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Celebrating 70 Years as the Free Word on Campus
Evolutionary studies reach across fields
Coders set sleep aside for HackBU Third-annual contest
EVoS program promotes scientific thinking in majors outside of biology
draws over 200 hackers from NY, NJ to the ITC Haley Silverstein
Carla Sinclair
Pipe Dream News
Assistant News Editor
Over 250 students from universities across New York and New Jersey arrived at Binghamton University on Saturday morning with overnight bags and pillows in hand for the third annual HackBU hackathon. The competition kicked off at 11:30 a.m. in the Innovative Technologies Complex (ITC). Itai Ferber, a senior majoring in computer science, organized the competition with the help of 15 other BU volunteers. For the event, participants work on original, shortterm coding projects within a strictly timed 24-hour period. Volunteers worked with Major League Hacking (MLH), the official student hackathon league of the U.S., Mexico, Canada and Europe, to help organize and promote the event. MLH provided mentorship and hardware like virtual reality headsets, micro-controller boards and computer monitors to students throughout the event. This year’s sponsors included Vanguard, Lockheed Martin, Viacom, General Electric, Hudson River Trading, AIS, Bloomberg, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Peloton, Deloitte and Envisage. According to Langert, many companies have deviated from more traditional hiring routes, and instead send representatives to collect resumes and recruit at hackathons. Viacom, Vanguard and GE also hosted a series of talks about the industry throughout the afternoon. According to Ferber, sponsorship nearly doubled this year, allowing HackBU to host a better event with catered lunch and dinner, and provide buses to 10 schools in New Jersey and
and an assistant professor of public administration, this combination of geography, environmental studies and public administration is unique to BU’s program and makes the program wellrounded. “Those are the three areas that are really important to sustainability,” Homsy said. “People will see the combination of the three departments and realize they can really benefit from the strength of each of those departments.” Homsy said a degree in this field opens up an increasing number of job opportunities for students, including positions as sustainability directors and
Evolution is not just a concept in a biology textbook: it can be applied to law, marketing, psychology and more. And the students pursuing evolutionary studies at Binghamton University want their peers to be informed. The Evolutionary Studies Student Association (EVoS SA) is composed of undergraduates whose mission statement is to promote an “evolutionary way of thinking.” According to member Ben Seitz, a junior majoring in evolutionary studies, that’s not limited to the sciences. “Fundamentally, evolution is the study of change,” he said. “If you break it down, you start to realize that there are only a handful of patterns that items follow in their evolution. Once you start to recognize those patterns, you can apply them to practically everything. You could even look at the evolution of Coke branding. Obviously, the way Coke brands itself is different than how it did in 1945. And there’s a reason for that.” To pique students’ interest in the subject, the group recently conducted a survey of 100 BU students’ knowledge in the subject matter. The questions ranged from “how important is religion or faith in your worldview?” to “all people are descendants of one man and one woman — Adam and Eve,” and according to EVoS SA founder Rafi Schulman, it provided an interesting perspective to how students think. “This is a modern university; we do all types of research,” said Schulman, a senior majoring in evolutionary studies. “But there are also cultural groups. Everyone’s coming from a different religious background. So even though we all acknowledge that science explains
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Tamar Ashdot-Bari/Pipe Dream Photographer Pictured: Carl Lipo, George Homsy and Norah Henry, directors of the new sustainable communities graduate program at Binghamton University. The program will begin next fall, making the University among the first in the country to offer a master’s degree in the subject.
BU adds new masters program
2-year interdisciplinary sustainability degree offered as MA, MS
Alexis Hatcher
Pipe Dream News
Binghamton University announced a new sustainable communities graduate program to begin next fall, making the University one of the first in the country to offer a master’s degree in the subject. The sustainable communities master’s program will also be the first of its kind within the State University of New York (SUNY) school system and will focus on giving students the practical skills and knowledge needed to organize, strategize and direct communities toward sustainable practices. Sustainable practices seek to find an environmentally friendly solution to communities’ over-usage
of resources and include utilizing solar and wind power, recycling old materials and instituting the use of electric cars. The program will be interdepartmental, stretching across both Harpur College and the College of Community and Public Affairs. It will be two years in length and students will be able to pursue it either as a Master of Arts (MA) or a Master of Science (MS). The degree requires a minimum completion of 38 credits, which includes classes in geography, anthropology, biology and environmental studies, and culminates with either a final thesis for MS students or a capstone project for MA students. According to George Homsy, a graduate director for the program
South Korean surgery spike explained Alum stresses extracurricular NYU profesor dissects pop cultural influence on physical appearance Amy Donovan Contributing Wrtier
Stephen Ruiz/Contributing Photographer Sharon Heijin Lee, a professor of social and cultural analysis at NYU, presents her results in Lecture Hall on Friday as part of “Transnational Encounters: Global Flow and Consumption of Contemporary Korean Culture,” a lecture series hosted by the Binghamton University department of Asian and Asian American Studies. Burgeoning rates of plastic surgery in South Korea have prompted her to examine its presence in the country’s popular culture.
Burgeoning rates of plastic surgery in South Korea have prompted one New York University professor to examine its role in the country’s popular culture. Sharon Heijin Lee, a professor of social and cultural analysis at NYU, presented her results in Lecture Hall on Friday as part of “Transnational Encounters: Global Flow and Consumption of Contemporary Korean Culture,” a lecture series hosted by the Binghamton University department of Asian and Asian American studies. Lee said plastic surgery has become very common in South Korea, which
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Students look to future of transportation BU engineers compete in Elon Musk's Hyperloop competition Alana Epstein Pipe Dream News
More than 100 years after the creation of the airplane, Elon Musk is trying to revolutionize the next major form of transportation and is calling for help from students across the country. The concept of the Hyperloop was first proposed by Musk, the co-founder of Tesla Motors and founder of SpaceX, in 2013. The Hyperloop is a high-speed transportation concept which would be able to move up to 700 miles per hour, and would work
through a compressed air system. The Hyperloop Pod Competition Design Weekend was created to allow students to help develop the pods for the Hyperloop, and was held at Texas A&M University in January. Team EAL and Team Whip, made up of Binghamton University students, were two of the 120 teams selected for the competition. Though a team of students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology won the competition, the BU teams said they plan on returning to the competition again next year. They are looking into creating an
ARTS & CULTURE
Courtyards perform in Appalachian Dining Hall. For coverage,
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Downtown Binghamton is more than just meets the eye. Pipe Dream researches the city’s most interesting architecture,
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upper-level elective course to be offered at BU in advanced transportation technology, so that students can continue to work on the creation of a Hyperloop pod for years to come. The teams were composed of mechanical, electrical, industrial and systems and computer engineers from the Watson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. The teams were originally students working on their senior design, and both submitted proposals for the
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experience for career success
User interface engineer Daniel O'Connor, '14, shares employment assets outside academics
Kanchi Chandwani Staff Writer
After graduating from Binghamton University in 2014 with a bachelor’s degree in computer science, Daniel O’Connor came back to give students advice on how to best spend their time before entering the job market. He spoke in the Alumni Center on Friday about his journey from BU to his current job at technology startup Optimizely, which makes customer experience optimization software for companies. His presentation was a part of the BU Alumni Association’s “Cool Connections, Hot Alumni” series. O’Connor is a user interface engineer, which means he deals with difficulties users might encounter when operating the software. He works with the design team and various coders in order to make sure it is not too complex. O’Connor said he began toying with basic website templates in the seventh grade. Since then, he has worked on projects such as Pipe Dream’s website and HackBU. These side projects were especially useful because user interface engineers require strong attention to detail and are responsible for a program’s user-friendly nature. He urged students to go out and create their own side projects no matter what their major and to keep up to date with their industry by following its leading professionals on social media. “There’s a lot of stuff that you can be
OPINIONS
doing outside of the classroom that really applies to any major; it’s just all about taking things into your own hands,” O’Connor said. “Nowadays there’s way more resources and support if you’re a computer science major. You could go to HackBU and learn from people who already know some of the stuff. So keep that in mind and try to reach out to people who can serve as mentors … if you surround yourself with good people, it tends to work out.” Atsuko Shimizu, a sophomore majoring
Sarah Simone/Contributing Photographer Daniel O’Connor, ‘14, speaks with students about his current job at tech startup Optimizely. The talk was a part of the BU Alumni Association’s “Cool Connections, Hot Alumni” series.
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SPORTS
Sodexo responds to union letter,
Wrestling falls on the road to Buffalo, dominates Brown,
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Track and Field captures 11 individual victories at Cornell Invitational,
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