UTA In The News — Monday, August 31, 2020
Back to campus concerns
Texas colleges are already seeing COVID-19 cases as classes begin, The Dallas Morning News reported. UT Arlington officials said their decisions would be based on local conditions, as well as guidance from federal, state and regional public health agencies and UT System leadership. Another article from The Dallas Morning News reported UT Arlington as one of nine Texas schools with comprehensive plans that offer tests to those with symptoms and people who came in contact with them.
Unconscious bias
Jandel Crutchfield, UTA assistant professor in the School of Social Work, spoke with NBC 5 about what unconscious bias is and how we can avoid it. “Unconscious bias comes from our surroundings and the media we consume, whether that is what we read, the interactions we have with people, or movies that we watch. Be consumers of media that represents good things about others who are different from you,” said Crutchfield.
COVID cases
Erin Carlson, UTA associate clinical professor in the College of Nursing and Health Innovation, spoke to the Dallas Observer about the decline of COVID cases in North Texas. Carlson was quoted as one of several public health experts warning others to continue to keep their guard up. “We have never gotten to the point, even remotely, where the virus is so contained that we are back to some degree of life as we knew it," Carlson said.
AI in civil engineering
Suyun Ham, UTA civil engineering assistant professor, is using artificial intelligence to better assess structural health of bridges, Mirage News reported. Ham plans to combine machine learning with traditional monitoring measurements, then test his models in Dallas and Fort Worth. The 18-month, $122,000 grant is part of UTA’s membership in the Transportation Consortium of South-Central States (Tran-SET), a U.S. Department of Transportation Center administered by Louisiana State University.