SheHacks Boston Student Organizers Are #makingthenewnormal

Weekend hackathon tackles the gender gap in computer science A negative experience at a New York hackathon gave Fiona Whittington (COM’19) the idea for SheHacks Boston. Photo by Jake Belcher. Fiona Whittington went to her first hackathon by herself. It didn’t go well. “When I walked in some guy came up to me and was like, […]

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Putting Cities on the Climate Map

CAS researcher, undergrad UROP project tackles heat island problem Many cities form “heat islands,” partly because impervious surfaces, like sidewalks, lead to less water evaporation. Photo by winstonwolf89/iStock. More than half of the people on the planet live in cities, yet cities have been largely ignored by climate scientists. But city climate is important, because […]

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UROP Student’s Project: A Thinking Robot

Self-directed ‘bot can identify objects In the following video, watch Emily Fitzgerald’s artificially intelligent robot. “That is a ball.” “I do believe that is a cone.” “Seems like a wonderful book.” The voice is mechanical and flat, and anyone offering such banal commentary and sounding so bored would surely bomb in a job interview. But […]

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