university

5,000 Stanford students have given their love lives to what an algorithm decides. And it’s consuming the university

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It’s Tuesday at 9:00 p.m. in Palo Alto and the silence of the Stanford dormitories is broken by a simultaneous notification: it’s Date Drop. In seconds, the hallways are filled with students who, according to The Wall Street Journalthey “huddle” on their screens with a mixture of anxiety and hope. Ben Rosenfeld, a residential assistant, describes the phenomenon as an “all-consuming force”: Students talk about nothing else while they figure out whether their destiny that night is a free drink date at the On Call Cafe or an anonymous complaint on the forum Fizz. What began as a simple class project has escalated into a massive sociological phenomenon that has hijacked campus social life. The numbers are compelling: in a university of approximately 7,500 undergraduate students, more than 5,000 have already surrendered their love lives to the decisions of this algorithm. From a class assignment to a startup millionaire. The architect of this obsession is Henry Weng, a computer science graduate student who coded the platform in just three weeks. As detailed TechCrunchwhat Weng started as a tool to help his colleagues has transformed into The Relationship Company, a startup that has already raised $2.1 million in venture capital. The list of investors includes Silicon Valley heavyweights such as Mark Pincus (founder of Zynga and of the first investors of Facebook), Elad Gil (of the first investors in AirbnbStripe and Pinterest) and Andy Chen (former partner of Coatue). Success. The premise has been so successful that it has transcended the walls of Stanford. The service has expanded to ten other elite universities, including Columbia, MIT, Princeton, and the University of Pennsylvania. Weng, who curiously took a subject called “introduction to clowning” that taught him to “delight in failure,” seems to have found a winning formula far from failure. “Our matches turn into real dates at ten times the speed of Tinder,” assures TechCrunch. Optimizing love in the age of fatigue. The success of Date Drop It is not a coincidence; It is symptomatic of an exhausted generation and an environment obsessed with efficiency. As they point out in The Wall Street Journal, It’s a very Stanford solution to a very Stanford problem. On a campus where students are high achievers (high achievers) obsessively focused on academic and professional success, organic social interaction has atrophied. “People have difficulty starting conversations in general, and much more so for romantic interactions,” student Alena Zhang explains to the outlet. But the problem goes beyond Stanford. An analysis of Forbes reveals a general crisis In the world of digital dating: 78% of users report emotional or mental exhaustion from using traditional apps. He ghosting (suffered by 41% of those surveyed) and the feeling that the profiles are a catalog of lies have created chronic fatigue. Added to this is the “Paradox of Preparation” (Readiness Paradox). Generation Z wants to find love more than any generation before it, but they feel paralyzed by the fear of “public failure.” They have replaced asking for a face-to-face date with asking on Instagram, entering a cycle of infinite “testing.” Date Drop it seems to break that paralysis by externalizing the decision: you no longer have to choose and risk public rejection; the algorithm chooses for you. Goodbye to Swipehello to the data. The application is radically different from the mechanics of Tinder. There are no photos to compulsively swipe left or right. The process, detailed on the website itselfbegins with a 66-question questionnaire designed to capture the essence of the user. It’s not just about superficial tastes, but about deep values ​​and political stances: “Is having children essential for a fulfilling life?”, “What are your core values: ambition, curiosity, discipline?” Weng explains that the system uses standard economic “matching theory” combined with an Artificial Intelligence that is trained with feedback (feedback) of the appointments that occur. However, the most innovative—and Machiavellian—feature is the social component. The platform allows friends to play Cupid. Wilson Adkins, a freshman cited by him WSJdiscovered that his friends had “conspired” through the app to match him with a girl from his residence. The algorithm validated the conspiracy with a compatibility score of 99.7%. Not everything is perfect in data heaven. Despite the enthusiasm and millions of investment, the road is not without obstacles. Date Drop It’s not the first attempt to automate love at Stanford. In 2017 he was born The Marriage Pact, a similar project which has already generated 350,000 matches. According to the WSJthe creators of this original project sent a “cease and desist” letter to Weng in November, alleging that the marketing of Date Drop It seemed too familiar to them. Furthermore, technology has limits compared to logistical reality. Gabriel Berger, another student, says that, although he had a great connection with his matchestheir schedules were incompatible: he was vice president of his fraternity and she had dance rehearsals. “We are not interacting well,” they concluded. For her part, Mila Wagner-Sanchez, freshman interviewed by Business Insideradds a note of realism: the novelty fades. After a fun first date (with a friend), and a second matches who never wrote to him, the pressure of midterms caused the app to take a backseat. “I would be open to trying again,” she says, but academic life sometimes outweighs algorithmic curiosity. Optimizing loneliness. Henry Weng has ambitious plans. He sees his company as a “Public Benefit Corporation” intended to facilitate not only romance, but “all meaningful relationships,” including friendships and professional connections. Perhaps the best summary of this phenomenon comes from Madhav Abraham-Prakash, a junior who helped bring the app to campus. Although Date Drop He hasn’t gotten him a girlfriend, he has given him connections on LinkedIn. His justification for The Wall Street Journal sums up the spirit of a generation that doesn’t want to leave anything to chance, not even fate: “I would be sad if my soulmate was here and I couldn’t find it. Or if my co-founder was here and I couldn’t find it, or if my business partner was … Read more

Using facial recognition to hunt for copycats seemed like a good idea. This Valencian university has just discovered that it was not

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Educational centers that decide to do online exams face a challenge: without being able to monitor students in person, how do you ensure that they do not copy? A Valencian university found the solution with a sophisticated video surveillance and facial recognition system. Well, the joke has paid off. Resolution. In the summer of last year, the Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD) filed a complaint against the International University of Valencia o VIU for the use of facial recognition and recording to conduct online exams. As reported in À Puntthe resolution has already arrived and the VIU is going to have to pay 650,000 euros The system. In the VIU evaluation regulationsit is detailed that a “facial recognition technology system” will be used in the online tests. This system consists of the use of two cameras (which the student must provide), one to monitor the student and another for the environment, ensuring that there are no other people in the same room. The software is constantly capturing and analyzing images in real time to verify the student’s identity through AI. At the same time, the program is responsible for controlling the screen and even the devices connected to the computer with which the test is carried out. Two fines. The 650,000 euros are actually the sum of two fines. The first, of 300,000 euros, is for having failed to comply with the article 9 of the GDPR which prohibits the processing of biometric data with few exceptions. The second, which amounts to 350,000 euros, is due to a breach of the article 5.1c of the GDPRwhich maintains that personal data must be “adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary.” The AEPD considers the use of facial recognition for this purpose to be disproportionate. Consent discarded. One of the exceptions to article 9 of the GDPR and which the VIU tried to rely on is that “the interested party gave explicit consent.” It is true that the students had agreed to use this control system, the problem is that they were not given any alternative: either they accepted, or they did not take the exam. The AEPD does not “consider the mandatory acceptance of general conditions upon registration to be valid consent”, which is why it rules it out in its resolution. The VIU also tried to take refuge in the “essential public interest”, another of the exceptions of article 9, but the AEPD has rejected it because there is no specific law for the processing of biometric data in the educational context. The university invoked the university law that says that universities must verify that students have acquired a series of knowledge, but the AEPD has also rejected it as insufficient. Wow, we have to pay. It’s not just the VIU. There is other universities such as the European University, Isabel I, La Rioja or Burgos that also use similar systems that combine cameras and facial recognition. During the pandemic there was no choice but to opt for online training and this prompted the appearance of video surveillance systems in exams, which raised the eyebrows of the AEPDwhich in 2021 already warned that biometrics could not be used to monitor exams. This resolution is the first that imposes a large fine, so it is assumed that universities will make changes if they do not want to go to the cashier’s office. Open door. The AEPD does not close the door to the use of biometrics as fraud prevention in the educational field, including AI systems. However, he points out that according to the European Union AI Regulationbiometric data is considered high risk, which does not prohibit its use, but does not give express permission to use it in this context. In Xataka | I’ll take the exam online for €20: the new student situation is an open bar for cheating Images | VIU, Pexels

The big problem with putting solar panels on crops is shade. The University of Jaén has found a solution

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In search of fulfilling the decarbonization goalswe are filling the field with solar panels. Giants like China can do it combining other activities well, but in the case of smaller countries, things change. Spain is an examplewith a field irrigated by crops that is also being plagued by panels. Now, a research team from the University of Jaén has found the key to continue deploying solar panels without interfering with crops. A panel with minimal shading that does not compromise its energy generation. The agrovoltaics. Different reports have pointed out how the temperature will increase by 1.5 to 3.2 degrees If we continue the same as until now. For this reason, the European Union marked the milestone of 30% of its energy comes from renewables by 2030 to, in 2050, achieve climate neutrality. Wind is important, but what almost all countries are embracing is photovoltaics. The price of the plates has fallen to the ground thanks to the China overproduction and it has begun to be deployed massively. The problem is what we mentioned: it takes up a lot of space, which opens a direct conflict with the farmland. There, agrovoltaics is becoming established as a solution to place panels that do not interfere with the cycle of some crops, and mixes with beekeeping and the livestock. But if we want to continue expanding photovoltaics, panels that provide less shade are needed. Panels and photosynthesis. That is where the solution devised by the University of Jaén comes into play. In a study Published in Science Direct, researchers detail a technology that allows a panel to efficiently generate electricity, while allowing crops to receive enough light to perform their optimal photosynthesis cycle. To do this, the team has taken into account two technical parameters: the average visible transmittance and the average photosynthetic transmittance. In practice, they indicate the amount of light useful to the plants that reaches them after passing through the panel, and they point out that different studies estimate that, for most crops, the minimum value should be around 60%. In that spectrum, plants produce normally. Status of the “transparent” panels“The photovoltaic industry has been working on this for some time. There are two approaches: Non-wavelength selective panels: They are those that absorb a large part of the solar spectrum and achieve transparency by reducing the color of the material or leaving gaps between the cells. With them, transparency is not adequate. Wavelength Selective Panels: They are those that absorb, above all, ultraviolet and near-infrared radiation, but allow a large part of the visible light to pass through. It is what the plants need and, in this case, the transparency of the panels is greater and more suitable for crops. RearCPVbif. In the two groups the industry is testing very different technologies, from polycrystalline silicon to organic cells and color-sensitized panels, but the Spanish team’s approach is somewhat different. The semi-transparent photovoltaic modules They are the STPVs, but what is proposed by the University of Jaén is a system called RearCPVbif, or “Bifacial Rear Concentrator Photovoltaic.” Unlike conventional semi-transparent designs, this technology concentrates and redirects reflected light towards the back of the bifacial cells, generating an increase in electrical production without reducing optical transparency, which is what allows light to reach the plants. It is an STPV, but with rear optical concentrators. In statements to PV-MagazineÁlvaro Varela-Albacete, co-author of the research, points out that STPV technology is being underused and that, with these rear concentrators, there is “a substantial increase” in energy generation without compromising optical transparency. “And how much is the transparency factor? 60%, according to the study, so it would be suitable for most horticultural crops. Next steps. In the study they also mention that they have taken into account that a crucial aspect for agricultural viability is thermal behavior, indicating that, in their tests, the cell temperature was below 70 degrees. This is important so that the panels do not create a “greenhouse” that affects crop patterns. And most importantly: this technology has already attracted attention. Numerous promising studies are published throughout the year, but their application is not always clear. In the case of this ReadCPVbif technology, the co-author of the study, Eduardo Fernández, points out that they are already engaging in conversations with different organizations to accelerate the development of the technology. Now, the route hour includes an evaluation of the benefits for crop growth, with different test campaigns on real crops. In any case, it aims to be a particularly relevant technology in the intensive horticulture that occurs in regions of Spain such as Almería, where apart from the sea of ​​plastic, also the photovoltaic sea is rising. If the two things can be combined, it would be a great step for both sectors. Images | University of Jaen, Σ64 In Xataka | Almería has been Europe’s great “sea of ​​plastic” for years. Now it wants to be another sea: that of solar panels

There are those who think that the housing crisis can be solved by building. At the Polytechnic University of Catalonia they believe they are wrong

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Spain has a problem with housing. That is an (almost) objective fact. The CIS says so, which places it as the great concern of the Spanish, but a quick review of the newspaper archive arrives to confirm it. During the last months few topics have generated more political debate or have taken out so many people on the street such as difficulties in accessing a home. What is no longer so clear is how to solve this “crisis” residential area recognized by the Government itself. Should we build more houses? Does Spain suffer from a housing deficit? Do we need more land to build? Usually the answer to those three questions is a strong ‘yes’. Now a new study signed by two professors of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) and published in a magazine linked to the Ministry of Housing points out that perhaps we were wrong. What has happened? That two professors from the Higher Technical School of Architecture of Barcelona (ETSAB), Blanca Arellano-Ramos and Josep Roca-Cladera, have published a study about the problems that Spain is facing in terms of housing. The report in question is titled ‘Five theses about housing policy in Spain’ and is included in a monograph of CyTETa magazine published by the Ministry of Housing. So far nothing exceptional. The curious thing is that the text questions many of the ideas rooted in the real estate sector, such as that our country suffers from a housing deficit or needs more land to build. While the Bank of Spain (BE) estimates 700,000 homes the mismatch between supply and demand, the study questions whether there really is a ‘hole’ in the market or that prices will go down if we build more. Is there a housing deficit? As already indicated in its title, the article is structured around five theses. And the first addresses precisely that point: Does Spain suffer from a housing deficit? The question is interesting because it is one of the most deeply rooted ideas in the sector. The Bank of Spain itself has calculated that it would be necessary 700,000 houses to meet residential demand. For Arellano-Ramos and Roca-Cladera the reality is quite different. In his opinion, one cannot talk about a deficit without first taking into account the excess of housing accumulated between 2011 and 2021 and the stock of vacant properties. The researchers remember that between 2011 and 2021 the housing stock exceeded the growth in the number of homes by 959,554 units, generating a considerable pocket. In fact, they assure that in 2021 the “accumulated excess” was close to 8.1 million properties, a “‘cushion’ more than enough to absorb temporary housing deficits such as the one produced during the 2021-2024 period,” recalls the UPC in the statement in which he reports the study. What does that mean? That for researchers it is not so obvious that Spain suffers from a shortage of new housing. In their analysis they also remember that a good part of the excess of houses and apartments corresponds to second homes and empty homes. The INE itself estimates that at least in 2021 there were 3.84 million of uninhabited properties, 14.4% of the real estate stock. That percentage far exceeds what most experts consider “desirable” (5%), but at least in the statement The UPC does not address another fundamental aspect: the distribution of these wasted properties, if they are located in stressed markets, such as Madrid, Barcelona or Malaga, or in centers where demand is minimal or even non-existent, in the case of emptied Spain. What if we build more? That is the second question the researchers address. What if we build more homes? Would prices be reduced? Their response is once again skeptical to say the least: increasing buildings will not lead to greater social equity nor will it serve to soften prices. “On the contrary”, slide the UPC note. “According to the authors of the study, the solution is not to build more new homes so that the laws of the market balance prices. In addition to having serious environmental effects, what favors is the real estate bubble like the one that occurred around 2000.” What happens in other neighboring countries? Among other arguments, Arellano-Ramos and Roca-Cladera recall that the rise in prices is not a problem exclusive to the Spanish market, but rather something widespread on the continent. So the question is obvious: if the increase in prices is due to the imbalance between supply and demand, do the majority of EU countries share that same problem? “Is there simultaneously a restriction of supply in relation to demand occurring throughout Europe in relation to demand that explains the increase in residential prices? It does not seem that this is plausible. Therefore it is not reasonable, prima facieturn to the scarce construction of new housing as the main cause of the price of housing”, they reflect the authors before remembering that Spain has invested a higher percentage of GDP in construction than the European average. Do we need more land? The researchers also question whether in Spain the problem of lack of accessibility to housing can be explained by the scarcity of land. And to prove it, they go to the newspaper archive: between the late 90s and the early 2000s, buildable land was made available in the country, which allowed for “massive construction” of residential housing. This boom was not accompanied, however, by a reduction in the price of the square meter. Quite the opposite: residential prices increased, as in other parts of Europe. If Spain saw housing prices rise between 1996 and 2008, it was not because there was no land on which to build or build new homes. “Spain became more urbanized than ever and the result did not represent a reduction in prices, on the contrary,” underlines the UPC in your statementwhich recalls that between 2000 and 2012 Spain was the European country with the greatest “consumption” of land: more than 2,400 square kilometers (km2), almost as … Read more

We thought Stanford, MIT, and Harvard were leading in AI. There is a Chinese university that surpasses them all

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To the northwest of Beijing there is a university campus that is not only the most prestigious in the country, it is also one of the most influential universities in the world in science and technology, even surpassing institutions of the stature of MIT or Stanford. It is called Tsinghua and some of the most important technological projects of the moment are being developed there. Change of focus. Tsinghua has been in operation since 1911, although it was not until 1952 when it became a polytechnic university. Among its former students there are figures of the stature of Nobel Prize in Physics Chen-Ning Yang and President Xi Jinping himself. From its inception, Tsinghua’s focus was the training of Chinese students who were going to continue their studies in the United States. Today that approach has completely changed. In the midst of an AI career, there is a nationalistic spirit and students tend to stay and develop projects in their native country. Leaders. They count in Bloomberg that Tsinghua University stands toe-to-toe with the best universities in the world. According to the US News rankingis the best university in the world in engineering, chemical engineering and electronic engineering; has second place in civil engineering and nanotechnology; It is third in materials science and fourth in computer science. There it is nothing. Intellectual property. Tsinghua is also the university with the most papers on AI among the 100 most cited and leads in patent registration, outnumbering MIT, Stanford, Princeton, and Harvard combined. According to LexisNexis data analyzed by Bloomberghave registered 4,986 patents on AI and machine learning in the last 20 years. In 2024 alone they registered 900 patents. However, according to the Stanford AI Indexthe most influential patents remain in American hands. Startups. The university not only focuses on training, it also has a startup incubator called X-Lab from which at least 900 startups have already emerged since it was created in 2013. They are currently very focused on projects related to artificial intelligence. The founders of startups such as Moonshot AIthe creators of the model Kimi K2either Sapient Inca startup that develops “hierarchical reasoning models” based on how the human brain works. They affirm that it is the way to achieve AGI, a different approach to that pursued by companies like OpenAI with LLM or WLM (world models). that LeCun recently defended. Chip war. Efforts are also being made in Tsinghua to give China a boost in the technological war with the United States. The clearest example is the chip created by a group of university scientists and it is 3.7 faster than NVIDIA’s A100. Not only that, the chip, called ACCEL, is also much more efficient. At the moment its mass production has not been achieved, but the innovation is there. Image | Tsinghua University In Xataka | Four decades ago, China decided to invest in training millions of engineers. Today that plan gives it an advantage in the race for AI

While we wait for solid-state batteries, the University of Córdoba has an idea for the electric car: human poop

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The automotive industry has launched itself into electrification arms. Be with the hybrids, plug-ins either 100% electricthey all have batteries, and the key to convincing more users of make the jump from your combustion car is guarantee greater autonomy. The solid state batteries are one of the technologies in researchbut there are other very promising ones such as lithium-sulfur, and the University of Córdoba believes that there are two secret ingredients to improve the formula. Urine and excrement. Li-S. They are not new. We have been talking about the lithium sulfide batteriesand while we find the economy of scale necessary for solid-state ones to establish themselves, lithium-sulfur ones are one of the hopes for electric cars. They have twice the real energy density of lithium-ion, sulfur is extremely abundant and economical compared to critical materials such as cobalt or nickel, It is not something that China controlsit is safer because the risk of thermal runaway is lower and the environmental impact is reduced. They are not perfect, since the conductivity is low, the manufacturing processes are not as optimized as those of current alternatives and, above all, the current useful life is very limited: although they are moving forward In this sense, just 300-500 charge cycles compared to between 1,000 and 3,000 for lithium-ion batteries. However, as we say, they have become a promising technology, and the University of Córdoba wants one of the ingredients in the battery to be… poop. Batteries from waste. The Chemical Institute for Energy and the Environment, or IQUEMA, of the University of Córdoba has published a study in which they test the potential of sludge from a municipal treatment plant when converting it into activated carbon. It is an essential material for lithium-sulfur batteries, since it works as a conductor, and they consider it to be the answer to the challenge of optimizing the electrodes of these batteries. As we said, sulfur has advantages, but one of the great deficiencies is its conductivity index. This requires active carbon and other conductive matrices that are expensive to produce. But of course, if this conductive matrix is ​​created from waste that all cities in the world produce no matter what, things change. Villaviciosa de Córdoba. To do this, IQUEMA has used sludge from the wastewater station of Villaviciosa de Córdoba. This plant uses a treatment system that generates a sludge with an interesting composition to carry out the experiment: It is rich in organic matter. Also in metals, nitrogen and phosphorus. Combining them can create a material with a good electrochemical performance index. The process is as follows: Drying: the mud is dried and pulverized. Chemical modification: Potash is added as a chemical agent to make the material more porous. Pyrolysis: the mixture is subjected to temperatures of 800º to convert the organic matter into activated carbon. Mixture with sulfur: thus it is trapped in the active carbon matrix and the last step would be to integrate it into the battery electrodes. Promising. The researchers have found that the activated carbon obtained has ideal properties to be used as a material in these batteries. Its porous structure and nitrogen doping improve the transport of electrons and ions, and the resulting material has a high sulfur content. This allows the battery to have great electrochemical stability. That is to say, one of the big problems of this technology, the low conductivity of sulfur for the cathode, is something that mitigates the matrix created from the Villaviciosa de Córdoba sludge. And because its raw material is what it is, it is easier to recycle than other conventional batteries for which you have to develop tadjacent technologies for sustainability. According to the researchers, it is an avenue worth exploring because “triple the storage capacity of a lithium-ion battery”. “It is a great advance that we achieved from a waste that we considered problematic” – IQUEMA researchers Beyond the poop. Considering the results, it is likely that we will see more studies in the same direction. It is something that solves a double problem: the municipal waste management by converting it into a key material to solve one of the challenges of lithium-sulfur batteries. And the interesting thing is that IQUEMA has not remained only in the sludge of the sewage treatment plant. Previously explored the potential of agroindustrial byproductslike the olive pits and avocados, but also almond and pistachio shells. The problem is that these materials are already in demand in other sectors (such as composting or heating), and that is where the great advantage of human excrement lies: “no one” wants them. Images | ACE, Thomas Freres In Xataka | No, China has not turned off the tap on batteries for electric cars. The reality is much more complex

In Spain, more and more parents go with their children to complain to the university. In Tokyo they have “monster parents”

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The image was so utterly disconcerting which didn’t take long to go viral. A few weeks ago the University of Granada it was news because a vice dean of the Faculty of Educational Sciences hung a poster reminding that teachers “do not serve parents”, and insisted: “All enrolled students are of legal age.” something similar made by the University of Oviedo, which also hung a similar poster pointing that their students are now adults and the regulations limit the information that the center can give to their parents. The phenomenon is not, however, exclusive to Spain. In Japan, overprotective parents have become such a serious problem that it has forced the authorities to move tab in schools. The goal: protect teachers. New guidelines. That a body like the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education publishes guidelines on how schools should act in certain circumstances is nothing new. It is true that these guidelines do not focus on the teaching load, schedules, extracurricular activities or anything that has to do with the education of young people or the organization of the faculty. The objective of the new recommendations of the Council are focused on something else. Basically how teachers should act when they encounter what in Japan they have already started to call (and not without reason) ‘monster parents’overprotective fathers and mothers who do not hesitate to get into fights with teachers, demand accountability and have long discussions about all kinds of issues. But is the problem so serious? It seems so. And there are a couple of studies that help understand it. a survey published in April with some 12,000 public school teachers in Tokyo revealed that 22% claimed to have received “socially questionable” treatment from people outside the school, especially parents. A previous reportfrom just a year ago, prepared by the Japanese Association of Mutual Aid of Public School Teachers, also identified that dealing with students’ parents was a source of stress for teachers. Connected with the karoshi. It’s not just that parents increase teachers’ anxiety. As remember This Week in Asiaeach teacher usually has several classes with dozens of students (about 30), so in the end the meetings and telephone conversations with parents end up becoming an extra workload that lengthens the faculty’s day. Sometimes several hours every week. A recent report on karoshiknown as “death from overwork”, reflects that during the last three years the education sector has been one of those with the highest percentage of personnel who work more than 60 hours per week. They are only surpassed by transportation, logistics and hospitality. “Irrational requests”. Why do they complain? ‘monster parents’? What makes them show up every now and then at their children’s teachers’ offices, send them messages or keep them on the phone for hours? The Japan Times speaks of “irrational requests” related to students who refuse to go to class or have been reprimanded, but other media cite stranger cases. This Week in Asia refers complaints from parents upset because the cherry trees had not bloomed in time for their children’s entrance ceremonies, about the taste of school menus or about insect bites. “There are two types of parents, those who are demanding but kind, who sometimes offer us gifts, and those who seem to always be dissatisfied, no matter what,” says one teacher. Of insects and girlfriends. Tsuji, professor of sociology of culture at Chuo University in Tokyo, recognize their fear that the phenomenon is going beyond schools and reaching faculties. “These young people are in college and yet their parents insist on telling their teachers what they should do,” he says. “The university has received complaints from parents about the quality of the food and one mother called demanding to know why her son had not made new friends.” Not long ago, she herself had to assist a mother who was worried because her university son couldn’t find a girlfriend. “I didn’t know what to answer,” he confesses. Other teacher relates the ordeal that school trips entail. “Parents call or message teachers at midnight or even later to ask what their child needs to bring, where to meet, what time they need to arrive, what they’re going to see, and so on.” The most curious thing, he regrets, is that all this information is given to all students well in advance. putting order. Against this backdrop, the Tokyo Board of Education has issued a series of guidelines for metropolitan centers. The goal? That their teachers know how to act in each case. Your guidelines are clear and simple: meetings with parents will no longer last 30 minutes a week, a maximum of one hour in special cases to prevent them from interrupting the rest of their work. In these meetings there will also be at least two teachers and if the parents insist on meeting with the center, the case will pass from the teachers to the management. From the fourth meeting onwards, other professionals will come into play to address the matter, such as psychologists or even lawyers. Of course, the talks will be recorded and if necessary (if a parent loses his manners) a security company or even the intervention of the police. Because? The big question. What explains the phenomenon of ‘monster parents’? Although in Tokyo the focus has been on schools, not so much on faculties, the backdrop is not different from that of the controversies that have arisen here in Oviedo or Granada: protective parents and the diminished authority of teachers. “This problem has been increasing in recent years,” Tsuji confesses.who remembers that in the middle birth crisis In Japan, parents are invested in the well-being and academic success of their children. Added to this are cultural and social changes, which include the fact that new parents come from educated generations who feel more authorized to deal with teachers. Images | Egor Myznik (Unsplash) and Stephanie Hau (Unsplash) In Xataka | There is a national symbol that Japan has kept unchanged for generations: a very expensive … Read more

Two students have the same university degree. One will go further than another: whoever comes

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Where you come from matters a lot if we talk about “social elevators.” Without going too far, the problem nuclear of housing for young people is not such depending on the family that has touched. But these inequalities begin to be noticed much earlier. In fact, it has been found that even the university degree itself does not depend so much on the grade, but on your origins. Gap after the title. a study from the National Bureau of Economic Research with massive data on graduates from public universities in the United States show that, even when students have the same major, the same grades and leave the same institutions, those who come from low-income families finish five years later earning substantially less than their peers from families with more resources. In other words, this means that graduating (which for years was the central objective of equity policies) does not close the gap, it simply transfer to the labor marketwhere he reappears strongly despite having followed the same academic itinerary. The first job. When the researchers adjusted the data by including characteristics of the first job (starting salary, company size, average employer salary level and sector) the gap between poor and rich graduates fell by a third of its original size. This result indicates that a large part of the inequality does not occur years later, but in the instant of jump to the market: the first salary alone explains almost half of the income difference in year five, and other attributes of the first job destination added another substantial part. In other words, that first match between graduate and employer weighs more for future economic trajectory than most previous academic factors. The differences. There’s more, as research indicates that graduates from lower-income households tend to reach the end of their degree less likely to have a secure jobaccept offers with lower starting salaries and enter companies that, on average, pay less and offer fewer promotion and training options. Every extra thousand dollars in starting salary is associated with seven hundred dollars plus five years afterwards, and those who remain in first place for at least two years register several thousand more income in the medium term. This suggests that, even without differences in talent or record, the social origin determines the type of first job that is accessed, and that starting point chain conditions what happens later. Implications. In a political key, the picture that emerges the work forces us to shift the focus of intervention: it is not enough to guarantee access and graduation if inequality re-establishes itself just as we cross the door of the labor market. The researchers say that if the first job explains a good part of the gap, then the policy that aspires to real mobility must act explicitly about that transition (early information, networks, search preparation, paid internships, matching with better quality employers) because that is where today the nuclear difference is formed between equals on paper, but different in origin. Without that final layer, the title stops functioning as a ladder of equality and becomes a filter that validates inequalities that are already written before the first contract. The weight of origin. In short, the evidence suggests that inequality reappears in the transition to work because the resources that mattered before university (social networks, early information, financial cushion and room to wait for a better offer) continue to operate when the time comes to choose the first job. Those who can finance a few months without salary can reject bad offers and wait for a better one, and those who cannot, accept the first one. Those who have relatives or contacts in large companies obtain recommendations that reduce entry friction, and those who do not compete blindly. Even the most sensitive information about how, when and where to apply is unevenly distributed. From that perspective, the “first step” is neither chance nor pure merit: it is a translation in labor terms of the previous advantages that are not seen in the academic record, but that determine the quality of the first contract, and of a “bright” future or simply a future. Image | Pexels In Xataka | The paradox of the “American dream”: the place where it is least likely to be achieved is the United States In Xataka | The dream of young Spaniards is no longer buying a house: it is waiting for their parents to donate it to them

A poster at the University of Granada uncovers one of the big problems of generation Z: “helicopter parents”

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The Faculty of Educational Sciences of the University of Granada has become famous this week for a simple paper poster that has become viral on social networks. In the message, posted by the Vice Dean of Internships, you can read: “Parents are not attended to. All students enrolled in internships are of legal age.” Among thousands of other users, the poster was spread by the professor at the University of Granada Daniel Arias Aranda in your LinkedIn profile, stating: “When you have to put up this sign at the university, something is going wrong. Dear student: solve your own problems and don’t boss around mom and dad. Remember, the age of majority in Spain is 18.” Debate in networks: autonomy and maturity. The reactions on social networks have not been long in coming, with an intense exchange of opinions between students, families and teachers. There are those who strongly defend that the students “are too old to defend themselves,” as one student pointed out. interviewed by Antena 3and that “it makes no sense for parents to go to manage exams or tutorials.” Tap on the image to go to the original message On the other hand, the general secretary of the Association of Friends of Vicente Aleixandre responded to the message of the professor from his account on Another user went even further, thinking that “It should even be illegal, a person of legal age is no longer represented by his parents in legal dealings unless a judge determines otherwise; I consider that assisting parents goes against the autonomy of the student’s will.” helicopter parents. In the background of the conversation hovered – pardon the redundancy – the concept of “helicopter parents”, a term coined in 1969 by the writer Haim Ginott in his book “between parents and children“. The term describes the behavior of mothers and fathers who are so attentive to every issue of their children that they often intervene in processes that they, as adults, they should resolve on their own. Especially in university or work matters. However, a study revealed that this excess of control can lead to children with problems resolving conflicts and dealing with daily stress, something that would make them more anxious and dependent. Although the staff of the University of Granada I remembered in The Country They remember that, fortunately, these are “completely isolated cases”, the placement of the poster was motivated because some parents have come to make complaints, manage enrollment or request explanations directly from the university staff on behalf of his children. “In these cases, I explain to the mother that what needs to be promoted is the student’s critical reasoning, that he is the one who refutes a correction, not his parents,” he declared to The Country José Ángel Morales García, professor of Neurosciences at the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM). A new parent profile. Beyond the helicopter parent phenomenonanother of the social keys that explain the rise of the debate is that current university students belong to generation Z, whose parents belong to generation X or millennials, born between the seventies and the nineties. This generation of parents was the first to go massively to university in Spain and is made up of professionals who have worked in multinationals, which gives them sufficient solvency to feel like legitimate interlocutors with teachers, academic staff and even before recruiters for a jobcoming to assume a more leading role than the student or candidate themselves. Compared to previous times, the fact that a greater proportion of parents have university experience has changed the relationship with the centers. Now they feel entitled to intervene or debate because they know the system from within. Even so, teachers insist that “the academic relationship is between the student and the university.” The research reveal that encouraging independence during youth improves their maturity and self-esteem. In Xataka | Silicon Valley’s “tech” generation Z has given up alcohol: its new fun is 92 hours of work Image | Pexels (Arina Krasnikova), Daniel Arias Aranda

A university used an AI to hunt down students who used AI. The result was a predictable disaster

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What has happened? They count in Futurism that in 2024, the Australian Catholic University accused about 6,000 students of academic misconduct. At least 90% of cases were related to the use of AI for cheating. What is striking is that the university itself used an AI to issue these accusations, many of which were erroneous. Why it is important. It is one more example that AI is not yet reliable. We see it constantly with wrong results and hallucinations. The Australian university is not the only one that has relied on AI to accuse its students, it is a practice quite common and there have been others similar cases. The reality is that AI text detectors are also AI and, at least for now, They are imperfect. Turnitin. It is a plagiarism detection software whose first version was released in 1997 and is widely used in universities and educational centers. In 2023 he added a tool to detect texts created with AI and it is the one they used at the Australian Catholic University. The company itself says in its usage guide that the AI ​​detector is not always accurate and should not be used as the sole source when accusing a student. However, according to ABC Australiathe university used it as the only evidence when issuing his records for misconduct. The university version. Allegations regarding AI use included AI-generated works, fabricated references (hallucinations), and the use of AI tools to cite and translate content. The university says at least a quarter of all allegations were dropped after an investigation. They also rejected those in which the only proof was the AI ​​itself and in March of this year they stopped using that software. The dilemma. The emergence of AI tools poses challenges in the educational sector. Hay voices that advocate its banwhile others They defend integration and encourage good practices. UNESCO published a guide to the use of generative AI in education in which they establish rules and obligations, such as privacy protection, age limits and an approach that guarantees ethical and safe use of these tools. Image | Turnitin In Xataka | A teacher corrected a final exam done with ChatGPT, but another AI evaluated it differently and exposed the dilemma

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