Ye is a collegiate associate professor of computer science and engineering and the associate director of applied analytics in the Lucy Family Institute for Data and Society. Her research focuses on AI, machine learning, data mining, cybersecurity, and public health, all of which she is applying to dismantle online opioid trafficking. Ye started exploring this issue in 2016 while a professor in West Virginia, the epicenter of the opioid epidemic. Since then, she has collaborated with law enforcement, psychiatrists, dietitians, and other computer scientists to understand the problem from all angles. Her work, including another project on opioid resiliency, has garnered attention and is being funded by groups including the National Science Foundation and the Department of Justice.
Technology like Ye’s is but one way the Department of Justice, including the DEA, is ramping up its strategy. Just a few weeks ago, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced a “whole-of-government effort” to tackle the opioid crisis. It included indictments against a host of people and entities involved in producing and distributing fentanyl, sanctions from the Treasury Department, and $345 million in grants for education, prevention, and treatment. The DEA will continue to hunt and seize fentanyl—last year it seized 287 million deadly doses—and it will continue to support Red Ribbon Week, the largest and longest-running prevention campaign, along with take-back events and sites all over the country