News by Subject Policy & Ethics

Five Wayne State University research teams were recently awarded funding from Wayne State's Michigan Translational Research and Commercialization (MTRAC) program. The goal is to accelerate the translation and commercialization of their innovative biomedical technologies by providing the resources to validate technical and market opportunities. The MTRAC program is supported by a $1.07 million award from the Michigan Strategic Fund, which is administered by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, with matching funds from Wayne State.

The Springer journal Educational Technology Research and Development has published a special issue that examines the relationship of ethics and privacy in learning analytics, guest edited by Dr. Dirk Ifenthaler and Dr. Monica Tracey. The rapid growth of educational big data requires well-established data management, analysis, and regulations. 'More educational data does not always make better learning environments,' says Dr. Ifenthaler, a professor at the University of Mannheim in Germany.

New research published by the University of Surrey in Boston College Law Review is calling for inventions by computers to be legally granted patents. The research states that the rapid increase in computer power is posing new challenges when it comes to patenting an invention. Artificial intelligence is playing an ever larger role in innovation -- with major players such as IBM, Pfizer and Google investing heavily in creative computing -- but current patent law does not recognize computers as inventors.

Firms need to invest in innovation in order to create new technologies and move the economy forward, according to new research from the University of Houston.

Writing in the Inderscience publication Luxury Research Journal, researchers from Australia discuss the implications for brand managers, practitioners and academics carrying out research in business and marketing of products that mimic luxury brands.

A new study from Harvard University chronicles the history of opposition to innovations ranging from tractors to coffee and margarine -- and its underlying reasons. Entitled 'Innovation and Its Enemies: Why People Resist New Technology,' by Professor Calestous Juma of the Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, the study is published by Oxford University Press and launches July 6.