News: Features

Read the latest news from the College of Natural Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin

Features

Top Prize Image in Visualizing Science Contest Captures Research Tied to the Sun

Ph.D. student Maile Marriott’s submission illustrates the complexities of the “space weather” generated by our sun.

Top Prize Editor’s Choice

Features

Undergraduate Researchers Help Unlock Lessons of Machine Learning and AI

From large language models to brain-machine interfaces, students work with faculty on cutting-edge research.

Four students post on a staircase near a limestone building at UT.

McDonald Observatory

April 8 Eclipse Update from McDonald Observatory

On Monday, April 8, parts of North America will experience a total solar eclipse and the UT observatory offers tips.

A woman dawns protective eclipse glasses and looks at the sun on a cloudless day

Features

One Year After Chat GPT-4, Researcher Reflects on What to Know about Generative AI

Insights from Risto Miikkulainen, a UT Austin professor of computer science and VP of AI Research at Cognizant Advanced AI Labs.

An aerial view of the University of Texas at Austin campus and Tower is overlain with bits and burnt orange from the Year of AI theme.

UT News

The Challenges, Possibilities and Ethics of AI-Enabled Robots

Experts weighed in at UT’s Hook ‘Em House at SXSW, including Peter Stone who has devoted his professional life to programming and developing robots.

A man on a panel gestures with his hands while his fellow panelists look on.

UT News

3 Questions for Peter Stone

The director of Texas Robotics and professor of computer science warms up for South by Southwest.

A man in a Texas Robotics t-shirt speaks at a mic, gesturing with his hands as robots and people interact in the background.

Features

UT Entomologists Collaborate on Insect-Inspired Album

An award-winning composer came to class and had scientists lend an ear, resulting in music that’s all the buzz.

A young treehopper photographed at the Brackenridge Field Laboratory polllinator garden is one of the insects that inspired a scientist-musician collaboraiton. Credit: Alex Wild

Features

Inaugural Class of AI Master’s Students Tackle a Transformative Moment in Tech

The University of Texas at Austin has welcomed its first cohort of students in the new, affordable, online artificial intelligence graduate degree program.

A student wearing a UT sweatshirt sits at a desk with Essentials of AI and a Longhorn silhouette displayed on two screens

McDonald Observatory

LightSound Workshops Make April’s Eclipse More Accessible to Visually Impaired

As the moon eclipses the sun during a solar eclipse the sunlight begins to dim and the LightSound device outputs a change in musical tone.

A person holds a soldering iron above an electronic circuit board

Texas Engineer

ROBOT SZN

This fall, UT hosted several robotics events, with experts from around the world converging on the Forty Acres to discuss the future of the field.

Two small white robots crouch next to a tiny soccer ball on a table in front of students wearing orange shirts that say Texas Robotics