CNBC, Sept. 28, 2019

The 10 US universities that receive the most applications

CNBC Make It recently analyzed 2018 admissions data in order to identify which schools receive the most applications each year.

3. University of California, Irvine

Number of applicants: 85,092

Number admitted: 31,063

Number admitted who enrolled: 6,545

Percent of applicants admitted: 36.5%

Percent of admitted who enrolled: 21.1%

The Enterprisers Project, Sept. 30, 2019

5 AI fears and how to address them

Artificial intelligence occupies the strange position of having a decades-long history while still feeling wholly futuristic to many people. … This speaks mainly to fears about AI’s nebulous future … “The types of fears [people have about AI] depend on the type of AI that we are talking about,” says Keiland Cooper, a neuroscience research associate at the University of California Irvine and co-director of ContinualAI. “The more theoretical and far off ‘general AI’ – a computer that can do all the things that humans can do – will raise more fears than those from a more realistic AI algorithm like we see being commonly used today.”

UPI, Sept. 27, 2019

CDC study to track dangerous ‘forever chemicals’ in drinking water

The Centers For Disease Control and Prevention announced a new multi-site study this week that will investigate the health effects of drinking water contaminated with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. … “The question as to what the actual level should be is hotly debated right now,” said Scott Bartell, professor of Public Health at the University of California-Irvine, one of the schools involved in the study.

CBC, Sept. 27, 2019

Ever feel like narcissist jerks are taking over the world? This CIFF film’s for you

The amusing and poignant documentary is inspired by the New York Times bestseller books of the same name by Aaron James [a philosophy professor at the University of California, Irvine]. It screens this Saturday and Sunday at the Eau Claire Market Cinemas. It’s part of the Calgary International Film Festival (CIFF).

VC Star, Sept. 28, 2019

Prosecutors move to dismiss man’s gang-related Oxnard robbery conviction

Barbara O’Brien, a professor at the Michigan State University College of Law, [and] the editor of the National Registry of Exonerations, which is headquartered at UC Irvine. said there are documented instances where people plead guilty to crimes they did not commit. It’s unknown how often it happens, but pleas rather than trials are more often the means of convictions, O’Brien said.

Previously ‘In the News’