Category Archives: Computer Science
Stieha’s legacy visible across campus after 12 years at Boise State – Boise State University
For the last 12 years, Associate Professor of Organizational Performance and Workplace Learning (OPWL) Vicki Stiehas experience in researching and designing teaching practices has increased student persistence, and degree attainment and facilitated successful transitions into the workforce.
Stieha first joined Boise State in 2011 as the Director of the Foundation Studies Program, providing leadership to build an outcomes-based program, which included the hiring, training and evaluation of 20 full-time faculty and 60 part-time adjunct faculty, while also developing anaward-winning learning outcomes assessment along the way. She next worked as a faculty associate for assessment in Institutional Effectiveness and has been with the Department of Organizational Performance and Workplace Learning since 2017.
In my 12 years at Boise State I have had the opportunity to lead, research, teach, and learn with so many students and colleagues across the university, Stieha said. Im grateful to the College of Engineering and to Organizational Performance and Workplace Learning for being my home for the last six years of my tenure in academia. What an exciting ride it has been.
Stieha worked with Noah Salzman of electrical and computer engineering, and Amy Moll of materials science and engineering, to help create the Engineering PLUS program. Her work with this program was featured in the Magazine of the Society of Women Engineers. Boise State was thefirst university to adopt the program, initially designed by the University of Colorado-Boulder, and incorporate it into College of Engineering degree and education programs. She has presented research at numerous national and international conferences and was recently a co-principal investigator with College of Engineering Dean JoAnn S. Lighty on a National Science Foundation grant to advance the recruitment, education and retention of engineering and computer science students in Idaho.
Stieha has co-authored research and projects with students through the Action Research Lab, which she founded in 2019, to support students and others who want to build research experience and expertise in a supportive community. The labs effectiveness has been evident in the achievements of numerous students who have worked alongside Stieha as their faculty advisor. Over the last five years, students were awarded Graduate Student Showcase awards for their research and presentations, including a Deans Graduate Fellowship awarded by the Graduate College to May 2023 graduate Jazlyn Olmedo.
In another testament to her value as an educator, Stieha received a 2023 Boise State Golden Apple Award. The awards are presented to faculty members for exemplifying the seven shared values: academic excellence, caring, citizenship, fairness, respect, responsibility and trustworthiness.
Dr. Stieha has been not only an excellent educator and researcher, but also a positive role model and mentor for students and colleagues, Organizational Performance and Workplace Learning Chair and Professor Yonnie Chyung said. She is the most loved professor. Students talk inside and outside their classroom about how helpful and influential her classes have been for their education and professional development.
Her work has helped to reimagined the classroom, the strategies of learner engagement and how to ensure learning outcomes are aligned with the knowledge and skills desired in the workplace. The difference Stieha brought has been an important factor in students across campus successfully accomplishing their goals.
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Stieha's legacy visible across campus after 12 years at Boise State - Boise State University
Cal Places 83 On Pac-12 Winter Academic Honor Roll – California … – Cal Athletics
News5/2/2023 10:38 PM | By: Cal Athletics
Women's Swimming & Diving Leads Way With 20 Selections
The Bears' women's swimming & diving team led the way with 20 selections, followed by Cal's women's track & field squad with 15. The Bears' men's track & field team and men's swimming & diving team were also in double-digits.
Any student-athlete on his or her respective team roster with a cumulative grade-point average of 3.3 or above, and who has served at least one year in residence at the institution, is eligible for the recognition.
Below is a complete list of the 83 Cal student-athletes that earned a spot on the 2023 Pac-12 Winter Academic Honor Roll.WOMEN'S BASKETBALL (5)Jayda Curry - UndeclaredAlma Elsnitz - Political EconomySela Heide - Media StudiesMia Mastrov - Media StudiesLeilani McIntosh - Legal StudiesMEN'S GYMNASTICS (10)Collin Cunane - Molecular & Cell BiologyAidan Giusti - Legal StudiesWill Lavanakul - Electrical Engineering & Computer ScienceYu-Chen Lee - Integrative BiologyNoah Newfeld - Electrical Engineering & Computer ScienceNoah Sano - Computer ScienceChristopher Scales - Media StudiesTyler Shimizu - Electrical Engineering & Computer ScienceJasper Smith-Gordon - UndeclaredJelani Sweet - UndeclaredWOMEN'S GYMNASTICS (10)Elise Byun - Media StudiesNevaeh DeSouza - Social WelfareBlake Gozashti- Media StudiesMaya Green - Business AdministrationJordan Kane - UndeclaredMya Lauzon - UndeclaredAndi Li - Integrative BiologyGabrielle Perea - Molecular & Cell BiologyNatalie Sadighi - Media StudiesMaddie Williams - UndeclaredMEN'S INDOOR TRACK & FIELD (13)Gabriel Abbes - Business AdministrationEthan Bersley - Chemical Engineering/Material Science & EngineeringCarrick Denker - Business AdministrationJeff Duensing - Legal StudiesMichael Gupta - Computer ScienceMason Mangum - Concurrent EnrollmentIvar Moisander - Data ScienceGeorge Monroe - EconomicsJake Porter - Legal StudiesAllen Seo - Nutritional ScienceWill Sornberger - MathematicsSamir Thota - UndeclaredArjun Vadgama - UndeclaredWOMEN'S INDOOR TRACK & FIELD (15)Asjah Atkinson - UndeclaredLauren Calcagno - Nutritional ScienceSeanne Chan - Applied MathematicsChloe Decker - Social WelfareAdriana Ellard - UndeclaredAsha Fletcher - Cognitive ScienceRyan Lacefield - Theater & Performance StudiesToby Lai - Computer ScienceDestiny Okoh - UndeclaredSara Pettinger - UndeclaredKalinda Reynolds - Spanish and PortugueseRebecca Tomann - Chemistry (PhD)Amari Turner - Environmental Economics & PolicyNatalie Weiner - Business AdministrationClaire Yerby - Molecular & Cell BiologyMEN'S SWIMMING & DIVING (11)Kai Crews - Environmental SciencesForrest Frazier - UndeclaredRobin Hanson - UndeclaredDylan Hawk - Electrical Engineering & Computer ScienceMatthew Jensen - Data ScienceTyler Kopp - Business AdministrationPreston Niayesh - Electrical Engineering & Computer ScienceEvan Petty - mechanical EngineeringZiyad Saleem - UndeclaredBjorn Seeliger - EconomicsTavis Siebert - Applied MathematicsWOMEN'S SWIMMING & DIVING (20)Stephanie Akakabota - Mechanical EngineeringReed Broaders - UndeclaredLizzy Cook - UndeclaredEmma Davidson - Interdisciplinary StudiesJessica Davis - UndeclaredSarah Dimeco - Media StudiesFanni Fabian - UndeclaredAshlyn Fiorilli - Legal StudiesEmily Gantriis - EconomicsMelanie Julia - Molecular & Cell BiologyDanielle Killleen - Data ScienceMia Kragh - UndeclaredElla Mazurek - Environmental Economics & PolicyAnnika McEnroe - BioengineeringMia Motekaitis - Environmental Economics & PolicyLeah Polonsky - UndeclaredEloise Riley - Global StudiesIsabella Riley - Public HealthIsabelle Stadden - UndeclaredMcKenna Stone - Undeclared
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Cal Places 83 On Pac-12 Winter Academic Honor Roll - California ... - Cal Athletics
Faculty members honored with 2023 Campus Awards for Excellence … – University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign presents Campus Awards for Excellence in Faculty Leadership each year to distinguished faculty who enrich the intellectual vitality of campus and the broader community.
The awards were presented in three categories faculty mentoring, distinguished executive officer and outstanding faculty leadership to four faculty members during a ceremony on campus this week.
The awards and recipients, with descriptions from their nominations, are:
Tandy Warnow
Photo by L. Brian Stauffer
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Tandy Warnow, professor and associate head of computer science and Grainger Distinguished Chair in Engineering, received the Excellence in Faculty Mentoring Award. This award recognizes a faculty member who has demonstrated an outstanding commitment to faculty mentoring by actively assisting pre-tenure and mid-career faculty in developing their career.
Warnows work with faculty to develop the skills needed to manage their diverse responsibilities, including research, grant writing, teaching and student supervision. She pursues mentorship through both systemic and informal means, formally mentoring five computer sciences faculty. She regularly meets with these colleagues to review dossiers, edit proposals and advise on topics such as advising graduate students and teaching. In addition to secondary appointments in multiple departments, including bioengineering and electrical and computer engineering, she brings the same level of commitment and passion to projects such as the CS Future Faculty Fellows program (postdoctoral researchers), chairing the 2020 Grainger College of Engineering Anti- Racism Task Force and formal and informal individual mentorship.
Mariselle Melndez, professor of Spanish and Portuguese and interim director of the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, and Yoon Pak, professor and head of educational policy organization, and leadership, received Executive Officer Distinguished Leadership Awards. The award recognizes outstanding academic leadership and vision by an executive officer within a college or campus unit who has led diverse groups through strategic improvements within their unit or campus.
Mariselle Melndez
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Melndez believes an active commitment to collaborative decision-making and the ability to listen and learn from others are key constituents of effective leadership. She promotes excellence and diversity in her unit and raises the visibility of the work being done in the unit by people at all ranks. She embodies the spirit of when one of us succeeds we all succeed, and uses individual successes to improve the collective. Melndez has also excelled in conveying the central role of the humanities to global and community stakeholders. As a 2019-20 University of Illinois Presidents Executive Leadership Program Fellow, she completed national-level training to prepare herself for critical leadership roles at the university. As a mentor and colleague, she shares the insights she has learned from these experiences with faculty members and graduate students. The resulting conversations have reshaped the possibilities for mentorship in the department and improved representation at high levels within academia.
Yoon Pak
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Paks leadership is guided by the principle of equity as excellence, and she serves to facilitate, collaborate, and innovate for structural inclusion. As a stalwart advocate of faculty success and growth, Pak encourages and incentivizes innovation and leadership, particularly among newer (including junior) faculty. She navigates challenges and opportunities in a manner that exudes administrative savvy, confidence and care for EPOL students, staff and faculty. She genuinely cares about and listens to different perspectives. Over the years, she has also been intentional about bringing students to the table in matters related to the college and department.
William Gropp
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William Gropp, director of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications and the Thomas M. Siebel Chair in Computer Science, received the Outstanding Faculty Leadership Award. This award recognizes a faculty member who has provided extraordinary leadership contributions across many dimensions of shared governance that advance the excellence of a unit, a college and/or the campus, and who exemplifies the campus commitment to collaborative decision-making. This award is the highest accolade honoring a faculty member whose professional service has advanced progress toward the Illinois mission.
During his time as acting, interim and, now, director of NSCA, he has guided the department through the conclusion of three major, long-term projects: Blue Waters, XSEDE, and LSST data management. In the face of these transitions, Gropp masterfully orchestrated an effort to diversify the NCSA funding portfolio. He helped build the centers strong expertise and developed partnerships across campus, helping deploy such projects as the Delta supercomputer, Advanced Cyberinfrastructure Coordination Ecosystem, Services and Support (ACCESS) and the Center for Astrophysical Surveys. He continually expands NCSAs expertise and services into all areas of data science. He is also deeply invested in the success of the computer science department, where he has chaired and re-invigorated the advisory committee to make it an effective part of the shared governance in the department.
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An online adaptive model for streaming anomaly detection based on … – EurekAlert
image:Fig.1 The processing flow of ISPForest view more
Credit: Higher Education Press LImited Company
Anomaly detectors are used to distinguish differences between normal and abnormal data, which are usually implemented by evaluating and ranking the anomaly scores of each instance. A static unsupervised streaming anomaly detector is difficult to dynamically adjust anomaly score calculation.
To solve the problem, a research team led by Prof. Zhiwen Yu published their new research on 15 April 2023 in Frontiers of Computer Science co-published by Higher Education Press and Springer Nature.
The team proposed a human-machine interactive streaming anomaly detection method, named ISPForest, which can be adaptively updated online under the guidance of human feedback. In particular, the feedback will be used to adjust the anomaly score calculation and structure of the detector, ideally attaining more accurate anomaly scores in the future.
The experimental results demonstrated that the utility of incorporating feedback can improve the performance of anomaly detectors with a few human efforts.
In the research, they analyze the anomaly detection principle of the space partitioning forest model. To improve the original anomaly detector, they add the human feedback mechanism for the detection result during the streaming anomaly detection process. Firstly, in the light of the relationship between forest structure and anomaly score calculation, they construct regional likelihood function and instance likelihood function, respectively, to depict the consistency of the detection results and the human feedback. Then, the parameters and structures of the original anomaly detector are adjusted timely according to the gradient decrease process following the principle of maximum likelihood estimation. Finally, an uncertainty function of the detection results is designed to control the frequency of human-machine interaction.
Experimental results on the effects of feedback reveal that combining anomaly detectors with human feedback is meaningful for adapting to a dynamic environment, and the performance of the detector is improved promptly with a small increase in labor costs. Future work can consider the extension of the method and explore the time-series anomaly detection under the feedback mechanism.
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Research Article, Published: 15April 2023
Qingyang LI, Zhiwen YU, Huang XU, Bin GUO. Human-machine interactive streaming anomaly detection by online self-adaptive forest. Front. Comput. Sci., 2023, 17(2): 172317, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11704-022-1270-y
About Frontiers of Computer Science (FCS)
FCS was launched in 2007. It is published bimonthly both online and in print by HEP and Springer. Prof. Zhi-Hua Zhou from Nanjing University serves as the Editor-in-Chief. It aims to provide a forum for the publication of peer-reviewed papers to promote rapid communication and exchange between computer scientists. FCS covers all major branches of computer science, including: architecture, software, artificial intelligence, theoretical computer science, networks and communication, information systems, multimedia and graphics, information security, interdisciplinary, etc. The readers may be interested in the special columns "Perspective" and "Excellent Young Scholars Forum".
FCS is indexed by SCI(E), EI, DBLP, Scopus, etc. The latest IF is 2.669. FCS solicits the following article types: Review, Research Article, Letter.
Frontiers of Computer Science
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Human-machine interactive streaming anomaly detection by online self-adaptive forest
15-Apr-2023
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An online adaptive model for streaming anomaly detection based on ... - EurekAlert
Scientists warn of AI dangers but don’t agree on solutions – ABC News
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Computer scientists who helped build the foundations of todays artificial intelligence technology are warning of its dangers, but that doesnt mean they agree on what those dangers are or how to prevent them.
Humanity's survival is threatened when "smart things can outsmart us, so-called Godfather of AI Geoffrey Hinton said at a conference Wednesday at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
It may keep us around for a while to keep the power stations running, Hinton said. But after that, maybe not.
After retiring from Google so he could speak more freely, the 75-year-old Hinton said he's recently changed his views about the reasoning capabilities of the computer systems he's spent a lifetime researching.
These things will have learned from us, by reading all the novels that ever were and everything Machiavelli ever wrote, how to manipulate people, Hinton said, addressing the crowd attending MIT Technology Review's EmTech Digital conference from his home via video. Even if they cant directly pull levers, they can certainly get us to pull levers.
I wish I had a nice simple solution I could push, but I dont, he added. Im not sure there is a solution.
Fellow AI pioneer Yoshua Bengio, co-winner with Hinton of the top computer science prize, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he's pretty much aligned with Hinton's concerns brought on by chatbots such as ChatGPT and related technology, but worries that to simply say We're doomed is not going to help.
The main difference, I would say, is hes kind of a pessimistic person, and Im more on the optimistic side, said Bengio, a professor at the University of Montreal. I do think that the dangers the short-term ones, the long-term ones are very serious and need to be taken seriously by not just a few researchers but governments and the population.
There are plenty of signs that governments are listening. The White House has called in the CEOs of Google, Microsoft and ChatGPT-maker OpenAI to meet Thursday with Vice President Kamala Harris in what's being described by officials as a frank discussion on how to mitigate both the near-term and long-term risks of their technology. European lawmakers are also accelerating negotiations to pass sweeping new AI rules.
But all the talk of the most dire future dangers has some worried that hype around superhuman machines which don't exist is distracting from attempts to set practical safeguards on current AI products that are largely unregulated and have been shown to cause real-world harms.
Margaret Mitchell, a former leader on Googles AI ethics team, said shes upset that Hinton didnt speak out during his decade in a position of power at Google, especially after the 2020 ouster of prominent Black scientist Timnit Gebru, who had studied the harms of large language models before they were widely commercialized into products such as ChatGPT and Googles Bard.
Its a privilege that he gets to jump from the realities of the propagation of discrimination now, the propagation of hate language, the toxicity and nonconsensual pornography of women, all of these issues that are actively harming people who are marginalized in tech, said Mitchell, who was also forced out of Google in the aftermath of Gebru's departure. Hes skipping over all of those things to worry about something farther off.
Bengio, Hinton and a third researcher, Yann LeCun, who works at Facebook parent Meta, were all awarded the Turing Prize in 2019 for their breakthroughs in the field of artificial neural networks, instrumental to the development of today's AI applications such as ChatGPT.
Bengio, the only one of the three who didn't take a job with a tech giant, has voiced concerns for years about near-term AI risks, including job market destabilization, automated weaponry and the dangers of biased data sets.
But those concerns have grown recently, leading Bengio to join other computer scientists and tech business leaders like Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak in calling for a six-month pause on developing AI systems more powerful than OpenAI's latest model, GPT-4.
Bengio said Wednesday he believes the latest AI language models already pass the Turing test named after British codebreaker and AI pioneer Alan Turing's method introduced in 1950 to measure when AI becomes indistinguishable from a human at least on the surface.
Thats a milestone that can have drastic consequences if were not careful, Bengio said. My main concern is how they can be exploited for nefarious purposes to destabilize democracies, for cyberattacks, disinformation. You can have a conversation with these systems and think that youre interacting with a human. Theyre difficult to spot.
Where researchers are less likely to agree is on how current AI language systems which have many limitations, including a tendency to fabricate information might actually get smarter than humans not just in memorizing huge troves of information, but in showing critical reasoning and other human skills.
Aidan Gomez was one of the co-authors of the pioneering 2017 paper that introduced a so-called transformer technique the T at the end of ChatGPT for improving the performance of machine-learning systems, especially in how they learn from passages of text. Then just a 20-year-old intern at Google, Gomez remembers laying on a couch at the company's California headquarters when his team sent out the paper around 3 a.m. when it was due.
Aidan, this is going to be so huge, he remembers a colleague telling him, of the work that's since helped lead to new systems that can generate humanlike prose and imagery.
Six years later and now CEO of his own AI company called Cohere, which Hinton has invested in, Gomez is enthused about the potential applications of these systems but bothered by fearmongering he says is detached from the reality of their true capabilities and relies on extraordinary leaps of imagination and reasoning."
The notion that these models are somehow gonna get access to our nuclear weapons and launch some sort of extinction-level event is not a productive discourse to have, Gomez said. "Its harmful to those real pragmatic policy efforts that are trying to do something good.
Asked about his investments in Cohere on Wednesday in light of his broader concerns about AI, Hinton said he had no plans to pull his investments because there are still many helpful applications of language models in medicine and elsewhere. He also said he hadn't made any bad decisions in pursuing the research he started in the 1970s.
Until very recently, I thought this existential crisis was a long way off, Hinton said. So I dont really have any regrets about what I did.
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Scientists warn of AI dangers but don't agree on solutions - ABC News
OU recognizes 168 students graduating with perfect grade-point … – The Oklahoma Daily
In OUs graduating class of 2023, 168 students maintained a perfect 4.0 grade-point average throughout their undergraduate education, including 87 Oklahoma residents, according to a press release.
A ceremony was held on Thursday to commemorate their achievement where each student received a bronze medallion on a crimson ribbon to be worn during graduation ceremonies.
Ardmore: Rylee Sudberry, communication sciences and disorders
Bartlesville: Noah B. Barber, mechanical engineering; Erica Hurd, world language education
Blanchard: Ana Spradley, letters
Broken Arrow: Graham R. Chapple, mathematics and biology; Hailey S. Dumont, biology; Erica OBrien, advertising
Chickasha: Jared L. Noblitt, finance
Choctaw: Brooke Haden, community health; Ava D. Moore, interior design
Claremore: Aaron B. Reid, industrial and systems engineering, and letters
Coalgate: Hannah E. Ivey, political science
Del City: KaTani Gouch, journalism
Edmond: Saramarie O. Azzun, planned program; Ishan R. Bhanot, biology; Max J. Bouvette, chemical biosciences; Breashay F. Burke, nursing; Sara K. Jarjoura, biology; Caroline E. Judd, psychology; Alexa May Lalli, professional writing; Nathan D. Leiphart, astrophysics; Amelia K. Melton, management; Emily A. Murphy, criminology; Grayson T. Ramer, biology; Logan M. Scott, mechanical engineering; Christopher T. Sipols, microbiology
Elgin: Allison L. McClung, English
Enid: Nicole Bushman, special education; Alex K. Kim, healthcare business; Colton S. Wamsley, industrial and systems engineering; Briley L. Yunker, biology
Grandfield: Laylee Ramirez, health and exercise science
Kingfisher: Sarah N. Sanders, biology
Lamont: Caroline R. Muegge, communication sciences and disorders
Midwest City: Leilani Armstrong, art; Madison L. Barron, community health
Moore: Reo Hayashizaki, finance; Trinity Mavis, elementary education
Norman: Willow X. Arana, industrial and systems engineering; Emma A. Base, accounting; Elizabeth L. Duncan, biomedical engineering; Kathleen S. Kernal, political science; Lauren A. Mudd, health and exercise science; Andrew R. Murray, computer engineering; Colleen Ozment, early childhood education; Reese Phillips, music; Aaron M. Pierce, computer science; Joshua A. Robinson, entrepreneurship and venture management; Arnold D. Sison, chemical engineering; Kathleen Weinand, social work; Kate F. Wheeler, biology; Alyssa Wiley, international studies
Oklahoma City: Holly Culver, communication sciences and disorders; London Faulkner, political science; Daniel J. Fitzpatrick, mechanical engineering; Joseph S. LaSala, electrical engineering; Vy T. Ngo, biology; Karson P. Potts, film and media studies; Megan C. Szymanski, letters; Mulan Tang, biomedical engineering; Jonathon Tvaryanas, Russian, and international security studies
Owasso: Riley Pirtle, early childhood education
Piedmont: Marinne Morgan, psychology
Sand Springs: Kyler J. Clark, mechanical engineering
Sapulpa: Hannah D. Berry, management; Jace C. Hill, anthropology
Shawnee: Alexander R. Lunsford, computer science
Stillwater: Claire H. Grace, communication
Stilwell: Erika N. Vanderheiden, architectural engineering
Tulsa: Mia Bockelman, criminology, and psychology; Emma Clary, psychology, and biology; Sydni Eagleton, planned program; Amy Gonders, early childhood education; Anna C. LaGere, international business; Bradley C. McNeese, finance; Emma Shealy, creative media production; Nicholas F. Stoia, computer engineering; Nicholas J. Thompson, computer science; Isabella Zaidle, letters
Woodward: Brayden L. Love, political science
Rogers, Arkansas: Kaylee E. Jackson, accounting
Los Angeles, California: Justin M. Marlow, drama
Boulder, Colorado: Julian C. Schima, meteorology
Centennial, Colorado: Ian P. Gray, architectural studies
Colorado Springs, Colorado: John B. Powers, microbiology
Fort Collins, Colorado: Lauren E. Martis, community health
Bolton, Connecticut: Julianne M. Fisher, economics
Jupiter, Florida: Olivia P. Payson, political science, and musical theatre
Atlanta, Georgia: Angelora Castellano, classics, and international studies
Lake Villa, Illinois: Nicholas C. Schneider, electrical engineering
Clear Lake, Iowa: Rowan M. Fread, linguistics, and Spanish
Iowa City, Iowa: Colleen Bloeser, community health
Derby, Kansas: Katrina M. Mason, environmental engineering
Kansas City, Kansas: Cody L. Davis, meteorology
Lawrence, Kansas: Sophia A. Mitra, nursing; Samantha M. Williams, biomedical engineering
Pittsburg, Kansas: Devin M. McAfee, meteorology
Sandwich, Massachuestts: Joseph F. Rotondo, meteorology, and mathematics
Rochester Hills, Michigan: Rohit R. Mital, biology
Minneapolis, Minnesota: Lily E. Vanner, drama
Lees Summit, Missouri: Kinady G. Allen, music education
Omaha, Nebraska: Emma K. Safranek, meteorology
North Las Vegas, Nevada: Hannah L. Bermudez, accounting
Mars, Pennsylvania: Dylan N. Becker, biology
West Grove, Pennsylvania: Luke H. Kaucic, mathematics, and finance
Austin, Texas: Kale A. Kitlowski, biology; Tucker W. Wise, finance
Belton, Texas: Marcus C. Ake, meteorology, mathematics, and German; Jack Cornette, computer engineering
Coppell, Texas: Kaitlyn Sork, nursing
Dallas, Texas: Mia Alvarado, human relations; David Asche, journalism; Courtney A. Lambert, marketing; Alexis C. Reardon, marketing; Elise M. Welch, human health and biology
Flower Mound, Texas: Paige N. Stanley, political science; Faith Townsend, public relations; Hannah Walthall, nursing
Fort Worth, Texas: Peyton C. Armstrong, social work; Abigail Averitte, psychology; Kate B. Liao, biology, and economics; Attie E. Marshall, environmental sustainability; Abigail A. Ring, accounting
Frisco, Texas: Kylie N. Prys, nursing
Heath, Texas: Morgan E. Lamberth, economics
Holliday, Texas: Chase N. Borchardt, sports business
Houston, Texas: Rachel P. Hallett, nursing; Susan A. McConn, psychology; Spencer-Kate Webb, marketing
Irving, Texas: Catherine G. Meenan, accounting
Keller, Texas: Delaney McDonald, public relations; Emma G. Shields, chemical engineering
Longview, Texas: Nitin Rangu, psychology
Lubbock, Texas: Julia C. Camp, psychology
McKinney, Texas: Kevin M. Fritz, biomedical engineering; Kirsten N. Hesita, nursing
New Braunfels, Texas: Julia Weatherford, international studies
North Richland Hills, Texas: Micah DArmand de Chateauvieux, biochemistry
Plano, Texas: Amal N. Al-Hafi, marketing; Cooper S. Slay, accounting
Rockwall, Texas: Graeson N. Lynskey, drama
San Antonio, Texas: Sutton Bristol, creative media production
Southlake, Texas: Delaney B. Bell, visual communication, Barrett R. Engler, political science
Sunray, Texas: Kaiden J. Nelson, mechanical engineering
Westlake, Texas: Hannah L. Johnston, marketing
Glen Allen, Virginia: Ethan M. Schaefer, meteorology
Mechanicsville, Virginia: Victor Reynolds, social studies education
Norfolk, Virginia: Imogen Connell, professional writing
Jackson, Wyoming: Kathlyn Dannewald, environmental studies, and political science
Yerevan, Armenia: Kristina Aleksanyan, international studies
Toronto, Canada: David Sandro, supply chain management
Guam: Brittany N. Treaster, psychology
New Delhi, India: Joy Nath, linguistics, and economics
Turin, Italy: Abdessattar Karim, management information systems
Nepal: Angat N. Yogi, management information systems
Oman: Mohammed Ali Aamir Al Hinaai, architectural engineering
Piestany, Slovakia: Jakub Kostka, international security studies
Nikkie Aisha copy edited this story.
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OU recognizes 168 students graduating with perfect grade-point ... - The Oklahoma Daily
A Temple and Comcast partnership addresses digital divide by … – Temple University News
On March 24, a group of young adults from North Philadelphia arrived at Temple Universitys Digital Equity Center to find big surprises waiting for thembrand new laptops that were theirs to take home. The students were all smiles as they unboxed their new computers.
The surprise laptops were provided courtesy of Comcast and the result of its partnership with the Digital Equity Center, a workforce development center for the North Philadelphia community that bridges the digital divide in North Philadelphia.
There are thousands of people in the city without the necessary degrees and experience to secure jobs in technology, so we have partnered with local organizations that offer computer science education programs, said Jonathan Latko, executive director of information technology services at Temple. In doing so, we prepare young people from underserved communities to one day be able to fill the demand in the industry.
Comcast provides open internet access for Temples Digital Equity Center. (Photography by Ryan S. Brandenburg)
The students who received the laptops are from Vaux Big Picture High School and El Centro de Estudiantes. They participate in Powerful Mindz Inc., a nonprofit founded by Tya Barnes, the managing director of programs and impact of STARS Computing Corps, a grant-funded organization headquartered at Temple.
Barnes goal for Powerful Mindz is to provide at-risk minority youth with transformational educational coursework, mindfulness practices and networking resources for sustainable career paths. She said providing laptops for the students gives them more access to software resources and computing technology to use at home.
Powerful Mindz focuses on encouraging students to forge unique paths for themselves in computer science, so it is important for them to have their own personal laptop, Barnes said. Most of our students do not have Wi-Fi access to the internet at home, but Temples Digital Equity Center has made what the students are learning more accessible and applicable.
Underrepresented students have often been excluded from computer science education, said Jamie Payton, chair of the Department of Computer and Information Sciences at Temple and executive director of STARS Computing Corps. So its key for us to provide a program that can transform the way we educate people about computer science. This is an important step in the right direction to provide equitable and inclusive opportunities in computer science education that are designed for students within our communities.
We love what Temple is doing, said Bob Smith, a representative at Comcast. Many Comcast staff were at this event because these students are embracing technology and have taken the initiative to grab hold of their future, and we want to support that.
Students participating in Powerful Mindz are learning about website development; business inventory; and computer languages such as CSS, HTML and jQuery. Barnes said their program also provides mental health resources like mindfulness practices during program activities that allow students to be more present and focus on their social self-awareness.
Im hoping our program engages students to do more community outreach and be aware of their impact, Barnes said. I also hope that they will see how they can benefit from learning computer languages as far as building a strong and stable career for themselves that will also empower them to help their communities.
Amber Miller-Butler, 20, a student at El Centro de Estudiantes, said she developed new career interests and her mental health benefited from participating in Powerful Mindz.
I learned about meditation, mindfulness and coping skills to keep calm. I connected with mentors within its programs and was given great opportunities, she said. I was always interested in architecture, and now I am also learning computer technical skills like coding and electrical and computer engineering.
The surprise laptops were provided courtesy of Comcast and the result of its partnership with Temples Digital Equity Center. (Photography courtesy of Comcast by Sabina Louise Pierce)
Eddie Riviera, 20, another El Centro de Estudiantes student, said his passion is working in the film industry and that having a laptop will allow him to work on projects more efficiently at home.
I learned computing skills that can help me build a website for my film projects, he said. Powerful Mindz is for whatever your passion is. My mentor in the program offered to help me find someone who can guide me in the film industry once I launch my website.
Jamal Moore, 20, a classmate of Miller-Butler and Riviera, said, Many young people in communities may have a lot on their minds and have nobody to speak with. But this program has mentors to speak with, and it opens your eyes to work on yourself.
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A Temple and Comcast partnership addresses digital divide by ... - Temple University News
At Northrop Grumman Day, Students Pitch the Future of Networked – Maryland Today
A violence-detection system took the top prize in yesterdays Northrop Grumman Student Challenge, an Internet of Things (IoT) hackathon.
Developed by information science major William Byrne, computer science students Ethan Huegler and William Meagher and Zoe Poppert, an immersive media design major, the team took home bragging rightsand $2,500for its Guardian smart system. It was one of three finalist teams selected from 11 entries.
The competition was part of Northrop Grumman Day, an all-day event for executives with the aerospace and defense company to connect with University of Maryland leaders, students and faculty. It highlights the universitys close partnership with Northrop Grumman as well as the companys investment in fostering talent and technology to meet industry needs.
Its not every day you have such a leader of the international defense community and leader of such a corporation come to College Park, university President Darryll J. Pines said during CEO Kathy Wardens meet-and-greet with students. Northrop Grumman is one of our most strategic partners across campus.
The Student Challenge was open to Terp undergraduate teams of two to four students from any major, who were challenged to create a proposal and prototype for a novel IoT devicehardware that connects to the Internetusing a provided computer board. An increasing number of consumer electronics, from smart watches to home security systems to medical testing devices, are part of the IoT. With guidance and mentorship from Northrop Grumman engineers, the teams worked over just three weeks to build their system
The Guardian combines a camera with machine learning to alert remote users in real time to perceived violence. Similar home security systems have proven successful, but we found nothing out there thats implementing a model looking for violence in a space like a campus, Poppert said.
As for commercial viability of the system, Meagher called it extreme, noting the global security camera market in 2021 was $31.88 billion.
The second prize and $1,500 award went to SmartSort, created by mechanical engineering and computer science junior Urjo Nahid and mechanical engineering and robotics junior Billy Rust. While automated sorting and storage are already available in industrial settings, the team wanted to offer an option for homes and businesses. The desk-sized prototype was built with a camera to label and detect the item to sort, and a motorized spool and track, mechanical arm and small bins to sort and retrieve items.
The third-place team of computer science majors Andrew Bumgardner, Matt Coley, Asher Weiman and Quinn Carmack (a double major in mathematics) won $1,000. Its device, called Pair, consists of a website and Python programming library that users can install on any system, such as a homes sprinkler system, to push sensor data online.
Before the Student Challenge event in A. James Clark Hall, Pines moderated a question-and-answer session with Warden and students. When asked about plans for growing the workforce, she noted the importance of continuing education and on-the-job training and highlighted the companys mentoring program. I believe strongly that all of us are on a learning journey, forever, she said.
As for students beginning their career journey? Warden stressed the importance of personal relationships and of pushing out of ones comfort zone. Experiment. Take a little risk, she said.
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At Northrop Grumman Day, Students Pitch the Future of Networked - Maryland Today
Connect with slime mold – University of Chicago
Its alive! The Human Computer Integration Labs novel smartwatch is activated by an organism called Physarum polycephalum. (Photo courtesy Jasmine Lu)
Do you have a smartphone in your pocket or a smartwatch on your wrist? For many of us, our devices are constant companionsonly to be ditched when a newer model is released. In 2021 a record 63 million tons of electronic waste were discarded worldwide, of which only 17 percent was recycled. But what if we developed emotional relationships with our devices like we do with our pets, wondered Jasmine Lu. Would we be so quick to abandon them?
Lu is a computer science PhD student in assistant professor Pedro Lopess Human Computer Integration Lab, which focuses on engineering interactive devices that integrate directly with a users body. Lopess research is a more immersive take on human-computer interaction, a field that explores the interfaces between people and technologies.
To probe the potential for a more caring bond with our electronics, Lu designed a smartwatch integrated with a living organism: a slime mold. The device, which tells time and monitors heart rate, works only when the slime mold is healthy. The wearer must care for the device, like a living Tamagotchithe Japanese virtual pets popular in the 90s. Lu didnt set out to reimagine the egg-like toy, but after creating the slime mold watch, she recognized the similarities to her childhood virtual pet. She would feed it in the morning and bring it to school, hooked on her belt loop, she says. I treasured it.
Why a slime mold? Despite the name, its not like other types of mold, explains Lu. Slime molds are now known to be part of the protist kingdoma diverse collection of mostly single-celled organisms distinct from fungi, plants, animals, and bacteria. The species Physarum polycephalum was chosen because it can rapidly grow toward food sources, which is how it is able, curiously, to solve mazes. Nicknamed the blob, the species is also resilient, able to go dormant when starved and to be revived even years later.
The slime mold lives in a transparent enclosure on the watch, and the wearer must give it oats and water on a regular schedule. When properly cared for, the slime mold will grow across a channel to reach oats on the other side of the enclosure, forming a living wire that conducts electricity and activates the device. (Electricity travels through the slime mold, but the current is low enough that the team didnt observe any harm to its body; it continued to thrive, says Lu.)
The two-week study involved five participants and was split into phases: caring and neglect. Throughout the process, the participants kept a diary of the care they provided, the slime molds condition, and their own reflections. They were interviewed after each phase.
For the caring phase, they were asked to wear the watch for as much of the day as possible, watering the slime mold twice a day and feeding it oats every other day. All participants noted a sense of connection with the watch, and four described it as a little friend or pet. One named her slime mold Jeff. (The participants sometimes talked about the slime mold as a separate entity rather than part of the device, something Lu and Lopes hope to change with an updated design.)
One woman was reminded that her device had a life-form inside by its earthy smell and associated the healthy slime molds bright yellow color with happiness. Another linked the watchs needs to her own: whenever she ate, she would check the slime mold. Yet another recounted how she was sick during part of the care phase, and her partner fed her oatmeal. She started calling me her slime, wrote the participant, because we were eating the same stuff.
The participants were then told to withhold water and food. Unsurprisingly, all five mentioned how much easier the second phase was; they felt relieved and disconnected. But each participant also felt sad or guilty while neglecting their slime mold. One woman who had eagerly shown off her living watch felt anxious about having to explain the slime molds neglected state. While the dried-out slime mold was technically dormant, many participants referred to it as dead.
The team collected the watches after the experiment, but in the exit interview, they asked hypothetically, How would you dispose of the watch? Responses included: toss the watch and keep the slime mold; sell it; and give it to a friend. If you really couldnt take care of a pet anymore, said one of the participants, you would try to rehome it.
All participants identified as women, which was not a deliberate experimental design choice. Lu speculates there may have been some self-selectionmany women grew up with toys where caretaking is the central modality that theyre expected to engage with. Tamagotchis were aggressively marketed toward girls, and four of the five participants happened to have direct experience with virtual pets. But it was a small set of people, says Lopes, so you cant generalize too much. In the future, says Lu, it would be interesting to explore this from a gendered perspective.
Of course, slime mold watches will likely never catch on like Tamagotchis, nor was Lu suggesting with this research that biological devices are the practical solution to e-waste. Rather, exploring interactions between people and their living technology might teach engineers how to center a sense of care in their interactive designs. If engineers could make it easier to repair rather than replace devices, for instance, people with less computing or electronics literacy might feel more empowered, says Lumore comfortable learning how devices work and exactly what theyre doing.
Lopes compares repairing your own device to people learning to bake bread during the pandemic. You could buy a mass-produced loaf at the store, but folks are discovering some deeper connection by making their own. You could buy the latest iPhone, but if you repair or upgrade the one you already have, its no longer the sole creation of Apple, says Lopes. In some ways, it becomes partly yours.
Consumer devices are made so that you trash them, instead of engaging with them, Lu told UChicago Computer Science News. So I definitely think there is a design takeaway of focusing on this aspect of caring for devices instead of just consuming them.
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College of Education and Human Sciences awards new Hall of … – Oklahoma State University
Friday, May 5, 2023
Media Contact: Kirsi McDowell | Senior Communications Specialist | 405-744-9347 | kirsi@okstate.edu
The Oklahoma State University College of Education and Human Sciences welcomed a new member to its Hall of Fame and honored two Outstanding Alumni Award recipients during the 2023 Hall of Fame banquet on April 28 in the Nancy Randolph Davis Great Hall on the Stillwater campus.
Amy Mitchell received the colleges most prestigious honor, the Hall of Fame Award given in recognition of outstanding professional and personal achievements that have brought honor and distinction to the college and to the university as well as have made a significant and lasting contribution, consistent with the mission of OSU and the College of Education and Human Sciences.
Mitchell, of Dallas, graduated from Oklahoma State University in 1983 with her bachelors degree in family relations and child development.
Following graduation, she pursued a career as a social worker at a San Angelo, Texas, hospital while she and her husband, Malone, founded Riata Energy.
In 2006, Amy assumed the role of partner and managing member for Riata Corporate Group and is now the director and manager of Longfellow Ranches. Prior to this role, she served as the accountant as well as regulatory and compliance administrator for Riata Energy, managing the real estate acquisitions and investments as well as the corporate records of the Riata entities and was involved in the development of the companies.
In 2008, the Mitchells donated $57 million to Oklahoma State University, becoming the school's second-biggest donor behind T. Boone Pickens.
Amy, along with her husband, was inducted into the OSU Hall of Fame in 2013. Amy has supported many organizations and devoted her time and effort to helping those in need.
Included in the numerous boards and committees that Amy has served on throughout her career is her seat on the board as the former executive director of the Pion Foundation, a nonprofit organization that was established by the Mitchell family in 2006 to support institutions that support children and elderly individuals.
Since 2010, the Pion scholarship program has awarded more than 400 scholarships to graduates of Fort Stockton and Sanderson High Schools in Texas.
While being a successful entrepreneur, giving back and helping others has remained a passion of Amy's. In addition to her philanthropic work, Amy owns and operates Forget Me Not, a gift shop, bakery and catering business in Highland Park, Texas.
The Outstanding Alumni award honors alumni who have demonstrated a distinguished career and continue to make impactful contributions to their profession and beyond. Their quest for excellence is shown through their accomplishments, service to the community and leadership.
Athena Frank of Glencoe, Oklahoma, graduated with her bachelors degree in business information with a specialty in information processing from OSUs College of Business in 1985 and later completed her masters degree in curriculum and instruction with a focus in information and community technology from the OSU College of Education in 1992.
The early part of her career focused on working in the accounting, legal and information processing sectors and after completing her masters degree she began teaching business technology courses at Ripley High School for 12 years.
Her career has led her to become the business information technology instructor for the Central Technology Center in Drumright, Oklahoma, where she provides instructional and career skills and strategies in business, finance and entrepreneurship to high school juniors, seniors and adults from the districts 18 local sending communities.
Over her three decades of service, she has received numerous accolades on the state and national level and has served in leadership positions for various boards of directors. In her role as the local Business Professionals of America chapter advisor, Frank has been honored to receive the Oklahoma BPA Lifetime Achievement Award, Oklahoma BPA Advisor of the Year Award and the 2021 National BPA Advisor of the Year.
Dr. Steven A. Scott of Pittsburg, Kansas has invested nearly 50 years in public education as a teacher, coach, administrator, leader and board member.
Scott graduated from Pittsburg State University in 1973 with a degree in secondary mathematics and began his professional career as a middle school math teacher in Riverton, Kansas, before completing a masters degree in mathematics at Oklahoma State University in 1977.
After time spent teaching upper-level mathematics at Miami High School, he accepted a faculty position in the Department of Computer Science at Northeastern Oklahoma A & M College.
Scott later returned to Kansas as faculty in the PSU College of Education and began working toward a doctorate of education in higher education at OSU, completing this degree in the spring of 1990.
His teaching, as well as his graduate course work, focused on the use of technology in the classroom for teachers at all levels. Scotts career advanced steadily until he was selected by the Kansas Board of Regents to become PSUs ninth president.
Scotts tenure as president provided growth for the university across academics, athletics and facilities. Currently retired, Scott has maintained an active role in community and statewide affairs.
For more information about the colleges Alumni Association, Hall of Fame award or to make nominations, visit education.okstate.edu/alumni.
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College of Education and Human Sciences awards new Hall of ... - Oklahoma State University