Gabe's Musings

Thursday, September 26, 2019

Must-read advice from Black women executives for guaranteed career success

Black women have a reputation for putting in work when it comes to their careers. Whether it’s being one of the most educated groups in the country, or making up the majority of the Black labor force in the U.S., we’re continuing a legacy of leading organizations and companies with our talents. However, while we sometimes make it look easy, that doesn’t mean it actually is.

A staggering pay gap, intersectional racism and sexism, and for some the demands of being working moms, all play a role in giving us hurdles to clear.

This was the subject of a recent panel at the Congressional Black Caucus’ Annual Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C., called “African American Women in the C-Suite: How Did You Get There? Was It Worth It?” hosted by U.S. Representative Brenda Lawrence.

TheGrio was in the building to hear some of the top Black women executives in the country open up about the challenges they faced on the job, as well as offering a few gems of knowledge for other Black women who are rising the corporate ladder of success.

If you’ve been out of work for some time…

pregnant black woman thegrio.com — Fotolia

“Don’t look at it as a liability that you’ve been out,” says Carla Harris, Vice Chairman, Managing Director and Senior Client Advisor at Morgan Stanley.

“And by the way, if you’ve been out taking care of your kids for 15 years, or taking care of sick parent, there’s probably a lot of things that you have done where you had to pull people together or had to manage them.”

Harris says that the game has changed when it comes a 1-2 year gap on a resume. Being entrepreneurial in non-traditional ways can still serve you well.

“Think about the things you do in your community which says you are in fact a leader. Because you’ve got people to do things and they weren’t reporting to you and you were fair. Think about how you tell your story as a leader and someone can get something done.”

If you’re ready for a change in your role…

They Tried It thegrio.com — (Photo/Fotolia, @Focus Pocus LTD)

“For a change, we think we have to go behind our boss, and sneak around and we look at the job bank and we try to apply, we go to our colleagues,” says Susan Reid, Global Head of Diversity and Inclusion for Morgan Stanley.

“If you’ve invested the time at a company, growing a career, build the right relationship with your manager,” says Reid.

“If your manager is seriously invested in your success, they should be the first person who you turn to when you’re ready for more, and when you’re ready for something different. But you have to invest in the time before cultivating that kind of relationship with your manager.”

If you’re trying to decide whether you fit into a company’s corporate culture…

When it comes to things like hair, fashion and style, Black women have encountered restrictions and in some cases, straight-forward discrimination on the job. While some spaces like tech, have a more casual approach to a dress code, there are still traditional spaces in which Black women may encounter resistance to even simple things like natural hair.

“Think about who you are, and that lane you’re going through in your career,” advises Harris. “Is it authentic for you to go into a specific area if you’re not willing to wear the uniform? It’s inauthentic to say, for example, ‘I’m gonna go to a Wall Street firm, and I’m gonna wear shorts and a pulled out shirt because I’m that good?'”

“‘They’re going to have to take me like I am.’ It’s inauthentic to make that call because if that is inconsistent with the uniform, you’re not going to be successful there.”

On the flip side, some Black women may choose to be pioneers and push company culture, particularly when it comes to hair. Increasingly, there are anti-discrimination laws being instituted to protect people of color who want to express themselves authentically.

“There is a part of the journey that is about us and self acceptance, and I think a lot of us are still on that journey,” says Reid.

As the Global Head of Diversity and Inclusion at Morgan Stanley, she often leads campaigns and discussions on difficult topics, from race to policing. She also is a sister who wears her hair natural.

“I would encourage [you to] just keep exploring that journey. And if you see a black woman who is going through the journey of going from relaxed to being natural, support her. Support her. Our hair comes in all different styles.”

If you’re feeling stuck, feeling frustrated and ready to quit…

You may have reached the point where you’re mentally checked out on the job, but that shouldn’t come across in your work or interactions.

“The key is that you don’t burn bridges,” says Tonya Hallett, Executive
Director, Global Manufacturing Human Resources at General Motors (GM).

Hallett has smoothly navigated working at different companies, leaving GM at one point, then returning again and being welcomed with open arms.

“The other personal mantra I have is that every role that I go into, regardless of where I go after, whether it’s a lateral job, or I get promoted out of it, or I choose to leave the company: leave that work and organization better than I found it. Just make sure that’s a part of the track record.”

Tonya Hallett says self-determination and awareness are key for Black women’s career success. (General Motors)

As the first in her family to go to college, Hallett knows wells that self- determination and agency at work are essential traits for Black women to succeed. It’s a lesson she also models as a mom of three boys.

“When you’re stuck, you’re right on the edge of a slippery slope that can fall into victimhood, right? You can become a victim of all of what they’re not doing,” says Hallett.

“Which is why that self-inventory of ‘OK, why do I feel this way right now? Why am I not getting what I think I want to get? And why I’m not growing the way I think when I grow?’ It starts with ‘What am I not doing?'”

If you’re considering changing industries altogether…

You’ve looked at your resume and even though you’ve built a track record in one lane, maybe you’re feeling like it’s time to switch. These days, switching companies and industries isn’t taboo. In fact, you may get further by starting over.

“I think it’s always key to keep an external view of what other people are doing in other industries, not just within your company,” says Hallett.

“I do feel like sometimes we put ourselves in a box and, and only allow ourselves to look for opportunities immediately in the industry. We started in that right after school… and we don’t allow ourselves to look across and see how we can broaden our experiences and skill sets.“

Hallet’s advice to other Black women is to stay in tune with whatever they determined to be an early personal passion.

“Oftentimes I find that people marry a company, marry a brand, and they forget why they went to college,” she says. “As a professional, [if] you’re an engineer, if you’re in an H.R. person, if you’re a finance person: Test your skills so that you can do it across industries with different products and services.”

“It does a lot to broaden your understanding and maybe even also validate and reconfirm your core knowledge as well.”

For more of our CBC’s Annual Legislative Conference 2019 coverage, visit theGrio’s YouTube channel and our Politics section!

The post Must-read advice from Black women executives for guaranteed career success appeared first on theGrio.

from theGrio https://ift.tt/2lk5zOr
via

EXCLUSIVE: Civil Rights Attorney Benjamin Crump demands former Dallas officer, Amber Guyger be charged with tampering of evidence and conspiracy on top of murder

It was day three, yesterday, in the murder trial against former Dallas police officer, Amber Guyger who shot and killed 26-year old accountant, Botham Jean, in his apartment last September.

After being questioned by the defense outside of the presence of the juror, lead investigator, Texas Department of Public Safety’s David Armstrong, provided testimony saying that he did not think that Guyger committed a crime because it was reasonable to believe that there was an intruder in her apartment and that she reacted because she perceived Jean as a deadly threat.

Jean family attorney and civil rights activist, Benjamin Crump, adamantly disagrees. In an exclusive interview with theGrio, Crump said that not only should Guyger be found guilty of murder, but the family demands that both she and her partner turned lover, Martin Rivera, be charged with tampering with evidence, conspiracy, and aiding and abetting.

The Jean family and friends along with their legal representatives will be in court every day until justice is served. (Photo courtesy of the Law Office of attorney Benjamin Crump.)

“This is a case of double standards and double talk,” said Crump who has been in the courtroom since the beginning of the trial.

“What is heartbreaking is to see how the police are doing everything in their power to protect this killer from being bought to justice. There is damning evidence that Amber Guyger and her partner/lover were sexting and then it comes out that she deleted all of her text messages and Rivera also deleted his texts and sexually explicit images that they shared with one another. Why are they not being charged with tampering of evidence or a conspiracy or Rivera with aiding and abetting? He destroyed evidence that was pertinent to what happened here.”

Critics have said that Guyger had the upper-hand from the very beginning. She clearly enjoyed the perks of being an officer with the Dallas Police Department when they allowed her to turn herself in at another county to avoid the press and when the police union paid her bond. But, like many things in life, you can’t have it both ways.

Why are they not being charged with tampering of evidence or a conspiracy or Rivera with aiding and abetting? He destroyed evidence that was pertinent to what happened here.

According to Crump, the Dallas Police Department treated the situation as if it was a police involved shooting with an on duty officer, but when it’s beneficial, the defense changes the narrative to her being an off duty officer.

In a closed hearing today, it was also revealed that the sergeant who put Guyger in the squad car, told her not to say a word because the dash cam video was running. Once the police union rep gets on the scene, he tells the sergeant to turn off the vehicle recorder, so that nothing they say will be recorded. Neither of these luxuries is typically afforded to most accused killers, especially if they are Black.

Fired Dallas police Officer Amber Guyger visits with her attorneys before proceedings. Guyger is facing a murder charge in the 204th District Court at the Frank Crowley Courts Building in Dallas, Wednesday, September 25, 2019. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News/Pool)

“This is a clear violation because you know they would not do this for another citizen who had just killed an unarmed person in his own apartment,” says Crump.

“If she is not held accountable for killing this young, Black man, then is there any where Black people are safe from being executed by police in America?”

Further details of that night indicate that Guyger was removed from the police vehicle after the shooting and allowed council from other officers, which seemingly gave her time to construct the story she wanted to tell. Unlike what was said on the 911 tape, Guyger suddenly pushed this notion of self-defense, which Crump believes was a result of her having the time to be coached.

“She never once said anything about feeling threatened or in fear of her life,” says Crump. “That was the conspiracy to get a justification for her killing this man. In her words, she said, ‘I f**ked up.'” Botham went to his grave not understanding why this police officer broke into his house and shot him.”

Listening to the 911 audio, it also seems that Guyger didn’t draw on her training as an officer once she realized what she had done. Instead of trying to administer first aid, she stayed on the phone with the dispatcher and even texted Rivera.

“She’s sending text messages to her lover while Botham is laying there dead. What about trying to give him medical attention while he’s struggling for life? She’s thinking about herself. She never thought about the unarmed Black man who she just shot.”

The Jean family has had to relive this tragedy over and over again. Today they heard from Christin Noble who works with the Dallas D.A.s office and is is a digital multimedia analyst as well as four of Jean’s former neighbors (Taydra Jones, Whitney Hughes, and Alyssa Kinsey, Shanel Bly), Trace Evidence Examiner, Waleska Castro, Medical Examiner, Dr. Chester Gwin, followed by Crime Scene Analyst, Robyn Carr, who took photos of the evidence inside and outside of Jean’s apartment and of Guyger that night.

Outside the presence of the jury, Botham Jean’s father, Bertrum Jean (center), leans his head away and covers his ears as the police body camera footage is shown inside the courtroom on Wednesday, September 25, 2019. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News/AP Pool)

The realization that Jean was already dead before EMS arrived on the scene and seeing officers administering CPS onto his unresponsive body was more than they could handle. Actually, this entire experience has left a defining impression in their minds.

“Remember, Botham is from St. Lucia. His family is looking at America and saying it seems to be open season when it comes to killing Black people in America by police. Is America a place where there is equal justice under the law or are those just words?'”

Wendy L. Wilson is the managing editor of theGrio.com. You can find her rants, raves, and reviews on Twitter @WendyLWilson_

The post EXCLUSIVE: Civil Rights Attorney Benjamin Crump demands former Dallas officer, Amber Guyger be charged with tampering of evidence and conspiracy on top of murder appeared first on theGrio.

from theGrio https://ift.tt/2nq8HJi
via

Why Google's Quantum Victory Is a Huge Deal—and a Letdown

When news leaked that Google scientists had achieved "quantum supremacy," researchers immediately clashed on its implications.

from Wired https://ift.tt/2ntEnxA
via

Want Free Coding Lessons? Twitch Makes It Happen in Real Time

While the platform might be known for videogame livestreams, more people are flocking there to share their work—or learn to be better programmers.

from Wired https://ift.tt/2mRaaYU
via

Why Are Rich People So Mean?

Call it 'Rich Asshole Syndrome'—the tendency to distance yourself from people with whom you have a large wealth differential.

from Wired https://ift.tt/2ljzsyx
via

Cassie and Alex Fine get married in intimate ceremony

Cassie and Alex Fine are officially married!

—Keep It Classy: Diddy responds to Cassie’s pregnancy announcement—

The lovebirds who hooked up less than a year ago are on a whirlwind and expecting a baby girl soon.

They took their relationship to the next level by sealing the deal with saying their “I don’s” in an intimate ceremony in Malibu, California, E! News reports.

While neither Cassie or Fine have confirmed the marriage on social media, they did give a nod to their pastor Peter Berg by commenting on a picture of him officiating their ceremony.

View this post on Instagram

By the power vested in me…. @alexfine44 n @cassie ❤️💥❤️ Long may you ride!

A post shared by Peter Berg (@pberg44) on Sep 25, 2019 at 5:15pm PDT

“Love you Pete! ♥️” Cassie wrote.

The very pregnant soon-to-be mom wore a flowing white gown and simple laced veil. Fine looked dapper in a classic black and white tux.

Seems like Cassie is living the “happily ever after” mantra after she split from her 10-year relations with Diddy and started dated Fine last year. Fine was formerly Diddy’s personal trainer.

—Baby Archie makes first appearance during Meghan and Harry’s South Africa tour—

Cassie took to her social media to make the announcement earlier this year that she was with child. In a professional photo shoot uploaded to Instagram, Cassie and the celebrity trainer are seen seated in a car making the gender reveal in her caption:

“Can’t wait to meet our baby girl,” the expectant mother starts off, before closing with, “Love You Always & Forever.”

In another post, Fine posted an open letter to his future daughter.

“I will be the first man in your life and will show you the greatest love and affection now and forever. I never thought my heart could grow bigger after meeting your mother… then I found out we were having you and I instantly felt a love that is so indescribable,” Alex stated.

We’re happy to see Cassie get the life she dreamed of with the man of her dreams.

The post Cassie and Alex Fine get married in intimate ceremony appeared first on theGrio.

from theGrio https://ift.tt/2nsqEqF
via

New York Met museum returns stolen ancient Egyptian coffin

The 2,100-year-old coffin was sold to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York for $4m (£3.2m).

from BBC News - Africa https://ift.tt/2lKFMzr
via

Teaching Pilots a New Trick: Landing Quietly

Researchers want to reduce the noise from planes approaching a runway. The key is a smooth descent.

from Wired https://ift.tt/2lMxya0
via

Lots of Athletes Say CBD Is a Better Painkiller. Is It?

There's almost no data on how the cannabis extract works in humans, but the sports world is embracing it anyway.

from Wired https://ift.tt/2lJXCT7
via

Ring Camera Surveillance Is Transforming Suburban Life

Consumer surveillance cameras are everywhere now, and they’re capturing moments we otherwise would never know have happened.

from Wired https://ift.tt/2mQoAIO
via

Joe Aribo: Rangers midfielder set to miss next few games

Rangers midfielder Joe Aribo is set to miss the club's next few games after suffering a gashed head in Wednesday's league Cup win over Livingston.

from BBC News - Africa https://ift.tt/2mRwHVD
via

Technique can image individual proteins within synapses

Our brains contain millions of synapses — the connections that transmit messages from neuron to neuron. Within these synapses are hundreds of different proteins, and dysfunction of these proteins can lead to conditions such as schizophrenia and autism.

Researchers at MIT and the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT have now devised a new way to rapidly image these synaptic proteins at high resolution. Using fluorescent nucleic acid probes, they can label and image an unlimited number of different proteins. They demonstrated the technique in a new study in which they imaged 12 proteins in cellular samples containing thousands of synapses.

“Multiplexed imaging is important because there’s so much variability between synapses and cells, even within the same brain,” says Mark Bathe, an MIT associate professor of biological engineering. “You really need to look simultaneously at proteins in the sample to understand what subpopulations of different synapses look like, discover new types of synapses, and understand how genetic variations impact them.”

The researchers plan to use this technique next to study what happens to synapses when they block the expression of genes associated with specific diseases, in hopes of developing new treatments that could reverse those effects.

Bathe and Jeff Cottrell, director of translational research at the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute, are the senior authors of the study, which appears today in Nature Communications. The lead authors of the paper are former postdocs Syuan-Ming Guo and Remi Veneziano, former graduate student Simon Gordonov, and former research scientist Li Li.

Imaging with DNA

Synaptic proteins have a variety of functions. Many of them help to form synaptic scaffolds, which are involved in secreting neurotransmitters and processing incoming signals. While synapses contain hundreds of these proteins, conventional fluorescence microscopy is limited to imaging at most four proteins at a time.

To boost that number, the MIT team developed a new technique based on an existing method called DNA PAINT. Using this method, originally devised by Ralf Jungmann of the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, researchers label proteins or other molecules of interest with a DNA-antibody probe. Then, they image each protein by delivering a fluorescent DNA “oligo” that binds to the DNA-antibody probes.

The DNA strands have an inherently low affinity for each other, so they bind and unbind periodically, creating a blinking fluorescence can be imaged using super-resolution microscopy. However, imaging each protein takes about half an hour, making it impractical for imaging many proteins in a large sample.

Bathe and his colleagues set out to create a faster method that would allow them to analyze a huge number of samples in a short period of time. To achieve that, they altered the DNA-dye imaging probe so that it would bind more tightly to the DNA-antibody, using what are called locked nucleic acids. This gives a much brighter signal, so the imaging can be done more quickly, but at slightly lower resolution.

“When we do 12 or 15 colors on a single well of neurons, the whole experiment takes an hour, compared with overnight for the super-resolution equivalent,” Bathe says.

The researchers used this technique to label 12 different proteins found in the synapse, including scaffolding proteins, proteins associated with the cytoskeleton, and proteins that are known to mark excitatory or inhibitory synapses. One of the proteins they looked at is shank3, a scaffold protein that has been linked to both autism and schizophrenia.

By analyzing protein levels in thousands of neurons, the researchers were able to determine groups of proteins that tend to associate with each other more often than others, and to learn how different synapses vary in the proteins they contain. That kind of information could be used to help classify synapses into subtypes that might help to reveal their functions.

“Inhibitory and excitatory are the canonical synapse types, but it is speculated that there are numerous different subtypes of synapses, without any real consensus around what those are,” Bathe says.

Understanding disease

The researchers also showed that they could measure changes in synaptic protein levels that occur after neurons are treated with a compound called tetrodotoxin (TTX), which strengthens synaptic connections.

“Using conventional immunofluorescence, you can typically extract information from three or four targets within the same sample, but with our technique, we were able to expand that number to 12 different targets within the same sample. We applied this method to examine synaptic remodeling that occurs following treatment with TTX, and our finding corroborated previous work that revealed a coordinated upregulation of synaptic proteins following TTX treatment,” says Eric Danielson, an MIT senior postdoc who is an author of the study.

The researchers are now using this technique, called PRISM, to study how the structure and composition of synapses are affected by knocking down a set of genes reported previously to confer genetic risk for development of psychiatric disorders. Sequencing the genomes of people with disorders such as autism and schizophrenia has revealed hundreds of disease-linked gene variants, and for most of those variants, scientists have no idea how they contribute to disease.

“With this approach, we expect to provide a more detailed overview of the changes in synaptic organization and shared disease effects associated with these genes,” says Karen Perez de Arce, a Broad Institute research scientist and an author of the study.

“Understanding how genetic variation impacts neurons’ development in the brain, and their synaptic structure and function, is a huge challenge in neuroscience and in understanding how these diseases arise,” Bathe adds.

The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health, including the NIH BRAIN Initiative, the National Science Foundation, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Simons Faculty Scholars Program, the Open Philanthropy Project, the U.S. Army Research Laboratory, the New York Stem Cell Foundation Robertson Award, and the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research.

Other authors of the paper include MIT research scientist Demian Park, former MIT graduate student Anthony Kulesa, and MIT postdoc Eike-Christian Wamhoff. Paul Blainey, an associate professor of biological engineering and a member of the Broad Institute, and Edward Boyden, the Y. Eva Tan Professor in Neurotechnology and an associate professor of biological engineering and of brain and cognitive sciences, are also authors of the study.

from MIT News https://ift.tt/2lVM0w7
via

Two new faces in Toni Conceicao's first Cameroon squad

New Cameroon coach Toni Conceicao calls up two new faces for his first Indomitable Lions squad.

from BBC News - Africa https://ift.tt/2lggZTn
via

DR Congo: Vaccine campaign for world's largest measles outbreak

The WHO and Congolese government aim to vaccinate more than 800,000 children in just over a week.

from BBC News - Africa https://ift.tt/2mRszoE
via

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Helping lower-income households reap the benefits of solar energy

Rooftop solar panels are a great way for people to invest in renewable energy while saving money on electricity. Unfortunately, the rooftop solar industry only serves a fraction of society.

Many Americans are unable to invest in rooftop solar; they may be renters or lack the upfront money required for installations or live in locations that don’t get enough sun. Some states have tried to address these limitations with community solar programs, which allow residents to invest in portions of large, remote solar projects and enjoy savings on their electricity bills each month.

But as community solar projects have exploded in popularity in the last few years, higher-income households have been the main beneficiaries. That’s because most developers of community solar arrays require residents to have high credit scores and sign long-term contracts.

Now the community solar startup Solstice is changing the system. The company recruits and manages customers for community solar projects while pushing developers for simpler, more inclusive contract terms. Solstice has also developed the EnergyScore, a proprietary customer qualification metric that approves a wider pool of residents for participation in community solar projects, compared to the credit scores typically used by developers.

“We’re always pushing our developer partners to be more inclusive and customer-friendly,” says Solstice co-founder Sandhya Murali MBA ’15, who co-founded the company with Stephanie Speirs MBA ’17. “We want them to design contracts that will be appealing to the customer and kind of a no-brainer.”

To date, Solstice has helped about 6,400 households sign up for community solar projects. The founders say involving a more diverse pool of residents will be essential to continue the industry’s breakneck growth.

“We think it’s imperative that we figure out how to make this model of residential solar, which can save people money and has the power to impact millions of people across the country, scale quickly,” Murali says.

A more inclusive system

In 2014, Speirs had been working on improving access to solar energy in Pakistan and India as part of a fellowship with the global investment firm Acumen. But she realized developing countries weren’t the only areas that dealt with energy inequalities.

“There are problems with solar in America,” Speirs says. “Eighty percent of people are locked out of the solar market because they can’t put solar on their rooftop. People who need solar savings the most in this country, low- to moderate-income Americans, are the least likely to get it.”

Speirs was planning to come to MIT’s Sloan School of Management to pursue her MBA the following year, so she used a Sloan email list to see if anyone was interested in joining the early-stage venture. Murali agreed to volunteer, and although she graduated in 2015 as Speirs entered Sloan, Murali spent a lot of time on campus helping Speirs get the company off the ground.

“Steph’s time at Sloan was focused on Solstice, so we kind of became an MIT startup,” Murali says. “I would say MIT sort of adopted Solstice, and we’ve grown since then with support from the school.”

Community solar is an effective way to include residents in solar projects who might not have the resources to invest in traditional rooftop solar panels. Speirs says there are no upfront costs associated with community solar projects, and residents can participate by investing in a portion of the planned solar array whether they own a home or not.

When a developer has enough resident commitments for a project, they build a solar array in another location and the electricity it generates is sent to the grid. Residents receive a credit on their monthly electric bills for the solar power produced by their portion of the project.

Still, there are aspects of the community solar industry that discourage many lower-income residents from participating. Solar array developers have traditionally required qualified customers to sign long contracts, sometimes lasting 30 years, and to agree to cancellation fees if they leave the contract prematurely.

Solstice, which began as a nonprofit to improve access to solar energy for low-income Americans, advocates for customers, working with developers to reduce contract lengths, lower credit requirements, and eliminate cancellation fees.

As they engaged with developers, Solstice’s founders realized the challenges associated with recruiting and managing customers for community solar projects were holding the industry back, so they decided to start a for-profit arm of the company to work with customers of all backgrounds and income levels.

“Solstice’s obsession is how do we make it so easy and affordable to sign up for community solar such that everyone does it,” Speirs says.

In 2016, Solstice was accepted into The Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship’s delta v accelerator, where the founders began helping developers find customers for large solar projects. The founders also began developing a web-based customer portal to make participation in projects as seamless as possible.

But they realized those solutions didn’t directly address the biggest factor preventing lower-income Americans from investing in solar power.

“To get solar in this country, you either have to be able to afford to put solar on your rooftop, which costs $10,000 to $30,000, or you have to have the right FICO score for community solar,” Speirs says, referring to a credit score used by community solar developers to qualify customers. “Your FICO score is your destiny in this country, yet FICO doesn’t measure whether you pay your utility bills on time, or your cell phone bills, or rental bills.”

With this in mind, the founders teamed up with data scientists from MIT and Stanford University, including Christopher Knittle, the George P. Shultz Professor at MIT Sloan, to create a new qualification metric, the EnergyScore. The EnergyScore uses a machine learning system trained on data from nearly 875,000 consumer records, including things like utility payments, to predict payment behavior in community solar contracts. Solstice says it predicts future payment behavior more accurately than FICO credit scores, and it qualifies a larger portion of low-to-moderate income customers for projects.

Driving change

Last year, Solstice began handling the entire customer experience, from the initial education and sales to ongoing support during the life of contracts. To date, the company has helped find customers for solar projects that have a combined output of 100 megawatts of electricity in New York and Massachusetts.

And later this year, Solstice will begin qualifying customers with its EnergyScore, enabling a whole new class of Americans to participate in community solar projects. One of the projects using the EnergyScore will put solar arrays on the rooftops of public housing buildings in New York City in partnership with the NYC Housing Authority.

Ultimately, the founders believe including a broader swath of American households in community solar projects isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s also an essential part of the fight against climate change.

“[Community solar] is a huge, untapped market, and we’re unnecessarily restricting ourselves by creating some of these contract barriers that make community solar remain in the hands of the wealthy,” Murali says. “We’re never going to scale community solar and make the impact on climate change we need to make if we don’t figure out how to make this form of solar work for everyone.”

from MIT News https://ift.tt/2mPRyIC
via

Little Talk of Sustainability at Amazon's Big Hardware Event

But CEO Jeff Bezos says he considers Amazon’s hardware strategy to be a part of the company’s efforts to reduce its overall carbon footprint.

from Wired https://ift.tt/2nkP7OK
via

South Africa's xenophobic attacks: Why migrants won't be deterred

The wave of anti-foreigner attacks are a symptom of a bigger problem, writes Andrew Harding.

from BBC News - Africa https://ift.tt/2lPz0YT
via

Meet the Man Driving Fifth Third Bank’s Multi-Billion Dollar Community Pledge

As Executive Vice President and Head of Business Banking for Fifth Third Bank, Kala Gibson focuses on helping small businesses gain the resources necessary for them to continue to drive employment, innovation, and impact. In doing so, the financial services veteran has served as a catalytic force for what he describes as “urban entrepreneurship.”

Simply put, he seeks to transform small enterprises into growth companies.

Although he may serve a small business clientele, Gibson manages a massive portfolio. He oversees strategy, sales, product development, credit fulfillment, and operations for one of the Cincinnati-based institution’s largest divisions. As such, Gibson guides his team to handle the needs of companies with annual revenues up to $20 million—a cluster he says that ranges from “mom and pops up to the fast-growing tech companies”—across more than 1,100 banking centers in 10 states.

One of the nation’s preeminent leaders in business banking, Gibson is best suited to lead Fifth Third’s charge in this area. The Detroit native is a graduate of Grand Valley State University and Michigan State University’s Eli Broad College of Business, gaining intimate knowledge of the needs of entrepreneurs with his 13-year stint with Comerica and more than six years with Fifth Third.

Kala Gibson speaks at the 2019 FWD summit (Black Enterprise)

A PASSION FOR BANKING AND BUILDING COMMUNITIES

He holds a boundless passion for banking, dating back to his love of Monopoly at the age of 7. He was imbued with the spirit of service, however, when he noticed as a youngster that “banks and business left my community and then we started to see the decline. I saw that and said, ‘Hey, I want to fix that.’ So as a child, I actually [declared] ‘This is my purpose in life.’ ”

Today, the expression of that purpose can be found in his role in the implementation of Fifth Third’s Community Commitment, which has pledged $11.1 billion to small business lending through 2020, and its $5 million contribution to the Community Reinvestment Fund (CRF) to expand access to capital, financial management, lending tools, and continuing education to low- and moderate-income housing. Moreover, last year, he was appointed to the board of directors of the National Minority Supplier Development Council, the leading supplier diversity and inclusion organization that matches more than 12,000 certified minority-owned businesses to its network of 1,750-plus corporate members.

“I think the biggest thing that we do that is unique to Fifth Third is that we collaborate with our community and economic development policy team, and not just lend money but also actually try to build this small business ecosystem, which we believe is going to be important for minority-owned businesses and specifically African American-owned businesses,” says Gibson.

BLACK ENTERPRISE sat down with Gibson on how he uses his corporate leadership to advance African American businesses and communities of color.

From your vantage point, what is the state of black business? Are these companies gaining ground or treading water?

We’re actually gaining, and, and the reason is due to the amount of capital that’s actually in the environment now. If you remember pre-recession, there wasn’t a lot of emphasis on small business lending. People didn’t think that it was profitable. After the recession, as institutional investors started trying to find a place to put their money, they realized that the growth engine has been around small businesses. So there’s been a significant amount of capital that has poured into this space.

So have black firms been able to gain access to this capital?

Now what’s missing, and we’re solving for that at Fifth Third, is how to get that information to African American and minority-owned businesses. The interesting thing that’s allowed us to do that is the whole digital framework. There’s no reason someone shouldn’t have access to this information through word of mouth, digital, and social media. We’ve been really mindful at Fifth Third of building that ecosystem to connect them to the capitalists out there. Once they have the capital, how do they scale? How do they build their businesses?

So there’s different organizations that we support across our footprint. We try to focus on what I call “Urban Entrepreneurship.

Frantz Tiffeau, Director, Supplier Diversity Nationwide; Kala Gibson, SVP/Head of Business Banking for Fifth Third Bank; Jalayna Bolden, Director of Supplier Diversity for AT&T; and Adrienne Trimble is the President/CEO of NMSDC at FWD (Black Enterprise)

WHAT IT TAKES TO BE AN URBAN ENTREPRENEUR

How do you define urban entrepreneurship?

It is different than your typical small business entrepreneurship. Urban entrepreneurship is someone who has an idea, a passion, and a skill they’re really good at a skill and try to figure out how to monetize it. With this ecosystem, we could actually develop those businesses and those individuals which I believe where our growth is going to come.

What is the financing model for urban entrepreneurs?

The No. 1 source when you want to start a business, outside of your friends and family, is the bank. So we’ve realized at Fifth Third we can say yes 50% to 60% of the time. That’s the best it’s going to get. So then we figure out how to take the money that we have and invest in other lending funds so that we can get to a 100% yes. So I can get you there 60% of the way but for that other 40%, we refer you to our partners who have capital on the sidelines that they can employ to help your business.

Take me through the process of how an urban entrepreneur or small business should maximize their banking relationship

I think a banking relationship is one of the most underrepresented resources out there. It’s free information. A bank’s job is to provide you with access to capital and information, and information in the form of advice and insights about your industry and company. We don’t use them that way.

We use them as a product. I need a checking account or a loan then I go to the bank. What we’ve been trying to push is you come in the bank when you have a question.

What type of questions?

How do I scale my business? How do I approve this product? How do I actually network? Who do I need to know? You should come to the bank because we have all that. Instead, we only come when we actually need something. One of the things that I’ve tried to stress is that you have to build a relationship before you actually need it because when you need it’s too late.

How do you get entrepreneurs to change their approach to banking?

One of the things we’ve been trying to do at Fifth Third demystify [banking] and [communicate that] I’m approachable. We can have a conversation. And we need to get more folks in the business who look like us so that we feel comfortable and we can have that conversation.

Do you view innovation as a driver of the urban entrepreneurship ecosystem? How do you support that?

Digital transformation allowed people to be able to have a business without brick and mortar and be extremely successful. So I think that that was one of the things that changed the game and reduced the barriers for owning a business. One of the interesting things that has allowed us to actually be able to take advantage of this growth is e-commerce. Now folks say, “I don’t need a building.” I could do this from my house now because of this supercomputer that we’re walking around with in our pockets. I think the idea around urban entrepreneurship is taking these young men and women who have great ideas on how to network and [help them] actually expand and monetize that.

SCALING YOUR BUSINESS FOR LUCRATIVE CONTRACTS

In your role at NMSDC, how do you advocate creating that bridge so that we have more companies that can take advantage of corporate contracts?

I’m the only lending head of a business that’s actually on the council board. One of the reasons that’s important is I can bring that kind of perspective. One of the challenges that’s happened over the last 20 years is this massive consolidation of vendors. Companies have gotten comfortable that all they need is one or two. That’s why you have to scale up. So that you can create this supplier ecosystem. The ultimate goal is that a Tier-2 supplier can eventually become a Tier-1 supplier. That’s the measure of success.

So how can we create more billion-dollar companies? Does it require more consolidations of the African American firms?

So this is probably controversial but I don’t think the goal should be to create more billion-dollar companies, I think the goal should be that we create more $100 million and $500 million companies. If we’re focused on that lower end and creating more of those firms, they will turn into those billion-dollar companies. What happens is that we’re so focused on bigger numbers right that sometimes we miss the bus.

So should we look to private equity firms to play a role in funding that growth?

This is going to be controversial as well. I’m not a big fan of private equity groups because their main goal is maximizing their return. When you’re looking at these businesses, you’re trying to figure out that it’s more than just maximizing return. It’s about creating opportunity for everybody.

from Black Enterprise https://ift.tt/2lBp99f
via

Chuba Akpom: Ex-England youth star opts to play for Nigeria

Former England youth international Chuba Akpom pledges his international allegiance to the country of his parents Nigeria.

from BBC News - Africa https://ift.tt/2mClS9P
via

Josh Tenenbaum receives 2019 MacArthur Fellowship

Josh Tenenbaum, a professor in MIT’s Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences who studies human cognition, has been named a recipient of a 2019 MacArthur Fellowship.

The fellowships, often referred to as “genius grants,” come with a five-year, $625,000 prize, which recipients are free to use as they see fit.

“It’s an amazing honor, and very unexpected. There are a very small number of cognitive scientists who have ever received it, so it’s an incredible honor to be in their company,” says Tenenbaum, a professor of computational cognitive science and a member of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and the Center for Brains, Minds and Machines (CBMM).

Using computer modeling and behavioral experiments, Tenenbaum seeks to understand a key aspect of human intelligence: how people are able to rapidly learn new concepts and tasks based on very little information. This phenomenon is particularly noticeable in babies and young children, who can quickly learn meanings of new words, or how objects behave in the physical world, after minimal exposure to them.

“One thing we’re trying to understand is how are these basic ways of understanding the world built, in very young children? What are babies born with? How do children really learn and how can we describe those ideas in engineering terms?” Tenenbaum says.

Additionally, his lab explores how the mind performs cognitive processes such as making predictions about future events, inferring the mental states of other people, making judgments regarding cause and effect, and constructing theories about rules that govern physical interactions or social behavior.

Tenenbaum says he would like to use the grant money to fund some of the more creative student projects in his lab, which are harder to get funding for, as well as collaborations with MIT colleagues that he sees as key partners in studying various aspects of cognition. He also hopes to use some of the funding to support his department’s efforts to increase research participation of under-represented minority students.

Tenenbaum also studies machine learning and artificial intelligence, with the goal of bringing machine-learning algorithms closer to the capacities of human learning. This could lead to more powerful AI systems as well as more powerful theoretical paradigms for understanding human cognition.

Tenenbaum received his PhD from MIT in 1999, and after a brief postdoc with the MIT AI Lab he joined the Stanford University faculty as an assistant professor of psychology. He returned to MIT as a faculty member in 2002. Last year, he was named a scientific director of The Core, a part of MIT’s Quest for Intelligence that focuses on advancing the science and engineering of both human and machine intelligence.

Including Tenenbaum, 24 MIT faculty members and three staff members have won the MacArthur fellowship.

MIT faculty who have won the award over the last decade include health care economist Amy Finkelstein and media studies scholar Lisa Parks (2018); computer scientist Regina Barzilay (2017); economist Heidi Williams (2015); computer scientist Dina Kitabi and astrophysicist Sara Seager (2013); writer Junot Diaz (2012); physicist Nergis Mavalvala (2010); and economist Esther Duflo (2009).

from MIT News https://ift.tt/2n2erbY
via

High school student drags Black mannequin by lasso behind homecoming float

A high school student in Nevada is under investigation for a disturbing incident with racist overtones.

—No charges against ex-officers who mocked Black woman and made her walk home—

School officials are looking into a video of a student dressed as a cowboy dragging a Black mannequin tied to a rope at a homecoming game in Reno between Damonte Ranch High School and McQueen High School.

The video was widely circulated on social media after the Friday night game, The Daily Mail reports.

In the video, shared by KRNV, it appears the student is dressed up as a wrangler riding the school’s mustang mascot while a lasso hangs around the waist of a Black mannequin.

The Washoe County School District Interim Superintendent Dr. Kristen McNeill launched an investigation after getting wind of the troubling incident.

“This incident and the behavior of those responsible is utterly inconsistent with our collective commitment to equity, diversity, responsibility, and kindness for all of our students and staff members,” she said in a statement.

“The District is continuing the investigation into how this most unfortunate incident occurred, and will take appropriate action to ensure it never happens again.’

“We will hold those responsible accountable for their actions. This may in fact entail— in addition to apologies— a school-wide redoubling of efforts around civil rights, equity, and diversity training.”

According to the Reno Gazette Journal, students intended to purchase a different color mannequin for their rodeo themed float. But on Amazon, only a Black one was available so they purchased to complete their stunt.

—Killer Mike demands Black people stand with Byron Allen in Supreme Court fight—

“We completely understand how this was perceived and how this could be offensive to anyone in attendance at the game.’

“We would never intentionally try to offend any culture as we represent diverse cultures in our Damonte Ranch High School and community.

“Again, we are deeply sorry and will take action and necessary steps to ensure that this never repeats itself at Damonte Ranch High School.”

The post High school student drags Black mannequin by lasso behind homecoming float appeared first on theGrio.

from theGrio https://ift.tt/2lEGSMW
via

7 Best Password Managers of 2019 (Paid, Family, and Free)

We picked our favorite password managers for PC, Mac, Android, iPhone, and web browsers.

from Wired https://ift.tt/2l2PmgB
via

An Effort to Punish China Could Slow the Roll of Electric Buses

China’s BYD supplies about one-third of the electric buses in the US, but it would be effectively barred under a provision in a national defense bill.

from Wired https://ift.tt/2lCNpHO
via

Nintendo Switch Lite Review: A Love Letter to Handheld Gamers

Cheaper, lighter, and a whole lot cuter, the Switch Lite is both a follow-up and a spin-off of Nintendo's famous console.

from Wired https://ift.tt/2ltpP0p
via

Mohamed Ali: The self-exiled Egyptian sparking protests at home

Who is the man whose online anger brought Egyptians onto the streets?

from BBC News - Africa https://ift.tt/2mHcjpU
via

Bill Cosby hit with $2.75M legal bill after losing dispute

Bill Cosby has been hit with a $2.75 million legal bill as he marks the end of his first year in prison.

The 82-year-old Cosby had challenged a California arbitration award that upheld nearly $7 million of a $9 million bill submitted by just one firm in the run-up to his first sexual assault trial in Pennsylvania in 2017.

A judge sided Friday with Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, of Los Angeles, rejecting Cosby’s claim that the bill was “egregious.”

Cosby spokesman Andrew Wyatt isn’t commenting on the fee dispute.

But he says the actor is holding up well in a suburban Philadelphia prison, mentoring other inmates as he marks a year in prison Wednesday.

Cosby is serving three to 10 years for drugging and molesting a woman in 2004. The Pennsylvania Superior Court is weighing his appeal of the 2018 conviction.

The post Bill Cosby hit with $2.75M legal bill after losing dispute appeared first on theGrio.

from theGrio https://ift.tt/2l5MYpm
via

No charges against ex-officers who mocked Black woman and made her walk home

Charges will not be filed against two white ex-Detroit police officers who were fired amid an investigation into racist comments and social media posts about a traffic stop.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said Tuesday there is “insufficient evidence to criminally charge” Gary Steele or Michael Garrison.

Steele was fired in February after a video on his Snapchat account showed him saying “priceless” and “bye Felicia” as a black woman walked home. Her car was stopped for speeding and had an expired license plate. The video’s captions read “what black girl magic looks like” and “celebrating Black History Month.”

Police announced in March that Garrison, Steele’s partner, was fired after investigators found he had made disturbing comments about blacks and other minorities.
The Associated Press left a message seeking comment from the police union.

The post No charges against ex-officers who mocked Black woman and made her walk home appeared first on theGrio.

from theGrio https://ift.tt/2n2IMHo
via

The PlantWave Device Lets Your Houseplants Play Music

The device converts the electrical conductivity of houseplants into audio, giving plants the chance to sing.

from Wired https://ift.tt/2n2qcz9
via

How to Get 150,000 Stranded People Home in 2 Weeks

The UK has a fund to bring home passengers left hanging after the collapse of travel agency Thomas Cook. In the US, travelers wouldn’t be so lucky.

from Wired https://ift.tt/2lCpM2c
via

TikTok—Yes, TikToK—Is the Latest Window Into China’s Police State

Expat Uyghurs are gaming the social platform known for fluff to find loopholes in Xinjiang’s information lockdown.

from Wired https://ift.tt/2n2pVw7
via

Sierra Leone given three days notice for Wafu Cup

Sierra Leone are offered a place at the regional Wafu Cup of Nations three days before kick-off after Morocco withdraw

from BBC News - Africa https://ift.tt/2l0Yd2d
via

Baby Archie makes appearance on royal tour of Africa

It is the first time the Duke and Duchess's son has been seen during their 10-day tour of Africa.

from BBC News - Africa https://ift.tt/2lrFL3d
via

We’re Killing the Oceans, and We’ll Pay Dearly for It

Depending on whom you ask, the IPCC’s latest report is either startling, depressing, or dire—or more likely a combination of all three.

from Wired https://ift.tt/2l0cDjf
via

South Sudan name 12 Australia-based players

South Sudan include a total of 12 Australia-based players in its initial squad for the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers

from BBC News - Africa https://ift.tt/2kXPv4M
via

Somali journalist: 'I was the only female reporter in my city'

Maryan Seylac describes life as a reporter in one of the most dangerous countries for journalists.

from BBC News - Africa https://ift.tt/2mDmtYx
via

Francois Zahoui confirmed as new Central African Republic coach

Former Ivory Coast boss Francois Zahoui is confirmed as new CAR coach a week after leaving his job with Niger.

from BBC News - Africa https://ift.tt/2l2cEDl
via

Said Bouteflika: Brother of deposed Algerian leader sentenced to 15 years

Said Bouteflika was accused of conspiring against the state as people protested against his brother.

from BBC News - Africa https://ift.tt/2lxyRcz
via

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

How cities can leverage citizen data while protecting privacy

India is on a path with dual — and potentially conflicting — goals related to the use of citizen data.

To improve the efficiency their municipal services, many Indian cities have started enabling government-service requests, which involves collecting and sharing citizen data with government officials and, potentially, the public. But there’s also a national push to protect citizen privacy, potentially restricting data usage. Cities are now beginning to question how much citizen data, if any, they can use to track government operations.

In a new study, MIT researchers find that there is, in fact, a way for Indian cities to preserve citizen privacy while using their data to improve efficiency.

The researchers obtained and analyzed data from more than 380,000 government service requests by citizens across 112 cities in one Indian state for an entire year. They used the dataset to measure each city government’s efficiency based on how quickly they completed each service request. Based on field research in three of these cities, they also identified the citizen data that’s necessary, useful (but not critical), or unnecessary for improving efficiency when delivering the requested service.

In doing so, they identified “model” cities that performed very well in both categories, meaning they maximized privacy and efficiency. Cities worldwide could use similar methodologies to evaluate their own government services, the researchers say. The study was presented at this past weekend’s Technology Policy Research Conference.

“How do municipal governments collect citizen data to try to be transparent and efficient, and, at the same time, protect privacy? How do you find a balance?” says co-author Karen Sollins, a researcher in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), a principal investigator for the Internet Policy Research Initiative (IPRI), and a member of the Privacy, Innovation and e-Governance using Quantitative Systems (PIEQS) group. “We show there are opportunities to improve privacy and efficiency simultaneously, instead of saying you get one or the other, but not both.”

Joining Sollins on the paper are: first author Nikita Kodali, a graduate student in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; and Chintan Vaishnav, a senior lecturer in the MIT Sloan School of Management, a principal investigator for IPRI, and a member PIEQS.

Intersections of privacy and efficiency

In recent years, India’s eGovernment Foundation has aimed to significantly improve the transparency, accountability, and efficiency of operations in its many municipal governments. The foundation aims to move all of these governments from paper-based systems to fully digitized systems with citizen interfaces to request and interact with government service departments.

In 2017, however, India’s Supreme Court ruled that its citizens have a constitutional right to data privacy and have a say in whether or not their personal data could be used by governments and the private sector. That could potentially limit the information that towns and cities could use to track the performance of their services.

Around that time, the researchers had started studying privacy and efficiency issues surrounding the eGovernment Foundation’s digitization efforts. That led to a report that determined which types of citizen data could be used to track government service operations.

Building on that work, the researchers were provided 383,959 anonymized citizen-government transactions from digitized modules from 112 local governments in an Indian state for all of 2018. The modules focused on three areas: new water tap tax assessment; new property tax assessment; and public grievances about sanitation, stray animals, infrastructure, schools, and other issues.

Citizens send requests to those modules via mobile or web apps by entering various types of personal and property information, and then monitor the progress of the requests. The request and related data pass through various officials that each complete an individual subtask, known as a service level agreement, within a designated time limit. Then, the request passes on to another official, and so on. But much of that citizen information is also visible to the public.

The software captured each step of each request, moving from initiation to completion, with time stamps, for each municipal government. The researchers then could rank each task within a town or city, or in aggregation across each town or city on two metrics: a government efficiency index and an information privacy index.

The government efficiency index primarily measures a service’s timeliness, compared to the predetermined service level agreement. If a service is completed before its timeframe, it’s more efficient; if it’s completed after, it’s less efficient. The information privacy index measures how responsible is a government in collecting, using, and disclosing citizen data that may be privacy sensitive, such as personally identifiable information. The more the city collects and shares inessential data, the lower its privacy rating.

Phone numbers and home addresses, for instance, aren’t needed for many of the services or grievances, yet are collected — and publicly disclosed — by many of the modules. In fact, the researchers found that some modules historically collected detailed personal and property information across dozens of data fields, yet the governments only needed about half of those fields to get the job done.

Model behavior

By analyzing the two indices, they found eight “model” municipal governments that performed in the top 25 percent for all services in both the efficiency and privacy indices. In short, they used only the essential data — and passed that essential data through fewer officials — to complete a service in a timely manner.

The researchers now plan to study how the model cities are able to get services done so quickly. They also hope to study why some cities performed so poorly, in the bottom 25 percent, for any given service. “First, we’re showing India that this is what your best cities look like and what other cities should become,” Vaishnav says. “Then we want to look at why a city becomes a model city.”

Similar studies can be conducted in places where similar citizen and government data are available and which have equivalents to India’s service level agreements — which serve as a baseline for measuring efficiency. That information isn’t common worldwide yet, but could be in the near future, especially in cities like Boston and Cambridge, Vaishnav says. “We gather a large amount of data and there’s an urge to do something with the data to improve governments and engage citizens better,” he says. “That may soon be a requirement in democracies around the globe.”

Next, the researchers want to create an innovation-based matrix, which will determine which citizen data can and cannot be made public to private parties to help develop new technologies. They’re also working on a model that provides information on a city’s government efficiency and information privacy scores in real time, as citizen requests are being processed.

from MIT News https://ift.tt/2lvX7fb
via

Quantum sensing on a chip

MIT researchers have, for the first time, fabricated a diamond-based quantum sensor on a silicon chip. The advance could pave the way toward low-cost, scalable hardware for quantum computing, sensing, and communication.

“Nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers” in diamonds are defects with electrons that can be manipulated by light and microwaves. In response, they emit colored photons that carry quantum information about surrounding magnetic and electric fields, which can be used for biosensing, neuroimaging, object detection, and other sensing applications. But traditional NV-based quantum sensors are about the size of a kitchen table, with expensive, discrete components that limit practicality and scalability.

In a paper published in Nature Electronics, the researchers found a way to integrate all those bulky components — including a microwave generator, optical filter, and photodetector — onto a millimeter-scale package, using traditional semiconductor fabrication techniques. Notably, the sensor operates at room temperature with capabilities for sensing the direction and magnitude of magnetic fields.

The researchers demonstrated the sensor’s use for magnetometry, meaning they were able to measure atomic-scale shifts in the frequency due to surrounding magnetic fields, which could contain information about the environment. With further refining, the sensor could have a range of applications, from mapping electrical impulses in the brain to detecting objects, even without a line of sight.

“It’s very difficult to block magnetic fields, so that’s a huge advantage for quantum sensors,” says co-author Christopher Foy, a graduate student in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS). “If there’s a vehicle traveling in, say, an underground tunnel below you, you’d be able to detect it even if you don’t see it there.”

Joining Foy on the paper are: Mohamed Ibrahim, a graduate student in EECS; Donggyu Kim PhD ’19; Matthew E. Trusheim, a postdoc in EECS; Ruonan Han, an associate professor in EECS and head of the Terahertz Integrated Electronics Group, which is part of MIT's Microsystems Technology Laboratories (MTL); and Dirk Englund, an MIT associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science, a researcher in Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE), and head of the Quantum Photonics Laboratory.

Shrinking and stacking

NV centers in diamonds occur where carbon atoms in two adjacent places in the lattice structure are missing — one atom is replaced by a nitrogen atom, and the other space is an empty “vacancy.” That leaves missing bonds in the structure, where the electrons are extremely sensitive to tiny variations in electrical, magnetic, and optical characteristics in the surrounding environment.

The NV center essentially functions as an atom, with a nucleus and surrounding electrons. It also has photoluminescent properties, meaning it absorbs and emits colored photons. Sweeping microwaves across the center can make it change states — positive, neutral, and negative — which in turn changes the spin of its electrons. Then, it emits different amounts of red photons, depending on the spin.

A technique, called optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR), measures how many photons are emitted by interacting with the surrounding magnetic field. That interaction produces further, quantifiable information about the field. For all of that to work, traditional sensors require bulky components, including a mounted laser, power supply, microwave generator, conductors to route the light and microwaves, an optical filter and sensor, and a readout component.

The researchers instead developed a novel chip architecture that positions and stacks tiny, inexpensive components in a certain way using standard complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology, so they function like those components. “CMOS technologies enable very complex 3-D structures on a chip,” Ibrahim says. “We can have a complete system on the chip, and we only need a piece of diamond and green light source on top. But that can be a regular chip-scale LED.”

NV centers within a diamond slab are positioned in a “sensing area” of the chip. A small green pump laser excites the NV centers, while a nanowire placed close to the NV centers generates sweeping microwaves in response to current. Basically, the light and microwave work together to make the NV centers emit a different amount of red photons — with the difference being the target signal for readout in the researchers’ experiments.

Below the NV centers is a photodiode, designed to eliminate noise and measure the photons. In between the diamond and photodiode is a metal grating that acts as a filter that absorbs the green laser photons while allowing the red photons to reach the photodiode. In short, this enables an on-chip ODMR device, which measures resonance frequency shifts with the red photons that carry information about the surrounding magnetic field.

But how can one chip do the work of a large machine? A key trick is simply moving the conducting wire, which produces the microwaves, at an optimal distance from the NV centers. Even if the chip is very small, this precise distance enables the wire current to generate enough magnetic field to manipulate the electrons. The tight integration and codesign of the microwave conducting wires and generation circuitry also help. In their paper, the researchers were able to generate enough magnetic field to enable practical applications in object detection.

Only the beginning

In another paper presented earlier this year at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference, the researchers describe a second-generation sensor that makes various improvements on this design to achieve 100-fold greater sensitivity. Next, the researchers say they have a “roadmap” for how to increase sensitivity by 1,000 times. That basically involves scaling up the chip to increase the density of the NV centers, which determines sensitivity.

If they do, the sensor could be used even in neuroimaging applications. That means putting the sensor near neurons, where it can detect the intensity and direction of firing neurons. That could help researchers map connections between neurons and see which neurons trigger each other. Other future applications including a GPS replacement for vehicles and airplanes. Because the magnetic field on Earth has been mapped so well, quantum sensors can serve as extremely precise compasses, even in GPS-denied environments.

“We’re only at the beginning of what we can accomplish,” Han says. “It’s a long journey, but we already have two milestones on the track, with the first-and second-generation sensors. We plan to go from sensing to communication to computing. We know the way forward and we know how to get there.”

“I am enthusiastic about this quantum sensor technology and foresee major impact in several fields,” says Ron Walsworth, a senior lecturer at Harvard University whose group develops high-resolution magnetometry tools using NV centers.

“They have taken a key step in the integration of quantum-diamond sensors with CMOS technology, including on-chip microwave generation and delivery, as well as on-chip filtering and detection of the information-carrying fluorescent light from the quantum defects in diamond. The resulting unit is compact and relatively low-power. Next steps will be to further enhance the sensitivity and bandwidth of the quantum diamond sensor [and] integrate the CMOS-diamond sensor with wide-ranging applications, including chemical analysis, NMR spectroscopy, and materials characterization.”

from MIT News https://ift.tt/2lvorKv
via

Looking under the surface of politics in Latin America

Danny Hidalgo’s research involves looking under the surface of elections and political campaigns, and probing some of their questionable elements. It turns out there’s a lot to see down there.

Hidalgo, an associate professor in MIT’s Department of Political Science, is a scholar who studies the nexus of elections, campaigns, and money in Latin America, and particularly in Brazil, hammering away at the question of who, exactly, benefits from the system.

Consider one Hidalgo study of municipal elections that were plagued by the alleged practice of “voter buying,” in which people would be brought into a city to vote illegally. Voter audits that discouraged voter buying, Hidalgo has found, shrank the electorate by 12 percentage points and lowered the chances of mayoral reelection by a whopping 18 percentage points.

Even when the rules are being followed, the influence of money in politics is evident. In another study, Hidalgo showed that firms focused on public-works projects, which donate to winning candidates from the ruling party, get a boost to their government contracts that is at least 14 times the value of their contributions.

A lot of Hidalgo’s studies focus on elections themselves. In still another study, Hidalgo and a co-author showed that local politicians who were incumbents were twice as likely as nonincumbents to be granted control over community radio stations; in turn, they also showed that radio access significantly boosts the vote share of politicians.

“Corruption and accountability are central themes of politics in Brazil,” Hidalgo says, sitting in his office, discussing his work. “Let’s try to think rigorously and bring our social science tools to bear on them.”

That rigorous thinking, as well as the exacting quantitative methods Hidalgo uses, are built on a foundation of firsthand knowledge. There is nothing like living somewhere, and learning about it in person, to spur productive research.

“I’m very much of the mind, and maybe this is more old-school, of having research questions come to you based on what’s important in the places that you’re studying,” Hidalgo says. “In some sense, you just have to spend a lot of time in Latin America.”

Travelin’ man

Indeed, many of Hidalgo’s research interests have been formed by his sense of place.

Hidalgo was born in Mexico but grew up in Los Angeles, with parents who were highly attuned to Mexican politics. During Hidalgo’s teenage years, in the 1990s, the country’s lurching transition toward a multiparty democracy was a major talking point in his household.

“Around my kitchen table there was a lot of discussion of Mexican politics, and what was going on, and that got me interested in politics in other countries, and how politics works in places where the institutions aren’t quite as strong as in the U.S.,” Hidalgo recounts. “So because of that I had an interest in Latin American politics generally.”

Hidalgo went to college at Princeton University, where he graduated with a BA in politics in 2002. His focus on Latin American politics was enhanced by an undergraduate study abroad program that landed him in Buenos Aires.

“Basically I lived there in the lead-up to the enormous depression that occurred in Argentina, before this period when they had four or five presidents in a matter of months,” Hidalgo says. “That was a very interesting time to be living in Buenos Aires.”

After graduation, though, Hidalgo departed for a different part of the world: Hangzhou, China, where he taught English while figuring out his future. Again a social crisis hit soon after Hidalgo’s arrival, this time in the form of the SARS epidemic that shut down cities and scared off travelers.

“From one day to the next, Hangzhou went from having incredibly bustling streets, to nothing,” Hidalgo remembers. And when an acquaintance of a friend contracted SARS, Hidalgo reluctantly departed. “The program that I was with essentially said, ‘You have to be under quarantine for a while, or you have to leave,’ which was too bad, because I really liked living in China and I wanted to stay.”

At loose ends back in the U.S., Hidalgo applied for a Fulbright scholarship to study in Brazil, got it, and spent his first year in Brazil doing research.

“I loved my time in Brazil. I was fascinated. It was so huge and with so much heterogeneity,” Hidalgo says. “A lot of my work stems from that.”

Hidalgo adds: “In China there’s been incredible economic development, but a complete lack of accountability. … In Brazil in some sense [it’s been] the opposite, with a long period of sluggish growth, from the late 1970s to mid-90s, but increasingly it became this vibrant democracy, very competitive. It had a traditional oligarchical conservative political class, but there emerged a working-class president [Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, from 2003 through 2010] from a left-wing party, which typically didn’t reach political power in Latin America. It was a fascinating contrast.”

Brazilian politics have since changed, rather dramatically, but Hidalgo’s interest had been sparked. Back in the U.S. again, Hidalgo attended graduate school in political science at the University of California at Berkeley, earning his PhD in 2012. He was hired out of graduate school by MIT and has been on the Institute faculty since then, embarking on many research trips in the intervening years. For his work, Hidalgo received tenure from MIT earlier this year.

The case-driven scholar

While Hidalgo’s work is clearly situated at the junction of money, politics, and power, he uses a diversity of methods to get his results. He isn’t necessarily trying to build an overarching theory of how politics works; rather, he has identified an array of ways that money and politics interact.

“Some scholars have a theory first and look for cases,” Hidalgo says. “I care about societies and politics and try to find out what’s important. There’s an interplay between theory and cases, but I’m more case-driven.”

Hidalgo is also not set on studying Brazil to the exclusion of other countries. In fact, at the moment has embarked on a study of transparency in local U.S. governments. The study uses search technology to see how much government information is available online for residents of towns and cities in the U.S.

“In some ways the availability of basic information about the government is actually better in some parts of Latin America,” Hidalgo says, referring to the notorious case of Bell, California — a small town where in 2010 a reporter for the Los Angeles Times discovered that the city manager had a million-dollar salary. There was no local paper, however, which might have caught the inflated salaries of local officials sooner.

“The death of local media is just incredibly salient, and these are the kinds of people who care about this stuff,” Hidalgo says. “I don’t think transparency is always a salient issue for citizens. It’s really often external pressure from journalists that makes [discoveries]. I think it’s just important for information about the basic operations of government.”

All the more reason, then, for scholars like Hidalgo to look at money in politics as well.

from MIT News https://ift.tt/2muQKc8
via

Shonda Rhimes readies ‘Notes on Love’ anthology series at Netflix

Shonda Rhimes is readying her ninth Netflix project and it sounds pretty cool.

Notes on Love is an episodic anthology series that will examine the “unexpected, life-changing, euphoric, hilarious, surreal, and all-consuming places where love intersects with our lives.”

The first season will focus on marriage and Shonda Rhimes and Betsy Beers will produce the whole season and be joined by some pretty big-named executive producers for certain episodes including Norman Lear, Aaron Shure, Steve Martin, Diane Warren, Jenny Han, Lindy West and Ahamefule J. Oluo.

Notes on Love is the ninth project resulting from Rhimes’ epic overall deal with Netflix that she inked back in 2017.

ICYMI, here are a few of the other projects on the horizon from Shondaland:

The Residence: Based on Kate Andersen Brower’s book, The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House, which offers a vividly accurate insider’s account of White House residence staffers and the upstairs-downstairs lives they share with the First Families at one of the most famous homes in history.

The Warmth of Other Suns: Based on Pulitzer-Prize winning author Isabel Wilkerson’s award-winning book of the same name, this powerful, groundbreaking series tracks the decades-long migration of African-Americans fleeing the Jim Crow South in search of a better life in the North and the West between 1916 and 1970.

Hot Chocolate Nutcracker: A documentary offers a behind-the-scenes look at the Debbie Allen Dance Academy’s award-winning reimagining of the classic ballet The Nutcracker. This staged contemporization – with its inclusive cast of all ages and its blend of dance traditions – has further cemented Debbie Allen’s legacy as one of the most significant forces for good in dance.

Pico & Sepulveda:Set in the 1840s against the surreal and sensual backdrop of the then-Mexican state of California, the series tracks the end of an idyllic era there as American forces threaten brutality and war at the border to claim this breathtaking land for its own.

The post Shonda Rhimes readies ‘Notes on Love’ anthology series at Netflix appeared first on theGrio.

from theGrio https://ift.tt/2myU7is
via

Hyundai Makes Another Match in the Self-Driving Game

Hyundai will partner with an industry supplier called Aptiv to deliver robo-taxis, in addition to an ongoing deal with Aurora.

from Wired https://ift.tt/2mMbgoI
via

Newscaster out 8 months after Martin Luther King slur

A St. Louis newscaster who has been off the air since uttering what he called an unintentional racial slur while talking about Martin Luther King Jr. in January is now out of a job.

KTVI-TV general manager Kurt Krueger told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the station and Kevin Steincross parted ways “by mutual agreement.” Krueger declined to provide any additional information, citing it as a personnel matter.

Steincross does not have listed phone number.

Steincross was discussing a tribute to the black civil rights leader on Jan. 17 when he referred to King as “Martin Luther coon Jr.” He apologized a few hours later, saying he accidentally misspoke.

The NAACP had urged the station to fire Steincross.

The post Newscaster out 8 months after Martin Luther King slur appeared first on theGrio.

from theGrio https://ift.tt/2mO3MBD
via

Florida cop who arrested 6-year-old girl over school tantrum fired

The Florida officer who was under fire for arresting and handcuffing two six-year-olds at an elementary school before hauling them off to a youth detention center, has now been fired.

—Florida cop who arrested 6-year-old girl for throwing tantrum, suspended—

Officer Dennis Turner caused outrage when he locked up a first-grader Kaia Rolle at Lucious and Emma Nixon Academy for a temper tantrum last week, without consulting his superiors over how he should handle the child.

The girl’s grandmother Meralyn Kirkland said the child was acting out because of her lack of sleep from a medical condition. She said received a disturbing call telling her that Kaia was getting locked up, WKMG reports.

“I said, ‘What do you mean, she was arrested?’ They said there was an incident and she kicked somebody and she’s being charged and she’s on her way,” Kirkland recalled.

Turner additionally arrested another 6-year-old, previously reported as age 8, on a separate incident and took both children to the Juvenile Assessment Center to be processed. One of the kids was processed, but contrary to previous reports, Kaia was not fingerprinted and instead taken back to school after a supervisor learned about the insane arrests.

On Monday, Orlando Police Chief Orlando Rolón said in a press conference he was “sick to my stomach” after hearing about the incident.

Statement from OPD Chief Orlando Rolón. pic.twitter.com/qd7msBx0Fw

— Orlando Police (@OrlandoPolice) September 23, 2019

Previously Rolon said Turner did not follow protocol.

“The Orlando Police Department has a policy that addresses the arrest of a minor, and our initial finding shows the policy was not followed,” Police Chief Orlando Rolon told the outlet.

The chief said he personally delivered a departmental message that no juvenile is to be arrested without a manager’s approval.

—Meghan Markle connects with teen girls in South Africa: ‘I a woman of color and your sister’—

“No 6-year-old child should be able to tell somebody that they had handcuffs on them,” Kirkland previously said.

Kirkland said the officer even made light of Kaia’s medical condition.

“He says, ‘What medical condition?’ ‘She has a sleep disorder, sleep apnea,’ and he says, ‘Well, I have sleep apnea, and I don’t behave like that,”‘ Kirkland said.

Turner was initially suspended but has now been officially fired.

The post Florida cop who arrested 6-year-old girl over school tantrum fired appeared first on theGrio.

from theGrio https://ift.tt/2lkaxea
via

Pages - HTML

Translate

Pages

Pages

Pages

Thursday, September 26, 2019

If you’ve been out of work for some time…

If you’re ready for a change in your role…

If you’re trying to decide whether you fit into a company’s corporate culture…

If you’re feeling stuck, feeling frustrated and ready to quit…

If you’re considering changing industries altogether…

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

A PASSION FOR BANKING AND BUILDING COMMUNITIES

WHAT IT TAKES TO BE AN URBAN ENTREPRENEUR

SCALING YOUR BUSINESS FOR LUCRATIVE CONTRACTS

Tuesday, September 24, 2019