Caltech’s Latest STEM Breakthrough: Most of Its New Students Are Women

Bruce66423 shares a report from the Los Angeles Times: In a milestone breakthrough, more than half of Caltech’s incoming undergraduate class this fall will be women (source paywalled; alternative source) for the first time in its 133-year history. The class of 113 women and 109 men comes 50 years after Caltech graduated its first class of undergraduate women, who were admitted in 1970. “What this means for young women is that we are a place that can be representative of them and their experiences … where they can grow and thrive and excel and become really impressive, extraordinary scientists and engineers and go on to make a difference in this really research-heavy profession,” said Ashley Pallie, dean of admissions

Gloria L. Blackwell, chief executive of the American Assn. of University Women, lauded Caltech’s achievement as critical progress in reducing the substantial gap of women in science, technology, engineering and math. Although women hold about 60% of degrees in biological sciences, they represent only about 18% in computer science and 20% in engineering, Blackwell said. Research has shown that boys are not better at math and science than girls, but a persistent message in society says otherwise — and especially discourages Latinas and Black girls from pursuing the fields because they face discrimination and have less access to role models, resources and opportunities, the AAUW says. The report notes that Caltech isn’t the first educational institution to reach gender parity in STEM. Harvey Mudd College, a small private institution in Claremont, “enrolled more women than men in 2010 for the first time in its history and in 2014 graduated more women than men in engineering,” reports the LA Times. “Today, women make up 52.8% of majors in computer science, 50.5% in engineering and 68.2% in mathematical and computational biology.”

UC Berkeley is another powerful producer of STEM graduates, with “nearly half of students majoring in those fields [identifying] as women or nonbinary.” However, the report notes that the field they enter varies significantly. “They make up more than two-thirds of students in biological and biomedical sciences, but about one-third in engineering, computer and informational sciences, and mathematics and statistics.”

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Apple’s CFO Steps Down Following a 10-Year Run

Apple announced that CFO Luca Maestri will step down at the start of next year, transitioning to head of its corporate services team to lead “information systems and technology, information security, and real estate and development.” Kevan Parekh will take over as CFO. The Verge reports: Maestri joined Apple in 2013 after serving as the CFO of Xerox. He became the CFO just one year later, replacing Peter Oppenheimer. CNBC notes that when he took over, Apple’s annual revenue was $183 billion, and last year, it reached $383 billion. Apple also announced an expansion to its share repurchase program to $90 billion, which Maestri would oversee.

This spring, Apple announced it would increase the amount from $90 billion to $110 billion, breaking its own record of $100 billion. It also reported an increase in revenue from its services business of 14 percent, even as sales of iPhones and iPads were down from the previous year. In Apple’s announcement, it said, “…Maestri enabled essential investments and practiced robust financial discipline, which together helped the company more than double its revenue, with services revenue growing more than five times.”

Kevan Parekh, Apple’s vice president of financial planning and analysis, will take Maestri’s place managing the finances of the now $3 trillion company. Parekh has been at Apple for 11 years and previously worked in senior leadership positions at Thomson Reuters and General Motors. Last week, Apple announced that it’s splitting its App Store group into two teams, with App Store vice president Matt Fischer leaving the role in October.

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Snapchat Now Runs Natively On iPad

After 13 years of being exclusively available on the iPhone, Snapchat is finally introducing native support for the iPad. 9to5Mac reports: The latest version of the Snapchat app for iOS enables iPad support. This means that the app now runs full screen on iPadOS. “It’s still the same Snapchat you know and love, but this time on the big screen,” the company says in the update’s release notes. However, it seems that Snapchat hasn’t had time to fully optimize its app for tablets. That’s because, at least for now, it can only run in portrait mode. There’s no way to use the app in landscape mode. The iPad interface also seems a bit glitchy in this first version. The app is available to download from the App Store for devices running iOS 13 or later.

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Zuckerberg Says He Regrets Not Being More Outspoken About ‘Government Pressure’

In a letter to the House Judiciary Committee, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg expressed regret for not being more vocal about “government pressure” to censor COVID-19-related content. He also acknowledged that Meta shouldn’t have demoted a New York Post story about President Biden’s family before the 2020 election. The Hill reports: Zuckerberg said senior Biden administration officials “repeatedly pressured” Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, to “censor” content in 2021. “I believe the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken,” he wrote to House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio). “Like I said to our teams at the time, I feel strongly that we should not compromise our content standards due to pressure from any Administration in either direction — and we’re ready to push back if something like this happens again,” Zuckerberg added.

The Meta CEO also said the company “shouldn’t have demoted” a New York Post story about corruption allegations involving President Biden’s family ahead of the 2020 election while waiting for fact-checkers to review it. The social media company has since updated its policies and processes, including no longer demoting content in the U.S. while waiting for fact-checkers, he noted. Zuckerberg also said in Monday’s letter that he does not plan to make contributions to local jurisdictions to support election infrastructure this cycle, like he did during the 2020 election.

The contributions, which were “designed to be non-partisan,” were accused of being unfairly distributed between left-leaning and right-leaning areas and labeled “Zuckerbucks” by Republicans. “Still, despite the analyses I’ve seen showing otherwise, I know that some people believe this work benefited one party over the other,” Zuckerberg said. “My goal is to be neutral and not play a role one way or another — or to even appear to be playing a role.” House Judiciary Republicans touted the letter as a “big win for free speech,” writing on X: “Mark Zuckerberg just admitted three things: 1. Biden-Harris Admin ‘pressured’ Facebook to censor Americans. 2. Facebook censored Americans. 3. Facebook throttled the Hunter Biden laptop story.”

“Mark Zuckerberg also tells the Judiciary Committee that he won’t spend money this election cycle. That’s right, no more Zuck-bucks. Huge win for election integrity,” it added.

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Samsung TVs Will Get 7 Years of Free Tizen OS Upgrades

Samsung Electronics said it will provide Tizen OS updates for its newer TVs for at least seven years, starting with models released in March this year and some 2023 models. Business Korea reports: [Yoon Seok-woo, President of Samsung Electronics’ Visual Display Business Division] emphasized that the seven-year free upgrade for Tizen applied to AI TVs would help Samsung widen the market share gap with Chinese competitors. Tizen, an in-house developed OS, has been applied to over 270 million Samsung smart TVs as of last year, making it the world’s largest smart TV platform and a key player in leading the Internet of Things (IoT) era. “AI TV will act as the hub of the AI home, connecting other AI appliances like refrigerators and air conditioners,” Yoon explained. “We will expand the AI home era by enabling users to monitor and control peripheral devices through the TV even when it is off or when the user is away.” This connectivity is a key differentiator from Chinese competitors, according to Yoon.

In the first half of this year, Samsung Electronics maintained the top spot in the global TV market with a 28.8% market share by revenue. However, the combined market share of Chinese companies TCL and Hisense has reached 22.1%, indicating fierce competition.

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Telegram CEO Pavel Durov’s Arrest Upends Kremlin Military Communications

Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov was arrested Saturday night by French authorities on allegations that his social media platform was being used for child pornography, drug trafficking and organized crime. The move sparked debate over free speech worldwide from prominent anti-censorship figures including Elon Musk, Robert F. Kennedy. Jr. and Edward Snowden. However, “the immediate freakout came from Russia,” reports Politico. “That’s because Telegram is widely used by the Russian military for battlefield communications thanks to problems with rolling out its own secure comms system. It’s also the primary vehicle for pro-war military bloggers and media — as well as millions of ordinary Russians.” From the report: “They practically detained the head of communication of the Russian army,” Russian military blogger channel Povernutie na Z Voine said in a Telegram statement. The blog site Dva Mayora said that Russian specialists are working on an alternative to Telegram, but that the Russian army’s Main Communications Directorate has “not shown any real interest” in getting such a system to Russian troops. The site said Durov’s arrest may actually speed up the development of an independent comms system. Alarmed Russian policymakers are calling for Durov’s release.

“[Durov’s] arrest may have political grounds and be a tool for gaining access to the personal information of Telegram users,” the Deputy Speaker of the Russian Duma Vladislav Davankov said in a Telegram statement. “This cannot be allowed. If the French authorities refuse to release Pavel Durov from custody, I propose making every effort to move him to the UAE or the Russian Federation. With his consent, of course.” Their worry is that Durov may hand over encryption keys to the French authorities, allowing access to the platform and any communications that users thought was encrypted.

French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday that the arrest of Durov was “in no way a political decision.” The Russian embassy has demanded that it get access to Durov, but the Kremlin has so far not issued a statement on the arrest. “Before saying anything, we should wait for the situation to become clearer,” said Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov. However, officials and law enforcement agencies were instructed to clear all their communication from Telegram, the pro-Kremlin channel Baza reported. “Everyone who is used to using the platform for sensitive conversations/conversations should delete those conversations right now and not do it again,” Kremlin propagandist Margarita Simonyan said in a Telegram post. “Durov has been shut down to get the keys. And he’s going to give them.”

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