Thought Process
“The American people have been enlisted in an eerie face-off, one all the more nightmarish for the way the completing specters play off one another. On one side is a Deep State conspiracy that threatens to thwart the will of the people and undercut the constitutional authority of the leader they elected. On the other side is a raw personalization of presidential power, one that a theory of the unitary executive has gussied up and allowed to run roughshod over reason and the rule of law. These we submit are the phantom twins of a beleaguered republic.” From the introduction to Phantoms of a Beleaguered Republic: The Deep State and the Unitary Executive (Oxford University Press, March 2021), written by Stephen Skowronek ’73. 14
A L U M N I /S T U D E N T C O L L A B O R AT I O N
Working in Symmetry BY JULIE EVANS
Oberlin College computer science students put alumna Dorothy Koster Washburn’s archaeological data on the map As an archaeologist and scholar of prehistoric pottery from the American Southwest, Dorothy Koster Washburn ’67 has assembled a database of more than 20,000 ceramic designs—drawn mostly by her own hand—representing 500 of the region’s archaeological sites. Washburn analyzes them for their geometric symmetry, which provides insight into social relationships, environmental conditions, and human settlement from 400-1500 AD. Washburn envisioned an interactive digital map to classify and display her symmetry data but lacked the technical skills to create one. Knowing that her alma mater had a computer science major, she reached out to Professor Robert Geitz, chair of the department, with an intriguing proposition—would any students be interested in creating a digital map of her life’s work for their Winter Term project? It was mid 2020, and the global pandemic had shut down in-person learning. Students were taking classes remotely in different states with different time zones. But four computer science students—Kurtis Vetter, Tianxing (Victor) Zhu, Natalie Korzh, and William KnowlesKellett—accepted Washburn’s proposal. Over the next three months, the students held meetings over Zoom where they brainstormed ideas, divided responsibilities, and shared their results, discarding some ideas and adopting others. They learned new technologies, including a programming language and sophisticated geographic information system (GIS) software. The end result is an interactive, customized U.S. Geological Survey map that allows the user to filter search results by time, symmetry design and structure, color, and ceramic type, and reveals the frequency of each within those search parameters.
Washburn was thrilled with the final result, which lets her view and share her data in an easily accessible and interactive format. “Oberlin kids are smart. This type of map is being worked on by professionals at computer science departments at other universities with big budgets to get it done—and they’re still working on it. But these Oberlin kids did this for free in two or three months. That’s how smart Oberlin kids are,” she says. In addition to honing his web development skills, Zhu, a senior at Oberlin double majoring in studio art and computer science, says the project taught him how to work through trouble spots and search for solutions—often using Google as his guide. “We tried so many things in the beginning to get the map right. I became very good at narrowing down problems, finding resources, and solving problems,” he says. “I don’t think too many peer students know how to build a customized and professional map like this one.” For Vetter, a senior computer science major, the mapping project reinforced his interest in a career in computer programming. It also made him realize that
P H OTO CO U R T E S Y O F D O R OT H Y WA S H B U R N , P H OTO - I L LU S T R AT I O N BY RYA N S P R OW L
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