Dynamical Systems Laboratory

Office Hours with Maurizio Porfiri: The data illuminating gun violence Gun violence, from mass shooting events to suicides, has left its terrible mark on much of this country. But this public health crisis has been understudied,...

NYU Tandon Made in Brooklyn: What data reveals about gun violence

On April 16, 2007, about a year after he moved to NYC to start his career as an engineering professor at NYU Tandon, New York University Center for Urban Science and Progress - CUSP Director Maurizio Porfiri received the news that there had been a mass shooting at his alma mater, Virginia Techs engineering science and mechanics building.

32 people were killed in that attack, one of the worst mass-shooting events in American history. Several of the victims were colleagues and classmates of Porfiri’s, and he continually wondered if there was a way to apply his engineering skills to prevent a similar tragedy. Thirteen years later, Porfiri became the first researcher to receive a $2 million federal grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) earmarked specifically for gun-related research to study mass shootings., Already, his team’s research has helped uncover surprising motivations behind gun purchases and mass shootings, revealed patterns in state-to-state gun ownership, and led to new models for predicting gun homicides.

https://www.getdrip.com/broadcasts/329959331/29dcaf8d7302d4c6b0d77

Until now, it has been believed that the main factor contributing to media coverage and mass shooters’ fame and was the number of victims of an attack.

A team of researchers led by Prof. Maurizio Porfiri, Ph.D. Candidate Rayan Succar, Postdoctoral Fellow Roni Barak Ventura, and students Maxim Belykh and Sihan Wei, analyzed data from 189 mass shootings and found that perpetrators motivated to achieve fame planned their crimes in new, surprising locations and with unique targets.

Read more here: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2216972120

PNAS
NYU Tandon School of Engineering
New York University Center for Urban Science and Progress - CUSP
New York University

We are proud to announce that our current Postdoctoral Associate and recent Ph.D. graduate, Alain Boldini, has been selected as one of the recipients of 2023 New York University Outstanding Dissertation Award! https://t.co/43jYl055Bw

Alain’s doctoral thesis, “Understanding Actuation in Ionic Polymer Metal Composites: From Physical Principles to Engineering Design,” has won in the category “Science & Technology” – focused on exploring the knowledge in STEM fields and applying existing scientific or engineering knowledge to practical goals, such as new technologies or inventions.

Alain defended his thesis in April 2022 and received his Ph.D. in Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering in May 2022.

Congratulations, Alain!!!

Fame-seeking mass shooters more likely to plan 'surprise' attacks, finds study Mass shooters pursuing fame often plan their attacks as "surprises," carefully crafting them in ways that set them apart from previous incidents, which makes them uniquely challenging to prevent.

Join us on April 28 for the NYU Tandon's event !

Our students and postdocs will be there to show you our innovative research and answer any questions!

Although may be coming to an end, there is still plenty of upcoming related research to look forward to. On April 28th, will be hosting the annual —a yearly public event that features exhibits that illustrate the scope of and the — and their potential for improving the world.

We’re excited to announce that many of the exhibits at this year’s event will feature elements of robotics.

NYU K12 STEM will feature various demonstrations, projects and interactive artifacts from the Center's middle and high school programs—including SoSC, ieSoSC, SONYC, CrEST and CS4CS.

There will also be presentations for robotics-related research conducted by Tandon graduate student groups, including but not limited to the Agile Robotics and Perception Lab, FOM-R (Fiber Optic Mounting Robot), New York University Center for Urban Science and Progress - CUSP's Seed Grant Awardees, “Fish against the flow: how do fish know where current is coming from?” led by Tandon researcher & NYU CUSP director Maurizio Porfiri, “Electrifying chemical production using robots and machine learning tools” led by Tandon researcher and director Miguel Modestino, as well as an NYU start-up “Building Diagnostic Robotics” led by Tandon researcher Chen Feng.

And last but certainly not least, the 2023 Research Excellence Exhibit will also host a number of presentations from Vertically Integrated Projects teams with a focus on robotics. You can expect to see presentations of research from NYU Hyperloop, NYU Holodeck: High-Speed Research Network, Flexible AI-enabled Mechatronic Systems Lab, AI for Scientific Research, Rogue Aerospace, the NYU Robotic Design Team and RoboMaster: Team Ultraviolet.

Click the link to learn more about the Research Excellence Exhibit.

https://buff.ly/36G0CY6

in the : Tandon researcher & New York University Center for Urban Science and Progress - CUSP Maurizio Porfiri has developed a new to monthly gun homicide rates, Tandon & Cybersecurity for Democracy researcher Laura Edelson comments on AI chatbots’ abilities to lower the barrier to generate misinformation-filled posts with Bloomberg, Tandon & NYU CUSP researcher Elizabeth Hénaff & her colleagues at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Pratt Institute & Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences reveal honeybee hives in cities contain valuable genetic information with Popular Science and much more.
https://buff.ly/3UyTIZ2

researcher and New York University Center for Urban Science and Progress - CUSP director Maurzio Porfiri and his team have developed a new statistical model that accurately predicts montlhy U.S. gun homicides.

In a paper published in the Journal of Criminal Justice, Porfiri and his team revealed that, by combining CDC data with data from a range of other sources, they created a model that outperforms the techniques currently in use to predict monthly gun homicide rates.

“Policy makers and practitioners often use outdated or limited data to make decisions around gun violence reduction strategies, obviously a less-than-ideal situation when precision is a goal,” said Porfiri. “Our model may be used to fill data gaps and anticipate outbreaks of violence, thereby offering a concrete aid to evidence-based interventions.”

Click the link to learn more about this research.

https://buff.ly/3zFt4Eh

"The CUSP Network" member Praveen Ashok Kumar leads data efforts as the Senior Technical Program Manager at US Ignite. He brings strong experience in , operations, and project/program gained after working across the private, government, academic, utilities, and not-for-profit sectors. At US Ignite, he contributes to the efforts of the US Ignite Communities and the Smart Bases Programs by collaborating with the stakeholders to develop and based data dashboards. Praveen works with cities and industries to create a unified, robust framework for open data platforms to facilitate ease in data sharing.

Today! Research Seminar Series speaker Antonio Paez will present "Framing Active School Travel in : A Content Analysis" to discuss the use of natural language processing framed in public documents from Ontario stakeholders involved in school travel planning. The team compared the findings from these documents and explored similarities. Given its and benefits, the frames encourage children and parents to adopt AST by providing resources to support behavior change. Join the seminar virtually on April 7th, from 12 pm to 1 pm ET. Register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/framing-active-school-travel-in-ontario-a-content-analysis-tickets-576345513947