News: Students

2024

U. of C. contest seeks astronomy art from South Side students

February 2, 2024

An astronaut meets a celestial whale in a painting from the 2023 South Side Science Art Contest

Hyde Park Herald article highlights an art contest held by UChicago astronomy and astrophysics department with the aim of connecting more South Side elementary students to the cosmos.


Meet Alice Luna, Astronomy and Astrophysics

January 31, 2024

Alice Luna

Currently a third-year PhD student in Astronomy and Astrophysics, Alice Luna has been analyzing spectroscopic data from telescopes at Las Campanas Observatory to study the metallicity distributions of ultra-faint dwarf galaxies that provide archaeological access to the first stars and galaxies.


AI poisoning tool Nightshade received 250,000 downloads in 5 days

January 30, 2024

AI-generated image of a computer tower and monitor smoking

In a Venture Beat article, CS Prof. Ben Zhao comments on the fact that his lab's tool "Nightshade" has received 250,000 downloads in the five days since its release, saying that "the response is simply beyond anything we imagined."
 


Exploring 3D Paintbrush: An AI that colors with words

January 26, 2024

Selection of objects with 3D paintbrush details added

Using Cascaded Score Distillation, Dale Decatur and the 3DL lab create 3D Paintbrush: a tool that makes high-resolution 3D edits in localized regions of 3D objects.


University of Chicago professor, PhD students create tools to protect art from generative AI

January 25, 2024

Video still showing an AI interpretation of a Van Gogh painting

In an ABC 7 video, Prof. Ben Zhao discusses Nightshade, a tool that protects artwork from being mimicked by AI.


UChicago researchers form new dynamic bio interfaces to aid biosensing and treatment

January 23, 2024

Bozhi Tian

As their recent research in Nature Chemical Engineering demonstrates, the Bozhi Tian lab, led by graduate student Jiuyun Shi, has developed new interfaces that offer adaptability, precision, and targeted interactions with biological components, a discovery that could have significant implications for the future of healthcare.  


Nightshade, the free tool that ‘poisons’ AI models, is now available for artists to use

January 23, 2024

A hand pours a bottle of glowing purple liquid onto a keyboard of a vintage desktop PC displaying a pixelated purple skull and crossbones log amid flickering lines of static

Venture Beat article announces that "Nightshade" from the Computer Science Department's SAND Lab is now available for use.


Inno Under 25: The rising startup leaders to watch in Chicago

January 11, 2024

Inno under 25

A Business Journals article lists UChicago undergrads Aarthi Koripelly and Jackson Lee among the Inno Under 25 for their startup Quail.ai, which tied for first place in last year's College New Venture Challenge and participated in the data science accelerator Transform.


Group from CS to present four papers at most prestigious international quantum conference

January 11, 2024

Bill Fefferman

Assistant Professor Bill Fefferman and his group are headed to Taipei to present four works on today’s major quantum topics at QIP’24: the largest and most prestigious quantum computing research conference in the world.


Using electricity, scientists find promising new method of boosting chemical reactions

January 3, 2024

Anna Wuttig

Asst. Prof. Anna Wuttig and her team found a way to use electricity to boost a type of chemical reaction often used in synthesizing new candidates for pharmaceutical drugs, which may lay the foundation for greener chemistry.


2023

UChicago scientists innovate ‘hook and slide’ method to improve drug discovery

December 20, 2023

Image of fish hooks hanging against white background

UChicago scientists have developed a new "hook and slide" method where they can insert atoms within an already existing carbon framework. The innovation comes from a paper recently published in Science, by Rui Zhang, a fifth-year graduate student with the Guangbin Dong Lab. This new strategy developed by Zhang, with assistance from undergraduate Tingting Yu, promises to optimize medicinal chemistry.

Image by Skrypnykov Dmytro/Shutterstock


What to read and watch over winter break 2023

December 14, 2023

Black and white photo of a student reading on a couch

UChicago teaching award winners, including Michael Gladders, ​​Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics and Quantrell Award winner, share their selections for the holidays.


Chicago Booth announces a new joint degree with applied data science

December 8, 2023

data nodes illustrated over a city skyline

Students can better prepare themselves for a career in a data and A.I.-driven world with the school’s new joint MBA and MS-ADS degree program.


Machine learning

November 8, 2023

Sarah Sebo, right

High school students in the Collegiate Scholars Program get to know robots, with Assistant Professor of Computer Science Sarah Sebo.


UChicago undergrad analyzes machine learning models used by CPD, uncovers lack of transparency about data usage

November 3, 2023

Anika Vyas

Fourth-year student Anika Vyas utilized her time in Computer Science Asst. Prof. Raul Castro Fernandez’s ethics in data science course to investigate the successes and failures of the Chicago Police Department’s crime surveillance technology; the research suggests citizens aren’t getting the full story.