Veritas Volume 3 Issue 1

Palo Alto High School’s Science and Technology Magazine

Mission statement

In Silicon Valley, and specifically in Palo Alto, we are lucky enough to have the opportunity to grow from some of the most progressive minds in assorted STEM fields, with a thriving community of students who are ready to share their discoveries with the rest of Paly. At the same time, many students might also feel intimidated by, or disinterested in, these fields, despite its proximity to and importance in our daily lives.

Veritas hopes to bridge the gap by:

• Repackaging scientific content to be interesting for all

• Promoting open-mindness by having a flexible approach to scientific education

• Embracing new, progressive approaches to science and technology without hindrance by tradition

We believe that science and technology are a common thread that impacts everyone’s lives and holds the potential to unify communities just like other forms of entertainment, like music, movies, and sports, just to name a few.

Letter from the editors

Welcome back to Veritas: Palo Alto High School’s very own science and technology magazine. We are excited to bring you our first issue in almost 5 years! In those 5 years, technological and scientific developments of our society have not slowed down, especially in the heart of Silicon Valley.

In this issue, we have explored the effects of one of the most popular and controversial tools: Artificial Intelligence. From careers to court cases, we have covered a range of topics regarding AI. Staff writers Saanvi Garg and Sandhya Krishnan investigate the efficiency of the new robotic café in the San Francisco International Airport (p.7-8). Meanwhile, staff writer Vivian Lin surveys Paly’s students and staff about their thoughts concerning future careers with AI in mind (p.6).

Apart from AI, Veritas also gives students a chance to get to know one of Paly’s science teachers in “the 1700’s: Meeting Margaret Deng.”

With its return, Veritas will bring light to innovations in today’s ever-changing world, and inspire our peers to appreciate and engage with science. We hope you enjoy Volume 3 Issue 1 of Veritas.

Happy reading!

Vivian and Divij

Editors-In-Chief

Divij Motwani

Vivian Tang Staff

Lara Su Dumanli

Amani Fossati-Moiane

Saanvi Garg

Faizan Kashmiri

Sandhya Krishnan

Vivian Lin Adviser

Paul Kandell

ON THE COVER

Chemistry and Marine Biology teacher Margaret Deng can be seen performing the Flame Test Lab, which is a common lab performed in the Chemistry H class during the first unit of the class.

To perform the lab, students dip cotton swabs into various Aqueous Chemical solutions, and then stick them into the flame of a Bunsen Burner. This results in the flame changing colors depending on the different substances used. To learn more about Deng, flip to page 4.

Photo by Divij Motwani

1700s Meet Margaret Deng

Achemistry and marine biology teacher stands right outside room 1705 as her Tuesday lunch club runs on. She stares at the countless papers pinned to the bulletin board board; one having a PacMan eating a scantron on it.

These papers do not need grading; these are the drawings that her students have made on the paper she had given them to keep them occupied after unit tests.

Margaret Deng is not someone anyone would have expected as a chemistry teacher if they were a student at Palo Alto High School prior to the 2022-23 school year.

But, neither did Deng herself back when she was still attending Gunn High School. As a student whose main interests were in humanities, she remembers taking two literature related classes per semester and hating chemistry.

It was not until college that she found her interests in science.

“I took this one class that was about volcanoes, and I was like a seminar,” Deng said. “We would talk, go on field trips, and we did experiments too. One was where we put a bunch of golf balls and like tennis balls in a giant trash can, and then watched it explode. That was what made me go ‘hey, wait, I want to do this all the time.”

Many with similar interests in science will go down the research path. This is exactly what Deng did at first; but even after researching in three different labs, she still could not find the same value she found while teaching in her research.

“I actually tried research three times in three different people’s labs,” Deng said. “Each time I was like, ‘Wow, this question is so cool. I’m gonna love research this time.’ But, it’s just like focusing on one topic for too long, and that gets me really bored. But in school, I’m teaching different topics every week, and I learn new things about those

Text by VIVIAN TANG

topics every time I teach them.”

As a first year teacher at Paly, her first priority is to enhance students’ understanding and love for science just as her professor did for her. Not only does she enjoy giving her own knowledge to others, she lives to watch people learn and to see their faces when the information begins to “click” inside their brain.

“It’s like magic,” Deng said. “You have something in your head and you’re teaching someone and then they also learn it, and so you’ve just transferred knowledge in your head to someone else. Seeing someone that get it like that just makes me happy. It’s [Teaching is] just really fun like that.”

Deng also knows what it is like to be a high school student in the Palo Alto community and appreciates the connection she is able to have with her students.

“I remember being a student here [in PAUSD] and I was so lost all the time, and I think being able to be a

teacher in this community and being like: ‘I know what you’re going through right now’ is really special,” Deng said.

Off campus, Deng takes all of her interests and wraps them up into a “ball of fun” that can take her mind off anything.

“I read a lot. It’s kind of sad because like now that I’m a teacher, I don’t have as much time to read,”

Deng said. “But I also like, wushu which is a type of Chinese martial art. It’s how I get in my exercise for the week and then [the movements] feel cool. And then I also like to write. What’s really fun now is I can write about what it’s like being a teacher.”

Above all, Deng looks to make a difference in her students’ lives as she continues teaching at Paly.

“As a first year teacher, it’s kind of hard to make everybody love science,” Deng said. “But I think year after year, it’ll get better.”

VERBATIM: Students, teachers discuss career paths amid rise of AI

“There’s a lot of things that AI can’t do, there’s a lot of things that require human imagination...You know, it’s a shortcut, you could use it to make something and then revise it. Things like graphic design could be replaced by AI because I’ve used AI image generators like DALL-E... I think they’re really powerful, but there’s also a lot of mistakes that those [AI] make. Sure it’s really helpful, but I don’t think it’s always perfectly reliable.”

—

ARI SEEGER, freshman

“I am convinced that being a teacher will be one of the last jobs that will be largely human dominated. And the reason for this is because it’s purely like a Luddite reason right? People really feel like they don’t want robots teaching their kids even if in theory, a robot was better at it. And I am convinced that in the teaching career, we’ll face a lot of AI exposure anyways, but the chances that people will still be the dominant force will probably be expected.”

— KATIE FIRTCH, senior

“I definitely don’t want to go into an industry where most of it is artificial intelligence because I feel like in those kinds of industries, I probably wouldn’t have a job very long because I would be replaced by artificial intelligence pretty quickly.”

—

MARCELLO ATTARDI, freshman

“I want to become a doctor in the future, preferably a dermatologist or an allergist. Since being a doctor is mostly an interpersonal job, and most people feel more comfortable talking to people instead of machines like AI, I don’t think AI will have that much of an effect on the job I’m having. But for medicine and ways to diagnose the patient, that might change because AI could potentially be a better WebMD. It could provide diagnoses made with a compilation of so much information that humans normally don’t possess. So I think that it will advance the field and act as a source for doctors. But I don’t think it will entirely replace doctors and their work with patients.”

— JESSICA BAE, sophomore

“I don’t think [AI] should be a barrier to any student that’s interested in any field, especially if it’s something creative in the arts and the humanities. That would be really upsetting and sad if people choose not to go into those fields because they think that AI is going to overtake it. There’s no way that artificial intelligence is going to be able to eliminate the need for creative human expression.”

—

LIZZIE DEKRAAI, English teacher

CafeX: Miraculous or Disastrous?

San Francisco’s new robot cafe sparks discussion

Upon entering Terminal 1 and 3 of San Francisco International Airport, I must always scour the food and beverage options. As I walk, I see a compact glass rectangle, greeting me with a screen displaying “good afternoon!”.

Behind the glass, a white figure starts to whir in circles, accompanied by the sound gears clicking and

shifting. Within minutes, LED lights illuminate a small compartment where a freshly made drink is placed inside the glass.

Cafe X is an entirely automated cafe open 24 hours a day and offers a wide variety of drinks, from lemonade to coffee. Although this new and innovative cafe sounds exciting, it also raises questions regarding the role of robotics in the service indus-

try.

Henry Hu, the founder of Cafe X, told Veritas he first got inspiration for the company while passing through the Changi Airport in Singapore, waiting for his drink. Despite being one of the world’s most renowned airports, Hu stated he saw a lack of efficiency after seeing the lines for coffee shops at the airport.

Cafe X is great for travelers with

early morning flights, or those with layovers looking for a snack. But how does it compare to a real cafe?

On his recent flight out of SFO for a robotics competition, Gunn High School junior Ethan Sa decided to try CafeX out for himself out of curiosity.

Sa told Veritas that the drinks were comparable in taste and noted that the efficiency significantly increased when robots were added to the equation.

“Cafe X was definitly quicker to make,” Sa stated. “I think taste wise they’re pretty similar. It’s hard to tell, but it was definitely a lot faster for sure.”

Cafe X has a methodical ordering system, where users scan a QR code with their mobile phone to get to a menu. Though many in-person cafes have ordering kiosks and online orders, these methods usually

or even once the drink has come out people will come back and ask for different things” Jeong stated. “So I think taking care of those complexities would still require humans,” Jeong said.”

Additionally, is CafeX really more effective than a human? A robot barista is something you don’t see every day. Cafe X at this point has one main robot\ making drinks, while many cafes have far more than one employee.

ly be able to replace the 5-6 employees in a typical coffee shop. One question is how would this futuristic invention impact these minimum wage workers today?

Jeong said that the Cafe has negative implications for low-income workers.

aren’t the first choice option for ordering. Cafe X does have some customization options, like choosing milk types, sugar levels and ice levels. However there is only so much specificity.

Senior Ajin Jeong, a Boba Guys employee, said there are limitations to the robots’ customization abilities.

“People ask for customizations

On the flip slide, the benefit of the 24-hour availability is especially helpful for those in an airport during off-peak hours (e.g. midnight to-6 a.m). It also reduces the pressures to tip, since Cafe X isn’t a real human that earns any sort of wage. However, Cafe X occupies a small, rectangular space in the corner of an airport. As a result, the overall ambiance a coffee shop typically provides might be lost.

A robot barista would potential-

“In the service industry, people don’t really need that much training or schooling since it’s kind of like simple tasks” Jeong said.”It will take jobs away from those people who, for example, were not able to get education to enter a different career field. I think a lot of the time, people who weren’t able to receive higher and specialized education to go into different career fields will be impacted.”

For now, Cafe X’s flashy and futuristic image definitely helps it stand out, but time will have to tell if it’s here to stay.

Text by Saanvi Garg and Sandhya Krishnan

Photos by Divij Motwani and Ethan Sa

“Cafe X was definitely quicker to make, I think taste wise they’re pretty similar. It’s hard to tell, but it was definitely a lot faster for sure.”

- Ethan Sa, Junior

IS YOUR ADMISSIONS OFFICER USING AI?

The dangers of AI bias in college admissions and beyond.

On a Sunday afternoon, I asked ChatGPT, “Do you have bias?”

It responded, “As an AI language model, I don’t have personal beliefs, values, or emotion. ... However, the data that I was trained on is generated by humans and may contain implicit biases, which can influence my responses.”

I found the response to be direct and surprisingly honest.

From self-driving cars to platforms like Midjourney that can create outstanding artworks in just seconds, Artificial Intelligence has become prevalent in society.

But the rise of AI begs a major question: Can AI exacerbate biases that already exist?

The answer is clearly, yes, and that’s a problem. Researchers have found that racial, gender, and other types of biases exist in AI used for hiring, facial recog-

nition, healthcare, the criminal justice system, and more, impacting who gets job offers, medical treatments, and who is the suspect of a crime.

In the world of higher education, colleges have started to use AI algorithms to evaluate applicants in an effort to identify the best and brightest students, according to ISM Insights. While this process is intended to help select candidates more fairly, the reverse could also happen.

For example, the enrollment management algorithms used in the AI may be narrowly focused on enrollment and favoring those who are most likely to enroll and require the least amount of financial aid.

Similarly, as a big part of the data sets come from past admissions, AI could be sustaining or even deepening pre-existing biases in the admissions system, putting traditionally underrepresented groups at a disadvantage.

As ChatGPT reveals in its response to my question, biased data input will lead to biased output.

Palo Alto High School computer science teacher Christopher Bell said that he is a proponent of using AI to help complete tasks more efficiently and effectively, but he is concerned about the effects of AI bias in college admissions and in corporate hiring.

“Bias causing inequities has happened numerous times in the past with companies using AI to filter candidates for jobs,” Bell said. “I would hate for that to happen in education. If colleges know how the algorithms they use are making the decisions they receive, and they are transparent with people ap-

plying what the systems are evaluating, then AI can be a great tool for colleges. It seems like there is already a lot of fear in the college application process, so being as clear as possible with students and families will be essential.”

While AI can help make the admission and enrollment process more efficient, the technology still requires human guidance and should not be solely relied upon to make decisions.

The tech industry needs people who understand and can work to address the potential bias and its harm. Developers of AI models need to ensure that the data fed into them are diverse and inclusive. We also need laws that protect civil rights in the implementation and use of AI.

“Companies need to hire a diverse set of employees when working on these systems so they are more aware of potential issues,” Bell said. “More emphasis needs to be put into analyzing and cleaning the data companies are using to train their AI models so we don’t introduce bias into the systems at the start.

Plus, companies have to be transparent about the data they are using and what their models were trained to do. All of that, combined with more people taking CS in school, should help to make a difference.”

AI has been permeating almost all aspects of our lives. It is important we address its ethical challenges as soon as possible, before flawed technology is irreversibly integrated into the fabric of society. Technology should work for everyone. We have the opportunity to shape it for a better and more inclusive world. Let’s use it.

AI the Inventor

How will AI affect the legal system?

WHERE DID MY PHONE GO?”

“How do you lose your phone all the time? You should keep your phone safe.”

Phones, cars, refrigerators: all modern technologies we take for granted benefit from the protection of patents, which provides incentives for innovators to develop these technologies in the first place. We are used to seeing inventions made and patented by humans, but what will happen with Artificial Intelligence in the mix?

On April 23, 2023, the US Supreme Court refused to review a decision rendered by the Federal Circuit on the novel question of whether AI can be listed as an inventor. This case, Thaler v. Vidal found that AI cannot be an inventor because it is not a human.

The case revolved around Dr. Stephan Thaler’s attempt to patent an invention that his Artificial Intelligence tool “DABUS” thought of. Thaler argued that the AI was the creator of the idea, and thus should directly receive Intellectual Property Rights.

However, these patent applications were denied by The United States Patent and Trademark Office , with the stated reason being that there was no valid inventor listed. This ruling was upheld by the Federal Circuit upon Thaler’s appeal, and then upheld by the Supreme Court in April by not reviewing the case.

Harry Stylli, an investor and CEO of an AI-based diagnostic company, explained that AI will result in an influx in future opportunities following the Thaler decision.

“When the internet was first spawned we did not predict Amazon, Apple Apps store, Uber and many other new applications and powerful business models,” Stylli said. “AI will similarly be highly speculative and risky in the beginning but will generate winning opportunities in the future.”

Dr. Tim Joyce, who is a Senior Patent Attorney at

a pharmaceutical company based in the San Francisco Bay Area further clarified what this means for the future of AI generated patents.

“AI inventions will still be patentable. There is always a human involved in the creation or original setup and that is sufficient from an inventorship standpoint,” Joyce said.

Therefore, even if an invention is created by an AI, the credit for the idea and protections under law would go to the person using the AI, and not the tool itself. And this policy opens the door to a multitude of possibilities regarding both patent and copyright. With the resources students today have with just a few clicks, they can use AI as a tool to assist in the making of their invention.

However, Professor Dennis Crouch, a law professor at the University of Missouri, is concerned about the potential implications of the decision.

“I think we’re a bit crazy if we refuse to allow for patent or patent-like protection for useful inventions generated with the help of AI,” Crouch says, “a growing number of inventive entities are developing new products and designs with significant AI input.”

...(or not?)

Professor Crouch believes that the current legal framework does not adequately address this evolving landscape of innovation driven by AI.

“I think that we should create a patent-like right for AI created inventions where there is no human inven-

tor -- likely with a reduced patent term and potentially with increased disclosure requirements,” he said. Regardless of the legal framework on AI inventorship, people are generally optimistic about how AI can help high school students.

“High Schoolers are going to have access to everything they need to be in line or ahead of the curve. Industry collaboration may be needed given the large infrastructure and systems being established,” Joyce said.

Harry Stylli, CEO of CovX Pharmaceuticals believes that with increasing public accessibility, students can also take advantage of AI to create new technologies and inventions.

“Whilst there will always be proprietary and therefore protected AI tools, many may be available through subscription and many will be in the public domain– so they are a great resource for inventive high schoolers to innovate,” Stylli said. With new innovations in AI being released constantly, this precedent is one of many that will be set by courts in an attempt to outline the policies surrounding usage of these innovative new tools.

“The purpose of the patent system is to encourage useful and beneficial innovation and to publish the invention so that others can take the next steps,” Crouch said.

ON THE LEFT

An robotic yet humanoid hand holds a light bulb. The hand was made by merging humanoid and robotic aspects, showing how AI can help humans. The light bulb represents the amount of innovations and oppurtunites AI might be able to bring in the future with its ideas.

Debunking Myths

Verbatim with experts

Charging phone overnight is bad:

Most personal electronic devices today: phones, laptops, and even electric cars use lithium-ion batteries. Charging the phone overnight will likely keep your phone in full charge mode longer and thus could cause more wear on your battery. This is the reason why some of the latest smart phones automatically optimize your phone’s charging schedule based on your usage pattern. This is in order to reduce the time the battery is fully charged and thus extend the lifespan of the battery.

Closing background apps make the systems go faster:

When you have an app running in the background of a device, the operating system will suspend the app but still keep it in memory. Most of the time, an app running in the background will compete for resources that other apps that are running on your phone need so it will slow down your system. However, keeping apps in the background is not all bad- by keeping the apps backgrounded in the memory, it actually makes the app reload much faster the next time you open the app.

Using incognito mode makes you invisible:

Incognito mode is a browser feature that cleans up your cookies, browsing history, login information and other local data after you close the browser. By clearing up the cookies after each browsing session, it also makes it more difficult for websites to track your activities across web sessions. However, using incognito mode does not make you invisible across the network. Your IP address, operating system, and browser can still be saved on their servers indefinitely.

Employee at Meta Robin Zhang

TV makes your eyes sore:

I’m not so sure that “TV makes your eyes sore” is a myth. People sometimes get eye strain when watching TV, and there are suggestions for avoiding it. Sometimes people say you’ll RUIN your eyes by watching too much TV. Many years ago, some cathode-ray TV sets emitted a lot of radiation, and it was recommended not to sit too close to the TV, but today’s plasma and LED screens emit very little radiation, so that’s not really a concern.

We only use 10% of our brain:

For the rest of the population, only using 10% of your brain is not normal or common. Interestingly, there IS a person who had a brain only about 10% of the size of a normal brain, who was otherwise normal.

Better to study in the night or the morning

Articles found that on average, people’s best cognitive period starts around 11 AM and extends into the evening. That said, I would think that it’s going to vary by individual. Not to mention, “life happens”—given all the other things that students of all ages have going on—sports, band practice, part-time work, —the best time to study is when you can find the time.

Text by Lara Su Dumanli

Art by Leif Thesen

Dr. Robert Cerpa: Senior Patent Agent in the Palo Alto office of Morrison & Foerster

Text by Divij Motwani

Students shine at Synopsys

Local competitors do well at tech competition

Wow there’s so many people here!”

As students step into the large

their science projects fill the room.

Each project is an amalgamation of the hun dreds of hours of work that every student spends on their topics, with countless judges roaming every aisle, looking for anything that catches their keen eye.

The Synopsys Science and Technology Championship, presented by the San ta Clara Valley Science & Engineering Fair Association, is an annual science fair competition for students in Santa Clara County.

Taking place every March in San Jose, Synopsys is the first step for stu dents in Silicon Valley to qualify for the state, national and international level for science fairs.

This year, a total of seven stu dents participated in the competition through Palo Alto High School.

Grand Prize Alternate Vince Wu, who is a sophomore at Paly explained the experiences he gained participating in the competition, as well as the long winded process to imagine and implement an idea.

“It was almost a year really from start ing the genesis of it and data collection, to really finishing it and presenting it,” Wu said.

The Synopsys Champion ship has a total of 14 fields of study that students can choose for their project, including An

imal Sciences, Computational Biology, Mathematics, Mechanical Engineering, and more.

In Wu’s case, he used machine learning to predict the activities of honeybees based on weather

As for the judging process itself, students have a set of criteria they must follow. These ect itself(if applicable), and a project tion was conducted, along with its safety to make sure that the student scientist follows correct scientific

son fair. So you get there, you set up your poster board and the

ever time they want, and they give you a very quick interview with questions about your project, where they try to, I guess discern the

Synopsys offers over $60,000 in

cific awards for Grand Prize, Grand Prize Alternate, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Place for each

Additionally, the top 12 projects from the competition qualifying directly to the International Science and Engineering Fair,

“Yes Yes, I will definitely participate in

Photo by Vince Wu

Peninsula Robotics’ path to victory

IN HOUSTON, two juniors showcase Dum-E, Peninsula Robotics’ robot for the YouTube channel: First Updates Now at FIRST Robotics Competition’s 2023 Houston Worlds.

AT THE ARIZONA EAST

REGIONAL, Peninsula Robotics scores a cone on the highest node during one of the two final matches that helped them qualify for the FIRST Championships.

AT THE IDAHO REGIONAL , members of the scouting team wait to get their data collected in order for the team to improve the robot.

Photo by Ethan Sa.

Photo by Stephane Finot.

Photo by Ethan Sa.

Text by Vivian Tang