DAILY 02.09.12

download DAILY 02.09.12

of 10

Transcript of DAILY 02.09.12

  • 8/3/2019 DAILY 02.09.12

    1/10

    FEATURES/3

    INNOVATION

    INCUBATOR

    Tomorrow

    Mostly Sunny

    62 44

    Today

    Mostly Sunny

    64 46

    SPORTS/6

    IN NEED OF A WINStruggling mens basketball toface UCLA

    Index Features/3 Opinions/4 Sports/6 Classifieds/9 Recycle Me

    A n I n d e p e n d e n t P u b l i c a t i o nwww.stanforddaily.comTHURSDAY Volume 241

    February 9, 2012 Issue 7The Stanford DailyCo-terms strong as

    honors theses decline

    SPEAKERS & EVENTS

    Feingold speaks at CEMEX

    UNIVERSITY

    Thrun starts web-based university

    UNIVERSITY

    Units reflectworkload,admins say

    By NATASHA WEASERDESK EDITOR

    We are playing with fire by thinkingthat this is all over, warned former Sen-ator Russ Feingold in a speech yester-day evening titled, While AmericaSleeps: A Wake-Up Call for the Post-9/11 Era.

    Feingold delivered the speech to anaudience of more than 200 people atCemex Auditorium in the Knight Man-agement Center.

    Larry Diamond, director of the Cen-ter for Democracy, Development, andthe Rule of Law (CDDRL), introducedFeingold as someone who is deeplytroubled by incivility in American poli-tics and has experience that reflectshis distinctive blend of concerns inworld issues.

    Feingold, a Wisconsin senator for 18years, is currently at Stanford as a distin-guished visitor at the Haas Center forPublic Service during winter quarter.Throughout the quarter he will lead aweekly seminars, mentor students, par-ticipate in faculty discussions and give

    two public lectures.Throughout his speech, Feingold re-

    peatedly criticized the lack of attentionpaid to foreign policy in the UnitedStates.

    We are obsessed with the currentelection over who is up and down, hesaid. Precious little is being said aboutour position in the rest of the world.

    According to Feingold, big moneyand corruption dominate the U.S. gov-ernment, which is characterized by divi-siveness and stubbornness on both do-mestic and international issues.

    If we cannot work on both domes-tic and international policy, we wont besafe, he warned. We will continue tostumble as other nations use their re-sources to strategically assert them-selves in the world.

    Feingold advocated a surgical ap-proach to handling international issues,citing a strategy of intervening in Libyaas an example that you do not needboots on the ground or complete inter-vention to complete a goal.

    Despite student gripes, unitsfound to correlate to difficulty

    SUES report proposes capstone projects for seniors

    SERENITY NGUYEN/The Stanford Daily

    UNIVERSITY

    Students flock toCS major, classes

    By JOSEE SMITHCONTRIBUTING WRITER

    Following a near-doubling in 2010, the numberof undergraduates majoring in computer science(CS) continues to rise rapidly, with 429 Stanford un-dergraduates currently declared in a CS major ac-

    cording to an automatically generated list on theStanford CS website.

    This increase follows a trend that has been visi-ble since the late 70s and is composed of numerousups and downs, according to computer science pro-fessor Eric Roberts. Roberts attributed the popular-ity in the 80s and 90s to the idea that no matterwhat a student was majoring in, he or she wouldbenefit from some kind of computer science back-ground, increasing the number of students whotook CS courses.

    Now, students are majoring in CS because theyare excited and engaged, Roberts said. He addedthat about 90 percent of all Stanford undergradu-ates enroll in at least one introductory CS class be-fore they graduate. He continued, These studentsget excited and decide to major in CS.

    Roberts also confirmed that computer science isthe second most popular major at Stanford, afterhuman biology. In an email to The Daily, Vice

    Provost for Undergraduate Education Harry Elamadded psychology, biology, economics, English, his-tory, international relations and political science tothe list of the largest majors by degree conferred in2010-11.

    Overall, the School of Humanities and Scienceshas seen a slight decrease in degrees conferred inthe past twenty years (mostly in humanities and so-cial sciences), with engineering and earth scienceseach up, Elam wrote.

    The Computer Science Department overhauledits curriculum in 2008. Mehran Sahami, an associateprofessor of computer science, explained some ofthese curriculum changes.

    We modified the CS major to allow students tochoose a track . . . in CS after completing a small setof core classes, Sahami said. This structure pro-vides students with much more flexibility in thecourses they can take for their major. We also al-lowed for more interdisciplinary work by allowingcourses from other departments that are relevant toparticular tracks in CS to also count toward themajor.

    Both Roberts and Sahami noticed an increase inundergraduates taking CS courses after the over-haul.

    We wanted to measure the impact of the cur-riculum change, so we started paying very close at-tention to changes in enrollment, Sahami said. Wenoticed the interest in the department and the num-ber of majors increased substantially.

    By MARY HARRISONSTAFF WRITER

    In recent years, the number of undergraduatespursuing co-terminal degrees has remainedsteady; by contrast, the number writing honorstheses has steadily declined.

    In response to this data, the Study of Under-graduate Education at Stanford (SUES) has pro-posed several measures to encourage seniors tocomplete capstone projects before graduation,whether in the form of an honors thesis or anoth-er endeavor.

    Ayodele Thomas, an assistant dean in theSchool of Humanities and Sciences said in anemail to The Daily that the number of students

    pursuing co-terminal degrees has remained sta-ble over the past 10 years.

    The 10 year trend indicates a decline in thenumber of students completing honors in theSchool of Humanities and Sciences, Thomasnoted.

    There is no consensus as to the reason for thedrop in students writing honors theses.

    I think there hasnt been enough study ofwhat factors influence the numbers of students ap-plying for or completing these programs to saywith any confidence what contributes to thetrends, said Vice Provost for Undergraduate Ed-ucation Harry Elam.

    Please see COMPSCI, page 5

    Navy 101

    ALISA ROYER/The Stanford Daily

    Lieutenant Commander Manuel Hernandez of the US Navy, a National Security AffairsFellow at the Hoover Institution, delivered a presentation titled, 'America's Navy is a Glob-al Force for Good' at the Haas Center for Public Service Wednesday afternoon.

    By CATHERINE ZAWSTAFF WRITER

    A somewhat-frequent studentgripe is the seemingly weak correla-tion between number of units andclass difficulty or time expectation.

    However, according to SusanMcConnell, professor of biologyand co-chair of the Study of Under-graduate Education at Stanford(SUES), a surprisingly strong corre-lation exists between the number ofunits a class earns and the time stu-dents spend each week on that class.

    But what exactly is a unit?The bulletin sets out that the av-

    erage amount of time per unit isthree hours; one hour in class andtwo hours outside of class, saidKirsti Copeland, director of residen-tially based advising. Of course, inpractice the amount of time a stu-dent spends on a class varies fromstudent to student, based on a stu-dents preparation and investment,and to a certain extent from class toclass.

    Copeland further explained thatthe instructor of a given course de-termines the number of units for acourse in consultation with others inhis or her department.

    Please see UNITS, page 5

    ALISA ROYER/The Stanford DailyFormer Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold, distinguished visitor at the Haas Cen-ter for Public Service, delivered a lecture Wednesday evening on the importanceof foreign policy in post-911 United States.

    Please see FEINGOLD, page 7 Please see THRUN, page 2

    By MATT BETTONVILLEDESK EDITOR

    Computer science professor SebastianThrun announced the launch last month ofhis new online university, Udacity, inspiredby the massive response to his Stanfordcourse, Introduction to Artificial Intelli-gence, which was open to the public onlinethis past fall. Contrary to widespread re-ports otherwise, Thrun will maintain his po-sition as a research professor in the StanfordComputer Science Department.

    Thrun decided to offer Intro to A.I. on-line last quarter as an experiment, expectinga turnout of around 500. When more than160,000 people enrolled in the course, Thrunadapted the course content to the web for-mat using an interactive platform calledKnow Labs. In a speech last month at theDigital Life Design (DLD) Conference inMunich, Thrun described the experience aslife changing, saying that after teaching onsuch a large and far-reaching scale, hecouldnt return to Stanford classes.

    Please see COTERMS, page 7

  • 8/3/2019 DAILY 02.09.12

    2/10

    By BRENDAN OBYRNEDEPUTY EDITOR

    Ralph Nguyen 12 started theStanford Meme Facebook page at2 a.m. Wednesday. A few hourslater, the page had one hundredlikes. By 5 p.m., 15 hours after itbegan, the page had more than1,000 likes and most Stanford stu-dents Facebook pages were lit-tered with friends reposting and

    liking the images.The memes poke fun at various

    stereotypes and aspects of Stanfordlife, often referencing popular in-side jokes or Stanford-specific phe-nomena. Originally popular prima-rily on Internet message boardssuch as Reddit and 4chan, memeshave increasingly leaked into main-stream social sites, and in recentmonths have become more com-monplace on Facebook.

    While Nguyen has been receiv-ing calls from friends congratulatinghim, he said he is more surprised bycalls from potential investors.

    Its kinda like a fucked-up ver-sion of a start-up, Nguyen said.Kids are showing their parents,parents do the whole investmentthing, and now theyre giving mecalls.

    University meme pages mark asignificant shift to a hyper-localform of this type of comedy andsatire, narrowing the memes audi-

    ence and often playing on issuesmuch more personal or unique.

    This is by no means a Stanford-specific phenomenon many stu-dents at other universities havestarted pages in recent days andweeks. Discussions on Reddit serveas forums for the more sophisticat-ed to complain about people misus-ing memes on Facebook pages.

    The response to the Stanfordmeme page has been overwhelm-ingly positive and enthusiastic.Near the end of Wednesday, dozensof new memes were being postedevery hour with topics ranging

    from head football coach DavidShaw (Has best QB in country:field goal) to University PresidentJohn Hennessy (Raises $4.3 bil-lion: announces 3% tuition hikesame day.) Many of the memessport hundreds of likes and dozensof shares, the type of social engage-ment any corporation would droolover.

    Ive used the Internet for thesetypes of purposes for several yearsnow and worked this summer as aviral consultant, but to take initiativeand have your own stuff blow-up isreally liberating, Nguyen said.

    Several of the memes play off ofpotentially offensive stereotypes,such as an always-disappointedAsian father who has trouble under-standing English (CS106B teachyou C++? Why CS106A no teachyou A++?). While several com-plaints have been voiced on theFacebook page, so far responseshave mostly been complimentary.

    Many of the memes serve as in-teresting and unique insights intoaspects of life at Stanford not al-ways vocalized by students. Onestudent suggested Nguyen make anaccount on the popular micro-blog-ging site Tumblr to gather all thepictures in the same place (whichthey later did), and Nguyen hasbeen contacted about putting allthe pictures on Pinterest, a popularphoto-blogging site.

    Nguyen has reached out to sev-eral of his internet-savvy friends to

    2N Thursday, February 9, 2012 The Stanford Daily

    UNIVERSITY

    New Manzanita dorm in the worksBy TAYLOR GROSSMANCONTRIBUTING WRITER

    Stanford University plans tobegin construction of a new dorm

    in the Manzanita complex, sched-uled to open in 2013, according tothe Study of Undergraduate Edu-cation at Stanford (SUES) report.The report also suggests that theManzanita dorm may have atheme, although discussions areongoing and no final decision hasbeen made.

    The construction of the newdorm in Manzanita represents aconfluence of the need for moreundergraduate living space andthe desire to create residentialspaces conducive to reflective andcreative work, said JonathanBerger, music professor andSUES committee member. Bergerwas the chair of the SUES sub-committee on residential learning.

    According to other committeemembers, residence overcrowd-ing is a serious issue at Stanford.The SUES report addresses thisproblem in its section on the resi-dential life and the state of thecurrent residential facilities.Starting in the 1990s, stuffingbecame a common practice: Sin-gles were renovated into doubles,and many doubles would be ad-

    justed into triples. Open spaces,such as common rooms, were con-verted into dorm rooms as well.

    The SUES report attributesthis problem to the decision toguarantee undergraduates fouryears of housing, which was notalways true of University policy.

    The University has begun tryingto unstuff many residences. Forexample, the construction of theMunger graduate housing com-plex enabled Crothers andCrothers Memorial to be shiftedto undergraduate use. However,the problem remains acute.

    According to the report, thesignificant issue is less the supplyof beds than the loss of sharedspace. In order to improve resi-dential education, SUES has pro-posed the need to create thesecommunal areas in dorms thatenable conversation and activity.

    Dorms provide both roomswith bed space for students butalso common areas for studying,seminars, workgroups, socializ-

    ing, thinking about life, practicingmusic, working on creative proj-ects and so on, said NadeemHussain, associate professor ofphilosophy. Hussain has been ap-pointed chair of the task force onresidential education. This com-mittee was established by HarryElam, vice provost for undergrad-uate education, and DeborahGolder, associate vice provostand dean of Residential Educa-tion, and has been charged withdeveloping a residential educa-

    tion plan for the new ManzanitaDorm.

    The new dorm will havestate-of-the-art spaces of its ownfor such purposes, Hussain said,

    but by providing more bed spaceit will also allow us eventually tofree up common space in otherdorms across campus.

    The SUES report suggests thatthe design of any new undergrad-uate housing focus on creatingresidential learning spaces, an ini-tiative which will begin with theManzanita residence.

    Other dorms are also in need ofadjustment. The SUES report rec-ommends that existing dormsshould be retrofitted to reclaimand expand such spaces, includingmultipurpose common areas, spe-cialized facilities (e.g., rehearsalrooms, dance and digital arts stu-dios), and classrooms with appro-priate technology. Where that is

    not possible, the university shouldcreate neighborhood facilities.Dining areas should likewise bedesigned and administered withthe goals of residential educationin view.

    Depending on how seriouslythe University takes the SUESproposals, dorms around campusmay begin to undergo renova-tions to enact these changes.

    Contact Taylor Grossman at [email protected].

    STUDENT LIFE

    Stanford Memes page goes viral

    In his DLD speech, Thrun de-tailed emails he received from stu-dents all over the world, includingaccounts from people claiming theclass had changed their careers,

    saved their lives or kept them mo-tivated during hard times.There was a guy in the fields

    of Afghanistan under mortar at-tack running for his life everyday, but he spent an hour at nightto do his homework assignmentsand to learn about A.I., Thrunsaid in the DLD speech. Thatsunbelievable.

    Udacity, a rebranding and re-purposing of Know Labs, isThruns attempt to reach an evenlarger audience with his teaching.Currently, the site hosts coursesthat focus on projects a studentcan undertake, starting with CS101: Building a Search Engineand continuing to topics as ad-vanced as driverless vehicle pro-

    gramming.Following the Udacity an-

    nouncement, confusion aroseabout whether Thrun wouldleave Stanford. Thrun resignedhis tenure last spring due to hisdual roles at Stanford andGoogle but remains on staff as aresearch professor, accountablefor 20 percent work time, mostlyto advise graduate students.

    Jennifer Widom, chair of theComputer Science Department,said that Stanford enforces astrict limit of two years of ab-sence in any seven-year periodfor tenured professors. Thrunreached this limit in variousleaves of absence spent as aGoogle Fellow, working on re-

    search projects including his fa-mous autonomous car project.He resigned his tenure in April oflast year to move into the less-in-volved research role and contin-

    ue at Google.In his DLD speech, Thrun de-

    scribed the effects of the onlineA.I. experience saying, Havingdone this, I cant teach at Stan-ford again. Many interpretedthis as a resignation from Stan-ford, but, in fact, the teaching as-pect of Thruns professorship wasalready purely voluntary.

    Nothing he said was false, but

    sometimes its misleading,Widom said. He probably wontteach at Stanford again, but his 20percent research appointmenthas no expectation of teachinganyway.

    Rather, Thrun meant that heintends to redirect his voluntaryteaching efforts toward only thenew online effort.

    I feel like theres a red pilland a blue pill, Thrun said in thespeech, alluding to a scene inThe Matrix. Ive taken the redpill, and Ive seen Wonderland.We can really change the worldwith education.

    Although Stanford has of-fered some courses available on-line for years, the trend toward

    online courses has recentlygrown. In addition to Thrunscourse, the Computer ScienceDepartment offered machine-learning and introduction-to-databases classes through thesame program, and Stanford haspartnered with Apple to includecourses in the companys recentiTunes U revamp.

    The recently published Studyof Undergraduate Education atStanford (SUES) report cited on-line distribution of courses as anarea to address in the near future,as very limited policies currentlyexist on the matter.

    Theres huge stuff happeningwith courses going online and no-body knows what theyre doingyet, Widom said of the reportscall for new policies.

    Contact Matt Bettonville at [email protected].

    THRUNContinued from front page

    Please see MEMES, page 5

    Local jokes become overnightFacebook sensation

  • 8/3/2019 DAILY 02.09.12

    3/10

    The Stanford Daily Thursday, February 9, 2012N 3

    FEATURES

    By LUCAS OSWALD

    M

    ore than 5,014 compa-nies founded in the lastseveral decades havebeen the progeny ofStanford community

    members, according to the Wellspring of

    Innovation Project. While many of thesecompanies fall squarely in the tech in-dustry of Silicon Valley, several Stanfordgraduates have founded organizationsthat tackle social and environmental is-sues elsewhere.

    One of these graduates is Ned TozunB.S.01, MBA07, who found his truecalling by utilizing his entrepreneurialskills to found d.light, which designs af-fordable and durable solar poweredLED lights for people in developingcountries with no or limited access toelectricity.

    As a computer science and earth sys-tems double major, and later a graduateof the Graduate School of Business(GSB), Tozun never saw the need tonarrow down his interests into a singleprofession. Instead he decided to use hisinterdisciplinary education and diverseskill set in design, engineering and busi-ness to create his own start-up.

    After obtaining his undergraduatedegrees, Tozun worked as an engineerfor seven months before dabbling in afew start-up ideas. During the same timeperiod, Tozun and his fianc did volun-teer work with HIV/AIDS patients inAfrica.

    I found doing work that had a socialimpact to be deeply meaningful and ful-filling, Tozun said, explaining that hiswork had a very significant impact onhis view of the world.

    Tozun described how returning toSilicon Valley to work on technologystartups failed to give him the same feel-ing of fulfillment.

    I started to look for a way to blendmy skills in the start-up tech world with

    what I really felt I was called to do, hesaid.

    While Tozun was researching theneeds of the developing world, he methis future co-founder Sam GoldmanMBA07, a former Peace Corps volun-teer.

    Goldman had discovered a need in

    the developing world that could be filledby modern technology. In slums and vil-lages around the world, he noticed, inef-ficient, dangerous and expensivekerosene lamps are the main source oflight. With innovations in LED and solartechnology, Goldman found that bettersolutions existed.

    With experience from a few start-upsand a greater familiarity with issues inthe developing world under their belts,Tozun and Goldman attended the GSBto explore their entrepreneurial ideas.

    Tozun said he chose the GSB for itssocial entrepreneurship focus and for asingle class at the Institute of Design,Design for Extreme Affordability.

    After taking the class, Tozun andGoldman went to Southeast Asia to as-sess the need for affordable technologyin the region.

    The amount of money people werespending on kerosene lighting was in-sane, Tozun said. People really wantedbetter technologies, but they werentwell distributed or available [at] afford-able prices.

    The pair decided to spend their yeardesigning a business strategy to meetthis demand for modern lighting in thedeveloping world. They launched d.lightin 2008.

    Last year, Tozun and Goldman werefeatured on the Impact 30, Forbes first-ever list of 30 top social entrepreneurs.

    What has proved the most challeng-ing for the pair is operating in distantmarkets and catering to customers whohave very particular needs for their

    products. These needs can prove almostimpossible to conceive from behind a

    desk in Silicon Valley.When Tozun and Goldman realized

    that their company would not be able toreach its full potential from the UnitedStates, the pair split. Tozun is basedShenzhen, China, overlooking produc-tion and design, and Goldman is basedin India working on marketing and dis-tribution.

    Tozun emphasized human-centereddesign, effective distribution networksand targeted marketing as key pillars ind.lights operation.

    According to Tozun, marketing wascrucial because customers, especiallythose living below the poverty line inrural areas, were unlikely to be aware ofthe benefits of a solar-powered portablelamp.

    Tozun mentioned that even thosecustomers that had seen solar poweredtechnology before were disenchantedby their unreliability. It was through cus-

    tomer education on the part of d.lightthat the company gained a footing in the

    developing world.d.lights products are distinguished

    by their durability and simplicity.I think our products are the best

    products in the market, Tozun said.But in the end its the distribution andthe marketing side of the business thatwill really give us long-term value.

    Tozun credits his success to the timehe spent at Stanford.

    At Stanford, you have such anamazing diversity of world-class depart-ments, he said. To have people comingtogether from different backgroundsand disciplines, but with a shared senseof wanting to change the world, thatshow the really good stuff ends up gettingstarted.

    Contact Lucas Oswald at [email protected].

    By ARIELLA AXLER

    With projects such as im-plantable drug infu-sions to control chron-ic pain and laser-treat-ed hydrophobic sur-

    faces to reduce ice buildup on aircraftwings, the Innovation Corps (I-Corps)is taking scientific innovation from thelab to the market.

    The federally funded National Sci-ence Foundation (NSF) program madeits debut on the Stanford campus in thefall. I-Corps is the first NSF program thatassists scientists and engineers in creat-ing start-ups by transitioning their ideasand inventions into a viable business.

    I-Corps takes the most promising

    research projects in American univer-sity laboratories and turns them intostart-ups, translating them from re-search with business potential to themarket, said program director ErrolArkilic.

    When the NSF launched I-Corps inJuly 2011, it selected lab projects fromaround the country that it identified asthe best candidates for commercializa-tion and tapped Stanford, as a world-renowned Silicon Valley innovationpowerhouse with expertise in turningresearch into business success, to helplead the program.

    The NSF approached Stanfordmanagement science and engineeringprofessors Steve Blank and John

    Feiber to lead the I-Corps training pro-gram. Collectively, the professors havemore than 70 years of venture capitalexperience. Blank and Feiber co-teachEngineering 245: Technology Entre-preneurship and Lean Startups, a classrecognized by the NSF as one of thebest examples of course instructionand methodology for start-up develop-ment in the nation.

    There has always been a gap be-tween studies in a lab and commercial-ization, Blank said. Stanford is profi-cient at turning research into commer-cialization.

    According to Blank, bridging thegap between science and engineering isincreasingly becoming a commonframework for the commercialization

    of new technologies. The intermediarystep between lab research and com-mercialization has fallen in the domainof the private sector, with minimal gov-ernment interaction in the process ofcompany development.

    Engineering 245 is based on theLean LaunchPad approach to start-upsadvocated by Blank. Lean LaunchPadis a strategy of applying the scientificmethod to entrepreneurial businessdevelopment.

    This lean method involves plot-ting out a canvas for the businessmodel, and then testing the hypothesesin a real-world setting. Similar to a sci-entific experiment, groups then reviewand assess the efficacy of the technique,

    refine the method and repeat theprocess until they find success.

    The only truth is market truth,Arkilic said. The course that ProfessorBlank has constructed is the vanguardof how to teach entrepreneurship andhelp companies reach commercialrecognition.

    Engineering 245 was taught to the I-Corps participants online, but the classis also offered to the Stanford commu-nity in winter quarter. The course fo-cuses on topics such as value proposi-tions and core ideals, which Feiber andBlank emphasize form the fundamen-tal groundwork for successful start-ups.After outlining practical expense mod-els and combining demand, revenue,resource and expense considerations,

    teams can begin building profitablecompanies.The goal wasnt to get funding, it

    was to change the trajectory of theteams development, Blake said. Wewant to get inventions to a state wherethey can commercialize, license or starta company.

    This fall, the first I-Corps programincluded 21 teams from across thecountry. Participants representedschools including the University ofPennsylvania, the University of Ne-braska, UCLA, the University ofSouthern California and the Universityof Connecticut.

    While some start-up incubatorsconcentrate on specific industries, I-

    Corps business prototypes are from awide range of sectors strategically as-sembled by NSF. These sectors includeenvironmental efficiency solutions,economic data collection tools, medicalgadgets and aerospace engineering.

    Through the program, teams gainthe support system to turn test modelsinto tangible products and enterprises.

    The way to increase the successrate of a company is to put a networkaround a particular project, Arkilicsaid. Advisors, mentors and peoplewith scar tissue keep companies frommaking stupid mistakes.

    The course concentrated not on atangible success measurement, butrather sought to foster a new skill set inthe participants.

    We want students to focus on themarketplace and on the customers, noton the science, Feiber said. Studentshave said to us that they now feel profi-cient at doing a set of things they didntappreciate before the course.

    Feiber is enthusiastic about theprogress I-Corps has made thus far,given that 19 teams participating in thefirst I-Corps program have gone for-ward with company development.

    NSF was ecstatic, Feiber said.They think it is one of the best thingsthat has ever happened to the scientificcommunity.

    Contact Ariella Axler at [email protected].

    FROM RESEARCH

    TO RETAIL

    National Science Foundation program trains students to bringideas from lab to market, bridging commercialization gap

    Courtesy of Ned Tozun

    Ned Tozun B.S. 01, MBA 07 founded d.light with fellow alumnus Sam GoldmanMBA 07. Stanford community members have founded more than 5,014 compa-nies over the last several decades, according to the Wellspring of Innovation Project.

    LIGHTINGUPLIVES

    SERENITY NGUYEN/The Stanford Daily

  • 8/3/2019 DAILY 02.09.12

    4/10

    Irecently got an email fromWordPress.com. Howdy, itbegan. After the substantive

    content, I was granted permissionto disregard it: If you dont care,just ignore this email. :) The mes-sage closed with Cheers, Word-Press.com.

    This is what business commu-nication has become in the 21stcentury.

    One could argue that an infor-

    mal tone is natural for such a bloghost. But 10 years ago beforethe word blogentered our vocab-ulary we might have calledWordPress.com a web publishingservice, in which case its businesswould have sounded a lot fancier.It seems the Internet is casual be-cause we have made it that way.

    Internet companies are collo-quial in a way that traditionalbusinesses rarely are. PayPal is acompany that I have trusted for fi-nancial transactions and the stor-age of very personal information.The only brick-and-mortar insti-tution that receives this level oftrust from me is my bank. When Igo to the bank, they call me Mr.Mandell even though I am only

    21. This feels weird because I amnot used to it, but at least I knowthat they respect me. PayPal be-gins its emails to me with HelloJeffrey Mandell, an incongruousmix of the formal (my full name)and the informal (Hello).

    Is PayPal going along with therelaxed culture of the Internet, ordo they simply have no idea howto begin a letter? Youre supposedto start with, Dear So and so.For a more respectful tone, say,Dear Mr./Ms./Dr. So and so,and for a more intimate one, write,Dear Sobut not Hello. Itwould seem somebody at the Pay-Pal headquarters has to knowthese rules.

    Then again, theres Facebook.

    In addition to always greeting youwith Hi, Facebook has the sillyhabit of ending its emails withThanks, even though there isnothing in the content of the mes-sage that indicates what they arethanking you for. The wordthanks does not actually meananything to them; it is just howthey end emails. This stylisticquibble is probably not worthharping on too much, but I dothink that excessive thanking di-lutes the meaning of gratitude andencourages a false and unearnedsense of closeness.

    Its obviously okay to say heyguys or whatever else you wantwhen you are greeting yourfriends by email. My friends say

    things like sup baby dogs andwhat up fellow soldiers. Butwhen businesses are communicat-ing with clients, the style should bea little more restrained. Luckily,the protocol for more formal writ-ing has already been invented. Sowhy doesnt it get used?

    My theory is that Internetcompanies, from PayPal to Face-book to Amazon, feel that theirrelationships with us have gottenclose enough to dispense with for-malities. Collectively, they knowalmost everything about us fromspying on our browsing behavior,purchase history, ad clicks andfriend networks. The communica-tion lines between company andclient are always open, and anemail to a user is just a drop next

    to a steady stream of personal in-formation flowing the other way.From the perspective of thesecompanies, writing Dear Userwould be like writing Dear BigToe; the electrical tendrils thatconnect us have created an inti-macy where a simple hello suf-fices.

    As the Internet becomes evermore central in our culture andour daily lives, we should ask for ahealthy distance from the virtualbusinesses we patronize. I dontwant to be on first name termswith Facebook or any other non-human entity. We appreciate webcompanies, and in some cases welike and even admire them, butthat does not mean that we arefriends.

    Jeff would like to incorporate yourquestions, comments and com-plaints about etiquette at Stanfordinto future columns. He appreciatesyour thoughts, which can be sent [email protected].

    4N Thursday, February 9, 2012 The Stanford Daily

    OPINIONS

    KAIKOURA, N.Z. After address-ing my postcard to Julie, I read thecaption one last time. Mountainlupin is a beautiful, but highly dam-aging, introduced weed, it began,describing the purple flowersforming the foreground of thecards mountain scene.

    When I first found the card, Iddebated its purchase. As an ecolo-

    gist, shouldnt I be sending imagesof native New Zealand species?But Kaikoura is a tiny town withlimited gift shops, each with a limit-ed postcard selection. Plus it wasabeautiful photo, and representativeof what Id seen in New Zealand.

    Honestly, I was impressed thecard even mentioned lupins for-eign nature. Despite how oftennon-native species feature in repre-sentative images of a place, werarely acknowledge that they reallyshouldnt be there.

    Sometimes introduced specieseven become iconic. Hawaiisguava trees are nasty weeds;plumeria comes from CentralAmerica. Although we expect porkat luaus and shade from palm trees,we forget that pigs (introduced by

    native Hawaiians more than 1,000years ago) demolish the native for-est floor and that coconut palmsprobably accompanied the firsthuman settlers.

    Back home, I associate Califor-nia with the smell of eucalyptustrees, and I think iceplant (whichcarpets the coast) is beautiful. I findit hard to accept that these two

    species are among our worstweeds, and that I should revilethem accordingly. Imprints of sightand smell are hard to shake.

    Now, here in New Zealand, anew twist: Some of my favoriteNorth American conifers Dou-glas-fir, Monterey pine and Lodge-pole pine are nasty invaders.Pines in particular are taking offthrough New Zealands grasslandslike wildfire.

    Except that theres hardly anywildfire in New Zealand. Indeed,thats why pines are so successful.When the Maori burned parts ofthe native forests to clear the land,the original trees, having evolved ina nearly fire-free environment,were slow to return. The grasslandsthat replaced them are now iconic:

    Theyve persisted for 500 years ormore, predating European settle-ment and acquiring a novel set ofhuman-introduced plants and self-introduced birds.

    Enter the foreign pines, many ofwhich were planted to stabilize thesteepest slopes in the wake of theEuropeans wave of fire clearing.But once the pines started creeping

    into grasslands, they becamespecies non grata.

    Never mind the human originsof those very grasslands: Theyvebeen ingrained into the Kiwi senseof place, and must therefore be de-fended.

    The practical ecologist in mewonders how much Id be willing topay to clear whole hillsides of pine,as New Zealands Department ofConservation is doing now. If thearea was originally forested, whynot let pines settle there? Pines arefire-followers their seedlingsgrow fast but require high light andall but absent tree cover. So thepine forests will last only for a sin-gle generation. Perhaps, though,theyll form a sheltered stepping-stone back to native forest.

    Fortunately, this decision isntmine to make. Ill happily avoid themess of conflicting practical mat-ters, scientific opinions and culturalidentities. Still, such issues raisequestions for all of us who grew upin a human-modified world thatschanged perceptibly within ourown lifetimes.

    Often, managers marshal crews

    of weed whackers and brigades ofrodent trappers to chase an ideal-ized image of a place thats neitherpractical nor appropriate. Some-times the goal is the most natural-looking system; other times aes-thetics favor charismatic species.Recently, weve begun managingfor functional ecosystems, whichcycle nutrients or photosynthesizeor interconnect in ostensiblyideal ways.

    There seems to be a commontheme, though, and thats the de-sire to reproduce some fixed visionof how things should be. We wantto restore places to match a glori-fied memory, and hold them un-changed indefinitely. What couldbe more human than wishing tohold the places dearest to ourhearts constant?

    What could be more humanthan wanting something we canthave?

    As Ben Franklin quipped, noth-ings certain in life but death andtaxes. Everything else changes including our natural systems.Plants and animals evolve sometimes unpredictably. They ad-just their behaviors and ranges ac-cording to shifting environmentalconditions (with a new twistthrown in by climate change). Andas we know from Hawaii, Califor-nia and New Zealand, our viewschange too. We form new baselinesfrom our observations as we grow

    up, and as we travel to places out-side our former experience.So we are confronted with two

    extremes: to fight desperately and invain for constancy, or to surrender toglobal homogenization, acceptingthe attendant waves of species inva-sion and native extinction.

    Obviously, the answer liessomewhere in between. And itsdifferent in every case, dependingon how you feel about the smell ofeucalyptus.

    Send first, changing or lasting im-pressions to Holly at hollyvm@stan- ford.edu. No foreign plant seeds,please!

    MODERNMANNERS

    Are you friends with theInternet?

    SEEINGGREEN

    First mis-impressions

    JeffMandell

    It seems the

    Internet is casual

    because we have

    made it that way.

    Managing Editors

    The Stanford DailyE s t a b l i s h e d 1 8 9 2 A N I N D E P E N D E N T N E W S P A P E R I n c o r p o r a t e d 1 9 7 3

    Brendan OByrneDeputy Editor

    Kurt Chirbas & Billy GallagherManaging Editors of News

    Jack BlanchatManaging Editor of Sports

    Marwa FaragManaging Editor of Features

    Andrea HintonManaging Editor of Intermission

    Mehmet InonuManaging Editor of Photography

    Amanda AchColumns Editor

    Willa BrockHead Copy Editor

    Serenity NguyenHead Graphics Editor

    Alex AlifimoffWeb and Multimedia Editor

    Nate AdamsMultimedia Director

    Billy Gallagher, Molly Vorwerck& Zach ZimmermanStaff Development

    Board of Directors

    Margaret RawsonPresident and Editor in Chief

    Anna SchuesslerChief Operating Officer

    Sam SvobodaVice President of Advertising

    Theodore L. Glasser

    Michael Londgren

    Robert Michitarian

    Nate Adams

    Tenzin Seldon

    Rich Jaroslovsky

    Contacting The Daily: Section editors can be reached at (650) 721-5815 from 7 p.m. to 12 a.m. The Advertising Department can bereached at (650) 721-5803, and the Classified Advertising Department can be reached at (650) 721-5801 during normal businesshours. Send letters to the editor to [email protected], op-eds to [email protected] and photos or videos to [email protected]. Op-eds are capped at 700 words and letters are capped at 500 words.

    Tonights Desk Editors

    Matt BettonvilleNews Editor

    Jacbob JaffeSports Editor

    Natasha WeaserFeatures Editor

    Alisa RoyerPhoto Editor

    Charlotte WayneCopy Editor

    HollyMoeller

  • 8/3/2019 DAILY 02.09.12

    5/10

    The Stanford Daily Thursday, February 9, 2012N 5

    Two years after the overhaul,there was a near-doubling of CSmajors, he added.

    Both Roberts and Sahamitalked about the appeal of intro-ductory CS courses, such as

    CS106A, that pull undergradu-ates in and result in them decidingto major in CS.

    These courses change some-ones efficacy, Roberts said. Sothat they can do more things atonce.

    Roberts added that the intro-ductory courses allow for a verytangible way for the students tosee change and improvement intheir skills, especially when creat-ing applications for the class.

    Sahami expressed a similarview.

    It is about the notion of em-powerment of what someone cando in computing, he said. Some-one with an idea and computerskills can build something.

    James Nam 14 said he enjoyedCS106A when he took it last year.

    I wanted to do more researchin CS so I declared my first year,Nam said. He attributed the num-ber of job opportunities availablefor CS majors as a reason for de-claring.

    Jay Patel, 14, was thinkingabout majoring in CS when hecame to Stanford.

    Ive been playing aroundwith computers for a long timenow, since fourth grade, he said,so I came in knowing I wanted todo something with computers.

    Right from the beginning,CS106A did a really good job ofmaking people excited about CS,

    Patel added. I have many friendswho became majors because ofthat class. Some of my friends takeCS because they want to do a start-up in the future.

    Both professors also attrib-uted part of this increase in stu-dents choosing to major in CS tothe economy.

    There are tremendous eco-nomic opportunities in computerscience, Sahami said, adding that

    there is an enormous demand forthose who graduate with CS skil ls.

    After the economic crash in2007, computer science was theonly option for some students,Roberts said, adding that otheroptions for students disappearedas demand for jobs in business de-creased during the downturn.

    While many students arechoosing this major and graduat-ing with this degree, the demandis still outstripping the supply, Sa-hami said. We still see the num-bers continue to grow.

    Its amazing how few peoplewe are training relative to the jobsavailable, Roberts said. He addedthat the CS department doesntdrive anyone away because of thishigh demand.

    According to a Daily articlepublished Jan. 11, the CS depart-ment has been trying to increase fe-male student involvement in CScourses after CS106A. While hesaid he is not sure if there has beena noticeable increase in interestfrom female students, Roberts saidthat the courses are becomingmore balanced in enrollment be-tween the sexes.

    It is important to raise thenumbers . . . and have morewomen entering the field, Robertssaid.

    Contact Josee Smith at [email protected].

    COMPSCIContinued from front page

    Some departments have a typ-ical number of units for each classand instructors then gear theamount of work they assign to thatunit load, she said.

    Sharon Palmer, associate vice

    provost for undergraduate educa-tion, recently conducted a studythat looked at student reports ofhours per week spent on workoutside of class per unit of credit.These were based on end quarterevaluations, and the study waslimited and preliminary.

    The overall average for all un-dergraduate courses was veryclose to the Registrars guidelineof two hours per week outside ofclass per unit of credit, Palmerstated in an email. There was, ofcourse, some variation between

    department or program averages,and considerable variation be-tween individual class averageseven within the same department.But overall there was much lessdiscrepancy between units thananecdote would suggest.

    However, Copeland noted,any advisor hears anecdotallythat particular courses are moreor less work than their allottedunits.

    This year, ME 101, an engi-neering class that is notoriouslyone of the most time-intensiveclasses at Stanford, was upgradedfrom three units to four units. Thisprocess has no standard operat-ing procedure, however, andCopeland stated that there is noestablished frequency for thereevaluation of units.

    Units would be likely bereevaluated if the faculty becomeaware that their course is radicallymore or less work than is expectedper unit, she said.

    When asked about how thiswould impact the engineering de-partment, Copeland answered,From my perspective as an advi-sor, the more profound impact ofraising the units in a particularcourse is encouraging students totake fewer courses in the quarterwhen they have that course, andtherefore creating a more bal-anced and reasonable schedule.

    In my personal experience, it

    is better to use the unit count as aninitial suggested guideline and towork with each student individual-ly to help him or her determine ifwhat he or she has chosen for thequarter is a reasonable load,Copeland said. So with most stu-dents, I dont have a conversationabout the equity of units per se,rather what is appropriate for themin that quarter after they have re-viewed the syllabi.

    Contact Catherine Zaw at [email protected].

    UNITSContinued from front page

    help him handle the page. ShaneSavitsky 12 (a Daily staffer) andKazuma Gunning 12 are helpingcreate memes and set up the Twit-ter and Tumblr accounts.

    Its been a good year forNguyen so far. His Shit CollegeFreshmen Say video garneredmore than one million views onYouTube, and his comedy channelJustCallMeMrRight is the No. 1

    viewed channel in the Comedi-ans category.

    While making money from thisendeavor might be difficult,Nguyen has other concerns, aswell. When asked whether the pop-ularity has changed his life, Nguyenshrugged and smiled.

    Love life is still terrible, hesaid. As one of the Stanford memesthat twists Boromirs famousquote in Lord of the Rings pointedout, One does not simply dateatStanford.

    Contact Brendan OByrne [email protected].

    MEMESContinued from page 2

  • 8/3/2019 DAILY 02.09.12

    6/10

  • 8/3/2019 DAILY 02.09.12

    7/10

    The Stanford Daily Thursday, February 9, 2012N 7

    WOMENS SWIMMING AND DIVING

    Season finale pits Card vs. CalBy GEORGE CHEN

    DESK EDITOR

    The stage has been set.In the grand finale of the regu-

    lar season, the No. 8 Stanfordwomens swimming and divingteam will square off against No. 1California at the Avery AquaticCenter this Saturday. The Golden

    Bears are coming into the meetwith an undefeated dual-meetrecord while the Cardinal is 8-1,with the sole loss coming againstNo. 2 Florida.

    Despite Cals current status asthe best team in the nation, Stan-fords lower ranking doesnt re-flect the teams recent tenacity indefeating higher-ranked oppo-nents. Two weeks ago, thewomens swimmers upset No. 5Arizona at home, and just a weekago they took down No. 7 USC onthe road. Whats even more im-pressive is that in both of thesewins, the Cardinal had alreadycompeted in another meet theprevious day. The upset-mindedCardinal hopes to pull off one last

    shocker against the top team inthe country and end Cals bid forits first undefeated regular seasonsince 2006.

    Cals lineup certainly looksformidable across the board.Three Golden Bear swimmers al-ready have automatic NCAAqualifying times a feat that notmany college swimmers have ac-

    complished during the regularseason.Leading the way for Cal is jun-

    ior Caitlin Leverenz, consideredto be one of the best swimmers inthe nation. At the 2011 NCAAChampionships, she placed in thetop five in three individual events.She also swam the breaststrokelegs of the teams 200 and 400medley relays, both of which wonthe national title. So far this sea-son, Leverenz has already clockedautomatic NCAA qualifyingtimes in five individual events.

    One of the best matchups inSaturdays showdown will be be-tween Leverenz and Stanfordssophomore Maya DiRado. Aselite national swimmers, the two

    stars are alike in many ways. Al-though DiRado and Leverenzspecialize in different strokes,they both own some of the na-tions fastest times. DiRado is cur-rently the fastest swimmer in the200 backstroke by more thanseven-tenths of a second whileLeverenz co-owns the fastest timein the 200 breaststroke.

    Whats even more interestingis that DiRado and Leverenzoverlap in their strengths. As twoof the countrys premier individ-ual medley swimmers, DiRadohas the nations second-fastesttime in the 200 individual medley,a full second ahead of fourth-ranked Leverenz. In the longer400 individual medley event, Lev-erenz ranks second, just one placeahead of DiRado. Drawing outtheir similarities even further, Di-Rado was named the 2011 Pac-10Freshman of the Year while herslightly older competitor won thesame award in 2010.

    Another key matchup to

    By TOM TAYLORSENIOR STAFF WRITER

    The Pac-12 Conference comesfull circle at Maples Paviliontonight, with the USC womens bas-ketball team visiting the Farm for arematch of the opening game,which took place in Los Angeles atthe end of December.

    Since that 61-53 victory for Stan-ford at the Galen Center, the twoteams have had very different sea-sons. In tonights contest the No. 4Cardinal (20-1, 11-0 Pac-12) will belooking for its 17th straight win andthe opportunity to tighten its gripon the top spot in the conference,while the Trojans (12-10, 6-5) arecoming off a narrow home loss toWashington and are currently in athree-way tie for fourth place.

    Stanford leads the all-time series

    against USC 48-19, and has won thelast nine meetings, stretching backto the 2007-08 season when the Tro-jans edged the Cardinal with a 73-72 in Los Angeles.

    In the Cardinals last time out,Stanford destroyed Arizona 91-51

    in Tucson. For the third time thisseason, junior forward Joslyn Tin-kle outscored the Ogwumike sis-ters, setting a new career high of 22points and tying her career bestwith 11 rebounds. It is hard, though,to ignore what senior forwardNnemkadi Ogwumike and sopho-more forward Chiney Ogwumikebring to the Card. They may nothave made the headlines in the Ari-zona game, but still hit double fig-ures in points, with Chiney Ogwu-mike grabbing her fifth straightdouble-double.

    USC also has its own sister act tocount on in senior guard BrianaGilbreath and redshirt junior guardStefanie Gilbreath, but the compar-ison to the Ogwumikes is perhaps

    unfair. Briana Gilbreath leads the

    Trojans in points with 12.2 pergame, but her sister is only playingin her first full season after sittingout three full years due to two ACLtears and playing only limited timelast season as a result of additionalinjuries. Unfortunately, Stefanie

    Gilbreath is not the only Trojan tohave struggled with serious knee in- juries, and graduate student guardJacki Gemelos, a northern Califor-nia native in her sixth year (and thenations top recruit in 2006), willagain be absent from the lineupafter suffering her fourth ACL tearlast December.

    The Ogwumike sisters eachhave three Pac-12 Player of theWeek awards this season and arefirst and third in both shooting andrebounding in the Pac-12, withNneka ahead in points per game,20.3 to 16.8, and Chiney leading inrebounds per game, 12.4 to 12.1.

    The Trojans, however, may havegreater depth in shooting. While the

    STANFORD, USCMEET AT MAPLES

    WOMEN HOST TROJANS

    Please seeWBBALL, page 8

    tor, Lawson said of the Cardi-nals season-ending defeat a yearago.

    On Saturday, the Cardinal willbe charged with the task of slow-ing down the Cal State-North-

    ridge Matadors, a team that playstwo setters and has six players av-eraging at least a kill per set. TheMatadors are led by freshmanJulius Hoefer, who ranks third inthe NCAA among freshmen with3.53 kills per set. Northridgesother featured hitter is seniorMatt Stork, who averages 2.63kills per set.

    Like Long Beach State, North-ridge has found much more suc-cess at home this season. TheMatadors are 2-0 in Northridgedespite having lost all five of their

    true road games.If Stanford has MPSF- and na-

    tional-title aspirations, this week-end should be one where the Car-dinal takes care of business. Onpaper, Stanford has too manyweapons for either Long BeachState or Cal State-Northridge tocontend with, even while on theroad. Beating teams in the lowerhalf of the conference standingson the road will be a crucial task

    moving forward, especially con-sidering the Cardinal gets to fin-ish with 11 of its final 13 matchesat home.

    Stanford will take on LongBeach State on Friday and CalState-Northridge on Saturday,with both matches beginning at 7p.m. It is the teams second-to-last road trip before returning tothe Farm for a six-match homestand.

    Contact Daniel Lupin at [email protected].

    VOLLEYContinued from page 6

    won just one of their last 12games, losing by an average of12.5 points per game, and havemore losses this year than in anyyear since 1994-95.

    The Trojans are led on offenseby sophomore guard MauriceJones, who averages 14 points pergame. The guard also averages38.4 minutes per game, by far themost in the Pac-12. In fact, he hasplayed the entire 40 minutes ineight of USCs 24 games, as wellas 49 minutes in an early-seasonovertime loss. The tough schedulecould be taking a toll on Jones as

    the regular season comes to aclose, which could account for hissingle-digit point totals in each ofUSCs last two games.

    The Trojans have also hadmajor injury issues this year, los-

    ing five players to season-endinginjuries. Their two leading re-

    bounders, Aaron Fuller and De-Wayne Dedmon, are each out,leaving them with no frontcourtdepth. Just two big men remainon the roster, forward GarrettJackson and little-used centerJames Blasczyk. Look for Stan-fords Josh Owens and Huestis totry to exploit this depleted USCroster.

    Stanford needs to battle hard inboth games in its quest to earn oneof the top four spots in the Pac-12Tournament and the first-roundbye that comes with it. Head coachJohnny Dawkins said that the Car-dinal has a lose and go homementality, which may be just whatStanford needs in order to repli-cate its early-season success.

    Stanford tips off againstUCLA at 8 p.m. tonight and willface USC at 4:30 p.m. on Sunday.

    Contact Anders Mikkelsen [email protected].

    MBBALLContinued from page 6

    Please see SWIM, page 8

    We have a single-by-single-country approach of tackling is-sues, he said. The discussion wasnever focused on the broad land-scape.

    Feingold emphasized Africasimportance in the fight against ter-rorism, bringing attention to ex-tremist groups in Africa such as al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb(AQIM). Feingold cited Somalia asa state tainted with piracy and alsodiscussed the emergence of an al-Qaeda chapter and strong connec-tions to Yemen, an example of a fail-ure in U.S foreign policy.

    According to Feingold, there hasbeen a trivialization and neglect offoreign policy, particularly by theright in U.S. politics. He pointed tohow the idea of American excep-tionalism is often linked to Ameri-can foreign policy, something hedeemed foolish.

    I believe that the U.S. can re-main the leading nation in theworld, he said. But we cannot

    keep briefly waking up from ourslumber to yell out, We are numberone! and then go back to sleep.

    Feingold encouraged Ameri-cans to be more involved as globalcitizens, particularly by learning lan-guages.

    After the talk, audience mem-bers posed questions on an array oftopics ranging from the U.S. role in

    Egypt to intervention in Syria to thepossibility of an Iranian attack.In response to a question on

    why the United States is disliked insome regions of the world, Fein-gold responded saying, I think ithas to do with the U.S. support ofnations with tyrannical regimes. Itbreeds a situation where peoplecan be sucked into protest orworse, violence.

    Mr. Feingolds sincerity was ob-vious and he gave a number of co-gent reasons for greater engage-ment beyond our borders, saidAaron Sekhri 15, who attended thelecture. His emphasis on the needto become world citizens and chal-lenge ourselves in spheres alien tous was inspiring.

    Contact Natasha Weaser at [email protected].

    FEINGOLDContinued from front page

    Over the same period of time[as the honors declined], there hasbeen an increase in two other pro-grams: co-terminal degrees and mi-nors, said Susan McConnell, biolo-gy professor and co-chair of SUES,referring to an increase in co-termi-nal degrees and minors over the

    past two decades, despite the highnumbers stabilizing in the past 10years.

    McConnell also stated that onewould need to conduct a more in-depth study into honors programsto be sure of the reasons behindtheir decline in popularity.

    The Commission Undergradu-ate Education (CUE) report pub-lished 17 years ago stated thatabout one in four students wrotean honors thesis. This figure is nowcloser to one in five, according toMcConnell.

    [The SUES report] is not sug-gesting in any way that every stu-dent should do an honors thesis,McConnell said.

    My main interest is in ensuring

    that as many students as possiblehave the opportunity to engage ina culminating experience . . .rather than in increasing the num-ber of honors students per se,Elam said.

    McConnell echoed Elams sen-timent.

    We would like to see everysenior do some sort of capstone . . .that doesnt have to be a researchbased honors thesis, McConnellsaid.

    There are a number of ways inwhich students can have this kindof experience, including honorsand other kinds of final project ex-periences, Elam said. He noted

    that there are already many engi-neering programs that require stu-dents to complete some sort offinal project.

    Both Elam and McConnell em-phasized the fact there is no move-ment to require senior honors the-ses.

    In keeping with Stanfords cul-ture and students, the emphasiswill be on multiple options that stu-dents can choose from accordingto their interests rather than man-dating particular forms or discipli-

    nary distributions, Elam said.The SUES report, presented tothe Faculty Senate on Jan. 26, sug-gested the creation of a residen-tial research college which wouldhave an atmosphere conducive tocollaborative learning and writingresearch-based theses.

    McConnell said that responsesthus far from faculty regarding theSUES proposals have been verypositive.

    [In] both the faculty and theUniversity administration theres alot of excitement, a lot of energy,McConnell said.

    The SUES report cited the newformat of the political science hon-ors thesis as a potential model forthe rest of the University. The pro-

    gram is different from other hon-ors programs in that it takes placeover the course of two years as op-posed to just one.

    [Reviewing the curriculum] isa new way of infusing energy intothe curriculum and thats clearlyhappening, McConnell said of thepotential for positive change fromthe SUES report.

    Overall, she added, the re-sponse has been that there is ener-gy, enthusiasm, and a renewedcommitment to undergraduates atStanford.

    Contact Mary Harrison at [email protected].

    COTERMSContinued from front page

  • 8/3/2019 DAILY 02.09.12

    8/10

    8N Thursday, February 9, 2012 The Stanford Daily

    MEHMET INONU/The Stanford Daily

    Senior guard Lindy La Rocque (above) and the No. 4 Stanford womens basketball team look to continue theirrecent hot streak when USC comes to town. The Cardinal has won 16 straight and is 11-0 in Pac-12 play.

    Ogwumikes are the only Stanfordplayers shooting in the top 30 of thePac-12, USC has more balancedscoring with four players in the top30: senior guard Ashley Corral,sophomore forward Cassie Har-berts, Briana Gilbreath and juniorforward Christina Marinacci. With13.0, 12.1, 11.3 and 10.1 points pergame, respectively, their combinedcontribution outweighs that fromStanfords sisters.

    On three-point shooting, too,USC could look for an advantage.It currently leads the Pac-12 inshooting percentage from outsidethe arc at 35 percent, nine placesahead of Stanfords 26.4. USC hits6.36 shots from downtown pergame compared to Stanfords 4.73,and Corral leads the conferencewith 2.91 threes per contest. Shenow tops USCs all-time list with282 three-pointers.

    Interestingly, the situation inthree-point defense is the com-plete opposite: The Cardinal is first,allowing only 24.1 percent, and theTrojans are 10th with 32.1. ShouldUSC manage to nullify the pres-ence of Stanfords forwards and

    succeed in keeping it outside, orshould the Card achieve the samewith the Trojans, these two statisticswill be directly tested.

    Across the Bay, in the othergame tonight between southernand northern California teams,third-place UCLA (12-10, 7-4) willface second-place Cal (17-6, 8-3).While fans of Stanford womensbasketball may be focused on theaction on campus, the result of thisother contest could be significant.Should the Card win and Cal lose,Stanford would have a four-gamelead with just six to play.

    The contest between Stanfordand USC starts at Maples at 6 p.m.tonight.

    Contact Tom Taylor at [email protected].

    WBBALLContinued from page 7

    Stanford leads

    the all-time

    series against

    USC 48-19

    watch for will be the sprint-offbetween Stanford senior SamWoodward and Cal senior LivJensen. The two accomplishedveterans have both been criticalto their respective teams successin dual-meet situations and areexpected to be individual nation-al title contenders come March.In comparison to each other,both swimmers are ranked in thetop five in the 50 freestyle, withJensen second and Woodwardfifth. But not to be outdone,Woodward has the countrys sec-ond-fastest time in the 100 but-terfly.

    On the diving board, Stanfordsophomore Stephanie Phippswill carry the burden against adeep Cal diving squad. At theCardinal Diving Invitational inmid-January, Phipps outscoredsenior Molly Hayes, Cals topdiver, in both the one-meter and

    three-meter springboard events.Considering that Cal has threedivers who already have NCAAregional-qualifying scores,Phipps will likely have to repeatthose victories if Stanford hopesto cancel out Cals depth.

    The showdown between Stan-ford and Cal will begin at 1 p.m.this Saturday at the Avery Aquat-ic Center.

    Contact George Chen at [email protected].

    SWIMContinued from page 7

  • 8/3/2019 DAILY 02.09.12

    9/10

    The Stanford Daily Thursday, February 9, 2012N 9

    DONORS WANTED

    $$ SPERM DONORS WANTED $$Earn up to $1,200/month. Give thegift of family through California Cry-obanks donor program. Apply on-line: SPERMBANK.com

    Stanford Grad Seeking StanfordEgg Donor The Center for Egg Op-

    tions is seeking a Stanford EducatedEgg Donor for a cycle for our hopefulrecipients. CEO offers generouscompensation to our donors and alltravel expenses will be paid for youand a companion during the cycle.Please complete our application atwww.egg411.com or call our office at9847) 656-8733.

    WRITING ASSISTANCE

    College Essays/DissertationsErase Writing Anxiety!! EnglishPhDwith 20 years teaching and tu-toring experience. I can providefeedback, support, and editorial as-sistance with college application es-says, college English essays, disser-tations, masters theses, cvs, andcover letters. Located in downtownPalo Alto. [email protected]

    CLASSIFIEDS

    GET NOTICED BYTHOUSANDS.

    (650) 721-5803www.stanforddaily.

    com/classifieds

    MTE Studios. is a registered trademark of The Tech Museum,all rights reserved. TM is a trademark of The Tech Museum, all rights reserved.

    2012, The Tech Museum, all rights reserved.

    SOLUTION

    Complete the grid

    so each row,

    column and

    3-by-3 box

    (in bold borders)

    contains every

    digit, 1 to 9.

    For strategies on

    how to solve Su-

    doku, visit

    www.sudoku.org.u

    2012 The Mepham Group. Distributed byTribune Media Services. All rights reserved.

    2/9/12

    Level: 1 2 3 4

  • 8/3/2019 DAILY 02.09.12

    10/10

    10NThursday, February 9, 2012 The Stanford Daily