Fourteen faculty teams at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business have been awarded three-year grants from the school for research projects that address the world’s grand challenges and reimagine learning in support of the University of Maryland’s vision and the Smith School’s strategic plan.

Technology has been replacing people on the job for years, and many displaced workers have done what they had to do - find other employment. Artificial Intelligence is the latest threat to human labor.

About one-quarter of jobs today require some kind of licensing by state governments, up from 5 percent in the ’50s. Some of the oversight is crucial for public safety and well-being. You want your doctor to be licensed, and probably your accountant. But a hairdresser? Florists?

SMITH BRAIN TRUST -- Joining a social network means trading privacy for information. A 2015 Harvard University study found Facebook’s privacy policy to be increasingly opaque and less explanatory. Also increasing is the inventiveness of criminal investigators and advertisers who mine data from Facebook. Add creditors to this mix.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST -- The Obama administration is taking aim at a job killer that doesn't get a lot of attention: Excessive occupational licensing. Not the sexiest topic, granted, but livelihoods are made or dashed by it — and it's an area where the president is finding common ground with conservatives.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST -- Borrowers live or die by their FICO scores — numbers that offer a snapshot of how reliable they've been in paying back their debts. But some 53 million Americans don't have such scores because their credit history is thin or nonexistent.

Research by Siva Viswanathan and Goudong “Gordon” Gao A buyer venting through a recent eBay forum about a shipping delay contemplated posting an online review criticizing the seller for “laziness and lack of professionalism.” One thing holding the buyer back was fear of a retaliatory review from the merchant that would “tank my rating” as a future seller. 

Your friends say a lot about you — and can even determine whether you can get a loan. That’s the finding of new research from Siva Viswanathan, associate professor of decision, operations and information technologies. 

App makers delayed updating to a more secure version of Google’s Android platform just so they could continue to harvest and sell users’ personal data, new research shows.