-being. As the U.S. population ages, there is a growing demand for tools that support the more than 19 million people who serve as caregivers of family members with Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementias (ADRD). Family caregivers of individuals with ADRD are vulnerable to poor mental and physical health due to long-term, strenuous caregiving and lack of support.

Kang Shen. Photo provided

A novel process (i.e., delivery and functionality) evaluation developed by Kang Shen, PhD health services research student at �鶹��Ƶ’s College of Public Health, establishes that user-friendly digital interventions are the solution. WECARE 2.0, a culturally tailored digital health program, is proof as it has enhanced caregivers’ physical and mental health.

“WECARE’s approach—combining cultural relevance with an accessible, widely used technology app—proved to be highly effective and well-accepted by users. High user satisfaction, participant retention, and significant improvements in caregiving skills and positive aspects of caregiving all point to WECARE’s promising early results,” said Shen, who is a first-generation student and also has a bachelor's and master's degrees in health informatics from George �鶹��Ƶ.

The study, Process evaluation of a digital health intervention for dementia caregivers: Integrating active and passive measurements, was published in September 2025 in Alzheimer’s & Dementia, the premier journal of the Alzheimer’s Association and the leading journal in the field.

Participants became more knowledgeable about ADRD, learned problem-solving strategies, improved their personal caregiving skills, reduced stress, increased social support, while being user-friendly.

“This program [WECARE] is so good, easy to understand, even for a 70-year-old. I don’t like reading text and can play the recording instead. I like your how-to videos; I can open them whenever I want and watch them multiple times,” one program participant shared.

WECARE, which was originally designed by Y. Alicia Hong, a Department of Health Administration professor and digital technologies intervention researcher and specialist, was delivered through the social media app WeChat. Through the platform, researchers provide easily accessible educational articles and videos, tips on practicing self-care, and opportunities for social connection with other caregivers.

Innovative Evaluation Methods

Shen’s process evaluation of WECARE 2.0 is the first to employ multiple—qualitative and quantitative—data collection methods. With data from surveys, interviews, self-reported reviews, and website engagement, Shen measured how often participants opened the app and its accompanying resources, how long they spent using the resources, and feedback of the program at the intervention’s conclusion.

Shen’s approach also highlights the importance of creating tools that do not simply exist but are observable to implementers for timely improvement. Unlike previous evaluative methods, her use of short surveys (active measurement) and tracking user activities on the backend (passive measurement) offers program developers comprehensive insight into what works, what doesn’t work, and why throughout the intervention process.

This innovative process evaluation method can facilitate developing more effective digital health interventions for underserved dementia caregivers. Results are being integrated into the next version of WECARE and can inspire future interventions.

“This study serves as a framework for creating and evaluating digital health tools that are culturally grounded and genuinely accessible for diverse, underserved caregiving communities. Our goal is to inspire a shift toward more inclusive and effective support systems that meet caregivers where they are, leveraging familiar technologies to overcome access barriers,” said Shen.

Her research was supported by Hong. Additional co-authors include Yixuan (Janice) Zhang from the College of William and Mary Department of Computer Science, Hae-Ra Han from the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing, Jessica Lin from the George �鶹��Ƶ's Department of Computer Science, and Kenneth Hepburn from the Emory University School of Nursing.

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PhD in Health Services Research

Digital Health

Research

GCI-Grand Challenge Initiative

Alumni

Taiwan Security Monitor: Research Project Turns into a Vital Communication Platform for a Threatened Part of the World

Andrew J Schappert — Mon, 27 Oct 2025 15:44:27 +0000

Taiwan Security Monitor: Research Project Turns into a Vital Communication Platform for a Threatened Part of the World Andrew J Schappert Mon, 10/27/2025 - 11:44

A recent map created by Schar School students for the Taiwan Security Monitor: The research platform ‘has evolved exponentially in ways I could not have possibly envisioned when I set off down this path,’ said Michael Hunzeker.

Taiwan lacks its own cable repair vessels, meaning damage to underwater cables crucial to the island nation’s international communications and internet connectivity can take six to eight weeks or more to repair. The lack of repair capabilities is a serious resilience risk and a dire national security concern for a county that is in the crosshairs of China.

That unsettling discovery was made by student researchers at the Taiwan Security Monitor (TSM), a student-driven online research initiative housed at the Schar School of Policy and Government at �鶹��Ƶ.

Directed by founder Michael Hunzeker, a Schar School associate professor and associate director of the Center for Security Policy Studies, TSM functions with a staff of 18 undergraduate and graduate students who learn to use sophisticated mapping and analytic tools to produce research highlighting Taiwan’s vulnerabilities and strengths.

Hunzeker said the web platform began in 2021 as “an informal research project to create an open-source intelligence map of the Indo-Pacific.” The first iteration was created with the help of then-Master of International Security student Sophia Lutz and several volunteer undergraduates.

The project “has evolved exponentially in ways I could not have possibly envisioned when I set off down this path," Hunzeker said.

Last year, with the help of the newly recruited researchers—including PhD, masters, and undergraduate students working collaboratively—TSM relaunched with a higher profile and a social media presence boasting some 10,000 followers on X alone.

“We have had at least two tweets with over a million views,” Hunzeker said, an indication that the platform is being recognized—and taken seriously.

“Over the last few years, we’ve grown from a small team with limited scope to something that compares to think tanks in terms of insight and contributions to discourse on Taiwan,” said Schar School senior Noah Reed, a government and international politics major.

Reed, who is TSM’s research director, has been with the project since coming to George �鶹��Ƶ as a freshman. He was intrigued not only by the research but by the tools that the TSM employs.

TSM uses open-source intelligence (OSINT) to generate data, visualizations, maps, thematic case studies, and other resources for scholars and policy communities. Its updates on arms sales and deliveries, military movements, and maritime and air activity provide accessible information that supports public discourse and informs decision-makers charged with protecting the country from adversaries.

“We also provide tailored data and imagery analysis for private sector companies,” Hunzeker added. “Our work and our researchers have been cited by the Wall Street Journal, Taiwan Plus, CNA/Focus Taiwan, Le Monde, Newsweek, and Taiwan News.”

“We’ve attracted some attention,” said TSM research team lead Joe O’Connor. As a freshman, the international security and law senior discovered the opportunity to work with Hunzeker on the then-incipient TSM project through the Schar School’s Undergraduate Research Assistant Program (URAP). URAP places students interested in learning research methods with faculty mentors who share the same interests.

Monitoring destroyers as they move through the Taiwan Strait and tracking arms sales backlogs for four to six hours a week has inspired O’Connor to pursue intelligence as a post-graduate career, perhaps, “in the public service, in the Pentagon, auditing, something in the policy-making field,” he said.

Reed said TSM teaches its researchers a very unique set of skills not found elsewhere at George �鶹��Ƶ.

“Not only do we learn and teach how to bridge the language barrier while doing research,” he said, “but also we get hands-on experience with things like satellite imagery, geolocation, data visualization, and more.

“That helps in pretty much all your research outside of the project but also gives you experience to do anything, from open-source human rights and arms control verification to supply chain risk management.”

Most of the TSM team is made up of volunteers, he said, while other receive a course credit as they acquire research skills.

“We do it because we enjoy the work and think we’re positively contributing to the research environment on Taiwan’s security,” he added.

If any of this sounds interesting, said Reed, “and you have prior experience researching OSINT or Taiwan, you should consider applying to the project for the spring semester.”

Noah Reed: ‘Not only do we learn and teach how to bridge the language barrier while doing research, but also we get hands-on experience with things like satellite imagery, geolocation, data visualization, and more.’

In This Story

Michael Hunzeker

Request program information

Learn more about the Schar School

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Master of International Security

Government and International Politics

International Security and Law

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BA International Security and Law

Schar School of Policy and Government

Schar School Featured Stories

Research

Defense and Security

George �鶹��Ƶ and King’s College London win Google Award to fight AI-driven romance scams targeting older adults

Nathan Kahl — Sun, 26 Oct 2025 23:23:41 +0000

George �鶹��Ƶ and King’s College London win Google Award to fight AI-driven romance scams targeting older adults Nathan Kahl Sun, 10/26/2025 - 19:23

The term “catfishing” entered mainstream use with the release of the eponymous 2010 documentary investigating the practice of creating fake online personas, frequently to scam someone. Today, AI is pushing this practice to a frightening new level, with the prospect of older adults falling for what are called “romance scams.”

Sanchari Das, an assistant professor in �鶹��Ƶ’s Department of Information Sciences and Technology, and Ruba Abu-Salma, an associate professor in the department of computer science at King’s College London, received a $100,000 Google Academic Research Award to help keep older adults safe online. Their project, Scammed by Love: Toward Mitigating AI-Facilitated Romance Scams Against Older Adults Through Empirical and Cross-National Studies, will investigate the prevalence of such scams targeting older adults and will create educational tools to help them safely navigate dating apps.

The researchers will conduct a multi-national study spanning 13 countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom. Das, who has published research on older adults and their online dating habits, said, “We think about older adults in terms of health care needs, but we don't think about dating and romance. I learned that a majority of older-adult scams come from scam dating, and the victims cannot even share that it happened with their support networks, like their children, because it would be such a taboo and embarrassing thing to share.” Das added that an estimated $3 billion is lost each year in the United States to romance scams across all age groups, based on reported figures. “And that’s only what’s being reported.” Das is concerned that while romance scams are among the most prevalent forms of fraud affecting older adults, this population remains understudied in this context.

AI is making romance scams even harder to detect. iStock photo.

With roughly 12 percent of Americans over 70 having used a dating app or site, there is significant exposure for financial harm. Given the rapid advances in AI-generated images, video, audio, and simulated emotional expression, these attacks are increasing. One news story (of many) tells of a UK resident who scammed at least 10 female victims over 11 years out of 100,000 British pounds.

Abu-Salma, who has also published research on older adults and other at-risk groups, noted that according to a recent 2025 study by Lloyds Bank, “Individuals aged 55 to 64 are the most targeted age group, accounting for 20 percent of romance scam victims, followed by those aged 65 to 74, who represent18 percent of cases.”

In response to these risks, Das and Abu-Salma’s project will proceed in three phases. First, they will analyze data from focus groups and surveys of older adults in countries with high dating-app adoption. Second, they will develop educational safety materials. Third, they will hold in-person community workshops in the United States and the UK, partnering with older adult communities to refine and disseminate these materials. The team will work with organizations worldwide to share their findings online.

Das said she is excited about this collaboration and grateful to receive such highly competitive Google Academic Research Award in the Trust, Safety, Security, and Privacy research domain, noting, “We all know about deepfakes, but the bigger issue is that scammers are no longer just swapping faces. They are creating entirely new personas that feel real, so you may not even question whether the person you are talking to exists.” She added, “Our goal is to equip older adults with simple tools and support so they can connect online with confidence.”

In This Story

Sanchari Das

Topics

Cyber Security

Information Sciences and Technology Departmenat

Older Adults

Research

Google

Artificial Intelligence

The hidden cost of environmental policy uncertainty

Katelynn C Hipolito — Tue, 21 Oct 2025 15:30:50 +0000

The hidden cost of environmental policy uncertainty Katelynn C Hipolito Tue, 10/21/2025 - 11:30

Air quality standards do more than reduce pollution for noncompliant counties; they increase the cost of funding public infrastructure like schools, hospitals, and roads.

Air pollution regulations are meant to protect public health, but new evidence shows they also carry an unexpected cost: higher interest rates on the bonds counties issue to fund schools, hospitals, and infrastructure. When a county falls out of compliance with federal ozone standards, borrowing becomes expensive. The result is that the municipality faces higher costs to fund public infrastructure like schools, hospitals, and roads.

Stephen A. Karolyi

That is the central finding of a study published in Management Science, authored by Stephen A. Karolyi, a finance professor at Costello College of Business at �鶹��Ƶ, and co-authors Akshaya Jha and Nicholas Z. Muller of Carnegie Mellon University.

The study focuses on how the municipal bond market responds to the Clean Air Act, which sets thresholds for pollutants like ozone. The official term for exceeding the threshold for ozone pollution is “nonattainment.”

“If your county is not compliant with this federal standard, then there are repercussions. You have to create a plan to get back in attainment,” explains Karolyi. Prior work has shown how these federal standards generate significant health benefits relative to these compliance costs.

But for investors in municipal bonds, this raises two concerns: higher default risk due to strained county finances, and uncertainty about how regulations will evolve.

The researchers focused on two critical types of announcements. First is when the EPA proposes and finalizes new ozone standards. Second is when the EPA releases its annual designations of which counties are in or out of attainment. Together, these announcements create information shocks that allow researchers to track how bond markets update their expectations. The team measured changes in municipal bond yields surrounding the two types of announcements, analyzing more than 140 million trades between 2005 and 2019.

“Because municipal bond investors dislike uncertainty, one implication would be that policymakers should be concerned not only with the level of air quality standards, but also uncertainty over changes in air quality standards.”

The results reveal a consistent pattern. When new standards were proposed, yields rose by one to four percent, reflecting an increase in uncertainty perceived by investors. Once the final standard was announced, the estimated yields fell by about 0.5 to 1.3 percent, due to a corresponding decrease in uncertainty. When analyzing the annual compliance announcements, the authors found that counties that slipped into nonattainment experienced an increase in yields of nearly one percent, compared to counties that maintained their status or newly achieved attainment.

“Being non-compliant means that you’ll have to create and execute abatement plans, which bondholders expect to be costly,” explains Karolyi. Those expectations push yields higher, which makes it more expensive for counties to fund public infrastructure projects and services, though the current study does not explore all possible channels that are impacted.

The research shows that these expectations are well-founded. Karolyi explains, “When the bond market reacts more negatively to annual compliance announcements, we see larger decreases in house prices over the subsequent years. That’s consistent with the perceived cost of getting back into attainment. As a county, in order to get into attainment, one approach may be to restrict output, which may mean less employment and consequently a decrease in house prices.”

The implications are wide-ranging. For policymakers and local leaders, the findings underscore that environmental regulations also have repercussions for public finance. For investors, the findings highlight how traditionally safe assets like municipal bonds are sensitive to environmental policy risk.

Looking ahead, the researchers plan to extend their work to other areas where environmental rules intersect with local finance. Commercial real estate, for example, is an emerging area of interest as cities experiment with new sustainability requirements.

By examining how financial markets respond to environmental regulation, the team hopes to shed light on the hidden economic tradeoffs and potential unintended consequences of well-intentioned policies. To be sure, prior work has documented that more stringent air quality standards have generated billions of dollars in public health improvements. According to Karolyi, a key contribution of this paper is to show that these benefits come about in part due to investors anticipating the effects of standards and the costs of noncompliance.

“Because municipal bond investors dislike uncertainty, one implication would be that policymakers should be concerned not only with the level of air quality standards, but also uncertainty over changes in air quality standards,” Karolyi says.

In This Story

Stephen A. Karolyi

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Finance - Costello

Costello Research Risk Management

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Research

Anonymity’s ARX nemesis

Nathan Kahl — Mon, 20 Oct 2025 15:12:08 +0000

Anonymity’s ARX nemesis Nathan Kahl Mon, 10/20/2025 - 11:12

A team of faculty and students from �鶹��Ƶ recently discovered a vulnerability in a widely used anonymization tool. They presented their findings last week in Taiwan at the Association for Computing Machinery Conference on Computer and Communications Security (ACM CCS), one of the world’s most prestigious computer security conferences, with a very low paper acceptance rate.

The problem they discovered was with ARX, an open-source data anonymization tool, which provides what is referred to as k-anonymity. It is a commonly used tool in clinical settings to maintain data privacy. The discovery is particularly important at a time when more and more private data is being used in a variety settings and systems.

Evgenios Kornaropoulos, an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science, said, “Sometimes this type of microdata is very valuable. Tools like ARX anonymize the data so it’s compliant with HIPAA, and then that data can be shared with policymakers, engineers, scientists, and others who will make policy decisions and scientific studies based on this information.”

While many people receiving medical care are comfortable with their information being included in larger data sets for purposes of medical discovery, they likely do not want personal, identifiable information released.

“For patients, and especially those from more vulnerable or marginalized communities, data privacy is not an abstract concern, it’s deeply tied to trust in the health care system," said paper co-author Rebecca Sutter, a professor in the School of Nursing, and director of the MAP Clinics. "The integrity of tools like ARX matters because they underpin how we protect patient information while advancing public health research. When anonymization fails, it’s not only a technical vulnerability, it’s a human one."

Computer science PhD student Somiya Chhillar, lead author on the paper, said that the ubiquity of ARX was a reason they chose to study it. “We wanted to see how ARX really operates and how the algorithm works. While we were doing that, we realized that a few of the steps that it takes are very opportunistic, and because of that, it leaks information that we shouldn't be finding out by just looking at the anonymized data.”

Chhillar said that ARX follows a “greedy strategy,” explaining that there is a tension between privacy and utility. When data is shared, it should be useful without leaking information. The best metric for deciding the data usefulness is measured by information loss while the data is being made private. “The algorithm tries to minimize information loss while anonymizing the data, and ideally, we want the least possible information loss. And that's the greedy aspect of it; it's not always going for the most private, it’s just going for the most utility.”

This is what backfires, said Kornaropoulos, because experts (or attackers) can reverse engineer the anonymization steps the algorithm took throughout its execution to maximize utility and figure out properties of the data that were there before and after this anonymization step.

Kornaropoulos praised his student’s dedication to the discovery, noting that Chhillar “worked on this project for a while, and this code base of ARX is an elaborate tool, with thousands of lines of code. She had to go through it to truly internalize understand everything that's going on there,” he said.

The project was supported by a Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI) grant from the program, “Securing Interactions between Humans and Machines,” and as a requirement of the grant, the project crossed different parts of the university. The College of Engineering and Computing collaborated with �鶹��Ƶ and Partners (MAP) Clinics, which provided the data.

In This Story

Evgenios Kornaropoulos

Rebecca Sutter, DNP, APRN, BC-FNP

Learn more about Cybersecurity at George �鶹��Ƶ

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Data Mining in Health Care

Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI)

Research

PiVoT Peace Lab transforms conflict into connection

Sarah Holland — Fri, 17 Oct 2025 13:35:41 +0000

PiVoT Peace Lab transforms conflict into connection Sarah Holland Fri, 10/17/2025 - 09:35

Look at any newsfeed in the United States, and it won’t take long to find an article, op-ed, or think piece on the growing divide between Americans. Left vs right, liberal vs conservative, blue vs red: political polarization has become a hot topic in American media as both a cause and a symptom of growing tensions across the country.

But what’s missing from the conversation is the solution. How do we find common ground and bridge these growing gaps to create a more peaceful future?

In the Polarization and Violence Transformed (PiVoT) Peace Lab in the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution, researchers and practitioners are developing methods for peace-oriented responses to the negative impacts of extreme polarization and conflict around the globe.

Daniel Rothbart. Photo by Creative Services/Office of University Branding

“Most protracted violent conflicts are identity-based, meaning that the militants of one identity group are in a violent engagement with the militants or civilians of another identity group,” said Daniel Rothbart, Druscilla French Chair in Conflict Analysis and Resolution and director of the PiVoT Peace Lab. “That type of destructive polarization that encourages dehumanization is often at the center of these conflicts.”

The lab hosts a number of student- and researcher-led projects diving deeply into polarization: its causes, its consequences, and its possible solutions.

“It’s created for me this exciting opportunity to not only explore these important issues, but also to work with amazing students at all levels of our program,” said Rothbart.

One of those students is PiVoT Peace Lab manager Randy Lioz. Lioz, a master’s student in conflict analysis and resolution, developed an interest in the study of polarization in 2016, when conversations with friends and family about the 2016 presidential election highlighted contrasting viewpoints.

“I thought that what we’re missing are the tools and skills to have these conversations that could bring us into better understanding with one another,” he said. Since pivoting his career from the automotive industry to peacebuilding, Lioz has worked with practitioners and academics to develop methods and strategies for engaging opposite sides in relationship building that can break the cycles of dehumanization that fuel negative polarization.

“We need to understand what forces exist and how they push people toward radicalization, extremism, and alienation,” Lioz explained, “and then we need to figure out the best interventions.”

“Our mission as peacebuilders is to not only understand violent conflicts, but to help change the relationship among antagonist groups and help them transform,” said Rothbart.

As part of the peace lab’s mission to develop methods of reducing or eliminating the negative impacts of polarization and to foster this transformation, one of Lioz’s ongoing projects is leading the Depolarization Labs and Trainers Alliance (DeLTA). DeLTA brings scholars and practitioners together to build connections and explore pathways for bridging the growing divide.

Randy Lioz. Photo provided.

“Putting nonprofit partners in the same room as academics gives folks who are working in this field a place where they can talk about their research and connect it back to practice on the ground,” Lioz said.

DeLTA’s upcoming conference on October 27, “Pathways Forward: How Can We Restore Trust and Faith in America?” will give students, scholars, and practitioners the opportunity to learn about intervention techniques from national nonprofit leaders and university professors across the greater Washington, D.C., region.

“Right now, our faith in our institutions has been shaken, and this is existential for us. We need to rebuild our social capital and our trust in each other,” said Lioz. “I want people to get inspired by the work that’s being done to bring us all back into community with one another, particularly students who might want to pursue this field as a career. I want this to motivate us to tackle this existential problem of our time.”

But still, the question posed by the media remains: Can we come back from this?

Lioz and Rothbart believe so.

“Just as the forces of polarization have increased, I see the forces of depolarization are also intensifying. I see it in the strength and resilience that all over the nation, in how people are protecting the most vulnerable populations,” said Rothbart. “We talk about polarization as if it’s an inevitability; polarization is not inevitable, nor is it irreversible. There are so many reasons to be hopeful.”

Learn more about the 2025 DeLTA conference

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Daniel Rothbart

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Campus News

Research

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution

PiVoT Peace Lab

GCI-Grand Challenge Initiative

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The brain may not be a muscle, but it still needs exercise

Taylor Thomas — Thu, 16 Oct 2025 14:09:59 +0000

The brain may not be a muscle, but it still needs exercise Taylor Thomas Thu, 10/16/2025 - 10:09

In This Story

Emily Ihara, PhD, MSW, FGSA

As we age, keeping our bodies active helps us stay healthier for longer and protects against chronic disease. We can also exercise our brains to prevent age-related mental decline with activities like reading aloud, writing by hand, and simple math exercises.

Photo by Getty Images

The idea of “working out” the mind is core to the StrongerMemory program, a rigorous brain training curriculum developed by the Goodwin Living Foundation and tested by �鶹��Ƶ social workers. Gerontology research specialist Emily Ihara, with co-investigator George �鶹��Ƶ Professor of Social Work Catherine J. Tompkins, found that mental exercise such as preventing age-related mental decline resulted in both self-reported and researcher-assessed improvements in key brain health indicators among older adult participants.

“The StrongerMemory program was associated with both objective and subjective improvements in cognitive functioning among older adults. The components stimulated and strengthened working memory, attention, and decision-making processes,” said Ihara, professor and chair in the Department of Social Work at George �鶹��Ƶ’s College of Public Health (CPH).

Unlike previous cognitive exercise programs, which focused on a single aspect of brain health (e.g., memory or attention alone), the activities of this program were specifically chosen to stimulate multiple parts of the brain with the goal of combating progression of Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementias (ADRD).

“By combining reading aloud, writing by hand, and simple math exercises, the program engages multiple cognitive pathways, offering broader benefits than single-domain approaches. The results can inform practitioners, policymakers, and families about practical, affordable, non-pharmacological ways to possibly mitigate cognitive decline and promote healthy aging,” said Ihara.

Emily Ihara. Photo by Ayman Rashid/Office of University Branding

Older adults in the StrongerMemory program participated in three daily activities for 30 minutes per day: 10 minutes each of reading aloud, writing by hand, and completing simple math problems. The program was tailored, allowing participants choice in reading material and writing content. For example, some older adults chose to write letters to family. At the conclusion, implementers interviewed participants and conducted tests on memory recall, verbal fluency, attention, dates, and location.

Age-related cognitive decline can include memory loss, lapses in attention, trouble performing daily tasks, and confusion, among others that could be warnings of ADRD. Participants were recruited from older adult living communities, and self-reported cognitive decline but did not have a formal ADRD diagnosis.

Can brain exercises mitigate cognitive decline? A quasi-experimental evaluation of the StrongerMemory program was published July 2025 in Educational Gerontology.

Tompkins, who is also associate dean for faculty and staff affairs, and Hyun Kang from the James Madison University, and a former CPH postdoctoral researcher, served as co-authors of the study. Additionally, several George �鶹��Ƶ and CPH alumni were contributors, including Francesca A. Keesee, MSW ‘23; McKenzie S. Lauber, BSW ’23, MSW ‘24; Catherine M. Magee, MSW ‘23; Kendall Barrett, BSW ‘20, MSW ‘22; Madeline Holden, MSW ‘22; Harveen Pantleay, MSW ‘22; and Gergana N. Hardy, MA Sociology '24.

Read more about the efficacy of the StrongerMemory program:

I Have Decided to Read Out Loud for the Rest of My Life! Cognitive Health and the StrongerMemory Program

Boosting Cognitive Training through Social Engagement: Impacts on Older Adults With Subjective Cognitive Decline

�鶹��Ƶ the researcher

Emily Ihara is a social work and gerontology researcher focused on developing and evaluating community-based interventions that support cognitive health for people living with dementia and their caregivers. Her expertise bridges practice-based innovation and rigorous research methods, with an emphasis on accessible, scalable solutions to pressing challenges in aging societies.

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$3 million National Institute on Aging grant will provide much-needed support to underserved dementia caregivers

Taylor Thomas — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 13:11:07 +0000

$3 million National Institute on Aging grant will provide much-needed support to underserved dementia caregivers Taylor Thomas Wed, 10/15/2025 - 09:11

More than 7 million Americans live with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD), supported by 12 million unpaid family caregivers whose contributions are valued at $413 billion annually. As the U.S. population continues to age, the number of people with dementia and their caregivers will nearly triple by 2050. Innovative solutions to support family caregivers are urgently needed.

Y. Alicia Hong. Photo provided.

Now, with a $3 million grant from the National Institute on Aging (NIA), �鶹��Ƶ digital health intervention researcher Y. Alicia Hong is poised to change that. Hong led an interdisciplinary team to develop the Wellness Enhancement for Caregivers (WECARE) as a culturally tailored, digital health intervention to enhance caregiving skills and improve the well-being of dementia caregivers. The new grant will allow her team to further refine WECARE using artificial intelligence (AI) and evaluate it with a randomized controlled trial.

“WECARE is one of the first personalized digital interventions for dementia caregivers,” said Hong, a professor in the College of Public Health's Department of Health Administration and Policy. "Though it is designed for Chinese American dementia caregivers, it can be adapted for other groups and serve the growing demand for digital support for dementia caregivers in an aging society

The seven-week program will provide participants with informational ADRD multimedia content, quiz games, social networking with other caregivers, personalized feedback, and additional individualized resources. WECARE’s success will be evaluated by measuring the depressive symptoms reported by participants. The project also intends to identify barriers to and facilitators of WECARE’s adoption and long-term use.

This resource comes at a critical time as the aging population grows, and more people with ADRD require caregivers. Additionally, most family caregivers have chronic conditions due to prolonged and intensive dementia caregiving, causing an increased need for resources that sustain the health of family caregivers.

Hong’s grant titled “WECARE: A Personalized Intervention for Underserved Chinese American Dementia Caregivers” will take place from September 2025 to August 2030, for a total of $3,088,427. WECARE is directly responsive to NIA’s priority of effective interventions for ADRD-affected populations.

Hong studies the intersection of health services delivery and consumer informatics. Her work explores chronic care and self-care solutions through innovative digital technologies to improve patient-centered outcomes and enhance health care accessibility. Hong’s research focuses on implementation and dissemination science and leveraging digital technologies to enhance health services delivery.

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Y. Alicia Hong, PhD

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Resilient robots in rough terrain

Nathan Kahl — Tue, 14 Oct 2025 01:01:54 +0000

Resilient robots in rough terrain Nathan Kahl Mon, 10/13/2025 - 21:01

Xuesu Xiao oozes enthusiasm when he talks about his off-road robotics testbed in �鶹��Ƶ’s new Fuse building at �鶹��Ƶ Square.

The Robotixx team provided demonstrations to visitors during the Fuse grand celebration in September. Photo by Ron Aira/Office of University Branding

“I'm extremely excited about this because it’s an only-of-its-kind thing on the planet. Nowhere else has such abilities. Off-road mobility and autonomy is a very difficult area to study and investigate because you need to have supporting facilities, you need to have off-road terrain, and you need to have the vehicles. We have all of that,” said the computer science assistant professor.

Xiao is a roboticist who develops algorithms to make robots not only capable, but also intelligent. His goal is that robots will someday work in the real world; humans will stand aside while robots go places that humans don't want to—or simply cannot—go.

“We want them to go to a forest to search for a victim who is lost in the woods,” he said. “We have a proposal in review right now to build robot firefighters. We want them in the field, doing things like scientific exploration in the South Pole.”

Presently, autonomous driving generally involves road networks with traffic lights and lane markings. Xiao’s research focuses on motion planning: using machine learning to determine a series of movements to get a robot from a starting point to a goal while avoiding obstacles.

“That is where AI comes into place,” said Xiao. “We want robots not only to be programmed to do things, but also to learn from themselves, from the humans around them, and from each other.”

Xiao hosted visitors from the RoSys Group of the University of Catania, Italy. Pictured: assistant professor Giuseppe Sutera, Xiao, PhD student Francesco Cancelliere, and assistant professor Dario Calogero Guastella in the test bed. Photo by Ron Aira/Office of University Branding

The testbed where Xiao and students put their robots through their paces is about 700 square feet of rocks and faux vegetation. Xiao is intimately familiar with the space, having placed most of the rocks himself. “I'm very, very proud of this testbed, which has more than seven tons of rocks. I took five of our students of seven or eight trips to the landscaping store. It was an exhausting week!”

The terrain is rugged, designed to represent a real-life situation. “Off-road environments may get the robot stuck because the terrain may be deformable—changing shape under weight,” Xiao said. “Off-road terrain may make the robot roll over because, if there are a lot of rocks, they may need to crawl over them. You don't want the vehicle to roll over on top of those things. Successfully maneuvering this terrain is a very, very big thrust of our lab.”

The testbed is built to a one-tenth scale. A motion-capture system of eight cameras (soon to be upgraded to 16) surveils the entire terrain. Xiao says that his team knows exactly how the vehicles are moving with six-degrees-of-freedom tracking.

The year has been busy for Xiao, who in 2025 won the university-wide Presidential Award for Faculty Excellence and the College of Engineering and Computing’s Excellence in Research Award. He is also George �鶹��Ƶ’s sole nominee for the Rising Star Outstanding Faculty Award by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia.

While he appreciates that recognition, Xiao isn’t one to rest on his laurels. He is particularly excited about what’s next in the lab: He just ordered an autonomous Polaris “side-by-side”—a $300,000 autonomous off-road vehicle that can hold two people. He also talked about a capability that allows the testbed to be used far from George �鶹��Ƶ.

“I was at a conference in Korea, and we opened our testbed to the entire world by using a web interface. So, the attendees of the Conference on Robot Learning in Korea could drive our robots in Fuse in Arlington, Virginia.”

With robots at George �鶹��Ƶ taking commands from the other side of the globe, Xiao is showing that in robotics, there are no borders—only new frontiers to explore.

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