T H E O L D E ST C O L L E G E DA I LY · FO U N D E D 1 8 7 8
NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT · TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 2013 · VOL. CXXXV, NO. 122 · yaledailynews.com
INSIDE THE NEWS MORNING EVENING
CLOUDY CLOUDY
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CROSS CAMPUS Work hard, play hard. After a
whirlwind weekend that ended in a national championship and campus stardom, the members of the all-star men’s hockey team have been enjoying their return to the Elm City. On Monday, the players were spotted in Berkeley College’s North Court lounging in the sun, red Solo cups in hand, shirts off and baseball caps turned backward. Life is good.
All we do is win. In keeping with Saturday’s theme of Bulldog dominance, the Yale quiz bowl team took first place in Division I at the National Academic Quiz Tournaments’ Intercollegiate Championship Tournament in Chicago, upsetting the expected winner, the University of Virginia, on the final question. Another team of Yale freshmen competed in Division II and came in second, losing only to Stanford. More winning. Yale College
alum and current School of Music student Naomi Woo ’12 MUS ’13 has been named a Gates Cambridge Scholar, joining the two other Yalies who were named winners of the prestigious award in February. Woo, an awardwinning pianist who studied math/philosophy and music while an undergraduate, plans to pursue an M. Phil. in music studies at Cambridge.
We’re also good at debate.
The Yale debate team saw its own share of winnings over the weekend, when team members Ben Kornfeld ’13 and Sam Ward-Packard ’14 were declared the winners of the 2013 United States Universities National Debating Championship. In addition to the glory of vanquishing over 150 other teams, the pair also won commemorative surfboards. Ah, the sweet taste of victory.
ROBOTS WILL THEY GRADE YOUR ESSAYS?
PETER THIEL
CANCER
SAILING
Billionaire investor pessimistic about the future of innovation
SURVIVORS OF MELANOMA DISPLAY RISKY BEHAVIOR
Coed team qualifies for national semifinals after sixth-place finish
PAGES 6-7 SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
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PAGES 6-7 SCI-TECH
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Salovey pursues STEM growth GRAPH YALE’S ENDOWMENT VALUE BY FISCAL YEAR, IN BILLIONS 25.0 2008 Kroon Hall
2005 Malone Engineering Center
22.5 2007 West Campus
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ONLINE y MORE cc.yaledailynews.com
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2012 Center for Engineering Innovation and Design
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BY DAN WEINER STAFF REPORTER When Peter Salovey arrived at Yale as a graduate student in 1981, roughly one in five degrees from Yale College were awarded in science, math or engineering. Over the next three decades, Salovey became a world-renowned psychologist, dean of the Graduate School and of Yale College, provost, and finally president-elect of the Uni-
versity. But as he prepares to take the highest University office, STEM still claims just one in five Yale degrees.
UPCLOSE In many important ways, the sciences at Yale have not kept pace with Salovey’s rise, and the president-elect inherits both the accomplishments and unrealized goals of outgoing President
New SOM campus on track
Students flock to campus for Bulldog Days BY AMY WANG STAFF REPORTER Since Monday, campus has been thrumming with the presence of thousands of new people, which can only mean one thing: Bulldog Days is here. Bulldog Days, the annual three-day program to welcome admitted students to the University, runs from Monday to Wednesday. Prefrosh are offered on-campus housing with current undergraduates and are invited to attend activities presented by the Admissions Office in conjunction with various other departments and student extracurricular groups. According to Mark
THIS DAY IN YALE HISTORY
crosscampus@yaledailynews.com
SEE SCIENCE PAGE 4
17.5
Yale alums know how to win even after graduation. Charles Duhigg ’97, a reporter for The New York Times who told Yalies to “fail as many times” as possible at a Morse College Master’s Tea last January, failed to take his own advice on Monday, when he won a Pulitzer Prize for a series he co-authored on technology and the economy.
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Richard Levin. Four new science buildings stand on Science Hill as the result of half a billion dollars Levin pledged to the sciences more than a decade ago. After a concerted Yale effort to recruit more students interested in majoring in STEM, the class of 2016 marks the first time more than 40 percent of the incoming class intend to pursue degrees in those
Local, state and national authorities scrambled to respond to security threats after two bombs detonated Monday afternoon near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three and injuring at least 140 runners and spectators. Among the dead include an 8-year-old boy, news outlets have reported. At least 17 of the injured were in critical condition and at least 10 suffered from amputated limbs, according to officials. There have been no reports of injuries to Yale students or staff members from the two explosions, which occurred nearly simultaneously around 3 p.m. as runners finished the race and thousands looked on. Police also found several suspicious packages, an unconfirmed number of which proved to be harmless, located in public places throughout Boston, including in three hotels and neighboring suburbs. The Boston police commissioner issued a statement Monday afternoon urging people to stay indoors and not to congregate in large groups, and police in cities as far away as New York City
THE FUTURE Biology Building
And at writing. Looks like
1968 The Yale Admissions Office announces a series of new records for the class of 1972. In addition to accepting a record-breaking number of African-American and public school students, Yale also received 6,800 applications in the admissions cycle, the highest ever at the time. The University — which offered a record amount of financial aid — ultimately accepts 21 percent of applicants.
BY MONICA DISARE AND NICOLE NAREA STAFF REPORTERS
2002 Class of 1954 Environmental Center
2005 Class of 1954 Chemistry Research Building
Tragedy mars Boston Marathon
Dunn, director of outreach and recruitment for the Admissions Office, 1,235 high school students registered for Bulldog Days and have arrived with roughly 1,000 parents in tow. “We are thrilled with the positive response from admitted students,” Dunn said in a Sunday email to the News. This year’s Bulldog Days — which includes symposiums, forums, showcases and a series of “master classes” — has drawn roughly the same number of students as in past years. Changes to the program this spring include a new scavenger hunt around camSEE BULLDOG DAYS PAGE 5
HENRY EHRENBERG/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
The new SOM campus on Whitney Avenue will feature 16 classrooms with advanced video equipment. BY ALEKSANDRA GJORGIEVSKA STAFF REPORTER During their classes in the School of Management’s new building on Whitney Avenue next year, SOM students will interact with business leaders from overseas — on screen. Though the new building’s glass exterior and infrastructure are complete, SOM administrators and Yale Facilities representatives interviewed said construction is still underway on the classrooms inside. The 16 classrooms, which are specifically designed to maximize interactive learning, will contain advanced video equipment allowing faculty and students to communicate with
business experts at different locations in real time. The 242,000-square-foot campus — named Edward P. Evans Hall to honor the Yale alumnus whose $50 million gift is partially financing SOM’s move to Whitney Avenue — will open in January 2014 as scheduled, administrators said. Each classroom in Evans Hall will contain at least three projection screens, video teleconferencing equipment, builtin cameras and microphones — equipment that SOM Chief Information Officer Alan Usas said complements the school’s efforts to globalize its curriculum, as it will allow speakers from overseas to participate in SEE SOM PAGE 5
YDN
At last year’s extracurricular bazaar during Bulldog Days, prospective freshmen explored extracurricular opportunities in Payne Whitney Gymnasium.
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YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 2013 · yaledailynews.com
OPINION
.COMMENT “Why would our administrators settle for anything less than National yaledailynews.com/opinion
Championships in all sports?”
GUE ST COLUMNIST DIANA ENRIQUE Z
'THOMAS KOHR' ON 'FOR THE FANS'
GUE ST COLUMNIST ISA QASIM
Remember to say I love you Running with Boston I
was walking to class on Monday, reading through emails and speed-walking to make sure that I wouldn’t be late, when one particular email caught my eye. It was from a friend. The subject line read, “your brother,” and the only word I saw in the next line was “bombs.” My little brother spent the past year training for the Boston Marathon. I thought Patriots' Day was a national holiday until I stopped living in Boston; there, it is a statewide holiday. I live near Heartbreak Hill, so my brother and I would walk over to the grassy areas of the road and cheer on the Kenyan runners as they flew by wearing their flags every year. We chased each other along the sidewalk, cheering until we lost our voices. This year, he was part of the race. And I was so proud of him. But yesterday, the marathon wasn’t a display of human achievement and beautiful movement. For me, it was that chilling, heart-shattering moment of looking through the headlines, desperate for information from anything I could find. I had no idea what to do, so I called one of my friends on the cross-country team and gave him my brother’s running stats and times, hoping he could tell me that Nico was OK. I was clinging to everything. And all I could think about was: Why didn’t I call him to wish him good luck? What was the last thing I said to him? Marathon Monday was terrifying for many members of my family and my friends back at
home. But in the background of explosions and confusion and the crowds of frantic, scared people away from their homes, I saw so many signs of heroism. My mother got into the city, despite the locked-down streets and blockages. With a friend of hers, she managed to get through the crowds and passed policemen blocking the streets to find my brother, who had to borrow eight different people’s cellphones to text her and tell her where he was. She was a lioness that day. The kind of mom who lives up to the superhero status she had in my eyes.
I SPENT THE DAY SEARCHING FOR NEWS THAT MY BROTHER WAS ALIVE My friends from across the city posted messages about having open couches and corners and beds for anyone who was lost in Boston and needed somewhere to stay. Headlines about runners who left the finish line and went directly to the hospital to donate blood for the people injured in the explosions appeared and were all over Twitter. We may be known as “Massholes,” but I saw love pouring from every corner of Mas-
sachusetts towards all those in need. I have never loved Boston as much as I did yesterday. Someone told me once that we can remember what is beautiful in the world if we remember to look for the random acts of kindness that take place in the face of tragedy. I read the news while waiting for more information about my mother and my brother and felt a little better because I believed that someone out there would help them if they could. Just as I knew Nico would, too, if someone needed him while he was out there running. I have never been so relieved to hear his voice as I was when he called me yesterday evening. A little out of breath, tired and in a lot of pain (he finished the marathon), we joked about how hard it would be for him to climb the stairs the next day. I told him that I loved him, and remembered how lucky I was to say that to him whenever I wanted. Yesterday helped me remember the communities I never really thought about having, from my friends who immediately texted and emailed and left class to call me, to my fearless mother, to my friends back in Boston and around the world. I think too often I wander through my work and daily routine without appreciating all that I have been given. Yesterday I was given the gift to say "I love you" again to my beloved little brother. I will never forget this gift. DIANA ENRIQUEZ is a senior in Saybrook College. Contact her at diana.enriquez@yale.edu .
I
first heard about the explosions at the finish line of the Boston Marathon when I was changing to go for a run. In the track locker room, I heard one of my teammates on the phone, telling a loved one to stay calm — the ends of marathons are always chaotic, he said, and it wouldn’t be possible to find out what happened right away. I was already in my running shorts, but I reached into the pocket of my jeans, pulled out my phone and searched for news about the Boston Marathon. Eventually, I found a tiny blurb on the New York Times home page: Two explosions were heard near the finish line. I went out to stretch. They were talking about it at the track when I arrived. Some of the guys had brought their phones out there, and the team huddled around the tiny screens in between stretches. We learned that the explosions had knocked people down, and that some might even be injured. But that was all we knew. I stretched, feeling my body ache with each movement. I had run hard the day before, when a teammate and I had raced the last mile of our 16-mile run. I could feel it today, especially in my calves, which burned as I pressed my feet against a ledge. It would be wrong to say that the mood was solemn, but a nervous energy emanated from the tiny phones. More jokes were made than usual, but we laughed to keep away the silence. And then we went on our run. Runs have a subtle choreography to them. You feel yourself in relation to others more acutely. Individual runners fall back and move forward, but the entire
group responds dynamically. Being half an inch ahead of the runner next to you gives you control of the pace, and when you fall back half an inch, you cede control to your partner. When done correctly, everyone controls the group for a moment, so that the group as a whole is in charge. The same is true of a marathon. Not up front, where prize money can be won. There it is cutthroat. But in the middle of the pack, the race takes on a different dynamic. There, the race is not so much about beating your fellow athletes as it is lifting each other up to the task. Twenty-six miles is a long way to go alone, and the subtle dance of halfinches creates an impromptu community that supports runners through the lonely streets and heartbreaking hills.
RUNNING CAN BRING US TOGETHER By the fifth mile of yesterday’s run, I found myself with only one teammate beside me, the captain of the cross-country team, Kevin Lunn '13. We loped through the forest paths together, talking about running. Kevin observed that the world is different after a run. The colors are more vibrant, the air is crisper and the worries of life fall to the side. If the world is different after a run, he explained, there must be some point during the run when the world undergoes a transformation. There must be some
point, perhaps seven miles in, when the world is remade before our very eyes and we do not even notice. Perhaps the pounding of our feet reshapes the earth beneath us; it is beaten into new shapes that mirror the old ones, but are sharper and purer. It is impossible to run the same path twice because with every run, we destroy the world and then create it anew. When Kevin and I arrived back at the track, the team was huddled around the screens again. I heard someone say, “Two dead, dozens injured.” Running is not an escape. It is a confrontation. It is a refusal to accept the world as it is and an almost naive insistence that work can change things for the better. It is a refusal to accept terror. That is why I, try as I might, cannot view this marathon as a tragedy. A tragedy is irredeemable, but the events of yesterday have already been redeemed. Every runner who kept running up the hills, only to be finally stopped by police barriers, has redeemed this marathon. The runners who went to the hospital to donate blood have redeemed this marathon. The Kenyan, Ethiopian and American elites who have trained their whole lives to compete at Boston have redeemed this marathon. And, in their little way, runners all across the world who heard the devastating news but still laced up their trainers and put on their shorts have redeemed this marathon. Terror may break the world, but running repairs it. ISA QASIM is a sophomore in Jonathan Edwards College. Contact him at isa.qasim@yale.edu .
GUEST COLUMNIST ALEXANDRA LIN
To the SWUGs, fight for love I
n every article I read espousing the culture of the “senior washed-up girl,” I sense a distressing sadness. Someday, decades from now when the beauty of our youth has faded, I want every Yale woman to be able to say she fought for more than the freedom to hook up indiscriminately and care for nothing as she rode out her final days of college. We have about five weeks until we graduate and are “scattered across the globe like dandelion seeds” (as a friend poetically put it). I am completely perplexed as to why anyone wouldn’t want to spend that time evolving into a creature that is the best version of herself. I’ll make an analogy to cigarettes since I think that American culture has finally reached a point where nearly everyone
understands that smoking is a shortcut to death. When I hear upperclassmen, male or female, boast about how little they plan to care about anything until after graduation when they get to “real life,” I imagine a group of chain-smokers who repeatedly tell their friends and family that they’ll quit the habit when they’re ready, while the people who love them know they’re just being lazy. Life is not going to get any more real than right now. In fact, I would gamble more than a few penny drinks at Toad’s that life is going to become significantly less interesting and more difficult when we’re off working jobs in places where not everyone is as introspective and forward-thinking as a class of Yale seniors. It is going to be harder to take off the sweatpants and
put down the wine when you’re alone in your unpacked apartment divided from the support group of friends you’ve come to rely on during the last four years. What’s been fueling this habit of procrastination is the idea that there’s something positive to be gained from occasional indifference, but what keeps coming back in all these "SWUG" articles is an abstract dissatisfaction with the amount of attention women receive with regards to hookups and dating. I think everything in the world traces back to a universal desire for love. The current debate is no different. There’s a hilarious notion going around that we’ve lost something desirable since our freshman year in exchange for an undefined concept of “wisdom” which excuses us from being role models for the
underclassmen. I don’t believe in unconditional love. At least, not between friends and lovers. I believe it exists between parents and their children, and I believe that is the only place it should exist. I want conditional love. I want the person I’m seeing to challenge me to become something greater than I thought I could be, and I want to do the same for him. I’m not saying we can never be weak, but what good is unconditional love if it means my future husband will still care about me if I cheat on him with a dozen people or neglect our children? I’m extrapolating, but the point I’m trying to get across is that women today need to stop excusing themselves. The vague culture of "feminism" is becoming a crutch that our generation has been leaning on for too long.
Inherent in the conversation is an extremely unattractive and childish sense of entitlement. "I’m a woman, so I deserve it all: casual sex, expensive dates, eventually an adorable family and a high-profile career." I don’t want it all because I know the things I most deeply desire explicitly rule out certain experiences in life. I wish I could more dramatically get across how frustrating it is to see people, not just women, fail to understand that choices become meaningful when you resolve to sacrifice one opportunity in favor of another. At the heart of it, everyone has a subconscious understanding of his or her own internal preferences, and I think the slow realization that pursuing casual sex is a very weak strategy for finding love is what has triggered this intense
rationalization for superficial, attention-seeking apathy. As a class of incredible senior women, we need to own up to our actions. The contemporary feminist is not the girl who “has it all,” she’s the woman who’s taken stock of her personal preferences and maintained a strong sense of loyalty to her identity as a feminine individual — regardless of what society has told her is “empowering.” Ultimately, despite the distortions made by the media, I think we all understand what our time here meant together. My freshman self was a mere shade of who I am today. Now it is time for us to change again. It is time for us to grow up. ALEXANDRA LIN is a senior in Pierson College. Contact her at alexandra.lin@yale.edu .
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act: When my friend returned home from Bulldog Days, she had developed a rash on her forearms due to the amount of time she had spent with them awkwardly crossed over her chest. The moral of this story is not to warn against crossing your arms, but rather to let you know that, as you’ve probably noticed, Bulldog Days comes with a large dose of awkward, the side effects of which may include a rash on the forearms. I promise, this is not what Bulldog Days is trying to give you. It’s trying to give you a nicely packaged and complete image of Yale. This, quite simply, is just not possible. It’s quite possible that Bulldog Days may actually do a better job of giving you the rash. As I walked out of Phelps Gate yesterday evening, I was almost run over by what was, I’m sure, a lovely prospective class of 2017er. The frazzled boy seemed concerned that he was missing 28 events key to Understanding Yale. In general, I feel as though Yale
does a pretty solid job fulfilling most of its Bulldog Days promises — you get lots of free food, you get a place to sleep, you meet incredible and interesting people, listen to celebrity speakers, and attend exciting classes that, maybe, for the first time in your life, can’t be summed up in a single word like “English,” and often require absurd acronyms and abbreviations.
DON'T WAIT FOR THAT MAGIC MOMENT But I think it fails in its central promise: I’m not sure if anyone can leave this whirlwind of excitement and congratulations and “Signature Events” with a real and tangible Understanding of Yale. And I don’t advise trying. In the next two days, you will face
a million small decisions — should I go to a cappella at Shake Shack or a cappella with bubble tea? — and one very large and important one: deciding where you will attend college. Personally, I was very lucky in that my college process went smoothly and simply. I fell in love with Yale on a campus visit my junior year, got in early and the rest, as they say, is history. But many, if not most, of you are not imagining Yale vs. Yale scenarios (freshman year in L-Dub or TD?) — you’re trying to make a decision between Yale and Not Yale. And I don’t know if Bulldog Days will help you in the way that you want it to. I knew I wanted to go to Yale, I could list reasons why I believed this to be true ad infinitum (so can you, we all wrote that short answer), but I don’t think I truly knew that Yale was, as the college counseling jargon refers to it, “the right fit” until a few months into my first semester. If you think you already know this, you are wrong
— how can you see yourself in a life of unidentified variables? No matter how many root beer floats you have with the women’s rugby team, you won’t understand what it means to be a member of the team until your first tackle in a Yale jersey. No matter how many organizations and clubs send you emails, they won’t give you a more complete image of campus culture at Yale until they’re coming to your Yale email address. Given that no combination of events in your Bulldog Days Bluebook will lead you to lux and enlightenment, don’t stress yourself out waiting for a moment of revelation to lead you to a decision. Consider the facts: Sometimes it comes down to the ageold test of a pro-con list. For now, take your free food to a quiet place and allow yourself some time for self-reflection — and avoid contracting a rash. CAROLINE SYDNEY is a freshman in Silliman College. Contact her at caroline.sydney@yale.edu .
YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 2013 · yaledailynews.com
PAGE 3
NEWS
“Salad bars are like a restaurant’s lungs. They soak up the impurities and bacteria in the environment, leaving you with much cleaner air to enjoy.” DOUG COUPLAND CANADIAN NOVELIST
Restaurant Week Businesses prep for Bulldog Days heads to Elm City BY STEPHANIE TOMASSON CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Be prepared to step out of the dining hall next week. From April 21–26, 29 restaurants across New Haven will offer three-course meals at a price of $18 for lunch and $32 for dinner, as well as extended and half-price happy hours for the city’s annual Restaurant Week. The event, which is now held twice a year, provides a more affordable way for students, visitors and New Haven residents to explore some of the city’s higher-priced culinary experiences. “It brings a lot of tourists and makes New Haven like a second New York City,” said Bruice Bennett, the manager of Restaurant Week participant Oaxaca Kitchen. “It becomes a more happening place. It is improving business for everyone and becoming very famous as a more prominent part of New Haven culture each year.”
It brings a lot of tourists and makes New Haven like a second New York City. BRUCE BENNETT Manager, Oaxaca Kitchen
Many of the participating restaurants are creating special menus featuring their best appetizers, entrees and deserts. Rafat Zoreiqi, the manager of participant Pacifico, said that the event aimed to give customers a “good way” to try out some of the restaurant’s best options. R e s ta u ra n t m a n a ge rs like Zoreiqi and Bennett are pleased with how successful the event has been in the past.
They said it gives them a boost to business that lasts the rest of the year. “New Haven does a lot of commercial advertising [for Restaurant Week] on the highway, radio and TV,” said Nuh Demirel, manager of participant Istanbul Cafe. “It is not easy for a small restaurant like us to get big advertising in any other way, but New Haven helps us out with business all year-round through that.” Zoreiqi added that other towns are starting to follow New Haven’s lead — even the East Rock neighborhood of the city will host its own week with similar deals. Those on campus are also getting excited about the week’s events. “I’ve never been to so many of these [restaurants],” said Isabel Sperry ’16 as she perused the online list of participating restaurants. “I’m definitely going to check them out, and I think it’ll be a good opportunity for Yale students to try out new places and get to know New Haven.” Sophie Kaye ’15, who has participated in past Restaurant Weeks, said she could not wait to check out this year’s offerings of New Haven’s “most delicious bites.” She said she hopes Restaurant Week can expand to even more restaurants as it encourages Yale students to explore the city’s dining scene. Echoing this sentiment, Kateline Hullar ’16 and Matthew Segal ’16 both said they think that Restaurant Week will facilitate learning about New Haven culture and exploring neighborhoods they would not otherwise experience. New Haven Restaurant Week is sponsored by Bank of America. Contact STEPHANIE TOMASSON at stephanie.tomasson@yale.edu .
BY MONICA DISARE STAFF REPORTER
YDN
New Haven stores are gearing up for a flurry of increased business from Bulldog Days and the men’s hockey team’s national title.
As prospective students and their families flock to New Haven for Bulldog Days, businesses in New Haven are preparing for an influx of visitors. Elm City store owners said that Bulldog Days, which began Monday and will end on Wednesday, is one of the busiest times of the year. This year, Yale stores will be able to capitalize on Yale hockey success alongside the Bulldog Days crowds: After the team’s Saturday victory in the NCAA Division I national championship, members of the Yale community and visitors are clamoring to acquire Bulldog souvenirs, and city stores are eager to meet the demand. At the Yale Bookstore this week, staff will cover extra shifts to face additional business from prospective students and their families, said Joseph King, the general manager at the Yale Bookstore. “We love this time of year,” he said. George Koutroumanis, the owner of Yorkside Pizza, said that any time there are an extra 2,000 people in New Haven, there is more business for everyone. Bulldog Days is one of the top five annual events for businesses in New Haven, said Jeremy Cobden, the co-owner of Campus Customs. Other big annual events include Camp Yale, the Yale-Harvard game, Parents’ Weekend and Commencement.
Cobden added that the NCAA championship will likely make this Bulldog Days even more successful for the store. “In my 25 years, [the national championship] is one of the most memorable things that has happened,” Cobden said, adding that hockey souvenirs are currently being purchased not just by prospective students, but also by local residents. Some New Haven businesses also try to use the week to encourage prospective students to matriculate in the fall.
From tapas to pizzas, [students have] a great spread of food all within walking distance. GEORGE KOUTROUMANIS Owner, Yorkside Pizza “I’ve been here since 1969, and Yale students have one of the best things going on,” Koutroumanis said. “From tapas to pizzas, [students have] a great spread of food all within walking distance.” There were 1,235 prospective students registered for Bulldog Days, said Mark Dunn, director of outreach and recruitment for the Yale Admissions Office. Contact MONICA DISARE at monica.disare@yale.edu .
Billionaire investor predicts bleak future BY ADRIAN RODRIGUES CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Billionaire investor, philanthropist and entrepreneur Peter Thiel said Monday afternoon that the future of innovation is bleak. At the talk, which drew a crowd of roughly 80 students and members of the New Haven community, Thiel emphasized how technological progress has diminished in recent decades, adding that the pattern might extend into the future. Thiel, a venture capitalist who founded PayPal in 1998 and became the first outside investor in Facebook in 2004, said that though computer technology has witnessed a “relentless” growth in recent years, other sectors have not seen significant progress in innovation. “We are no longer living in a technologically accelerating world,” he said. “There is an incredible sense of deceleration.” Varying regulatory policies have caused a disparity between the growth in technological industries and that in other areas of production, Thiel said. The development of energy alternatives is heavily regulated, he said, so few viable technologies have been produced, but inventions of new software and computer hardware have been highly unregulated, he added. While recent decades have been characterized by insufficient progress, Thiel said he does not think “deceleration is something natural” and “there are many areas where technological innovation is possible.” Thiel said the United States needs technological progress to maintain a democracy. Progress is necessary for effective compromise, which is a foundation of democracy, so both parties can be satisfied, he added. “It’s a very open question of whether you could have the democratic process in a world without growth,” he said. “You
can’t craft compromise where everyone comes out ahead.” Thiel said he thinks not enough focus has been placed on the growth of the developed world because the developing world often attracts the most attention. But the vast majority of technological innovation comes from Western Europe, the United States, Japan and several other highly advanced nations, he said.
We are no longer living in a technologically accelerating world. There is an incredible sense of deceleration. PETER THIEL Founder, PayPal Roughly 80 percent of Americans believe the next generation will be less well-off than the current generation, Thiel said, adding that he himself has a pessimistic outlook on the future. “In this technologically decelerating world, there are some very big problems,” he said. Several audience members interviewed said they enjoyed hearing about the problems currently facing economic growth in the developed world. Yousef AbuGharbieh LAW ’15 SOM ’15 said the talk prompted him to consider the causes of a lack of innovation. Marcus Eagan, a member of the New Haven community, said Thiel helped him understand the obstacles that confront businesses in today’s society. Thiel founded a hedge fund called Clarium Capital in 2002. Contact ADRIAN RODRIGUES at adrian.rodrigues@yale.edu .
PHILIPP ARNDT/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Billionaire entrepreneur Peter Thiel said in a Monday talk that technological progress has been insufficient in recent decades.
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YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 2013 · yaledailynews.com
FROM THE FRONT
“No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong.” ALBERT EINSTEIN DEVELOPER OF THE GENERAL THEORY OF RELATIVITY AND THE MASS–ENERGY EQUIVALENCE FORMULA
In sciences, Salovey weighs priorities SCIENCE FROM PAGE 1 fields. In the last decade, multiple departments have revamped introductory courses to help retain the growing number of students intending to major in the sciences. But questions remain about whether Yale will ever be able to shake its image as an institution that values the humanities over the sciences. The new biology building, promised to the Science Hill faculty more than a decade ago, remains a quarterbillion dollar fantasy. In Salovey, molecular biologists and theoretical chemists may not be getting one of their own. But conversations with more than two dozen students, faculty and administrators suggest that the science community at Yale recognizes Salovey as an accomplished researcher and ally. While he has not released detailed plans for the sciences under his presidency, Salovey has signaled that he will prioritize faculty growth, modernizing facilities and fostering a science culture. “I think he is very committed to making the sciences as strong as they can be,” psychology professor Frank Keil said. “I think he understands that is a very important part of Yale’s future, and he definitely wants to commit to it. I have no doubt about that.”
was the $250 million Yale Biology Building, said Deputy Provost for Science and Technology Steve Girvin. The 326,400-squarefoot facility on Science Hill, which biology professor Sidney Altman said had been promised to the faculty since the late 1990s, would primarily serve as the home for the Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology Department — a department Girvin said was in “sore need” of new laboratory space. But in 2007, Yale spent $109 million on the sciences — seven miles away from Science Hill. With the purchase of the 136acre former Bayer Pharmaceuticals plant, the University added 1.6 million square feet of research facilities, office and storage space for Yale sciences and engineering as well as for Yale art and library collections. At the time, Levin said the laboratories already on the property would have cost between $300 and $400 million to build on their own.
[We need to] make sure that our introductory science courses are going to actually encourage interest in science instead of discouraging it.
BUILDING ‘A GOOD TRAJECTORY’
In the 1980s, the physical infrastructure around the whole campus was in a state of disrepair, said Yale College Dean Mary Miller. The coat of paint applied to her office in the early 1990s was the first since World War II. “Maybe you could limp along without a new coat of paint in basic classroom buildings on the central campus,” she said. “But in fact, cutting-edge science was hard to perform in outmoded or nonexistent facilities. Yale had to work very hard, starting in the Levin years, to reinvigorate the faculty, to address concerns about facilities, and to inspire a generation of undergraduates about the exciting opportunities in science, engineering, technology and math.” In January 2000, Levin pledged $500 million for the science and engineering facilities to fund the construction of five new buildings and the renovation of existing ones. Many of the science buildings were the oldest at Yale, presenting challenges for conducting science, attracting faculty, and promoting a culture of science and engineering in the student body. A month later, Levin announced another $500 million for the then cashstrapped medical school over the next decade. The first of the five buildings, the Class of 1954 Environmental Science Center, opened in early 2002. Malone Engineering Center opened three years later, as did the Class of 1954 Chemistry Research Building. Kroon Hall welcomed the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies in 2008. The fifth building, and perhaps the initiative most central to the Science Hill growth plan,
RICHARD LEVIN President, Yale University One year after the West Campus purchase, the economic recession crushed the Yale endowment. Assets valued at $22.9 billion tumbled to $16.3 billion in the span of months. With it, the growth of faculty labs slowed to a trickle on West Campus and has only recently started to recover. Back on Science Hill, plans to break ground on the Yale Biology Building were shelved indefinitely. Today, a $100 million solicitation for the building sits on the “Giving to Yale” website. The most significant challenge facing Yale Science is the state of the facilities, Salovey said. West Campus, he said, is key to Yale’s ability to solve interdisciplinary science problems. The facility is organized into six institutes — Chemical Biology, Cancer Biology, Nanobiology, Systems Biology, Microbial Diversity and Energy Sciences — that share four core facilities: a center for molecular discovery, a center for genome analysis, a high-performance computing center and an analytical chemistry facility. Salovey said continuing to support West Campus growth and faculty recruitment, currently at about 25 percent capacity, is one of his top priorities. Restarting construction on the Yale Biology Building is another “high priority,” Salovey said, adding that it is very likely that the University would have to borrow money to finance the construction. Altman called Yale’s longstanding unwillingness to borrow money to construct the Yale Biology Building a “repeated
failure on the part of the administration.” This reality is not lost on many senior administrators, including Levin. “I think we are on a good trajectory,” Levin said. “But my one big regret is that we were just ramping up to a tremendous amount of renovation on Science Hill — we did three buildings up there — but we had much more in the works, and the recession took the wind out of the sails.”
DIAGNOSING THE STEM PROBLEM
More than 40 percent of the class of 2016 expressed interest in majoring in STEM — the first group in Yale’s history planning to focus on these disciplines at such a high rate. During Altman’s last year as dean of Yale College in 1989, only 15 percent of the degrees were in STEM fields. Exposure to science was not widespread among nonmajors, either. During Altman’s tenure as dean, 30 percent of Yale College students were graduating without having taken a single science course. Altman said he was dismayed by this lack of scientific education and worked to encourage undergraduate exposure to the sciences. Soon, Yale students were required to take at least three courses in each distributional area outside of their area of major study, he said, including a minimum of two in the natural sciences. His administration also placed science counselors in each of the residential colleges to serve as tutors for students. In 2001, Levin convened a Committee on Yale College Education to consider the state of undergraduate education, and in particular to evaluate whether Yale students were graduating with the requisite skills for the 21st century. Salovey, then-chair of the Psychology Department, led the working group on biomedical education. The report, released 10 years ago this month, laid out the challenges facing the College and especially those in the STEM departments. “[The] undergraduate culture does not foster a high degree of interest in and respect for scientific inquiry,” it concluded. “Students frequently abandon science, not just as a possible major but even as a continuing interest, as a result of a single bad experience early on.” The report suggested numerous remedies for this dire diagnosis. Yale College should embark on “major curricular initiatives” in the sciences, including developing attractive introductory science courses for nonmajors, providing freshmen with opportunities for research and reviewing the laboratory sections attached to introductory courses. It was also this report that initially suggested the current system of distributional requirements. In the previous scheme, any course taught by a science faculty member could qualify for inclusion in the sciences group, said history professor Daniel Kevles, who served on the physical sciences working group. He said he remembers that Salovey was eager to ensure the new science requirement had “some
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teeth” in practice and was very supportive of the recommendation that a committee of faculty vet the distributional category given to each course. “Peter was the person who had to put the CYCE into effect back when he was first dean,” Miller said. “It is the lessons that come out of the first CYCE that really will underpin a lot of Peter’s vision of Yale College. STEM teaching was heavily emphasized as needing improvement.”
AS DEAN AND PROVOST, PROFESSOR SALOVEY
William Segraves spends a lot of time thinking about how to teach science. As associate dean for science education, Segraves has helped revamp many introductory science courses at Yale to reduce the number of students who leave the sciences for good after the “single bad experience” named in the CYCE report. Girvin said Salovey has been a strong supporter of improving early undergraduate education in STEM disciplines. The Physics Department launched a new introductory course for the biomedical sciences, PHYS 170/171, about four years ago. “Students are looking at that course and saying, ‘Now I understand what physics has to do with my interests,’ in a way that they didn’t before,” Segraves said. “I think that’s been a real success.” A year later, in fall 2011, both the Math and Chemistry departments unveiled introductory courses with a greater focus on biological applications. The introductory biology sequence saw a revision last fall as well. Segraves said the departments are still tweaking these young courses. In the first two modules of the revised introductory biology sequence, 35 percent of students rated the courses “below average” or “poor.” By comparison, only 22 percent of students gave these two lowest ratings to the semester-long course the modules replaced. “There have been some areas where we have seen considerable improvements in terms of course offerings, other areas where we are still lagging behind,” Levin said. “I think there is still a lot of work to be done there to make sure that our introductory science courses are going to actually encourage interest in science instead of discouraging it.” In addition to reimagining STEM instruction, the CYCE highlighted increasing research experience as an important component of improving the STEM experience at Yale. The Yale College Dean’s Research Fellowship expanded “exponentially” over the last decade according to Segraves, adding that Salovey’s support as dean was critical to its growth. In 2001, the program supported only six students with summer research, but last summer 88 received between $3,440 and $4,300 each for eight to 10 weeks of summer work, much of which happened in the sciences. “We are seeing what happens when you do the things we have been doing for the last five years,” Segraves said. “We have more students graduating with STEM majors, and they are having great experiences. It’s not a coincidence that Yale had a boatload of Rhodes scholars this year and that three or four of them were scientists.” Over the last decade, roughly half of STEM students have stuck with the field until graduation, according to data from the Yale Office of Institutional Research. In the class of 2012, for example, 57 percent of students who initially indicated interest in STEM graduated with a degree in the field. But retention rates over the first and second half of the past decade are virtually identical, at 48 and 51 percent, respectively, and a 2011 report following up on the CYCE recommended that the College still do more to retain STEM students. Preventing students from leaving STEM fields remains a “concern” going into Salovey’s administration, Girvin said. Levin pushed hard to attract an incoming class with 40 percent of students indicating interest in a STEM field, and Salovey said he has not yet decided how he wants to shape the student body. “I’m mainly interested in finding the very best applicants that are out there and getting
them to come to Yale,” he said. “We are more attractive in that way to those with a science and engineering interest than we used to be, and I think that’s a good thing.”
THE FACULTY KEY
Directly or indirectly, all of Salovey’s goals for the sciences aim to boost faculty recruitment. Salovey said his primary objective is to elevate the reputation of Yale’s physical sciences and engineering departments to the level of the life sciences — the umbrella term for the biological sciences on Science Hill and biomedical research at the medical school — by hiring strong senior and promising junior faculty. Attracting faculty to engineering got a financial boost in 2011 with a $50 million gift to endow 10 new professorships, and Salovey said he will work with Engineering Dean Kyle Vanderlick to fill those positions. Attracting top faculty will become easier once Yale finishes rehabilitating the facilities on Science Hill, Salovey said, and creating a more “vibrant” STEM culture will help draw faculty as well. In these goals, Salovey did not mention increasing the number of female faculty members in the sciences. At Yale College, approximately 11 percent of tenured faculty in the physical sciences are female, a rate which has roughly doubled since 2002 according to the Women Faculty Forum. Jessica Tordoff ’15 said she thinks recruiting female faculty in the sciences should be a top priority for Salovey. As a computer science and molecular, cellular and developmental biology double major, she said her only course taught by a woman this year was her language class. “That’s a really big deal, having female professors, because it’s something we are definitely missing,” she said. “Although it looks like we are making great bounds in there being more and more women STEM undergraduates every year and that’s really valuable and great, it’s really sad that you look at your professor and think, ‘I’ve had zero [female] STEM professors in 10 classes this year.’”
[Salovey] has credibility with the scientists on campus, and that helps immensely. FRANK KEIL Professor, Psychology Department Though he did not explicitly mention faculty gender parity as a top priority, Salovey has shown commitment to diversity among faculty in his time as provost, said Deputy Provost for the Social Sciences and Faculty Development Frances Rosenbluth, citing his role in helping establish the University Faculty Diversity Committee in 2011. In fact, while Salovey may not be a physicist or biologist, he was nearly an engineer. Faculty say Salovey’s broad exposure to fields beyond psychology allow him to empathize with professors throughout the University. At the opening of the Center for Engineering Innovation and Design in February, Salovey said he nearly pursued engineering at Stanford as an undergraduate. In high school, he received the Cornell Society of Engineers award and the Rensselaer Medal, given to distinguished seniors in math and science, he said. His father, too, was a professor of chemical engineering and materials science. Psychology professor Frank Keil said Salovey displayed a broad understanding of science beyond his home discipline of psychology. When Salovey chaired a recent senior appointments committee in the physical sciences, Keil said Salovey became “genuinely excited” about the research and displayed an impressive base of background knowledge. “I think that he has credibility with the scientists on campus, and that helps immensely,” Keil said. “He is quantitatively sophisticated, and he understands how to run a lab and experimental methodology. He can speak the language.” The scientific community views Salovey as a “friend of the
sciences” because he can empathize with the process of securing and maintaining grant support, especially in challenging fiscal times like the present, said Vice President of West Campus Planning and Development Scott Strobel. In a symposium for new faculty on West Campus last year, Salovey talked about his start at Yale as an assistant professor in the late 1980s and the process of establishing a research operation. Jesse Rinehart GRD ’04, an assistant professor of physiology who attended the talk, said he is optimistic about Salovey’s impact on the sciences because he understands the inner workings of being a successful researcher. Despite researching in a field distinct from Salovey’s, Rinehart said he thinks Salovey understands fully what it takes to compete for funding in the modern life sciences environment. Levin, too, said he thinks Salovey has a “natural affinity” with many of Yale’s scientists because of how well he understands the process for securing research grants. For Robert Alpern, dean of the Yale School of Medicine, Salovey’s personal qualities are more important than his research accomplishments for his future in office. “He is a great listener and a clear thinker, and that is what is so critical,” Alpern said. “It obviously helps that he has had grants from the NIH, and so he understands that world and that makes it easier for us, but I don’t think that means for us that he is necessarily going to favor science over art or humanities or anything like that. I think he is going to think it through and be a president for everyone.”
A PRESIDENT FOR EVERYONE
In the sciences alone, Salovey is being pulled in many directions. Salovey’s focus on faculty hiring on Science Hill and West Campus promises to be very costly. Modernization of teaching classrooms and labs on Science Hill continues, as the $250 million price tag on the Yale Biology Building looms. Another issue that may take up an increasing amount of Salovey’s time is “bridge funding” — University support for researchers who are struggling to maintain continuing grant funding. The recent federal sequester exacerbated the already difficult process of securing grants from agencies like the National Institutes of Health, West Campus researcher Rinehart said. He said he hopes the Salovey administration responds in an “extremely generous and supportive fashion” and looks to innovative ways to continue the University’s ongoing robust research initiatives. Salovey noted that while the STEM fields need the most care, the University must not neglect its other strengths. “Yale has an outstanding reputation in the arts and humanities, and it’s very important that we not be complacent about that reputation,” he said. “And so as we continue to focus on science and engineering, we also need to recognize that we need to attend to the arts and humanities simultaneously.” Along with modernizing teaching spaces and supporting initiatives at the CEID, Salovey said constructing the two new residential colleges near Science Hill — a $500 million project — will help foster a STEM culture at Yale by reducing the “psychological distance” to Science Hill. Keil said he thinks one of Salovey’s strengths as president will be his ability to balance all the initiatives demanding University resources. “He has remarkably strong backgrounds from so many different facets of Yale, so many connections across the whole community,” Keil said. “Not just in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, but in the medical school, the School of Management, and the Law School. He knows Yale and has experienced Yale and celebrated the scholarship of Yale across all the disciplines. Yes, I think he fully gets the sciences, but I think he also fully gets the social sciences and he fully gets the humanities. I think everyone is going to feel like he is in their corner, which is a hard thing to do.” Contact DAN WEINER at daniel.weiner@yale.edu .
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FROM THE FRONT
“Show me a hero and I’ll write you a tragedy.” F. SCOTT FITZGERALD AMERICAN AUTHOR OF THE “LOST GENERATION” OF THE 1920S
Three dead following marathon explosion BOSTON FROM PAGE 1
WINSLOW TOWNSON/ASSOCIATED PRESS
An unidentified Boston Marathon runner leaves the course crying near Copley Square following the explosions at the end of the race.
SOM to see techsavvy classrooms SOM FROM PAGE1 classes “almost as if they are present in the classroom.” “On SOM’s current campus, having a video conference often means transporting various equipment on a cart and calling a technician to set it up,” Usas said. “[This is] time and effort that everyone will put to much better use on the new campus, with all classrooms having with the latest equipment.” Usas and SOM professor and deputy dean Stanley Garstka, who is overseeing the entire construction project, said special care has been taken to ensure the new campus meets the needs of the SOM community. Administrators and professors interviewed cited the new technology as well as the classrooms’ elliptical shape, which will allow the professor to stand in the middle of the room and students to face both the professor and each other, as factors that will make instruction more interactive on the new campus than at the current facilities. Other spaces in the new building — such as collaboration rooms specifically designed for student projects — are also conducive to interactive learning, Usas said, adding that the process of installing the equipment will extend into the fall. He said faculty will be given limited access to the building in the fall to allow them to get
acquainted with the new equipment, though he said his team has tried to set up even the most complex equipment in an “intuitive” way, ensuring that everyone will be able to use it easily. “The new building will allow for uniformity of experience among students, staff and faculty, because all classrooms and project rooms will be identically equipped from the start,” Usas said. “That is not the case with the school’s current campus because there has been incremental development over the years, but now, we are building everything at once while taking into account the perspective of every SOM community member.” Garstka said the project planners tried to bring together as many SOM community members as possible in the “collaborative” process of designing the classrooms. In 2010, SOM set up a mock classroom on Yale’s West Campus, offering SOM professors the chance to offer feedback about the space. Jon Olsen, the senior project manager in charge of construction, said SOM faculty and staff visit the new campus each week to confirm that construction of Evans Hall unfolds according to the architects’ plan. Evans Hall was designed by Lord Norman Foster ARC ’62. Contact ALEKSANDRA GJORGIEVSKA at aleksandra.gjorgievska@yale.edu .
announced they would step up security in the wake of the tragedy. Those in the vicinity of the blast described the experience as terrifying. Ramana Gorrepati, a doctoral student at Cornell, witnessed the explosions from across the street on the second floor of Lord & Taylor. “You hear these two earth-shattering explosions, and the glass that I was just looking through just shattered,” Gorrepati said. Gorrepati said he saw six runners down at the scene, some of whom had lost limbs. He said emergency personnel urged onlookers to back away from the scene as they recovered injured individuals, adding that officials found suspicious devices at the nearby Mandarin Oriental hotel, located on Boylston Street. Boston University junior Daliena St. Germain said that her building was put on lockdown after the bombs exploded about a block and a half away. St. Germain said she had been watching the race at the finish line, the exact location that the bomb detonated, but decided to leave before the end of the race. Some of her classmates were in tears, she said, as they called their loved ones following the explosions. “I’m still kind of shaky. I thought it would wear off by now,” St. Germain said hours after the explosion. In New Haven, the Yale and New Haven police departments sent officers, detectives and bomb-sniffing dogs to Ingalls Rink on Monday during the hockey team’s victory celebration to ensure safety, although authorities did not expect anything similar to
occur on campus, according to the New Haven Independent. Authorities have yet to name suspects or a motive for the bombing publicly, which the White House called an act of terror. Nevertheless, President Obama, in brief statement made from the White House early Monday evening, emphasized that the guilty would be hunted and brought to justice. Several Yale students, including Clare Monfredo ’13 and Calvin Bohn ’14, attended the Boston Marathon, although neither was injured. Yale professor Ray Fair was scheduled to run in the marathon and said he likely would have finished at about the time at which the bombs detonated, but withdrew because of an injury. Some buildings in Boston were evacuated after the explosions, while others were put on lockdown. Tufts University briefly evacuated its medical center because of a suspicious package, and Harvard did the same for the Kennedy School. The Brookline Police robocalled residents urging them to stay out of Beacon Street and evacuated Washington Square and Coolidge Corner. This year’s marathon, which drew about 27,000 runners, honored the 26 victims who died in the Sandy Hook school shooting with a special marker at the end of mile 26, as well as with 26 seconds of silence before the marathon began. Michelle Hackman and Matthew LloydThomas contributed reporting. Contact MONICA DISARE at monica.disare@yale.edu. Contact NICOLE NAREA at nicole.narea@yale.edu .
Students descend on campus BULLDOG DAYS FROM PAGE 1 pus, but no major adjustments to the schedule have been made since last year. For the first time, Dunn said, parents will get their own printed program with recommended events, and both students and parents will also receive a Bulldog Days map with directions to explore the University and New Haven. Students will pick up new materials that include a cinch backpack and a button with the new Bulldog Days logo, Dunn added. During the Monday afternoon registration, Dwight Hall and the space outside it teemed with students dragging suitcases, clutching programs and introducing themselves to others. Of 11 students interviewed, the majority said they are already “pretty sure” they will attend Yale. “It’s just really welcoming here — there’s a lot of school spirit, I can feel it,” said Wen Ting, an international prefrosh from China. “My host’s roommate came down in pajamas to welcome me when I arrived.”
Tho Tran, a prefrosh from Washington, also called the program “welcoming,” adding that Yale professors seemed “genuinely interested” in their students in the classes she attended Monday.
It’s just really welcoming here — there’s a lot of school spirit, I can feel it. WEN TING Prospective student, class of 2017 Over 600 undergraduates are hosting prefrosh, Dunn said, in addition to over 100 professors who are volunteering time for the event. Student groups are sponsoring roughly 125 events for the prefrosh, as well. Though he just arrived on campus, Jonathan Terry from Illinois said he already thinks he will choose to attend Yale. “It was sort of intense when the
debate society came up to me and sort of grilled me on my thoughts on education reform,” Terry said. “Otherwise, it’s been pretty calm. It’s been really friendly.” Emily Waligurski, a prefrosh from New York, said she is most excited to attend classes in the upcoming days. Waligurski made her decision to join the class of 2017 last fall, she said, and coming to campus will hopefully help her “get a better sense” of what she hopes to study at Yale. Due to the large amount of involvement from professors, students, administrators and admissions officers alike, Dunn said Bulldog Days is “truly a campuswide event.” The activities will continue today with a series of annual events, including an academic fair and extracurricular bazaar at Payne Whitney Gymnasium and a welcome address by Yale College Dean Mary Miller. Contact AMY WANG at amy.wang@yale.edu .
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SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY Robot essay graders a growing possibility BY AARON LEWIS CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Yale faculty may have postponed their vote on the grading overhaul to November, but students concerned about grading policies may have something bigger to worry about: artificial intelligence software that could be used to evaluate their essays. EdX — an education nonprofit founded by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology — has just introduced a free online tool that automates the essay grading process. EdX president Anant Agarwal, an MIT professor of electrical engineering and computer science, told The New York Times he believes his software will give professors more free time and allow students to receive helpful instant feedback. The software first analyzes 100 of a professor’s already graded essays, then uses machine-learning techniques to grade future papers on its own. Though this technology is not currently in use, the idea does not sit well with Yale students and faculty. “To me, that sounds a little absurd, and I really hope Yale would never even consider doing something like that,” said Scott Stern ’15, who is a columnist for the News and organized the “We Are the 79%” protest against proposed changes to Yale’s grading system. “For online classes, I do see the allure of something like that; I just don’t think it’s a very good idea.” The technology comes at a time when “massive open online courses,” or MOOCs, are quickly gaining popularity. Many universities, including Yale, have recently begun offering courses for free through iTunes U and YouTube. Most Web-based
SCOTT STERN ’15 Organizer, “We Are the 79%” protest “The thing about philosophy is that you can draw on examples from everything. The program would have to have untold knowledge about how everything works,” Kagan said. “I would be utterly floored to discover that this program would be any good at all for making out what’s a good philosophy paper.” Yale computer science professor and author David Gelernter had even harsher words about EdX’s artificial intelligence software. “In theoretical terms, it’s an interesting A.I. project. In practical terms, only a fool would attempt to distribute such software and only a fool squared
would actually use it,” Gelernter said. “Anyone who takes EdX up on their offer marks himself as an educational fraud.” Gelernter said he believes online courses will replace 95 percent of today’s colleges within the next two decades and is sympathetic to the problems the change will pose. But he said he would rather have students’ writing graded by other humans — even if doing so means sacrificing the instant feedback robots could provide. “The value of the Net is precisely in connecting people. Plenty of people can teach writing,” Gelernter said. Gelernter, who teaches the writing course “The Graphical User Interface,” said he tries to help students develop their own unique voice. Current artificial intelligence technology does not have the capacity to determine
whether a student’s voice is authentic, he added. English 120 professor Rolf Potts, a professional travel writer, said he remains unconvinced that essays submitted for his class could be subjected to an algorithm evaluating their merit. “Language itself and forms of communication are fluid in ways that go against algorithms,” he said. “The expository essays that you learn in high school are a midto late-20th century thing. But essays are still changing.”
MO
Many melanoma survivors forgo sunscreen and use indoor tanning beds after recovering from the disease, according to research conducted at the Yale Cancer Center. Led by Anees Chagpar, associate professor of surgery at Yale School of Medicine, researchers analyzed selfreported data from 171 melanoma survivors and presented their findings at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., last week. The research team found that though many survivors take precautions to protect themselves from further melanoma risk, a significant percentage of skin cancer survivors do not. According to the study, 27.3 percent of melanoma survivors nationwide report never wearing sunscreen, 15.4 percent report rarely or never staying in the shade, and 2.1 percent report continued use of indoor tanning salons. Chagpar said her findings indicate a need for physicians to educate cancer survivors about precautions they can take to avoid further melanoma risk. “We’ve come a long way in terms of treating melanoma, but we can be doing a better job in terms of educat-
ing our patients,” Chagpar said. “We need to convey to survivors that they can be proactive about protecting their skin.” Chagpar said the research team used data from the National Health Interview Survey, which she called the country’s largest source of health statistics. The data was drawn from the NHIS’s 2010 study and surveyed 27,120 people. Among the population studied, 171 individuals were self-reported survivors of melanoma. Chagpar said NHIS statistics are “population representative” — the 171 survivors surveyed represent a population of 697,309 melanoma survivors nationwide. Evaluating melanoma survivors and noncancer patients, Chagpar and her team contrasted the sun-protective practices of these two populations. The researchers found that melanoma survivors were more likely to report using sunscreen, and that 2 percent of melanoma survivors reported using a tanning bed within the previous year, compared to nearly 5.5 percent of noncancer survivors. Chagpar said though 2 percent may not seem like a significant proportion of melanoma survivors, she considers the finding important because tanning is an active behavior that puts
survivors at risk. “You would think melanoma survivors would do everything they could to avoid getting cancer again,” said study co-author Donald Lannin, Yale School of Medicine professor of surgery. “It’s interesting to try to understand why patients are engaging in
We’re finding more ways to help patients survive cancer, but we need to make sure they are taking action to prevent relapses. ANEES CHAGPAR Associate professor of surgery, School of Medicine dangerous behavior.” The research team’s findings have opened up new channels for research, Chagpar said. Since finishing their evaluation of the NHIS data, the researchers have been considering factors that might explain survivors’ decisions to put themselves at risk. Chagpar said the team determined
IN /C HAN Y
ONTR
IB U T IN
G IL LU
TO R ST R A
Launched in April 2012, EdX partners with 12 universities nationwide to provide online courses to the general public. Contact AARON LEWIS at aaron.z.lewis@yale.edu .
Melanoma survivors show risky behavior BY EMMA GOLDBERG STAFF REPORTER
quantum computing
BY ELIZABETH HIMWICH CONTRIBUTING REPORTER
classes do not currently provide a way for students to submit essays or receive comments on them. Agarwal said he thinks this new technology will make these courses more interactive. Yale philosophy professor Shelly Kagan said he is skeptical. Kagan, whose course “Death” has gained popularity online through Yale Open Courses and iTunes U, said there is no set of right answers any machine could look for in a philosophy paper. Unlike a professor, a robot grader would neither notice nor appreciate “brilliant” turns of phrases and creative arguments in a paper, he added.
For online classes, I do see the allure of [machine grading]; I just don’t think it’s a very good idea.
New Egyptology exhibit opens Student talks
that medical institutions might need to focus more on educating survivors on precautionary behavior, and physicians might also need to communicate with patients to ensure they do not become despondent and selfdestructive after recovering from cancer. The research team is using its findings to evaluate the possibility that tanning is an addictive behavior, she added. Since the data collected in this study came solely from database analysis, Lannin said researchers also hope to understand these findings by interviewing patients about their motivations in forgoing skin protection. Chagpar said she also aims to use the findings to analyze other types of cancer survivors, adding that her research may shed light on the motivations of lung cancer survivors who continue smoking. “We’re finding more ways to help patients survive cancer, but we need to make sure they are taking action to prevent relapses,” Chagpar said. The study’s other authors include Jeremy Puthumana ’15, Leah Ferrucci, Donald Lannin and Brenda Cartmel. Contact EMMA GOLDBERG at emma.goldberg@yale.edu .
On Thursday, the Yale Peabody Museum opened its newest exhibit, Echoes of Egypt. The exhibit, which opened to the public on Saturday and will remain on exhibition until Jan. 4, 2014, highlights both the world of Egypt and the world’s perception of Egypt throughout history. Featured throughout the display are Egyptian artifacts as well as examples of Egyptian-inspired art and culture spanning from 3500 BCE to the 1960s. The collection borrows pieces from museums around the country and world, such as the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, but also aims to showcase Yale’s vast collection of Egyptian art and artifacts. Every Yale collection — including the Beinecke, Art Gallery and Babylonian Collection — has items on display, the exhibit’s curators said. “It’s a sort of ‘meta-exhibit’ about how Egypt is understood across time and space,” assistant curator Alicia Bryant said. “We want to make people aware of how we interact with Egypt. Egypt has a mystical image. It belongs to all of us, and we’ve all been engaged in it.” “Yale has unbelievable collections, and this is a way to put them all on display in the same place,” Peabody director Derek Briggs said. Visitors enter the exhibit through a half-scale replica of Grove Street Cemetery’s Egyptian Revival gateway entrance, which was re-created by Peabody sculptor Michael Anderson. Lighting in the exhibit is “dramatically dark” because it features fragile books and papyri that would be damaged by light exposure, exhibit curator-in-charge Colleen Manassa ’01 GRD ’05, associate professor in the Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations Department. “The collection is extremely rich, and one of the most diverse,”
BY ELIZABETH HIMWICH CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Physics student Brian Vlastakis GRD ’15 works in the lab of Yale applied physics professor Robert Schoelkopf, associate director of the Yale Institute for Nanoscience and Quantum Engineering. Vlastakis sat down with the News on Monday to discuss quantum computing. you briefly summarize the importance of QCan quantum computing?
A
KATHRYN CRANDALL/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
The Peabody Museum’s “Echoes of Egypt” exhibition, which opened on Saturday, seeks to showcase Yale’s extensive collection. Manassa said. Material in the exhibit also considers the history of Egyptology and the treatment of Egyptian artifacts throughout history, including the world’s first exhibition of Tutankhamen — which the Peabody hosted in 1962. Echoes of Egypt documents the process of interpreting hieroglyphs — such as an Arabic attempt at translation from the 800s — and traces cultural fascination with mummies, complete with a life-size diorama of a mummy unwrapping. The exhibit also has an extensive website, which includes a list of every item in the collection as well as a driving tour of “Connecticut Egyptomania.”
Briggs said “Echoes of Egypt” is different from exhibits the Peabody has hosted in past years and has potential to attract a broader audience.
The collection is extremely rich, and one of the most diverse. COLLEEN MANASSA ’01 GRD ’05 Curator-in-charge, Echoes of Egypt “The Peabody has a huge diversity of visitors, and this exhibit might
appeal to usual visitors of art collections. Even though we’re a natural history museum, we have a significant art collection, and this is a chance to show it off.” Collaborators agreed that work on “Echoes of Egypt” was an exciting and satisfying group effort. “The best part of designing the exhibit was collaborating on something bigger than you could possibly do with your own hands,” exhibit designer Laura Friedman said. “Echoes of Egypt” is sponsored by the Connecticut Humanities Council. Contact ELIZABETH HIMWICH at elizabeth.himwich@yale.edu .
Yale Aerospace team makes egg-tossing history BY DHRUV AGGARWAL STAFF REPORTER Members of the Yale Undergraduate Aerospace Association spent Saturday April 6 tossing eggs in the air. Twenty-three YUAA members traveled to Culpepper, Va., to compete in the annual “Battle of the Rockets” competition, participating in two rocket-based competitions against teams from the University of Cincinnati, the University of Texas at Arlington and various high schools. Competing for the first time, the Yale team won the “astro-egg lander” competition, which involves launching a rocket containing an egg, which they managed to ensure landed safely on the ground. “Nobody had ever successfully landed in the event — we are the first ones to accomplish that,” YUAA copresident Stephen Hall ’14 said. The astro-egg lander tournament saw teams build rockets that could launch landing apparati up to 1,500 feet in the air. Led by Ari Brill ’15, Yale’s team was the only to have their device landed on the ground without breaking the egg it contained .
A
We’re trying to build quantum computers, but there are many ways you can implement them. One way, what we do, is called superconducting qubits. In quantum information, you want to be able to create quantum bits, which are essentially a system with ground-state energy, representing 0, and some excited-state energy level, representing 1. You want to be able to address the transition between these states. We’re trying to create these “two-level systems,” which is just another word for a quantum bit, and we’re creating them with superconducting circuits. There are other crazy ways to make quantum bits, but what’s really nice about the way that we’re making these quantum bits is that we’re able to print them out on a circuit board. This is actually the same technique that big companies use to make regular computers. This makes the field that we’re in very exciting, because a lot of these companies say that if you guys can figure out how to control them and understand them, then we can make them. Now, we’re slowly trying to put all these components together in order to perform very rudimentary quantum algorithms. What’s exciting is that these really have a great potential to scale up and become powerful quantum computers.
A
When you have only a few quantum bits, it’s okay if they mess up every once in a while, because the probability of only one messing up is pretty slim. But if you had a million of those bits, there’s a very good chance that one of them will mess up when you’re doing your algorithm. This is actually a very difficult thing for quantum algorithms, because quantum bits are extremely sensitive to errors that might occur to them. Unfortunately for these quantum bits, any fluctuation between the 0 and 1 states actually corresponds to a completely different quantum state. So, we need to know precisely what state our bit is actually in. What this requires is something called quantum error correction. This is what almost everyone in quantum computation is striving to achieve. Being able to do quantum error correction will be the biggest stepping stone is scaling up to these very large scales of quantum bits. We’ll forever be stuck in these few qubit systems until we can sort out quantum error correction. So the big five-year goal in the field is to try to be able to perform rudimentary quantum error correction schemes.
will the work of your lab contribute to the QHow quantum error correction?
A
What’s really great about using superconducting qubits is that they are circuits, so if we want to have one qubit interact with another qubit, we can just design a system where’s there’s just a wire that attaches them. This has a lot of really big advantages if we want to implement a type of quantum error correction. We can design a system where different qubits will only interact with other certain qubits. That’s one of the things we’re actively exploring right now. The thing that I’m actually looking into is seeing if we can go beyond just using a quantum bit for these sorts of error correction schemes and regular quantum algorithms. So, something that I’m looking into is using a resonator. In quantum mechanics you have these two-level systems, and then what you call “harmonic oscillators” — or “resonators.” I’m trying to look if we can use cavity resonators as a resource for some sort of quantum memory. There are many ways you can think of a cavity. Typically when we say “cavity” you think of photons, so a cavity resonator is just a box that’s trapping photons, and they’re forced to bounce back and forth inside this cavity. A typical one that most people think of is just two mirrors facing each other — if you send in light, you just get light that’s stuck bouncing back and forth. We can essentially create the same thing with these superconducting circuits.
STEPHEN HALL ’14 Co-president, Yale Undergraduate Aerospace Association
KAREN TIAN/STAFF ILLUSTRATOR
does the lab that you’re working in contribute QHow to quantum information?
QHow do you hope to expand to scaling up?
Nobody had ever successfully landed in the event — we are the first one to accomplish that.
YUAA competed in one other event — “target altitude,” a competition in which teams aimed to launch rockets as high as possible. The University of Texas team won this event, with a height of close to the 1,700feet mark. Yale did not compete in the third event, “planetary rover,” which required teams to design rovers that would launch rockets and deploy markers on the ground, Hall said. “Next year we’d like to participate in the third event as well,” Hall said. YUAA co-president Jan Kolmas ’14 said the organization received much of its funding from the Yale School of Engineering and Applied Science. He added that the two-and-a-halfyear-old organization plans to expand its activities and participate in more competitions. Kolmas said YUAA’s other projects include assembling a “quadrotor” — a rotor with four blades — at Yale’s new Center for Engineering Inno-
The idea for our field of quantum information and quantum computation is trying to manipulate quantum mechanics in order to perform very complicated computation algorithms. A classical computer is made up of very many digital bits that have a 0 or a 1 state. In a quantum computer, the bit is now acting quantum mechanically. A quantum mechanical bit — we call it a qubit — is forced to obey the laws of quantum mechanics, in the sense that it’s not just in one place at once. It can be both 0 and 1 at the same time, and the idea here is that you’re performing multiple calculations at once. A nice analogy that people like to use for quantum computers is that you’re kind of essentially doing the ultimate “parallel processing.” The quantum processor is sort of like having many classical processors all performing a calculation in parallel, doing separate smaller calculations and then putting them together.
vation and Design. The group is also designing a “command center,” an integrated avionics package that aims to centralize tracking and communication of aerial devices into one compact instrument. YUAA currently has around 40 undergraduate members between its engineering and public relations teams. Contact DHRUV AGGARWAL at dhruv.aggarwal@yale.edu .
YUAA members competed in two events at the “Battle of the Rockets” in Culpepper , Va.
YUAA
Contact ELIZABETH HIMWICH at elizabeth.himwich@yale.edu .
PAGE 6
YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 2013 · yaledailynews.com
YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 2013 · yaledailynews.com
PAGE 7
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY Robot essay graders a growing possibility BY AARON LEWIS CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Yale faculty may have postponed their vote on the grading overhaul to November, but students concerned about grading policies may have something bigger to worry about: artificial intelligence software that could be used to evaluate their essays. EdX — an education nonprofit founded by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology — has just introduced a free online tool that automates the essay grading process. EdX president Anant Agarwal, an MIT professor of electrical engineering and computer science, told The New York Times he believes his software will give professors more free time and allow students to receive helpful instant feedback. The software first analyzes 100 of a professor’s already graded essays, then uses machine-learning techniques to grade future papers on its own. Though this technology is not currently in use, the idea does not sit well with Yale students and faculty. “To me, that sounds a little absurd, and I really hope Yale would never even consider doing something like that,” said Scott Stern ’15, who is a columnist for the News and organized the “We Are the 79%” protest against proposed changes to Yale’s grading system. “For online classes, I do see the allure of something like that; I just don’t think it’s a very good idea.” The technology comes at a time when “massive open online courses,” or MOOCs, are quickly gaining popularity. Many universities, including Yale, have recently begun offering courses for free through iTunes U and YouTube. Most Web-based
SCOTT STERN ’15 Organizer, “We Are the 79%” protest “The thing about philosophy is that you can draw on examples from everything. The program would have to have untold knowledge about how everything works,” Kagan said. “I would be utterly floored to discover that this program would be any good at all for making out what’s a good philosophy paper.” Yale computer science professor and author David Gelernter had even harsher words about EdX’s artificial intelligence software. “In theoretical terms, it’s an interesting A.I. project. In practical terms, only a fool would attempt to distribute such software and only a fool squared
would actually use it,” Gelernter said. “Anyone who takes EdX up on their offer marks himself as an educational fraud.” Gelernter said he believes online courses will replace 95 percent of today’s colleges within the next two decades and is sympathetic to the problems the change will pose. But he said he would rather have students’ writing graded by other humans — even if doing so means sacrificing the instant feedback robots could provide. “The value of the Net is precisely in connecting people. Plenty of people can teach writing,” Gelernter said. Gelernter, who teaches the writing course “The Graphical User Interface,” said he tries to help students develop their own unique voice. Current artificial intelligence technology does not have the capacity to determine
whether a student’s voice is authentic, he added. English 120 professor Rolf Potts, a professional travel writer, said he remains unconvinced that essays submitted for his class could be subjected to an algorithm evaluating their merit. “Language itself and forms of communication are fluid in ways that go against algorithms,” he said. “The expository essays that you learn in high school are a midto late-20th century thing. But essays are still changing.”
MO
Many melanoma survivors forgo sunscreen and use indoor tanning beds after recovering from the disease, according to research conducted at the Yale Cancer Center. Led by Anees Chagpar, associate professor of surgery at Yale School of Medicine, researchers analyzed selfreported data from 171 melanoma survivors and presented their findings at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., last week. The research team found that though many survivors take precautions to protect themselves from further melanoma risk, a significant percentage of skin cancer survivors do not. According to the study, 27.3 percent of melanoma survivors nationwide report never wearing sunscreen, 15.4 percent report rarely or never staying in the shade, and 2.1 percent report continued use of indoor tanning salons. Chagpar said her findings indicate a need for physicians to educate cancer survivors about precautions they can take to avoid further melanoma risk. “We’ve come a long way in terms of treating melanoma, but we can be doing a better job in terms of educat-
ing our patients,” Chagpar said. “We need to convey to survivors that they can be proactive about protecting their skin.” Chagpar said the research team used data from the National Health Interview Survey, which she called the country’s largest source of health statistics. The data was drawn from the NHIS’s 2010 study and surveyed 27,120 people. Among the population studied, 171 individuals were self-reported survivors of melanoma. Chagpar said NHIS statistics are “population representative” — the 171 survivors surveyed represent a population of 697,309 melanoma survivors nationwide. Evaluating melanoma survivors and noncancer patients, Chagpar and her team contrasted the sun-protective practices of these two populations. The researchers found that melanoma survivors were more likely to report using sunscreen, and that 2 percent of melanoma survivors reported using a tanning bed within the previous year, compared to nearly 5.5 percent of noncancer survivors. Chagpar said though 2 percent may not seem like a significant proportion of melanoma survivors, she considers the finding important because tanning is an active behavior that puts
survivors at risk. “You would think melanoma survivors would do everything they could to avoid getting cancer again,” said study co-author Donald Lannin, Yale School of Medicine professor of surgery. “It’s interesting to try to understand why patients are engaging in
We’re finding more ways to help patients survive cancer, but we need to make sure they are taking action to prevent relapses. ANEES CHAGPAR Associate professor of surgery, School of Medicine dangerous behavior.” The research team’s findings have opened up new channels for research, Chagpar said. Since finishing their evaluation of the NHIS data, the researchers have been considering factors that might explain survivors’ decisions to put themselves at risk. Chagpar said the team determined
IN /C HAN Y
ONTR
IB U T IN
G IL LU
TO R ST R A
Launched in April 2012, EdX partners with 12 universities nationwide to provide online courses to the general public. Contact AARON LEWIS at aaron.z.lewis@yale.edu .
Melanoma survivors show risky behavior BY EMMA GOLDBERG STAFF REPORTER
quantum computing
BY ELIZABETH HIMWICH CONTRIBUTING REPORTER
classes do not currently provide a way for students to submit essays or receive comments on them. Agarwal said he thinks this new technology will make these courses more interactive. Yale philosophy professor Shelly Kagan said he is skeptical. Kagan, whose course “Death” has gained popularity online through Yale Open Courses and iTunes U, said there is no set of right answers any machine could look for in a philosophy paper. Unlike a professor, a robot grader would neither notice nor appreciate “brilliant” turns of phrases and creative arguments in a paper, he added.
For online classes, I do see the allure of [machine grading]; I just don’t think it’s a very good idea.
New Egyptology exhibit opens Student talks
that medical institutions might need to focus more on educating survivors on precautionary behavior, and physicians might also need to communicate with patients to ensure they do not become despondent and selfdestructive after recovering from cancer. The research team is using its findings to evaluate the possibility that tanning is an addictive behavior, she added. Since the data collected in this study came solely from database analysis, Lannin said researchers also hope to understand these findings by interviewing patients about their motivations in forgoing skin protection. Chagpar said she also aims to use the findings to analyze other types of cancer survivors, adding that her research may shed light on the motivations of lung cancer survivors who continue smoking. “We’re finding more ways to help patients survive cancer, but we need to make sure they are taking action to prevent relapses,” Chagpar said. The study’s other authors include Jeremy Puthumana ’15, Leah Ferrucci, Donald Lannin and Brenda Cartmel. Contact EMMA GOLDBERG at emma.goldberg@yale.edu .
On Thursday, the Yale Peabody Museum opened its newest exhibit, Echoes of Egypt. The exhibit, which opened to the public on Saturday and will remain on exhibition until Jan. 4, 2014, highlights both the world of Egypt and the world’s perception of Egypt throughout history. Featured throughout the display are Egyptian artifacts as well as examples of Egyptian-inspired art and culture spanning from 3500 BCE to the 1960s. The collection borrows pieces from museums around the country and world, such as the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, but also aims to showcase Yale’s vast collection of Egyptian art and artifacts. Every Yale collection — including the Beinecke, Art Gallery and Babylonian Collection — has items on display, the exhibit’s curators said. “It’s a sort of ‘meta-exhibit’ about how Egypt is understood across time and space,” assistant curator Alicia Bryant said. “We want to make people aware of how we interact with Egypt. Egypt has a mystical image. It belongs to all of us, and we’ve all been engaged in it.” “Yale has unbelievable collections, and this is a way to put them all on display in the same place,” Peabody director Derek Briggs said. Visitors enter the exhibit through a half-scale replica of Grove Street Cemetery’s Egyptian Revival gateway entrance, which was re-created by Peabody sculptor Michael Anderson. Lighting in the exhibit is “dramatically dark” because it features fragile books and papyri that would be damaged by light exposure, exhibit curator-in-charge Colleen Manassa ’01 GRD ’05, associate professor in the Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations Department. “The collection is extremely rich, and one of the most diverse,”
BY ELIZABETH HIMWICH CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Physics student Brian Vlastakis GRD ’15 works in the lab of Yale applied physics professor Robert Schoelkopf, associate director of the Yale Institute for Nanoscience and Quantum Engineering. Vlastakis sat down with the News on Monday to discuss quantum computing. you briefly summarize the importance of QCan quantum computing?
A
KATHRYN CRANDALL/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
The Peabody Museum’s “Echoes of Egypt” exhibition, which opened on Saturday, seeks to showcase Yale’s extensive collection. Manassa said. Material in the exhibit also considers the history of Egyptology and the treatment of Egyptian artifacts throughout history, including the world’s first exhibition of Tutankhamen — which the Peabody hosted in 1962. Echoes of Egypt documents the process of interpreting hieroglyphs — such as an Arabic attempt at translation from the 800s — and traces cultural fascination with mummies, complete with a life-size diorama of a mummy unwrapping. The exhibit also has an extensive website, which includes a list of every item in the collection as well as a driving tour of “Connecticut Egyptomania.”
Briggs said “Echoes of Egypt” is different from exhibits the Peabody has hosted in past years and has potential to attract a broader audience.
The collection is extremely rich, and one of the most diverse. COLLEEN MANASSA ’01 GRD ’05 Curator-in-charge, Echoes of Egypt “The Peabody has a huge diversity of visitors, and this exhibit might
appeal to usual visitors of art collections. Even though we’re a natural history museum, we have a significant art collection, and this is a chance to show it off.” Collaborators agreed that work on “Echoes of Egypt” was an exciting and satisfying group effort. “The best part of designing the exhibit was collaborating on something bigger than you could possibly do with your own hands,” exhibit designer Laura Friedman said. “Echoes of Egypt” is sponsored by the Connecticut Humanities Council. Contact ELIZABETH HIMWICH at elizabeth.himwich@yale.edu .
Yale Aerospace team makes egg-tossing history BY DHRUV AGGARWAL STAFF REPORTER Members of the Yale Undergraduate Aerospace Association spent Saturday April 6 tossing eggs in the air. Twenty-three YUAA members traveled to Culpepper, Va., to compete in the annual “Battle of the Rockets” competition, participating in two rocket-based competitions against teams from the University of Cincinnati, the University of Texas at Arlington and various high schools. Competing for the first time, the Yale team won the “astro-egg lander” competition, which involves launching a rocket containing an egg, which they managed to ensure landed safely on the ground. “Nobody had ever successfully landed in the event — we are the first ones to accomplish that,” YUAA copresident Stephen Hall ’14 said. The astro-egg lander tournament saw teams build rockets that could launch landing apparati up to 1,500 feet in the air. Led by Ari Brill ’15, Yale’s team was the only to have their device landed on the ground without breaking the egg it contained .
A
We’re trying to build quantum computers, but there are many ways you can implement them. One way, what we do, is called superconducting qubits. In quantum information, you want to be able to create quantum bits, which are essentially a system with ground-state energy, representing 0, and some excited-state energy level, representing 1. You want to be able to address the transition between these states. We’re trying to create these “two-level systems,” which is just another word for a quantum bit, and we’re creating them with superconducting circuits. There are other crazy ways to make quantum bits, but what’s really nice about the way that we’re making these quantum bits is that we’re able to print them out on a circuit board. This is actually the same technique that big companies use to make regular computers. This makes the field that we’re in very exciting, because a lot of these companies say that if you guys can figure out how to control them and understand them, then we can make them. Now, we’re slowly trying to put all these components together in order to perform very rudimentary quantum algorithms. What’s exciting is that these really have a great potential to scale up and become powerful quantum computers.
A
When you have only a few quantum bits, it’s okay if they mess up every once in a while, because the probability of only one messing up is pretty slim. But if you had a million of those bits, there’s a very good chance that one of them will mess up when you’re doing your algorithm. This is actually a very difficult thing for quantum algorithms, because quantum bits are extremely sensitive to errors that might occur to them. Unfortunately for these quantum bits, any fluctuation between the 0 and 1 states actually corresponds to a completely different quantum state. So, we need to know precisely what state our bit is actually in. What this requires is something called quantum error correction. This is what almost everyone in quantum computation is striving to achieve. Being able to do quantum error correction will be the biggest stepping stone is scaling up to these very large scales of quantum bits. We’ll forever be stuck in these few qubit systems until we can sort out quantum error correction. So the big five-year goal in the field is to try to be able to perform rudimentary quantum error correction schemes.
will the work of your lab contribute to the QHow quantum error correction?
A
What’s really great about using superconducting qubits is that they are circuits, so if we want to have one qubit interact with another qubit, we can just design a system where’s there’s just a wire that attaches them. This has a lot of really big advantages if we want to implement a type of quantum error correction. We can design a system where different qubits will only interact with other certain qubits. That’s one of the things we’re actively exploring right now. The thing that I’m actually looking into is seeing if we can go beyond just using a quantum bit for these sorts of error correction schemes and regular quantum algorithms. So, something that I’m looking into is using a resonator. In quantum mechanics you have these two-level systems, and then what you call “harmonic oscillators” — or “resonators.” I’m trying to look if we can use cavity resonators as a resource for some sort of quantum memory. There are many ways you can think of a cavity. Typically when we say “cavity” you think of photons, so a cavity resonator is just a box that’s trapping photons, and they’re forced to bounce back and forth inside this cavity. A typical one that most people think of is just two mirrors facing each other — if you send in light, you just get light that’s stuck bouncing back and forth. We can essentially create the same thing with these superconducting circuits.
STEPHEN HALL ’14 Co-president, Yale Undergraduate Aerospace Association
KAREN TIAN/STAFF ILLUSTRATOR
does the lab that you’re working in contribute QHow to quantum information?
QHow do you hope to expand to scaling up?
Nobody had ever successfully landed in the event — we are the first one to accomplish that.
YUAA competed in one other event — “target altitude,” a competition in which teams aimed to launch rockets as high as possible. The University of Texas team won this event, with a height of close to the 1,700feet mark. Yale did not compete in the third event, “planetary rover,” which required teams to design rovers that would launch rockets and deploy markers on the ground, Hall said. “Next year we’d like to participate in the third event as well,” Hall said. YUAA co-president Jan Kolmas ’14 said the organization received much of its funding from the Yale School of Engineering and Applied Science. He added that the two-and-a-halfyear-old organization plans to expand its activities and participate in more competitions. Kolmas said YUAA’s other projects include assembling a “quadrotor” — a rotor with four blades — at Yale’s new Center for Engineering Inno-
The idea for our field of quantum information and quantum computation is trying to manipulate quantum mechanics in order to perform very complicated computation algorithms. A classical computer is made up of very many digital bits that have a 0 or a 1 state. In a quantum computer, the bit is now acting quantum mechanically. A quantum mechanical bit — we call it a qubit — is forced to obey the laws of quantum mechanics, in the sense that it’s not just in one place at once. It can be both 0 and 1 at the same time, and the idea here is that you’re performing multiple calculations at once. A nice analogy that people like to use for quantum computers is that you’re kind of essentially doing the ultimate “parallel processing.” The quantum processor is sort of like having many classical processors all performing a calculation in parallel, doing separate smaller calculations and then putting them together.
vation and Design. The group is also designing a “command center,” an integrated avionics package that aims to centralize tracking and communication of aerial devices into one compact instrument. YUAA currently has around 40 undergraduate members between its engineering and public relations teams. Contact DHRUV AGGARWAL at dhruv.aggarwal@yale.edu .
YUAA members competed in two events at the “Battle of the Rockets” in Culpepper , Va.
YUAA
Contact ELIZABETH HIMWICH at elizabeth.himwich@yale.edu .
YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 2013 · yaledailynews.com
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T NASDAQ 3,216.49, -2.38% T Oil $87.41, -1.47%
Senate gun deal at risk
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NATION
Dow Jones 14,599.20, -1.79%
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Euro $1.31, -0.03%
Falling commodities give Dow worst day of the year BY MATTHEW CRAFT ASSOCIATED PRESS
J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., right, accompanied by Sen. Patrick Toomey, R-Pa., announce that they have reached a bipartisan deal to expand background checks to more gun buyers. BY ALAN FRAM ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON — A bipartisan proposal to expand background checks to more gun buyers is in jeopardy. The pool of potential Republican votes that Democrats will need to push the measure through the Senate has dwindled, and President Barack Obama was calling lawmakers Monday as both sides hunted support for a nailbiting showdown vote expected this week. At stake is what has become the heart of this year’s gun control drive in response to December’s killing of children and staff at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. Supporters consider a broadening of the buyers subjected to background checks to be the most effective step lawmakers can take, and Obama urged near universal checks in the plan he unveiled in January. “This is America,” said Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., who spoke on the Senate floor as did Sen. Patrick Toomey, R-Pa., promoting the background check compromise they reached last week and on which the chamber will vote. “This is about can we make a difference, can we change something?” Sixteen Republicans voted last week to reject an effort by conservatives that would have blocked the Senate from even considering a broad bill restricting firearms. With that debate now under way, Democrats hope to win enough supporters from this group to gain passage of the first amendment to that bill — the compromise between Manchin and Toomey — though more narrowly than Obama had hoped. So far, seven Republican senators from that group have said they will oppose the ManchinToomey plan and one is leaning against it. Combined with the 31 senators who voted against debating the overall gun bill last week, that brings potential opponents of expanding background checks to 39 — just two fewer than opponents will need to sink the legislation. “The Toomey-Manchin proposal, while well-intentioned, is not a solution to illegal gun vio-
lence. We already have major holes in the current” background check system, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Monday in a written statement. Graham was among the 16 who voted to allow the debate to begin. Opponents say expanded checks would violate the Constitution’s right to bear arms and would be ignored by criminals. They are forcing supporters of the background check plan to win 60 of the Senate’s 100 votes, a high hurdle.
The Toomey-Manchin proposal, while wellintentioned, is not a solution to illegal gun violence. LINDSEY GRAHAM U.S. senator, South Carolina Fifty Democrats and two Democratic-leaning senators voted last week to begin debate. If all of them support the Manchin-Toomey plan — which is not guaranteed — they will still need eight additional votes. So far, three Republicans who backed beginning debate have said they will vote for the Manchin-Toomey plan: Toomey and Sens. Mark Kirk of Illinois and Susan Collins of Maine. A fourth, John McCain of Arizona, said he is strongly inclined to do so. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., missed last week’s vote after saying he was suffering from muscle weakness, but spokesman Caley Gray said he hopes to be in the Senate for votes this week. Two Democrats, both facing reelection next year in GOP-leaning states, voted against beginning the gun control debate last week: Sens. Mark Begich of Alaska and Mark Pryor of Arkansas. Spokesman Devon Kearns said that Begich is still reviewing the amendment, while aides to Pryor did not immediately return emails and a phone call. Background checks, designed
to keep guns from criminals and the seriously mentally ill, are currently required only for sales handled by the nation’s roughly 55,000 licensed gun dealers. The Manchin-Toomey measure would extend that to sales at commercial venues like gun shows and online, while exempting other transactions like those between relatives and friends. “There’s no debate that that’s not an infringement of the Second Amendment” right to bear arms, Toomey said. White House spokesman Jay Carney said the gun legislation was “an absolute priority” and said Obama has been contacting senators, though he declined to say which ones. But Carney said the vote would be “a difficult challenge.” He said that because the Senate had voted last week to begin debating the measure “does not mean we have gotten to where we need to be, which is passage of legislation that is commonsense and that will reduce gun violence in America.” The White House originally had hoped for much more, including a ban on military-style rifles and high-capacity ammunition magazines. The National Rifle Association said it was running an ad on cable television’s Sportsman Channel and online criticizing Mayors Against Illegal Guns for running an ad showing a man holding a gun unsafely as he describes his support for expanded background checks. “Is it possible he’s an actor?” the ad asks, just before showing the NRA’s “Stand and Fight” slogan. Some relatives of the victims of the Connecticut families are planning a return trip to Capitol Hill this week to meet with senators they weren’t able to visit on their lobbying trip last week. That trip was partly credited with helping move the Senate to debate the gun bill. Also scheduled to be lobbying lawmakers this week are former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., and her husband Mark Kelly, the retired astronaut. She was severely wounded in a 2011 mass shooting in Tucson, Ariz.
NEW YORK — Worries about an economic slowdown in China fueled a steep drop in commodity prices Monday, spooking investors and giving the stock market its worst day of the year. The trigger for the sell-off came from China, where the world’s second-largest economy expanded 7.7 percent in the first three months of the year, well below forecasts of 8 percent or better. That news pummeled copper, oil and other commodities. Shares of oil and mining companies fared the worst because China is a huge importer of their products. The decline came after a pile of negative economic reports. In addition to the concerns about China, a separate report showed weak manufacturing in the Northeast, and a home builders’ survey indicated housing activity isn’t going to be strong, either, said Steven Ricchiuto, chief economist for Mizuho Securities. “People are realizing that the global economy isn’t as strong as they expected it to be,” he said. The market began tumbling hours before reports emerged of two bombs exploding in the packed streets near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. The attack that killed two people and injured more than 100 was just one more thing to worry investors. The pullback disrupted, at least for the moment, the phenomenal rally that has sent the Dow Jones industrial average up 13 percent and the Standard & Poor’s 500 index up 11 percent in 2013. Both indexes marked record highs only last Wednesday. But the market’s exceptional performance has fueled widespread speculation about an inevitable retreat. Concerns that Cyprus and other troubled European countries may sell gold to raise cash have also weighed on prices for precious metals, said Dan Greenhaus, chief global strategist at the brokerage BTIG. The Dow tumbled 265.86 points to close at 14,599.20, a decline of 1.8 percent. Caterpillar, a maker of heavy equipment used by miners, led the index lower, falling 3 percent to $82.27. The S&P 500 index slumped 36.48 points to 1,552.37, a loss of 2.3 percent. The S&P was led by Freeport-McMoRan
Copper & Gold, which fell 8 percent to $29.27. Analysts at Citigroup placed a “sell” rating on the mining giant on the expectation that copper prices will continue sliding. The Nasdaq composite fell 78.46 points, or 2.4 percent, to 3,216.49. It was the biggest drop for the stock market since Nov. 7 — Election Day — last year. Of the 10 industry groups in the S&P 500, materials and energy stocks fared the worst, losing 4 percent. Indexes of small companies and transportation stocks, which are more vulnerable to swings in the economy, also fell 4 percent.
People are realizing that the global economy isn’t as strong as they expected it to be. STEVEN RICCHIUTO Chief economist, Mizuho Securities Crude oil prices hit their lowest level since mid-December, sliding $2.58 to finish at $88.71 in New York trading. And gold fell $140, plunging below $1,400 an ounce for the first time in two years as a sell-off in metals continued from last week. Gold has now slumped $203 an ounce over the past two days. Frank Fantozzi, CEO of Planned Financial Services, a wealth management firm, says people had bought gold since the financial crisis on the belief that it was safe place to keep money. But now that the metal has slid 20 percent this year, they’re jumping out. “I think you’re getting some panic selling right now” in the gold market, Fantozzi said. “People who have been holding on to gold expecting a rebound are now thinking, ‘I better get out.’” Cetin Ciner, a finance professor and expert in precious metal markets at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, said gold had also offered a protection against rampant inflation when the economy recovered. That helped push gold prices as high at $1,900 in 2011, but the high inflation they worried about still hasn’t hit.
YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 2013 · yaledailynews.com
PAGE 9
BULLETIN BOARD
TODAY’S FORECAST Partly sunny with a chance of showers. HIgh of 62, low of 48.
TOMORROW
THURSDAY
High of 66, low of 45
High of 58, low of 53
DOONESBURY BY GARRY TRUDEAU
ON CAMPUS TUESDAY, APRIL 16 7:00 PM “Feast of Burden” at Yale There will be a screening of Eugene Kotlyarenko’s “Feast of Burden,” an episodic YouTube comedy, thriller and melodrama made in collaboration with the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. The screening will be followed by a Q-and-A with the writer and director, Eugene Kotlyarenko, and prepared comments from the production designer, Ben Wolf Noam. 212 York St., Room 106.
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 17 4:00 PM “Writing George Kennan’s Biography” History professor John Lewis Gaddis, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning “George F. Kennan: An American Life,” will give the Medical Library Associates Lecture. Free and open to the general public. Cushing/ Whitney Medical Library (333 Cedar St.).
THAT MONKEY TUNE BY MICHAEL KANDALAFT
5:00 PM “Museums in Motion: Paradigms, Practices and Publics in Interdisciplinary Conversation” The Public Humanities Working Group will host an interdisciplinary conversation on the current state of the museum as a site of innovation and community engagement. Through dialogue with representatives from diverse institutions, this panel will discuss the museum’s social and political roles and the contemporary challenges that it faces. Hall of Graduate Studies (320 York St.), Room 119A.
THURSDAY, APRIL 18 4:30 PM “Building Computers that Understand our Emotions” Javier Hernandez, doctoral student at the MIT Media Lab and co-inventor of the MIT Mood Meter, will give a presentation on affective computing and human emotion analysis, including a live trial of the Mood Meter. This event is co-organized by InspireYale and Yale Flourish, and is co-sponsored by the Yale Positive Emotion and Psychopathology Lab, the International Students Organization and the Yale European Undergraduates. Free and open to the general public. William L. Harkness Hall (100 Wall St.), Room 205.
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DOWN 1 Daily grind 2 Besides Chile, the only South American country that doesn’t border Brazil 3 __ market 4 Break a Commandment 5 “Toy Story” boy 6 Fend off 7 Dance around 8 Somme salt 9 Where Nike headquarters is 10 Considerable, as discounts 11 Terse critical appraisal 12 Ties to a post, as a horse 13 Art gallery props 18 Delightful spot 23 “Paper Moon” Oscar winner Tatum 25 Many, informally 27 Change from vampire to bat, say 29 Kwik-E-Mart owner on “The Simpsons” 34 Extend an invitation for
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35 “I knew it!” 37 Thorn in one’s side 39 Appears strikingly on the horizon 40 Co. letterhead abbr. 41 Welcome summer forecast 42 Noticeable lipstick color 45 Come down hard on 46 Filled pasta
4/16/13
47 Top-notch 48 Golden Slam winner Graf 50 Said 52 Away from the wind 54 Takes home 55 Punch bowl spoon 56 Over and done 60 Hard to see 64 French landmass 65 Acidity nos.
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YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 2013 · yaledailynews.com
WORLD Hopeful signs for the Afghan army BY PATRICK QUINN ASSOCIATED PRESS CAMP THUNDER, Afghanistan — Gen. Mohammad Sharif Yaftali, commander of Afghanistan’s 203rd Thunder Corps, looked happy as he sat down for lunch in his eastern command post near the border with Pakistan. He had every reason to be smiling, as did his U.S. advisers. His troops, he said, had just successfully completed a largescale operation — code-named Azadi, or “freedom” — aimed at securing strategic highways leading out of Kabul and at clearing a region around the capital. Over the course of the 13-day sweep, his forces battled Taliban and other insurgents 20 times, killing at least 20. Along the way, his officers sat down with tribal elders to win support for the military and set up local police forces to defend their villages from the Taliban. Separately, his troops successfully freed two Afghan soldiers kidnapped by militants. It was all done without international troops. “We did the planning and everything ourselves,” Yaftali beamed. “The coalition was there, but they did not fight with us. They just gave us advice. We are in the lead, we are no longer shoulder-to-shoulder.” Unlike past operations where American and coalition forces were fighting alongside Afghan soldiers or going into the field alone, both sides expressed a confidence in Afghanistan’s army that was not present as little as one year ago. There have been deep questions about the ability of the Afghan army to take the fight to the insurgency with international combat troops due to leave the country by the end of 2014. It is not certain that the performance of the 203rd can be replicated in all the army corps around Afghanistan, or even at the brigade and battalion level. But if its ability to successfully carry out large-scale operations can be replicated across the army, then it offers hope the Afghans may be able to hold their own against the insurgency after 2014. U.S. and coalition military officials say that overall, the nascent force is surpassing many of their expectations. They say it is far better prepared to fight alone than many people think and should be able to take over. Canadian Brig. Gen. Thomas Putt, the director of the U.S.-led coalition’s program for development of the Afghan security forces, said the Afghan troops were accelerating in their preparedness and “we have to rush to keep up.” “We are rushing to catch up in their rush to get at it,” he said. “We have the delicious problem of being behind them.”
Coalition officials point to continuing problems in logistics and equipment for the Afghan troops. But they say the forces’ ability to work on their own is speedily improving. Five of Afghanistan’s 26 brigades are now operating independently from the coalition, and 16 are working with only advisory support, said British Lt. Gen. Nick Carter, the second-in-command of the international coalition. Last year just one out of the 23 brigades then operational was able to operate independently.
The Afghan security forces will face more challenges and won’t be able to fulfill all the expectations of the international community or the Afghan people. JAWED KOHISTANI Political analyst The Afghan National Security Forces are supposed to finish taking the lead in security later this spring, with the coalition forces moving entirely to a training and advisory role. Already, Afghans are in the lead in more than 80 percent of the nation. According to NATO, the Afghan army now numbers over 175,000, about 12,000 shy of its goal, and has an annual attrition rate of 2.6 percent — higher than the target of 1.4 percent. Afghan experts also warn of continuing difficulties, some tangible and some intangible. Jawed Kohistani, an Afghan political and military analyst, said morale is low in a military force made up mostly of soldiers who joined only for the steady salary. He added that a lack of modern military equipment also poses problems. “The Afghan security forces will face more challenges and won’t be able to fulfill all the expectations of the international community or the Afghan people,” Kohistani said. Many of the brigades that are now able to operate independently are in the eastern part of Afghanistan and many are under Yaftali’s command. Yaftali’s 203rd Corps in Gardez, the capital of eastern Paktia province, numbers 19,000 soldiers in four brigades. It is one of the largest of the army’s six corps and is responsible for six eastern provinces, including two of the most active - Ghazni and Wardak. The Azadi operation involved some 2,500 Afghan soldiers and police, operating in Ghazni and Zabol provinces, located on a strategic route connecting the capital, Kabul, with the southern province of Kandahar.
helmuth rilling Guest Conductor
Dvorak: Stabat Mater
yale camerata · yale glee club · yale philharmonia Friday, April 19 · 8 pm Woolsey Hall 500 College at Grove
Free; no tickets required. Free parking. Presented by Yale School of Music · Yale Institute of Sacred Music · Yale Glee Club. music.yale.edu
“Bombing the brave Libyan people to save them? What a brilliant strategy by the mad empire. … This is like the caveman era.” HUGO CHAVEZ FORMER VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT
Maduro named election winner BY FRANK BAJAK AND VIVIAN SEQUERA ASSOCIATED PRESS CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuela’s government-friendly electoral council quickly certified the razor-thin presidential victory of Hugo Chavez’ hand-picked successor Monday, apparently ignoring opposition demands for a recount as anti-government protests broke out in the bitterly polarized nation. People stood on their balconies in Caracas apartment buildings banging pots and pans in protest as the electoral council’s president proclaimed Nicolas Maduro president for the next six years. Across town, thousands of students clashed with National Guard troops in riot gear who fired tear gas and plastic bullets to turn the protesters back from marching on the city center. Students threw stones and pieces of concrete. The city was otherwise peaceful, although protests were reported in provincial cities. There were no immediate reports of injuries. Maduro was elected Sunday by a margin of 50.8 percent to 49 percent over challenger Henrique Capriles — a difference of just 262,000 votes out of 14.9 million cast, according to an updated official count released Monday. Sworn in as acting president after Chavez’s March 5 death from cancer, Maduro squandered a double-digit advantage in opinion polls in two weeks as Capriles highlighted what he called the ruling Chavistas’ abysmal manage-
FERNANDO LLANO/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Venezuelan National Guard soldiers and vehicles sit along a street in downtown Caracas. ment of the oil-rich country’s economy and infrastructure, citing myriad woes including food and medicine shortages, worsening power outages and rampant crime. By contrast, Chavez had defeated Capriles by a nearly 11-point margin in October. Until every vote is counted, Venezuela has an “illegitimate president and we denounce that to the world,” Capriles tweeted Monday.
One of the five members of the National Electoral Council, independent Vicente Diaz, also backed a full recount, as did the United States and the Organization of American States. But the electoral council president, Tibisay Lucena, said in announcing the outcome Sunday that it was “irreversible.” At the proclamation ceremony Monday, she called Venezuela “a champion of democracy” and defended its electronic vote system as bullet-proof.
YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 2013 · yaledailynews.com
PAGE 11
SPORTS
“There’s one guy who inspired a nation of golfers, and that’s Greg Norman.” ADAM SCOTT AUSTRALIAN PROFESSIONAL GOLFER
Bulldogs move up to No. 2 in Ivies
FREDERICK FRANK/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
On Friday, the men’s lacrosse team took down the Brown Bears 11–8, and on Monday night, the Bulldogs defeated Stony Brook 11–10. MEN’S LACROSSE FROM PAGE 12 A week earlier on April 6, midfielder Colin Flaherty ’15 scored all three of Yale’s late goals to lift the Elis past Dartmouth to tie their Ivy record at 2–2. Against Brown, attackman Kirby Zdrill ’13, attackman Brandon Mangan ’14 and Flaherty all contributed to Yale’s fourth-quarter performance, coming back from an 8–7 deficit to put the Elis on top 11–8 by the end
of 60 minutes. Outshooting the Brown Bears 41–33 and going 2-for-7 on manup opportunities allowed Yale to score when it mattered. Despite missing its first five man-up scoring chances, both Zdrill and Flaherty, who earned Ivy Player of the Week honors, were able to put away scoring chances when the Bulldogs were a man up in the final six minutes of play. Without ball possession, how-
ever, the Elis would have had difficulty generating the scoring opportunities they did. Faceoff specialist Dylan Levings ’14 continued to excel at the X like he has all season, winning 11 of 20 faceoffs. The extra two wins gave Yale more time with the ball and helped to create offensive opportunities. “Brown was a gritty win for us definitely,” defenseman Michael Quinn ’16 said.
Yale also just barely edged the Brown Bears in ground balls, taking 26 of 50. The Bulldogs’ seasoned defensive unit cleared 16 of 20 balls and caused 18 turnovers in Saturday’s win over Brown. Without a rocksolid defense, the Bulldogs would not have had the opportunity to create offensively. With Saturday’s win over Brown, Yale was able to pull into the second-place ranking in the
Coed sailing qualifies for semifinals
Ivy League, behind only the 4–0 Cornell Big Red. But below them are both Princeton and Harvard, who are currently 2–2 with one less game played than the Bulldogs. It is possible that a fiveway tie between the teams in the second through sixth places at a record of 3–3 which would result in tiebreakers deciding which four teams will head to the Ivy tournament. If the Elis do make it, they will
be prepared. “Playing in close games like Brown and Dartmouth will help us if we run into similar situations as the season carries on,” McCormack said. Yale defeated Stony Brook Monday night with a score of 11–10 and will next face off against Maryland in College Park on April 20. Contact ASHTON WACKYM at ashton.wackym@yale.edu .
Elis bring Class of 1985 Cup home WOMEN’S CREW FROM PAGE 12 five races. “We are slowly improving. This was a better race than our previous ones,” head coach Will Porter said. “As the weather warms up and the water gets better, we are gaining speed.” The varsity eight boat kicked off the successful day of racing, defeating second-place No. 14 Clemson by five seconds. The Bulldogs, who led from wire to wire, crossed the line with a time of 6:31.6. The second varsity rowed a time of 6:55.1, less than a second behind Clemson. The Bulldogs were one length down to the Tigers at the 500-meter mark, but the team closed the gap over the next 1,500 meters. They finished one stroke short of Clemson. The third varsity boat also fell short to Clemson, crossing the line with a time of 7:23.6. “This team is just starting to figure out what they can do and how to get more speed out of the boats,” Porter said. “How fast that is, they will decide.” The varsity four remained undefeated this season, picking up a nearly eight-second victory over Clemson with a time of 7:45.8. The second varsity four cruised to a commanding victory, besting second-place Dartmouth by nearly 20 seconds with a time of 7:56. Both boats
faced slight headwinds and led their races from the start. “It proved to be a competitive day of racing,” said team captain Eliza Hastings ’13, who rowed in the first seat of the varsity eight. “We had a great week of practice, and we were able to show that in our performance.”
This team is just starting to figure out what they can do and how to get more speed out of the boats. WILL PORTER Head coach, women’s crew This year marked the first time Clemson joined Yale, Dartmouth and Boston University for the Class of 1985 race. Racing the Tigers gave the Bulldogs the opportunity to face unfamiliar competition. “It was exciting to race Clemson, as we have only seen them at past NCAAs,” Hastings said. The Bulldogs will host No. 5 Princeton this Saturday at Gilder Boathouse in their first home race of the season. Contact CATHERINE WANG at catherine.wang@yale.edu .
ZEENAT MANSOOR/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
The coed team squeaked into the national semifinals after finishing sixth overall at the NEISA Dinghy Championships last weekend. SAILING FROM PAGE 12 said. “We want to keep up the energy and dominance we established through these wins all the way up to nationals.” Once again, the Bulldogs were forced to adapt to wind that varied drastically across the weekend. On Saturday, a light northwesterly wind in the morning shifted to the southwest by afternoon, and on Sunday the opposite occurred, as the early southwesterly wind shifted to the northwest by the end of the day’s racing. Fauer attributed the team’s performance to its ability to start races well. “For Kate [Gaumond] and I, we were always trying to get a start that would allow us to win, rather than a start that would just put us in an OK position,” she said. “This past week of practice, our focus was definitely on perfecting our starts — that is what really led us to our success this weekend.” While the women wrapped up their victory in New London, the coed team squeaked into the national semifinals
after finishing sixth overall at the New England Intercollegiate Sailing Association Dinghy Championships hosted by Brown. The event, also in a two-division format, was sailed in particularly challenging conditions. On Saturday, unstable northwesterly and southerly winds led to the race committee negotiating throughout the day whether or not to continue racing. Fortunately, no teams filed protests, and six races were completed in each division despite the poor weather. Sunday saw more of the same, as stronger 6–16 knot north to northwesterly breezes continued to shift throughout the day, making for difficult race management for the sailors. The Bulldogs finished ninth in the A division and sixth in the B division to place sixth overall in the regatta. The top eight teams advanced to the ICSA Semi-Final Dinghy Championship on April 27–28, in Hampton, Va. Head coach Zachary Leonard ’89 said that the team, which snapped its fourregatta win streak this weekend, still has much room for improvement.
“It wasn’t an easy weekend for the sailors, and I’m sure they’ve got a lot they know they want to work on moving forward,” he said. Skipper Graham Landy ’15 attributed a poor week of practice to the subpar performance. “Last week, we lost a day of practice to no wind and a day of practice to bad weather and too much wind,” he said. “We probably could have benefitted from some more time on the water.” Although the team was disappointed with the result, the Elis still have a chance to advance to the national finals when they compete in the ICSA Semi-Finals in two weeks, hosted by Hampton University. The women’s team will travel to Tufts next weekend for the Women’s New England Championship. The event is the first of two steps to qualify for the ICSA Women’s National Championship at Eckerd College on May 21–24. YDN
Contact NIKOLAS LASKARIS at nikolas.laskaris@yale.edu .
The women’s crew team reclaimed the Yale Class of 1985 Cup with a victory over Dartmouth, Boston University and Clemson.
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M. SWIMMING AND DIVING SWIMMERS AND DIVERS HONORED The men’s swimming and diving team had its annual banquet at the President’s Ballroom at Woolsey Hall last Tuesday. Captain Jared Lovett ’13 received the Phil Moriarty Prize and Mike Lazris ’15 was awarded with the S. Livingston Mather Swimming Award.
PRINCETON SQUASH COACH RETIRES U.S. Squash Hall of Fame inductee Bob Callahan announced on Friday he would step down as head coach of the Princeton men’s squash team. During his tenure, he guided the Tigers to three national championships — in 1982, 1993 and 2012 — and 11 Ivy League titles.
MLB Boston 3 Tampa Bay 2
“It is reassuring to know that we have been able to remain calm late in games and keep our composure.” MIKE MCCORMACK ’13 CAPTAIN, MEN’S LACROSSE YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 2013 · yaledailynews.com
Yale breaks even in conference
Elis advance despite wind
BY ASHTON WACKYM STAFF REPORTER A strong push in the fourth quarter last Friday led the men’s lacrosse team a step closer to a fourth consecutive appearance in the Ivy League tournament.
BY NIKOLAS LASKARIS CONTRIBUTING REPORTER
MEN’S LACROSSE
Over a weekend of shifty winds and difficult sailing conditions, both of Yale’s sailing teams emerged with their goals met: The women’s team sailed to their fourth consecutive regatta victory, while the coed team qualified for the national semifinals.
On Friday, the Brown Bears came to Reese Stadium for the Bulldogs’ fifth Ivy game of the season and fell to Yale 11–8. After jumping out to a quick two-goal lead in the first quarter, Brown kept the lead to two in the second despite Yale increasing production to three goals. In the third quarter, Brown outscored the Bulldogs, and in the fourth quarter, the Bears jumped one goal ahead before Yale went on another late-game scoring spree to push the Elis past Brown to break its .500 conference record and extend its winning streak to four. The Bulldogs continued to outshoot their opponents and dominated the details to earn their seventh win of the season.
SAILING In New London, Conn., the women’s team raced to a big win at the Wick & Shrew Trophies hosted by the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, finishing 55 points
clear of second-place Tufts University in the regatta. Skipper Morgan Kiss ’15 and crew Urska Kosir ’15 won the A division by 14 points, while skipper and team captain Marlena Fauer ’14 and her crew Katherine Gaumond ’15 finished 25 points clear of the second-place boat in the B division. The victory extended the team’s win streak to four regattas, an accomplishment that Fauer said is not making them complacent. “I think our winning streak makes us hungry for more,” she SEE SAILING PAGE 11
I think that this is a testament to our work ethic and our competitive drive, but it also reminds us that every game is a grind. MIKE MCCORMACK ’13 Captain, men’s lacrosse “It is reassuring to know that we have been able to remain calm late in games and keep our composure,” captain Mike McCormack ’13 said. “I think that this is a testament to our work ethic and our competitive drive, but it also reminds us that every game is a grind.” SEE MEN’S LACROSSE PAGE 11
FREDERICK FRANK/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
ZEENAT MANSOOR/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Captain and defenseman Mike McCormack ’13 limited Brown’s offensive opportunities last Friday and led Yale to a win.
Bulldogs reclaim Class of 1985 Cup
The women’s team sailed to its fourth consecutive regatta victory, and the coed team qualified for the national semifinals.
RETURNING HEROES
YDN
With a time of 6:31.6, the varsity eight boat had a successful day of racing and defeated second-place Clemson by five seconds. BY CATHERINE WANG CONTRIBUTING REPORTER The women’s crew team reclaimed the Yale Class of 1985 Cup with a dominant varsity eight victory over Dartmouth, Boston University and Clemson on Saturday.
WOMEN’S CREW
Last year, the Big Green captured the Class of 1985 Cup — named for the Yale class that donated the cup for the race — in a neck-and-neck race that was eventually determined by video review. On Saturday, the No. 10 Bulldogs raced against the three universities on Boston’s Charles River and came away with wins in three of their SEE WOMEN’S CREW PAGE 11
KATHRYN CRANDALL/CONTIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
MEN’S ICE HOCKEY CELEBRATES NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP TITLE The NCAA champion men’s hockey team celebrated its title run on Monday afternoon at Ingalls Rink with more than 1,000 fans. The Elis, including team captain Andrew Miller ’13, above, walked on a blue carpet leading to the rink’s center as each player was introduced by Ingalls Rink PA announcer Mark Ryba.
TOP ’DOG BRANDON MANGAN ’14
THE MEN’S LACROSSE JUNIOR ATTACKMAN WAS NAMED THE IVY LEAGUE CO-PLAYER OF THE WEEK AFTER SCORING THREE GOALS AGAINST BROWN LAST FRIDAY.