Augustine Chemparathy – The Stanford Daily https://stanforddaily.com Breaking news from the Farm since 1892 Thu, 26 May 2016 07:25:02 +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 Augustine Chemparathy – The Stanford Daily https://stanforddaily.com 32 32 204779320 HumBio adds B.S. degree https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/26/humbio-adds-b-s-degree/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/26/humbio-adds-b-s-degree/#respond Thu, 26 May 2016 07:25:02 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1115728 The Program in Human Biology will offer a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree option to majors beginning in the 2016-2017 academic year.

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The program in human biology will offer a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree option to majors beginning in the 2016-2017 academic year. The degree will exist alongside the current Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree in human biology, which has been offered to undergraduates since the founding of the program in 1971.

According to the program’s website, the human biology major is designed to “provide an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the human being from biological, behavioral, social and cultural perspectives.”

The new degree option will allow students to focus their studies in a technical direction by taking additional classes in the sciences.

“Students in human biology have long sought an option to choose a B.S. degree for academic paths that take on a more science-focused course of study that includes natural sciences, and even mathematics and engineering,” wrote Paul Fisher, program director of human biology and professor of pediatrics, in a press release.

B.S. candidates will be required to take up to 10 units of breadth courses and five or more depth courses in the life and physical sciences. These degree requirements are complementary to those for the B.A., which requires depth courses with an emphasis on social studies and the humanities.

“I think people might be opposed to the change initially because it sounds like [human biology] is turning into bio,” said Vickie Wang ’19, a prospective human biology major.

Depth courses for the B.S. degree will be targeted towards Applied Quantitative Reasoning, Formal Reasoning and Scientific Methods and Analysis Ways of Thinking/Ways of Doing (WAYs) requirements. The B.A. degree requirements currently fulfill Aesthetic and Interpretative Inquiry, Creative Expression, Engaging Diversity, Ethical Reasoning and Social Inquiry WAYs.

The major has historically been a popular option for premedical students. According to the press release, the program does not expect that medical schools will be partial to either the B.S. or B.A. degree.

“I think the change will be a good mix for people who aren’t only completely interested in the humanities side of healthcare and want to dabble in both sides,” Wang said.

 

Contact Augustine Chemparathy at agchempa@stanford.edu.

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Stanford’s i-DDrOP machine promises to make contact lenses more comfortable to wear https://stanforddaily.com/2016/04/11/stanfords-i-ddrop-machine-promises-to-make-contact-lenses-more-comfortable-to-wear/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/04/11/stanfords-i-ddrop-machine-promises-to-make-contact-lenses-more-comfortable-to-wear/#respond Mon, 11 Apr 2016 08:58:25 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1113334 The Interfacial Dewetting and Drainage Optical Platform (i-DDrOP) machine recently developed at Stanford is promising to make contact lenses more comfortable. The i-DDrOP, which enables scientists to closely study the eye’s protective tear film, was described in a report published in the March issue of Investigative Opthalmology and Visual Science.

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The Interfacial Dewetting and Drainage Optical Platform (i-DDrOP) machine recently developed at Stanford is promising to make contact lenses more comfortable. The i-DDrOP, which enables scientists to closely study the eye’s protective tear film, was described in a report published in the March issue of Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science.

Researchers at the Fuller Lab in the Stanford Department of Chemical Engineering developed i-DDrOP to examine the properties of the meibum layer, a thin layer of lipid overlying the tear film. The scientists found that the viscoelastic properties of the meibum layer maintain the structure of the tear film and may also play a role in preventing the tear film from evaporating.

The study was co-authored by Saad Bhamla Ph.D. ’15, MIT undergraduate Chew Chai, chemical engineering Ph.D. candidate Noelle Rabiah, postdoctoral researcher John Frostad and Professor of Chemical Engineering Gerald Fuller.

According to Bhamla, who conducted the work as a graduate student, pressing a contact lens on top of the meibum layer can cause the tear film to dissipate in a process known as dewetting, which leads to painful symptoms such as dry eye.

“Imagine the eyelids rubbing against a dry surface versus a lubricated surface,” Bhamla said, referring to the problematic nature of previous lenses.

Due to water’s strong surface tension, the aqueous tear film would rapidly withdraw to form more compact surfaces if left alone. The meibum layer keeps the surface of your eye protected by forming a monolayer that maintains the integrity of the tear film.

i-DDrOP simulates both the tear film and meibum layer, allowing contact lens manufacturers to test prototype lenses on an artificial system before beginning clinical trials. Bhamla anticipates that lens testing using a device instead of a patient will eliminate a major bottleneck in contact lens innovation.

“Clinical trials take tens of years,” Bhamla said. “[Contact lens manufacturers] don’t ship out new contact lenses every month because of this.”

Contact lenses today are evaluated for metrics such as strength, oxygen permeability and contact angle, but not wetting capability. According to Fuller, who is the principal investigator, the project originated in response to industry concerns.

“This company was producing solutions for [dry eye] and asked us to look at a particular component of the tear film to see if there was anything in it mechanically that was important for tear film stability,” Fuller said.

i-DDrOP parameters have substantial flexibility when it comes to testing contact lenses. Previous artificial systems were bogged down by constraints, including only being operable at room temperature. According to Fuller, testing can now be done at different temperatures and humidities, which more realistically matches the experience of contact lens wearers.

i-DDrOP is now being used by multiple contact lens manufacturers for research, perhaps heralding rapid advances in contact lens comfort in the near future.

“How can you not study such a problem?” Bhamla said. “It’s right in front of your eyes.”

 

Contact Augustine Chemparathy at agchempa@stanford.edu.

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Math 41, 42 to be discontinued https://stanforddaily.com/2016/02/24/math-41-42-to-be-discontinued/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/02/24/math-41-42-to-be-discontinued/#respond Wed, 24 Feb 2016 08:23:25 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1111382 The accelerated single variable calculus classes Math 41 and 42 will be phased out in 2017-2018, according to Stanford’s Department of Mathematics.

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The accelerated single-variable calculus classes Math 41 and 42 will be phased out in 2017-18, according to the Department of Mathematics. The two-quarter Math 41-42 series, offered in autumn and winter quarters, provided an accelerated variant of the yearlong Math 19-20-21 series.

Students with some background in single-variable calculus equivalent to AP Calculus AB may opt to begin the series in Math 20, which will open sections in autumn quarter of 2016 or 2017 for the first time. The math department will also offer a voluntary self-administered online placement test to help students determine their optimal placement in introductory math courses.

According to Brian Conrad, Director of Undergraduate Studies in Mathematics, the change was prompted by increasing numbers of students dropping from Math 41 to Math 19 in the early weeks of the quarter. This led to logistical challenges for the math department. In addition, the change promises to free up TAs for new Math 19 and Math 20 sections.

The course content of the Math 19-20-21 series will be reorganized to ensure compatibility with courses in departments that previously required Math 41 or 42. New sections of all three classes will be offered in spring quarter as well as during the next school year.

 

Contact Augustine Chemparathy at agchempa ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Cantor Arts Center finishes digitizing its collection https://stanforddaily.com/2016/01/06/cantor-arts-center-finishes-digitizing-its-collection/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/01/06/cantor-arts-center-finishes-digitizing-its-collection/#respond Thu, 07 Jan 2016 06:32:03 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1108994 Cantor Arts Center completed a five-year long initiative to inventory and digitize its collection. Publication-quality photographs of 34,000 items in the Cantor collection are now available to the public on an online database.

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Cantor Arts Center completed a five-year-long initiative to inventory and digitize its collection. Publication-quality photographs of 34,000 items in the Cantor collection are now available to the public on an online database.

Photography for the digitization initiative began in May 2010 and was completed in the fall of 2015. Approximately 10,000 items, primarily new acquisitions and delicate items, remain to be digitized.

“We wanted to consistently have high-quality images of the collection available for researchers at a moment’s notice,” said Allison Akbay, Manager of Collections and Registrar at the Cantor Center, who oversaw the project.

The database contains 120,000 images, including multiple angles of many items. Careful color reproduction and high resolution makes the images ideal for publication. Online visitors can view thousands of items not on exhibition, and Stanford affiliates can request to see archived items in person.

The project required the first complete inventory of the Cantor collection since 1916. Only 11,000 photographs of the collection existed at the start of the project, many of which were slides, negatives or duplicate images.

The photography team, which included contract photographer Lee Fatherree and museum staff, worked in an on-site dark studio. The first stage of the project involved scanning 18,000 prints as well as the photography of three-dimensional objects.

The database has enhanced the physical museum by giving curators a better idea of the range of pieces available to them.

“Many of our exhibitions now show objects that have never been exhibited, because we simply didn’t realize we had them before,” Akbay said.

Similar initiatives such as the Google Art project have promised to democratize and enhance art scholarship. Cantor sent near 1,600 digital records from its Cypriot collection to Cyprus earlier this year for scholars to study, an international partnership enabled by the digital records.

“If you’re a scholar in Rome or a scholar in Miami, Florida, you know where these objects are, you can find information on them,” said Connie Wolf, the John and Jill Friedenrich Director of the Cantor Arts Center.

The Cantor Arts Center plans to integrate its digital database more closely with the museum. According to Akbay, a companion museum app currently in development will overlay items with facts and background.

Ultimately, the database is meant to supplement the physical museum experience — not supplant it.

“It’s no secret that the strange, hieroglyphic past… is increasingly replaced by the glib culture of the virtual,” said Alexander Nemerov, the Department of Art and Art History Chair.

Faculty can seek out pieces on the online database and bring students to witness the items in person in the center’s seminar room or newly-opened classroom, which is designed for displaying 3D objects from the collection.

“There is no replacement for looking at the real thing. Having that one-one-one experience of looking at an object is one of the most powerful experiences that one can have,” Wolf said.

 

Contact Augustine Chemparathy at agchempa ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Cryptographers honored with Levchin Prize at Real World Cryptography Conference https://stanforddaily.com/2016/01/06/cryptographers-honored-with-levchin-prize-at-real-world-cryptography-conference/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/01/06/cryptographers-honored-with-levchin-prize-at-real-world-cryptography-conference/#respond Thu, 07 Jan 2016 06:31:46 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1108997 The inaugural Levchin Prize for Real World Cryptography was awarded Wednesday at the Real World Cryptography Conference (RWCC), held annually at Stanford. Phillip Rogaway, professor of Computer Science at UC Davis, as well as the international miTLS research team each received $10,000 for their work on cryptography.

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The inaugural Levchin Prize for Real World Cryptography was awarded Wednesday at the Real World Cryptography Conference (RWCC), held annually at Stanford. Phillip Rogaway, professor of computer science at UC Davis, as well as the international miTLS research team, each received $10,000 for their work on cryptography.

Co-hosted by the Stanford Cyber Initiative, RWCC 2016 takes place from Jan. 6 to Jan. 8, and features talks ranging from computer security policy to mathematics. This year’s conference has attracted nearly 450 attendees.

Established in 2015 by Max Levchin, co-founder of Paypal and CEO of Affirm, the Levchin prize for Real World Cryptography was created to honor cryptography researchers and bring greater public visibility to this field of research. The awardees are selected by a steering committee composed of researchers from universities worldwide.

“The hope is that the general public benefits from knowing what [cryptography] is — it’s math and software, not magic,” Levchin told The Daily before the event.

Rogaway, who has previously advocated for greater ethical consciousness among computer scientists in papers and interviews, was honored for his work on authenticated and format-preserving encryption.

“Crypto for privacy work is intended to help individuals retain autonomy in a world that fights against it… right now there’s an underinvestment in intellectual work that helps people retain autonomy,” Rogaway said.

The international miTLS team, composed of Karthikeyan Bhargavan, M.S., Ph.D., Cedric Fournet, Ph.D., Markulf Kohlweiss, Ph.D. and Alfredo Pironti, Ph.D., received the prize for the development of miTLS, a reference implementation of the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol that provides added security to communications over computer networks.

“We need a way to map theoretical cryptographic results to formal implementations in a more systematic way… I think that will be the major advancement in the next five to 10 years,” Fournet said.

Levchin suggested that computer security would benefit from greater integration of cryptography into high school and undergraduate computer science curricula.

“If I had my way, basic cryptography would be a required class in computer science — that would be an easy, top-down way of [improving computer security]… the people who have this education will be better prepared for the real world,” Levchin said.

Dan Boneh, professor of computer science and electrical engineering at Stanford, who researches computer security and teaches an online course on cryptography, said, “Students should be required to take computer security classes so that when they go out to industry and write code that will be used by billions of people, they know how to write code.”

Stanford offers courses on cryptography to undergraduates, including CS 255: Introduction to Computer Science and the freshman seminar, CS 54N: Great Ideas in Computer Science. Students can also become involved in this field through Stanford’s cybersecurity initiatives, including the Center for International Security and Cooperation and the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School.

“Computer security and cryptography are problems we will have to work on forever. It’s a research area that’s only going to grow. As a research area, as an area of study, it’s fantastic,” Boneh said.

 

Contact Augustine Chemparathy at ‘agchempa’ at ‘stanford.edu’

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Florence overseas program waives spring 2015-16 language requirement https://stanforddaily.com/2015/11/20/florence-overseas-program-waives-spring-2015-16-language-requirement/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/11/20/florence-overseas-program-waives-spring-2015-16-language-requirement/#respond Fri, 20 Nov 2015 10:07:05 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1107676 The language requirement for undergraduates applying to the Stanford Overseas Program in Florence has been waived for the spring 2016 quarter in an attempt to make the program more accessible to students.

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The language requirement for undergraduates applying to the Stanford Overseas Program in Florence has been waived for the spring 2016 quarter in an attempt to make the program more accessible to students.

According to Ermelinda Campani, the Spogli Family Director of the Breyer Center for Overseas Studies in Florence, the change will allow more students to apply — especially STEM majors and athletes who might not otherwise be able to fit the requirements into their schedules.

“We encourage STEM majors in Florence to follow in the footsteps of the great engineers, scientists and thinkers of the Renaissance,” Campani said.

In order to apply for the spring, applicants in the past were required to complete the equivalent of one year of Italian language courses with ITALLANG 2A: “Accelerated First-Year Italian” or ITALLANG 3: “First-Year Italian, Third Quarter.”

The language requirement remains for students who enroll in the autumn quarter program, but the language requirement for winter quarter applicants has also been waived every year since 2014. Since this change, winter quarter enrollment in the program has increased dramatically — from seven students in winter 2012-13 to 37 in winter 2013-14.

All classes at Florence are taught in English, with the exception of the required on-site Italian course. Class topics range from Renaissance art to Italian cooking to bioethics.

“While the ideal is to have students who understand the language fully, in practice they seem to enjoy themselves and learn a great deal,” said Timothy Verdon, who teaches art history to the students in the Florence program.

The rich cultural heritage of Florence makes the city a haven for scholarship, Verdon said. Students in his art history classes don’t take trips to museums, but instead visit palazzos and public spaces where centuries-old art can be found.

“It’s quite remarkable — in America, we don’t have…paintings and frescoes that are still in the chapels in which they were painted,” Verdon said.

Despite the program’s draw for many Stanford students, Elizabeth Bernhardt, professor of German and the director of the Stanford Languages Center, doubts that students without a background in the language will be able to learn Italian while they are in Florence.

“The data are fairly clear that if a person goes into a foreign setting with no language ability on entry, they have virtually no language ability when they leave,” Bernhardt said.

Bernhardt also suggested that students without an appropriate language background may be at significant risk in case of an emergency, citing the recent attacks in Paris.

“It makes me very nervous for students to go to any foreign country without some knowledge of the language because things happen,” Bernhardt said. “When there is some sort of emergency, the assistance happens in the language of that country.”

Students studying abroad in Florence live with local homestays to allow for linguistic and cultural engagement. Because these hosts prefer to interact with students in Italian, conversational fluency is central to residential life, said Louise Stewart ’16, who completed one quarter of Italian before studying in Florence last winter.

“I had friends who didn’t take Italian, and dinners were torturous because they couldn’t communicate in Italian,” Stewart said.

“I would recommend taking one quarter even if you’ve fulfilled the language requirement,” she said. “And even if you haven’t taken it, still go.”

Depending on the program’s success, Florence coordinators will consider waiving the language requirement for future spring quarters. 

 

Contact Augustine Chemparathy at agchempa ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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New master’s program to prepare students for healthcare roles https://stanforddaily.com/2015/10/28/new-masters-program-to-prepare-students-for-healthcare-roles/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/10/28/new-masters-program-to-prepare-students-for-healthcare-roles/#respond Thu, 29 Oct 2015 06:33:41 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1105909 Stanford’s new Master of Science in Community Health and Prevention Research (CHPR) will prepare students to prevent health crises by analyzing and addressing societal and infrastructural shortcomings.

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(NINA ZUBRILINA/The Stanford Daily).
The new Master of Science in Community Health and Prevention Research aims to help students going into healthcare (NINA ZUBRILINA/The Stanford Daily).

Stanford’s new Master of Science in Community Health and Prevention Research (CHPR) will prepare students to prevent health crises by analyzing and addressing societal and infrastructural shortcomings.

After initially opening to coterminal applicants last spring, the degree is now open to all coterminal and other graduate school applicants for the 2016-2017 school year. Students already pursuing M.D. or M.B.A. degrees at Stanford will have the opportunity to pursue a dual degree with the new masters program.

“We want students with passion and drive to tackle community health and health equity,” said Dr. Judith Prochaska, Ph.D, M.P.H, the faculty director of the degree program.

Core coursework for the degree includes classes in three main areas: research methods, biostatistics and evidence-based recommendations for prevention. Students must also participate in a two-quarter long community internship and write a master’s thesis to complete the degree.

A key component of the program is the community-based internship, in which students will be paired with a faculty member to conduct research.

Although the students in the current cohort have not yet begun their research projects, previous students at the Stanford Prevention Research Center (SPRC), which administers the degree program, have studied everything from trends in health care utilization to patient-physician interactions on “HealthTap,” a social network for patients and their doctors.

The new program emphasizes technical skill and human connection alike, and the breadth of challenges that the degree addresses makes it accessible to students from across disciplines.

“In terms of backgrounds, we want, and have always seen, great diversity,” Prochaska said.

Students currently enrolled in the program have majored in human biology, computer science and sociology.

Students passionate about community health have many resources at Stanford — the SPRC also sponsors Stanford Health 4 America Fellows Program, a nine-month certificate program for college graduates. In addition, many of the SPRC-affiliated faculty also teach undergraduate courses in the human biology major.

The growing emphasis on community health at Stanford mirrors ongoing national dialogue about healthcare in the US, according to Sonoo Thadaney, who is director of Education Programs at SPRC.

“Health means prevention and not just treatment,” Thadney said.

The degree prepares students to solve healthcare issues at the community level — before therapy and clinical research become necessary. Thadaney believes that this approach is well suited to the current climate of national healthcare.

“The burden of health care in our country is higher than [in] many and the outcomes aren’t the best,” said Thadaney. “We know that there’s an interest in it and that there’s a national imperative around it.”

Students will find much to explore in the field of community health. Thadaney emphasizes the creative possibilities that the new degree will offer students.

“It’s our job to link up their interests and their passion with this curriculum and help them create new worlds that no one has yet imagined,” Thadney said.

 

 

Contact Augustine Chemparathy at agchempa ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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