HEALTH TRUSTWORTHY TECHNOLOGY

Establishing A Role For Psilocybin In Frontal Lobe Function

Through his Individual Project Award, Assistant Research Professor Adam Brockett of the Program in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science (NACS) will use the UMD Brain and Behavior Institute’s Small Animal Magnetic Resonance Imaging facility to explore how a single dose of psilocybin—a psychedelic used for the treatment of depression and other mood disorders—alters decision-making and its related brain areas in rodents.

Role Of Mitochondria Dynamics In Opioid Addiction

Assistant Professor Anna Li (NACS, PSYC) will use her Individual Project Award to help reduce rates of opioid relapse. Using a rat model, Li will investigate the role of mitochondrial dynamics and associated cellular signaling pathways underlying oxycodone relapse. This work will advance our understanding of molecular mechanisms underlying oxycodone relapse, and could help to uncover potential therapeutic targets for prevention.

VALUES-CENTERED ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Through an Impact Award to Professor Hal Daumé III of the A. James Clark School of Engineering and other UMD colleagues, Assistant Professor Eric Hoover (HESP) joins an 18-person research team in promoting the development of AI in a way that is ethical, transparent, fair, trustworthy, supportive of human creativity, and able to facilitate privacy. This work is especially important for the continued use of AI in areas such as education, healthcare, and more.

The researchers will bring together experts in AI to develop new technology that is responsive to relevant human concerns; in philosophy, to develop tools for representing and reasoning substantively about values; and in human-computer interaction, to better adapt AI systems to people. •