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Notre Dame to host summit on AI, faith and human flourishing, introducing new DELTA framework

2025-09-16T09:00:00-04:00

Artificial intelligence is advancing at a breakneck pace, as governments and industries commit resources to its development at a scale not seen since the Space Race. These technologies have the potential to disrupt every aspect of life, including education, the economy, labor and human relationships.

“As a leading global Catholic research university, Notre Dame is uniquely positioned to help the world confront and understand AI’s benefits and risks to human flourishing,” said John T. McGreevy, the Charles and Jill Fischer Provost. “Technology ethics is a key priority for Notre Dame, and we are fully committed to bringing the wisdom of the global Church to bear on this critical theme.”

In support of this work, the Institute for Ethics and the Common Good and the Notre Dame Ethics Initiative will host the Notre Dame Summit on AI, Faith and Human Flourishing on the University’s campus from Monday, Sept. 22 through Thursday, Sept. 25. This event will draw together a dynamic, ecumenical group of educators, faith leaders, technologists, journalists, policymakers and young people who believe in the enduring relevance of Christian ethical thought in a world of powerful AI.

“As artificial intelligence becomes more powerful, the ‘ethical floor’ of safety, privacy and transparency is simply not enough,” said Meghan Sullivan, the Wilsey Family College Professor of Philosophy and the director of the Institute for Ethics and the Common Good and the Notre Dame Ethics Initiative. “This moment in time demands a response rooted in the Christian tradition — a richer, more holistic perspective that recognizes the nature of the human person as a spiritual, emotional, moral and physical being.”

Sullivan noted that a unified, faith-based response to AI is a priority of newly elected Pope Leo XIV, who has spoken publicly about the new challenges to human dignity, justice and labor posed by these technologies.

The summit will begin at 5:15 p.m. Monday with an opening Mass at the University’s Basilica of the Sacred Heart. His Eminence Cardinal Christophe Pierre, Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, will serve as primary celebrant and homilist with University President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., as concelebrant. All members of the campus community are invited to attend this opening Mass.

Summit speakers include Andy Crouch, Praxis; Alex Hartemink, Duke University; Molly Kinder, Brookings Institution; Andrew Schuman, Veritas Forum; Anne Snyder, Comment Magazine and Elizabeth Dias, The New York Times. Over the course of the summit, attendees will take part in use case workshops, panels and community of practice sessions focused on public engagement, ministry and education. Executives from Google, Microsoft, Apple and many other organizations are among the 200 invited guests who will attend.

At the summit, Notre Dame will launch DELTA, a new framework for guiding conversations about AI. DELTA — an acronym that stands for Dignity, Embodiment, Love, Transcendence and Agency — will serve as a practical resource across sectors that are experiencing disruption from AI, including homes, schools, churches and workplaces, while also providing a platform for credible, principled voices to promote moral clarity and human dignity in the face of advancing technology.

“Our goal is for DELTA to become a common lens through which to engage AI — a language that reflects the depth of the Christian tradition while remaining accessible to people of all faiths,” Sullivan said. “By bringing together this remarkable group of leaders here at Notre Dame, we’re launching a community that will work passionately to create — as the Vatican puts it — ‘a growth in human responsibility, values and conscience that is proportionate to the advances posed by technology.’”

Although the summit sessions are by invitation only, Sullivan’s keynote on DELTA will be livestreamed. Those interested are invited to view the livestream and learn more about DELTA at https://ethics.nd.edu/summit-livestream at 8:30 a.m. EST on Tuesday, Sept. 23.

The Notre Dame Summit on AI, Faith and Human Flourishing is supported with a grant provided by Lilly Endowment Inc.

Lilly Endowment Inc. is a private foundation created in 1937 by J.K. Lilly Sr. and his sons Eli and J.K. Jr. through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. While those gifts remain the financial bedrock of the Endowment, it is a separate entity from the company, with a distinct governing board, staff and location. In keeping with the founders’ wishes, the Endowment supports the causes of community development, education and religion and maintains a special commitment to its hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana. A principal aim of the Endowment’s religion grantmaking is to deepen and enrich the lives of Christians in the United States, primarily by seeking out and supporting efforts that enhance the vitality of congregations and strengthen the pastoral and lay leadership of Christian communities. The Endowment also seeks to improve public understanding of religious traditions in the United States and across the globe.

Contact: Carrie Gates, associate director of media relations, 574-993-9220, c.gates@nd.edu

Notre Dame’s partnership with Military Spouse Advocacy Network launches second course

2025-09-05T14:31:00-04:00

Last fall, the University of Notre Dame announced a partnership with the Military Spouse Advocacy Network (MSAN) — a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with a mission to create stronger military families through education, empowerment and support — to offer two online courses for military spouses.

The first, launched in July, focuses on mental wellness and is in line with the University’s broader commitment to fighting the nation’s mental health crisis. The course was developed and is presented by faculty from Notre Dame’s William J. Shaw Center for Children and Families and Veldman Family Psychology Clinic, who worked with Notre Dame Learning’s Office of Digital Learning (ODL) on the design of effective online content.

September marks the launch of the second course in the Notre Dame-MSAN partnership, and like the first, it represents a collaboration between the ODL and Notre Dame faculty, this time from the Notre Dame Deloitte Center for Ethical Leadership (NDDCEL) at the Mendoza College of Business.

Titled Ethical Leadership with Notre Dame, the new offering reflects NDDCEL’s mission to inform, equip and inspire values-based leadership and covers topics such as conflict management, voicing values at work and honesty and empathy in decision-making. The aim is to support military spouses in becoming leaders who foster resilient and flourishing communities.

Both of these non-credit courses are delivered as a mix of asynchronous (i.e., on-demand) content and live sessions, and the impact of the mental wellness course is already evident.

“The course material has been incredibly well-received,” said the Veldman Family Psychology Clinic’s Donna Armentrout, the course’s instructor. “The military spouse learners have had the opportunity to practice having mental health conversations and receive in-the-moment feedback from clinical psychology doctoral students under the supervision of Notre Dame faculty and staff. Overall, it has been an enriching, meaningful experience for both the learners and facilitators.”

Jessica McManus Warnell, Rex and Alice A. Martin Faculty Director of the Notre Dame Deloitte Center for Ethical Leadership, and Kristen Collett-Schmitt, associate dean for undergraduate and specialized master’s programs in the Mendoza College of Business, expect to see similar results with the ethical leadership course.

“NDDCEL is proud to partner with MSAN on this important opportunity to support military families,” McManus Warnell said. “We developed a custom curriculum for military spouses to enhance career readiness and leadership in their organizations and communities. Featuring insights from a dynamic group of faculty experts, including several who are veterans and spouses, our course provides strategies for participants to be powerful agents for positive change.”

McManus Warnell and Collett-Schmitt serve as the instructors of the ethical leadership course, which also includes contributions from Notre Dame faculty members Paul Blaschko, James Leady, Drew Marcantonio and James O’Rourke as well as military community members Rose Boyle, Pat Gibbons, Jen Heckel, Amy Spangler and Erin Stevens.

Admiral Christopher W. Grady, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, shared a testimonial for the course, and his wife, Christine, is featured in the introductory videos for both it and the mental wellness course.

The Notre Dame-MSAN partnership is a multidisciplinary campus project involving faculty and staff from 10 organizations. The project is spearheaded and resourced by Notre Dame Research with the support of the Office of Military and Veterans Affairs, the College of Arts and Letters, the Mendoza College of Business, Notre Dame Learning’s Office of Digital Learning, the Office of Public Affairs and Communications, the William J. Shaw Center for Children and Families, the Notre Dame Deloitte Center for Ethical Leadership, the Veldman Family Psychology Clinic, and the Mental Health Initiative.

“I have been incredibly proud to welcome Notre Dame to the MSAN family,” said Verenice Castillo, founder, CEO and president of MSAN. “Their commitment to our military community will empower these dedicated individuals to continue making a profound difference in their lives and communities. Together, we are building an army of strong community leaders, mentors and advocates.”

Originally published by ND Learning at learning.nd.edu on September 03, 2025.

Notre Dame Democracy Initiative hosts bipartisan conversation with Western state governors

2025-09-05T08:39:00-04:00

Two Western state governors known to work across the aisle on policy issues such as water, housing and energy will visit the University of Notre Dame for a fireside chat about how Western state pragmatism can serve as a model for the country to overcome polarization.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-New Mexico) and Gov. Spencer Cox (R-Utah) will join Notre Dame’s Democracy Initiative for an event titled “Pragmatism Over Polarization: A Conversation with U.S. Governors” from 1 to 2:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 19, in the Leighton Concert Hall of the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center. The session is free and open to the public. A livestream will be available here.

University President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C, will moderate the discussion and John McGreevy, the Charles and Jill Fischer Provost, will offer opening remarks.

The event is part of the University-wide initiative’s signature event series, Democracy Talks, which offers accessible and engaging opportunities for the Notre Dame community to better understand current events and pressing policy issues.

“Notre Dame is a convener of some of the most crucial conversations on the future of democracy,” said Joel Day, managing director of the Notre Dame Democracy Initiative. “This event is an opportunity to do just that. We are bringing together two prominent governors, from both sides of the political spectrum, to help us understand ways to reduce partisan noise and focus on policy, even with folks with whom we disagree.

“In an age where politics can divide us, this Democracy Talk offers a different perspective with governors who put a premium on getting stuff done across state boundaries and across the aisle.”

Lujan Grisham is the 32nd governor of the state of New Mexico and the first Democratic Latina elected governor in U.S. history. She has also served as a county commissioner, state cabinet secretary and member of Congress. A 12th-generation New Mexican, she is a former chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and Western Governors Association.

Cox is the 18th governor of Utah, a fourth-generation Utahn who has served as a mayor, county commissioner, state legislator and lieutenant governor. He is the current chair of the Western Governors’ Association and served as chair of the National Governors Association from 2023 to 2024.

The Notre Dame Democracy Initiative aims to establish Notre Dame as a leader in the study of democracy in the United States and worldwide, as a convenor for conversations about and actions to preserve democracy, and as a model for the formation of civically engaged citizens and public servants. To learn more, visit go.nd.edu/democracy.

Originally published by Emily Monacelli Guzman at strategicframework.nd.edu on Sept. 4.

Contact: Tracy DeStazio, associate director of media relations, 574-631-9958 or tdestazi@nd.edu

In new research, Roy Scranton explores climate change and the limits of human progress

2025-09-04T15:00:00-04:00

According to Roy Scranton, director of the University of Notre Dame’s Environmental Humanities Initiative, the biggest problem we face with climate change isn’t excessive carbon emissions or energy usage. And it isn’t the fundamental imbalance created by human activities that threatens ecosystems and has pushed the planet into instability.

The deeper problem, he argues, lies in the complexity of civilization itself — a global industrial society that has grown both unsustainably expensive and dangerously vulnerable to the environmental stresses that accompany climate change.

Because of this, he says, humanity is at an impasse.

That impasse is the foundation of Scranton’s latest research into what he sees as an intractable predicament where every fix faces potentially insurmountable challenges, from inertia and opposition to resource limits and competing priorities.

In his most recent book, “Impasse: Climate Change and the Limits of Progress,” Scranton, an associate professor of English, defines the impasse he sees as “not only political and institutional, but cognitive, existential and narrative” and asserts that the only path forward is through embracing what he terms ethical pessimism.

“A lot of people confuse pessimism with nihilism, apathy and despair,” Scranton said. “But pessimism is actually about recognizing our limits, letting go of unrealistic goals, finding solidarity in the fact of human suffering and doing what you can now, not in some utopian future.

“Modern pessimism emerged as a skeptical critique of early Enlightenment hubris, but it has roots in ancient wisdom from Sophocles to the Bhagavad Gita. Both the history of philosophy and modern insights from psychology show that pessimism is not only an effective way to deal with big problems, but a healthy approach to the unpredictability of circumstance, especially in fraught and difficult times.”

In “Impasse,” Scranton examines the “myth of progress,” how cultures have navigated societal collapse, failures in climate change communication, political extremism and “the end of the world as we know it,” ultimately concluding that the situation does not seem to be comprehensible within progressive modernity.

“These conclusions lead to a paradoxical and perilous ethical precipice,” he writes in the book. “The only way to cross the gap between progressive carbon-capitalist modernity and whatever comes next is to make a leap of faith, committing ourselves to an unknowable future.”

The second half of the book explores the origins of optimism and pessimism as both dimensions of personality and cognitive strategies, citing evidence from philosophy to neuroscience, as Scranton makes his case for ethical pessimism.

Our bias toward optimism, he cautions, may be “a characteristic of great evolutionary advantage of the long term, but under conditions of global ecological catastrophe has proven highly maladaptive.”

Pessimism, he concludes, is “an accurate, appropriate, and above all ethical response to the current situation — perhaps the only ethical response available.”

“Pessimism is fundamentally about recognizing and living within natural human limits,” Scranton writes. “It’s about recognizing that suffering is inevitable but not unbearable. It’s about learning to die and learning to live with death. And finally, it’s about committing to a radical and paradoxical hope: the hope that life might be worth living after the end of the world.”

Contact: Carrie Gates, associate director of media relations, 574-993-9220, c.gates@nd.edu

‘Prebunking’ false election claims may boost trust in elections

2025-08-29T14:07:45-04:00

Brian Fogarty, associate professor of the practice at the Lucy Family Institute for Data & Society and concurrent associate professor of the practice in the Department of Political Science. (Photo by Barbara Johnston/University of Notre Dame)

In recent years, democracies worldwide have seen a growing erosion of trust in election outcomes and institutions, driven in part by fears of widespread fraud. As the digital age continues to transform the ways in which people consume information, online election misinformation has expanded at an unprecedented pace. Amplified by highly polarized political climates, this trend poses a significant threat to public confidence in democratic electoral systems.

A new multi-country study published in the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s journal Science Advances, by researchers from the University of Notre Dame, Dartmouth College, the University of Groningen, and the University of Southampton, finds that “prebunking” — providing accurate information before false claims spread — boosts trust in elections more effectively than traditional fact-checking.

The team conducted three large-scale case studies using results from elections in the United States and Brazil — two countries where fraud misinformation has undermined trust in elections.

The studies found that prebunking messages were consistently effective, especially among individuals who were previously misinformed. However, the research also found that adding forewarnings — alerting people they might be misled — can reduce the effectiveness of prebunking.

“This research shows that facts, when delivered plainly and ahead of misinformation, can minimize the effect of inaccurate information,” said Brian Fogarty, associate professor of the practice at the Lucy Family Institute for Data & Society and a co-author of the study. “But, when we warn people that they might be misled, especially in a highly polarized environment, they can become more skeptical of the message itself.”

Fogarty, also a concurrent associate professor of the practice in the Department of Political Science, worked with co-authors John M. Carey and Brendan Nyhan of Dartmouth College, Marília Gehrke of the University of Groningen and Jason Reifler of the University of Southampton to conduct the study.

Across the three case studies — before the U.S. 2022 midterm elections, after the 2022 Brazil presidential election and in a follow-up study to prebunk with and without forewarning in the U.S. — the team compared two commonly used approaches for correcting misinformation. The first approach investigated situational credible sources delivered by political figures to confirm the legitimacy of elections. The second approach, prebunking, was used to provide factual information before exposure to misinformation in the hopes that preemptively encoding information into an individual’s memory may shape how subsequent information is processed.

Using surveys timed around national elections in the U.S. and Brazil, the researchers tested how situationally credible sources and prebunking messages influenced beliefs about elections. Participants were randomly assigned to view the different types of correction approaches and then answered questions about their confidence in elections, perceptions of fraud and factual accuracy. The data from the surveys were then analyzed to assess how these interventions shaped public opinion.

In the analysis of the 2022 U.S. midterms, researchers found that both corrections and prebunking approaches boosted voter confidence — but prebunking had a longer-lasting impact on beliefs about voter fraud, especially among the most misinformed.

Similar effects emerged in Brazil after the contentious 2022 presidential election, where prebunking proved even more effective at instilling election confidence and factual accuracy. “In Brazil, we saw a particularly strong effect from prebunking,” Fogarty said. “The facts were nonpartisan and required no background knowledge about political actors, making prebunking especially promising in fast-moving political environments.”

The results of the follow-up U.S. study revealed that prebunking was significantly more effective when information was delivered without forewarning. In fact, including warnings about misleading information slightly reduced effectiveness, particularly among Republican participants.

The research suggests that prebunking offers several advantages — it is nonpartisan, does not require context about a particular election, and is effective at reaching broad audiences, making it a promising tool for policymakers, platforms and journalists.

Still, Fogarty cautions that additional studies are needed to assess prebunking’s long-term effectiveness, application in different cultural settings and interaction with real-world media environments. “I’m optimistic that even though there is still research to be done, prebunking can be considered as a powerful tool for countering election misinformation — especially when it’s delivered clearly, early and without partisan cues to support informed citizens and resilient democracies,” he said.

“This project exemplifies the Lucy Family Institute’s research ethos of interdisciplinary scholarship that addresses complex societal challenges through domain-informed and data-driven approaches, supporting efforts to build trust and resilience in democratic processes,” said Nitesh Chawla, founding director of the Lucy Family Institute for Data & Society and the Frank M. Freimann Professor of Computer Science and Engineering.

Contact: Jessica Sieff, associate director of media relations, 574-631-3933 or jsieff@nd.edu
Contact: Tracy DeStazio, associate director of media relations, 574-631-9958 or tdestazi@nd.edu

ND experts on the canonization of Carlo Acutis

2025-08-29T12:00:00-04:00

The canonization of Carlo Acutis, the first millennial saint in the Catholic Church, will take place on Sunday, September 7. Acutis, an Italian teenager who died from leukemia in 2006, has been celebrated for his devotion to the Eucharist and his use of technology to promote the Catholic faith. He created a website that documented Eucharistic miracles and Marian apparitions and is widely regarded as a role model for young people in the Church.

As the Church awaits the ceremony in St. Peter’s Square, where Pope Leo XIV will formally declare Acutis a saint, University of Notre Dame experts Kathleen Sprows Cummings, Brett Robinson and Timothy O’Malley reflect on his life and his path to sainthood.

“Canonization may be fundamentally about holiness, but it is also about relevance,” said

Kathleen Sprows Cummings

Kathleen Sprows Cummings, a professor of American studies and history. “As such, new saints often reveal as much about the priorities of the people promoting them as they do about the holy people themselves.”

Cummings, who focuses her research on Catholicism in the United States, as well as the history of women and American religion, said that Acutis’ story is tailor-made for this moment in at least three senses:

“As a teenager, he offers the Catholic Church an opportunity to connect to generations of young people that have become increasingly disengaged from practicing their faith,” she said. “As a fervent devotee of the Eucharist, he provides an opportunity to provide instruction about a sacrament that, recent polls reveal, is misunderstood by many of the faithful.

“Finally, as a ‘gamer saint,’ Carlo’s utilization of technology as a tool of evangelization is tremendously reassuring in an age of anxiety about the corrosive effects of social media and AI. The fact that his canonization will take place during a Holy Year dedicated to the theme of hope, when Catholics are exhorted to renew their faith, further magnifies his appeal.”

Cummings, the author of “A Saint of Our Own: How the Quest for a Holy Hero Helped Catholics Become American,” also cautioned that although canonization is an enormously complex process, it “inevitably simplifies a life, paring it down to a single story that can be ‘enshrined’ in the canon of the saints.”

“For a cause to succeed, a candidate’s story must often be shoehorned into a preexisting narrative arc that doesn’t leave much room for complicated or contradictory details. This doesn't mean a saint isn't holy, but it does mean that we don't always learn much about what made them human."

Brett Robinson

Brett Robinson, associate director for outreach at the McGrath Institute for Church Life, agreed, noting that although Acutis will be the patron saint of the internet and is associated with technology — the prevailing narrative does not entirely fit.

“I think initially the narrative was that he was a digital native and he was a typical teenager who was very much into video games and the internet,” said Robinson, who is also an associate professor of the practice. “And it’s a little more nuanced than that. Yes, he was familiar with and used technology, but he was an example of the ways we can use them with wisdom, prudence and virtue.

“Carlo demonstrates what it means to be in the world, but maybe not of the world. That’s something that’s more challenging now, given all the distractions of our culture, but it is possible.”

In that way, Robinson added, Acutis offers hope to young people in particular, many of whom struggle with mental health issues associated with a cultural shift toward social media and technology.

“For a lot of the Church’s history, saints were these elevated, austere figures, and Carlo is one of the first young, contemporary saints who did like sports and video games, but also loved the Eucharist and the Church and God,” he said. “And that makes his story accessible and inspirational. Here’s this individual who in the midst of our modern world was able to find a contemplative peace and have a deep, intimate relationship with the Lord through the Eucharist — and then also express that through the channels everyone uses, like the internet.”

Timothy O'Malley

Timothy O’Malley, associate director for research at the McGrath Institute and academic director of the Notre Dame Center for Liturgy, stated that although Acutis’ relative “fast track” to sainthood is part of the reason he is so relatable, he doesn’t anticipate the Church fast tracking other causes.

“There is close attention paid to the dangers of fast tracking, and I think that it gets much more dangerous when it is a very famous or public person,” O’Malley said. “That wasn’t Carlo — he was an unknown person to most of the world before his passing. But what happened afterward was an immediate devotion. From the time he was buried in Assisi, there was devotion to him and miracles attributed to him. So, it won’t necessarily become normal, but the speed of his canonization is not surprising for the kind of person he was and the way he resonates with us.

Acutis lived a normal, somewhat ascetic life, O’Malley added.

“He gave to the poor. He went to daily Mass and had a love of the Eucharist. He limited screen time. He liked going hiking and being with his friends,” O’Malley said. “Even though he was this extraordinary spiritual writer — seemingly having insight beyond what any 15-year-old should have — I think a lot of his life is something that we can understand and can follow.”

Contact: Carrie Gates, associate director of media relations, 574-993-9220, c.gates@nd.edu

MBA student and alumnus to take part in Fighting Irish flyover

2025-08-29T10:13:00-04:00

University of Notre Dame MBA student Maximo Navarro has a great vantage point for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish versus the Miami Hurricanes football season opener on Sunday (Aug. 31) in Miami.

Just as the last note of “The Star-Spangled Banner” fades, Navarro (MBA ’27) will make his grand entrance roaring a thousand feet above the field in his F-15 fighter jet. Navarro, a United States Air Force Test Pilot 91��Ƶ graduate, and four other pilots have the honor of performing a military flyover for the game — an event they actively sought and exerted considerable effort to arrange.

Flying in a four-jet formation, the pilots include Notre Dame alumnus Maj. Trent “Wreck” McMullen (USAF F-15 pilot), Maj. Red “Odin” Artz (USAF F-15 pilot), Joe “Sloppy” McGill (USAF F-16 pilot, retired) and Flt. Lt. Simon “Ridders” Ridley (British Exchange F-16 pilot). Navarro, aka Maj. Maximo “Money” Navarro, flies with McMullen (ND ’12) in the F-15E Strike Eagle, which is a crew aircraft.

“Think of me like Goose flying with Maverick,” he said.

The crew will take off from Homestead Air Reserve Base in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The pilots will sync up with a member of the ground crew to ensure they fly over during the very last note of the national anthem. From there, they circle the field before returning to the base, where a police escort will meet them and rush them back to the field for the rest of the game.

As a test pilot for the U.S. Air Force and current Notre Dame MBA student, Navarro said the flyover is a meaningful way for him to show up for his new Irish community. “Honestly, I wish I could give you a more noble answer for why I wanted to do the flyover other than I think it’ll be really cool to fly with Trent, who’s a Domer, and especially as a current MBA student. It’s just being part of the Notre Dame community.”

Collecting more than trash: Researchers equip local garbage trucks to gather data on urban heat island effect

2025-08-28T11:00:00-04:00

Siavash Ghorbany, a doctoral student in civil and environmental engineering, installs a sensor on a City of South Bend garbage truck

When heat waves hit, they don’t hit evenly. Cities often experience significantly higher temperatures than nearby rural areas, and areas with more pavement and concrete and fewer trees are more severely impacted.

These urban heat islands, which disproportionately affect lower-income neighborhoods, increase air pollution and energy costs, as well as heat-related illnesses and deaths.

To help identify — and ultimately mitigate — heat islands in South Bend, a team of University of Notre Dame researchers has partnered with the city to collect data using a novel method: garbage trucks.

Ming Hu, the associate dean for research, scholarship and creative work in Notre Dame’s 91��Ƶ of Architecture; Jason Carley, an assistant professor of industrial design; and Siavash Ghorbany, a doctoral student in civil and environmental engineering, have designed and deployed sensors on the city’s fleet of garbage trucks that can continuously monitor and record data on temperature and humidity as the trucks complete their normal routes.

The use of garbage trucks as mobile weather research stations offers some distinct advantages and challenges, Carley said. Because garbage trucks run the same route every week, they allow the researchers to gather consistent, detailed data in neighborhoods throughout the city.

“The more challenging part of the study is that you have to have this advanced technology out in the elements, in the rain, on a moving truck,” he said. “So, some of it has to be waterproofed, but the rest of it needs to have access to ambient air and be protected from direct sunlight.”

Carley, who designed custom housing for the sensors, also needed to ensure the housing was secure, was customized to different types of trucks in the fleet and would allow for accurate temperature data without interference from the garbage truck itself. After he finalized his design this summer, the sensors were deployed at the beginning of August.

The collaboration between the University and the city began in 2023, Hu said, with discussions on how to use emerging sensor technologies to better understand a range of environmental stressors facing the city, including urban heat island effects and air quality.

“The data collected, along with the resulting analytical tools, will support the city in allocating both financial and physical resources — like tree planting — and in planning for greater resilience as extreme weather conditions intensify,” Hu said.

Identifying heat islands within the city is especially important, Carley noted, because extreme heat is most likely to impact vulnerable populations, including lower-income families and the elderly.

“Air conditioning is expensive and energy intensive, so it may not be something lower-income residents have as much access to,” Carley said. “When you have hot temperatures outside and inside the home, it becomes a public health issue. Adding green spaces and trees is important not just for recreation or aesthetics, but to protect the health of residents.”

The research builds on work that Hu and Ghorbany completed at Notre Dame last year to determine where heat islands might exist on campus. As they collected data, Ghorbany developed a model, fine-tuned for the Notre Dame campus, that uses satellite imagery to measure building density, materials and vegetation coverage through segmentation and computer vision techniques. He then used machine learning to identify areas with the highest potential for experiencing a heat island effect.

“This project allows us to test our model on a larger scale, in the city of South Bend,” Ghorbany said. “If it works as we expect it to, we can eventually move to using the model to predict these effects, instead of logging data each time, which is close to impossible for larger cities. By quickly identifying these areas, we can help cities focus their efforts on reducing the temperature by increasing the tree canopy or implementing building renovations.”

The sensors will remain in place during August and September, after which Ghorbany and Hu will analyze the data. Once the analysis is complete, the team will present its findings to the City of South Bend’s Office of Sustainability and share them with South Bend residents.

The researchers also hope to expand the project in future phases to measure air quality and other markers of public health.

“Our work consistently shows that the built environment is not just a physical setting, but a determinant of health,” Hu said. “By linking fine-grained environmental data with building and neighborhood characteristics, we can reveal where risks are concentrated and how design or policy interventions can reduce them. Projects like this one in South Bend demonstrate how data collection at the street level can ultimately guide healthier, more resilient cities nationwide.”

Contact: Carrie Gates, associate director of media relations, 574-993-9220, c.gates@nd.edu

Justice Amy Coney Barrett to deliver Center for Citizenship and Constitutional Government lecture

2025-08-28T09:08:43-04:00

Amy Coney Barrett, associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, will speak at the University of Notre Dame at 4 p.m. Sept. 12 in the Leighton Concert Hall of the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center.

Barrett will engage in a moderated conversation with Vincent Phillip Muñoz, director of Notre Dame’s Center for Citizenship and Constitutional Government, on themes related to her soon-to-be-published book, “Listening to the Law.” Barrett will also answer questions submitted by the audience. The event is sponsored by the Center for Citizenship and Constitutional Government and will serve as the center’s 2025 Jeanie Poole O’Shaughnessy Memorial Lecture. It will also serve as the University’s Constitution Day event.

About Barrett’s campus visit, Muñoz said, “There may be no better way to teach students about the American Constitution than to have them engage directly with a sitting Supreme Court justice. And introducing Notre Dame students to leading Catholic public figures such as Justice Barrett is an important aspect of what we do at the Center for Citizenship and Constitutional Government. We are honored to host and are looking forward to hearing about her experiences on the court.”

In addition to her public lecture, Barrett will participate in a seminar with the center’s undergraduate Tocqueville Fellows. The seminar will allow students to ask the justice questions and engage with her in a small-group setting.

Lilian Jochmann, a senior student in the Tocqueville Fellowship Program, said, “Tocqueville Fellows receive the unique opportunity to directly interact with and receive mentorship from the center’s guests. Each speaker visit is a chance for us to soak in the wisdom of some of our nation’s most learned scholars and politicians, and to be inspired by their stories and career paths.

“Justice Barrett, a deep and thoughtful jurist, has demonstrated a consistent deference and loyalty to the original understanding of the Constitution. Her commitment to civility and virtue through disagreement, rulings that transcend the simple silos of left/right ideology, and emphasis on the proper role of the judiciary are an inspiration for students like me who aspire to do good through law. I’m incredibly grateful to the center for the opportunity to learn from Justice Barrett in what promises to be one of the most formative experiences of my time at Notre Dame.”

A limited number of tickets will be available to Notre Dame students, faculty and staff with a valid Notre Dame ID at the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center beginning at 2 p.m. Sept. 12. The talk will be livestreamed on the Center for Citizenship and Constitutional Government’s YouTube channel.

Barrett was appointed a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in 2017. President Donald J. Trump nominated her as an associate justice of the Supreme Court, and she took her seat on Oct. 27, 2020. On Sept. 9, 2025, her book, “Listening to the Law: Reflections on the Court and Constitution,” will be published by Sentinel.

Barrett was born in New Orleans on Jan. 28, 1972. She married Jesse M. Barrett in 1999, and they have seven children. She received a B.A. from Rhodes College in 1994 and a J.D. from Notre Dame Law 91��Ƶ in 1997. She served as a law clerk for Judge Laurence H. Silberman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit from 1997 to 1998, and for Justice Antonin Scalia of the Supreme Court of the United States during the 1998 term. After two years in private law practice in Washington, D.C., she became a law professor, joining the faculty of Notre Dame Law 91��Ƶ in 2002.

Launched in 2021, the Center for Citizenship and Constitutional Government seeks to cultivate thoughtful and educated citizens by supporting scholarship and education concerning the ideas and institutions of constitutional government.

Contact: Tracy DeStazio, associate director of media relations, 574-631-9958 or tdestazi@nd.edu

Lieberman’s rapid screening card for antibiotics wins 2025 Trinity Challenge

2025-08-27T11:30:00-04:00

A research team headed by Marya Lieberman, Nancy Dee Professor of Cancer Research in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Notre Dame, was named joint grand prize winner of the 2025 Trinity Challenge, a global innovation competition dedicated to tackling the growing problem of community access to antibiotics around the world.

Lieberman’s Paper Analytical Device Project (PAD) is a low-cost, rapid screening card that, when paired with a mobile app, allows medical professionals to test antibiotics and determine within seven minutes whether they are substandard or falsified. PADs are designed to be scalable, and used in parts of the world where access to reliable antibiotics remains a major public health challenge.

The other grand prize winning team, led by Yemisi Ogundare, project director for Jhpiego Nigeria, developed Com-WATCH, an integrated, data-driven technology for tracking stock control and identifying substandard and falsified antibiotics in Nigerian communities. The two winners of the Trinity Challenge were selected from 171 applications from 51 countries, and the prize includes an award of £500,000 (approximately 672,000 U.S. dollars) over two years to each winner.

Lieberman’s PADs do not require the use of additional chemicals, solvents, instruments or electricity, and have been proven effective throughout Africa. They identify medications that do not contain the correct chemicals, or the correct amount of chemicals, and they interface with stock control technologies, Lieberman said. The award will allow Lieberman to expand the PAD program to Cameroon, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi and Namibia.

“I’m honored and really grateful,” she said. “Antimicrobial resistance threatens us all, because bacteria don’t pay attention to borders.”

Testing antibiotics with the PAD card: PADreader reports a substandard product. This simulated product contains only 43 percent of the expected amount of amoxicillin (Photo/Marya Lieberman)

The award will allow Lieberman’s lab to test the antibiotics that are most important in treating bacterial infections in community settings in low- and middle-income countries. Ensuring that sick people and animals get good quality antibiotics will protect patients and slow down development of “superbugs,” which are strains of bacteria that become resistant to antibiotics.

“We are interested in building tools that will let people test antibiotics in their own communities,” Lieberman said. “By sharing these rest results across multiple sites, we can increase the impact.”

People in low- and middle-income countries lack access to common antibiotics. Of the 7.75 million who die of bacterial sepsis each year, almost 3 million have infections that could be treated with common oral antibiotics like penicillin and amoxicillin. The lack of access has caused increased antimicrobial resistance, with deaths in both humans and animals.

This year marks the third time the Trinity Challenge has been held. The first, in 2021, was based on pandemic preparedness, and the 2024 challenge was focused on antimicrobial resistance.

“Our new winners from our third challenge have applied innovative thinking to this complex problem in global health, and I applaud their creativity and dedication,” said Professor Dame Sally Davies, executive chair of the Trinity Challenge as well as the UK Special Envoy on antimicrobial resistance, in a news release. “They show that everyone can make a difference and be part of the solution to the antibiotic emergency.

“Their plans to harness the power of new and existing technology and local level data to successfully detect substandard and falsified antibiotics or track stock control within a country will fill knowledge gaps and inform decision-makers.”

This is the second award for Lieberman’s PAD project in 2025. She also received the Gustavus John Esselen Award for Chemistry in the Public Interest in February.

“At Notre Dame, we are driven by a commitment to serve communities and promote human dignity. Professor Lieberman’s PAD project exemplifies those ideals by ensuring access to safe, effective medicines, and this award will allow her to expand its impact to more people who need it most,” said Steve Corcelli, interim William K. Warren Foundation Dean of the Notre Dame College of Science.

Forbes names Notre Dame top employer in Indiana for 2025

2025-08-27T11:00:00-04:00

The University of Notre Dame has been named the top employer in Indiana by Forbes in its 2025 ranking of “America’s Best Employers by State.”

The recognition follows Notre Dame’s repeated appearances on Forbes’ national and state lists, including being ranked the No. 1 large employer in the United States earlier this year and the best employer in the education sector in Indiana in 2024. This continued recognition reflects a clear pattern of excellence in how the University supports and invests in its people.

“We are humbled and grateful to once again be recognized by Forbes as the best place to work in our home state of Indiana,” said Executive Vice President Shannon Cullinan. “This honor is a tribute to the dedicated faculty and staff who bring Notre Dame’s mission to life each day, and to the ways in which we strive to care for one another as a community.”

Notre Dame ranked No. 1 out of 75 employers in Indiana. The Forbes rankings are based on surveys of more than 160,000 employees across industries, evaluating employers’ commitment to workplace culture, compensation and benefits.

At Notre Dame, that commitment is reflected in industry-leading benefits designed to support the whole person, from health and wellness to professional development and spiritual growth. Initiatives such as dedicated childcare centers, robust retirement and health care programs and an on-campus employee medical facility underscore the University’s ongoing dedication to its people.

“This honor is a reminder that when we invest in our people, we all thrive together,” said Vice President for Notre Dame Human Resources Heather Christophersen. “It challenges us to maintain focus on how we support, reward and celebrate the extraordinary faculty and staff who make Notre Dame what it is.”

Notre Dame’s continued recognition by Forbes highlights the University’s enduring commitment to its people, Christophersen said. To be named Indiana’s best employer is especially meaningful, she said, as it reflects not only the strength of the University’s workplace culture, but also the deep connection it shares with local communities. As the University continues to grow in impact and reach, it remains dedicated to ensuring that Notre Dame is a place where people are supported, inspired and proud to belong.

To find your golden opportunity, visit careers.nd.edu.

Consumers prefer dealing with chatbots over humans when buying ‘embarrassing’ products online

2025-08-27T09:00:00-04:00

Jianna Jin

Consumers are increasingly tired of interacting with chatbots in customer service. There are times, however, when people prefer chatbots, according to new research from the University of Notre Dame.

When purchasing “embarrassing” products like diarrhea medicine or acne cream, consumers would rather engage with a chatbot over another human, even when they are shopping alone at home, according to lead author Jianna Jin, assistant professor of marketing at Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business. Jin’s findings, “Avoiding embarrassment online: Response to and inferences about chatbots when purchases activate self-presentation concerns,” were recently published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology.

Jin, along with Jesse Walker and Rebecca Walker Reczek from Ohio State University, looked at how shoppers’ desire to avoid embarrassment influenced two types of interactions with chatbots: when a chatbot’s identity is disclosed, and when it is not disclosed and is therefore ambiguous.

Across seven experiments with more than 6,000 participants, the team created and used its own chatbot to study the intricacies of human-chatbot interaction. People shopped for hemorrhoid medication and anti-wrinkle cream, among other products.

In one experiment, participants were asked to imagine shopping for diarrhea and hay fever medications and were offered two online pharmacies, one with a human pharmacist and the other with a chatbot pharmacist. The medications were packaged identically, with the only difference being their labels for “diarrhea” or “hay fever.” More than 80 percent of consumers looking for diarrhea treatment preferred a store with a clearly non-human chatbot, which was not the case when shopping for hay fever medication.

Another experiment used a dating app enabled with either a clearly identified chatbot or human match agent that asked sensitive questions about things like body shape. Again, when facing sensitive questions, people disclosed more and preferred a clearly non-human chatbot match agent over a human agent.

Consumer embarrassment also plays a role when a chatbot’s identity remains ambiguous. When interacting with a chatbot that looks and sounds human, consumers who are more likely to be embarrassed when buying hemorrhoid cream, for example, are more likely to infer the agent is human and potentially avoid the interaction altogether.

“When it comes to sensitive purchases, if there’s any doubt about who they’re interacting with, perhaps because of a human-like profile picture, people will err on the side of caution and treat the AI chatbot as if it’s human to protect their self-image,” Jin said. “It’s a way of preparing for the worst-case social scenario. But give them a clearly non-human chatbot, and suddenly that self-presentation pressure vanishes because there’s no perceived judgment.”

When consumers know for sure they are interacting with a chatbot, they strongly prefer it over a human for embarrassing purchases. And they really want it to look and sound like a machine rather than the more human-like versions the industry is trending toward. These shoppers proved more willing to engage with a chatbot, choose a store that uses one, and even share email addresses and other personal information to get free samples.

“While our studies focus on classic ‘self-conscious’ purchases, the insight extends more broadly,” Jin said. “A car leasing company could use a clearly identified, machine-like chatbot to assist women in an industry where they may experience stereotype-based judgment.”

The findings can help guide companies in deciding when to deploy chatbots, why they work in certain contexts and how to design them effectively.

Contact: Jianna Jin, 574-631-1509, jjin5@nd.edu

Flick on the Field returns Aug. 29 with free screening of ‘Rudy’ at Notre Dame Stadium

2025-08-25T15:00:00-04:00

Flick on the Field returns Friday (Aug. 29), when the movie “Rudy” will be shown on the video board at Notre Dame Stadium. The 1993 film, starring Sean Astin, tells the story of Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger, who follows his dream to play football at the University of Notre Dame despite significant obstacles.

Co-sponsored by the University of Notre Dame and Visit South Bend Mishawaka, Flick on the Field is free and open to the public. Parking is also free in the lot immediately south of the stadium. Faculty, staff and visitors should enter the stadium through Gate D, on the southwest side, starting at 8:30 p.m. The two-hour movie begins at 9 p.m. The movie will be captioned.

Faculty, staff and visitors will be seated in the stadium bowl in sections 26 to 34. Seating will be general admission. Notre Dame, Saint Mary’s College and Holy Cross College students, with student IDs, will be allowed to sit on the football field to watch the movie.

Fans can make cashless purchases at concession stands in the concourses. Expect to find movie-type offerings such as popcorn, candy, water and fountain drinks available for purchase. Outside food and drink will not be allowed.

University staff will search the bags of anyone entering the stadium. While the clear-bag policy for football games will not be in place, backpacks, duffels and other large bags are discouraged.

If there is inclement weather, updated information about the event can be found online at Experience Notre Dame, on Experience Notre Dame’s Facebook and Instagram pages and on Visit South Bend Mishawaka's Facebook and Instagram pages.

For more information, including where to dine, shop and explore before Flick on The Field, visit experience.nd.edu/.

Joule Bergerson, energy technology assessment expert, named new director of ND Energy

2025-08-19T13:00:56-04:00

ND Energy faculty director Joule Bergerson.
Photo by Angelic Rose Hubert.

Joule Bergerson, professor of chemical and petroleum engineering at the University of Calgary (Canada), has been selected to serve as the faculty director of ND Energy at the University of Notre Dame (South Bend, Indiana, USA), effective August 1. Bergerson has also been appointed the inaugural Richard and Ellen Stanley Professor of Energy Systems Engineering in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. As a leading expert in energy technology assessment, her research informs infrastructure and investment decisions as well as energy innovations in the global effort to more aggressively reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“ND Energy was formed to meet the global need for answers to complex energy and sustainability challenges,” said Jeffrey F. Rhoads, John and Catherine Martin Family Vice President for Research and professor in the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering. “With her profound knowledge of the economic and environmental impact of emerging energy technologies, Joule is the ideal leader for the next phase of energy research at Notre Dame.”

At the intersection of policy and technical innovation, Bergerson’s work involves scientists, engineers and members of the business community who are developing new energy technologies. Her goal is to equip stakeholders with tools to assess the financial and environmental costs of energy — from generation to use to waste management — facilitating a clearer understanding of the complex benefits and trade-offs of energy production and expenditure.

An international collaborator, Bergerson has published numerous open-source tools for modeling energy systems. Her Petroleum Refinery Life Cycle Inventory Model, a tool for estimating the impact of crude oil quality and oil refinery layout on greenhouse gas emissions, informs the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Oil Climate Index (OCI), RMI’s OCI+ and The Archie Initiative’s database. In recognition of her leadership, Bergerson presented the life cycle model at the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris.

Patricia J. Culligan, the Matthew H. McCloskey Dean of Notre Dame’s College of Engineering and professor of civil engineering, said, “We are thrilled that Joule will be joining our College of Engineering faculty and very grateful to Richard and Ellen Stanley for endowing the named chair that attracted her to Notre Dame. Joule’s talents and expertise ideally complement those of our current faculty engaged in energy and sustainability focused research, and will enable us to advance new solutions for clean energy transitions that are equitable and just.”

Bergerson’s interdisciplinary and diplomatic approach to energy development resonates with the mission of ND Energy. By bringing together experts in engineering, sustainability and international relations, the center was created to address the most pressing global energy issues of our time. The University’s recent strategic plan reaffirmed its commitment to building a more equitable and sustainable energy future, and, under Bergerson’s leadership, ND Energy will play a key role in supporting this effort.

“My work to date has gone beyond the engineering of energy to include the economic and operational aspects of energy production, which are so important in today’s world,” Bergerson said. “In order to plan for a more sustainable and equitable future, we must have the data to be well-informed, and I am thrilled to join my experience with the mission of the University and work alongside world-class colleagues toward this end.”

Bergerson earned an undergraduate degree in chemistry and environmental science from the University of Western Ontario and a master’s degree in chemical and environmental engineering from the University of Toronto. She completed her doctoral studies in the joint programs of civil and environmental engineering and engineering and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University before joining the University of Calgary as a postdoctoral fellow in 2005.

Bergerson has received numerous institutional awards for excellence throughout two decades of teaching and research. In 2017, she was named a Government of Canada Research Chair for her leadership in technology assessments in the energy sector. In 2024, she was recognized by the American Center for Life Cycle Assessment with their Leadership in Academia Award.

Learn more about Bergerson and ND Energy.

Shipping policies designed to boost online spending instead drive consumers into stores

2025-08-19T09:00:00-04:00

Vamsi Kanuri (Photo by Matt Cashore/University of Notre Dame)

Online shopping has experienced massive growth over the past decade, leading to extensive research into how businesses merge their physical store presence with online platforms.

A new study from the University of Notre Dame reveals surprising results when shipping policies are adjusted from tiered to flat-rate models.

Previous studies have ignored the nuances of e-commerce shipping fee policies, which serve as a critical strategic tool for retailers. Traditionally, companies including AutoZone, World Market and BatteriesPlus have favored tiered shipping fees determined by order cost. More modern policies at retailers like BoxLunch, White House Black Market and Saks Fifth Avenue have shifted to flat fees designed to encourage higher-dollar online orders, as consumers may feel the fees are “wasted” unless they make a larger purchase.

Rather than boosting e-commerce, the change drives many online shoppers into the stores, leading to an overall increase in sales from both channels, according to the lead author Vamsi Kanuri, the Viola D. Hank Associate Professor of Marketing at Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business. Kanuri’s findings, “Disentangling the Customer-Level, Cross-Channel Effects of Large-Order-Advantaged Online Shipping Policies” were recently published in MIS Quarterly.

Kanuri, along with Andrew Crecelius from Iowa State University and Subodha Kumar from Temple University, analyzed 16 months of transaction data from more than 21,000 customers of a major luxury department store operating online and with physical stores in five states. Switching from a tiered online shipping fee where bigger orders cost more to ship, to a flat-rate that costs the same no matter how much is purchased, they tracked how the new policy impacted online and in-store purchasing behavior, specifically focusing on order frequency, size and item types.

Under the retailer’s tiered system, a $10 order included no fee, a $30 order incurred a $7 fee and a $100 order had a $20 fee. With the shift to a flat-rate shipping policy, customers paid $7 regardless of order size.

‘We expected this would boost online shopping,” Kanuri said. “But surprisingly, in-store sales increased by 23 percent among the shoppers who purchased only through the online channel before the policy change.”

Specifically, shoppers reduced their average monthly online spending by $242,000 (11 percent decrease), while previously online-only shoppers spent a whopping $975,000 (23 percent increase) in stores. They pooled their online orders until they reached the threshold, resulting in fewer but larger online orders, then visited physical stores in between for smaller items.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Amazon has dominated the $900 billion online market, while rivals with physical stores like Macy’s rush to boost their e-commerce sales and others including J. Crew, Neiman Marcus, Pier 1 Imports, Revlon and Sears faced bankruptcies and store closures.

“For these legacy retailers trying to stay competitive with Amazon, especially those with both online and physical stores, this study is big,” Kanuri said. “Our work shows that online shipping policies can shape how and where people shop. A flat-rate shipping fee might not juice up online orders as intended, but it can be a clever way to get customers to step into a physical store and boost sales for both, putting ‘e-tailers’ at a slight disadvantage.”

Kanuri advises managers to make better use of their physical locations by assessing how their shipping strategies affect in-store behavior as well as online sales.

Contact: Vamsi Kanuri, 574-631-2399, vkanuri@nd.edu

New KinderCare facility to bring quality, convenient care to Notre Dame families

2025-08-12T15:35:00-04:00

KinderCare, in partnership with the University of Notre Dame, celebrated the opening of a new childcare center on the northern edge of campus with a ribbon cutting and reception on Tuesday (July 29). This center, which will serve children of Notre Dame faculty, staff, and students, will help fill a need for quality, trustworthy childcare in the South Bend area.

Escaping the heat, some of the center’s predicted 150-plus infant and toddler beneficiaries were present and able to explore their new learning and care space. The bright, colorful rooms welcomed families to interact with staff and see where their children will learn and play.

Amid a few babies fussing, and after parents secured some active crawlers, Executive Vice President Shannon Cullinan, John McGreevy, the Charles and Jill Fischer Provost, and Heather Christophersen, vice president for human resources, opened the program with remarks.

Building on the recommendations of a committee convened in 2020 to look at childcare assistance opportunities, the new center is part of a commitment from University leaders to support faculty, staff, students, and their families.

“One thing became clear early on: There was, in this region and at Notre Dame, a significant shortage of childcare in our area, especially for infants. So here we are today. This new center is more than a building. It represents a meaningful investment in our people . . . who are our greatest asset,” McGreevy said.

Adjacent to University housing for married and parenting students, this KinderCare facility provides a central location for on-campus parents. When the center opens later this month it will serve more than 100 families: 30 from University faculty, 53 from staff, and 22 from graduate and professional students. “That is a true cross-section of the Notre Dame family,” McGreevy said.

McGreevy believes that opening this facility will create a positive ripple effect for the community. “This is a proactive investment in family support services. It’s one of the many ways that Notre Dame is working to ensure that our faculty, staff, and students can thrive professionally, of course, but also personally. This investment is exactly the kind of work that our University strategic framework calls us to do.”

The center has 21 teachers on staff, including the resident chef, to care for children ranging from 6 weeks to 5 years old. Classrooms are divided into age-specific programs for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers, with specialized activities designed to nurture developmental growth and personalize education.

Creating this space was not the only recent investment made by the University to support families, Cullinan added. “In addition to the construction of this facility, NDHR also doubled the adoption benefit for families and centralized websites for parenting resources.” Cullinan shared that the University also hired a full-time Family Services Consultant, Maureen Baska, to help staff navigate their family's caregiving needs and connect them with benefits and resources. Staff can schedule a consultation with Maureen at their convenience.

Cullinan emphasized the logistical feat of this construction, having broken ground in 2024 and completed on schedule for the 2025-26 academic year thanks to the collaborative effort between KinderCare and Notre Dame staff.

The new KinderCare facility is a tangible expression of the University's commitment to walk with community members, be they students or employees, in the moments that matter. This is another step in Notre Dame's mission to support families so that all can thrive, both personally and professionally.

Marlene DiPasquale, vice president of KinderCare for Employers, expressed her gratitude and excitement for the new facility. “Thank you for including us today in your celebration and kudos to you, University of Notre Dame. This is an outstanding step to take for your families, and I love the fact that you’re recognizing it’s for all members of your community.”

Rev. Gerry J. Olinger, C.S.C., vice president for student affairs, closed the program with a prayer and blessing of the facility. “I just want to speak on behalf of all of our students, especially our graduate, our professional students, our undergraduate students, and our parenting students, about how excited we are for this new facility, this new opportunity. It is such a blessing for us, and thank you to all those who have been involved in making this possible.”

KinderCare — the nation’s largest childcare and early education provider — has delivered expert early childhood education for more than 50 years and currently partners with several universities. The Early Childhood Development Center (ECDC) at Notre Dame and Saint Mary’s College will continue to operate on campus and work in collaboration with KinderCare.

Originally published by Julia Wilson, Writer/Editor at ndworks.nd.edu on August 12, 2025.

Three Notre Dame researchers win NEH grants for humanities-based projects

2025-08-06T15:30:00-04:00

Three University of Notre Dame researchers have been awarded significant three-year grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities in support of work related to the archeological aspects of Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome, contextualizing Catholic resistance in 20th-century central and eastern Europe, and the use of virtue ethics in generative artificial intelligence systems.

David Hernandez, the Eli J. and Helen Shaheen Associate Professor of Classics, and Morgan Munsen, senior research and partnerships program manager at the Nanovic Institute for European 91��Ƶ in the Keough 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs, have each won an NEH Collaborative Research grant. Thomas A. Stapleford, associate professor in the Program of Liberal 91��Ƶ, is leading a team that has been awarded a Humanities Research Center on Artificial Intelligence grant.

The Notre Dame awards are among $34.79 million in grants announced by the NEH in August to support 97 humanities projects across the country.

“We are immensely proud of these Notre Dame scholars for receiving this federal funding to support their work on critical topics,” said Jeffrey F. Rhoads, the John and Catherine Martin Family Vice President for Research.“This financial support is a testament to the exceptional caliber of humanities scholarship done here, and it will enable these researchers to enrich public understanding and contribute to the vibrant intellectual life of our nation.”

Digging for more

Left: David Hernandez, the Eli J. and Helen Shaheen Associate Professor of Classics with a student at the Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome. Right: Paolo Vitti, an associate professor of the practice at the 91��Ƶ of Architecture. (Photos provided.)

Built in second-century Rome, Castel Sant’Angelo was initially created as a mausoleum for the Roman emperor Hadrian and his family — making it one of the most notable tombs in the world. Over the centuries, the towering rotunda was used as a fortress and residence for medieval Roman Catholic popes, and today, it serves as a museum that welcomes more than a million tourists each year.

But Hernandez, a classical archeologist, says little research has been conducted on the building itself.

“New studies demonstrate that major aspects of its original architecture are presently misunderstood, including its design, display and intended symbolism,” Hernandez said.

Together with Paolo Vitti, an associate professor of the practice at the 91��Ƶ of Architecture, Hernandez will use the NEH grant to create a two-volume book, tentatively titled “The Mausoleum of Hadrian and Castel Sant’Angelo: The Tomb and its Afterlife,” that will serve as the first comprehensive interpretation of the landmark site. They will also create a 3-D digital model of the monument that will be available for the public.

“With this grant, we’re able to undertake on-site fieldwork over the course of three years and publish a comprehensive study of the archaeology, architecture and history of Castel Sant’Angelo, one of the most significant and iconic monuments located in the heart of Rome,” Hernandez said. “I am deeply honored and immensely grateful to receive this research support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.”

A ‘view from below’

Morgan Munsen, senior research and partnerships program manager at the Nanovic Institute for European 91��Ƶ.

In the aftermath of World War II, central and eastern Europe was significantly shaped by communist government repression of many forms of expression, including religion. With her NEH grant, Munsen is aiming to shine a light on and humanize those everyday Catholics who were devoted to resisting these restrictions during the 20th-century period.

Munsen’s research project, Contextualizing and Personalizing the Diversity of Catholic Resistance to Communist Religious Oppression in Central and Eastern Europe (1944 to 1991), will come to life through the creation of a multimedia website. The site will feature digital storytelling through embedded video clips from eyewitness interviews, as well as provide historical and political context to accounts from that time period.

“Rather than reiterating state-centered narratives, this precious corpus of interviews provides a ‘view from below,’ foregrounding the lived experiences of individuals and communities who were often marginalized in official histories,” said Munsen, who earned her bachelor’s degree in neuroscience and behavior and her Ph.D. in psychology at Notre Dame.

By showcasing voices across several countries and cultures, including Ukraine, Georgia, Poland, Slovakia and Croatia, the project will highlight the rich diversity in how various religious communities navigated communist dominance. Munsen said she hopes the project will expand scholarly discourse on how religious individuals navigate and challenge totalitarian regimes.

Her research will draw from and highlight the Nanovic Institute's long-standing Catholic Universities Partnership, and connections with Ukrainian Catholic University’s Institute of Church History, in particular, will significantly advance the aspirations of the new Ukrainian 91��Ƶ Hub.

“I’m perhaps most excited about the collaborative nature of this project, which convenes an international and multidisciplinary group of scholars alongside specialists in digital interactive media and archival systems,” Munsen said.

Keeping the human in humanities with AI

Thomas Stapleford, associate professor in the Program of Liberal 91��Ƶ.

With the rapid progression and integration of artificial intelligence in everyday life, leading technology and humanities scholars at Notre Dame are aiming to explore how to enhance and emphasize humanity in the creation of generative AI systems.

Led by Stapleford, the Notre Dame Program on AI and the Development of Ethics in Agents (ND-PAIDEIA) will gather a network of multidisciplinary researchers to think collectively about how to best cultivate human flourishing amidst the emergence of powerful AI systems. The group will focus on generative AI in relation to two central themes: citizenship and justice, and creativity and human judgment.

“Together, these themes address two distinctively human capabilities: our political life in community — with its aspiration to be governed by reasoned discussions of justice — and our capacity to develop, evaluate and choose our own goals or ends,” Stapleford said. “Generative AI systems have the potential to enhance or diminish both of these capabilities.”

The idea for the program stems from an initial workshop at Notre Dame organized by Stapleford and assistant teaching professor Patrick Gamez in their Generative AI Research Innovation Collaborative, which was a part of the Franco Family Institute for Liberal Arts and the Public Good’s inaugural Research Innovation Collaboratives.

The NEH grant will help the group continue their research and allow ND-PAIDEIA to draft guidelines for using virtue ethics in developing and implementing generative AI systems. They plan to then test and refine the guidelines through various projects and events such as hosting research seminars, offering workshops, involving undergraduates through a hackathon event, running an annual conference, authoring papers and hosting bootcamps on virtue ethics and generative AI. The team also intends to build the foundation for ND-PAIDEIA to become a permanent program at Notre Dame.

ND-PAIDEIA involves collaboration between the Reilly Center for Science, Technology, and Values, the Lucy Family Institute for Data & Society and the Institute for Ethics and the Common Good, along with additional support from the Center for the Study of Languages and Cultures and the Navari Family Center for Digital Scholarship. The application was also supported by the city of South Bend’s Department of Innovation and Technology, which will work with ND-PAIDEIA on some of its future activities.

“ND-PAIDEIA is dedicated to using insights from the humanities to help us design and use generative AI systems in ways that strengthen, rather than weaken, those core aspects of what it means to be human,” Stapleford said.

Originally published by Mary Kinney at al.nd.edu on August 05, 2025.

Statement from University President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., on the anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima

2025-08-06T09:00:00-04:00

University of Notre Dame President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., traveled to Japan this week as part of a “Pilgrimage of Peace,” to mark the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The delegation was led by Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago, Cardinal Robert McElroy of Washington, Archbishop Paul Etienne of Seattle and Archbishop John Wester of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Notre Dame faculty, staff and students also joined the pilgrimage, along with representatives from other U.S. Catholic universities.

Today, on the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, Father Dowd offered remarks at the Elisabeth University of Music as a guest of its president, Yuji Kawano, and Bishop Alexis Mitsuru Shirahama of Hiroshima. Father Dowd focused on the role that universities can play in addressing the current nuclear predicament and the wider challenges of peace in today’s world.

“The first and primary role of a university is to discover new knowledge and to educate,” Father Dowd said. “While modern universities have excelled at scientific and technical discoveries, moral wisdom has often lagged behind. The particular role of a Catholic university like Notre Dame is to join scientific and technical knowledge with moral and religious understanding. Nuclear weapons and war are, at root, spiritual and moral problems. …

“One reason I wanted to be part of this pilgrimage is the opportunity to hear directly from the remaining survivors of the bombings — the hibakusha. Their witness to the reality of these barbarous weapons is irreplaceable in gaining the moral wisdom that will fulfill the promise of the inscription on the Memorial Monument not far from here: ‘Let all the souls here rest in peace; for we shall not repeat the evil.’ …

“Those of us from Catholic institutions charged with educating and forming the next generation should be proud of our leadership in religion and ethics, but we can do much more to help our students understand and embrace the Church’s rich tradition of moral reflection on war and peace, as well as the Church’s long-standing moral critique of nuclear weapons and calls for mutual, verifiable nuclear disarmament. We can do more to help bring about the moral about-face that is necessary if the world is to have any hope of escaping the nuclear predicament.”

Father Dowd’s full remarks can be viewed here in English and in Japanese.

Open-access database offers insights into U.S. congressional candidates

2025-08-05T09:44:00-04:00

U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Barbara Johnston/University of Notre Dame)

Each election cycle, thousands of candidates vie for seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate. Until now, there has been no comprehensive, publicly available resource cataloging what those candidates say about who they are or what they stand for.

A new open-access database called CampaignView, created by researchers at the University of Notre Dame, offers researchers, journalists and educators a powerful tool to understand congressional elections.

Developed by Rachel Porter, the Notre Dame du Lac Assistant Professor in Notre Dame’s Department of Political Science, the database project began in 2017 and has captured tens of thousands of campaign platform points and biographical narratives from congressional campaign websites over the past eight years.

“Information is the bedrock of democratic accountability, yet the vast majority of congressional candidates leave little trace in our political record,” said Porter, who is also a faculty fellow with the Lucy Family Institute for Data & Society. “CampaignView is designed to fill that gap.”

Rachel Porter is the Notre Dame du Lac Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science and a faculty fellow with the Lucy Family Institute for Data & Society. (Photo by Barbara Johnston/University of Notre Dame)

The database contains the biographies of more than 5,000 major-party candidates who ran for the U.S. House of Representatives between 2018 and 2022. Representing nearly 87 percent of all ballot-eligible contenders across both primary and general elections, CampaignView offers an unprecedented lens into how candidates communicate their campaign priorities and shape party identity.

Beyond the election cycle, data on candidate campaign messages can signal the future legislative agendas of electoral candidates and offer researchers valuable insights into evaluating key components of democracy.

While the database has clear academic value, its utility extends far beyond political science. Journalists covering campaigns, advocacy organizations researching candidate alignment and citizens seeking to better understand their choices at the ballot box all stand to benefit from the database’s usability.

Rather than relying on archived websites, many of which provide only incomplete or inconsistently preserved records, the CampaignView data was built by collecting campaign materials in real time, just before each state’s primary election, to ensure that the messages of candidates were accurately captured as they were delivered to voters during each election cycle.

To build the database, Porter worked with Colin Case, assistant professor of political science at the University of Iowa, and Sarah Treul, professor of political science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, to identify major-party candidates, manually collecting biographical and policy content from candidate campaign websites through extensive searches and follow-ups before each primary.

CampaignView hosts links to candidate bios, campaign platforms and election metadata, providing comprehensive, publicly available information about who the candidates are and what they stand for.

Using a standardized system, a team of undergraduate student annotators categorized more than 40,000 policy statements by topic and paired each candidate with additional information such as party affiliation, incumbency status and election outcomes. After each election cycle, information on each candidate’s primary election vote share was also collected from the State Election Offices.

Through the platform’s design, users can search by candidate name, party, year or district, and filter by policy area or platform text.

One of CampaignView’s most significant contributions is its focus on primary elections — the stage at which most congressional races are now effectively decided.

“With the decline of competitive general elections, understanding candidate behavior during the primaries is essential,” Porter said. “This is where messaging strategies are most revealing, and where the ideological direction of each party is shaped.”

The database is also well-suited to examine issues of political polarization, agenda-setting and strategic self-presentation — topics at the heart of contemporary political science, media studies and public discourse.

”Within certain topics, CampaignView can indicate substantial partisan differences across several years,” Porter explained. “Democrats consistently emphasize 'Energy and Environment,' 'Healthcare' and 'Social Welfare,' whereas Republicans discuss 'Immigration' and 'Government Operations' more frequently.”

The CampaignView platform is designed to allow users to search by candidate name, party, year or district, and filter by policy area or platform text.

Porter also pointed out that some key search topics exhibit notable changes within parties from one election cycle to the next. For example, prior to 2022, Democrats were roughly 25 percentage points more likely than Republicans to discuss the topic of education — a gap that narrowed significantly to about five percentage points in 2022. Trends in discussions of health care reveal a different pattern, however. In 2020, Democrats were 23 percentage points more likely to discuss health care in their campaigns compared to Republicans; and by 2022, the gap had widened to more than 40 percentage points.

Data from the 2024 election is in the final phase of processing, and plans are already being made to include the 2026 elections and beyond. Additional features of CampaignView may explore partisan language trends, gender differences in candidate messaging or how campaign rhetoric predicts legislative priorities once candidates enter office. The team also hopes to leverage artificial intelligence to automate the system so that users can acquire real-time information about candidates during the election cycle.

“Information is critical to a well-functioning democracy — and the University of Notre Dame is leading the way in research committed to upholding this essential pillar of democratic society,” Porter said. “Right now, we see CampaignView as a valuable resource for scholars and journalists to access information about candidates. In the future, we hope it can become just as valuable for voters.”

The development of the CampaignView data platform was supported by the Lucy Family Institute for Data & Society at the University of Notre Dame.

The database is hosted on Harvard Dataverse and available in multiple formats for easy integration with statistical software.

For more information or to explore the database, visit www.campaignview.org.

Contact: Tracy DeStazio, associate director of media relations, 574-631-9958 or tdestazi@nd.edu

Institute for Educational Initiatives launches free math app to strengthen students’ understanding of numbers and operations

2025-07-31T15:15:00-04:00

Researchers at the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Educational Initiatives have launched the Number Sense Assessment, a free, research-based math app now available to educators nationwide. The app helps teachers in grades three and up quickly identify gaps in student understanding and strengthen instruction in core math concepts.

Backed by a grant from the National Science Foundation and developed in collaboration with the Lucy Family Institute for Data & Society, the assessment has already been used in more than 25 schools, reaching over 2,000 students. It is also being implemented in ACE Teaching Fellows partner schools and through Tutor-ND.

The app reflects years of research on mathematical cognition and offers an easy, practical way for teachers to boost math understanding — right from their classrooms.

Patrick Kirkland

“The teachers and math educators we work with all tell us how important developing their students’ number sense is. However, they haven’t been able to efficiently see if their students are making any progress towards that goal,” said Patrick Kirkland, assistant professor of the practice in the Institute for Educational Initiatives and lead developer of the app. “The Number Sense Assessment addresses that gap — and gives educators actionable insights, at no cost, without adding to their already full plates.”

Designed for real-world use, the app takes just 10 minutes to administer and provides immediate feedback. It presents students in third grade and up with mental math tasks that measure not just computational skills, but deep conceptual understanding and flexibility with rational numbers and operations. Teachers receive easy-to-read reports highlighting student strengths, misconceptions, and next steps — along with access to research-backed instructional resources.

A recent article from The Hechinger Report (“The Building Blocks of Math That Students Need to Excel”) underscores the growing importance of number sense in setting students up for long-term success in math.

Nitesh Chawla

“We’re proud to support this collaboration, which brings together interdisciplinary research and real classroom impact,” said Nitesh Chawla, founding director of the Lucy Family Institute for Data & Society. “The Number Sense Assessment app reflects how data-informed tools can empower educators and expand opportunity, especially for students who may otherwise struggle in silence.”

Whether used at the beginning of the year, mid-semester or as part of summer learning, the app helps teachers tailor instruction to student needs with minimal onboarding, no extra materials and zero cost.

Educators can email numbersense@nd.edu to request access to the free Number Sense Assessment app.

Contact: Carrie Gates, associate director of media relations, 574-993-9220, c.gates@nd.edu