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Hunter Malinowski followed in the footsteps of family members who attended Michigan Technological University, but also found ways to blaze her own trail.

Malinowski made her Michigan Tech experience unique by pursuing dual degrees in computer science and psychology, and diving into research experiences. A meticulous planner, she also learned that embracing the unexpected can lead to exciting opportunities.

Malinowski visited Tech during her sophomore year in high school to explore degree options in person. At the time, she was set on a psychology major. I toured the psychology department and I really enjoyed it because they had a ton of cool research going on, she said.

The summer before her senior year of high school, Malinowski attended Women in Computer Science, a Michigan Tech Summer Youth Programs exploration, to get a taste of college life and other course options. I felt at home on campus. I liked the area and I thought the dining hall food was really good! Malinowski said.

In her ensuing years at Tech, Malinowski, now a graduating senior, has explored relationships between psychology and computer science, discovering how the two disciplines enhance each other.

The more Ive done with psychology and computer science, the more I realize how many connections there are, from designing a website to the user interface and user experience, Malinowski said. I want to go into the data science/machine learning field. I think theres a lot to be said about the psychology perspective for that.

Malinowski became part of the research community that excited her when she visited Tech as a high school student. She has conducted research with several faculty members in the Department of Computer Science and Department of Cognitive and Learning Sciences, and received a research internship through the Pavlis Honors Colleges Undergraduate Research Internship Program (URIP). It goes to show how supportive the professors are here, which is one of the best parts of my college experience, she said.

My first year, I went to Dr. Shane Mueller during his office hours and asked if I could be involved with his research lab. I was able to work on a few projects on Explainable AI; it was wonderful to be able to have that experience starting my first year here at Tech! I was able to be a part of the URIP program the following year, and work on an independent project, Assessing the Effectiveness of Visual Explanations for AI, as well as present in the Undergraduate Research Symposium, with the guidance of Dr. Mueller, said Malinowski.

In summer 2023, Malinowski took on another research project on a topic thats near and dear to her.

I worked on a project with Dr. Briana Bettin, Dr. Laura Brown and Dr. Leo Ureel to create a College of Computing Resource Hub for students. This was one of my favorite projects, as it created a resource that was immediately useful to the community around me, Malinowski said. Theres a lot of disparity in pre-college programs in terms of computer science. I was lucky enough to have many choices for computer science programs in my high school, but not everyone has that same advantage or knows that they want to go into computer science.

My favorite part is analyzing the results of the research project. Its really interesting to be able to see all of the data and use it to gather insights and draw conclusions, she said. I think considering the impacts of the results is also fascinating, as it shows the ways the research can be used in the future.

In addition to her URIP award from Michigan Tech's Pavlis Honors College, Malinowski was also honored for her innovation and scholarship, with Pavlis naming her a University Innovation Fellow. In 2023, she was presented with the Department of Cognitive and Learning Sciences Department Scholar Award.

Malinowski tapped her inner entrepreneur during her first year on campus, developing a startup idea linked to her passion for fashion. Recirculate The Future of Sustainable Fashion took third place in Michigan Techs Bob Mark Business Model Competition. The idea also received an MTEC SmartZone Breakout Innovation Award and an honorable mention in Central Michigan Universitys New Venture Challenge.

Being a part of Pavlis Honors College, I learned a lot about the innovation experiences at Michigan Tech and was very interested in exploring that pathway further. One of the key Pavlis Honors abilities is Welcome Challenge, so I figured I might as well step outside of my comfort zone and participate in the Bob Mark pitch competition, said Malinowski. I came up with an idea to reuse the old T-shirts that everyone has sitting around by turning them into T-shirt yarn and crocheting new pieces. I learned a lot about starting a business and different business topics, which was a very unique experience. Ultimately, I ended up focusing on other activities, but it was a learning experience I recommend to anyone remotely interested in entrepreneurship.

Malinowskis experiences led her to participate in other innovation opportunities, including the University Innovation Fellows program. Its probably one of the coolest programs Ive participated in! Above all, the Husky Innovate community is so welcoming, and there are advisors, professors and peers who will support you every step of the way, she said.

In summer 2023, Malinowski was presented with another opportunity: an internship aimed at making the internship experience more valuable for students.

Throughout my summer internship at Realogic Solutions, we began the development of InStep, a multifaceted platform one of those facets being improving the internship matching and onboarding experience for students and employers, Malinowski said. I learned a lot about the business process as a whole through speaking with stakeholders, gathering requirements and seeing the entire development process firsthand. I was able to learn new technologies, including using React for web development and Amazon Web Services for data management. We gathered feedback from potential users of the platform as well as reflecting on our own experiences finding internships, which helped us to optimize the platform for all users.

Along with a fellow Husky Kelsey Hagebusch, also a computer science major Malinowski continued to work part-time for the company over the academic year. She plans to continue her work with Realogic this summer, after earning her degrees.

I am a person who loves to plan ahead, said Malinowski. Before attending Michigan Tech, I planned my entire course schedule for the time I would be here, looked through the Involvement Link to pick what clubs I was interested in and set a number of goals I wanted to achieve at Michigan Tech. While I did follow through on a majority of the things I had planned for myself, some of my most fulfilling moments have been ones that were unexpected and unplanned. For example, this semester I was able to take Nature Psychology and Wheel Throwing (pottery, not throwing actual wheels, although that does sound fun!), which have ended up being two of my favorite classes Ive taken at Michigan Tech and if I had stuck to my original plan, I never wouldve been able to experience them.

Malinowski also found herself responding to a call to leadership as she became active on campus. Shes a former president of the Delta Zeta sorority, served as the 2020-21 College of Computing representative for Undergraduate Student Government and has served as president, treasurer and secretary of Tiny Knitz, a student group that crochets hats for premature babies. Besides those activities, Malinowski also volunteered for Copper Country Coders for two years and helped teach an online computing class to students in Bahrain in the 2021-22 academic year.

The majority of the leadership positions Ive taken on, I did not originally plan on holding, she said. Throughout my time on campus, I found organizations that I cared about and wanted to see continue to thrive and grow in the future. It wasnt something I went out of my way to find rather, it found me. When there are projects, clubs and people that you feel passionately about, it encourages you to spend a lot of time working to improve those organizations, which I was able to do through leadership.

Schedule juggling taught Malinowski other valuable life skills.

Time management is definitely an issue I have faced, and I know many others have faced as well, Malinowski said. Personally, I live by my Google Calendar and use it to block my time. There have been multiple instances where I have overcommitted myself.

Malinowski has packed unforgettable experiences into her time at Tech. Its hard to pick just one memory, she said. I think some of my favorite memories have been the little things. Ironing snow on our statue site with my sorority never in my life did I think I would have a need to iron snow. Spontaneous late-night trips to see the northern lights. Weekend trips to Drive-Thru Depot and Keweenaw Coffee Works. Attending summer music festivals with my friends from Tech All of those smaller things have truly added up to be the biggest moments.

There are more Tech memories in the making as Malinowski embarks on her next adventure: Shell start an accelerated masters program in data science next fall. Ill be continuing my education at Tech for another year. This summer, I plan to continue my work with Realogic Solutions and spend some quality time with family and friends in the Metro Detroit area, she said.

Originally, Malinowski planned on completing an accelerated masters degree in computer science at Tech. While I was here, I discovered that there was an accelerated masters in data science, which I dont believe existed when I began at Tech, and exactly matches my interests and career goals, she said. So, while I do still enjoy planning ahead, its definitely important to go with the flow sometimes or youll miss out on experiences!

Michigan Technological University is a public research university founded in 1885 in Houghton, Michigan, and is home to more than 7,000 students from 55 countries around the world. Consistently ranked among the best universities in the country for return on investment, Michigans flagship technological university offers more than 120 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science and technology, engineering, computing, forestry, business and economics, health professions, humanities, mathematics, social sciences, and the arts. The rural campus is situated just miles from Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, offering year-round opportunities for outdoor adventure.

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A few members of my family have gone to Michigan Tech. I love hearing their stories. It makes going to Tech feel very special to me, as Im able to connect my family history to my personal experiences, said Malinowski. Heres her Tech family tree:

Grandpa: Dave Mueller 70 B.S. Electrical Engineering

Grandma: Betty Mueller 70 B.S. Business

Mom: Heidi Mueller 93 B.S. Mechanical Engineering

Aunt: Heather Christenson 97 B.S. Environmental Engineering

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A Winning Combination: Computer Science and Psychology Help Husky Chart Her Own Course - Michigan Technological University

Scientists at Intel have built the world's largest neuromorphic computer, or one designed and structured to mimic the human brain. The company hopes it will support future artificial intelligence (AI) research.

The machine, dubbed "Hala Point," can perform AI workloads 50 times faster and use 100 times less energy than conventional computing systems that use central processing units (CPUs) and graphics processing units (GPUs), Intel representatives said in a statement. These figures are based on findings uploaded March 18 to the preprint server IEEE Explore, which have not been peer-reviewed.

Hala Point will initially be deployed at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, where scientists will use it to tackle problems in device physics, computing architecture and computer science.

Related: China develops new light-based chiplet that could power artificial general intelligence where AI is smarter than humans

Powered by 1,152 of Intel's new Loihi 2 processors a neuromorphic research chip this large-scale system comprises 1.15 billion artificial neurons and 128 billion artificial synapses distributed over 140,544 processing cores.

It can make 20 quadrillion operations per second or 20 petaops. Neuromorphic computers process data differently from supercomputers, so it's hard to compare them. But Trinity, the 38th most powerful supercomputer in the world boasts approximately 20 petaFLOPS of power where a FLOP is a floating-point operation per second. The world's most powerful supercomputer is Frontier, which boasts a performance of 1.2 exaFLOPS, or 1,194 petaFLOPS.

Neuromorphic computing differs from conventional computing because of its architecture, Prasanna Date, a computer scientist with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), wrote on ResearchGate. These types of computers use neural networks to build the machine.

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In classical computing, binary bits of 1s and 0s flow into hardware like the CPU, GPU or memory before processing calculations in sequence and spitting out a binary output.

In neuromorphic computing, however, a "spike input" a set of discrete electrical signals is fed into the spiking neural networks (SNNs), represented by the processors. Where software-based neural networks are a collection of machine learning algorithms arranged to mimic the human brain, SNNs are a physical embodiment of how that information is transmitted. It allows for parallel processing and spike outputs are measured following calculations.

Like the brain, Hala Point and the Loihi 2 processors use these SNNs, where different nodes are connected and information is processed at different layers, similar to neurons in the brain. The chips also integrate memory and computing power in one place. In conventional computers, processing power and memory are separated; this creates a bottleneck as data must physically travel between these components. Both of these enable parallel processing and reduce power consumption.

Early results also show that Hala Point achieved a high energy efficiency reading for AI workloads of 15 trillion operations per watt (TOPS/W). Most conventional neural processing units (NPUs) and other AI systems achieve well under 10 TOPS/W.

Neuromorphic computing is still a developing field, with few other machines like Hala Point in deployment, if any. Researchers with the International Centre for Neuromorphic Systems (ICNS) at Western Sydney University in Australia, however, announced plans to deploy a similar machine in December 2023.

Their computer, called "DeepSouth," emulates large networks of spiking neurons at 228 trillion synaptic operations per second, the ICNS researchers said in the statement, which they said was equivalent to the rate of operations of the human brain.

Hala Point meanwhile is a "starting point," a research prototype that will eventually feed into future systems that could be deployed commercially, according to Intel representatives.

These future neuromorphic computers might even lead to large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT learning continuously from new data, which would reduce the massive training burden inherent in current AI deployments.

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Intel unveils largest-ever AI 'neuromorphic computer' that mimics the human brain - Livescience.com

PRAIRIE VIEW Prairie View A&M University has received a Responsible Computing Challenge award from the Mozilla Foundation, aimed at developing curricula that empowers students to think about the social and political context of computing.

Mozilla, most widely known for developing the Firefox browser, has made making the internet a force for good its mission. Through its Responsible Computing Challenge, Mozilla and its partners are educating a new wave of graduating technologists who will bring holistic thinking to the design of new technologies, fueling an industry-wide culture shift.

Dr. Marco Robinson, associate professor of history and assistant director of PVAMUs Ruth J. Simmons Center for Race and Justice, along with Dr. Sherri Frizell, professor of computer science, and Dr. Farrah Cambrice, associate professor of sociology, are bringing together computer science and social science/humanities students for interdisciplinary training in methodologies centered in computing to address social issues affecting rural communities, such as food insecurity and access to immediate healthcare.

Robinson explained, Students are expected to consider ethics in computing, developing innovative ways to use computing in solving social problems, and ways to center community welfare in their approach. At the heart of this work, students will collect survey data, hold small focus groups with community members, and facilitate county-wide townhall meetings. The course is partnering with rural communities and organizations in Waller County, where residents have limited access to resources, including fresh food, medical care, and WiFi.

We arent deciding what the communities needs are, said Robinson. Were asking what they need. We had an idea to develop an app to help connect people with food and healthcare, but if they dont have internet access, how will that help? Were in data collection right now. Its exciting to see computer science students out in the field, meeting the people their work will support, and to see social sciences students explore technology in their work.

PVAMU joins a cohort of 15 institutions across the U.S. that has received a total of more than $2.2 million. The courses and projects theyre undertaking blend traditional computing education with the Humanities, Library and Information Science, and Social Sciences to reimagine how computer science is taught. Awardees will explore topics like biased data sets, AI ethics, accessible computing, and more.

Dr. Ziyaad Bhorat, an RCC Fellow who will work alongside this cohort, said, AI and other computing technologies have an outsized impact on our lives, powering everything from banking to public services to law enforcement. As a result, we desperately need trustworthy AI systemsand responsible technologists who build them. These new awardees will help make this a reality.

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PVAMU receives new grant to help train students in computing to address social issues affecting rural communities - Northdallasgazette