IBL News

Author: IBL News

  • Troubled MIT Media Lab Ousts a Longtime Scientist for Sexual Harassment

    Troubled MIT Media Lab Ousts a Longtime Scientist for Sexual Harassment

    IBL News | New York

    MIT Media Lab last week ousted research scientist and faculty member V. Michael Bove for violating the university’s sexual harassment policy, ScienceMag.org reported this Friday.

    The Media Lab also announced two hours of mandatory sexual harassment training for all personnel.

    Yesterday, Media Lab Executive Director Deb Roy sent a letter to students, staff, and faculty saying: “Michael was terminated solely as a result of a determination that he violated MIT’s sexual harassment policy. … There are aspects of MIT policies and practices that I believe should be improved. I will work with colleagues at MIT towards better policies for the entire community.”

    In a statement sent to MIT Media Lab students, faculty, and staff, V. Michael Bove wrote:

    “Following allegations that I acted in harassing or otherwise unwelcome manner toward some other members of the community, I am no longer at the Media Lab.  I very much regret inappropriate and indefensible actions or words by which I have caused pain or discomfort to any of the remarkable, dedicated professionals in the lab, and offer my sincerest apologies. My past actions did not reflect my values, the values of the Media Lab, the values of MIT, or acceptable standards of behavior anywhere, and having at length examined my conscience I have learned essential lessons about responsible, respectful, and appropriate behavior that will guide me throughout my future interactions with people.”

    Bove was at the Media Lab for 23 years, and, most recently, as head of its Object-Based Media Group.

     

  • MIT Students Vocalize their Concerns and Demand Prof. Seth Lloyd Resignation

    MIT Students Vocalize their Concerns and Demand Prof. Seth Lloyd Resignation

    IBL News | New York

    Over 350 students attended a forum at MIT on Tuesday to vocalize their concerns towards President Reif and MIT’s treatment over the Epstein’s scandal.

    Undergraduate and graduate students expressed their disappointment with respect to transparency in accepting donations, treatment of female-identifying members of the community, and prioritization of money over student sentiment, according to The Tech.

    Students who spoke also demanded that Professor Seth Lloyd, who accepted gifts from Epstein and visited him in prison, resign.

    One student questioned the ethics of the College of Computing, funded by Stephen A. Schwarzman. “One thing we can learn from the Epstein scandal is that there’s no such thing as money without strings attached. How can MIT talk about a new college being at the forefront of ethics, when its main funder was a Trump advisor, is pushing poor people out of their homes, partnering with some of the most repressive governments in the world, and burning down our planet?”

    President Reif, Chancellor Cynthia Barnhart, and 22 deans and department heads including Vice Chancellor Ian Waitz and Vice President and Dean for Student Life Suzy Nelson attended the gathering.

    Rafael L. Reif addressed the issues. This is a summary of his statements:

    • “The past few weeks have been a time of great distress for our community. I expect that the extant situation has left you feeling sad, disappointed, hurt, and angry, including angry at me, so I want to begin by saying, with my whole heart, that I am deeply sorry for the actions I took and failed to take that have been part of bringing this trouble to all of you, the students of MIT,” Reif said.
    • “In this time of growing fortunes and shrinking federal funds, we need to look at everything, from the changing nature of the donor population, to how we should weigh the political, physical, cultural, and economic impacts.”
    • “Female faculty, students, and staff across MIT are telling me that this is our last straw, that allowing Jeffrey Epstein to stain our reputation was only the latest example of how many in our community devalue the lives, experiences, and contributions of women and girls.”
    • “I’m committed to make this moment of crisis a moment of reckoning in our turn toward real accountability, and I believe that in the process, there will be a very important role for students because the future of MIT belongs to you. … I believe that together, we can find a way to transform so much pain for so many people into some enduring good for MIT.”
    • “The Institution does what it wants to do with a gift for research, but it’s not controlled by the donor; that’s the level of principle we have right now. That may have worked very well in the past, but it just doesn’t work anymore today, so those principles have to be revisited. … That’s something we’re going to be doing exactly now. We’re going to be involving the community to address those principles.”

    Update:

    Dozens of people participated Friday afternoon in Cambridge, MA, in a protest organized by ‘No Dark Money at MIT’ group against Epstein’s donations. The demonstration was organized to coincide with the annual meeting of the MIT Corporation.


    The Tech    : Student forum about MIT-Epstein relations held with Reif, senior admin present

     

  • Coursera Offers Its 3,600-Course Catalog to Non-Affiliated Universities

    Coursera Offers Its 3,600-Course Catalog to Non-Affiliated Universities

    IBL News | New York

    Coursera announced Coursera for Campus on October 3rd.

    This initiative is designed to allow any university, including those who are not partners, to supplement their course curricula with Coursera’s 3,600-course catalog.

    These universities will also be able to access Coursera’s analytics as well as author content, assessments, and labs. Features such as single sign-on (SSO) and API integration will be available too. (However, full functionality will roll out over the coming months.)

    Coursera for Campus is available via a licensing model. “Each license grants access to the Coursera catalog, enabling learners to take as many courses as they want in a year,” explained a Coursera representative to IBL News. “As part of Coursera for Campus, universities can also use tools to author and scale online courses for free.”

    “With more than 300 million people entering the workforce in the next 10 years, universities urgently need to augment their capacity to meet the aspirations of a young and growing demographic,” said Jeff Maggioncalda, CEO of Coursera. “With access to content from 200 of the world’s top universities and industry educators, higher education institutions can easily enhance their existing curricula with critical digital skills and author online courses to keep pace with what employers need.”  

    Coursera for Campus has been launched after pilots with over 20 universities, including Duke University, University of Illinois, and Manipal Academy of Higher Education. “It complements our core curriculum,” explained Matthew Rascoff, Associate Vice Provost for Digital Education and Innovation at Duke University.

    “In today’s rapidly changing landscape, it’s important to create lifelong learning experiences for our students and staff to stay competitive in the workforce,” said Kevin Pitts, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

    “It is time we bring the benefits of our platform to the remaining 99% of 20,000 universities worldwide and help them take a digital leap,” added Jeff Maggioncalda.

    • Blog Post: Coursera for Campus: A New Way to Help Universities Everywhere Deliver Job-Relevant Learning

    • Video: Coursera for Campus Global Launch (event in India)

     

  • AWS Expands its Partnerships with Institutions to Offer Degree Programs in Cloud Computing

    AWS Expands its Partnerships with Institutions to Offer Degree Programs in Cloud Computing

    IBL News | New York

    AWS (Amazon Web Services) continues to expand its partnerships with schools to offer associate and bachelor’s degree specialization in cloud computing.

    Its latest move points out to Virginia, where, given the booming tech sector and with Amazon’s new operations – it is launching its second headquarters in Arlington, VA – employees are in a growing need for workers with cloud computing skills.

    Since September 2016, job postings requiring these skills in Virginia have increased from approximately 5,000 to 20,000 per month, according to official data.

    Last week, Virginia’s state officials said the deepening partnership with AWS will create more job opportunities for students. More specifically, Virginia’s Governor Ralph Northam [in the picture] announced a new collaboration between AWS, the Virginia Community College System (VCCS), four-year universities and select K-12 schools.

    Participating academic institutions will incorporate the AWS Educate program into high school STEM curriculum as well as associate and bachelor degree programs.

    George Mason University and Northern Virginia Community College were two of the first higher education institutions in the country to offer cloud computing degrees. Starting in fall 2020, students will be able to pursue a degree path in cloud computing from the two-year program at NOVA to the four-year one at George Mason. The 63-credit program initially enrolled 30 students and has grown to 200.

    Now, as a result of this new collaboration, these programs will be replicated at other community colleges and four-year institutions, and high school students will have the opportunity to receive college credit through dual enrollment and early college models.

    These are the institutions committed to implementing the cloud computing degree program in Virginia:

    K-12

    • Fairfax County Public Schools
    • Loudoun County Public Schools
    • Alexandria City Public Schools
    • Arlington Public Schools

    Community Colleges

    • Northern Virginia Community College
    • J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College
    • John Tyler Community College
    • Thomas Nelson Community College
    • Blue Ridge Community College
    • Patrick Henry Community College
    • Dabney S. Lancaster Community College
    • Tidewater Community College
    • New River Community College
    • Lord Fairfax Community College

    Universities

    • George Mason University
    • Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
    • Virginia Commonwealth University
    • Old Dominion University
    • Hampton University
    • Virginia State University

    The subsidiary of the tech giant Amazon has teamed up so far with over 2,400 educational organizations, including K-12 schools, two-year colleges, and universities. Today, AWS’s running programs are located in New York, Los Angeles, Dallas and the State of Louisiana.

    Other large companies such as Google, Microsoft, and Facebook are also becoming more involved in providing alternative credential programs.

  • The Power of Data and Analytics Can Save Higher Education, Says Educause, AIR and NACUBO

    The Power of Data and Analytics Can Save Higher Education, Says Educause, AIR and NACUBO

    IBL News | New York

    Analytics can solve some of higher education’s biggest problems.

    To reaffirm this idea, and given that progress has faltered, three important associations joined forces and made a collective call-to-action for colleges and universities.

    Data and analytics are institutional strategic asset; using analytics to make better decisions will result in improved student recruiting, student outcomes and completion rates, cost management and campus operations, according to these organizations.

    Educause, the Association for Institutional Research (AIR), and the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) – who collectively serve 2,500 institutions and represent over 80% of post-secondary students in the U.S. – released a statement last month recommending six guiding principles:

    • Go big—make an institutional commitment to analytics.
    • Analytics is a team sport—build your dream team.
    • Prepare for some detours on the road to success.
    • Invest what you can—you can’t afford not to.
    • Analytics has a real impact on real people—avoid the pitfalls.
    • Tick-tock, tick-tock—the time to act is now.

    “For a while now, our progress on institution-wide analytics initiatives has not hit its stride,” said John O’Brien, President and CEO of EDUCAUSE. “We hope this statement encourages a sense of urgency and fosters a deeper understanding of the benefits of data analytics for institutions of all kinds.”

    The associations created a website to further support colleges and universities in their implementation processes.

     

  • edX Announces Its Eleventh Degree: A Master’s in Electrical and Computer Engineering

    edX Announces Its Eleventh Degree: A Master’s in Electrical and Computer Engineering

    IBL News | New York

    edX announced on September 30 the launch of its eleventh MOOC-based degree, reaffirming its role as an OPM (Online Program Manager) company.

    The new degree is top-ranked, as the #5 online graduate engineering program according to U.S. News & World Report.

    The Master’s in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Purdue University School of Electrical and Computer Engineering will cost $22,500, that is, 30 credits at $750 each. The current online master’s program in Purdue costs nearly $40,000. The lower price point was made possible in part due to the support from edX and the ability to offer courses at scale, according to Dimitrios Peroulis, school’s head.

    The Master’s will start in January 2020, while the deadline to accept applications extends until November 1.

    In July 2019, edX issued an MBA from Boston University. In October, it announced another nine Master’s:

    Master’s degrees on edX are stacked degree programs with a MicroMasters program component. In the case of Purdue, its edX MicroMasters in Advanced Electronics will stack up to the full Master’s degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering.

    Coursera: 60+ New Courses in September, with IBM and AWS leading the industry

    On the other hand, yesterday Coursera communicated that September was one of its most productive month, with the launch of 60+ new courses.

    Industry partners IBM and AWS (Amazon Web Services) released Introduction to Deep Learning & Neural Networks with Keras, IBM z/OS Mainframe Practitioner Professional Certificate and Getting Started with AWS Machine Learning.

    University partners like Imperial College London, EDHEC Business School, and the University of Illinois issued several courses, too, dealing with a range of topics, from app development to machine learning in finance.

    • Blog Post at Purdue.edu: Purdue takes online engineering education to next level

     

  • MIT President Will Engage Students on the Issue of Epstein’s Donations and Ties to the Institute

    MIT President Will Engage Students on the Issue of Epstein’s Donations and Ties to the Institute

    IBL News | New York

    MIT President Rafael L. Reif will meet with students, employees, and faculty on October to discuss the Institute’s association with convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

    “This is the beginning of an important conversation,” said President Reif at MIT News. “I’m reexamining my calendar for this whole academic year, recognizing that I need to invest my time here, at home, attending to our community and reconnecting with the wisdom and experiences of the people of MIT.”

    Mr. Reif [in the picture] will participate in three forums – open only to invited members with an ID from the university:

    • Student forum — Tuesday, Oct. 1, 7 p.m., Room 10-250. Also attending this gathering will be leaders of the UA and GSC, Chancellor Cynthia Barnhart, Vice-Chancellor Ian Waitz, Vice President and Dean for Student Life Suzy Nelson, the deans of at least three of MIT’s schools, and a number of MIT department heads.
    • Staff forum — Monday, Oct. 7, 4 p.m., Wong Auditorium (Tang Center, Building E51): Executive Vice President and Treasurer Israel Ruiz will attend, too.
    • Research staff forum — Friday, Oct. 11, 10 a.m., Morss Hall (Walker Memorial, Building 50): In this forum for postdocs and research staff, including staff from Lincoln Laboratory. President Reif will be joined by Vice President for Research Maria Zuber.

    “It is very important to me right now to hear from as many members of our community as I can — to learn how our faculty, students, staff, and alumni think we should address the challenges that MIT is facing together,” President Reif said.

    On Friday, President Reif attended the annual meeting of the Alumni Leadership Conference (ALC), held on campus, addressing some 650 alumni who play leadership roles within the 139,000-member MIT Alumni Association (MITAA).

    On September the 18th, Rafael L. Reif spoke on a scheduled faculty meeting about MIT’s acceptance of Epstein donations. Leading female faculty members submitted a letter to President Rafael Reif & Provost Marty Schmidt questioning the university commitment to women academics.

  • A Conference to Find Viable Business Models to Commercialize Open Source Software

    A Conference to Find Viable Business Models to Commercialize Open Source Software

    Mikel Amigot  | San Francisco

     

    Organizers of the Open Core Summit – which took part this month at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco – announced the COSS (Commercial Open-Source Software) Platform.

    The goal of this initiative is to help commercial open-source organizations develop viable business models. “We want to educate, grow, fund and connect leaders of COSS companies,” as explained to IBL News by Joseph Jacks, founder of OSS Capital, a venture-capital firm who put together the Open Core Summit.

    Today open-source licenses like Apache 2.0 have no requirements to compensate those who craft software. Consequently, many software companies have been struggling for years.

    To solve it, open-source code cobblers such as Elastic, Confluent, InfluxData, MongoDB, Neo4J, and Redis Labs, among many others, are experimenting with improved business models and alternative software licenses.

    Commercial open-source software is often developed as a substitute for costly proprietary software.

    “In addition, COSS companies are fundamentally more capital efficient at running on and innovating with far less capital,” OSS Capital Founding Portfolio Partner Heather Meeker recently wrote.

    Despite the ups and downs, open-source has become a standard for software development and fast-paced innovation. Its collaboration and knowledge sharing model has transformed software’s development and delivery over the last two decades.

    Open-source is getting increasingly popular, with 30 million developers exchanging code and ideas and collaborating on GitHub.

    From the business perspective, companies like Red Hat and Canonical are proof that an open-source model can turn a profit. Other examples of companies which follow the model of “commercial support” include Docker, GitLab, and Databricks.

    In this new environment, the open-source services industry is set to exceed $17B in 2019, and expected to reach $33B by 2011, according to CB Insights.

    An indication of the growth can be found on Canonical/Ubuntu‘s plans to march into an IPO and recent acquisitions (Red Hat by IBM for $34B, and GitHub by Microsoft for $7.5B), alongside large public market valuations like those of MongoDB ($7.9B) and Elastic ($7.3B).

  • A Research Group Identifies Over 700K Unique Credentials in the United States

    A Research Group Identifies Over 700K Unique Credentials in the United States

    IBL News | New York

    A research conducted by the George Washington University Institute of Public Policy and Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness has identified 738,428 unique credentials in the U.S.

    This analysis, titled “Counting U.S. Postsecondary and Secondary Credentials“, provides a clear picture of the vast credential landscape. That number doubles the initial estimate of 334,114 published in April 2018.

    Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Credential Engine is now building a searchable Credential Registry through partnerships with state agencies, employers, universities and colleges.

    This organization hopes that its database will help people discern which credentials offer the most value for personal learning and employment opportunities.

     

  • Learners at Coursera, Canvas and Blackboard Will Be Able to Ask Alexa for Course Updates

    Learners at Coursera, Canvas and Blackboard Will Be Able to Ask Alexa for Course Updates

    IBL News | New York

    “Alexa, when is my next assignment due?”

    Coursera will introduce a new tool for Alexa in October, taking advantage of the new API, Alexa Education Skills, created by Amazon for any edtech company.

    Along with the MOOC portal, CanvasLMS, Blackboard, Kickboard and ParentSquare plan to activate this feature soon.

    By simply asking Alexa, learners will get updates based on the latest information on their student account.

    Voice assistants, like Alexa and Siri, are being rapidly adopted.

    Available to all learners with a Coursera account and Amazon Alexa-enabled device, this tool will help learners access course assignment and quiz scores, due dates, and progress updates, among other pieces of information.

    “Recognizing this trend, we introduced a new tool that helps learners fit education into their daily lives, we’ve taken another exciting step toward our mission of providing transformational learning experiences to anyone, anywhere,” Alex Sanchez, Product Management, Mobile Experiences, and Emerging Technology at Coursera, wrote in a blog post.

    The Alexa Education Skill API integrates with Learning Management Systems (LMS), Student Information Systems (SIS), Classroom Management providers, and massively open online course (MOOC) platforms.

    The new API will be available in preview by invitation only for the following interfaces:

    • Alexa.Education.Profile.Student
    • Alexa.Education.Course
    • Alexa.Education.Coursework
    • Alexa.Education.School.Communication
    • Alexa.Education.Grade.Course (coming soon)
    • Alexa.Education.Grade.Coursework (coming soon)