Outreach and Impact

An important part of our research group's activity is outreach, through education, policy, transition to practice through open-source software packaages, and other activities. The lab news has a section with information on the latest lab outreach activities.

Education

The lab participates in various educational activities, with a focus on outreach to under-represented high-school students and undergraduates. Ongoing activities include:

  • Mentorship in the Center for Data and Computing Summer Lab program.
  • Summer courses on machine learning and network security to under-represented students in the Chicago Public School system, through the University of Chicago Outward Bound program.
  • Massive Open Online Courses, including Coursera courses on Software Defined Networking and Applications of Machine Learning.
  • Continuing education courses through the University of Chicago Office of Professional Education in the areas of machine learning and cybersecurity.

The research group also works with undergraduate researchers from the University of Chicago throughout the year.

Policy

Much of the lab's research has implication for local, state, and national policy. Professor Feamster and other members of the lab actively participate in various outreach activities, including:

  • Participation in the Broadband Internet Technical Advisory Group (BITAG), which writes technical documents for policymakers in Washington, D.C. The group has presented to influential policymakers, including commissioners at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Federal Trade Commission (FCC).
  • Authoring of comments, including comments to the FCC, FTC, and US Patent and Trademark Office on topics pertaining to wireless spectrum allocation, network privacy, open-source router software, collection of data for research purposes, and intellectual property concerns of creative works generated from machine learning models.
  • Regular presentation at tech policy conferences in Washington D.C., including FTC PrivacyCon and State of the Net.