Michelle Leung – The Stanford Daily https://stanforddaily.com Breaking news from the Farm since 1892 Mon, 29 Sep 2014 04:57:36 +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 Michelle Leung – The Stanford Daily https://stanforddaily.com 32 32 204779320 Stanford solar technology startup acquired by SunPower https://stanforddaily.com/2014/09/28/stanford-solar-technology-startup-acquired-by-sunpower/ https://stanforddaily.com/2014/09/28/stanford-solar-technology-startup-acquired-by-sunpower/#respond Mon, 29 Sep 2014 04:57:36 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1088438 On July 2, Dfly Systems, a startup founded by three Stanford students, was acquired by SunPower, a solar technology company with Stanford origins. The acquisition was announced later in the summer.

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On July 2, Dfly Systems, a startup founded by three Stanford students, was acquired by SunPower, a solar technology company with Stanford origins. The acquisition was announced later in the summer.

Andrew Ponec ’15, Darren Hau ’15 and Daniel Maren ’16 founded Dfly Systems in the spring of 2013. The company builds circuit boards that fit in the junction box on the back of every solar cell. The technology aims to increase the efficiency of power plants while also reducing hardware costs.

Since having founded the company, all three students have gone on leave from Stanford, and the trio also made Forbes’ “30 Under 30” list under the “Energy and Industry” subcategory.

The idea for Dfly Systems hatched from an introductory course in green electronics taught by Bill Dally, professor of computer science and electrical engineering. Ponec and Hau worked together on a research project that extended beyond the class.

“We really had no idea what we were doing at the time,” Ponec said. “We got a little ways into the project when the quarter ended, and we asked Professor Dally again if he would consider allowing us to continue the project, as a kind of independent research project with him.”

Over the course of many breakfasts, Dally taught Ponec and Hau how to analyze circuits and use electrical engineering tools to assist the project. Ponec explained that Dally not only reviewed the project’s progress but also used the project to teach them how to problem-solve like engineers.

“He taught us to make everything as simple as possible and how to cut through irrelevant information to get to the core of a problem,” Ponec said.

After a year of development, they felt what they had was interesting enough to start a company.

According to Ponec, a research grant that Dfly received from the TomKat Center for Sustainable Energy was critical to the company’s business development and also allowed them to develop the solar technology.

“Our goal from the outset was to create electronics that would lower the cost of solar electricity,” Ponec said.

Rather than residential rooftops, Dfly Systems has targeted big power plants with its circuit boards.

“I think that [SunPower] saw that there was a very good match between the solar panels that they were making and the device that we would be pairing with each solar panel,” Ponec said. “And beyond just the panel, what they saw was the potential to do system-wide cost savings from this device.”

Ponec explained that SunPower has acquired Dfly Systems’ intellectual property, its patents and the entire Dfly team, who are now working on ensuring the success of their product inside SunPower.

“We’re a team,” Ponec said. “We are really, really passionate about solar energy – about the need for new energy sources. And we really believe anything we can do to drive down the price of solar energy will be helpful to the world.”

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McMurtry Building for the Department of Art and Art History to be completed in spring 2015 https://stanforddaily.com/2014/09/17/mcmurtry-building-for-the-department-of-art-and-art-history-to-be-completed-in-spring-2015/ https://stanforddaily.com/2014/09/17/mcmurtry-building-for-the-department-of-art-and-art-history-to-be-completed-in-spring-2015/#respond Wed, 17 Sep 2014 18:30:27 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1087936 The McMurtry Building, the new home for the Department of Art and Art History, is scheduled for completion in spring 2015, and if all goes according to plan, the facility will open in the fall of 2015.

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(FRANCES GUO/Stanford Daily)
(FRANCES GUO/Stanford Daily)

The McMurtry Building, the new home for the Department of Art and Art History, is scheduled for completion in spring 2015, and if all goes according to plan, the facility will open in the fall of 2015.

Construction of the building began in the summer of 2013 under architecture firms Boora Architects and Diller Scofidio + Renfro, and the project cost an estimated $85 million. To start the project, the University received $30 million from donors Burt McMurtry M.S. ’59 Ph.D. ’62, former chair of the Board of Trustees, and his wife Deedee McMurtry, after whom the building will be named. Other donors and University funds contributed the rest of the cost.

 

Enriching art at Stanford

The McMurtrys, who live three minutes away from Stanford campus, were involved in the process of choosing designs for the structure of the building, said Burt McMurtry. He and his wife agreed to make the lead gift for the building after having discussions with Stanford president John Hennessey about the University’s art department.

According to project manager in the Department of Project Management Susan Rozakis M.S. ’88, engaging the arts was one of the eight mission goals of Hennessy’s Stanford Challenge: “Seeking Solutions, Educating Leaders.”

In a statement to The Daily, Rozakis explained that the McMurtrys worked with Art and Art History department faculty, staff and students to realize Hennessy’s vision. The building project was led by chair of the Department of Art and Art History Nancy Troy; the School of Humanities and Sciences; Stanford Libraries; Land, Buildings and Real Estate; the design team and the construction team.

Burt McMurtry hopes that the new building will contribute to making the area of campus an arts destination. The McMurtry building will be joining the Bing Concert Hall and the Anderson Collection for post-World War II American art near the Cantor Arts Center.

“I hope that [the McMurtry Building] will be a real center for visual arts education and visual arts creation at Stanford,” Burt McMurtry said. “And it’s close to the museum and close to the Anderson Collection at Stanford. I hope the whole area will be an arts district.”

 

Providing new facilities and architecture

The building will house art classrooms, art studios, screening rooms, the art and architecture library, gallery space and faculty offices in 96,000 square feet of space. McMurtry explained that the galleries will display art made only by students and faculty and that there will be no permanent art on display.

The building is also part of the Stanford Arts Initiative, which intends to bolster the Stanford art program through investments in new facilities, faculty positions and art programs.

“The building has the unique opportunity to promote and provoke discourse and creative collaborations between the various fields of work and study housed there,” said Charles Renfro, partner at Diller Scofidio + Renfro.

According to Wanda Corn, professor emerita of art history, the new art building has been a long-awaited event. Corn had been a professor at Stanford for 28 years and is still connected to the university through friends and students.

As the department expanded to include classes like film history and documentary film-making, it began to “outgrow its space,” Corn explained.

“Everybody recognized that,” Corn said. “It wasn’t just a lone voice in the wilderness. The department was behind this. The administration was behind this.

“It has just taken a very long time for the department’s priorities to become the administration’s priorities,” she added. “So [the department has] had to stand in line many times to get [the] building.”

Corn explained that the McMurtry building will replace an “eyesore” building left over from the ruins of the museum destroyed by the 1989 earthquake. Corn, who had been serving as Acting Director of the Stanford Museum at the time of the earthquake, hopes that the architecture will beautify the area.

“This is a wonderful thing that’s finally happening, and the McMurtrys deserve to be congratulated for their lead gift that made the building possible,” Corn said. “And I think everybody will be really relieved when the building is finally opened because it has been very, very long in the planning.”

The building’s design uses open space, emphasizes natural light and has classrooms with views. The two main strands of the department, art and art history, will form two literal “strands” of classrooms winding around a central library. In addition to the extra classroom space, students will also have more places to hang out, said Corn.

Burt McMurtry explained that the design will allow people who are making art to see that people are studying it and teaching it.

“I look forward to [its] being a hub of intellectual curiosity in the visual arts that students and faculty enjoy,” he said.

 

Contact Michelle Leung michelle ‘dot’ leung ‘at’ saratogafalcon ‘dot’ org.

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Alaskan district attorney to not bring charges against Francis’ assailant https://stanforddaily.com/2014/08/14/alaskan-district-attorney-to-not-bring-charges-against-francis-assailant/ https://stanforddaily.com/2014/08/14/alaskan-district-attorney-to-not-bring-charges-against-francis-assailant/#comments Fri, 15 Aug 2014 06:51:16 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1087509 The Juneau, Alaska, district attorney will not bring charges in a sexual assault case filed by Leah Francis against another Stanford student.

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The Juneau, Alaska, district attorney will not bring charges in a sexual assault case filed by Leah Francis against another Stanford student.

District Attorney James Scott told Juneau Empire that there is insufficient evidence to prove that Francis was raped on Jan. 1 in Alaska.

Alaska law determines rape based on whether the victim says “no” verbally or does something to indicate a strong lack of consent.

“If they don’t communicate lack of consent, then we look at the circumstances to say, ‘Well, was it obvious that she wasn’t consenting?'” Scott told Juneau Empire. “In this case, we do not have sufficient evidence to overcome the fact that we would have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the suspect recklessly disregarded her lack of consent.”

However, Francis said that the focus on what she did during the assault amounts to victim blaming.

“The laws basically say to victims, ‘If you don’t act correctly while you’re being raped, then the law will not protect you,'” Francis told Palo Alto Online. “I don’t think anyone should be judging the way that someone reacts to an assault that’s so psychologically damaging.”

Kristin Swanson, an Alaskan attorney representing the male student, released a statement on his behalf maintaining his innocence and condemning Stanford’s investigation, which found him responsible for sexual assault.

Francis, a 21-year-old senior, reported the assault, which she said took place in her ex-boyfriend’s home in Alaska over winter break, on Jan. 7 to the University and filed a police report soon afterwards.

Under the Alternate Review Process, Stanford found the assailant responsible for sexual assault and suspended him for five quarters beginning summer 2014, allowing him to return for graduate school in fall 2015. Francis appealed for expulsion, and the University’s final decision was to withhold the assailant’s degree for two years, neither suspending nor expelling him.

Supporters of Francis held a rally in White Plaza on June 5 and protested outside the June 12 Faculty Senate Meeting, while raising awareness on social media with the hashtag #standwithleah.

The University has tasked a committee with improving educational efforts surrounding sexual assault and harassment as well as studying the University’s disciplinary processes for reported cases. The committee members include both student and faculty members from various departments of the Stanford community.

The University is also creating new online education programs on sexual assault for incoming students, instituting a New Student Orientation program called “Facing Reality: Cultivating a Community of Respect & Consent,” hiring an additional Title IX investigator to ensure that cases are complete within the recommended 60 days and distributing a campus climate survey next academic year to solicit student opinion on the prevalence of sexual assault and misconduct.

 

Contact Michelle Leung at michelle ‘dot’ leung ‘at’ saratogafalcon ‘dot’ org.

 

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Stanford professor Maryam Mirzakhani wins Fields Medal, first woman to do so https://stanforddaily.com/2014/08/13/stanford-professor-maryam-mirzakhani-wins-fields-medal-first-woman-to-do-so/ https://stanforddaily.com/2014/08/13/stanford-professor-maryam-mirzakhani-wins-fields-medal-first-woman-to-do-so/#comments Thu, 14 Aug 2014 03:06:06 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1087504 Stanford professor of mathematics Maryam Mirzakhani has been awarded the 2014 Fields Medal, the most prestigious honor in mathematics.

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Stanford professor Maryam Mirzakhani is the recipient of the 2014 Fields Medal, the top honor in mathematics. She is the first woman in the prize’s 80-year history to earn the distinction. (Courtesy of Maryam Mirzakhani)
Stanford professor Maryam Mirzakhani is the recipient of the 2014 Fields Medal, the top honor in mathematics. She is the first woman in the prize’s 80-year history to earn the distinction. (Courtesy of Maryam Mirzakhani)

Stanford professor of mathematics Maryam Mirzakhani has been awarded the 2014 Fields Medal, the most prestigious honor in mathematics.

She is the first woman to win the prize, and the first Stanford recipient since Paul Cohen in 1966.

Mirzakhani was presented with the prize, known officially as the International Medal for Outstanding Discoveries in Mathematics, by the International Mathematical Union today at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Seoul, South Korea.

She is being honored for her contributions to the fields of geometry and dynamical systems, in understanding the symmetry of curved surfaces like spheres, doughnuts and hyperbolic objects.

Her work is theoretical but has implications for physics and quantum field theory. It also has secondary applications to engineering and material science, and the study of prime numbers and cryptography.

Mirzakhani was born and raised in Tehran, Iran. She received her Bachelors degree from Sharif University of Technology in 1999, and her doctorate from Harvard University in 2004.

From 2004 to 2008, she was the Clay Mathematics Institute Research Fellow and assistant professor at Princeton University before becoming a professor of mathematics at Stanford University in 2008.

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Stanford economists awarded third annual Golden Goose Award https://stanforddaily.com/2014/07/22/stanford-economists-awarded-third-annual-golden-goose-award/ https://stanforddaily.com/2014/07/22/stanford-economists-awarded-third-annual-golden-goose-award/#respond Tue, 22 Jul 2014 07:44:04 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1086959 Stanford economists and Graduate School of Business professors Robert Wilson and Paul Milgrom M.S. ’78 Ph.D. ’79 were awarded the Golden Goose Award for their work applying game theory to telecommunication networks and marketplaces in the United States.

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Stanford economists and Graduate School of Business professors Robert Wilson and Paul Milgrom M.S. ’78 Ph.D. ’79 were awarded the Golden Goose Award for their work applying game theory to telecommunication networks and marketplaces in the United States.

Wilson, professor emeritus of management, and Milgrom, professor of humanities and sciences, worked with colleague R. Preston McAfee, chief economist at Microsoft, to design fairer, more efficient auctions for selling the nation’s telecommunications spectrum.

Their work allowed the Federal Communications Commission to conduct more than 87 auctions and raise $60 billion for the federal government.

The Golden Goose Award is given to researchers whose federally funded, often unusual work results in an important breakthrough or significantly benefits society.

Last year, Alvin Roth, Stanford professor of economics and 2012 recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics, was awarded the Golden Goose Award for his application of economic theory to matching markets.

The third annual award ceremony, honoring Wilson, Milgrom, McAfee and other recipients from this year, will be held Sept. 18 on Capitol Hill.

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Stanford’s summer introductory CS classes now require application for enrollment https://stanforddaily.com/2014/07/13/stanfords-introductory-cs-classes-require-summer-applications/ https://stanforddaily.com/2014/07/13/stanfords-introductory-cs-classes-require-summer-applications/#comments Mon, 14 Jul 2014 00:09:10 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1086794 Beginning this year, Stanford’s popular introductory computer science (CS) courses, CS 106A: Programming Methodology and CS 106B: Programming Abstractions in C++, required interested students to apply before being able to join during the summer quarter.

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(NATHAN STAFFA/The Stanford Daily)
(NATHAN STAFFA/The Stanford Daily)

Beginning this year, Stanford’s popular introductory computer science (CS) courses, CS 106A: Programming Methodology and CS 106B: Programming Abstractions in C++, required interested students to apply before being able to join for the summer quarter.

According to Mehran Sahami ’92 M.S. ’93 Ph.D. ’99, professor of computer science and associate chair of education for the CS department, the application was necessary due to summer staffing shortages in section leaders, the hired undergraduate and graduate students who have typically taken the introductory courses themselves.

 

The section leading program

During the regular school year, students in CS 198: Teaching Computer Science act as section leaders for the CS 106 classes. According to Eric Yurko ’13 M.S. ’14, past CS 198 coordinator, although the numbers vary from quarter to quarter, on average there were roughly 100 section leaders and course helpers for the 900 CS 106 students each quarter in the 2013-14 academic year.

However, this summer, the courses have only 16 section leaders to accommodate the 194 students who were allowed to enroll in the summer classes after applications were reviewed.

Section leaders work closely with the enrolled students by teaching small weekly discussion sections that students must attend in addition to lectures. Section leaders also grade homework assignments and exams and provide help hours outside of lectures and discussions.

According to CS 106A section leader Rishi Bedi ’17, section leaders generally have fewer than 12 students each. During quarters with high enrollment, more staff members are necessary because of the large lectures, which can include hundreds of students.

“That’s been historically one of the problems in the summer,” Bedi said. “There are a ton of students who sign up during the summer, but there are not enough section leaders around.”

Last summer, high enrollment in the courses made it difficult for section leaders to teach students. Computer science lecturer and CS 106B instructor Marty Stepp explained that section leaders felt that the grading burden was overwhelming.

“We also had a few [section leaders] we had to desperately hire [and] who were working with us remotely,” Stepp said.

The need for staff last summer resulted in some section leaders using services like Skype or Google Hangout to communicate with students rather than teaching in-person.

“The quality of the service we were able to provide students just simply wasn’t adequate,” Stepp said. “Because of that, this summer, our section leader coordinating staff felt strongly that we could not allow the summer enrollment to exceed the amount that we would be able to serve adequately.”

Stepp also explained that section leaders typically leave campus for industry internships during the summer.

“All of our section leaders are talented, intelligent computer scientists [who] get great internships,” Stepp said. “They don’t really want to grade homework over the summer.”

 

The application process

The University requested that seats for both courses be divided into set numbers for students from each of the three major groups who take computer science classes at Stanford, explained Stepp. The groups include typical Stanford graduate and undergraduate students, high school students and people from the software industry who want to refresh their memories or acquire new computer science skills.

Applications for each class were reviewed by the respective summer course instructors and asked applicants for their contact information, student information and a short response to why they wanted to take the course.

According to Stepp, access to the courses was decided almost entirely on a first-come, first-serve basis, using the submission date of the application. Approximately 20 of the students who applied to CS 106B were not accepted into the class.

Stepp also spoke about some of the difficulties with the application process. For example, students who registered for ENGR 70A/B, the cross-listed classes for CS 106A/B, did not have to fill out the application. The instructors ultimately decided it would be unfair to eject the students.

Furthermore, some students who could not take the courses during the regular school year had to be turned down from enrolling during the summer. In the past, students have never been prevented from taking introductory CS classes at Stanford.As a result, future applications will also ask about students’ background knowledge and schedules rather than relying solely on the submission dates, said Stepp.

“It’s been tough for me as an instructor because I hate to turn students away,” Stepp said. “I would really like every single student who’s interested to have a seat in the class … But we felt this was a better outcome than admitting more people and providing them a poorer quality of instruction.”

 

Seeing the difference

The final summer enrollment numbers for CS 106A and B were 128 and 66, respectively.

In certain areas of the course, the difference in size is clear. For example, helper hours in the Tresidder LaIR are less busy in the summer with the enrollment cap than during larger quarters, said Bedi.

“[The enrollment cap] is certainly important in that we don’t want to have more students than we can appropriately staff,” Bedi said. “Keeping those section sizes small really makes a difference to the program.”

The application process will not apply to the introductory CS course during the academic year, although it may be reinstated again next summer, according to Stanford computer science lecturer Cynthia Lee, who is currently co-teaching the summer session of CS 106B with Stepp.

“This was a summer contingency plan,” Stepp said. “And depending on how things go this summer and throughout the rest of the year, it’s possible we’ll need to do something like this a year from now, but it’s not some sort of plan that we expect to have any effect on the fall, winter or spring [quarters].”

 

Contact Michelle Leung at michelle ‘dot’ leung ‘at’ saratogafalcon ‘dot’ org.

 

In a previous version of the article, the enrollment of the introductory CS classes was underestimated. The Daily regrets this error.

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Historical military vehicles collected by Stanford alumnus to be auctioned off https://stanforddaily.com/2014/07/11/historical-military-vehicles-collected-by-stanford-alumnus-to-be-auctioned-off/ https://stanforddaily.com/2014/07/11/historical-military-vehicles-collected-by-stanford-alumnus-to-be-auctioned-off/#respond Fri, 11 Jul 2014 17:48:14 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1086772 On July 11 and 12, over a hundred military vehicles from the private collection of Stanford alumnus Jacques M. Littlefield MBA ’73 will be auctioned off at the Military Vehicle Technology Foundation in Portola Valley.

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On July 11-12, over a hundred military vehicles from the private collection of Stanford alumnus Jacques Littlefield MBA ’73 will be auctioned off at the Military Vehicle Technology Foundation in Portola Valley.

Held by Auction America, the event is one of the largest military vehicle auctions and has attracted an international audience. Gun parts and other military accessories will also be sold, and a special auction will be held for five of the rarest collectible military vehicles in the collection.

The Jacques M. Littlefield Collection, worth $30 million, is one of the nation’s largest military vehicle collections. It includes vehicles from the U.S., Russia, Germany, England, France, Switzerland, Czechoslovakia and Israel and has models such as German Panzer tanks and American Sherman tanks from World Wars I and II. A World War II German Panzer IV tank in the collection is expected to sell for around $2.6 million at the auction.

Littlefield, who died in January 2009, collected more than 200 military vehicles in his property near Stanford University. He started the Military Vehicle Technology Foundation, making his collection a resource for mechanical engineering students, defense contractors and moviemakers. His tanks have also been used in sound recordings for films including “Saving Private Ryan.”

Littlefield’s family donated his collection to the Collings Foundation after his death.

The Foundation will keep the most historically significant vehicles in the collection, including an old World War I tank, and hopes to raise $10 million from the auction to build a vehicle museum in Massachusetts. In addition to an indoor display, the Foundation plans to build an outdoor amphitheater to allow the public to experience reenactments of significant tank battles.

The auction will run from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. today and tomorrow.

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