Prob­lem Solv­ing Ini­tia­tive (PSI)

Launched in 2017, PSI is a col­lec­tion of cours­es that brings togeth­er stu­dents and fac­ul­ty from law and oth­er dis­ci­plines to active­ly apply cre­ative prob­lem solv­ing, col­lab­o­ra­tion, and design think­ing skills to com­plex, press­ing chal­lenges in a class­room setting. 

PSI class­es allow stu­dents to learn about top­ics such as sus­tain­able food sys­tems, con­nect­ed and auto­mat­ed vehi­cles, human traf­fick­ing, ​“fake news,” firearm vio­lence, and new music busi­ness mod­els. At the same time, these class­es allow stu­dents to learn about and apply tools, such as prob­lem refram­ing, prac­tic­ing empa­thy, pro­to­typ­ing, and more, that they will con­tin­ue to apply in oth­er class­es, col­lab­o­ra­tive efforts, and the workplace.

Stu­dents and fac­ul­ty have joined PSI from a range of U‑M units, includ­ing Nurs­ing, the Cam­pus Farm, Engi­neer­ing, His­to­ry of Art, Infor­ma­tion, Soci­ol­o­gy, SEAS, Med­i­cine, and Business.

Stu­dents in PSI Classes

• Devel­op cre­ative prob­lem-solv­ing tools
• Lend their exper­tise and skills to a mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary team
• Learn human-cen­tered design think­ing skills
• Con­duct research on, and engage in, advanc­ing solu­tions to real-world challenges
• Col­lab­o­rate with a range of U‑M grad­u­ate and pro­fes­sion­al stu­dents and fac­ul­ty experts

PSI Class­es at a Glance

• Are open to all U‑M grad­u­ate and pro­fes­sion­al stu­dents, fos­ter­ing cross-cam­pus collaboration
• Com­bine sub­stan­tive learn­ing and hands-on skill development
• Change every term, offer­ing new chal­lenges and teach­ing teams

Defend­ing Against Deep­fakes and Disinformation

Instruc­tors: Bar­bara McQuade (Law) and Flo­ri­an Schaub (UMSI)

While Arti­fi­cial Intel­li­gence is an incred­i­ble tool for human advance­ment, it can also be used as a weapon to exploit oth­ers and cause harm. As part of the Law School’s Prob­lem Solv­ing Ini­tia­tive (PSI), this class will explore some of the ways that AI can be used to manip­u­late and deceive users online. We will dis­cuss how deep­fakes can be used to cre­ate dis­in­for­ma­tion about polit­i­cal can­di­dates, to per­pe­trate fraud scams, and to embar­rass celebri­ties with man­u­fac­tured pho­tos depict­ing them in a false light, often evad­ing the reach of law enforce­ment. We will explore the ways in which these abus­es cause harms at the indi­vid­ual lev­el through finan­cial loss, rep­u­ta­tion­al harm or emo­tion­al dis­tress. We will also con­sid­er harms that occur at the soci­etal lev­el by erod­ing con­fi­dence in truth and dimin­ish­ing account­abil­i­ty. Stu­dents will work toward devel­op­ing meth­ods for detect­ing deep fakes and fos­ter­ing resilience by devis­ing coun­ter­mea­sures through tech­ni­cal solu­tions, plat­form poli­cies, legal reg­u­la­tions, and pub­lic education.

Pro­tect­ing the Exploit­ed: Con­fronting Child Labor

Instruc­tors: Luis C.deBaca (Law) and Hardy Vieux (Ford School of Pub­lic Policy)

Recent­ly in the US chil­dren have been found in indus­tri­al agri­cul­ture, ser­vice on late-night cus­to­di­al crews, roof con­struc­tion, and food prepa­ra­tion; indus­tries that reduce chil­dren to anoth­er labor input. Stu­dents from var­ied dis­ci­plines will apply design think­ing prin­ci­ples to con­front this wicked prob­lem fac­ing migrant chil­dren, US cit­i­zens, and chil­dren abroad whose exploita­tion fuels Amer­i­can con­sumers and busi­ness sup­ply chains. 

Stu­dents will con­front child labor through a com­bi­na­tion of the dif­fer­ent pro­fes­sion­al and prac­tice approach­es that they bring to the table. The hall­mark of the Michi­gan Law School’s PSI is assem­bling grad­u­ate and pro­fes­sion­al stu­dents from across the uni­ver­si­ty to com­bine and enhance their own dis­ci­pli­nary approach­es by apply­ing design think­ing prin­ci­ples to seem­ing­ly intractable problems.