Adiposity—or the accumulation of excess fat in the body—is a known driver of cardiometabolic diseases such as heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and kidney disease. But getting the full picture of a person’s risk is harder than it may seem. Traditional measures such as body mass index (BMI) are imperfect, conflating fat and muscle mass and not capturing where in the body fat is located. A new study from researchers at Mass General Brigham and their colleagues found that an AI tool designed to measure body composition could accurately capture details in just three minutes from a body scan. Their results, published in Annals of Internal Medicine, show that not all fat is equally harmful and highlight the potential of using AI to repurpose data from routine scans.

Rice University psychologist Tianjun Sun has received National Science Foundation support for a collaborative project with the University of Florida examining fairness in AI-powered job interviews. As chatbots and video-based systems increasingly screen candidates, Sun’s research applies psychometric principles to assess whether these tools measure what they claim to, avoid bias across demographics, and are perceived as fair by job seekers. The findings aim to guide the development of more ethical hiring technologies as artificial intelligence becomes a routine part of recruitment.

Ruixin Yang, Associate Professor, Geography Geoinformation Science, College of Science, received funding for: “Welfare and Poverty Mapping with Satellite-Derived Data, Spatial Analysis and Machine Learning Application.”

Keith Renshaw, Senior Associate Provost for Undergraduate Education, Office of the Provost, received funding for: “VISR 3.0: Learning Management System Development and Implementation.”

George Mason University faculty member Y. Alicia Hong, a digital behavioral health interventionist, will support older adults in honing their digital technology skills. The program, through an interdisciplinary partnership, will pair youth and older adults to practice real-life AI scenarios.