April 23, 2018
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Institute organizes first tech summit
Mastering movement Professor leads dance class for individuals with Parkinson’s disease
Annual event highlights blockchain technology
ACHINT KHANIJO | MERCURY STAFF
Misty Owens (center), an arts and humanities lecturer, teaches a class in association with Dance for Parkinson’s Disease, a global initiative to support individuals suffering from the neurodegenerative disorder. MADELINE AMBROSE | MERCURY STAFF
The Emerging Technologies Summit was held April 18-19. CINDY FOLEFACK News Editor
Students and faculty members at UTD had the opportunity to network with industry leaders during a summit focused on adapting companies to new technological discoveries. The Institute for Innovation and Entre-
DONIA BOSAK-BARANI Mercury Staff
Twice a week, individuals with Parkinson’s disease are taught how to dance by a UTD professor. Professor Misty Owens spends her time outside of the classroom teaching Dance for Parkinson’s Disease classes at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital. She began instructing classes in 2003, and remains the only instructor in Dallas after moving to Texas
from New York. DfPD was founded in Brooklyn at the Mark Morris Dance Group in 2001 as an alternative support group for individuals with Parkinson’s, and has since become a global initiative. Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder that affects movement due to its effect on the dopamine-producing neurons in the brain. DfPD is specifically designed for individuals with Parkinson’s by accommodating for their reduced motor capabilities.
Owens said people with Parkinson’s have trouble with movement because of the lack of dopamine in their brains, but in her classes, she aims to invent creative scenarios that encourage movement. A typical class could include any form of dance, including modern, tap, jazz and ballet. “When I see dance reaching out to different populations, it really catches my eye, it also catches my heart. But seeing that dance
→ SEE PARKINSONS, PAGE 14
→ SEE SUMMIT, PAGE 14
Confucius Institute under FBI scrutiny Congressmen accuse cultural center of spreading Chinese government propaganda, restricting freedom of expression IAN SEAMANS Mercury Staff
After an FBI threat assessment, Texas congressmen have accused a Chinese language organization, which has a location on campus, of propaganda and stealing intellectual property. Earlier this month, congressmen Michael McCaul and Henry Cuellar issued a joint statement calling for multiple Texas universities, including UTD, to stop
hosting their Confucius Institutes, which provide classes and lectures on Chinese language and culture. The Institutes are funded by the Chinese Ministry of Education through a cultural organization called Hanban. In their three-page open letter, the congressmen lay out the argument that CIs are platforms for Chinese government propaganda, and repress individual’s freedom of expression and steal academic research. In response to McCaul and Cuellar’s
letter, the Texas A&M university system terminated their relationship with the CI. This will affect Texas A&M College Station and Prairie View A&M, which have housed CIs since 2008 and 2013, respectively. The congressmen’s open letter was prompted by a February Senate Intelligence Committee hearing where FBI Director Christopher Wray called the Institutes a tool of the Chinese government and a possible threat to national security.
Arts and Humanities Dean Dennis Kratz, the executive director of UTD’s CI, said that suspicions of the Confucius Institute’s intentions are unfounded. “We have never had any questions about our relationship with CI influencing or guiding what we do,” Kratz said. “We invite who we want to speak, we approach the topics we’re interested in … there’s never been any kind of influence from China on what
we do. Nothing but support for us.” Kratz said in 2010, the FBI contacted him about his connections to the Chinese and asked about the Confucius Institute. “I was asked by the FBI agent about eight years ago, do I think the CI is using me to meet powerful people? … But I said no … When I go to China, to the annual conference, what you meet are educators genuinely interested in
→ SEE CONFUCIUS, PAGE 14
ETHAN CHRISTOPHER | MERCURY STAFF
Researchers develop less expensive lithium batteries Efforts to develop environmentally-friendly alternatives featured on Reddit front page AYOUNG JO Mercury Staff
UTD researchers teamed up to develop a new class of battery, proven to be efficient and long-lasting. For over a year, material science and engineering professor Kyeongjae Cho, along with research associate Jeongwoon Hwang, worked on developing a method to stabilize a lithium-sulfur battery that they believe to be the potential alternative to lithium-ion batteries, commonly found in smartphones and tablets today.
Recently, the scientific research done by the two engineering faculty members has received acclaim, as a post about their research reached the front page of Reddit. “(Lithium-ion battery) is reaching the limit. You cannot squeeze any more out of that material,” Cho said. “Something new has to happen and one of the most promising candidates is lithium-sulfur.” In comparison to conventional batteries, this new type of battery is less expensive, more environmentally friendly and more efficient in storing energy, Cho said. However, it contains sulfur, a material that
is not present in traditional batteries, and it is unstable, meaning it cannot be integrated into devices for practical use. “How to make lithium sulfur battery stable — that’s the question that not just us, but the whole community, is trying to figure out,” Cho said. Cho and Hwang discovered a 2-dimensional material that can be used to make a coating around the sulfur battery to help it show consistent behavior. Hwang said she was initially unfamiliar with batteries,
→ SEE BATTERY, PAGE 14
NOAH WHITEHEAD | MERCURY STAFF
Material science and engineering professor Kyeongjae Cho (left) and research associate Jeongwoon Hwang developed a less expensive and more efficient battery.
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Contributors Carolina Alvarez Madeline Ambrose Sarah Besserer Donia Bosak-Barani Jenna Cherrey Ethan Christopher Anupam Gupta Ayoung Jo Christina Jia Achint Khanijo Christi Lazutkin Xiang Li Anthony McNair Chiamaka Mgboji Izzy Morano Shamika Patel Bianca Del Rio Anna Schaeffer Ian Seamans Yannis Shafi Sarah Streety Michael Stout Tommy Tan Dev Thimmisetty Noah Whitehead
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New campus group helps female students succeed Graduate students start chapter of global organization to provide access to career advice, resources for women in technology
NOAH WHITEHEAD | MERCURY STAFF
Students network during the Women in Technology International event in the undergraduate lobby in JSOM. As part of the event, speakers gave attendees tips on getting ahead as a woman in STEM. TOMMY TAN Mercury Staff
UTD students established Dallas’ first local chapter of an international organization providing women with resources to succeed in business. Women In Technology International is a global organization focused on helping women in technology succeed by providing access and support from other professional women working in all sectors of technology. The WITI UTD chapter gives students networking events to help establish connections with corporate workers from businesses such as Texas Instruments, Microsoft and International Business Machines Corporation. WITI also hosts mentoring sessions and webinars to develop techno-
logical skills and leadership. The WITI student chapter will provide UTD students access to these resources. Dhanushuya Thangavel, an information technology and management graduate and president of the Women In Technology International, personally talked to WITI President David Leighton in order to establish the student chapter with the help of Dawn Owens, clinical assistant professor in management and WITI advisor. “I reached out to the president of WITI, and he and I were well on talks for the past few months, and he decided to start a student organization and it will be a student chapter of WITI,” Thangavel said. She said while there have been other women-focused business organizations
on campus, WITI is unique because of its inclusiveness of all students, regardless of education level. “Actually, there are a couple of organizations on campus, like one of the organizations such as WITB, Women in Technology and Business,” Thangavel said. “But that organization has many restrictions, like they are really restricted to the undergrad people only in JSOM. So we are graduate students. We couldn’t be part of that organization. So it prompted me to start an organization of my own that will be available to all the students.” Bijayeeta Banerjee, information technology and management graduate and vice president of the WITI student chapter, said by allowing graduates to join with undergraduates, WITI helps less-experienced students learn from those who have been in
the workplace. The group is also inclusive of both men and women, despite its focus on helping women in the workplace. “Men work with females in this organization and in this field,” Owens said. “But again, given the fact that men work with females this often, I’ve had men attend events and be like, ‘Oh wow, that was so helpful because now I know, when I come to these challenges, how to overcome them.’” Thangavel said such diversity also helps students solve business problems by incorporating different perspectives allowing for an optimized solution. Currently, there are 3,000 undergraduate students and graduate students studying information technology, with 30 percent of those students being female. Owens said WITI’s goal is
to also address the problem of support for women in a male-dominated field. “We are going to talk about challenges we face in technology because there aren’t many women who want to go into information or IT,” Banerjee said. “This organization will help in bridging the gender gap.” The UTD chapter is the first and only WITI chapter in Dallas. They are currently planning to expand and establish other chapters in universities around Dallas, such as at Southern Methodist University, the University of North Texas and the University of Texas at Arlington so the various chapters can help students collaborate with each other. “That’s the bigger picture here,” Banerjee said. “It’s not something that we leave, like a legacy. It’s already out there, we’re just introducing it to students.”
Breaking glass Success center adds study spaces ceilings at UTD
Student Success Center to utilize library space for additional tutoring services
Climate survey shows dissatisfaction with parental leave policy, lack of diversity among faculty members
TOMMY TAN Mercury Staff
The area that used to hold the testing center is being converted into a math and science tutoring area to provide students with more teaching space. With the construction of the new Testing Center last December, the old testing center location on the bottom floor of the library was left unused. Jessica Murphy, dean of undergraduate education, said the Student Success Center plans to move both science and math tutoring to the old testing center location. The current peer tutoring rooms on the third floor will then be utilized for Supplemental Instruction sessions and exam reviews. The old testing center location will be refurbished with new furniture and divided into four corners where different tutoring ses-
ANUPAM GUPTA | MERCURY STAFF
The Student Success Center is expanding its tutoring services and limiting noise interference by moving into the space formerly occupied by the Testing Center.
sions will take place. A central area will serve as a space for tutors and students to communicate with each other.
“So it kind of started with a discussion about opening to students and kind of try-
of both Papa John’s and Starbucks to 2 a.m. during finals weeks in a precursory phase to test the reception of later dining hours by UTD students. Chair of the Residential Affairs Committee Danni Yang said she hoped that a successful test run could be extended into the planned 24-hour dining goal by next year’s RA Chair.
fountains lacking the compressor that would cool the water down, leaving it at room temperature. The second phase will involve finding locations for the instillation of hot water fountains.
→ SEE SSC, PAGE 9
CHRISTI LAZUTKIN | MERCURY STAFF
ANNA SCHAEFFER Mercury Staff
A climate survey of UTD faculty sheds light on parental leave and gender parity regarding women in the workplace. In 2016, a survey sent out to all of the university’s faculty and staff addressed diversity in gender, ethnicity and other topics. Of UTD employees, about 27 percent responded to the survey. According to the report, there were major concerns about parental leave and diversity in the faculty ranks. Survey respondents said the parental leave policy is poorly designed; others said there are far too few women in administrative positions of power. Public and Nonprofit Management Associate Professor Meghna Sabharwal researches the glass ceiling: an invisible barrier preventing female employees from reaching positions of power. She said a 2016 Diversity and
Equity Committee climate survey of women — both staff and faculty — on campus clearly revealed that gender inequity within UTD is not a myth. Universities sometimes have an option for tenure-track professors who are new parents to “stop the tenure clock,” or essentially hit “pause” on their tenure. However, research by the Institute for the Study of Labor shows that male faculty, rather than new mothers, are the actual beneficiaries of the policy. Sabharwal said she was advised by a female colleague to not stop her tenure clock; other female faculty recommended not having children during tenure because it’s just too difficult. “I was told that I will be judged more in a negative light because now they would say, ‘She had extra years, she probably should’ve
→ SEE WORKPLACE, PAGE 9
Amazon Won’t Deliver The Amazon lockers Student Government planned to implement on campus, which would allow students to pick up and drop off deliveries to a designated self-service kiosk, will not be carried out. According to chairman of the Technology Committee Dhiren Kisani, negotiations with Amazon purportedly fell through due to a UT System rule requiring all for-profit vendors to pay an occupancy fee that Amazon’s representatives worried might set an unwelcome precedent. Dining Hours Extended The Food Service Advisory Committee has agreed to a proposal extending the hours
Hot Water Fountains Plans put forth by the Student Affairs Committee to install hot water fountains around campus are moving forward, with one location set aside in the School of Management and another in the Engineering Computer Science building. The first part of the project will involve the installation of water
Free Books Find a Home It has been decided that the Take One, Leave One initiative, allowing students to take a free book and replace it with one of their own, will have bookshelves located in the hallway between the Student Union’s Subway and Galaxy Rooms. Chairwoman of Academic Affairs Committee, Nikki Prattipati, is currently working with Dan Goodwin, the director of the SU, to construct customized bookshelves for the program.
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APRIL 23, 2018 | THE MERCURY | UTDMERCURY.COM
Among many voices, just one
LIFE&ARTS
TaRaas places in nat’l competition UTD dance team wins second at Raas All-Stars National Championship for first time in chapter history
Sophomore’s passion for music leads him to DSO
MICHAEL STOUT | MERCURY STAFF
Mark De Los Santos, a molecular biology sophomore, is a member of the Dallas Symphony Choir.
TARAAS | COURTESY
TaRaas, a UTD Indian dance team won second place at the Raas All-Stars National Championship on March 31. The team has also won first place and second place trophies at other national competitions this year. ANNA SCHAEFFER Mercury Staff
BHARGAV ARIMILLI Life & Arts Editor
When Mark De Los Santos first joined his high school choir, he didn’t imagine that it would become an integral part of his college experience. “I never really looked at choral music as a way of expressing myself,” De Los Santos said. “I was amazed at how much versatility the human voice could have.” De Los Santos, a molecular biology sophomore, is one of the few college students who performs with the Dallas Symphony Choir, a community-focused ensemble based at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center in downtown Dallas. His foray into choral music, however, began earlier, during his first year of high school when his mother encouraged him to sign up for the junior varsity choir. Following a particularly impressive rendition of “Happy Birthday,” the choir director
→ SEE CHOIR, PAGE 11
Members of UTD’s Indian dance team TaRaas danced their way to second place at the Raas All-Stars National Championship on March 31. Held at the Eisemann Center for Performing Arts, the collegiate competition featured the top eight university teams in the nation, including UT Austin, Carnegie Mellon and Rutgers University. Each team competed in raas-garba dance, a traditional Indian dance style combining colorful Dandiya sticks with hand and foot choreography. Raas All-Stars established its national championship in 2008, making this year’s competition a “Decade of Dance” celebration. By adding backbeats to traditional Gujarati music, collegiate raas-garba teams have modernized performances over the years. In its first year, TaRaas applied to multiple competitions but was not accepted to any. Four years later, the dance team attended four national-lev-
el competitions this year, winning one first-place and two second-place trophies. Team captains computer science senior Pooshan Shah and information technology and systems junior Rupal Kotecha said the victory exceeded their expectations for the year. “Our biggest goal this year was just to place at a competition,” Kotecha said. “The end dream was making nationals, that would be a dream come true, but our goal was just to place. We believed the dancers who auditioned were very talented and really dedicated. And everyone shared the dream.” The captains said the moment of victory was indescribable. “For a split second, our mouths all open and we don’t even move for a halfsecond,” Kotecha said. “Then we charge at the trophy. It didn’t hit then for me, but this past week I’m reliving the videos and pictures, so I stay up until 4 or 5 a.m. every night and just think, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe this happened.’” Healthcare studies senior Chandni Patel, helped found TaRaas at UTD
her freshman year. She said it has been a joy watching the team grow over the past four years. “Our freshman year, we applied to a few competitions, but nobody knew us so we didn’t get in anywhere,” Patel said. “We did one talent show but didn’t place, and then this year, being our fourth, we went to four competitions, placed at three of them, and placed second at Nationals. This was huge.” Two of her roommates are fellow TaRaas members, who she met through the dance group. They celebrated the seniors’ upcoming graduation from UTD and the team at an annual celebratory banquet April 15 with the team, its founders, alumni and friends. Patel said the team resembles a family more than a dance group. “We’re always there to help each other out, even when it’s not about dancing,” Patel said. “I can say, ‘Oh, I need a scantron!’ and someone will say, ‘I’m on my way!’” Kotecha said collegiate raas-garba competitions used to be more about
the dance, but now are more production-based, including the addition of themes. TaRaas based this year’s dance on Harry Potter. “We have props and a huge backdrop,” Kotecha said. “We’re trying to make the audience feel like they’re on the Hogwarts campus.” However, even with a specific theme, the team could not afford new costumes this year, and instead re-wore last year’s. Kotecha said she and her co-captain, Shah, have to schedule most practices in Hoblitzelle Hall because of the lack of available practice space on campus. The flooring leads to injury-prone practicing and absorbs momentum, but the team has no other option. Currently, the team fundraises with no support from the university. Kotecha said TaRaas hopes to communicate with the Student Organization Center to potentially receive supplemental funding for the team’s high costs of
→ SEE TARAAS, PAGE 11
Org feeds hungry children in India Akshaya Patra members have raised money for over 270 children since last semester DEV THIMMISETTY Mercury Staff
Two sophomores founded the first chapter at a Texas university of an international organization. Akshaya Patra is an organization that started in India in 2000 to provide school children lunches. UTD AP partners with other UTD Indian cultural groups at events and competitions to fundraise money for the cause. The students have raised enough money to feed over 270 children since September. President Subhash Ammisetti, a computer science sophomore, said his interest in AP began in high school, but he wasn’t able to start a chapter there. He decided to start one at UTD toward the end of his freshman year with vice president and biology sophomore, Abhinav Thummala. After filing the paperwork last spring, the club’s first meeting took place on Sept. 12. “I thought that a college campus would be a good place to take this initiative for a good cause, so we created this club to help children in India,” Ammisetti said. “It only takes $15 to feed a kid for a whole semester, so we really can help improve a lot of lives.” Thummala said AP’s model of building large kitchens to feed children is efficient in ensuring that children stay in school and get educated. “For me, (donating) is one of the easiest ways to give back to communities,” he said. “Another thing is that many of our families are Indian, and we are firstgeneration Americans, so we want to help out in our place of origin.” A capella and dance clubs at UTD, such as Dhunki and Sharara, perform at competitions with AP as their part-
AKSHAYA PATRA | COURTESY
Members of the organization Akshaya Patra pose in front of a sign. The chapter has raised money to feed over 270 children since its was founded in September.
ner so the audience can donate to the organization. UTD AP also hosts their own events, such as the 5K Nerd Run or a bake week, to raise additional money. This is sent to the national AP organization, which sends the funds over to India to be used to feed the children. “The UTD Indian community seems really big, but it’s really not that big,” he said. “We mostly just networked through friends … and people were eager to join because the cause really resounds with people.” At a dance competition called Hansini in February, groups that donated more to UTD AP via a GoFundMe were given more rehearsal time. This new initiative, along with the other events throughout the year, helped the club raise enough money to feed 300 students for a full semester, about $4,500. Thummala said chapters
generally send 90 percent of their proceeds to AP USA, leaving 10 percent to keep the chapter running for the next year. The first major event for AP was a concert partnered with the nationally prominent a cappella group, Penn Masala, in October of last year. Ammisetti said Penn Masala promoting AP was a significant factor in spreading the news about the new chapter at UTD. “Since it was our first year, the hardest thing was to get the message out there, building a brand,” he said. “Penn Masala was a big success because it helped us do exactly that.” Ammisetti said the goal is to create annual traditions so students can plan to participate in AP at specific times during the year. This includes a large concert incorporating UTD groups in
→ SEE AKSHAYA PATRA, PAGE 11
CHRISTINA JIA | MERCURY STAFF
SPORTS
APRIL 23, 2018 | THE MERCURY | UTDMERCURY.COM
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Women’s golf sets sights on ASC Tournament
Comets focus on improving upon mistakes from past tournaments in preparation for 2018 ASC Tournament WILLIAM LEGRONE Photo Editor
The UTD women’s golf team is preparing for the ASC tournament. The Comets have not won a championship since their first season in 2008. The closest the team has come to a title was in the 2015 ASC Tournament, when they placed fourth. Set to open the 2018 ASC Championship on April 23, the Comets enter the event as the No. 3 seed. UTD, ranked No. 30 in the NCAA, will face off against No. 14-ranked Mary Hardin-Baylor and No. 21-ranked UT Tyler. The Patriots are coming into the tournament as the four-time defending champions and won this year’s ASC preview by 34 strokes under UTD. “I love competition,” freshman Lindy Patterson said. “I love the pressure, and it’s really fun knowing we have a chance to go to Florida and play golf in a few weeks if we can win the ASC. UTD, Mary Hardin-Baylor and UT Tyler have been head to head all year, so we need to play our best golf and show we can beat some really good teams.” The team has made improvements over the past 10 years under the instruction of head coach Butch Edge. This season, the team has garnered several new program records, including the lowest two-round record in program history, which was set at the Lady Bulldog Fall Classic on Sept. 11, when the team shot a 632. “We’re very young, but every time we go out, we learn,” Edge said. “A lot of it is about getting into the mindset of confidence, knowing your ability, being an athlete and saying, ‘Let’s go get them.’” The team’s performance on April 9 at the Sewanee Spring Invitational is the most recent indication of the difficulties it has faced this semester. Finishing at a season low of ninth place, the team struggled
in the midst of freezing temperatures and high winds. “Everyone had to play in it, but it was 22 degrees, the wind was blowing and there were snow flurries. On day two, we just hit the wall in the first six holes,” Edge said. “The biggest mistakes on that course was awareness. We were always on the wrong side of the wind. With the wind, we were always either too long or too short.” The ASC Tournament will be held at the Avery Ranch Golf Club in Austin from April 23-24. The 72-par course features a difficult 18th hole, a 477-yard par 4, and is known for its rolling hills and 60-acre lake. In preparation for the course, the team has spent more time working on their technical skill by decreasing training time spent on their long game. “This course is one where it’s not extremely long, so your short game is extremely important,” Patterson said. “That’s usually what tournaments come down to. We’ve been putting a lot work in these past few weeks, just seeing putts going into the hole and feeling better about our distances.” Edge said he is optimistic about the team’s chances to make it to the NCAA Championship, but is conscious that the task at hand will take more than skill. “It’s about composure in the heat of battle,” he said. “You’ve got to weather the storm, mentally and emotionally. The athletes that do are going to be successful.” The ASC Tournament will begin April 23 and end the following day. If UTD wins, they will receive automatic qualification to the NCAA Division III Women's Golf Championships as the ASC representative. “I’m extremely proud of our young ladies,” Edge said. “We’ve had a long spring, but they focused on their classes and what they’re going to do here next week. It’s going to be fun to see how it plays out.”
MICHAEL STOUT | MERCURY STAFF
Freshman Lindy Patterson drives golfballs at Practice Tee Golf Center on April 20. Patterson led the university’s golf team this semester, scoring 79.56 points on average in 16 rounds.
Softball makes comeback Team recovers from losing streak following strong offensive performance YANNIS SHAFI Mercury Staff
The softball team has recovered from their eight-game losing stretch and are now 15-6 since March 16. After a period where they lost eight of nine games, the softball team was able to turn it around and make a run to try to qualify for the ASC Tournament. During this time, the Comets have played well offensively, outscoring their opponents 13796. Their highest single-game margin of victory was 12, which came during their April 6 game against Hardin-Simmons. Defensively, the Comets have been reducing the number of runners on base and even limited seven teams to one run or less. Amber Williams, a junior infielder, attributes this success to fixing mistakes that were made during the losing streak. “We’re having a lot more fun out there, understanding each other, finishing plays, taking it one play at a time, and staying in the moment,” Williams said. “We’re going to keep getting better every day and every game and ride it out until the end of the season.” Soon after the Comets concluded their series against the La Verne Leopards on March 16, the Comets went on a hot streak, winning by margins ranging from two runs against the University of the Ozarks Eagles to 12 runs against the Hardin-Simmons Cowgirls. Outside of the one loss within this 27-day span, the Comets had four shutouts and allowed less than three runs in nine games. “Most of it was just the way we came together and we had lots of team talks,” Junior infielder Hope Griffith said. “We are a good team and we finally clicked.” Though they started off the season going 5-2, the Comets dropped eight of their
ACHINT KHANIJO | MERCURY STAFF
Senior outfielder Stefanie Polderman slides into home base during the first of three games against UT Tyler. The Comets were swept by the Patriots in a threegame series that started on April 14.
next nine games. Throughout this stretch, they were swept by the Texas Lutheran University Bulldogs and the East Texas Baptist University Tigers, who are ranked second and 12th respectively. However, this losing stretch was significant because the team used this as a way to learn how to play together and get back to the basics, said sophomore outfielder Elizabeth Brann. “(The team) was like, ‘We don’t like feeling this way. We don’t like how things are going. We need to change this,’” Brann said. “Honestly, the way we’ve been playing, I feel like we can beat anybody.” The Comets are currently ranked fifth in
the ASC standings, behind UT Tyler, ETBU, Mary Hardin-Baylor and Concordia. The Comets have a 14-1 record when leading after four innings, showing that they have been successful when they play well early in the game. The Comets close out the season against Concordia on April 27-28. Upon the conclusion of the regular season, the Comets begin their quest to defend their ASC Championship and make another appearance in the NCAA Division III Tournament. “I really believe that if we play our best and the way we can, we take some W’s,” Griffith said. “Now that we’re together, no one can come in our way.”
ACHINT KHANIJO | MERCURY STAFF
Junior infielder Ryan Burciaga (top), senior outfielder Josh Covey (left) and senior pitcher Cole Hanson played in a three-game sweep of Mary HardinBaylor on April 15. The team won with scores of 20-9 and 18-9 on April 14 and 14-3 on April 15.
ETHAN CHRISTOPHER | MERCURY STAFF
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THE MERCURY | APRIL 23, 2018
LIFE&ARTS
UTDMERCURY.COM
radioutd sweet 15 Celebrating 15 years of college radio
On April 11, RadioUTD celebrated its 15th anniversary with band Luna Luna at the Sweet Fifteen Fest. Students gathered at the SU Green for boba, free merchandise and tarot readings. STORY BY: DONIA BOSAK-BARANI | MERCURY STAFF PHOTOS BY: SHAMIKA PATEL | MERCURY STAFF
After 15 years of broadcasting music, UTD’s student radio station celebrated its anniversary by throwing the Sweet Fifteen Fest. RadioUTD was established as an organization in 2003 when it began in the basement of the ECS building, but 15 years later, 27 DJs broadcast a wide variety of genres from the Student Media Suite. The station broadcasts music online and caters to all music tastes while promoting local talent, said station manager and ATEC senior Savannah Sherer. “I feel like in the past few years, we’ve focused on a lot of local music showcases, which I think is super important because Dallas has a very big and growing scene of DIY bands, and I’m excited that we’re getting to still showcase local bands at this concert,” Sherer said. “So we’re keeping true to our supporting the DFW scene while also making it a much bigger event.” The bash took place April 11 and featured local bands, including Luna Luna, OG Garden and Pearl Earl, who are all emerging in the Dallas music scene. Food trucks, tarot readings and vendors also enhanced the festival feeling, Sherer said. However, the event and its success was a testament to how much RadioUTD has grown, said music director Dawood Nadurath, a computer science junior. “The station has grown over the past 15 years, and as a hallmark of their development as an organization, (we) have been collaborating with UTDTV to sponsor pseudo stereo sessions which feature local bands in live in-studio sessions,” Nadurath said. “Additionally, (we) recently installed Zeta, a software intended to make the station sound more professional and run as a cohesive unit by eliminating the playlist vibe.” Recently, RadioUTD won an award at the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association for a blog post published on their website. The developments in software and talent has garnered respect for the organization, and those connections have been crucial to its success, Sherer said.
“I think that with the opportunities that we’ve been getting lately with bigger bands coming in for interviews and reaching out to bigger bands for our pseudo stereo sessions, we already are the prominent college radio in DFW, but we’re only going to get bigger, and I’d like to see us be a name in the college radio scene in the way that Radio K in Minneapolis is,” Sherer said. Sherer and Nadurath said college radio is especially important given the academically-focused campus culture at UTD, specifically as it offers the student body an outlet for relaxation. “I think our station in particular is really unique in how niche our shows are,” Sherer said. “You can listen to a metal show and a hip-hop show and an ambient show in the same day … and for sure you’re going to hear something that you’ve never heard before, and I think that’s a really important thing to have on campus, especially in a school that isn’t very arts-oriented.” Although the festival exceeded original expectations, with over 300 students attending, the event organizers initially had trouble deciding how to curate the lineup to both appeal to the student body and put on an event that would be remembered for years to come, Nadurath said. The event was emblematic of RadioUTD in its attempt to interconnect student media, attract local bands and do something that had never been done on campus, said neuroscience sophomore and assistant music director Isabel Magana. The Sweet Fifteen Fest set a precedent for anniversary bashes for years to come. “This is our 15 years, and these are bands that are really big in the scene and really important in the scene, and it really does speak to the direction (RadioUTD) has gone in the past 15 years,” Magana said. “The fact that we can still all come together for music, I think, really speaks to the importance of music and the importance of college radio. College radio will never die.”
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Q&A WITH
DAvid hanson The Institute for Innovation and Entreperneurship at UTD hosted a keynote speaking event, “Bringing Robots to Life with Dr. David Hanson” on April 10. The event featured UTD alumnus David Hanson, a roboticist and founder of Hanson Robotics. Hanson is the creator of various different animated robots, with his most renowned robot being Sophia the Android. The Mercury sat down with Hanson to talk about his experience researching at UTD and his thoughts about the impact of robots in the future.
Why did you choose to study at UTD? I chose UTD because I was looking for a program that would afford me the flexibility to do these really unorthodox things. I wanted to pursue this kind of approach to robotics spanning many disciplines. I was from Dallas, visiting my family and preparing applications for graduate school, and I heard about this new Interactive Arts and Engineering program at UT Dallas, so I came in and met with the folks here, and I knew of the number of researchers who are here and who are excellent heroes to me, and when I met with the founders of this arts and engineering program and described what I was doing, my background, it sounded like they would make this space to do whatever, it felt it was appropriate. And it was really that flexibility with why I chose this program, and the level of scholarship and experts here. Dennis Kratz and Andy Brancher opened many, many doors for me and were really good to me. Many professors made a huge difference. Tom Riccio collaborated with me in the sort of theatrics of the robotics, he’s a theatre professor and writer. I think I accomplished my goals better with the UTD program than anywhere else in the world. Now my goals were way beyond what their program was, so a lot of the things I was doing were extracurricular activities, the material science, the mechanical design – I wasn’t taking any courses in it, but I had to do it, wiring up and physically building the robots myself. I saw the school as kind of a way to just get the time and space to do what I wanted to do and also accumulate my degree, which can be useful.
What do you recommend to students who want to pursue innovation and work in the field of robotics? Figure drawing. I would suggest a wide spanning set of creative skills because creativity is really important. On the other hand, you could focus on any one of these disciplines. What students should study if they’re interested in robotics is figure drawing, math, philosophy, engineering, brain sciences, and creative writing. In fact, even if you have a focus and a background in any one of these areas, you could contribute into the world of robotics and artificial intelligence. Then, ultimately the key skill beyond all this is dreaming and creativity, but it’s not just to have pure creativity, it’s to have the audacity to say “What if?” and to place your imagination beyond the boundaries of what is known into the realm of what may be, and even if it’s not proven, even if it’s speculative, we should create a culture where we’re comfortable going into the domain of the unknown because everything that is known started out as unknown. So even if you’re focused on once single discipline, being comfortable with stretching the boundaries of that discipline is the foundation of the vitality, the living heart of whatever the discipline is.
What is your response to skeptics who criticize robots as being “scripted” or “not alive,” and believe they will cause economic downfalls?
I’ve seen your interviews and you seem to be a very fierce advocate for humans PHOTO BY: INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATION UNION | COURTESY GRAPHICS BY: SAM LOPEZ | MERCURY STAFF and robots developing relationships and being compassionate, but for our readers who don’t know about this, how do you believe that robots could facilitate benefits to humanity? Well, automation benefits humanity in general because it makes everything more efficient. We wouldn’t use it if it wasn’t delivering some sort of value in that sense. It can allow us to get more done. With that, we have the power to do things, but we need to use those technologies wisely. You could just optimize create efficiencies for local benefit, but it's a system-wide problem. For example, if you use automation to massively increase quarterly profits to return to shareholders, meanwhile the workers are out of their jobs. Then suddenly, there’s no money flowing into the economy, people stop purchasing goods and the very companies that profited suddenly collapse. The entire economy collapses. This is the peril of the fourth industrial revolution. The problem there is not the automation, the problem is the misuse of the automation. If we are only using automation for the purpose of maximizing the returns paid to shareholders, then we’re missing the bigger opportunity, and it’s not even serving the shareholders because it causes a massive economic collapse.
Well, our robots, we run them in many different ways, so Sophia can have an autonomous conversation and generate her own replies, and it’s merely a myth that everything that she says is scripted. It’s a misconception, and there’s also nothing wrong to parts of robots being scripted, so Siri, Cortana, IBM Watson, even Facebook’s AI will be from content written by people. That doesn’t mean they’re a scam, though, that their AI is often derived from human writings in the same way that humans will recite human writings. A journalist will have pre-prepared questions, like you, you’re operating off of a script, but that doesn’t mean that your brain is scripted. Likewise, Sophia may have on certain things we’ll write for her for a dramatic narrative or to be on a talk show, the person who is interacting with her might be reading a script and she might be reading a script but she’ll always have somethings that she’ll say unscripted. With that said, she is not conscious with the way a human is conscious, and no AI is fully intelligent the way a human is intelligent, and so we have a long way to go before AI matches the full spectrum of human intelligence. So we have to examine the potential consequences and by making robots that make us question those consequences, then we could pursue the potential benefit instead of the potential negative outcome. My hope is that Sophia will help to provoke the con versation so that we can lean to wards a more benefcial outcome.
Currently, where do your robots reside? Are they being actively studied and stored in a separate place? Are they interacting with other people now? All over the world. I’ve got a robot at the University of Cambridge, one at the University of Pisa, robots that have been developed in Texas near the UTD campus, some at the National Taiwan University, two of the University of Bristol. Some of them are still active and some of them have been decommissioned. The robots at the University of Bristol made in 2004 and 2006 are still operational. I made those when I was a student at UTD and they’re still running and serving research, operating in California and in Hong Kong, more in Hong Kong than in anywhere else right now.
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A. Student-led groups, such as last year's champions, Vietnamese International Network of Culture, Education and Friendship, competed in the annual Global Talent Show that took place on April 13 demonstrating cultures from all across the world. B. On April 13, Dining Hall West showed its colors by providing a myriad of international foods and desserts for students. C. Students taste teas and coffees from across the globe at the International Brew House event on April 11. D. In celebration of Indian culture, students decorated themselves with elaborate henna at the Gender Center on April 12. MADELINE AMBROSE | MERCURY STAFF
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E. Students volunteer to upcycle jeans into shoes to donate to Sole Hope on April 17 in the Student Union Galaxy Rooms. Sole Hope is an organization dedicated to preventing jiggers, a parasitic insect that makes walking impossible. F. Home-grown fruits and vegetables were sold alongside sample dishes made from the produce sold. G. Students register and gather to dig and sow seed at the local monarch butterfly hotspot in an effort to maintain the flora. H. On April 19, the Office of Sustainability demonstrated methods on mainting a renewable and enivronmentally helpful lifestyle. I. The Earth Fair on April 19 included booths spreading information about the environment. Students were given a card, which, when enough booths signed off, could be redeemed for a prize.
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to students and kind of trying to rein in the Students Success Center activities and keeping it all within
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published.’ The standards will be changed,” Sabharwal said. Sociology professor Sheryl Skaggs, who researches gender in the workplace, said UTD needs an improved parental leave policy because a lot of scenarios are handled on a case-by-case basis. Although there is a parental leave policy providing 12 weeks of leave, the semester is 16 weeks long; this situation leaves parents, usually women, with four weeks of work in a semester. One survey respondent said the maternal leave policy does not work for faculty, and the dean or department head can either work with faculty or make it very difficult to take leave. “I was actually told by HR that I could not take 16 (which would be a semester and make sense), even though I had the sick time saved up,” the respondent on the survey said. “Here, we need to beg with our administrators to find work-arounds and piece something together. It
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the same spot,” Murphy said. “And then Julie Murphy and Ne’Shaun Jones came up with this really creative play to bring peer tutoring math and science together down into the old testing center space …
to help leverage our space better.” Murphy said a problem SI sessions have faced is the noise created in the open study area. Students in SI sessions have to compete with the surrounding noise in order to
conduct their tutoring sessions. Another problem SSC instructors faced is overcrowding before exams, Murphy said. “You have students who are in the library that you know they
want that space as well,” Jones said. “So we had to designate space for students who are not utilizing in this space for tutoring.” SSC Director Ne’Shaun Jones said with the addition of the old
testing center space, the SSC “will be maximized so that students can breathe.” “It’s amazing how much space it allows us to get creative with it,” Jones said.
does not put women in a place of strength. I do not know one woman at this university who would say that our policy works — at all.” Benefits Administrator Celeste Burnett said new parents are always entitled to parental leave under Texas’ Family and Medical Leave Act policy. “Where the questions have come in is when they’re teaching in the classroom, which is usually a 15week teaching assignment, so that makes it harder for them to return to the classroom,” Burnett said. “So we have really tried very hard to work with that department and that individual, so we can maybe return them on an alternate assignment to let them finish out and not have any other resources of opportunities.” Texas legislation determines UTD’s parental leave policy just like the other schools in the UT System. Director of Employee Benefits Marita Yancey said any deviation from the UT Systems policy is only allowable through law because it is a university funded by Texas and must follow state regulations. The Committee for the Support
of Diversity and Equity has drafted a specific policy within the last year for faculty members’ parental leave. Sabharwal said the committee is now sharing the policy with deans and hopes to take it to the president. “Even though we don’t have that policy in place right now, we definitely try to understand the situation and work with the department and the employee,” Burnett said. “Our goals are to partner with all these departments and offer the best benefits we can to our employees.” Another concern raised by survey respondents was diversity in faculty ranks. Almost 90 percent of respondents in all demographic categories said that diversity was important to them personally and that it was important to them that UTD hold diversity as one of its core values; 3 percent said diversity is not at all important. According to the climate survey, respondents reported significant structural and institutional barriers that interfere with the successful recruitment, promotion and fair pay of women and racial and ethnic minority employees.
Sabharwal said UTD is doing a much better job than when she began in 2009, however, with more women in leadership roles, more female program heads and greater representation for women in faculty ranks. Her research points to three key factors that alleviate the glass cliff and encourage women to stay: greater involvement in policymaking, a feeling of empowerment and an assurance of organizational justice and equity. “Tokenism does not work,” Sabharwal said. “Diversity goals are not about the number of women in these leadership positions, it’s the quality of an inclusive work environment. Are you empowering the women in these leadership roles? Are they able to influence the policy-making, or are they just a number on the table?” Skaggs said a notion that is often misleading is that just putting women in higher-level positions or leadership positions will create greater opportunities for women across the board; for real change to happen, it is necessary to hold the university to a higher standard.
“You can’t just necessarily have diversity training or things like that,” Skaggs said. “It’s really how people at higher levels are held responsible for creating an overall culture that doesn’t tolerate discrimination and allows opportunities across the board regardless of class, gender and ethnicity. We need to be teaching how to identify ways that we are potentially biased or hiring people exactly like ourselves.” Another staff member, who identified himself as neither a female nor a minority, said that diversity must be a priority. “The central administration — president, provost, VPs, deans, are overwhelmingly male,” he said. “At least half of the administrators should be female. Half of the deans, for example, should be female. For the most part, UTD is run by old white males ... I have nothing against old white men, being one myself. But we need diversity in administration to match diversity of student population.” Some survey respondents, however, said they disagreed with certain efforts to promote diversity on campus.
“I’ll tell you that seeing special clubs, events and holidays for every group except white heterosexuals doesn’t make me feel welcomed as part of the community,” said an anonymous staff member. “Why should there be special groups at all? Why can’t we just go to class and do our work? Why should the university spend money and time on events, activities or groups at all? Meanwhile tuition is increasing every year.” Another faculty person called the survey “politically correct pandering that reflects patronizing social engineering,” and 7.4 percent of respondents said UTD places too much emphasis on achieving diversity. However, nearly half of survey respondents said that building a diverse and inclusive campus community should be a key goal of UTD. Sabharwal said, ultimately, both men and women need to be involved in the conversation. Women and men are a part of UTD’s faculty and staff, so any disparity affects both parties. “Women are not the problem,” Sabharwal said. “Women are the solution.”
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offered him a spot on the varsity team. De Los Santos performed with the varsity team for all four years of high school. “The community aspect was such a big part of it for me too,” he said. “It was amazing that you could connect so many different voices together and make such a massive sound that could touch so many different lives.” After attending DSC concerts at the Meyerson Center during his freshman year at UTD, De Los Santos auditioned to join the group at the end of his sophomore year. He said his primary concern at the time was the one-year break he took from singing. “I was definitely worried that I was well past my prime or that I wouldn’t
be able to get back to the level where I was,” De Los Santos said. His first performance was at the DSC’s 40th anniversary series last October. The event — a free concert — had one of the largest audiences the ensemble had ever seen. De Los Santos said when he stepped onstage, he felt proud to be a part of the DSC’s legacy. “It was really cool to tap into this experience where we’ve had 40 years of tradition,” he said. “Being a new element to that, with both new and old members, was exhilarating.” Since joining, he has performed in two other DSC concerts and is currently rehearsing for another. “There’s never a day where I feel like I haven’t learned something new or that I haven’t felt challenged,” he said. “Coming to rehearsal is intellectually stimulating, but also gratifying
because you get to work with such talented individuals who volunteer their time to make great music.” The DSC operates in conjunction with its professional counterpart, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. The chorus, established in 1977, was founded in part by then-UTD chancellor Bryce Jordan. In addition to balancing his UTD course load with an intensive rehearsal schedule, he faces the challenge of coming from a non-musical background. “People may look at a piece of music and suddenly know what they’re doing,” he said. “I have to spend a little more time looking at music and be more conscious of what I’m singing.” De Los Santos said he had the opportunity to meet fellow performers from all of Dallas — including Morton H. Meyerson
THE MERCURY | APRIL 23, 2018
himself, who remains an active member of the ensemble. “You never know who you’ll meet,” De Los Santos said. “He’s just this really casual guy who sat down in the row in front of where I was sitting.” Throughout his time with the DSC, the one aspect De Los Santos said keeps him most connected the group is the impact it has on audience members. “It’s one thing to watch other people make music. It’s another thing to be a part of that music and see people really react and really enjoy it,” he said. “We don’t get paid as volunteers of the chorus, but seeing all the audience members have a really good time and get inspired to make music themselves is probably the reason why we’re here.”
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the fall and the 5K Nerd Run in the spring. “So U of H is actually starting their own AP chapter after seeing how well we did this year, and if we have events at set times during the year, then it can help other universities start new chapters and know what to expect in terms of structure,” he said.
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registration, competition travel, hotel stays and necessary gear. “We still have to do our research and talk to (the SOC), but I hope that we could get that recognition,” Kotecha said. “We are very proudly representing UTD so it would be nice for them to be proud of us as well.” Kotecha said she sees TaRaas playing a bigger part in the raas-
Thummala said the goal for next year is to be more professional and instill a sense of giving to all the students. “We want our members to keep supporting AP throughout their lives,” Thummala said. “If they see AP or some charity organization in their neighborhood, they will go help out because that’s what they did during their college days.”
garba world after their second-place victory, and she hopes students can experience the same team bond she loves as new members join. “I want the team to keep going at this pace,” Kotecha said. “It honestly doesn’t matter if we place at a competition or not next year. It doesn’t matter if we make nationals or place second or first or anything. I honestly just want to see the team keep growing and evolving as the circuit grows.”
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OPINION
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Publications risk closure due to loss of funding, resources No money, no voice: student newsrooms face potential shutdown after continually diminishing money, advertising revenue ARIANA HADDEN COMMENTARY
News media is present in the lives of students whether they choose to indulge in it or not, and can be found in the form of broadcast, radio or more traditionally, print. One challenge has become prevalent to college student media organizations, however: student newsrooms across the country are in danger of losing their funding for good, and it’s time the students wake up and take notice. Every year, students are required to pay fees among tuition that are used to cover a multitude of campus-provided services, including student media. According to the 2017 student fee-funded allocation recommendation summary from the UTD Student Affairs Office, The Mercury had $50,271 allocated from student fees. In addition, the student newspaper makes approximately 50 percent of its budget from advertisement revenue, though that number continues to decrease. For the past decade, The Mercury’s fund allocation has not increased until this past year, and even then, the ad revenue and sales have decreased by approximately $10,000-$15,000, causing the overall budget to decrease and following in the footsteps of the publications who are currently battling to survive. Though the UTD paper has adequate funding for now, the livelihood of multiple college publications across the country are being threatened, including the Cougar Chronicle in San Marcos whose Student Government brought up the idea of defunding the
entire organization, or the University of Toledo’s Independent Collegian whose funding has been cut to the point it can no longer afford to go to print and could potentially shut down. With this decrease in distribution of funds begs the question: Why is student media funding so low, and why should the student body care? Journalism is essential to students, as it is the main way for students to keep in touch with what is happening around them in a timely manner. The paper serves to inform the student body and providing an independent student voice on campus, especially from a staff that is entirely made up of students, for students. There have even been particular instances where The Mercury has been the first or only news provider for the students, including breaking the story about the student deaths on campus or informing the school that five alumni were murdered in a mass shooting. In both of these instances, students would not have known had The Mercury not done what it was meant to do, and for that, student media is a necessary resource. News and journalism are crucial, but in a time when less and less funds are being allocated to student media, who’s to say what will happen to the future of those organizations? Though The Mercury is comparatively in a better state than other college publications regarding fund allocation, it will only be so long before we find ourselves in the same boat as the rest of the country. So, what can we do to remedy and anticipate this threat to the future of college journalism? To start, UTD
CAROLINA ALVAREZ | MERCURY STAFF
claims to be a leader in cutting-edge education and diversity, so naturally it would make sense for the college to have an adequate journalism major, which it currently does not. While we do have an ATEC program and a mass communication major, we need to start at the root and provide more print journalism-based classes. Sim-
ply having a digital data journalism class, for example, would set potential reporters on the right course to making it in the world. Much like professional journalism, UTD needs to wake up and evolve with the times if it cares about the well-being of journalism and wants to see it continue. By doing this, maybe UTD could be
the pioneer in laying a solid foundation for the next generation of successful reporters. In addition to that, students should involve themselves in student media wherever they can, so go to events, get involved in the newspaper, read it regularly and know that The Mercury aspires to represent your voice.
Comets and Craters Professor receives book award Jill Duquaine-Watson, program head of Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies, received a 2018 Outstanding Publication Award for her book about single mothers earning degrees.
Water main breaks A hose bib on a main water line broke at Northside on April 19 flooding a fire riser room. The incident caused students living in the apartments to not have water for half a day until the problem was fixed.
Debate team to finals The UTD debate team advanced to the Sweet 16 round of the Cross Examination Debate Association national tournament, ending its 20172018 season. ANTHONY MCNAIR | MERCURY STAFF
COMET COMMENTS
How do you feel about campus beautification? HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY? Students interested in writing opinions can email editor@utdmercury.com.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
“The front parts pretty beautiful already. I guess the old buildings make it look a little drab ... maybe spice them up a little bit, some parts are old and visibly uglier.”
“I think it improved a lot over the years and it’s much more prettier and I like all the green, but maybe a little more green. This may sound cheesy, but they could put more flowers around.”
“I think it’s pretty right now, but if it could be prettier, I’d be all for it. Some of the flowerbeds could use more flowers … it’s kind of gray and not enough flowers.”
Deo Kim Computer Engineering Freshman
Alessandra Stagni Cognitive Science Freshman
James Morgan Mechanical Engineering Sophomore
Letters must be 250 words or less. Students should include their full name, major and year. Faculty, staff and administrators should include their full name and title. Email letters to editor@utdmercury. com. Although electronic copies are preferred, a hard copy can be dropped off at the reception desk of the Student Media suite (SU 1.601). Please include a headshot. Authors may only have one letter printed per edition of The Mercury.
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promoting cultural interaction and international understanding,” Kratz said. The Mercury filed a Freedom of Information Act in February to request documents related to the FBI’s involvement but has not received any information by publication date. Director of UTD’s CI, Ming Gu said he doesn’t know why the Confucius Institute has been accused of being use for political purposes. “Personally, I do not understand how a language or culture program can be related to politics,” Gu said. “From the very beginning, I tried to avoid any political involvement in the running of the Confucius Institute. Again and again, I’ve said to my staff members or to the outside world, I’ve said we are an educational institution devotes to teaching Chinese language and culture and promoting scholarship. That’s our main purpose.” The University of West Florida announced in February they will not be renewing their con-
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can lift up, inspire and encourage people to go beyond their own limitations and look for possibilities,” Owens said. “I knew that there was something more, almost magical, happening, and now we know it’s scientific. There is research that says dance is definitely helping brains and bodies connect.” Owens said the power of dance is that it stimulates joy and connec-
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preneurship hosted the first annual Emerging Technologies Summit on April 18-19. The programs focused on financial technology and artificial intelligence while tying both topics back to the growing field of blockchain, a digital ledger to publicly track transactions by date. While blockchain technology got its start through the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, it has since spread to different fields, such as finance and music. The summit also allowed startups to demonstrate their products and give pitches to industry leaders
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but got involved with the project because her main work involves studying 2-D materials. The atomically thin coating helps to enhance the stability and keep all of the good qualities of lithium-sulfur batteries, such as the lightweight and good conductivity. This new technology could improve the battery life of more than just our mobile phones and tablets, Cho said. Because lithium-sulfur battery has much higher capacity than other batteries, it may be useful for bigger scale energy storage, such as electric vehicles and renewable energy communities.
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tract with the CI after Senator Marco Rubio. wrote letters to Florida universities with Confucius Institutes, urging them to terminate their contracts because of dangers to academic freedoms and possible dissemination of propaganda. Kratz said in the fall of last year, a congressman solicited information from him about CI activities. He declined to identify which congressman asked. “We received a letter from a congressman this fall. Sent to every CI. And the letter essentially said, do you have any reason, anything we can use, to claim that the CI subverts intellectual freedom and academic integrity? And the answer is no,” Kratz said. Pennsylvania State University and the University of Chicago closed their Institutes in previous years. The University of Chicago location was closed after a petition by 100 faculty and comments from the chief executive and director of CI. In 2013 and 2014 respectively, the Canadian Association of University Teachers and the American Association of University Professors recom-
mended universities either terminate or renegotiate their CI because of lack of university control over curriculum and hiring and possible censorship. Unlike the Confucius Institutes cited by Rubio and the AAUP, UTD is not assigned professors by Hanban, and curriculum is chosen by the university, not the Confucius Institute. In line with AAUP’s recommendations, Chinese professors at UTD are chosen and paid by the university. There is limited evidence for censorship directed by the Confucius Institute, according to a 2017 report by the National Association of Scholars. The NAS agrees that contracts should be either terminated or renegotiated, but not due to directed censorship. Instead, their recommendations are aimed at stopping self-censorship, legal issues and conflicts of interest. Gu said the success of the university’s Chinese language program is due in large part to the Institute. In 2008, when the Institute arrived at UTD, the university typically had one or two Chinese language classes per semester. In the spring
2018 semester, eight Chinese language classes were offered. Kratz and Gu noted two scholarly books have come from the Institute, one on translating classical Chinese literature for western readers, and one set to come out this year about the role of Chinese philosophy in the 21st century. The Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art
History is also partnering with Nanjing University to bring an Institute of American Art to that campus in the near future. Kratz said the Confucius Institute had acted as an intermediary between the universities. Kratz said he’s open to a discussion on campus about the university’s continued relationship with the Confucius Institute.
“Mostly what you’ll find is, at the universities where there are controversies, a group of faculty ... who for whatever reasons don’t want it, and they argue against it. ... If people wanted to meet with me and say, ‘I don’t think we should have one,’ I would be glad to meet with them. It would be a great open dialogue,” Kratz said.
tivity, and that sensation extends to individuals with Parkinson’s who have trouble communicating between the mind and body. “A lot of people will come in and just say, ‘I’m having a really hard day, I have no energy.’ And then by the time they leave, a lot of people say they don’t have a tremor, a lot of people will say that, ‘My posture’s so much better after class, I have no symptoms, I’m symptom-free for quite a few hours after dance class,” she said.
Peggy Martin was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2008 and attended her first DfPD class with Owens in 2011. Her symptoms began with a hand tremor. which later spread to her thigh, and now she experiences “freezing gait,” which is a restriction of her movement. “The dancing has helped me because you can sing a song, and it’ll put music in your head, and it’ll help you move, and I don’t ever have freezing when I’m in
(Owens’) class,” Martin said. Martin was never a dancer before attending, but now comes twice a week. She said the class engages her, but it also creates a social support group that uplifts her and the other attendees. “It’s a very welcoming environment, and I think it’s because (Owens) sets that tone. We’re all fighting this battle, and we’re doing the best we can,” Martin said. “She makes us feel like we can do it, and consequently, we can.”
Although attending the class is a stimulating activity, Owens acknowledges that it is sometimes challenging. “I wish that more people would come to class because I know that it would help them, but really teaching the class, for me, my only challenge is to keep it interesting and keep people excited about coming to class,” she said. Owens said she hopes UTD students will engage with afflicted individuals in the classroom, especially as more research is published
about Parkinson’s disease and treatment options and DfPD continues to expand its global reach. “There wasn’t a lot of research in the beginning, now there’s more and more research that’s coming out about how dance really reinforces movement in the body, so the more research that happens, the better for all of us,” Owens said. “We really saw it right from the beginning when we were making the class, but now it’s quite contagious. Everyone really loves it.”
through networking receptions. The event attracted over 500 attendees and featured notable speakers, including Don Tapscott, who serves as executive director of the Blockchain Research Institute. Steve Guengerich, the executive director of the Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, organized the summit and said it would help the university and its students gain exposure in the tech world. “At the end of the day, we want that attention to come back to UT Dallas so it helps sponsor our research, it helps sponsor a talent pipeline of students,” Guengerich said. “So we hope those things will
establish what we have, which is a good reputation as a tech school, but we want to have more and more of that come back to UT Dallas.” Software engineering freshman Liam McMain showed his application, Chainstart, to professionals during the closing reception, where industry leaders met with members of the Blockchain and Cryptographic Systems club. The app is a decentralized version of traditional crowdfunding sites such as Kickstarter, and McMain said professionals showed interest in his product. “You don’t get a lot of opportunities to talk to people who are only interested in the same kind
of things you are, even in college. But here, everyone’s interested in blockchain, everyone’s interested in emerging technologies,” McMain said. “So it’s really nice to be able to bounce ideas off them, see what they think is a good idea or a bad idea and just making conversation. Making opportunities, making friends, it’s been really nice.” While initial conversations with sponsor Goldman Sachs began about one year ago, the summit took shape over the course of three and a half months. Blockchain technology, which was the main focus of a majority of the events at the summit, is relatively new to the general public. BACS presi-
dent and computer science junior Michael Lewellen said club members were able to demonstrate the skills they’ve learned over the course of the year. “Both the officers and the members (of the club) have been working pretty hard over the past two semesters,” Lewellen said. “So this was their time to show off, look really good in front of people that could hire them, or that they might be working with in the future, and also to show the university that the club has been doing some good work.” Lewellen added he would like to see more projects and research from the computer science and business depart-
ments at UTD involving the blockchain club, in addition to more events like the EmTech summit. Guengerich said the summit is the first step toward getting research projects for blockchain through the UTDesign program and possibly building a curriculum around the technology. “The top universities like Berkeley, MIT, UCLA, Stanford, these schools were already starting to get out there with some early blockchain events and programs,” Guengerich said. “If we want to be one of the top 10, we have to run with the top 10, we have to move as fast as the top 10 and we need to do something now.”
“Right now, renewable energy communities just throw away the excess energy generated because the cost of battery for storing the energy would be too expensive,” Cho said. “If a high-capacity, low-cost battery like what we are developing becomes practically available, renewable energy storage would be more efficient.” Cho said he and Hwang were fortunate that they were able to push the boundary and successfully publish their work when they did. Everyone in the same research field knows the latest developments as they unfold, thanks to the advancements in technology. “This is the nature of current research. It’s very dynamic
and rapidly evolving,” Cho said. “If we had been sitting on this for another year, someone else might have done it before us. They might have even done the same thing.” Though there has been interest from individuals from the industry to commercialize this technology, the researchers will be spending more time to further develop their work. Cho said that he and Hwang have addressed one problem and will be working to improve the stability of the battery even more. “We are pushing the boundary of the technology, but commercialization is a bit premature,” Cho said. “But hopefully in five to 10 years, we can see it happen.”
XIANG LI | MERCURY STAFF
The UTD Confucius Institute was established in 2007 and is located in Jonsson Academic Center.