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First, Isaac Perry, an AP English teacher and chairperson of Lakeland High Schools English Department, brought AP Computer Science to the school.

Now, LHS has earned the College Boards AP Computer Science Female Diversity Award.

The award recognizes Lakeland for achieving high female representation in AP Computer Science Principles. Schools honored with the AP Computer Science Female Diversity Award have expanded girls access in AP Computer Science courses, according to a College Board release.

Out of the 20,000 institutions that offer AP courses, 1,119 achieved either 50% or higher female representation in one of the two AP computer science courses or a percentage of the female computer science examinees meeting or exceeding that of the schools female population during the 2019-20 school year. Thats nearly 37% more than the 818 schools recognized last year.

In 2020, Lakeland was one of 831 schools recognized in the category of AP Computer Science Principles.

During an unprecedented year, Lakelands female students have demonstrated perseverance and dedication in their study of AP computer science, said Stefanie Sanford, College Board chief of global policy and external relations. We could not be more proud of Lakelands female students for staking their claim as the next generation of STEM and computer science professionals. We cant wait to see their passion for next generation technology lead to lifelong success.

Perry, who graduated from Milford High School in 1995, majored in English and minored in math. His first year of teaching was at Everett High School; the next two years, he was at Pontiac Northern.

A teacher at LHS since 2003, hes spent most of his career teaching English and didnt pursue computer science as a class until about 2015.

He received special training from Code.org, a national nonprofit that aims to increase representation of minorities and girls in computer science. One of the things he learned was how to convince female and minority students to try an AP computer science class.

I knew I was going to need to advertise; I knew I was going to need to talk the class up, explained Perry. He felt that his position teaching junior AP English classes helped him to reach out in an intentional way to his target group; he was able to convince a lot of those students to take one of his computer science classes.

Perry, who is the chairperson of LHS English Department, considers himself a lucky man to get to pursue two of his passions English in the morning and computer science in the afternoon.

We now have two AP level computer science classes taught here, he said. For the first four years or so, he only taught one computer course: AP Computer Science Principles. New this school year is AP Computer Science A, which focuses upon learning the Java programming language.

He estimated that hes taught about 250 students. Last year, he added, I did have an even 50/50 split. This year, I believe Im very close to that.

Dr. Brigitte Knudson, LHS interim principal, said of the award: It is such a great honor. Shes proud of the work Perrys done to breathe life into the program, not just for the female students, but for all LHS students. No Huron Valley school had AP computer science courses before he started it.

Its so wonderful that the program was recognized, she added. I cant say enough wonderful things about Isaac Perry. Hes just phenomenal. Hes an inspiration for all of our students.

The College Boards press release added that, in its first year (2016-17), AP Computer Science Principles attracted more students nationwide than any other course debut. Its continued to be popular more than 116,000 students took the AP CSP exam in 2020 double the amount from its first year.

Providing female students with access to computer science courses is critical to ensuring gender parity in the industrys high-paying jobs and to drive innovation, creativity and representationA code.org analysis of 2017 Bureau of Labor Statistics data finds women represent just 24% of the 5 million people in computing occupations.

Additionally, according to the press release, female students who take AP CSP in high school are more than five times as likely to major in computer science in college, compared to similar female students who did not take CSP. The study also finds AP CSP students are nearly twice as likely to enroll in AP CSA, and that for most students, AP CSP serves as a stepping-stone to other advanced AP STEM coursework.

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LHS earns diversity award | The Spinal Column - Spinal Column Online

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. Self-driving cars that see through obstacles and maneuver accordingly. A sensor that scans a liquid for calorie count and dangerous or poisonous content. A drone that detects exact amounts of soil moisture while hovering above crop fields. All of these futuristic-sounding devices are moving closer to reality, thanks to research being conducted by Mahanth Gowda, assistant professor of computer science and engineering at Penn State, with a three-year, $250,000 National Science Foundation grant.

Gowda is using wireless technology to develop IoTScope, a new system that will identify the material properties of any object by analyzing reflected and refracted radio-frequency (RF) signals similar to ones used for WiFi and cellular communications. To understand how the technology works, Gowda recommends thinking first of how a camera takes a photograph.

Mahanth Gowda works with a graduate student in his lab.

IMAGE: Penn State College of Engineering

When a camera takes an image, its measuring the light that is reflected from the surface of an object, he said. But with sensing with RF signals, even though there are a lot of ambient electro-magnetic RF signals in the environment, they are typically not strong enough to capture and sense like the way we measure light off an object for a photograph. So, what we do here is generate our own RF signals systematically to illuminate the environment and sense it.

Two different methods generate these signals. The first is through a direct send, which occurs when the image of an object is taken through direct reflections. In this scenario, there are two antennas: one for transmitting and one for receiving. The transmitting antenna sends signals that illuminate the environment, and the receiving antenna captures the reflections from the environment. Properties of objects can then be measured by evaluating these reflections.

The second method involves passing a signal through an object to discern its properties.

Imagine that you have a transmitter on one side of an opaque water bottle, and a receiver on the other side of it, Gowda said. Since the water bottle is not transparent, light and visible signals cannot penetrate it, but radio waves can penetrate most non-metallic objects. By measuring the properties of the signals, like how much loss you experience in the signal, how much delay you experience in the signal, you can tell whether this water is, for example, contaminated.

Although Gowda has published preliminary results on the second method, it is still an active area of exploration and a key part of the novelty of his work. He explained that this method could improve the capabilities of self-driving cars.

Self-driving cars commonly use computer vision and sensors like LiDAR (light detection and ranging), he said. But the computer vision and sensors do not work well under adverse weather conditions poor visibility, a lot of snow or in low-light conditions. So, in those situations if we can use radar-based sensing like WiFi kind of signals, and sense reflections from humans and objects and other cars, we should be able to direct them. If you combine vision with signals from radar, you can improve the robustness and reliability of autonomous driving operations.

Gowda said he will use simulations, real-world experiments, data analysis modeling and machine learning approaches as he improves the IoTScope system. He hopes the next steps will be commercialization.

Theres a wide range of industries that might be interested in this kind of technology, he said. Most of the things we are working on very much have a real impact in life with respect to self-driving cars, airports and other types of security and health care applications.

Last Updated February 24, 2021

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Taking future wireless technology from science fiction to scientific reality - Penn State News

SAN FRANCISCO - STANFORD redshirt senior Nathan Traxler has been named the 2021 Pac-12 Wrestling Scholar-Athlete of the Year, the Conference office announced today. The award, which is presented in each of the 24 sports the Pac-12 sponsors, was established to honor collegiate student-athletes that are standouts both academically and in their sports discipline.

Traxler, a graduate student from St. Charles, Ill., graduated from Stanford in 2020 with a bachelors degree in computer science and a cumulative 3.54 grade-point average. The seventh Stanford wrestler to be named the Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year, Traxler is currently pursuing his masters degree in computer science and will graduate this spring.

A three-time team captain for Stanford, Traxler has compiled a 74-25 career record as a member of the Cardinal. A three-time NCAA qualifier, he was named a National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA) Second Team All-American in 2020. In 2019, he was an individual Pac-12 champion at 197 lbs., leading Stanford to its first Pac-12 team championship in program history. Hes also earned Pac-12 Wrestler of the Week on three separate occasions.

In the classroom, Traxler is a three-time NWCA Scholar All-American (2018, 2019, 2020), a two-time Pac-12 All-Academic First Team honoree (2018, 2019) and a 2020 Pac-12 Academic Honor Roll recipient.

To complement his studies, Traxler has held two software engineering internships at Apple. In 2019, he worked on a team of integral engineering to build and improve tools that are used to efficiently operate Apple data centers across the world. As a full stack engineer, he worked on the frontend and backend of these tools. In 2020, he contributed to a project working on the apple.com search bar, incorporating AppleTV+ content into search results.

In order to be eligible for the Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year award, student-athletes must be a senior (in athletics eligibility) on track to receive a degree, have a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or higher, participate in at least 50 percent of the scheduled contests in the sport and have a minimum one year in residence at the institution. Each Pac-12 institution may nominate one individual per sport, and the winners are selected by a committee of Pac-12 staff members at the conclusion of each sports regular season. The athletics accomplishments of the nominees are a consideration in voting for the award.

A Scholar-Athlete of the Year will be named in each of the Pac-12s 24 sponsored sports: baseball, mens basketball, womens basketball, beach volleyball, mens cross country, womens cross country, football, mens golf, womens golf, womens gymnastics, womens lacrosse, mens rowing, womens rowing, mens soccer, womens soccer, softball, mens swimming & diving, womens swimming & diving, mens tennis, womens tennis, mens track & field, womens track & field, womens volleyball, and wrestling. The award was first established during the 2007-08 academic year.

ALSO NOMINATED: Jacob Sieder, CSU Bakersfield; Paul Bianchi, Little Rock.

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Stanford's Nathan Traxler named 2021 Pac-12 Wrestling Scholar-Athlete of the Year - Pac-12.com