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What is often not evident in the evaluation and academic research process is how much prep work and initial investigation goes into understanding the program or phenomena being assessed. Much like icebergs, where the bulk is underwater, the report and data visualizations are at the end of a long, and sometimes very involved, planning and data collection process. Part of the process is deciding what to measure and how to measure it. The what in your measurement may come from t

I was recently chatting with some friends when we ended up on the topic of the Body Mass Index (BMI). They mentioned how their doctors had indicated that their BMIs put them in the overweight category; however, they both exercised regularly and were muscular, which is what led to the results. This is a common problem with the BMI, one that has been known for a long time. Indeed, a quick search through past research literature found that it is replete with criticisms of BMI as

Recently Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy announced the design of a female crash test dummy to be used in tests of car safety (see Trump’s Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy Unveils Design for First-of-its-Kind Advanced Female Crash Test Dummy | US Department of Transportation). As reported by news outlets, this is a change that has been a long time coming (see The long, slow road to developing a female crash test dummy : NPR for one example). As described by Consum

Recently there was a controversy in the news about an AI Teddy Bear that, among other things, would tell small children where to find knives (see Sale of this AI toy suspended over dangerous messages to kids - YouTube). Though much was made in the mainstream press about exposing children to potentially harmful information (rightfully so), the full report from U.S. PIRG also describes concerns about what was happening with the sensitive data, such as children’s facial features

I recently heard a story about wearable AI devices that can record all your interactions with other people (see Best AI Wearables 2025 - Forbes Vetted for some examples). One commentor reported being conscious that all her conversations are now potentially being recorded due to this new technology. All these recordings are data that might be used in ways that haven’t been anticipated and while technology rapidly moves forward, discussions of protecting the rights of human sub