Premonition Announces Partnership With NYU Law By COCO WANG Deputy News Editor
According to a press release, Premonition Analytics — an artificial intelligence firm — will partner with NYU School of Law to allow students and faculty free access to the company’s legal database. This collaboration aims to facilitate research on the effects of different rules of civil law procedure on the cost, duration and outcome of legal cases. Premonition Analytics is a Miami-based startup that applies artificial intelligence and big data technology to build the world’s largest litigation database. Co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer of Premonition Analytics Toby Unwin said that NYU first reached out to the firm because of the tremendous size and unique focus of Premonition Analytics’ legal database. Unwin said that the firm partnered with other academic institutions before NYU Law. “Our litigation database is the world’s largest — bigger than LexisNexis, Thomson Reuters and Bloomberg combined,” Unwin said. “While other databases focus on how law is formed at an appellate level, [Premonition Analytics] is focused on results.”
STAFF PHOTO BY RENEE YANG
NYU Law and Premonition Analytics are trying to make Premonition’s database more widely accessible to students.
Unwin said that his company uses its software to discover if certain attorneys win before certain judges, as the current practice that is in place can give parties an unfair advantage in litigation if a particular attorney in a court case is more likely to win over the presiding judge. Unwin said that NYU Law faculty and students can get access to Premonition’s legal database from now on, and Premonition regards the cooperation as a permanent partnership with NYU Law. He also said that Premonition’s legal database provides help to NYU Law students in different ways. “We can help with providing data for research,” Unwin said. “We can also use our tools to help students ask questions of data, like which lawyers win before which judges? How likely a case is to get a certain outcome? The volume of litigation in certain areas and how factors like statutes, venue, judge and attorney selection affect outcomes. The questions are limited primarily by your imagination.” NYU Law spokesperson Michelle Tsai said that the partnership with Premonition wa spurred by an already existing relationship between the company and NYU Law. “One of the law school’s centers had worked with Premonition to find data for a research project and suggested it might be a useful tool for others at NYU Law as well,” Tsai said. Tsai also said that NYU Law Dean Trevor Morrison’s public statement highlights the importance of ensuring that NYU Law students and faculty have the latest research tools for their scholarship. “We’re committed to providing our scholars with the most cutting-edge research tools available,” Morrison said in the statement. “And I’m grateful to Premonition for sharing their unique database with us.” Email Coco Wang at cwang@nyunews.com.
NYUNEWS.COM | MONDAY, APRIL 17, 2017 | WASHINGTON SQUARE NEWS
NYU Developing New Wireless Technology By SANJUKTA PHADKE Contributing Writer
NYU recently received $1 million worth of equipment from National Instruments — the founding sponsor of the NYU Wireless Center — to support the development of 5G wireless technology and facilitate the simulation of experiments in this field, according to Technically Media. According to its website, NYU Wireless is a multi-disciplinary academic research center located at Tandon. The initiative has been responsible for some developments in research fields related to cell and data signals, and it is currently leading the nation in 5G development. 5G will bring in a groundbreaking tech shift since it will carry data at a speed 100 to 1000 times faster than the current fourth generation cell phone. This will enable downloading full-feature movies within seconds, support high-speed gaming techniques and foster the fields of virtual reality and artificial intelligence while encouraging research on the Internet of Things — the interconnection of computing devices embedded in everyday objects through the internet. Tandon Professor of Electrical Engineering Ted Rappaport is the director of NYU Wireless. He has spearheaded the promising developmental efforts and encouraged students to concentrate their research on this domain.
“We are one of the few universities around the world that [National Instruments] trusts to use their latest equipment even before they commercialize it,” Rappaport said. “We help them make their products better, give them feedback and they have currently donated to us cutting-edge instruments.” Tandon graduate student and NYU IT employee Sugandan Gopalakrishnan believes that the development of 5G technology could be extremely beneficial to the industry. “Growth is the future and this research is certainly going to enhance opportunities in the telecommunications industry,” Gopalakrishnan said. “I believe with 5G, there would be a spike in data transmission rate and we can overcome network latency.” Rappaport said that NYU Wireless will be showcasing its research projects alongside other startups who will be exhibiting their products. “We have world leaders convening on the NYU Tandon Engineering Campus next week,” Rappaport said. “We have invited the press, the CTO of MTT DoCoMo, CTO of Korea Telecom, executives from Verizon and the riveting event will be made available to the world as IEEE livestreams it.” Email Sanjukta Phadke at news@nyunews.com.
STAFF PHOTO BY VERONICA LIOW
The NYU Wireless Center, which works through Tandon, plans to develop its 5G wireless technology. More on the development will be discussed at the Brooklyn Summit 5G.
NYU Alumnus Tyehimba Jess Wins Pulitzer Prize
COLLAGE BY JULIA MOSES
Tyehimba Jess, left, won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry for his work “Olio.” Surya Mattu, center, and Micki McElya, right, were finalists for explanatory reporting and general nonfiction, respectively. By MACK DEGEURIN Staff Writer NYU’s own Tyehimba Jess, a 2004 alumnus of the Graduate School of Arts and Science, was recently named the winner of the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in poetry for his second book entitled “Olio.” Jess’s success was accompanied by two more NYU alumni — 2014 Tisch alum Surya Mattu and 2003 GSAS alum Micki McElya, who were both finalists in explanatory reporting and general nonfiction, respectively.
Jess hails from Detroit and attended the University of Chicago before acquiring his masters in Fine Arts at NYU. His first book of poetry, “leadbelly,” hit shelves in 2004 and tells the story of the 20th century jazz musician of the same name through a combination of poems and songs. “leadbelly” was met with critical acclaim and won the National Poetry Series Award. Jess’s sophomore release, “Olio,” focuses on African American musicians prior to the Harlem Renaissance. In his creative collec-
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tion of poems, Jess tells a story of culture and art through a mixture of sonnet, song and narrative. Jess’s work has been commended by members of the poetry community. In a blog post, Douglas Luman of Found Poetry Review said that Jess’s “Olio” has the ability to change preconceived notions about the nature of poetry. “‘Olio’ is and is not like any book you’ve seen before, summoning up reading experiences of the research-driven poetry of Martha Collins and visual/spectacular/performance work of Douglas Kearney, among many others — the same way that one can imagine a spectacle, but to attend it is altogether different,” Luman wrote in his post. “Olio” beat out Adrienne Rich’s “Collected Poems: 1950-2012” and Campbell McGrath’s “XX” to win the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for poetry. Jess currently teaches poetry at the CUNY College of Staten Island. Surya Mattu is an artist and engineer who also works as a contributing researcher for the non-profit investigative journalism outlet
ProPublica. Mattu was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Reporting. While working for ProPublica, Mattu used data analysis to inform the public on a variety of issues ranging from the analysis of information collection algorithms by companies like Facebook and Amazon, to machine learning in headline creation by news outlets and even racial discrimination in auto insurance prices. Mick McElya’s “The Politics of Mourning: Death and Honor in Arlington National Cemetery” tells a story of U.S. history through parallels observed in the representation of the nation’s national cemetery. McElya currently serves as an Associate Professor in the University of Connecticut’s Department of History. In a WNYC interview with Brian Lehrer last year, McElya said, “It [the cemetery] really is a microcosm of American history and culture and population and diversity, both military and nonmilitary since the Civil War.” Administrative aide for the Creative Writing program Soren
Stockman said in a statement to Washington Square News that in recent years, NYU alumni have won a National Book Award, a National Book Critics Circle Award, two Stegnar Fellowships, two NEA fellowships and a Whiting Award. Jess joins the likes of Harold C. Schonberg, GSAS 1939, Dorothy Rabinowitz, GSAS 1960, and over 20 other NYU writers and reporters who can claim Pulitzer Prize Awards to their name. Vice President of Alumni Relations and Annual Givings Brian Perillo said he was impressed by the accomplishments of these NYU alums. “We are incredibly excited for Tyehimba Jess, Micki McElya and Surya Mattu to receive this recognition, which is a well-deserved acknowledgment of their hard work and talent,” Perillo said. “It is immensely fulfilling to see the impact that NYU alumni, a community near half-a-million strong, are having on the world.” Email Mack Degeurin at news@nyunews.com.