Category Archives: Engineering
Chancellor Mnookin statement on engineering building, changes to reciprocity – University of Wisconsin-Madison
Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin released the following statement on Wednesday, March 6 following a ceremony in which Governor Tony Evers signed bills authorizing a new engineering building, capital projects and reciprocity changes.
I want to express my deep appreciation to both Governor Evers and the State Legislature for supporting and approving vitally important priorities for UWMadison and the Universities of Wisconsin. These bipartisan actions strengthen our flagship university and the entire system while also deepening our partnership with the state in critical areas such as innovation, workforce and economic development across Wisconsin. Current and future investment in our infrastructure is vitally important, as we strive to meet these needs and offer a world-class education.
The approval of a new building for UWMadisons College of Engineering is a tremendous step forward for our campus, allowing us to educate about 1,000 additional undergraduates in engineering at a time when Wisconsin employers urgently need more engineers, and expanding our engineering facultys ability to do innovative, life-changing research.
This project would not be possible without the broad coalition of CEOs, industry partners and devoted alumni who spoke out about the need for a state-of-the-art facility to spark innovation and educate the next generations of engineers, as well as those who have come forward with generous philanthropy to help support this project. I continue to be grateful for your advocacy and support.
I am also thankful for the approval of renovation projects in Kronshage, Jorns and Humphrey residence halls, and for important campus utilities upgrades and other key building projects. These improvements will enhance the student experience at UWMadison and address campus infrastructure needs.
Finally, the changes approved to Minnesota-Wisconsin tuition reciprocity will provide millions in needed tuition dollars to Universities of Wisconsin institutions, including ours, that had previously been deposited in the states General Fund. Under the new tuition reciprocity bill, that money would instead be retained by the UW institutions providing the education. This will have a significant impact for campuses, including UWMadison, and allow for more investment in educating the students we serve from both states.
I look forward to continued cooperation with the governor, legislative leaders, the Board of Regents and Universities of Wisconsin leadership as we look toward working together to support our students, our research enterprise, and our campus infrastructure in future budget processes.
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Wyomissing tops Carver Engineering and Science in PIAA Class 4A girls basketball first-round game – Reading Eagle
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Spirax-Sarco Engineering (LON:SPX) PT Raised to GBX 9800 – Defense World
Spirax-Sarco Engineering (LON:SPX Get Free Report) had its price objective upped by research analysts at Berenberg Bank from GBX 8,800 ($111.69) to GBX 9,800 ($124.38) in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm currently has a hold rating on the stock. Berenberg Banks price target indicates a potential downside of 7.37% from the stocks previous close.
Several other equities research analysts have also issued reports on the stock. Shore Capital reissued a sell rating on shares of Spirax-Sarco Engineering in a research note on Monday, December 18th. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Spirax-Sarco Engineering to a hold rating and set a GBX 9,740 ($123.62) target price on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Numis Securities reissued a sell rating on shares of Spirax-Sarco Engineering in a research note on Thursday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of 102.13 ($129.63).
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Spirax-Sarco Engineering plc provides engineered solutions for the users of industrial and commercial steam systems, electrical heating and temperature management systems, and pumps and fluid path technologies. The company offers industrial and commercial steam systems, including condensate management, controls, and thermal energy management products and solutions for heating, curing, cooking, drying, cleaning, sterilizing, space heating, humidifying, vacuum packing, and producing hot water; electrical process heating and temperature management solutions, such as industrial heaters and systems, heat tracing, and various component technologies for industrial processes; and peristaltic and niche pumps and associated fluid path technologies, including pumps, tubing, and specialty filling systems and products for single-use applications.
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Spirax-Sarco Engineering (LON:SPX) PT Raised to GBX 9800 - Defense World
A Chemical Engineer Learns New Lessons From The Bhagavad Gita – India Currents
Encyclopedia Brittanica to the Bhagavad Gita
Iarrived in the United States in 1963 and enrolled at the University of Alabama to study Chemical Engineering. Thats the year when Vivian Malone, an African American student, was first admitted to the University of Alabama.In the early sixties, there were still separate restrooms and benches on local buses reserved for African Americans in Alabama, but we Indian students didnt face significant problems.
Today, I am an81-year-old Indian-American academicwho has lived in the United States for sixty years. I served on the University of Louisville faculty in Chemical Engineering from 1975 to 2008 and served as Department Chair during 1985-90.
In the eighties, I had a colleague a Cypriot Greek-American called Phoebus M. Christopher. He and I would often discuss the rise and decline of cultures. Id say that the phenomenon of rise and decline is cyclical, and he would respond by saying as scientists, we must find evidence to support it.
We found corroborating evidence for our theory in all 23 volumes of the 1993 edition ofEncyclopedia Britannica. It had narratives about individuals from specific cultures in Greece, Great Britain, Germany, and the United States) with data pointing, for example, to the rise and decline of Greece. It also pointed to ominous signs for the United States, Great Britain, and Germany.
In 1993, Phoebus and I self-published an article, On the Cyclical Nature of Excellence. I was invited to make a presentation on the topic at the Chamber of Commerce & Industries in Pune in February 1994, and at the end of my presentation, someone in the audience remarked in Marathi, You are not telling us anything new. These concepts are already mentioned in the Bhagavad Gita.
At the time, I had no idea what the Bhagvad Gita was all about but in the ensuing decade, it became my bedside reading.
As it turns out, numerous lessons in the eighteen chapters of the Gita can transform individuals and societies. In 2015, Jim Kowall and I published the book, The Nature of Ultimate Reality and How It Can Transform Our World (amazon). It took us 18 chapters to fully explain the scientific framework for individual and societal transformation. Jim is a triple board-certified American physician who also holds a doctorate in Theoretical Physics.
All civilizations rise and decline as a natural course; the rise and decline of nations is cyclical.
The rise and decline of civilizations occur due to the transformation of the three components of the mindset, S, R, and T over time (S stands for Sattvic, R stands for Rajasic, and T stands for Tamasic.)
As the S component of a society increases, society rises, but S cannot increase indefinitely. When it reaches its peak, the T component takes over and the society begins to decline. The T component cannot increase indefinitely either, and, when it reaches its peak, the S component takes over and the society begins to rise again. This transformation of the mindset leads to the repeated rise and decline of societies over thousands of years.
The Bhagavad Gita does not explain why such a transformation of the mindset should occur, but we can be certain it does. Going by the societal polarization, the societal level of internal and emotional excellence may have taken a hit in the last decade.There is no logical explanation for why.
The way to postpone decline and accelerate rise is to enhance the societal level of emotional excellence, and meditation is the pathway to progress.
In the absence of an adequate level of emotional excellence, the best of the best strategies for achieving exemplary performance do not and cannot produce the expected results.Boost emotional excellence and the performance will zoom.
In 2019, I published an article, The Secret of Exemplary Performance, inInsightsto explain these ideas further. The pursuit of higher levels of emotional excellence is a well-posed scientific problem but it is not an intellectual exercise. A person with a high level of emotional excellence remains centered in the face of extenuating circumstances that are part of life.
For example, if you stub your toe, what is your instant (reflex) reaction? Or, if you are driving, mindful of all the traffic rules, and someone cuts into your lane nearly causing an accident, what is your reflex reaction?
The lesson here is that required positive changes have to come from within, and meditation is the pathway to progress. Progress can be audited since emotions can now be measured.
A few years ago, I made presentations at several institutions in India and measured the emotional state (stress level and energy) of participants. My stress parameter was far lower and my energy level was much higher than those of the participants from more than six institutions in India.
Over the years certain discoveries have come to me that have changed my life. I owe them to contemplation and meditation. No chemical engineering subject, or any science, could have led to these discoveries.
I feel the lessons they teach will bring myriad benefits to individuals and organizations, accelerate Indias rise, and postpone Americas inevitable decline.
Contemplation can lead to discoveries that are in the domain of existing knowledge. Such discoveries amount to connecting the dots in the ocean of existing knowledge, and I call them Type I discoveries. When the focus of attention is further enhanced, as in deep meditation or prayer, new discoveries can occur, which are not possible based on existing knowledge. In Sanskrit, such discoveries go by the name, Shruti, meaning revealed/heard, and I refer to them as Type II discoveries.
In ancient times, Indian sages made profound Type II discoveries, such as the Vedas and Upanishads, by transcending reason. An example of Type II discoveries in modern times is some of the work of the mathematician, S. Ramanujan.
Transcending reason through meditation can lead to new discoveries in the hands of researchers for the solution of some of the most intractable problems facing humanity such as global warming, renewable energy, desalination, etc.
Who would have thought Chemical Engineering principles would someday lead to a framework for external and internal excellence toward a better and more peaceful world?
Image: A painting of Vyasa at Mana. By Nahsik01 Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=53486001. wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=122704369. Vyasa. (2023, September 19). InWikipedia. https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vyasa
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of India Currents. Any content provided by our bloggers or authors are of their opinion and are not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, organization, individual or anyone or anything.
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A Chemical Engineer Learns New Lessons From The Bhagavad Gita - India Currents
The Rise of Social Engineering Fraud in Business Email Compromise – Dark Reading
Social engineering is present in90% of phishing attackstoday. However, business email compromise (BEC) attacks stand apart in the cybercrime industry for their emphasis onsocial engineeringand the art of deception.
Part of what makes social engineering such a prominent part of BEC and other types of phishing attacks is its ability to manipulate human levers to achieve a desired outcome. Oftentimes, social engineers will create a false sense of urgency, push victims into a heightened emotional state, or capitalize on existing habits or routines in order to get their victims to behave in a way that might otherwise be out of character.
By examining common social engineering tactics and prevalent threat groups, organizations can better defend against these attack vectors.
Social engineers often target company executives, senior leadership, finance managers, and human resources staff to gain access to sensitive information, such as Social Security numbers, tax statements, or other personally identifiable information. New employees, who may be more susceptible to verifying unfamiliar email requests, are also at risk.
In order to help defend against BEC attacks, organizations need to stay up to date on the latest threat intelligence and adversarial activity. Following are four prominent threat groups that leverage social engineering and BEC to enact harm.
Octo Tempest: This financially motivated collective of native English-speaking threat actors is known for launching wide-ranging campaigns that prominently featureadversary-in-the-middle (AiTM) techniques, social engineering, and SIM-swapping capabilities. First spotted in early 2022, the group initially targeted mobile telecommunications and business process outsourcing organizations with SIM swaps. However, it has since partnered with ALPHV/BlackCat a human-operated ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operation to drive greater impact.
Diamond Sleet: In August 2023, Diamond Sleet conducted a software supply chain attack on German software provider JetBrains that compromised servers for software building, testing, and deployment processes. Because Diamond Sleet has successfully infiltrated build environments in the past, Microsoft assesses that this activity poses a particularly high risk to affected organizations.
Sangria Tempest: Also known as FIN, Sangria Tempest frequently targets the restaurant industry to steal payment card data. One of the group's most effective lures involves accusing restaurants of food poisoning by sending a malicious email attachment with further details. This Eastern European group uses underground forums to recruit native English speakers and train them on how to deliver the email lure. Sangria Tempest has successfully stolen tens of millions of payment card data through this process.
Midnight Blizzard: Midnight Blizzard is a Russia-based threat actor that primarily targets governments, diplomatic entities, nongovernment organizations (NGOs), and IT service providers across the US and Europe. The group leverages Teams messages to send lures that attempt to steal credentials from targeted organizations by engaging users and eliciting approval of multifactor authentication (MFA) prompts.
Social engineering is generally a long con. These types of attacks can take months of planning and labor-intensive research as adversaries seek to build a strong foundation of trust with their victims. Once this trust has been established, social engineers can manipulate victims into taking certain actions that would otherwise be out of character.
There are many ways that organizations can protect themselves against social engineering fraud. First, employees should keep their personal and work accounts separate. When people use their work email for personal accounts, threat actors can take advantage by impersonating these programs and reaching out to gain access to their corporate information. Organizations should also enforce the use of MFA, as social engineers frequently target login credentials. However, it's important to note that MFA is not a perfect solution. Attackers are increasingly usingSIM swappingto compromise phone numbers used for MFA. Organizations can remediate this risk by using an authentication app to link MFA to a user's device rather than their phone number.
Next, organizations should educate users on the danger of oversharing personal information online. Social engineers need their targets to trust them for their scams to work. If they can find personal details from an employee's social media profile, they can use those details to help make their scams seem more legitimate.
Finally, secure company computers and devices with endpoint security software, firewalls, and email filters. If a threat does make its way to a company device, protection will be in place to help safeguard user information.
Ultimately, social engineers are constantly looking for new ways to make their attacks more effective. By monitoring ongoing threat intelligence and ensuring your defenses are up to date, organizations can better prevent social engineers from using previously successful attack vectors to compromise future victims.
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The Rise of Social Engineering Fraud in Business Email Compromise - Dark Reading
U.S. Eyed Program on Mind Reading and Reverse-Engineering UFOs – The Daily Beast
A new Defense Department report released on Friday reveals that while the U.S. has not found any evidence of life on another planet, the feds had considered a program that would research mind reading and how to reverse-engineer any alien spacecraft.
The program, dubbed Kona Blue, was proposed to the Department of Homeland Security and would restart UFO investigations, paranormal research (including alleged human consciousness anomalies), and reverse-engineer any recovered off-world spacecraft that they hoped to acquire, the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Offices report said.
While the report did not explain human consciousness anomalies, a 1989 CIA report uses the term to describe communication between two minds.
The Defense Intelligence Agency had previously canceled a similar program in 2012, when its supporters began pushing for a new version of the program. It is critical to note that no extraterrestrial craft or bodies were ever collectedthis material was only assumed to exist by KONA BLUE advocates, the report said.
The proposal gained some momentum, and was considered a Prospective Special Access Program, meaning enhanced security measures were applied while officials assembled a package to apply for Special Access Program status. Being granted status as a Special Access Program, wouldve meant that the data involved in the program was above top secret, and required special handling.
Ultimately, the program was never approved by DHS, and its supporters were never able to find evidence to justify its existence. The program had gone unreported to Congress because it was never a Special Access Program, the report said.
Kona Blue had been claimed by some to be a cover-up operation, attempting to conceal the discovery of non-human biologics, the report said.
The report also revealed that in 2021, a program was unnecessarily expanded to protect the reverse engineering of UAPs, which stands for Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, and is government speak for UFO.
Despite the existence of these programs, the report was unequivocal: The aggregate findings of all [United States Government] investigations to date have not found even one case of UAP representing off-world technology.
In a briefing on Wednesday before the release of the report, AAROs Acting Director Tim Phillips announced that the government has been developing portable UAP detection kits, which they plan to use at a site known for its density of sightings. The sensor and detection system is called Gremlin, Phillips said.
If we have a national security site and there are objects being reported that [are] within restricted airspace or within a maritime range or within the proximity of one of our spaceships, we need to understand what that is, Phillips said. And so thats why were developing sensor capability that we can deploy in reaction to reports.
In December, Congress was considering legislation requiring the government to create a records collection at the National Archives for UAPs, a huge step forward in increasing transparency for UFO sightings.
Over the summer, former intelligence officer David Grusch released a report claiming that the United States government was in possession of multiple partial or intact alien spacecraft, and had been lying about it since the 1940s. One month later, he testified at a congressional hearing about UAPs. Then-AARO Director Sean Kirkpatrick said that Gruschs claims were false.
In January, two supposed aliens were determined by Peruvian forensic experts to be dolls made out of glue, feathers, and bones.
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U.S. Eyed Program on Mind Reading and Reverse-Engineering UFOs - The Daily Beast
Computer Engineering & Consulting Full Year 2024 Earnings: EPS Beats Expectations – Simply Wall St
Key Financial Results
All figures shown in the chart above are for the trailing 12 month (TTM) period
Revenue was in line with analyst estimates. Earnings per share (EPS) surpassed analyst estimates by 2.1%.
Looking ahead, revenue is forecast to grow 5.4% p.a. on average during the next 2 years, compared to a 11% growth forecast for the Software industry in Japan.
Performance of the Japanese Software industry.
The company's shares are up 1.3% from a week ago.
While earnings are important, another area to consider is the balance sheet. We have a graphic representation of Computer Engineering & Consulting's balance sheet and an in-depth analysis of the company's financial position.
Find out whether Computer Engineering & Consulting is potentially over or undervalued by checking out our comprehensive analysis, which includes fair value estimates, risks and warnings, dividends, insider transactions and financial health.
Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.
This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
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Computer Engineering & Consulting Full Year 2024 Earnings: EPS Beats Expectations - Simply Wall St
Guangdong Construction Engineering Group Full Year 2023 Earnings: EPS: CN0.43 (vs CN0.33 in FY 2022) – Simply Wall St
Key Financial Results
All figures shown in the chart above are for the trailing 12 month (TTM) period
Looking ahead, revenue is forecast to grow 17% p.a. on average during the next 2 years, compared to a 13% growth forecast for the Construction industry in China.
Performance of the Chinese Construction industry.
The company's shares are down 2.6% from a week ago.
It is worth noting though that we have found 3 warning signs for Guangdong Construction Engineering Group (1 is a bit unpleasant!) that you need to take into consideration.
Find out whether Guangdong Construction Engineering Group is potentially over or undervalued by checking out our comprehensive analysis, which includes fair value estimates, risks and warnings, dividends, insider transactions and financial health.
Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.
This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
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UW-Madison is getting its new engineering building. What happens now? – Madison.com
Now that UW-Madison has secured $347 million for a new engineering building, campus administration can focus on making the building a reality.
On Wednesday, Gov. Tony Evers signed a measure that gives about $740 million in funding for capital investments to the Universities of Wisconsin, including funds for the new engineering building that rallied massive industry support.
The funding is part of a sprawling, controversial deal UW system President Jay Rothman and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, struck late last year that gives about $800 million in funding to the UW system in exchange for changes to the public university systems diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, programming.
UW-Madison's new engineering building design, as it would seen from the northwest angle along Campus Drive.
Evers said in a statement the approved funding is critical for doing whats best for our kids and helping us recruit, train, and retain talented students to help address the workforce challenges that have plagued our state for generations.
Im glad to see this first step move forward today despite unnecessary delays largely driven by partisan politics, but much work remains, Evers continued. I will continue to fight to make the substantial investments in higher education that we need across our state, and I remain hopeful members of the Legislature will decide to join me in this important work.
Rothman told the Wisconsin State Journal he was pleased to see funding approved for the capital projects and a new reciprocity agreement.
Its an exciting day on a bipartisan basis, he said. A lot of really good things (were approved), and Im just very pleased with where we are today.
The funding approved Wednesday amends Wisconsins capital budget plan to allow the state to borrow for a new $347 million engineering building and renovations for three decades-old residence halls at UW-Madison.
Both the UW system and UW-Madison listed the new engineering building as the top priority going into the last state budget session, as industry leaders have clamored for more engineering graduates but UW-Madisons College of Engineering hasnt had space for more students.
The college currently can only accept 1,200 new students out of 8,000 yearly applicants. Lab-stealing and physical space constraints are persistent problems. In the basement of Engineering Hall, space to store high-power magnetic motors is nearly maxed out. With the new building, the College of Engineering could admit another 1,000 students, bringing its population closer to 5,500 students.
The new 340,000-square-foot building on the Engineering campus will offer flexible lab space adaptable to future technology, College of Engineering Dean Ian Robertson told the State Journal in February 2023.
The College of Engineering has a long tradition of profound impact on generations of engineering students and on citizens in Wisconsin and around the globe, Robertson said in a statement Wednesday. Through pioneering research and scores of additional graduates to meet a critical engineering workforce need, our new building will position the college to magnify this impact.
The college expects the study areas of clean energy technologies, autonomous transportation, robotics and civil engineering to move into the new building.
Its been a long road to get here today, and the path we took isnt the path that any of us would have wished for, UW-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin told the Wisconsin State Journal. But I truly believe weve gotten to a good place for the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a good place for the Universities of Wisconsin, and perhaps most importantly, a good place for the state of Wisconsin. And so, Im feeling pretty good about that today.
UW-Madison's new engineering building design, as it would seen from the southwest angle along Engineering Drive.
UW-Madison's new engineering building design, as it would seen from the northeast angle along Campus Drive.
Mnookin said UW-Madison plans to move forward on the engineering building as quickly as possible, although theres no set timeline. The buildings design process continued despite uncertainty from the state Legislature but isnt completed. The university also plans to tear down one of the colleges oldest buildings, at the corner of Campus Drive and North Randall Avenue, to make way for the new building.
Theres more fundraising to do as well, with about $50 million left to meet the universitys goal.
Mnookin is hopeful that all of the $100 million private donors have already pledged will come through, much of which was contingent on the building being approved during this budget cycle. But its also possible that the nine-month delay in securing public funding, since the biennial budget was approved last summer without the UW system capital funds, will affect the final cost of the building.
Time is not our friend when it comes to building costs and infrastructure estimates, Mnookin said. Were committed to doing whatever it takes to make this building go forward. But obviously, the delay is not ideal.
Other UW-Madison projects approved include renovations for three dorms on the Lakeshore side of campus and a steam utility replacement.
The capital funding bill also provides $78.4 million to repair the faades on two of UW-Whitewaters aging academic buildings and $45.4 million to demolish uninhabitable buildings, including facilities at UW-Madison, UW-Platteville, UW-Eau Claire and UW-Green Bay.
At UW-Whitewater, the majority of the funding will go toward a full renovation of Winther Hall, which houses the universitys education and professional studies programs. Renovations of the building will allow UW-Whitewater to better meet the states teacher shortage, Chancellor Corey King said in a statement.
UW-Whitewater proudly licenses more teachers than any other university or college in Wisconsin, King said. This project gives us room to grow. It is an investment in Wisconsins future.
Evers also signed into law another provision of the DEI agreement that changes the Minnesota-Wisconsin tuition reciprocity agreement to give the UW system more of the tuition money paid by Minnesota students who attend UW schools, which was previously deposited in the states general fund. UW-Madison and some of the farthest-west campuses in the UW system, where most Minnesota students attend, likely stand to gain millions of dollars in tuition.
In the 2021-22 academic year, Minnesota students attending UW schools paid more than $26 million in tuition over Wisconsins in-state rate. Of that, $13.6 million was collected by UW-Madison.
UW-River Falls in northwestern Wisconsin, about a 20-minute drive from the Minnesota border, has the highest proportion of Minnesota students among the UW campuses at 43%. In 2021-22, it forked over the second-highest amount of Minnesota student tuition, $4.3 million.
That is revenue that could have been reinvested in UW-RF, meeting student demands and filling regional employer needs, Chancellor Maria Gallo said in a statement Wednesday. That revenue would allow us to offer more innovative, high-quality programming for our students, add advisers and support student success, including as it relates to mental health.
Its unknown how much tuition revenue the new reciprocity agreement will bring to UW system schools, as Minnesota is launching a tuition-waiver program for its universities this fall for students whose families make $80,000 a year or less. Enrollment of Minnesota students in the UW system is expected to drop as a result.
The DEI deal required the Legislature to approve the capital funding and tuition revenue provisions by the end of the current legislative session. In return for $800 million in UW system investment, Republicans are requiring UW system administrators to reclassify a third of DEI employees, or 43 positions, as student success employees over the next two academic years.
Other provisions in the agreement include a bill approved last month that guarantees admission to UW system schools for Wisconsin high school students in the top percentages of their high school class and the release of pay raises for nearly 35,000 UW system employees that had been withheld.
In 1933, a national bank holiday declared by President Franklin D. Roosevelt aimed at calming panicked depositors went into effect.
In 1964, heavyweight boxing champion Cassius Clay officially changed his name to Muhammad Ali.
In 1973, Nobel Prize-winning author Pearl S. Buck, 80, died in Danby, Vermont.
In 1981, Walter Cronkite signed off for the last time as principal anchorman of The CBS Evening News.
In 2002, Independent Counsel Robert Ray issued his final report in which he wrote that former President Bill Clinton could have been indicted and probably would have been convicted in the scandal involving former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
Former Texas tycoon R. Allen Stanford was convicted in Houston of bilking his investors out of more than $7 billion through a Ponzi scheme.
In 2016, former first lady Nancy Reagan died in Los Angeles at age 94.
Without fanfare, President Donald Trump signed a scaled-back version of his controversial ban on many foreign travelers, one that still barred new visas for people from six Muslim-majority countries and temporarily shut down Americas refugee program.
Carla Wallenda, a member of The Flying Wallendas high-wire act and the last surviving child of the famed troupes founder, died at 85 in Sarasota, Florida.
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UW-Madison is getting its new engineering building. What happens now? - Madison.com
Making messaging interoperability with third parties safe for users in Europe – Facebook Engineering
On March 7th, a new EU law, the Digital Markets Act (DMA), comes into force. One of its requirements is that designated messaging services must let third-party messaging services become interoperable, provided the third-party meets a series of eligibility, including technical and security requirements.
This allows users of third-party providers who choose to enable interoperability (interop) to send and receive messages with opted-in users of either Messenger or WhatsApp both designated by the European Commission (EC) as being required to independently provide interoperability to third-party messaging services.
For nearly two years our team has been working with the EC to implement interop in a way that meets the requirements of the law and maximizes the security, privacy and safety of users. Interoperability is a technical challenge even when focused on the basic functionalities as required by the DMA. In year one, the requirement is for 1:1 text messaging between individual users and the sharing of images, voice messages, videos, and other attached files between individual end users. In the future, requirements expand to group functionality and calling.
To interoperate, third-party providers will sign an agreement with Messenger and/or WhatsApp and well work together to enable interoperability. Today well publish the WhatsApp Reference Offer for third-party providers which will outline what will be required to interoperate with the service. The Reference Offer for Messenger will follow in due course.
While Meta must be ready to enable interoperability with other services within three months of receiving a request, it may take longer before the functionality is ready for public use. We wanted to take this opportunity to set out the technical infrastructure and thinking that sits behind our interop solution.
Our approach to compliance with the DMA is centered around preserving privacy and security for users as far as is possible. The DMA quite rightly makes it a legal requirement that we should not weaken security provided to Metas own users.
The approach we have taken in terms of implementing interoperability is the best way of meeting DMA requirements, whilst also creating a viable approach for the third-party providers interested in becoming interoperable with Meta and maximizing user security and privacy.
First, we need to protect the underlying security that keeps communication on Meta E2EE messaging apps secure: the encryption protocol. WhatsApp and Messenger both use the tried and tested Signal Protocol as a foundational piece for their encryption.
Messenger is still rolling out E2EE by default for personal communication, but on WhatsApp, this default has been the case since 2016. In both cases, we are using the Signal Protocol as the foundation for these E2EE communications, as it represents the current gold standard for E2EE chats.
In order to maximize user security, we would prefer third-party providers to use the Signal Protocol. Since this has to work for everyone however, we will allow third-party providers to use a compatible protocol if they are able to demonstrate it offers the same security guarantees as Signal.
To send messages, the third-party providers have to construct message protobuf structures which are then encrypted using the Signal Protocol and then packaged into message stanzas in eXtensible Markup Language (XML).
Meta servers push messages to connected clients over a persistent connection. Third-party servers are responsible for hosting any media files their client applications send to Meta clients (such as image or video files). After receiving a media message, Meta clients will subsequently download the encrypted media from the third-party messaging servers using a Meta proxy service.
Its important to note that the E2EE promise Meta provides to users of our messaging services requires us to control both the sending and receiving clients. This allows us to ensure that only the sender and the intended recipient(s) can see what has been sent, and that no one can listen to your conversation without both parties knowing.
While we have built a secure solution for interop that uses the Signal Protocol encryption to protect messages in transit, without ownership of both clients (endpoints) we cannot guarantee what a third-party provider does with sent or received messages, and we therefore cannot make the same promise.
Our technical solution builds on Metas existing client / server architecture
We think the best way to deliver interoperability is through a solution which builds on Metas existing client / server architecture [Figure 1]. In particular, the requirement that clients connect to Meta infrastructure has the following benefits, it:
Taking the example of WhatsApp, third-party clients will connect to WhatsApp servers using our protocol (based on the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol XMPP). The WhatsApp server will interface with a third-party server over HTTP in order to facilitate a variety of things including authenticating third-party users and push notifications.
WhatsApp exposes an Enlistment API that third-party clients must execute when opting in to the WhatsApp network. When a third-party user registers on WhatsApp or Messenger, they keep their existing user-visible identifier, and are also assigned a unique, WhatsApp-internal identifier that is used at the infrastructure level (for protocols, data storage, etc.)
WhatsApp requires third-party clients to provide proof of their ownership of the third-party user-visible identifier when connecting or enlisting. The proof is constructed by the third-party service cryptographically signing an authentication token. WhatsApp uses the standard OpenID protocol (with some minor modifications) alongside a JSON Web Token (JWT Token) to verify the user-visible identifier through public keys periodically fetched from the third-party server.
WhatsApp uses the Noise Protocol Framework to encrypt all data traveling between the client and the WhatsApp server. As part of the Noise Protocol, the third-party client must perform a Noise Handshake every time the client connects to the WhatsApp server. Part of this Handshake is providing a payload to the server which also contains the JWT Token.
Once the client has successfully connected to the WhatsApp server, the client must use WhatsApps chat protocol to communicate with the WhatsApp server. WhatsApps chat protocol uses optimized XML stanzas to communicate with our servers.
As we continue to discuss this architecture with third-party providers, we think there is also an approach to implementing interop where we could give third-party providers the option to add a proxy or an intermediary between their client and the WhatsApp server. A proxy could potentially give third-party providers more flexibility and control over what their client can receive from the WhatsApp server and also removes the requirement that third-party clients must implement WhatsApps client-to-server protocol, i.e. maintain their existing chat channel on their clients.
The challenge here is that WhatsApp would no longer have direct connection to both clients and, as a result, would lose connection level signals that are important for keeping users safe from spam and scams such as TCP fingerprints. We would therefore anticipate implementing additional requirements for third-party providers who take up this option under our Reference Offer. This approach also exposes all the chat metadata to the proxy server, which increases the likelihood that this data could be accidentally or intentionally leaked.
We believe it is essential that we give users transparent information about how interop works and how it differs from their chats with other WhatsApp or Messenger users. This will be the first time that users have been part of an interoperable network on our services, so giving them clear and straightforward information about what to expect will be paramount. For example, users need to know that our security and privacy promise, as well as the feature set, wont exactly match what we offer in WhatsApp chats.
As is hopefully clear from this post, preserving privacy and security in an interoperable system is a shared responsibility, and not something that Meta is able to do on its own. We will therefore need to continue collaborating with third-party providers in order to provide the safest and best experience for our users.
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