Susannah Meyer – The Stanford Daily https://stanforddaily.com Breaking news from the Farm since 1892 Mon, 15 May 2017 07:14:45 +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 Susannah Meyer – The Stanford Daily https://stanforddaily.com 32 32 204779320 Hospital simulations help grad students innovate in medicine https://stanforddaily.com/2017/05/15/hospital-simulations-help-grad-students-innovate-in-medicine/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/05/15/hospital-simulations-help-grad-students-innovate-in-medicine/#respond Mon, 15 May 2017 07:14:45 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1127443 Students seeking a "needs-driven" approach to were recently put through a series of emotionally frustrating hospital simulations to deepen their perspectives on medical challenges.

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Stanford graduate students in a biodesign innovation class recently underwent a series of emotionally frustrating hospital simulations to deepen their perspectives on medical challenges.

“Biodesign Innovation” takes place over two quarters: This quarter’s “Concept Development and Innovation” course follows winter’s class on “Needs Finding and Concept Creation.”  In the simulations, students experienced different roles in scenarios involving an emergency room, a patient room with a woman at the brink of death and a physical therapy consultation with a woman deciding whether she could continue to care for her mobility-impaired husband at home. The students said they ended the class feeling unsettled and confused, obstructed by the financial and ethical challenges that stood in the way of decision making.

Hospital simulations help grad students innovate in medicine
Students in Stanford’s Biodesign Innovation class recently immersed in hospital simulations (Courtesy of Stanford News).

The simulations were structured to encourage problem solving through a needs-driven approach at the foundation of the Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign: The tactic emphasizes thoroughly understanding a problem before brainstorming solutions. Grad students in the biodesign innovation class, tasked with developing devices that take advantage of the latest technological advances in medicine, experienced the needs-driven approach to gain a perspective on healthcare delivery problems that surpass the purely technical. The need-focused strategy seeks to account for all stakeholders in a particular situation in order to avoid creating products that are unmarketable and too narrow in design.

The simulations developed used Stanford Medicine’s Center for Immersive and Simulation-Based Learning (CISL) to reproduce accurate versions of reality. The center, which usually gives medical students and professionals the opportunity to improve their skills in realistic settings, has just begun to branch out to other users.

Alexei Wagner, clinical assistant professor and assistant medical director at Stanford’s department of emergency medicine, designed the simulations. Each one featured real doctors, mannequins with staff-controlled voices and actors posing as patients.

“If you’ve never had the chance to observe health care in this way, the experience can be a little overwhelming,” Wagner told Stanford News. “But giving [students] this kind of first-hand experience, even in a simulated environment, is a great way to inspire students about the role they can play in helping make the care experience better for patients and the providers who serve them.”

For the biodesign innovation students, the simulation initiative provided industry insight closer to that of the doctors and engineers enrolled in the Biodesign Center’s year-long fellowships. While graduate students encounter time constraints and privacy concerns that prevent hospital immersion, the simulations — described by the participants as “chaotic,” “humbling” and “complicated” — allowed a more first-hand perspective into medicine.

This perspective informed the students’ projects, some of which grew out of the simulated scenarios: For example, some class members’ concerns about older patients’ risk of falling led them to develop an assistive walking device.

Contact Susannah Meyer at smeyer7 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Stanford research team develops new biodegradable electronics https://stanforddaily.com/2017/05/04/stanford-research-team-develops-new-biodegradable-electronics/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/05/04/stanford-research-team-develops-new-biodegradable-electronics/#respond Thu, 04 May 2017 09:06:44 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1126994 A Stanford research team led by Zhenan Bao, professor of chemical engineering and materials science and engineering, has recently created an easily degradable and flexible electronic device to navigate the widespread problem of electronic waste.

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Stanford research team develops new biodegradable electronics
Zhenan Bao’s lab is improving biodegradability of devices (Courtesy of Bao’s lab/Stanford News).

A Stanford research team led by Zhenan Bao, professor of chemical engineering and materials science and engineering, has recently created an easily degradable and flexible electronic device to navigate the widespread problem of electronic waste. Electronic waste refers to devices that are no longer functional and often get discarded irresponsibly.

Bao and her team focused on attributing high stretchability, resilience and biodegradability to this new kind of  device. The results of the invention were published on May 1 in the Proceedings of the American Academy of Sciences.

“In my group, we have been trying to mimic the function of human skin to think about how to develop future electronic devices,” Bao said to Stanford News.

Previously, Bao had created a stretchable electrode modeled on human skin. While the electrode could twist and bend, it was not degradable. The new device extended the electrode model and focused on improving sustainability. The development included both what the team called a “semiconductive polymer,” essentially flexible and conductive plastic, and an electronic circuit, all made of nontoxic material that could easily decompose.

Bao highlighted the importance of carefully choosing materials that would replace substances in electronics that are often known to be harmful. For example, the team replaced components made from gold with ones made from iron, a material known to be environmentally friendly.

The researchers also made use of cellulose with fibers modified to increase transparency and flexibility, along with chemical bonds that break down in response to acids weaker than vinegar. Such a combination allows the electronics to safely be worn on skin or transplanted inside of the human body.

“We envision these soft patches that are very thin and conformable to the skin that can measure blood pressure, glucose value and sweat content,” Bao said.

The new wave of biodegradable electronics has the potential to gather data for conditions like heart disease as well as the ability to survey landscapes and monitor ecosystems.

Bao’s research comes in the wake of the increasing severity of the electronic waste phenomenon. A United Nations report estimated that more than 50 million tons of electronic waste have been discarded in 2017 alone, marking a 20 percent increase from two years ago.

The research team, according to the study’s lead author Ting Lee, looks forward to reversing the waste problem. This study hopes to make a significant step in the right direction, Lee said.

“We currently have computers and cellphones and we generate millions and billions of cellphones, and it’s hard to decompose,” Lee said. “We hope we can develop some materials that can be decomposed so there is less waste.”

 

Contact Susannah Meyer at smeyer7 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Knight-Hennessy Scholars program releases inaugural application https://stanforddaily.com/2017/05/02/hennessy-knight-scholars-program-releases-inaugural-application/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/05/02/hennessy-knight-scholars-program-releases-inaugural-application/#respond Tue, 02 May 2017 08:15:11 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1126904 The application for the inaugural cohort of the Knight-Hennessy Scholars program is now open. A select group of up to 50 students will receive full funding from the program to begin graduate education at Stanford in the fall of 2018.

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Knight-Hennessy Scholars program releases inaugural application
John Hennessy and philanthropist Philip Knight, who have pioneered the Knight-Hennessy Scholars Program (Courtesy of Stanford News).

The application for the inaugural cohort of the Knight-Hennessy Scholars program is now open. A select group of up to 50 students will receive full funding from the program to begin graduate education at Stanford in the fall of 2018.

The Knight-Hennessy Scholars program, announced in 2016, states on its website that it aims to prepare “leaders to address global challenges in the 21st century and beyond.” The application, due Sept. 27, includes two essays, a resume, test scores, transcripts and a required application to each candidate’s graduate program of choice at Stanford. The program will accept 100 students in all subsequent years.

The program’s faculty advisory board and global advisory board, comprised of faculty from all Stanford graduate schools and leaders in fields like business and government, will consider three criteria when evaluating applications: independence of thought, leadership ability and civic mindset.

Up to 100 finalists will be invited to the program’s Immersion Weekend before final cuts are made, giving applicants, faculty in various departments and members of the Knight-Hennessy Scholars advisory boards the opportunity to become better acquainted.

“We believe it’s essential that we learn not only about what they have done, but also who they are: their influences, ideals, hopes and dreams,” said Derrick Bolton, dean of Knight-Hennessy Scholars admissions, in Stanford News.

Outreach efforts to recruit applicants both nationally and internationally have been particularly important, according to Jeff Wachtel, the program’s executive director. Staff members have completed visits to over 50 universities and colleges across the United States, along with trips to Egypt, Israel, Japan, Jordan and other countries worldwide. The program plans to continue recruiting at universities in Africa, India, Europe and Latin America throughout the application period.

“To build the diverse cohort we seek, we need to reach far and wide in our recruitment efforts,” Wachtel said.

 

Contact Susannah Meyer at smeyer7 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Over-pumping groundwater sinks land, research shows https://stanforddaily.com/2017/04/13/over-pumping-groundwater-sinks-land-research-shows/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/04/13/over-pumping-groundwater-sinks-land-research-shows/#respond Thu, 13 Apr 2017 08:16:00 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1125820 A School of Earth, Energy and Environmental Sciences professor's study shows that years of over-pumping groundwater in California’s Central Valley is causing the ground to sink, permanently reducing its ability to store water.

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Rosemary Knight, the George L. Harrington Professor at Stanford’s School of Earth, Energy and Environmental Sciences, and her colleagues have published a new study showing that years of over-pumping groundwater in California’s Central Valley are causing the ground to sink, permanently reducing its ability to store water.

Over-pumping groundwater sinks land, research shows
Over-pumping groundwater causes land to sink, research shows (Courtesy of Shutterstock)

Using satellite technology called Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar, the Stanford scientists found that land in the San Joaquin Valley sank about three feet during a recent drought due to over-pumping from the ground’s clay layers. The team used the satellite data to measure changes in elevation in the area during the 2007-10 drought period to quantify the sinking experienced by the land.

Such sinking occurs when the water pressure beneath the surface in the subsurface dips below a certain threshold due to excessive water extraction, leading to sediment compaction. The damage is irreversible, amounting to a loss of storage capacity between 336,000 and 606,000 acre-feet, wrote the authors.

“California is getting all of this rain, but in the Central Valley, there has been a loss of space to store it,” Knight said.

While the published data only reflected measurements from 2007-10, Ryan Smith, lead author of the study published in “Water Resources Research,” told Stanford News that the 2012-16 drought period has most likely seen equal or greater amounts of sinking, citing satellite data collected during the most recent drought.

A weakened capacity for soil to retain water could have major implications for the San Joaquin Valley, one of California’s largest centers for agriculture. To avoid some risk of sinking, Knight suggested pumping water from sand and gravel layers instead of clay layers, which are much more susceptible to permanent damage. The Stanford team is currently testing a new electromagnetic method for distinguishing clay layers from sand and gravel in the surface to make this kind of pumping far less expensive for farmers.

 

Contact Susannah Meyer at smeyer7 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Stanford researchers use new algorithms for drug development https://stanforddaily.com/2017/04/04/stanford-researchers-use-new-algorithms-for-drug-development/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/04/04/stanford-researchers-use-new-algorithms-for-drug-development/#respond Tue, 04 Apr 2017 07:29:38 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1125241 The Camille and Henry Dreyfus Distinguished Chair in Chemistry Vijay Pande and his students have published findings that indicate potential for deep learning algorithms to boost the field of drug development. The team found success in a subset of machine learning known as “one-shot learning algorithms” to help in the decision making processes involved in developing new drugs.

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Stanford researchers use new algorithms for drug development
Chemistry Professor Vijay Pande is using one-shot learning algorithms for drug development (Courtesy of Linda A. Cicero/Stanford News).

Camille and Henry Dreyfus Distinguished Chair in Chemistry Vijay Pande and his students have published findings that indicate potential for deep learning algorithms to boost the field of drug development. The team found success in a subset of machine learning known as “one-shot learning algorithms” to help in the decision making processes involved in developing new drugs.

Most machine learning algorithms require millions of data points to train computers, a challenge that one-shot learning overcomes.

“We’re trying to use machine learning, especially deep learning, for the early stage of drug design,” Pande told Stanford News. “The issue is, once you have thousands of examples in drug design, you probably already have a successful drug.”

Pande directs Stanford’s Pande Lab, which uses computer simulation, mechanics and statistics to tackle problems in chemical biology and biomedicine.

One-shot learning is a categorization of machine learning algorithms that aims to discover information and useful patterns using a limited number of data points. This allows the development and creation of new processes without the need for an exhaustive list of tests and supporting data.

To see whether one-shot learning would be successful with drug design, the researchers first reorganized the molecular information of the testing drugs into graphs using the connections between atoms. This made the molecular data more digestible to supply their algorithms with inputs.

The researchers then used one-shot learning to train an algorithm on two datasets — one to learn about the drugs’ chemical toxicity and another to learn about side effects of existing drugs. The predictions made by the algorithms following their training showed improved accuracy over predictions made with random chance.

“We worked on some prototype algorithms and found that, given a few data points, they were able to make predictions that were pretty accurate,” said fifth-year computer science Ph.D. student Bharath Ramsundar. Ramsundar, a researcher at the Pande Lab, co-authored the study published in ACS Central Science.

The group envisions algorithms like these as “an experimentalist’s helper,” according to Ramsundar. This automation will not be replacing the human scientists designing experimental drugs but will rather give a computational basis to support the decisions they make early on in research. Deciding which molecules to pursue from a set of candidates, for example — a choice now made from intuition — may be guided by predictions from the algorithms.

“This paper is the first time that one-shot has been applied to [drug design],” Pande said. “This is not the end of this journey — it’s the beginning.”

 

Contact Susannah Meyer at smeyer7 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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A zoo visits The Farm, Mikaela Berkeley and Tiffany Ong https://stanforddaily.com/2017/03/06/a-zoo-visits-the-farm/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/03/06/a-zoo-visits-the-farm/#respond Mon, 06 Mar 2017 10:04:02 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1124367 As a part of Wellness Week 2017 hosted by Stanford Mental Health and Wellness Coalition, students and families interacted with dogs in dormitories as well as petting zoo animals in White Plaza to promote happiness and relaxation.

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As a part of Wellness Week 2017 hosted by Stanford Mental Health and Wellness Coalition, students and families interacted with dogs in dormitories as well as petting zoo animals in White Plaza to promote happiness and relaxation.

A zoo visits The Farm, Mikaela Berkeley and Tiffany Ong A zoo visits The Farm, Mikaela Berkeley and Tiffany Ong A zoo visits The Farm, Mikaela Berkeley and Tiffany Ong A zoo visits The Farm, Mikaela Berkeley and Tiffany Ong A zoo visits The Farm, Mikaela Berkeley and Tiffany Ong A zoo visits The Farm, Mikaela Berkeley and Tiffany Ong A zoo visits The Farm, Mikaela Berkeley and Tiffany Ong A zoo visits The Farm, Mikaela Berkeley and Tiffany Ong A zoo visits The Farm, Mikaela Berkeley and Tiffany Ong A zoo visits The Farm, Mikaela Berkeley and Tiffany Ong A zoo visits The Farm, Mikaela Berkeley and Tiffany Ong A zoo visits The Farm, Mikaela Berkeley and Tiffany Ong

Photographs were taken by Stanford Daily photographers Mikaela Berkeley and Tiffany Ong.

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Alpha Chi Omega joins Stanford Inter-Sorority Council https://stanforddaily.com/2017/02/23/alpha-chi-omega-joins-stanford-inter-sorority-council/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/02/23/alpha-chi-omega-joins-stanford-inter-sorority-council/#respond Thu, 23 Feb 2017 08:34:05 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1123550 Alpha Chi Omega (AXO) will officially join the Stanford Inter-Sorority Council (ISC) community this spring, becoming ISC’s eighth sorority chapter on campus.

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Alpha Chi Omega (AXO) will officially join the Stanford Inter-Sorority Council (ISC) community this spring, becoming ISC’s eighth sorority chapter on campus.

Alpha Chi Omega joins Stanford Inter-Sorority Council
A new sorority will come to campus this spring after an unusually large number of freshmen women rushed last year (Courtesy of Kappa Alpha Theta).

The ISC Extension Committee, comprised of a student representative and an advisor or alumni representative from each of the seven organizations currently on campus, began their search for a new chapter during fall quarter. At the beginning of winter quarter, the committee invited AXO and Kappa Delta (KD) to present their organizations on campus to the general Stanford community before the decision was finalized.

In an email to ISC, Inter-Fraternity Council (IFC), Multicultural Greek Council (MGC) and African-American Fraternal and Sororal Association (AAFSA) chapter presidents, program manager of fraternity and sorority life Aisling Wakefield announced today that AXO had accepted the invitation to establish a chapter on campus.

According to Wakefield, the Extension Committee met last week to deliberate, considering “feedback from various stakeholders, both organizations’ application materials, on-campus presentations and the values of the Greek and Stanford communities.”

The Extension Committee made a recommendation to invite AXO onto campus, and ISC delegates voted to confirm this recommendation with six votes for AXO and one vote for KD.

 

Contact Susannah Meyer at smeyer7 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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1047 house officially goes to SigEp, SYZ, STP https://stanforddaily.com/2017/02/03/1047-house-officially-goes-to-sigep-syz-stp/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/02/03/1047-house-officially-goes-to-sigep-syz-stp/#respond Fri, 03 Feb 2017 09:08:10 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1122431 1047 Campus Drive, formerly the residence of Stanford’s chapter of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) fraternity, will be home to chapters of three Greek organizations on campus beginning in fall of 2017.

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1047 Campus Drive, formerly the residence of Stanford’s chapter of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) fraternity, will be home to chapters of three Greek organizations on campus beginning in fall of 2017. The offer to claim the house was accepted by Stanford’s chapters of the Sigma Phi Epsilon (SigEp) fraternity, Sigma Psi Zeta (SYZ) sorority and Sigma Theta Psi (STP) sorority.

According to Amanda Rodriguez, the assistant dean of Residential Education (ResEd) on the Row and director of Fraternity & Sorority Life, and Nate Boswell, associate dean of ResEd, there had been an informal understanding in place that 1047 would return to housing Greek organizations. This was tied to the understanding within ResEd, Boswell said, that about 10 row houses are allocated to fraternities and sororities, at least for the past two decades.

The process of transitioning 1047 back into a Greek house of some sort officially began in October of 2016, when the opportunity was revealed to the presidents of all Greek organization chapters present on campus.

The Standards of Excellence (SOE) program is an annual evaluation process for all Greek organizations that categorizes them based on current standing with the University. Each organization makes a presentation in front of a panel of three staff members. This fall, organizations were informed that these presentations would serve as a benchmark for eligibility; all chapters that achieved a score of “Exceeds Expectations” would be eligible to apply for 1047.

Ten organizations were ultimately deemed as eligible, and out of those 10, six chose to apply. To apply, each group made an additional presentation during the second week of January in front of a panel of three who would then make a recommendation to Dean of ResEd Deborah Golder.

SigEp, SYZ and STP were the final organizations selected and given the chance to share the residence, and all three accepted after some deliberation.

In terms of making a final decision, group values and foreseen intentions of house use were big factors.

“All three of these organizations used language, if not exactly the same, then similar, in conceptualizing the space as a campus resource, as a center for campus,” Boswell said. “How they manifest that remains to be seen, but that is one way they really distinguished themselves.” He hopes these groups can both learn from and teach one another as well as the rest of campus.

1047 will be the first residence acting as a shared Greek house at Stanford, not to mention a shared Greek house representing multiple genders and cultures. A shared residence of this kind would be unprecedented at most institutions with Greek life, Boswell and Rodriguez noted. The two emphasized the experimental nature of the two-year commitment, mentioning that innovation and change were driving the whole decision process.

“There are things that have happened in the last five, 10 years with Row house changes that are reactionary,” Boswell responded. “They were responses to things that were not so great. This is an opportunity to intentionally do something that is forward-thinking, that is experimental, that is for the students but different than what’s been done in the past.”

With the experimental nature of the house comes many unknowns. ResEd has considered questions of how the students might work together in the space and what sort of imbalances might exist.

In order to level out the makeup of the space, staffing structure will be split equally among all three organizations. The two sororities, which are smaller in size, are going to have a majority of the bed spaces, the mathematics of which are still being worked out. This agreement comes as a part of a conversation ResEd has been engaging in with the students involved and not something decreed by figures of authority.

The change to 1047, Rodriguez noted, looks toward the positive.

“We haven’t had an intentional change in a row house for a while,” Rodriguez said. “Regardless, bringing in new energy and something different looks toward positive change.”

“We want the Row to be representative of the entire student body, and historically it hasn’t been,” Boswell said. “This is a really interesting evolution.”

 

Contact Susannah Meyer at smeyer7 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Sigma Phi Epsilon, Sigma Psi Zeta, Sigma Theta Psi offered 1047 as house https://stanforddaily.com/2017/01/18/sigma-phi-epsilon-sigma-psi-zeta-sigma-theta-psi-offered-1047-as-house/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/01/18/sigma-phi-epsilon-sigma-psi-zeta-sigma-theta-psi-offered-1047-as-house/#respond Thu, 19 Jan 2017 07:24:34 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1121592 The fraternity Sigma Phi Epsilon (SigEp) and the sororities Sigma Psi Zeta (SYZ) and Sigma Theta Psi (STP) were offered a shared opportunity to claim 1047 Campus Drive as the official house of their chapters at Stanford.

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Sigma Phi Epsilon, Sigma Psi Zeta, Sigma Theta Psi offered 1047 as house
(JOSEPH BEYDA/The Stanford Daily)

The fraternity Sigma Phi Epsilon (SigEp) and the sororities Sigma Psi Zeta (SYZ) and Sigma Theta Psi (STP) were offered a shared opportunity to claim 1047 Campus Drive as the official house of their chapters at Stanford.

The offers came from the University on Wednesday through an application and deliberation process that began in fall quarter of 2016. The organizations were selected from a number of Greek and multicultural chapters who underwent Standards of Excellence presentations in addition to other rounds of screening. Eligible applicants included Chi Omega, Alpha Phi, alpha Kappa Delta Phi and Kappa Kappa Gamma, among others.

Upon the final decision, the house will welcome the groups for a two-year trial period beginning with the 2017-2018 academic year. Stanford SigEp, SYZ and STP are currently involved in decision processes to end in acceptance or rejection of the offers.

1047 Campus Drive previously housed Stanford’s chapter of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) fraternity and is currently a self-operated house for upper class students.

All three organizations have declined to comment with more information at this time.

 

Contact Susannah Meyer at smeyer7 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Society of Women Engineers hosts, empowers middle school girls to join STEM fields https://stanforddaily.com/2017/01/12/society-of-women-engineers-hosts-empowers-middle-school-girls-to-join-stem-fields/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/01/12/society-of-women-engineers-hosts-empowers-middle-school-girls-to-join-stem-fields/#respond Fri, 13 Jan 2017 07:03:53 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1121397 The Society of Women Engineers partnered with nonprofit Techbridge Girls to bring 30 middle school girls to Stanford and encourage interests in STEM.

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The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) at Stanford will host a group of 30 middle school girls today with the mission of educating and empowering younger girls that science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields are viable career options for people with a variety of backgrounds.

Society of Women Engineers hosts, empowers middle school girls to join STEM fields
(Courtesy of Arazeli Castello)

The middle school’s visit has been organized by SWE through a partnership with Techbridge Girls, a nonprofit that focuses on outreach to and inclusion of girls in STEM fields. One of Techbridge’s main forms of education involves after-school programs for elementary, middle and high school girls. These programs feature long-term and weekly programming in addition to annual field trips to organizations and campuses like Stanford for girls to meet and speak with role models.

Angela Umeh ’19, the middle school outreach officer of SWE, has been planning the event, which she says has become an annual tradition.

“On Friday, we’ll have a panel of SWE officers and members so that the girls can ask questions about what it’s like to be a woman in STEM and generally ask about the college experience,” Umeh said. “There’ll be smaller table talks following, so that the girls will feel comfortable asking a wide variety of questions that they might not feel as comfortable asking in a larger group.”

The day will also feature an activity emphasizing a mechanical engineering focus, pointing to the unit the girls are currently working on with Techbridge. The activity, called “Float a Boat,” will have the girls designing boats to hold as many passengers as possible.

The event’s conclusion will include a tour of campus and the Product Realization Lab (PRL).

“It’s a really great way for the girls to see engineering in action in an accessible and nontraditional sense,” Umeh said.

For Techbridge as an organization, the visit to Stanford is one of multiple field trips that help prevent younger girls from limiting their potential, according to Arazeli Castillo, program coordinator for the San Jose branch of Techbridge. Castillo runs three after school programs in San Jose and will be bringing her group from Ocala Middle School to Stanford.

“Our goals for our field trips at different sites are to get our girls exposed to possible career fields and getting them to imagine their place and different possible futures,” Castillo said. “I would like them to get out of this an idea of how these young women at Stanford decided to pursue these kinds of fields, what their first years on campus have been like, some of the struggles that they’ve had, some of the exciting things they’ve learned.”

The field trips of girls to different campus sites are part of a larger Role Models Matter initiative at Techbridge. Martha Pena, the organization’s senior program manager in the Bay Area, explained the initiative as a way to connect girls to role models such as Stanford SWE members who can share stories of their career paths in STEM, filled with times of success, struggle and perseverance.

The concept of Techbridge was built around stereotype threat research, investigating why women were reluctant going into STEM careers.

“[Our founder] discovered that it wasn’t a lack of interest but more that girls didn’t feel comfortable or empowered,” Pena said. “So an environment for girls to experiment and try out new things became a key component of the solution.”

Techbridge CEO Nikole Collins-Puri aims to build long-lasting, mutually beneficial relationships between the organization and institutions like Stanford.

“We want to keep building that relationship and that continuity so that our girls can see that an environment we expose our girls to somewhere they feel they might actually belong,” Collins-Puri said. “The institution knows that we are a selective partner to help them with their own pipeline goals. Our partners end up involved in multiple ways, whether through finding role models in campus visits or through funding or through involvement in research.”

Umeh noted that both the middle school girls and Stanford students involved in the visit have much to take away.

“There’s a lot of research suggesting that girls start to become disinterested in STEM around middle school,” Umeh explained. “Programs like this help to fight that so that later down the line, there are more qualified women in the pipeline for engineering jobs that improve diversity, which is one of SWE’s mission statements. For Stanford students, this is a rewarding way to give back to these middle schoolers. We can look back and reflect on all the knowledge we’ve acquired at Stanford to help girls that might one day like to be in our shoes.”

With partnerships and programming, Techbridge hopes to close the gender gap in STEM fields with confidence building and real world exposure. According to Collins-Puri, it’s about encouraging girls to be okay with failing and experimenting, celebrating mistakes that guide them along the way.

“What excites me about Techbridge is breaking cycles of poverty and lack of diversity and working to innovate within the challenges ahead of us,” Collins-Puri said. “We are really building the next innovators in STEM to change the world.”

 

Contact Susannah Meyer at smeyer7 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Two Stanford students named 2018 Schwarzman Scholars https://stanforddaily.com/2016/12/07/two-stanford-students-named-2018-schwarzman-scholars/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/12/07/two-stanford-students-named-2018-schwarzman-scholars/#respond Thu, 08 Dec 2016 03:07:03 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1120831 Clayton Garner ’17 and Kimberly Diane Chang M.S. ’16 were named 2018 Schwarzman Scholars, earning the opportunity to study in China for their master’s degrees. Garner and Chang were selected for the scholarship program along with 127 other students from 30 countries with a program acceptance rate of less than 4 percent.

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(Courtesy of Jordan Shapiro)
(Courtesy of Jordan Shapiro)

Clayton Garner ’17 and Kimberly Diane Chang M.S. ’16 were named 2018 Schwarzman Scholars, earning the opportunity to study in China for their master’s degrees. Garner and Chang were selected for the scholarship program along with 127 other students from 30 countries with a program acceptance rate of less than four percent.

Garner is pursuing a bachelor’s degree with honors in East Asian Studies, while Chang earned her master’s degree in Management Science and Engineering (MS&E) last year. As Schwarzman Scholars, Garner and Chang will spend a year at Tsinghua University in Beijing, studying innovation, business, politics and culture.

Two Stanford alumni, Alina Luk ’16 and Jordan Shapiro ’15 M.S. ’16, were named 2017 Schwarzman Scholars last year, receiving the inaugural Schwarzman Scholarship. Luk earned a bachelor’s degree in Science, Technology and Society (STS), working on a number of startups and prototyping a wearable device for the elderly. Shapiro graduated as an undergraduate with a bachelor’s degree in Bioengineering and a minor in Modern Languages and earned his master’s in MS&E.

The Daily spoke with both Garner and Shapiro regarding their paths to the Schwarzman Scholarship while studying at Stanford, one student’s rise to fame as a Chinese pop star and another’s ambition to use biotechnology to change lives.

Clayton Garner

The Stanford Daily (TSD): Can you tell us a little bit more about the Schwarzman Scholars program?

Clayton Garner (CG): The program is a one-year master’s degree at a university in Beijing. I’ll be doing a master’s in global affairs trying to meet as many Chinese people as possible and expanding my knowledge of China, international relations and how the Chinese society works.

TSD: What made you pursue applying to be a Schwarzman Scholar?

CG: I’ve always been really interested in China. Prior to Stanford, I had a music career in China for a while and always thought it would be a good place to study. I want to learn how China interacts with other countries and the United States.

TSD: How did your music career in China start?

CG: In high school, I started learning Chinese, and I was always a singer-songwriter. I decided to combine both interests and made a bunch of videos that went viral in China, and companies over there started to contact me. I was doing that for a couple years, so I spent a lot of time going back and forth from China. In 2014, I went to Taiwan and did a show there. I also studied abroad last year in Beijing and was the co-host for a TV show, on the main TV station in Beijing, which is more of a talk show for youth in Beijing with a lot of guests coming on the show to talk about cultural traditions. I was one of the assistant hosts and got to ask the guests questions. It’s kind of surreal; I have attention going on the other side of the world, but I got to experience being a normal high school student coupled with learning about their culture.

TSD: How has Stanford shaped your passions?

CG: Just by the nature of Stanford being focused on tech and having the Silicon Valley right here, it’s easy to focus on other things besides internal relations and focus on how all things interact. This has pushed me outside of my own academic interests. A lot of extra-curricular activities here, like FACES, also taught me how important it is for young people to have dialogue and build respect for other people’s views.

TSD: What are your goals following your time in Beijing with Schwarzman Scholars?

CG: Eventually, I want to start a media company that bridges America and China. It would be cool to see what kind of cultural experimentation might be possible if we had more collaboration in entertainment. [My music career] guided me into that direction. Media is a very important tool, especially in politics. There’s so much influence it has in terms of culture and understanding other people, it’s a natural path for me. It’s also a way to be creative and engage in strategic thinking.

TSD: What is it about China that fascinates you so much?

CG: I’ve always really liked languages — in high school I took Spanish and loved it. My high school offered Chinese, so I started taking it. It’s such a foreign place at first. The more you study it, the more you realize the similarities between the U.S. and China. The more you study the culture and language, the more you see how we’re not that different. Studying China, in a lot of ways, is like trying to piece together a puzzle.

TSD: Do you have advice for students looking to pursue similar programs?

CG: I would say follow your interests to the fullest extent possible. I was passionate about China, so I jumped into that at Stanford so I could learn as much as possible in those areas. Teachers and other people start to offer suggestions when they see your passions. Be honest about what you’re interested in and pursue those passions to the greatest extent you can.

Jordan Shapiro

The Stanford Daily (TSD): What are some of your interests that led you to pursue becoming a Schwarzman Scholar?

Jordan Shapiro (JS): I have diverse interests, from biotechnology and entrepreneurship to languages, communication and theater. I’d studied abroad four times at Stanford: one summer in the Stanford Chinese Summer Language program, one [Bing Overseas Study Program] (BOSP) seminar in Madagascar, one BOSP quarter in Madrid and TA-ing a BOSP seminar in Tasmania. When I came back from my freshman summer studying Chinese intensively in Beijing, I continued studying Chinese at Stanford and decided to carry on with the language beyond the requirements of my minor. Just that quarter, the Schwarzman Scholars program was announced, and I knew then that I would one day be applying to the inaugural class.

TSD: Has the program lived up to what experiences you thought it might provide when it was announced?

JS: The program has certainly delivered. Not only am I be able to enhance my linguistic and cultural understanding, but I’m also able to study bioengineering, innovation, leadership, business and international affairs in a global context. Doing so with a group of the world’s best students and professors is simultaneously humbling and enthralling.

TSD: How has Stanford shaped your passions?

JS: Stanford has always supported me in pursuing my passions and combining my interests. I remember times when professors and administrators helped me navigate my complicated schedule to fit Chinese or time abroad into my engineering course load. Or long walks with mentors discussing the best ways I could make an impact and merge my studies with my career path. Or the BOSP program, who (along with Professor Bob Siegel) let me miss a day of my TA-ship in Tasmania to deliver the convocation student address to the Class of 2018. Those experiences were definitely unparalleled in shaping who I am today.

TSD: What are your career goals and aspirations following your time in Beijing with Schwarzman Scholars?

JS: I hope to pursue international applications of technology, with a focus on biology, that can enhance the ways humans live our lives. While I have yet to settle on where I will be in the fall, I expect to be immersed in technology, innovation and international collaboration.

TSD: What intrigues you about biotech so much?

JS: Recent advances in biotechnology give humanity more potential than ever to change the world around us. Our understanding of biology and our ability to make use of biological processes is progressing exponentially. Biotechnology and bioengineering also necessitate an interdisciplinary understanding of the world. To be successful, you have to keep learning, whether about biology, chemistry, physics, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, computer science. The diversity required by the field makes biotechnology challenging, but also really engaging.

TSD: Do you have advice for students looking to pursue similar programs?

JS: For students looking to pursue similar scholarships and in general, I’d say take advantage of every day at Stanford, as the resources around you are incomparable. Spend your time carefully, doing the things that you really love, rather than things you think you need to be doing for a job or scholarship. Build your own path in pursuing your interests.

Cultivate a global mindset, thinking beyond the Stanford bubble. Go abroad and invest in your understanding of international affairs in your field. Get in touch with others who have done those programs, myself included, and the ORC at Stanford as early as possible to get advice and make sure you can make international scholarships work for you.

Contact Arielle Rodriguez at arielle3 ‘at’ stanford.edu and Susannah Meyer  at smeyer7 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Students and faculty remember John McMordie ’15 https://stanforddaily.com/2016/10/10/students-and-faculty-remember-john-mcmordie-15/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/10/10/students-and-faculty-remember-john-mcmordie-15/#respond Mon, 10 Oct 2016 09:05:57 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1117814 Stanford students, faculty and other community members are coming together to remember John McMordie ’15 with a memorial service in his honor at 1PM on Oct. 16 in Memorial Church.

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John McMordie '15. (Courtesy of the Stanford Product Realization Lab)
John McMordie ’15 died on Aug. 26 due to running accident injuries. (Courtesy of the Stanford Product Realization Lab).

Stanford students, faculty and other community members are coming together to remember John McMordie ’15 with a memorial service in his honor at 1 p.m. on Oct. 16 in Memorial Church. The service will precede a reception in the Peterson Engineering Building.

To all those who knew and loved him, McMordie was an incredibly inspirational and positive influence. McMordie died on Aug. 26 at the age of 23 from running accident injuries.

As a teaching assistant at the Product Realization Lab (PRL), tour guide, co-founder of the Stanford Jazz Consortium and freshman dorm resident assistant (RA), McMordie was involved in shaping a number of different experiences for all kinds of people on campus. Above all, he is remembered for how much genuine care he had for people and communities, all while pursuing a coterminal degree in mechanical engineering (ME).

Anshul Samar ’16 and Nicholas Cheung ’15, two of McMordie’s friends leading the memorial service planning, described McMordie as one of the most talented and caring people they had ever met.

Samar, who staffed in Trancos as the resident computer consultant (RCC) while McMordie was the RA during the 2014-2015 academic year, recalled how important McMordie was in molding the dorm’s culture. Dorm staff created a welcome video for residents to the tune of Iggy Azalea’s “I’m so Fancy,” which features McMordie rapping below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=js3aR5_JhTA

“Throughout the year, he was really the leader of Trancos, and he could hold the entire dorm up in his hands,” Samar said, recalling McMordie’s vital role in planning large dorm events like off-campus trips, football excursions and a residential retreat, as well as in subtleties that warmed dorm culture. “As a [small] example, people always went to John for candy and chocolate. One of our residents was remembering how he would always save her favorite candy for her. He was also really excited about what made other people special and what they loved, and so organizing events like cafe nights to have people show off their talents was something he took charge of.”

McMordie started a dorm tradition that continued through the year where people would submit anonymous comments and compliments about other residents throughout the week. Staff would then read the submissions aloud at dorm meetings each Wednesday night. The tradition, Samar noted, will most likely live on to be carried out by McMordie’s former residents who have gone on to staff in dorms themselves.

Cheung’s friendship with McMordie was shaped by similar interests beginning during their freshman year.

“We pretty much went through all of Stanford together,” Cheung said. “We were both ME majors and took 16 classes together. We did everything together – all of our projects, all of our [problem] sets, really pulled each other through that.”

“Whatever he was doing – whether he was talking to someone that he just met, or doing something that he’d been doing for four years at the PRL – he was 100 percent there,” Cheung added.

McMordie was as dedicated to his academics as he was to his pursuits outside the classroom. He won the Frederick Emmons Terman Engineering Scholastic Award, which is presented to the top five percent of engineering students in the senior class.

“And that’s not something he would have told us directly since he was so humble,” Anshul said. “We just found out about it because he was talking about calling his old teacher to fly in for the award ceremony. But how we looked up to John wasn’t for academics. It was how he was a pillar for communities.”

The memorial service has been planned by McMordie’s friends and organizations at Stanford including the mechanical engineering department, the PRL, the Office for Religious Life and the Graduate Life Office.

“On the surface, he seemed perfect,” Cheung said. “And the deeper you dug and the more you got to know him, he was just even more perfect.”

 

Editor’s note: This article has been updated since its original publication to better frame John McMordie’s role as an RA at Trancos.

Contact Susannah Meyer at smeyer7 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Stanford releases 2016 Safety, Security & Fire Report https://stanforddaily.com/2016/10/03/stanford-releases-2016-safety-security-fire-report/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/10/03/stanford-releases-2016-safety-security-fire-report/#respond Mon, 03 Oct 2016 07:30:52 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1117488 The report, which details new data on crimes reported throughout the 2015 calendar year, shows an increase in reported sexual offenses and arrests related to drugs and alcohol.

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Stanford’s 2016 Safety, Security & Fire Report was released on Sept. 30. The report, which details new data on crimes reported throughout the 2015 calendar year, shows an increase in reported sexual offenses and arrests related to drugs and alcohol.

Sexual violence numbers in 2014 and 2015, according to a new report (VICTOR XU/The Stanford Daily).
Sexual violence numbers in 2014 and 2015, according to a new report (VICTOR XU/The Stanford Daily).

In 2015, 39 sexual assaults were reported. Of these 39, 25 were categorized as rapes, three were categorized as statutory rapes and four were categorized as fondling incidents. The 2014 statistics accounted for 30 total sexual assault reports. In addition, six reports of dating violence were detailed in 2015, while no dating violence had been reported the previous year. Dating violence is defined by the University as “physical violence relating to a current or former romantic or intimate relationship.”

Stanford Police Chief Laura Wilson related this increase in number of sexual offense reports with an increase in willingness for victims to report. “Reporting higher numbers is preferable to reporting lower numbers if the lower numbers mean people who have experienced prohibited or criminal conduct have chosen not to report the conduct,” Wilson said.

Of the 25 sexual assaults categorized as rapes, 22 involved at least one student as the responder or complainant. Eight cases were investigated by the university, and two of those cases were investigated by the police.

Arrests related to drugs and alcohol were also on the rise in 2015. Police made 20 arrests for drug violations and 70 for alcohol-related crimes. The alcohol arrests do not include being drunk in public, driving under the influence or medical transports.

The number of hate crimes decreased by one from 2014, with two crimes being reported last year. One incident involved spray-painted swastikas of a fraternity. In the other incident, a person a homophobic slur while gesturing with a golf club to hit a nearby bicyclist.

Zero campus robberies and aggravated assaults were reported in 2015.

General data collection for report depends on the entirety of Stanford’s campus and does not depend on student involvement.

“One of the aspects of our crime reporting that is not well understood,” Wilson said, “is that the statistics are not limited to the main campus or to crimes involving students, faculty and staff. They are for the entire campus – including visitors and people who are on campus for a camp or conference – as well as property owned and managed by the university.”

Further, the numbers relating to sexual offenses are disclosed by university staff who are required to report the incidents for statistical purposes.

Contact Susannah Meyer at smeyer7 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Students commemorate 2014 Ayotzinapa mass kidnapping https://stanforddaily.com/2016/09/29/students-commemorate-2014-ayotzinapa-mass-kidnapping/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/09/29/students-commemorate-2014-ayotzinapa-mass-kidnapping/#respond Thu, 29 Sep 2016 07:24:50 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1117374 On Sept. 26, Stanford students held an event to commemorate the disappearance of 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College in Ayotzinapa, Mexico.

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(Courtesy of Alberto Díaz-Cayero)
(Courtesy of Alberto Díaz-Cayero)

On Sept. 26, Stanford students held an event to commemorate the disappearance of 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College in Ayotzinapa, Mexico.

Over 100 students from the college commandeered buses on Sept. 26, 2014 for a trip to Mexico City to commemorate the 1968 Tlatelolco Massacre. While in Iguala in the middle of their journey, buses were attacked by local police. Six people were killed, over 40 people were injured and 43 students were kidnapped and presumably murdered. The police allegedly mistook the students as members of a drug gang, but the exact reason of the abduction is still unclear and highly contested. The remains of only one student have been found.

The Ayotzinapa remembrance event was organized through a collaboration among Stanford students and organizations including the Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS), MEChA de Stanford, El Centro Chicano y Latino and other activist groups.

Andrea Hale ’15, a current coterm in CLAS, was involved in leading the collaboration and organization efforts. As a student who majored in anthropology and Iberian and Latin American Cultures as an undergraduate, Hale had already been dedicated to studying social justice issues in Latin America and, more specifically, Mexico. Finding out that her peers and others involved with CLAS were interested in planning a remembrance event, Hale spearheaded its organization in what she described as an organic and inter-organizational process.

The commemorative spirit of the event featured 43 flowers made of newspaper with the portraits, names and ages of each of the students who disappeared.

“We decided to do flowers because we were playing off of the saying that has come out of the movements, ‘somos semillas,’ meaning ‘we are seeds,’” Hale said. “The idea is that the 43 students may have disappeared, but it’s just sort of a taking off point for informing oneself of the bigger picture of what’s going on with violence. We wanted to pay tribute to their memory as well as being informative and represent them in a way that was thoughtful.”

In addition to being commemorative, the event allowed students who were unknowledgeable of the Ayotzinapa kidnapping to become informed.

“It was something for people to come and reflect and remember what happened or to learn about it for the first time,” Hale said. “We had a big poster in the middle summarizing the events that happened and what we can do in the future to better inform ourselves of the issues going on in Mexico and between the U.S. and Mexico.”

Above all, this event was planned as a call to awareness and action.

“More than anything, people come here from a bunch of different backgrounds,” Hale said. “Everyone has to focus in their field to make their impact. Spaces and events like these are really important to keep people informed so that they don’t get too insulated in their own field and own life.”

Karen Camacho, a member of MEChA de Stanford who also helped plan the Ayotzinapa remembrance, said of MEChA’s goal in helping organization, “We wanted to especially inform students about the human rights abuses occurring in our neighboring country, Mexico, and also demonstrate that Stanford and students from other universities across the nation are watching what the Mexican government is doing.”

Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies Alberto Díaz-Cayeros lent faculty support to the remembrance organizers, but emphasized that the event was completely planned and run by students. Díaz-Cayeros noted that the 2014 kidnapping has had an impact on Stanford students and faculty in a number of ways.

“We have had various activities at Stanford over the past two years since the students went missing, including a candlelight vigil in Bolivar House two years ago, when the father and uncle of one of the missing students – who lives in San Jose; the uncle is a service worker at Stanford – was with us. So this touches closer to our own community than what we think,” Díaz-Cayeros said.

Díaz-Cayeros noted that other Stanford faculty will continue to follow up on the kidnapping with two more events in the coming weeks.

 

Contact Susannah Meyer at smeyer7@stanford.edu.

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Black Student Union’s new creative space showcases black identity at Stanford https://stanforddaily.com/2016/09/27/the-underground-showcases-black-identity-at-stanford/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/09/27/the-underground-showcases-black-identity-at-stanford/#respond Wed, 28 Sep 2016 03:21:08 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1117309 The Underground, the Black Student Union’s new digital creative space, launched into action in the summer of 2016. The creator of The Underground, Aaron Barron ’18, described the site as a showcase of black identity at Stanford and as “an ongoing project to highlight student achievement, struggle and just reality.”

The Underground website features a variety of creative works, including written pieces, collections of photographs and many other forms of art. Each piece of work is centered around the theme of the black experience at Stanford, and each student’s own personal journey and experiences.

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The Underground, the Black Student Union’s new digital creative space, launched into action in the summer of 2016. The creator of The Underground, Aaron Barron ’18, described the site as  a showcase of black identity at Stanford and as “an ongoing project to highlight student achievement, struggle and just reality.”

The Underground website features a variety of creative works, including written pieces, collections of photographs and many other forms of art. Each piece of work is centered around the theme of the black experience at Stanford, and each student’s own personal journey and experiences.

“[The Underground] is a digital space for students of the diaspora or who relate to the struggles of the diaspora to talk about the truth, for them to talk about who they are, where they come from and how they’re adjusting to their lives at Stanford,” Barron said. “So it’s kind of celebrating the reality of being a black individual at Stanford, how it is adjusting to social implications, how it is living in a pretty privileged environment and how you adjust to that.”

Barron highlighted one piece in particular featured on The Underground, “Being a Black Women in Tech,” written by Lindsey Redd ’17. The piece focuses on her experiences working at Silicon Valley and how the murders of Alton Sterling affected her and her professional experiences. “It should bring a larger notice to the communities and realities we deal with,” Barron said.

Another contributor to The Underground is Musila Munuve ’16, who created a photo series to showcase people from his home country Kenya.

“[The goal of the series] was to show the beauty of my country, to create photos of different scenes and different places for a country that’s not always seen in a positive way,” Munuve said.

Munuve has plans to continue to contribute to The Underground with a new photo series that will focus on the theme of “the beauty of natural hair” and “black women who wear their hair natural.”

Barron created the website only a few months ago in order to showcase the black experience at Stanford to those outside of the community.

“A big issue I felt at Stanford was that students here are engaging with amazing resources, whether it’s through the black community services center, whether it’s the center for African studies, different clubs…” Barron said. “People are engaging in those things but I feel like the the larger community isn’t really getting to know about them. I felt like there’s great resources, but there should be a central place, where students, like students at my high school, can be like, ‘Oh yeah, that’s what it’s like to be a black student at Stanford, or that’s what it’s like to engage in a welcoming community.’ We have this great environment that’s unique here and I think other schools should really be able to see that.”

With the website in its beginning stages, The Underground is welcoming and accepting of new content and contributors.

“It is really the people who relate to the struggle of the diaspora, who can read these stories and experience things like that. The site, at its core, is about being black at Stanford. And if you feel that you relate to that experience, then by all means, you should talk about that,” Barron said.

While The Underground currently focuses on individual projects, the website has bigger goals in mind.

“As time goes on,” Barron continued, “we’re going to start talking about some very real things, some very strong issues we have with Stanford. We love our school, but we want to have effectual change; that doesn’t happen without conflict. We will definitely be talking a lot about political and social issues. It’s all from a place of wanting the best for our school.”

Contact Arielle Rodriguez at arielle3 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Stanford professor emeritus Theodore Anderson dies at age 98 https://stanforddaily.com/2016/09/26/stanford-professor-emeritus-theodore-anderson-dies-at-age-98/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/09/26/stanford-professor-emeritus-theodore-anderson-dies-at-age-98/#respond Tue, 27 Sep 2016 06:57:06 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1117272 Stanford professor emeritus Theodore “Ted” Anderson died on Sept. 17 at the age of 98 from heart failure.

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Theodore Anderson, 1918-2016. (Courtesy of the Stanford Department of Statistics)
(Courtesy of the Stanford Department of Statistics)

Stanford professor emeritus Theodore “Ted” Anderson died on Sept. 17 at the age of 98 from heart failure.

Anderson taught econometrics and statistics at Stanford from 1967 to 1988, when he retired. An extremely influential figure in mathematics, Anderson was engaged in scholarly contributions for many years of his life.

“Ted submitted his last technical paper less than a month ago,” said statistics department chair Emmanuel Candés. In the field of statistics, Anderson’s name is tied in with the Anderson-Darling test of fit, the Anderson-Stephens analysis of spherical data and the Anderson-Bahadur algorithm.

Statistics professor David Donoho noted Anderson’s large influence in the science of using high-dimensional data to predict circumstances depending on multiple measurements and variables. According to Donoho, the kind of analysis pioneered by Anderson is now used in, among other applications, prediction of cancer survival rates, credit score calculations and investment risk calculations.

Anderson was very involved in his life at Stanford, attending campus seminars and economics department gatherings regularly. He is known for his clear and thorough lectures.

Anderson, who was born in 1918 in Minneapolis, earned his Ph.D. in mathematics at Princeton in 1945. After a year of work at the University of Chicago as a research assistant on the Cowles Commission for Research in Economics, he taught at Columbia until 1967 at the start of his Stanford teaching.

Outside his professional career, Anderson enjoyed traveling, reading, tennis and spending time with his family. He is survived by his wife of 70 years, one son, two daughters and his daughters’ families.

 

Contact Susannah Meyer at smeyer7 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Stanford-related domain names cause headache https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/24/stanford-related-domain-names-available-for-sale/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/24/stanford-related-domain-names-available-for-sale/#respond Tue, 24 May 2016 07:01:03 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1115589 Almost 200 Stanford-related domain names on GoDaddy’s auction site, raning from $8 to $30,000.

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(VICTOR XU/The Stanford Daily)
(VICTOR XU/The Stanford Daily)

 

Stanfordstore.com or Stanford.bkstr.com: chances are, an incoming student or someone less familiar with Stanford’s student store would readily visit either website to purchase University-related merchandise. While the latter is the Stanford Bookstore’s official URL, the former is available for sale to the public, along with almost 200 Stanford related domain names on GoDaddy’s auction site alone.

The available domain names, accessible through several domain sale sites like GoDaddy.com and iwantmyname.com, range in price from as $8 to $30,000 at the time of publication. Despite their references to Stanford, they are available to anyone with Internet access and a bank account.

Though there are countless available combinations of nonsensical domain names with Stanford-related words embedded, many of those currently up for sale seem to reflect legitimate Stanford organizations. These fall under a few categories of domain names that might potentially lead to confusion for visitors and a misrepresentation of Stanford. Such domain names seem to implicate the University as a whole, Stanford-affiliated companies and organizations, student organizations on campus and University-run programs.

According to Stanford’s Names and Marks Policy, “The University will protect its name and marks actively from improper or misleading use by individuals or organizations not associated with the institution.” However, the process for executing such protection is unclear.

University spokesperson Brad Hayward said in a statement to The Daily, “Stanford takes protection of its name and trademark very seriously. We have registered many trademarks and domain names that bear the Stanford name or other identifying marks or names.”

Without the resources to register every possible permutation of Stanford in a domain name, Hayward noted, the University takes action to periodically review recent top-level domains to determine if there is any cause for concern on the rise to prevent confusion. Top-level domains refer to identifiers in web addresses such as “edu” in stanford.edu or “com” in google.com.

Registering any of a number of currently for-sale Stanford-related domain names could easily lead to confusion and potential cause for action on the part of the University. Addresses like stanford.net and stanford-university.com might attract visitors looking for the base of Stanford’s digital footprint.

Stanfordrepublican.com and stanforddemocrat.com mimic the political student organizations on campus and could be used to promote political views that appear backed by the University. This might necessitate action on behalf of the University, which claims in its Names and Marks Policy, “Stanford does not permit its name and marks to be used in connection with partisan political activities.”

Stanford-run programs are mirrored in names like stanford.capetown and stanford.berlin, while sports teams might be falsely promoted with for-sale names like stanford.soccer and stanford.tennis. Others, like stanford.dating and stanford.porn, might feign a Stanford connection for activities the University may want distanced from its name.

A purchase of stanfordstore.com by a registrant intending individual profit could have potential for legal action on behalf of the University. According to the Stanford trademark guidelines, “All use of Stanford’s Marks on any merchandise produced by a third party for promotional purposes, whether or not offered for sale, should be discouraged and is not permitted without approval by the Trademark Licensing Office.”

“Sometimes the University will be alerted to an infringing web domain or misuse of the Stanford name,” Hayward said. “If someone uses these domains in a way that creates confusion or that infringes on Stanford’s legal rights to our name and marks, we ask them to desist, and if they do not, we take legal action against them.”

To prevent confusion within Stanford-affiliated entities, University policy encourages the use of stanford.edu domains. Stanford Domains, a project offered by the Office of the Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning (VPTL), is one way of facilitating this by allowing students, faculty and staff the opportunity to register a .edu domain.

“Conducting our online activities under promotes the security and integrity of our network and the information we share on the web,” Hayward said.

 

Contact Susannah Meyer at smeyer7 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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AlertSU sends two sexual battery warnings https://stanforddaily.com/2016/01/19/alertsu-reports-two-sexual-assault-cases/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/01/19/alertsu-reports-two-sexual-assault-cases/#respond Wed, 20 Jan 2016 05:49:07 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1109547 Over the past few days, the Stanford community received two notifications about a reported sexual assault taking place on Saturday, Jan. 16. The two reports detailed an incident that occurred around 8:00 p.m. on Saturday in a women’s restroom near Memorial Church. One report stated that a 15-year-old girl was groped through her clothing upon attempting to leave the restroom […]

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Over the past few days, the Stanford community received two notifications about a reported sexual assault taking place on Saturday, Jan. 16.

The two reports detailed an incident that occurred around 8:00 p.m. on Saturday in a women’s restroom near Memorial Church. One report stated that a 15-year-old girl was groped through her clothing upon attempting to leave the restroom by a white male who was a stranger to the victim.

The suspect was described as a man in his early 20s, six feet tall with a full beard, wearing a red and white Stanford hoodie, black sweatpants with “Stanford” printed on the leg and white shoes. The victim was not physically injured and chose not to provide a statement to the police.

The information detailing the reports was made available to students through AlertSU, Stanford’s emergency notification system. Through emails and text messages, AlertSU notifies students about emergency events on campus such as sexual assault, aggravated assault, robbery, arson, criminal homicide, theft and drug-and weapon-related arrests.

The two AlertSU emails provided information about how to prevent and report sexual assault as well as how to seek counseling. To report sexual assault, students are advised to contact the police, Stanford’s Department of Public Safety or the Title IX office. For both confidential and non-confidential counseling as well as other resources for sexual assault prevention, students are urged to visit Stanford’s Not Alone campaign.

 

Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this article introduced ambiguity as to whether or not the two reports were detailing separate incidents; the two reports described the same incident.

Contact Susannah Meyer at smeyer7 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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A look at stimulants and study drugs on campus https://stanforddaily.com/2016/01/16/a-look-at-stimulants-and-study-drugs-on-campus/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/01/16/a-look-at-stimulants-and-study-drugs-on-campus/#respond Sat, 16 Jan 2016 20:40:20 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1109441 The Daily’s investigation into stimulant use at Stanford has tracked students’ motivations for experimenting with stimulants, the impacts of such a culture on health and the mechanics and ethics of the stimulant market.

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Coursework is replaced by Canvas https://stanforddaily.com/2016/01/04/coursework-is-replaced-by-canvas/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/01/04/coursework-is-replaced-by-canvas/#comments Tue, 05 Jan 2016 07:13:36 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1108738 Canvas, a digital tool developed by the software maker “Instructure,” which manages course-specific learning, is set to replace CourseWork as Stanford’s main learning-organization system.

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Canvas, a digital tool developed by the software maker Instructure, which manages course-specific learning, is set to replace CourseWork as Stanford’s main learning-organization system.

Stanford is on track to transition all University classes from CourseWork to Canvas by the start of the 2017 winter quarter.

Stanford News reported that the transition and adoption of the tool follows a successful pilot program tested over the 2014-15 academic year. The program was officially launched on Dec. 8, 2015, by Stanford’s vice provost for teaching and learning with an introductory and instructional event for faculty and staff.

The reasons for enforcing the use of Canvas instead of Coursework across campus are the software’s comparatively modern features and better functionality. Along with a sleek user interface, Canvas offers tools for classroom peer review, collaboration between teachers and students, assignment feedback and an easy and quick grading system called SpeedGrader.

Canvas also boasts convenience and efficiency for both students and faculty with mobile support and single sign-on. Integration with Stanford’s student information system, Axess, will automatically allow for every class to have its own Canvas course.

The Canvas system still has a few features that are being developed, like anonymous paper submissions for students and voice recording management for language teachers.  Additionally, a development team on campus in the office of the vice provost of teaching and learning, is set up to respond to different needs as they arise.

The move to use of Canvas for Stanford’s entire campus was spurred by the successful and independent adoptions of the program by both the Graduate School of Education and the Graduate School of Business.

 

Contact Susannah Meyer at smeyer7 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Economic Policy Institute report compares students in the U.S., other countries https://stanforddaily.com/2015/11/24/report-compares-students-in-the-us-other-countries/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/11/24/report-compares-students-in-the-us-other-countries/#respond Wed, 25 Nov 2015 04:00:51 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1107681 A report recently published by the Economic Policy Institute suggests that United States schools may not be trailing behind those of other countries as much as previous studies have suggested.

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A report recently published by the Economic Policy Institute suggests that United States schools may not be trailing behind those of other countries as much as previous studies have suggested.

The report was authored in part by professor of education Martin Carnoy, an economist specializing in education who has been a professor at Stanford for more than 40 years. The report analyzes international results of two assessments, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). It focuses on the usefulness, or lack thereof, of common metrics used to compare the U.S. with other countries in order to make conclusions about the relative statuses of international education systems.

“This report is essentially a continuation of an earlier report, which analyzed the results of the PISA and TIMSS tests in the U.S.,” Carnoy said. “But this time, we focused heavily on individual states. Our main idea is that the U.S. as an educational system doesn’t really exist; it’s really at least 51 separate systems [including each state and the District of Columbia].”

Carnoy emphasized that comparing average test scores across countries ignores students’ family backgrounds; in other words, test scores might not provide an accurate measure of the quality of education.

“The test scores themselves measure an aggregate of a lot of effects: family background, inequality of schooling and extracurricular commitments,” Carnoy said.

With this in mind for the report, Carnoy further broke down test score numbers to consider the backgrounds of students for a more accurate reading of data, using the number of books per home as a proxy for showing how much a family is focused on academics. Adjusting for such family academic resources reduces variation between the U.S. and other countries in reading by up to 40 percent and in mathematics by up to 25 percent.

“The U.S. has one of the highest poverty rates among developed countries, and so the samples from the U.S. reflect that difference,” Carnoy said. “We have a lot more poor kids taking these tests. Adjusting for that, the U.S. does somewhat better.”

While controlling for students’ backgrounds does reduce variation in scores when comparing the U.S. to other countries, Carnoy argues that it is still rather fruitless to make these nation-by-nation comparisons in the first place.

“The educational and social cultures among countries vary enormously, and that variation is a lot smaller among U.S. states,” Carnoy said.

One example he touched on was the comparison between the U.S. and South Korea. Korean scores are greatly influenced by the fact that students often attend cram schools, where they study for the purpose of improving scores. Thus, the high scores in Korea do not necessarily reflect the quality of the education Korean students receive at at standard schools.

“On the other hand, we have models in the U.S. that can help us understand what works in terms of improving education,” Carnoy said. “Looking state by state, we have a much better chance of looking at the numbers we’re getting to figure out which levers to pull in education to improve it.”

In order to find those levers and to improve education, Carnoy is actively researching the processes and standards that differentiate top-scoring states, like Massachusetts, and lower-scoring states, like California.

Stanford professor emeritus of education and business administration Michael Kirst, who is also in his fourth term as president of the California State Board of Education, found Carnoy’s report to be both insightful and helpful as he continues to engage in work surrounding the improvement of California’s education.

“This is a very informative and unique analysis,” Kirst said. “I think a lot of international organizations like the OECD have been making claims about U.S. education and how to reform it without truly understanding it, and this will help get us on the right track.”

Kirst is hopeful that Carnoy’s findings will help yield concrete practices so that people are less focused on borrowing from international school systems and more focused on improving California state education, which is more accurately compared to that of other states.

“The California to Texas comparison is much more relevant than the comparison between California — with almost 40 million people and 6.3 million students in public school — and Finland — with a total population under 6 million,” Kirst said. “[International comparisons] push policy action to the federal level when it’s better off being tailored to each state’s unique context.

“Our job as a state board is to dig deeper into the differences between California and other states, and that’s what we’re planning to do,” he added.

 

Contact Susannah Meyer at susannahmeyer ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Computer science now most popular major for women https://stanforddaily.com/2015/10/12/computer-science-now-most-popular-major-for-women/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/10/12/computer-science-now-most-popular-major-for-women/#respond Mon, 12 Oct 2015 07:41:20 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1104676 As of last week, computer science (CS) has become the most popular major on campus among women.

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Computer science has now become the most popular major for female undergraduates (MISO KIM/The Stanford Daily).
Computer science has now become the most popular major for female undergraduates (MISO KIM/The Stanford Daily).

As of last week, computer science (CS) has become the most popular major on campus among women.

According to data on declarations, 214 women are majoring in computer science, a fact that solidifies the recent growth of interest in the department. The previously most popular major among women, human biology, closely trails with 208 declarations.

Although women comprise just 30 percent of computer science majors at Stanford, that figure is ahead of the national curve — in aggregate, women earn about 18 percent of undergraduate degrees in computer science in the nation. While significant work remains before the computer science program reaches equal gender representation, professor of computer science Eric Roberts finds this milestone important nonetheless.

“We’ve managed to reach a level at which women feel reasonably comfortable; there’s no shortage of a sense of critical mass,” Roberts said. “There’s now an ability [for women] not to feel isolated.”

Roberts explained that increasing women’s numbers in CS could alleviate their sense of isolation in the field and help fight off the effects of the imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is a term used to describe people who have trouble internalizing their accomplishments and who tend to attribute achievements to luck.

The syndrome is known to affect young women pursuing engineering fields, and computer science lecturer Marty Stepp emphasized that an inability to identify with peers can aggravate the imposter syndrome.

Stepp believes that a more concerted effort to introduce young women and men to CS earlier on in their education could go even further to help. When students arrive at Stanford hoping to get started in computer science without prior experience, Stepp notes, they have an expectation that the student next to them has been programming since middle school.

“That gap is very intimidating – whether it’s real or perceived,” Stepp said.

Stepp also attributes the increasing diversity of the computer science major largely to the success of the section leader program, which enables students to act as teaching assistants for the introductory CS classes CS 106A: “Programming Methodology” and CS 106B: “Programming Abstractions.”

“Our section leader program does a great job of getting people help and giving them personal attention – encouraging their success,” Stepp said. “Just by being here and doing their job, [the section leaders] are a huge reason why we’ve seen improvement in our diversity here.”

Kat Gregory ’15, a computer science major who came to Stanford intending to study human biology, credited the department for being welcoming and for introducing computer science as something simply fun. Gregory is now a section leader herself.

“I entered Stanford with the impression that only a certain type [of person] studied computer science,” Gregory said. “Because I didn’t fit that type, it didn’t cross my mind to explore the subject.”

Meeting different kinds of people who shattered the computer science stereotype in her mind and with whom she could identify, Gregory explained, encouraged her to take a leap to explore her own interests within the subject.

Roberts, however, also spoke about how growth of the computer science major has begun to tax the department’s resources. Finding large classrooms, teaching assistants, section leaders and office hour space is difficult for the department in its current state. He also stated that departmental resources would need to grow in order to accommodate the expected increase in students.

“My sound bite of the year has been that CS is two percent of the faculty teaching 20 percent of the majors, and only one of those numbers is going up,” Roberts said. “What we need to do is find a way to make sure that that doesn’t adversely influence our success here.”

 

Contact Susannah Meyer at smeyer7 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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