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Reposted by Gianluca Stringhini

buhaririinstitute.bsky.social @buhaririinstitute.bsky.social · 2d

Join us 10/29 for a Focused Research Program symposium that will bring together experts in AI, medical imaging, clinical medicine, and public health to share advances in AI-driven early detection and equitable care.

spr.ly/63323AtxxB

Enhancing Models for Breast Cancer Risk Prediction Through Clinician-AI Collaboration

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Reposted by Gianluca Stringhini

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 2d

MIT President Sally Kornbluth just issued a statement to the campus community saying NO to Trump’s authoritarian compact

“And fundamentally, the premise of the document is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone.”

Dear Madam Secretary,
I write in response to your letter of October 1, inviting MIT to review a "Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education." I acknowledge the vital importance of these matters.
I appreciated the chance to meet with you earlier this year to discuss the priorities we share for American higher education.
As we discussed, the Institute's mission of service to the nation directs us to advance knowledge, educate students and bring knowledge to bear on the world's great challenges. We do that in line with a clear set of values, with excellence above all. Some practical examples:
• MIT prides itself on rewarding merit.
Students, faculty and staff succeed here based on the strength of their talent, ideas and hard work. For instance, the Institute
was the first to reinstate the SAT/ACT requirement after the pandemic. And MIT has never had legacy preferences in admissions.

• MIT opens its doors to the most talented students regardless of their family's finances. Admissions are need-blind. Incoming undergraduates whose families earn less than $200,000 a year pay no tuition. Nearly 88% of our last graduating class left MIT with no debt for their education. We make a wealth of free courses and low-cost certificates available
to any American with an internet
connection. Of the undergraduate degrees we award, 94% are in STEM fields. And in service to the nation, we cap enrollment of international undergraduates at roughly
10%.
• We value free expression, as clearly described in the MIT Statement on Freedom of Expression and Academic Freedom. We must hear facts and opinions we don't like - and engage respectfully with those with whom we disagree.

These values and other MIT practices meet or exceed many standards outlined in the document you sent. We freely choose these values because they're right, and we live by them because they support our mission - work of immense value to the prosperity, competitiveness, health and security of the United States. And of course, MIT abides by the law.
The document also includes principles with which we disagree, including those that would restrict freedom of expression and our independence as an institution. And fundamentally, the premise of the document is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific
funding should be based on scientific merit alone.
In our view, America's leadership in science and innovation depends on independent thinking and open competition for excellence. In that tree marketplace of ideas, the people of MIT gladly compete with the very best, without preferences.
Therefore, with respect, we cannot support the proposed approach to addressing the issues facing higher education.

As you know, MIT's record of service to the nation is long and enduring. Eight decades ago, MIT leaders helped invent a scientific partnership between America's research universities and the
U.S. government that has delivered extraordinary benefits for the American people.
We continue to believe in the power of this partnership to serve the nation.
Sincerely,
Sally Kornbluth
CC
Ms. May Mailman
Mr. Vincent Haley

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Reposted by Gianluca Stringhini

Help Net Security @helpnetsecurity.com · 3d

Researchers develop AI system to detect scam websites in search results

📖 Read more: www.helpnetsecurity.com/2025/10/09/l...

#cybersecurity #cybersecuritynews #cybercrime #machinelearning #scams @bostonu.bsky.social @gianlucastringhini.com

Researchers develop AI system to detect scam websites in search results - Help Net Security

Boston University researchers built LOKI, a machine learning system that finds scam websites by ranking search queries for fraud risk.

www.helpnetsecurity.com

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Gianluca Stringhini @gianlucastringhini.com · 3d

Nice article covering our upcoming NDSS paper

www.helpnetsecurity.com/2025/10/09/l...

Researchers develop AI system to detect scam websites in search results - Help Net Security

Boston University researchers built LOKI, a machine learning system that finds scam websites by ranking search queries for fraud risk.

www.helpnetsecurity.com

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Reposted by Gianluca Stringhini

Bluesky @bsky.app · 11d

Bluesky runs on open protocols with open source code. Today we’re taking an additional step and making a patent non-aggression pledge to ensure that everyone can build confidently on our work.

Learn more and read the pledge in our blog post: bsky.social/about/blog/1...

Bluesky's Patent Non-Aggression Pledge - Bluesky

Bluesky develops open protocols. We're taking a short and simple patent non-aggression pledge to ensure that everybody feels confident building on them.

bsky.social

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Reposted by Gianluca Stringhini

Max Kozlov @maxkozlov.bsky.social · 13d

Several scientists have received letters from the NIH director disinviting them from their positions on advisory councils that make final decisions on grant funding, I'm told.

In July, I reported that NIH staff were told to select members aligned with Trump administration priorities.

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Reposted by Gianluca Stringhini

Ann Monster Lipton @annmlipton.bsky.social · 16d

"a disproportionate share of the social-media chatter that fed the news cycle about Cracker Barrel's logo was driven by bots on X"

www.wsj.com/articles/bot...

Bot Networks Are Helping Drag Consumer Brands Into the Culture Wars

AI tools have made coordinated attacks targeting corporations much more common, researchers say.

www.wsj.com

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Gianluca Stringhini @gianlucastringhini.com · 17d

Always be submitting grant proposals is the mantra

a man in a suit and tie is pointing at a blackboard and saying `` always be closing . ''

ALT: a man in a suit and tie is pointing at a blackboard and saying `` always be closing . ''

media.tenor.com

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Gianluca Stringhini @gianlucastringhini.com · 26d

E-commerce fraudulent websites are a big problem, yet the community lacks open and comprehensive approaches to proactively discover them. In our upcoming NDSS paper we present Loki, a system that mines search engine queries to surface new scam websites. Read our paper here: arxiv.org/pdf/2509.12181

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Reposted by Gianluca Stringhini

Jonathan Wosen @jonathanwosen.bsky.social · Sep 10

If you run a life science lab where research has either significantly slowed or shut down completely due to Trump administration policies, I’d like to hear your story. I'm a biotech and life sciences reporter for @statnews.com, and you can reach me at [email protected] #journorequest

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Reposted by Gianluca Stringhini

Jack Jenkins @jackjenkins.me · Sep 3

"A review of the administrative record makes it difficult to conclude anything other than that Defendants used antisemitism as a smokescreen for a targeted, ideologically-motivated assault on this country’s premier universities."

The Associated Press @apnews.com · Sep 3

BREAKING: A federal judge reverses the Trump administration's cut of billions of dollars to Harvard University.

Judge reverses Trump administration's cuts of billions of dollars to Harvard University

A federal judge in Boston has ordered the reversal of the Trump administration’s cuts to more than $2.6 billion in funding research grants for Harvard University. U.S.

bit.ly

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Reposted by Gianluca Stringhini

Shahan Ali Memon @shahanmemon.bsky.social · Sep 1

Looking for #Postdoc or Asst. Professor Positions for 2025-2026 in Computer/Social/Information/Management Sciences and related fields? Here's a google Sheet with about 40 active positions (so far) from Bluesky, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

#AcademicCareer #Academia #Jobs

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Gianluca Stringhini @gianlucastringhini.com · Aug 25

Another academic year, another multiple deadlines day

a cat wearing a blue shirt is sitting on a laptop computer

Alt: a cat wearing a blue shirt is sitting on a laptop computer

media.tenor.com

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Reposted by Gianluca Stringhini

Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · Aug 21

New job ad: Assistant Professor of Quantitative Social Science, Dartmouth College apply.interfolio.com/172357

Please share with your networks. I am the search chair and happy to answer questions!

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Reposted by Gianluca Stringhini

Steve Bowen @stevebowen.bsky.social · Aug 19

Turns out most Americans (70%) believe US universities should be receiving previous levels of funding - or even more! - to advance scientific research.

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Gianluca Stringhini @gianlucastringhini.com · Aug 8

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%...

José Díaz-Balart - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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Gianluca Stringhini @gianlucastringhini.com · Aug 5

Spot the differences

A picture of a dog next to an AI rendering of an Egyptian statue of a dog

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Reposted by Gianluca Stringhini

Dr. David Miller 🏳️‍🌈 @davidimiller.bsky.social · Jul 31

🧪 Senate appropriators say: NIH's budget gets a... boost!

Rather than 40% cut, NIH gets a $400M *increase* in the Senate committee bill for FY26 (about +1%).

"Congress has your back," said @murray.senate.gov.

ADVOCACY MATTERS! There's still a long road (esp in the House), so keep up pressure.

Full Committee Markup of Defense and Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Acts | United States Senate Committee on Appropriations

United States Senate Committee on Appropriations

www.appropriations.senate.gov

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McSweeney's @mcsweeneys.net · Jul 22

"I am wielded by novelists, bloggers, essayists, and that one friend who types exclusively in lowercase but still demands emotional range."

The Em Dash Responds to the AI Allegations

“In recent months, a curious fixation has emerged in corners of academia: the em dash. More specifically, the apparent moral panic around how it is...

buff.ly

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Reposted by Gianluca Stringhini

Martina Lindorfer @lindorfer.in · Jul 7

Please spread the word: Want to work on legal frameworks vs technological realities in S&P with @nikolausf.substack.com, @bprainsack.bsky.social & me? Apply by August 31 for a PhD in our interdisciplinary @wwtf.at funded #Vienna Doctoral College on Digital Humanism: jobs.univie.ac.at/job/Universi...

University Assistant Prae-Doc: Vienna Doctoral College on Digital Humanism

jobs.univie.ac.at

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Gianluca Stringhini @gianlucastringhini.com · Jul 6

Practicing for my plan B career

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Gianluca Stringhini @gianlucastringhini.com · Jul 3

Our paper "LOKI: Proactively Discovering Online Scam Websites by Mining Toxic Search Queries" has been accepted at NDSS 2026! 🎉 Congrats to my student Pujan Paudel for leading this effort!

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Reposted by Gianluca Stringhini

Krystal Vasquez @kvasquez.bsky.social · Jun 30

Per the NSF website, the agency is reinstating 114 awards as a result of a preliminary injunction that was issued last week.

Source: www.nsf.gov/updates-on-p...

Did NSF recently reinstate previously terminated awards?
On June 23, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued a preliminary injunction in Case No. 25-cv-04737, requiring that NSF reinstate certain awards. NSF is required to reinstate awards to all University of California researchers, including faculty, staff, and academic appointees who are named as principal researchers, investigators, or project leaders on grant applications that were terminated by means of a form letter. As a result, 114 awards to 45 institutions are being reinstated as of June 30, 2025.

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Reposted by Gianluca Stringhini

Science Magazine @science.org · Jun 25

Breaking news: The National Institutes of Health has ceased terminating grants on politically sensitive topics after a federal judge ruled last week that the cancellations were illegal.
scim.ag/4l9MO8Y

Following court order, NIH ceases new terminations of politically sensitive grants

After a judge told agency to restore hundreds of killed grants, NIH backs off plans to cancel more existing projects

scim.ag

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Stand Up for Science! @standupforscience.bsky.social · Jun 9

🚨BREAKING: 300+ NIH employees call out the harm of censorship & politicized science in scathing email to Bhattacharya, demanding an end to political interference, a lift on funding freezes, & rehiring of fired staff whose work saves lives.

This is historic - insiders are blowing the whistle.
🧵(1/5)

Front-page-style graphic titled “BREAKING NEWS” with photos of RFK Jr. and Dr. Bhattacharya in front of a government hearing chamber. Text reads: “NIH Scientists Sound the Alarm as Health Research Faces Historic Threat” and “NIH Employees Send Trump Cronies Scathing Wake-Up Call.”

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