Amy Guo – The Stanford Daily https://stanforddaily.com Breaking news from the Farm since 1892 Thu, 31 Aug 2017 03:34:22 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://stanforddaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/cropped-DailyIcon-CardinalRed.png?w=32 Amy Guo – The Stanford Daily https://stanforddaily.com 32 32 204779320 Stanford economist explores reason for slow economic growth post-recession https://stanforddaily.com/2017/08/30/stanford-economist-explores-reason-for-slow-economic-growth-post-recession/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/08/30/stanford-economist-explores-reason-for-slow-economic-growth-post-recession/#respond Thu, 31 Aug 2017 03:34:22 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1129933 Typically after a recession, the United States economy experiences a spike in growth. Although the unemployment rate has returned to pre-recession levels, the economy’s growth after the 2008 recession has been slow and unimpressive, according to a working paper co-authored by Stanford economist Robert Hall.

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Typically after a recession, the United States economy experiences a spike in growth. Although the unemployment rate has returned to pre-recession levels, the economy’s growth after the 2008 recession has been slow and unimpressive, according to a working paper co-authored by a Stanford economist.

Robert Hall, who is the Robert and Carole McNeil Professor of Economics and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, was one of four leading economists that explored the slow economic growth since the Great Recession in the National Bureau of Economic Research paper, “The Disappointed Recovery of Output after 2009.”

The paper identified two major factors for this anomaly: low productivity growth and a decline in labor force. According to the paper, these factors were present before the recession, preventing the economy from experiencing faster growth after.

Hall told Stanford News that between one-half to two-thirds of the labor force shrinkage was because of the changing demographic mix of the working-age population. He also added that rising dependence on disability benefits was a small factor in the slow growth.

As for low productivity growth, Hall’s research showed a slowdown in total factor productivity occurring around 2006. Hall told Stanford News that he believes this slowdown is the result of a special, unsustainable period of productivity growth that occurred during the second half of the 1990s and the first half of the 2000s, possibly due to the adoption of information technology.

While some have argued that government regulations and weak investment were additional factors that contributed to the slow economic growth, Hall’s findings did not confirm these theories.

“We worked on trying to quantify the changes in regulations and their effects on productivity, but did not confirm much of a connection,” Hall said to Stanford News. “We showed that weak investment did not appear to be an independent force explaining weak growth, but rather a response to the adverse forces of low productivity growth and shrinking labor force.”

Although Hall said the paper did not focus on economic initiatives proposed by the Trump administration, he believes federal reforms should have a different focus.

“My personal belief is that tax reform and regulatory reform, such as rolling back the tide of occupational licensing restrictions, would have payoffs at least in the intermediate future,” Hall told Stanford News. “Our biggest need is to improve K-12 education, but the scope of federal reform in that area is small.”

 

Contact Amy Guo at acguo29 ‘at’ gmail.com

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Faculty launches the Platform Lab to manage autonomous tech https://stanforddaily.com/2017/08/21/faculty-launches-the-platform-lab-to-manage-autonomous-tech/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/08/21/faculty-launches-the-platform-lab-to-manage-autonomous-tech/#respond Tue, 22 Aug 2017 06:01:05 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1129830 Faculty members in the Stanford School of Engineering have launched the Platform Lab, an initiative that aims to develop new and more efficient ways of managing autonomous technology such as cars and drones for large-scale operations.

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Faculty members in the Stanford School of Engineering have launched the Platform Lab, an initiative that aims to develop new and more efficient ways of managing autonomous technology such as cars and drones for large-scale operations.

Within the lab, a team of Stanford faculty members and PhD students from across the school of engineering work together to create and develop new platforms, which are pieces of hardware or software that act as bases for constructing other types of technology.

Background and goals

The Platform Lab was established in 2015 when two smaller labs merged: the Stanford Experimental Data Center Laboratory and the Open Networking Research Center. The goal of the merger was to allow faculty in both labs to collaborate on larger research projects.

According to faculty director John Ousterhout, the members of the Platform Lab chose to focus their research on what they call “big control,” which is the ability to centralize management of very large swarms of devices. They hope to accomplish this by harnessing the power of data centers, which can manage thousands or even tens of thousands of machines working together on a particular application.

“Before the growth of the web, people tended to run applications on a single machine, [such as] your laptop or a server machine,” Ousterhout said. “But with the rise of sites like Google, Facebook and Youtube, which are supporting communities of millions of users, there’s no way you can run an application on just one machine and support all of those users.”

Currently, most devices are operated autonomously, performing different functions individually without a real central control to connect them. However, with data centers, the Platform Lab now faces the opportunity–and challenge–of using big control to run applications at an unprecedented scale.

Potential applications

To demonstrate the potential of big control, Ousterhout provided the example of commuting in the Bay Area 10 to 15 years from now, when there will be up to a million cars on the road, all of which will be self-driving. Rather than controlling traffic through each individual vehicle, he believes that a more efficient alternative is managing cars from a central location.

According to an article published by Stanford Engineering, a centralized model will make it possible for computers to keep track of millions of vehicles and plan ways around bottlenecks and hazards to efficiently and safely guide those vehicles to their various destinations.

However, a system that relies on a single central control center is not without its disadvantages. One of the biggest concerns is latency, or the time it takes for information to travel from a device to a data center and back again. According to Ousterhout, it would take about a tenth of a second for a car on the highway to communicate with a central data center and receive a response. However, in certain situations, such as when the car in front suddenly stops, the driver can’t afford to wait a tenth of a second for a command from a data center. As a result, Ousterhout concluded that certain decisions will have to be made purely locally, particularly those that have to be made with very low latency.

The potential of big control lies not only in traffic management. The Platform Lab is also looking to help control the “internet of things”– that is, those everyday devices such as refrigerators and thermostats which are connected to the internet. According to Stanford Engineering, centralized systems can also be used to coordinate large numbers of drones as they manage and move millions of packages within massive warehouses.

“The interesting thing about technology is it often develops in ways we can’t predict ahead of time,” Ousterhout said. “So there will probably be other kinds of devices that can benefit from this kind of system that we can’t even visualize today.”

The Platform Lab hopes that its research will eventually enable a very different world, using big control to make operations like disaster recovery and relief efforts more efficient and effective. In times of major disaster, big control could make it possible for relief teams to release thousands of drones to scour the area and report on the situation. Rather than individually specifying actions for each drone, humans will be able to command entire flights of  drones simultaneously, leaving computer programs to determine the optimal course of action for each individual drone.

Looking Forward

Ousterhout estimates that research projects typically take between five to 10 years to have practical impact, consisting of three to five years of research and additional time for commercialization.

While the Platform Lab is still relatively new and its research has not yet been commercialized, ideas from its predecessor labs have achieved wide success. One example exists in the field of Software Defined Networking, a current multi-billion dollar business that was originally developed and researched as part of the Open Networking and Research Center. Ousterhout expressed hope and optimism regarding the potential impact of the Platform Lab’s research.

“We’re all really excited about this, and we think it has the potential to be really impactful,” Ousterhout said. “One of the things I like about Stanford is that we’re exploring ideas that are so advanced that they’re crazy while building things that are practical and can have a real impact on the world. We come up with ideas that start off seeming nearly insane, but then end up becoming commonplace and used by millions of people around the world.”

 

Contact Amy Guo at acguo29 ‘at’ gmail.com.

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Tips for managing a student budget https://stanforddaily.com/2017/08/04/tips-for-managing-a-student-budget/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/08/04/tips-for-managing-a-student-budget/#respond Fri, 04 Aug 2017 08:00:15 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1129702 The student budget is real, and the stress of managing one’s income and expenses is a common experience. Fortunately, Stanford’s campus is full of resources, from job opportunities to on-campus organizations to tips from fellow classmates, that give students the support they need to navigate the murky waters of student budgeting.

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The student budget is real, and the stress of managing one’s income and expenses is a common experience. Fortunately, Stanford’s campus is full of resources, from job opportunities to on-campus organizations to tips from fellow classmates, that give students the support they need to navigate the murky waters of student budgeting.

Tips for managing a student budget
Many factors contribute to living on a student budget. (ELICIA YE/The Stanford Daily)

Campus Jobs and Resources

In terms of earning money, many Stanford students take advantage of work opportunities on campus, like Kyle Enriquez ’20, who works at the Stanford student store and a campus lab over the summer.

Institutional resources are also available, one of which is the First-Generation Low-Income Partnership (FLIP), a student organization on campus that provides financial support and resources to Stanford students. Alex Fuentes ’20, a member of FLIP’s core, explained that FLIP’s mission is two-fold: to directly provide resources and to cultivate a conversation about socioeconomic issues.

“FLIP actively advocates for first-generation/low-income student needs while also raising awareness of class issues on campus,” Fuentes said. “We help coordinate financial literacy events such as a tax workshop each year, as well as provide food to students who are on campus during school breaks through events like the FLIP Thanksgiving Dinner.”

FLIP also offers financial resources that can be utilized by all Stanford students. According to co-president of FLIP Elen Mendoza ’18, every year, FLIP publishes a “Working at Stanford” guide, which provides a comprehensive list of both on and off campus jobs and is working on the development of an app that lets students know of events where free food is being offered on campus.

Spending resourcefully

As for smart ways to manage the cost of one’s spending, Fuentes offered some personal tips, suggesting that fellow students carpool to split the cost of gas, take advantage of the free printing sites on campus and cash in on student discount sites. He also suggested participating in on-campus lab studies, in which students can make $20 cash per hour.

“Carrying cash makes me less likely to spend, so my ‘lab money’ fund is what I usually use to go out or buy snacks,” Fuentes said.

Regarding textbooks, Mendoza said that, since the cost of books can add up, she likes to either rent books from the library or purchase older editions of texts, which are usually cheaper. Fuentes suggests that students look for e-book or PDF versions of their textbooks or ask to borrow or purchase books from other students who have previously taken the course.

According to Mendoza, students can also order to-go lunches from almost any dining hall. For students on the meal plan, she suggested picking up a to-go lunch when they have to run rather than paying for lunch on the go.

Enriquez also offered some tips on keeping track of his expenses. He keeps receipts from all his purchases to help him keep track of how much he is spending.

“I keep all my receipts in a drawer in my desk,” Enriquez said. “I’ll just throw whatever receipt I got from the day or every couple of days into the drawer so that way I have them in case I need them.”

While life as a college student may be stressful, managing your finances doesn’t have to be. From tips and tricks to financial support, Stanford offers a bounty of resources that provide a helpful guide to any student budgeting experience.

 

Contact Amy Guo at acguo29 ‘at’ gmail.com.

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Classy Classes: POLISCI 153 teaches strategic thinking https://stanforddaily.com/2017/07/11/de_ab-classy-classes-feature-thinking-strategically/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/07/11/de_ab-classy-classes-feature-thinking-strategically/#respond Tue, 11 Jul 2017 08:00:43 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1129361 POLISCI 153: “Thinking Strategically,” taught by assistant professor of political science Avi Acharya, spans the eight-week summer quarter and teaches students how to make optimal decisions by introducing them to the basic concepts of game theory.

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While winning a game like rock, paper, scissors may seem reliant on luck or chance, one Stanford class is teaching students to use game theory strategies to optimize their chances of winning. POLISCI 153: “Thinking Strategically,” taught by assistant professor of political science Avi Acharya, spans the eight-week summer quarter and teaches students how to make optimal decisions by introducing them to the basic concepts of game theory.

The course uses games and activities to help students develop a conceptual understanding of game theory. It is not uncommon to see Professor Acharya challenging his students to rounds of rock, paper, scissors and other games in between lectures and note-taking.

“While the class is taught in a lecture format, there is a tremendous amount of involvement from the students,” Acharya said. “I really enjoy seeing the amount of fun they have in learning concepts by both doing well in the games and by not doing well.”

Classy Classes: POLISCI 153 teaches strategic thinking
(AMY GUO/The Stanford Daily)

However, the practical applications of knowledge and skills gained through this course extend beyond the optimal strategies for winning rock, paper, scissors. The course also gives students the opportunity to observe the applications of game theory in important real world situations with which firms, countries, political parties and even regular people may come into contact. According to Acharya, these applications can be found in models of elections, negotiations, auctions and other market mechanisms.

The wide variety of applications has attracted a similar diversity of students, including all types of scholars from engineering and chemistry majors to those studying political science and the humanities. Simon Tirman, who is just taking classes at Stanford over the summer, said he enrolled in the course because game theory fascinates him.

“Game theory is interesting to me because it involves rational thinking,” Tirman said. “It teaches us how to consider the different options that we have in different situations and how to use that knowledge to become better decision makers in our daily lives.”

Acharya strives to use the course to give his students the tools they need to analyze situations applicable to negotiating policy or business deals where one must strategize how to balance theories of cooperating, compromising and occasionally detecting deception. Acharya hopes students will also learn the limitations of strategic reasoning.

“What I really want my students to take away from this course is how to think like a game theorist,” Acharya said. “That means being able to make arguments like game theorists and learning what it means to reason strategically.”

 

 

Contact Amy Guo at acguo29 ‘at’ gmail.com.

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