Category Archives: Computer Science
Lovsz and Wigderson to Share Abel Prize for Contributions to Theoretical Computer Science, Math – HPCwire
OSLO, March 17, 2021 The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters has decided to award the Abel Prize for 2021 to Lszl Lovsz of Alfrd Rnyi Institute of Mathematics (ELKH, MTA Institute of Excellence) and Etvs Lornd University in Budapest, Hungary, and Avi Wigderson of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, USA, for their foundational contributions to theoretical computer science and discrete mathematics, and their leading role in shaping them into central fields of modern mathematics.
Lszl Lovsz
A brilliant mathematician since he was a teenager, Lszl Lovsz more than delivered on his early promise. Born in 1948 in Budapest, Hungary, he has also served his community as a writer of books, noted for their clarity and accessibility, as an inspirational lecturer, and as a leader, spending a term as president of the International Mathematical Union (2007-2010).
In the 1970s graph theory became one of the first areas of pure mathematics able to illuminate the new field of computational complexity. Lovasz later said that he was very lucky to experience one of those periods when mathematics was developing completely together with an application area. In addition to his work on the foundational underpinning of computer science, Lovsz has also devised powerful algorithms with wide-ranging applications, such as the LLL algorithm, which has had remarkable applications in areas including number theory, cryptography and mobile computing.
Lovsz has won many awards including the 1999 Wolf Prize, the 1999 Knuth Prize, the 2001 Gdel Prize and the 2010 Kyoto Prize.
Avi Wigderson
Wigderson is known for his ability to see links between apparently unrelated areas. He has deepened the connections between mathematics and computer science. He was born in Haifa, Israel, in 1956. His contribution to enlarging and deepening the field of complexity theory which concerns itself with the speed and efficiency of algorithms is arguably greater than that of any single other person.
Wigderson has conducted research into every major open problem in complexity theory. In many ways, the field has grown around him. He has co-authored papers with more than 100 people.
The most important present-day application of complexity theory is internet cryptography. Early in his career Wigderson made fundamental contributions in this area, including the zero-knowledge proof, which today is being used in cryptocurrency technology.
In 1994, Wigderson won the Rolf Nevanlinna Prize for computer science. Among his many other prizes is the 2009 Gdel Prize and the 2019 Knuth Prize.
Algorithms and internet security
The theory of computational complexity which concerns itself with the speed and efficiency of algorithms was in its infancy in the 1970s, and is now an established field of both mathematics and theoretical computer science. Computational complexity has become important, providing the theoretical basis for internet security. Also in the 1970s a new generation of mathematicians realised that discrete mathematics had, in computer science, a new area of application. Today algorithms and internet security aspects are an integral part of everyday life for all of us. The work of Lszl Lovsz and Avi Wigderson has played an important part of this development.
Lovsz and Wigderson have been leading forces in this development over the last decades. Thanks to their leadership discrete mathematics and the relatively young field of theoretical computer science are now established as central areas of modern mathematics, says Hans Munthe-Kaas, chair of the Abel committee.
Source: The Abel Prize
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Skowhegan High and Tech Center receive female diversity award for participation in computer science course – Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel
SKOWHEGAN When Kim McEwen attended her first engineering course at the University of Maine, she was the only female student in the class.
Decades later, she now teaches STEM courses science, technology, engineering and math at the Skowhegan Area High School and the Somerset Career & Technical Center, and has been recognized for her work in closing the gender gap in Advanced Placement Computer Science Principles, while continuing to make STEM education accessible to more students.
McEwens computer science class was recently recognized by the College Board with the AP Computer Science Female Diversity Award, which is given out to schools that achieve high rates of female representation in AP Computer Science Principles.
Skowhegan Area High School and SCTC have expanded access to girls in these courses, and McEwen has also been making strides toward expanding lessons to fifth-graders in Maine School Administrative District 54.
Of the 20,000 institutions that offer AP courses, 1,119 achieved female representation of 50% or more in one of the two AP computer science courses during the 2019-20 school year.
Skowhegan Area High School/Somerset Career & Technical Centers students need the power to shape technology, not just cope with it, Stefanie Sanford, College Board chief of global policy and external relations, said in a statement released to the news media. Young women deserve an equal opportunity to become the next generation of entrepreneurs, engineers and tech leaders. Closing the gap in computer science education empowers young women to build the future they want.
In 2020, Skowhegan Area High School/SCTC was one of 831 schools recognized with this award.
In Maine, 29.2% of those working in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields are women, according to a 2015 report from the Institute for Womens Policy Research, compared to 28.8% nationwide.
During an unprecedented year, Skowhegan Area High School/Somerset Career & Technical Center female students have demonstrated perseverance and dedication in their study of AP Computer Science, said Bruce Mochamer, principal of Skowhegan Area High School.
We could not be more proud of our female students for staking their claim as the next generation of STEM and computer science professionals.
At Skowhegan Area High School/Somerset Career & Technical Center, students have the option to take 3D design, robotics, computer science and structures with McEwen. She said the courses change or are added based on students requests and needs.
We have kids come to robotics every year because they can code, but they wanted a full-on coding class, McEwen said. They wanted to see if that was something theyd want to do in the future.
(Coding) certainly wasnt my background, but I spoke to David Dorr (director of SCTC) and Principal Mochamer to have guidance and to make sure we could add it to our programming. Then I received training so I could guide the kids. It gives them an opportunity to try it here for free and get a feel for whether they want to do it or not.
Prior to teaching in Skowhegan, McEwen worked with public water utilities in Connecticut and Maine. Before switching to teaching, she worked for the Bath Water District.
McEwen has a civil engineering degree from UMaine. She spent a decade working as an engineer and has been teaching for 18 years.
(Teaching) was a personal choice for me, McEwen said of her career change. I did a lot of traveling and spent a lot of time away from my family, and my husband and I wanted to move back to this area. I said one day: I like math and science. Lets teach math and science.'
She added that in the current academic year, she does not have any female students in her computer science class, which was recognized for the award, but this is not common.
In all of our classes, we typically have quite a few females, McEwen said. The one that has always been traditionally low (in enrollment) is robotics.
McEwen has also been working on outreach and is starting a program with fifth-grade students across the district. An effort to bring STEM lessons to Margaret Chase Smith School and Canaan Elementary School began last spring, but was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic and cancelation of in-person learning.
As we updated our own robotics equipment so that our kids could compete in competitions, we had some really nice working equipment, McEwen said., so we thought that we should reach out to fifth-grade teachers and wanted to do a traveling STEM program.
By offering these programs to younger students, McEwen said she hopes to attract more into STEM courses by the time they reach high school.
Due to the hybrid learning schedule and spacing requirements required by the COVID-19 pandemic, the lessons are not offered this year, but McEwen said they will resume at the beginning of the 2021-22 school year.
Meantime, McEwen and her colleagues are in the process of putting together a summer robotics class for middle school students that will run during the normal summer school session in MSAD 54.
Theres a lot of schools across the country that are now making computer science a part of their graduation requirements, McEwen said. We need tremendous amounts of numbers of people that want to train in coding, and we need bodies to fill these roles.
Theres so many things you can get out of it, like problem solving and analytical skills. Those qualities are good, no matter where you go. It doesnt matter if you want to be an engineer, teacher or businessperson.
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Lets Teach Computer Science Majors to Be Good Citizens. The Whole World Depends on It. – EdSurge
Digital technology has become increasingly important in the lives of all Americans, particularly during the coronavirus pandemic, which has made many of us even more reliant on computing devices to execute our daily responsibilities.
Yet, many social, political and ethical concerns have emerged as the application of technology has grown in daily life.
For example, in 2020, the first known wrongful arrest through misidentification via facial recognition software occurred when police mistakenly accused a Black man of committing a crime. To address concerns about this kind of excessive citizen surveillance, city governments in some locales have restricted the use of facial recognition software, and a bill has been proposed to ban federal law enforcement agencies from using it. Meanwhile, in the political arena, evidence has emerged that data analytics were applied to deter Black voters from voting in the 2016 election and that similar technology has been applied to affect other countries elections as well.
To mitigate the perpetuation of these and related inequities, observers have called for increased diversification of the technology workforce. However, as books like Brotopia by Emily Chang and Race after Technology by Ruha Benjamin indicate, the culture of tech companies can be misogynistic and racist and therefore unwelcoming to many people. Googles firing of a well-regarded Black scientist for her research on algorithmic bias in December 2020 suggests that there may be limited capacity within the industry to challenge this culture.
Change may need to start earlier in the workforce development pipeline. Undergraduate education offers a key opportunity for recruiting students from historically underrepresented racial and ethnic, gender, and disability groups into computing. Yet even broadened participation in college computer science courses may not shift the tech workforce and block bias from seeping into tech tools if students arent taught that diversity and ethics are essential to their field of study and future careers.
Unfortunately, those lessons seem to be missing from many computer science programs.
In a national study involving a multiyear examination of how student worldviews are changing at more than 120 colleges and universities (IDEALS), our research teams at Ohio State, North Carolina State (led by Alyssa N. Rockenbach), and the Interfaith Youth Core found evidence indicating that computer science majors have limited access to instruction about ethics and cultural inclusivity.
This study sought to uncover how students are changing in college, including how their academic majors might have an effect on their beliefs and attitudes. Of particular interest to us was students citizenship, or their level of agreement (strongly agree, somewhat agree, and so on) with these four statements at the beginning and end of their college careers:
When we compared more than 5,500 student responses by major, what we found was striking. The number of computer science majors who highly agreed with these statements decreased across their four years in college and resulted in lower overall citizenship scores when compared to students in other majors.
In other words, students in computer science were graduating college with less preparation than students in all other majors to become agents of responsible change in an increasingly global citizenry.
These data underscore a key barrier to creating a technology workforce that is more oriented to the public good and highlight how undergraduate education would be an appropriate site of intervention.
Incorporating more education about morality and ethics into computer science education could help. Thats an effort underway at big institutions including MIT, Stanford and the University of California at Berkeley. Another strategy is drawing computer science back into the liberal arts, to better root technology in disciplines like history and sociology that explore social issues.
An additional approach would be to create educational contexts for computer science students that advance their capacity to enact social and cultural responsibility. According to the book How College Affects Students: Volume 3, which synthesizes findings from hundreds of higher education studies, such educational contexts develop: a respect for human rights; an analytic understanding of transparency, inclusivity, and openness to debate and their essential role in a participatory society; and the capacity to critically examine elements of any social arrangement.
What might such educational contexts in computing look like? For the past decade and a half, The Computing Alliance of Hispanic-Serving Institutions (CAHSI), a network of 40 colleges, has developed approaches to computer science education that have raised Hispanic students' bachelor's degree attainment in computing fields. With the support of federal funding, industry partners, and nonprofit educational agencies, CAHSI has developed peer tutoring, undergraduate research experiences, and professional clubs that successfully recruit and retain Hispanic students and other underrepresented groups in computing.
Importantly, these activities involve community building, intergenerational mentoring, and assets-based approaches toward computing education that affirm the humanity, participation and cultural strengths of students. These approaches cultivate the sense of belonging in computing and STEM fields that have been found to be critical for students of color. Additional internships and opportunities to attend computing conferences geared at uplift of women and Hispanics in computing have further emphasized student leadership capabilities to serve and support other students and their broader communities.
Examples like CAHSI indicate that incorporating a sense of ethical and cultural responsibility to the public good in computing is possible. There are several strategies that can be applied to enhance computing students' sense of social justice and capacity to serve diverse communities. Integrating collaborative, active, experiential and culturally responsive approaches in computing education augments the engagement and success of all students in computing. Furthermore, these practices can transform the culture of computing to prepare students with the skills to better serve the public good.
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Lets Teach Computer Science Majors to Be Good Citizens. The Whole World Depends on It. - EdSurge
MOVCENTR E-Newsletter | College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences – University of Nebraska Omaha
Register Today!
Virtual Human Movement Variability Conference and Great Plains Biomechanics Joint Conferences, May 20-21, 2021
Register today for the 6th Annual Conference in Human Movement Variability and 2nd Annual Great Plains Biomechanics Conference. Students receive free registration thanks to the American Society of Biomechanics! The conference had 70 abstract submissions!
NONAN Fractal Webinar, sign up here (held in conjunction with the conference)
Beni Csordas, Undergraduate Student Worker
Beni joined the MOVCENTR a year and a half ago when he learned about MAPRO. There he was able to make his own lapping plates and he met our machinists Mr. Travis Vanderheyden and Mr. Russell Buffum. Beni enjoys getting hands-on experience, practicing prototyping skills, and interacting with researchers in biomechanics.
Working in MAPRO provides me with the opportunity to have flexible hours while getting hands on experience. As a student, this is very important.
Beni plans on going into medicine after he is done with school. But for now, he is the Head of UNOs Maker Group. This Group is a student organization that provides a community for makers at UNO. Students work on their own projects, share equipment and knowledge, and are
provided needed work space. The Group brings diverse thinking to one location, with biology, biomechanics, and computer science students to name a few. The Group is always looking for funding to offset the cost of the projects, and provide upkeep and maintenance for equipment and 3D printing materials. Students that are interested in becoming more involved in the Group can do so via the clubs , meetings are open to anyone interested and new projects are always welcome.
Benjamin Senderling, Laboratory Technician
I am currently the Coordinator for the Nonlinear Analysis Core (NONAN) and the Bioengineer for the Movement Analysis Core (MOVAN) and have worked for UNO Biomechanics since 2014. I have a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering and a M.B.A., both from Western New England University in Massachusetts, and a M.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Drexel University in Philadelphia. I am currently pursuing a doctoral degree, part-time, from UNO Biomechanics. Prior to 2014 I worked in industry as a mechanical engineer.
My academic experience has always been closely linked to my professional capacities. During my training, I took courses in computer coding and used this skillset continuously in my field of study. Computer coding is a critical skill for my professional duties in MOVAN, but especially so for NONAN activities. Our computer code is continually being developed and validated to improve what we do and exceed our customers expectations. Further, my training in engineering equipped me with key technical experience and problem-solving skills. Equipment and problems have rarely been the same during my career and my training prepared me to transition between disciplines. I started my scientific career in cell and tissue engineering but made that experience translatable and continued to learn and adapt. Even before the formal formation of MOVAN and NONAN I was involved in biomechanics and nonlinear services, and responsible for the maintenance of the MOVAN laboratories.
My experience has continually evolved integrating my business degree, industry experience and university research. Working with the MOVAN and NONAN cores has provided me with the opportunity to blend my experiences, skills and knowledge.
Squirrel Treadmill, made by the Machining and Prototyping Core for Junior Investigator, Dr. Nate Hunt
This treadmill is designed to simulate many of the aspects of real tree branches, like size and slope. By analyzing high-speed video from squirrels balancing, bounding, and rapidly running, while simultaneously sampling the concentrations of oxygen and carbon dioxide they are consuming and producing, we hope to discover some incredibly interesting things about locomotion performance in the canopy. Specifically, we hypothesize that, at the upper limits of performance, we will see tradeoffs between running speeds, the ability to balance, and the amount of energy the squirrels are using. Although, after the last few years of doing research with squirrels, we also expect to be surprised!
For more information regarding our seminar series visit our website.
The MOVCENTR has three Research Cores
Machining and Prototyping CoreDr. Brian Knarr, Core DirectorContact: bmchmpcore@unomaha.edu
The Machining and Prototyping Core Facility involves the use of three major facilities within the University of Nebraska at Omaha Biomechanics Research Building: The Machine Shop, Design Studio, and the 3D Printing Laboratory. The most basic function of the Core is to provide services that utilize these spaces and their personnel and equipment. These services are for professional in the University of Nebraska system, the local area, but also to people outside our state to progress their research or other projects. This core can design, prototype, manufacture and repair, maintain, or install a wide range of devices and instrumentation.
Movement Analysis CoreDr. David Kingston and Dr. Nick StergiouContact: bmchmovan@unomaha.edu
The Movement Analysis Core provides resources, education, advisement and services related to the analysis of human movement. Equipment such as motion capture, dynamometry, electromyography (EMG), electroencephalography, functional near-infrared spectroscopy, virtual reality and high-speed digital video are provided. Contact the core for a comprehensive PDF of our facilities, resources and services.
Nonlinear Analysis CoreDr. Jenna Yentes, Core DirectorContact: bmchnonan@unomaha.edu
The Nonlinear Analysis Core provides resources and services necessary for innovative analysis of human movement. These methods go beyond averages by looking at the time-varying characteristics of a time signal. The Core provides access to a multitude of nonlinear analysis tools, assistance in experimental design, data processing, quality assurance, interpretation and dissemination. The Core is also actively exploring and validating new techniques and algorithms for future use. In addition to our nonlinear methods, standard analyses can also be performed.
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Ph.D. alumnus Wigderson receives Abel Prize Read more – Princeton University
The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters has awarded the Abel Prize for 2021toAvi Wigderson, a 1983 Ph.D. graduate of Princeton inelectrical engineering and computer science, now on the faculty of the Institute for Advanced Study. He shares the prize with Lszl Lovsz of the Alfrd Rnyi Institute of Mathematics and Etvs Lornd University in Budapest, Hungary.
The award cites their foundational contributions to theoretical computer science and discrete mathematics, and their leading role in shaping them into central fields of modern mathematics.
The government of Norway established Abel Prize to give the mathematicians their own equivalent of a Nobel Prize. The winners of the prestigious award will share the prize of 7.5 million Norwegian kroner (about $880,000).
"Avi is a collaborator and mentor of many of the faculty in the computer science department at Princeton," said Jennifer Rexford, chair of the Department of Computer Science as well as Princeton's Gordon Y.S. Wu Professor in Engineering. "We are delighted that his fundamental contributions to the theory of computation are receiving this well-deserved recognition."
She added: "Computer science is an increasingly important part of neighboring academic disciplines. We are excited to see Avis fundamental contributions to the theory of computation receive the highest recognition in mathematics."
Wigderson, born in Haifa, Israel, in 1956, is known for deepening the connections between mathematics and computer science. His contribution to enlarging the field of complexity theory which impacts the efficiency of algorithms as well as internet cryptography is arguably greater than that of any single other person, said the award citation.
Wigderson has made fundamental contributions to complexity theory, including the zero-knowledge proof, which today is used in blockchain (cryptocurrency) technology. The idea behind the zero-knowledge proof is the puzzle of how to prove you know something without giving away the information. For example, if someone wanted to show a friend that she had found Waldo in the newest Wheres Waldo book without giving away the solution she could cut a tiny hole in a piece of cardboard, hold it over the open book, and reveal Waldos form without giving any other clues to his whereabouts on the page.
Early in his career, Wigderson demonstrated that zero-knowledge proofs can be used to prove, in secret, any public result about secret data.
Wigderson completed his doctorate at Princeton in 1983 under the supervision of Richard Lipton, now an emeritus professor of computer science. His dissertation was titled, Studies in Combinatorial Complexity.
We are proud of the many fundamental contributions of ProfessorWigderson to the mathematical foundations of computing and information systems, and we are very glad to see him receive this highly deserved recognition, saidSharad Malik, chair of electrical and computer engineering and the George Van Ness Lothrop Professor in Engineering.
Wigderson came to Princeton after completing his B.Sc. in computer science in 1980 at Technion, the Israeli Institute of Technology. After leaving the University, he joined the faculty of Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where he taught until coming back to New Jersey to join the Institute for Advanced Studyin 1999.
The Abel Prize Award ceremony will take place at a future date when His Majesty King Harald V of Norway can safely present the Abel Prize to the laureates.
Wigderson is the ninth Abel Prize recipient linked to Princeton.The 2020 prize was awarded to Hillel Furstenberg, a 1958 Ph.D. alumnus. The2019 prize went to Karen Uhlenbeck, a recipient of a 2012 honorary degree who was then a visiting senior research scholar in mathematics at Princeton;Robert Langlands received the 2018 prizefor a theory he developed while an associate professor at Princeton; the2016 prize went to Andrew Wiles, the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor ofMathematics, Emeritus; late University mathematicianJohn Nash shared the 2015 prizewith Louis Nirenberg of New York University; the2014 prize went to mathematics Professor Yakov Sinai;the2011 prize went to John Milnorof the Class of 1951, who received his Ph.D. in mathematics from Princeton in 1954 and taught in the department until 1970; andJohn Tate, a 1950 Ph.D. alumnus, won the 2010 prize.
Editor's note: When Wigderson was a graduate student,the current Department of Electrical and Computer EngineeringandDepartment of Computer Science were a single Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
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Ph.D. alumnus Wigderson receives Abel Prize Read more - Princeton University
New STEM-based program: Earth and Environmental Sciences | Featured News – Denison University
A knowledgeable understanding of the Earth is an essential component of global citizenship. Denison Universitys new major, Earth and Environmental Sciences (EESC), explores the Earth through the natural sciences, including earth science, physics, chemistry, and biology, as well as computer science and data analytics.
EESC majors will pursue STEM-based inquiry into the nature and history of the Earth, the processes that shape the Earth, and the impacts those processes have on humans, other organisms, and the environment.
The Earth and Environmental Sciences program will be open to students beginning the fall of 2021. Current geoscience majors may easily transition to an EESC degree with the guidance of their faculty advisors if they so choose.
Earth and Environmental Sciences provides students the means to address critical environmental issues, including global climate change, water shortages, and the loss of arable land, while increasing opportunities for humans to live sustainably and equitably on the Earth, says Associate Professor David Goodwin, chair of the program.
Graduates with a STEM degree have an abundance of opportunities to work in almost any relevant field, and careers in the environmental industry in particular are growing. EESC graduates may choose to help develop clean, green, renewable energy that will support movement away from fossil fuels. They might choose research in areas such as atmospheric gas levels and effects on global temperatures, or to study how the changing climate impacts plant and animal life.
The EESC program offers four degree possibilities: a minor in Earth Science, a Bachelor of Arts in Earth Science, a Bachelor of Science in Earth Science, and a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science.
Nonmajors benefit from learning methods of scientific inquiry and developing a broad and deep knowledge of the Earth and its environment that will serve their needs as citizens and future community leaders.
All EESC students have multiple options to pursue research and internships. For example, each fall and spring students can take part in several-day-long field trips in locations including New York, Canada, the Bahamas, and Hawaii.
Spending several days together off-campus, working on a common problem, our students traditionally have developed close bonds with each other and with our faculty, says Goodwin. Looking back, our alumni have recognized how important these field studies were to their own careers, and theyve been very generous in helping to subsidize these life-changing experiences so that all our students can participate.
During the summers, EESC students can conduct paid research with faculty mentors on topics such as carbon budgets of fluvial beaver meadows, and date geologic events using zircon. EESC students also take part in internships in a wide variety of industries, including the National Park Service, and environmental firms. And all majors will complete a senior seminar researching an environmental question under the guidance of a member of the faculty.
The Earth and Environmental Sciences major reflects the heightened level of interest students have today in confronting environmental issues and making a positive impact on our home planet, Goodwin concludes. We are thrilled to provide an avenue for todays students to become tomorrows global citizens.
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New STEM-based program: Earth and Environmental Sciences | Featured News - Denison University
Scientists May Have Discovered How the Ancient Greeks’ ‘First Computer’ Tracked the Cosmos – Smithsonian Magazine
First discovered by divers in a Roman-era shipwreck in 1901, researchers have puzzled over the extraordinary Antikythera mechanism for decades. The hand-held device dates back 2,000 years and predicted astronomical events, such as the movement of the planets and lunar and solar eclipses, for its ancient Greek users. Its stunningly sophisticated design has led many researchers to dub the invention the worlds first analog computer.
Yet how exactly the mechanism might have worked is still up for debateespecially because the ancient device has only survived in 82 discombobulated, partially disintegrated fragments. Last week, a team of researchers from the University College London (UCL) proposed a major step forward: a theoretical model for how the front part of the mechanism, which displayed the ancient Greek order of the universe, might have worked.
Writing in the journal Scientific Reports, lead researcher Tony Freeth and his team set forth a solution to the complex 3-D puzzle of the mechanisms design, drawing on combining cycles from Babylonian astronomy, mathematics from Platos Academy and ancient Greek astronomical theories to propose a plausible scheme for the front of the mechanism.
Ours is the first model that conforms to all the physical evidence and matches the descriptions in the scientific inscriptions engraved on the Mechanism itself, Freeth says in a UCL statement. The Sun, Moon and planets are displayed in an impressive tour de force of ancient Greek brilliance.
The device, discovered off the coast of the Greek island of Antikythera, was once composed of more than 30 interlocking bronze gears that predicted the phases of the moon, eclipses, the dates of the Olympics and the movement of planets and stars. The design reflected an ancient Greek understanding of the universe, with the Earth at its center, Becky Ferreira reports for Vice.
As Jo Marchant reported for Smithsonian magazine in 2015, the mechanism was similar in size to a mantel clock and was once housed in a wooden case. Its circular, clock-like face boasted rotating, bejeweled hands that depicted the movement of planetary objects. Users would wind the hands with a knob or handle on its side.
As Ian Sample reports for the Guardian, researchers suspect that the device numbered among the items on a merchant ship that was sunk in a storm in the first century B.C., en route to Rome from Asia Minor. Other scientists, such as the London Science Museums Michael Wright, have attempted to create models of the Antikythera mechanism in the past, per the Guardian, but its derelict state has made the process a difficult one.
UCL researchers relied on key previous studies to create their model. A 2006 study, also led by Freeth, had discovered never-seen-before inscriptions on the models surface that amounted to a users guide to the mechanism, per Vice.
Another 2016 study revealed inscriptions on the devices front cover that reference 462 years and 442 years, which are the ancient Greek calculations for the synodic periods of Venus and Saturn, respectively. Because the Greeks believed that Earth was at the center of the solar system, they tracked the amount of time that it took for planets to return to the same position in the night sky. To accord with their geocentric theories, ancient astronomers theorized that the planets moved in complicated ways, sometimes enacting a sort of loop-de-loop to end up in the spots that ancient astronomers observed, reports Vice.
However, the researchers dont yet know if their model would have been feasible, given ancient Greek technology at the time of the mechanisms creation. Their proposed arrangement of nestled, hollow tubes would have needed to fit within a space only 25 millimeters deep, reports the Guardian.
The concentric tubes at the core of the planetarium are where my faith in Greek tech falters, and where the model might also falter, study co-author Adam Wojcik, a UCL mechanical engineer, tells the Guardian. A modern manufacturer would use lathes to carve the metal in precise, small shapes, but ancient Greek designers did not have that luxury, he adds.
The team is now working to see if they can faithfully recreate their model in real life, using methods available to ancient Greeks.
Unless it's from outer space, we have to find a way in which the Greeks could have made it, Wojcik tells Vice. That's the next stage and the exciting bit is, I think thats the final piece of the jigsaw.
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Pandemic provided a crash course in science. What lessons have we learned? – The Whittier Daily News
Andrew Noymer, an epidemiologist and demographer studies infectious diseases at UCI Irvine, is shown near his home in Irvine on Wednesday, March 17, 2021. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Its the kind of prediction you might find in a fortune cookie. Pinned to the top of Andrew Noymers Twitter feed, dated Jan. 31, 2020, it says: Duck tape your underpants. 2020 is going to be a wild ride.
It contradicted messaging from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, just days before: Americans should not worry for their own safety. And from the soon-to-be beloved Dr. Anthony Fauci, just days after: COVID-19s danger to the U.S. is just minuscule.
Noymer, an epidemiologist and demographer at UCI Irvine who studies infectious diseases, was already on the edge of his seat. 2019-novel-coronavirus *is* more frightening than SARS +certainly more than MERS b/c spreading more countries more quickly +appears to have an appreciable case fatality rate, Noymer tweeted on Jan. 30, kicking off 240-character brawls with other scientists who insisted flu posed a greater risk.
After a year of global pandemic and its attendant horrors, Noymer and the rest of us can look back at an agonizing, astounding year where science took center stage and delivered a bedazzling, if imperfect, performance. As the world awaits an encore the promise of more scientific breakthroughs for other life-threatening diseases Noymer can savor the three sweetest words in the English language: You were right.
This was a new coronavirus that we had never seen before and the entire population was tabula rasa, a blank slate, he said. Thats a big deal. Everyone on the planet was immunologically nave which is a mouthful, but it means we had no resistance to it. Therefore, it was going to run through the whole population before it was over. And thats whats happening.
The stars of the 2020 science show were, of course, vaccines especially those based on mRNA technology, which essentially turns a persons cells into tiny drug manufacturing plants.
Heretofore, the quickest vaccine ever developed was for the mumps, at a speedy four years. In 2020, advanced technology birthed multiple vaccines in about the time it takes a human baby to gestate. The three with emergency approval from the FDA are 100 percent effective in preventing severe disease and death something nearly inconceivable a short year ago.
I approached the mRNA vaccines, like most things we critique in science, with skepticism, said Philip L. Felgner, director of UC Irvines Vaccine Research and Development Center and Protein Microarray Laboratory and Training Facility. The results provided by the vaccine developers seemed too good to be true, almost complete protection after one injection within 14 days.
UCI Medical Center started vaccinating health care workers on Dec. 16. Felgners lab tracked the presence of antibodies in their blood over time. It was 13% at the start and up to 78% by late January. And by the end of February after 10,000 health care workers had been vaccinated 93% were seropositive, and their antibody levels are even higher than those whove recovered from COVID-19.
This exceeds the 80% herd immunity threshold, Felgner marveled. The pace of our effective response to this pandemic is astonishing and a testament to the preparedness afforded the national and international investment in science.
This achievement is the product of unprecedented global cooperation among scientists who were once fierce competitors, a life-or-death urgency that has researchers sharing early findings online long before the traditional slog through peer-review and journal publication, the pivot of researchers in far-flung fields to coronavirus research, the existence of a sturdy technology just waiting for its moment in the spotlight, and billions of public dollars thrown at the effort in a war footing.
Combined, weve learned these things can vastly accelerate scientific progress.
This has never happened before. People dont fully appreciate how positive it is its under-celebrated, under-recognized, under-reported, said Maja Matari, interim vice president of research at USC, a distinguished professor of computer science, neuroscience and pediatrics and founding director of the USC Robotics and Autonomous Systems Center.
Scientists are literally saving the world. Why isnt everyone celebrating that?
In some ways, our systems of science have worked brilliantly, said Ted Porter, a distinguished professor who specializes in the history of science at UCLA. But not in all ways.
The development and deployment of COVID-19 tests was, at least early on, a scientific, logistical and regulatory flop. Messaging about how to prevent the disease was inconsistent and confusing, partly because not very much was known, partly because it became politicized. The search for effective treatments never quite captured the public imagination or as much of the public purse as did the race for vaccines.
And the worlds first social media pandemic proved a double-edged sword.
The speed at which knowledge could be shared, that was quite an impressive thing, said Richard Carpiano, a public health scientist and medical sociologist at UC Riverside. Preprints would go up and wed see robust debates among the experts who were able to engage with the public on social media to explain things and answer questions. Its amazing how quickly epidemiologist became a household word.
But some scientists sped out of their lanes of expertise, seeking publicity and self-aggrandizement. Junk research grabbed attention and funding, wasting time and money. A basic lack of science literacy became disturbingly apparent as some claimed mRNA changes your DNA (it does not; mRNA simply instructs your cells to manufacture a protein in this case, a copy of the spike protein from the coronavirus so your immune system can recognize and attack the real thing).
When we went into lockdown, the two thoughts that came into my head which now look incredibly nave were that, finally, wed have an appreciation in our nation of the public health system and what it can do, and that maybe this will suck the wind out of the anti-vax movement once and for all, Carpiano said.
The opposite appears to have happened, with vaccine skeptics sowing fear and doubt in a vastly wider audience. The 800-pound gorilla here is the extent to which disinformation and misinformation circulate as fast as they do, Carpiano said.
The pandemic really has brought to the fore how we think about expertise, how we trust institutions and science, he said. It raises questions about how scientists, as a community, can do better in communicating with the public. Its not enough for scientists to have Twitter accounts. We need to think about scientific knowledge, science education, in the 21st century.
Will the stunning success of COVID-19 vaccines reinforce the notion that technology will always save us? Carpiano worries. Our nation needs serious pandemic planning and a more effective and equitable public health system, he said.
Some feel there was unnecessary panic, and we may have suffered self-inflicted wounds.
I was never worried that this virus would be a threat to the vast majority of the population given the initial data, and that the average human immune system is equipped to defeat virtually any new pathogen, said Egest J. Pone, project scientist in UC Irvines Vaccine Research & Development Center.
I find it unfortunate that the COVID-causing virus was renamed SARS-CoV-2 rather than remaining under the original name 2019-nCov the virus does not cause severe acute respiratory syndrome in the vast majority of infected people.
That early data showed that mortality for people younger than 65 was comparable to flu and non-COVID pneumonia, while mortality in older people particularly those over 75 was much higher. That made perfect sense: the vast majority younger people have a strong immune repertoire, but thats greatly diminished at lifes end, Pone said.
Therefore, besides the availability of vaccines, the best response learned from this pandemic is improved infection control measures masks, temperature checks at places with large numbers of frail individuals, including nursing homes and hospitals, he said.
Porter, of UCLA, wonders how history will judge this moment. Is it going to look like a storm in a teapot in another 10 years? he asked. If the next epidemic and there might be one soon is similar enough that we could apply the lessons of this one to it, would we do it? I do not know the answer. Im not confident.
Many feel that progress cant help but continue.
At UC Irvines Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Immunology, director Lbachir BenMohamed is pushing the next frontier a preemptive, pan-coronavirus vaccine designed to squash everything from COVID-19 to the common cold.
At USC, researchers are pulling overnight shifts so work can proceed with proper distancing. Proposals continue to flow in and millions in grants are awarded with the expectation that data be shared. Undoubtedly, the research networks forged both at USC and worldwide during the pandemic will continue and lead to other critical discoveries that can save lives, Matari said.
Theres more funding for vaccine and antibody research, with cancer in its sites. Many immunologists suspect that the most significant cure for cancer and autoimmune diseases will come from antibodies, vaccines or immune cells that turn the tide, shoring up weakened or dysfunctional immune systems, Pone said.
COVID-19 isnt going away. Its likely to become manageable, like the flu so long as the global vaccination picks up speed. Everyone needs to be vaccinated to stop the virus from mutating into more dangerous variants, said Noymer (who knows that its duct tape, not duck tape, but wrote the way people speak). Its a chance for the world to act globally and think locally.
Perhaps the biggest lesson of this pandemic year is that science isnt a monolith or an ossified set of facts. Its not something that you believe in, the way you believe in God. Its a method, Noymer said. A method by which we test hypotheses.
And its vital, Matari said. We need a citizenry that understands the role of science and appreciates it in the context of their own lives, their own futures, their own ability to survive what nature throws at us. If we dont take the lessons of the pandemic and act on them, itll be worse next time and there will be a next time.
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Pandemic provided a crash course in science. What lessons have we learned? - The Whittier Daily News
Critical Conversations Panel Dissects the Impact of Social Media – WPI News
Everyone has an opinion about social media, whether its about its merits, headaches, or even potentially dangerous consequences. The complexities of social media was the subject of the latest Critical Conversations series at WPI titled Social Media: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.
The conversation, held virtually via Zoom on Tuesday, March 9, and moderated by Jean King, Peterson Family Dean of the School of Arts & Sciences, included a multi-disciplinary panel of faculty and staff: Nima Kordzadeh, assistant professor, Foisie Business School; Carol Stimmel, adjunct instructor, Global School; Kyumin Lee, associate professor, Computer Science & Data Science; Adrienne Hall-Phillips, associate professor, Foisie Business School; and Lori Ostapowicz-Critz, associate director, Academic Strategy Library.
King noted that the idea of each conversation is to shed light on a topic for students, faculty, and staff to go deeper once the panel ends. This is really an umbrella approach, she said.
Impact of social media on society
In this latest conversation, panelists sought to answer the question What impact does social media have on people and our larger society? and spoke about topics such as fake news, deception, and social medias influence on global communities and on consumer and personal behavior.
Stimmel kicked off the panel, saying that answering the question what is social media? does not go far enough, failing to capture the transformative nature of social media. While many people think about social media as a tool to create and share content, it can go so far as having a revolutionary impact on the world, noting the Arab Spring protests that resulted in several regime changes in the Middle East in the early 2010s, in which social media played a central organizing role. At the same time, social media companies are gathering personal data, and propaganda and hate speech flow through these same channels, she pointed out. Stimmel posited another question: How does social media define us? As individuals and communities?
From his expertise in computer science, Lee presented several countermeasures for handling misinformation shared on social media, including building a model that can automatically detect the probability of a post containing information that is valid or fake, as well as ways to support fact-checkers and users who may be too busy to check if information in a post is valid.
Theres no doubt that misinformationor fake newshas exploded across the social media platforms with serious implications, Ostapowicz-Critz said. Unfortunately, people often do not have sufficient skills or the tools to navigate the volumes and volumes of misinformation theyre going to encounter. She spoke about what resources the WPI library offers students and how library staff strive to empower students by giving them fundamental skills and training needed to combat misinformation shared on social media. Students, she said, need to be able to assess the authority and expertise of sources and to be savvy information seekers and lifelong learners.
Social media and health care
Kordzadeh talked about the intersection of social media and health care, specifically, how misinformation surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic has spread on social media, including inaccurate advice about the disease, its prevention, and vaccinations. He cited one study that indicated false information is 70 percent more likely to be retweeted than the truth. Humans are acting as misinformation engines, which is a problem, he said.
Looking at how artificial intelligence and machine learning can help detect misinformation raises some philosophical and ethical questions, such as who should decide what information is true or false, and what types of speech should be allowed on social media. Answering a question from King, he noted that as humans we are always looking for information that confirms our beliefs. At the end of the day, he said, social media users should be mindful and think twice before sharing news online.
Being mindful of information sharing
Its our responsibility to make sure were using social media in the right way, Hall-Phillips said, challenging us to think about how we use social media each day, and whether were using it for good or bad. We owe it to ourselves to be a little bit more mindful about what type of information we are sharing, she said, noting that something we share or retweet could be harmful to some population or could contain misinformation.
A positive of social media, she said, is that it can be a place for people to find and build community and a place to source solutions to a particular problem.
Winston Soboyejo, senior vice president and provost at WPI, shared his thoughts at the end of the conversation, saying that social media is an area rich with possibilities. He added that its been a pleasure to be a fly on the wall and listen to the conversations we had and to be part of the critical conversations that are going on at WPI in areas that really require deep thought.
The next Critical Conversations event will take place April 7 around the subject of student mental health. For more information about the series, visit http://www.wpi.edu/about/critical-conversations.
-Melanie Thibeault
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Critical Conversations Panel Dissects the Impact of Social Media - WPI News
How We Got More Than 10000 Students from 120 Countries to Embrace the Joy of Coding – Scientific American
A year ago, as we contemplated the prospect of weeks or months sheltering in place, we thought up a novel community service project. People were stuck at home. Could we help them use their free time to learn a valuable new skill? Could we teach an online course for thousands centered around real human community? For each of us, computer science is the closest thing in the world to real magic. Even more than studying it, we love to share it. We and a team of colleagues set out to turn Stanfords introductory coding class, CS106A, into a massive virtual community: Code in Place.
Two months later, the results were in: 10,000 students from 120 countries embraced the joy of coding through the course. Students who had never before attempted to code were implementing projects in Python, including tools to model dynamics of the COVID pandemic, analyze DNA, conduct sentiment analysis from Twitter and create a choose-your-own-adventure film. A handful of students kick-started new careers in computer science, and several became professional teachers. A student from Italy called it, the most enjoyable, mentally stimulating and rewarding experience I have ever encountered. Our secret ingredient was the community of 908 section leaders who volunteered their time to give students live weekly, interactive support in small, virtual groups for 40 minutes. Section leaders joined from over 350 cities on six continents, spoke more than 30 different languages, and came from every walk of life. We think this model can change the way we think about teaching and learning at scale.
This year, we plan to replicate and build on the success of Code in Place to give even more students a potentially life-changing experience. In order to scale the course to the public in a way that maintains its magic, we are looking for volunteer mentors to serve as section leaders. This is where you come in. If you know basic Python and are excited to share your knowledge with others, we invite you to join us in our effort to make high-quality computer science education accessible to all. We are accepting applications to section lead until March 25. Teaching obligations will run for five weeks, from April 19 until May 21. Your time commitment will be around five hours per week. And dont worry, you dont have to do any grading. Many more details and FAQs are at this link. Most importantly, each new volunteer means 10 more students from around the world learn to love coding.
We predict that the number of people in the world eager to teach is proportional to the number of people eager to learn. That is a powerful concept; it means that if we can create platforms that connect teachers with students, training and community, we can provide high-quality, human-personalized education almost without limitation.
We asked our volunteer section leaders from last year why they joined us and what they got from the experience. Here are a few themes that stuck with us:
The pandemic has shown us the virtues and limitations of virtual education. We are all asking what we will carry forward from our pandemic lives into the post-pandemic world. For us, an indelible memory of this year was seeing a community of thousands form out of nowhere around a shared love of coding. We believe that sort of community is something worth carrying forward beyond the end of our socially distanced lives, and we invite you to join us.
If you are passionate about teaching, programming, or both, and if you have an internet connection stable enough for a video call, you can apply to teach at this link by Friday, March 25 anywhere on Earth. Check out the announcement to learn more. If you have any questions please email codeinplacestaff@gmail.com or DM us on Twitter: @sectionleadcs.
This is an opinion and analysis article.
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