Mary Fetzer

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Nittany AI Alliance offers experiential learning opportunities for Penn State students to apply artificial intelligence (AI) to real-world challenges encountered by University, industry and nonprofit partners. One of those partners, the Penn State Office of Physical Plant (OPP), is working with Nittany AI to design, develop and test proof-of-concept solutions aimed at improving workflows for its staff and creating value for its customers.
The Advance program within ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — An app to protect the privacy of personal photos of young women and student athletes was the winning idea in the 2026 Bardusch Family IdeaMakers Challenge, held March 25 during Penn State Startup Week powered by PNC. Hosted annually by the College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST), the IdeaMakers Challenge is an early-stage business idea competition that invites teams to identify a problem and pitch a solution that leverages digital innovation.

Team Medusa ea...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Natalie Bazarova, professor of communication, director of the Social Media Lab and associate vice provost for research at Cornell University, will present “Fostering Healthier Digital Ecosystems Through Prosocial Design and Digital Literacy Interventions” at 12:10 p.m. on April 9 in E208 Westgate Buildi...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — People interact with artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbots, which can be trained to take on certain demographic attributes like age and race, for information, entertainment, technical help, learning, emotional support and more. But how realistically do these AI personas mimic real people? For some demographics, not well, according to researchers at Penn State's College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST).
The researchers found that chatbots relied on su...

Long-term conversations can cause a large language model to begin mirroring user viewpoints, leading to less accurate or distorted responses
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — When a person interacts with an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot, the bot can store details about the user and the interaction. During long conversations, this personalization feature can make the chatbot more likely to agree with users or mirror their views, according to researchers from the Penn State College of Infor...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST) may be one of Penn State’s youngest units, but it has grown significantly since its founding in 1999. The college recently established its first academic departments, a milestone as it continues to mature and innovate in research and education amid rapid technological change. And now, IST has named three permanent department heads to help lead that charge.

“Creating three departments within our college has been on...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Shomir Wilson, associate professor in the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST), received a Best Paper Award at the 57th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, the annual conference of the Association for Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Education (SIGCSE)...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A mentor-mentee relationship can promote empowerment and inclusion in any environment. The Alumni-Student Mentoring Program in the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST) matches IST graduates with current students to help them gain insights into their post-graduation journey. And for one IST student partici...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Lion-0xA, a team of Penn State students from the College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST) and the College of Engineering’s School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), is one of 10 global finalists in the Amazon Nova AI Challenge, an annual university competition dedicated to accelerating the field of artificial intelligence (AI).

Multidisciplinary student teams proposed artificial intelligence solutions to address real-world problems

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Fifteen student teams have been awarded a total of $4,500 in the "Prototype Phase" of the Nittany AI Challenge. Each team proposed an artificial intelligence (AI) solution to help make the world a better place.

A trend has emerged called soft saving, and it's about putting less money into saving for the future and more toward the present.

Waiting on a delivery or having to pay shipping fees can drain the excitement of a new purchase. But with click and collect, shoppers can bypass the waiting game, avoiding potential delivery time fluctuations and costs.

It might be tempting to take a break from personal finances when traveling internationally for work, rest, or play. However, the bills that keep coming during a long holiday or work trip still need attention.

Consumers all over the world look forward to Cyber Monday, one of the largest shopping events of the calendar year.

Excited about all the shiny, new tech out on the market but coming up short on finding a good deal? Technology has become an inevitable part of modern-day life and buying new tech devices can be costly.