September 6, 2013
Shuttle system expands SHUTTLE, from page 1
ton during the day – a decision made by students in a survey, who wrote that more access to the city would be useful and good for leisure. In addition, Brandeis has added a new shuttle route to Riverside Train Station in Newton, which will be of use to students who commute from Riverside to weekday internships in downtown Boston. The Riverside shuttle will run on Wednesday and Thursday evenings, and will pick students up every twenty minutes from the Rabb bus stop, running from 2 to 5 p.m. This addition is the result of a test shuttle two years ago, which was well received by the student body.
Mandel G03 was filled to capacity Tuesday night as students witnessed the first meeting and demonstration round of the Brandeis Academic Debate and Speech Society (BADASS). The room came to a hush as Sarah Pizzano ’16 opened the meeting with a presentation on the team and their history—they are currently ranked second in the nation, only behind Yale. The team debates in a parliamentary style, where two two-person teams, the government and the opposition, debate a case. The debate began with the “Prime Minister” of the government side, David Altman ’15 (also the president of the team), who read the case to be argued. The topic involved hate crimes, which include rape and assault. It addressed the 40 percent decrease in hate crimes since a 2009 piece of legislation signed by President Obama that views any act against a person because of their sexual orientation, gender or gender identity as a federal hate crime. As Prime Minister, Altman argued that with enhanced punishment for
MIT develops program for the socially disabled Staff
Debate society demonstrates chops to first-years Special to the Hoot
College Notebook
By Charlie Romanow
photos by nate rosenbloom/the hoot
By Andrew Elmers
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The Brandeis Hoot
all hate crimes, the rate of such crimes would decrease even further. He argued that hate crimes are even more heinous acts than standard theft or battery because they distribute more psychological damage to the victim, since that person feels as if his identity caused the act. Altman also claimed that hate crimes affect the whole community since all people of one gender or religion in an area could feel frightened by the possibility of another attack. Lastly, he mentioned that hate crimes pose a bigger threat to society, and as an egalitarian society, we should stand for less hate crime. The leader of the opposition, Megan Elsayed ’14 followed his speech. She attacked the government’s idea that we need harsher punishments for hate crimes because all crimes are hate crimes, which drew a large reaction from the audience, as they are allowed to bang on their desks to agree with a point as if they were in Parliament. Elsayed then proposed the idea that a society should not spend more money putting people away, but instead, use it to rehabilitate individuals so they do not commit the same
crimes again. She dismissed the usefulness of the criminal justice system, claiming that it renders offenders unable to compete for a job after prison so they can no longer lead a normal life. Lastly, she argued that deterrents will not stop people from committing hate crimes in the first place. She claimed that the government’s data, which pronounced a 40 percent decrease in hate crimes, was plain wrong. These constructives were then followed by responses by the other members of each team, Russell Leibowitz ’14 for the government and Shira Almeleh ’14 for the opposition. The government tried to rebuild their argument, then the opposition tried to knock it down. The floor was opened up to the audience to ask questions and gain further clarification on the issues. The demonstration round finished with the opposition’s rebuttal and the government’s rebuttal from Altman, both making their final arguments in an effort to convince the audience to side with them. The demonstration provided a reminder of the rights we hold as American citizens to debate issues without fearing retribution.
Students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab have developed a computer program that can be used to further develop social skills in what is a more comfortable setting for some. My Automated Conversation coacH (MACH) displays a computer-generated face that reacts to a users actions. The program has been used to simulate job interviews but the technology and ideas behind the software are expected to be used for a variety of applications. The computer-generated face matches the user’s facial and speech expressions and reacts to them as a real person would. The application was developed by meeting with career-seeking students and career counselors as well as a week-long trial with 90 undergraduate students at MIT. Developers used half a million lines of computer code in the program during the two years that it took to create. M. Ehsan Hoque, currently an assistant professor at the University of Rochester and a doctoral graduate of MIT, was the force behind the development of the program. Hoque attended a workshop held by the Asperger’s Association of New England, where he was approached about using his skills and technology to develop a program to help those with Asperger’s. This began his plans toward creating MACH. The association works to help those with Asperger’s Syndrome and other Autism Spectrum disorders build meaningful and connected lives through education, community, support and advocacy. Asperger’s Syndrome is characterized by difficulties in non-verbal communication and social interaction, but does not impair cognitive development. Asperger’s has recently been reclassified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders to be placed under the umbrella term of Autism Spectrum Disorder. According to the New Yorker Magazine, one Asperger’s sufferer told
Hoque, “Once I start talking I don’t know when to stop, and people lose interest, and I don’t know why.” Those with Asperger’s are often known to be able to speak in depth about certain topics but have trouble knowing when to stop or change the subject based on the listener’s social cues. MACH will allow users to practice on their own in a safe environment as little or as much as they would like. MACH uses a webcam and microphone to scan the users facial expressions and interpret and analyze their pattern of speech. After conducting a simulated interview, participants can see their progress and how they have changed throughout multiple sessions. They are given information about their speech volume and tone as well as physical acts such as smiling, nodding and shaking of the head: actions that can affect one’s success or failure during a job interview. In addition to seeing the computer-generated face react to them, they can also see their own face to see how they engage with the program. The animation displays arm and posture movements as well as varying eye contact and lip synchronization. Software without positive results would be useless. A study involving MACH found that use of the program led to a significant improvement in social skills based on evaluations by a career counselor in a job interview setting. Those who used the program were found to be more desirable candidates than those in the control group. The program will be displayed in Zurich, Switzerland during the Ubiquitous Computing Conference from September 8-12. Hoque is currently seeking funding from those interested in expanding the project. He expects it will take between six months and one year for him and a group of engineers to make the program available online. More research will need to be done to expand the project to uses beyond job interviews but MACH may be helpful for those dealing with social issues related to public speaking, social phobia, post-traumatic stress disorder and autism.
photo from internet source
mach Scientists at MIT develop a new software to help people with social skills.