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West Sanctions Russian Aviation, But Moscow Decides to Keep Planes Flying Despite Risks When the U.S. and its allies slapped sanctions on Russia for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, severing aviation links was at the top of the list. Direct flights vanished and Russian airlines lost access to spare parts for their foreign airplanes. In retaliation, Vladimir Putin’s regime impounded foreign aircraft and shut off the world’s largest air space to countries imposing sanctions. Not since the early 1980s—when the U.S. suspended routes to the USSR over the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, repression in Poland and downing of a Korean Air Lines plane—have aviation ties between the two countries dipped so low. Aviation sanctions today are having an impact but come with a major risk. If the fatal crash of a jetliner killing hundreds is linked to the lack of spare parts, Putin will blame sanctions and the West. The stakes are high as Russia seeks to use any issue from cluster bombs to soccer to widen cracks in Western unity over Ukraine. To get ahead of this, U.S. policymakers and their allies need to better explain the effects of sanctions, why they’re worth the risk and why the Russian state, not the West, is ultimately responsible for any fatal crash. U.S. government assessments place Russian aviation among sectors negatively impacted by sanctions. A closer look shows widening success in degrading this increasingly weak link in Russia’s political economy. By late 2021, foreign aircraft comprised 70% of Russia’s fleet of 801 passenger airplanes, which included 298 Airbuses, 236 Boeings, and 23 other foreign aircraft such as Embraers. In addition, 95% of Russian airline flights were on foreign-made aircraft. Consequently, sanctions aimed at depriving spare parts for foreign airplanes have caused many disruptions such as fare increases to cover higher costs of repairs. Some of Russia’s 53 airlines have periodically suspended or stopped flying some of their foreign planes. Reports of Russian airlines’ cannibalization of foreign aircraft similarly underscore a dire situation. Less well known is how sanctions hurt Russian manufacturing since Western technology is critical to aircraft such as the Sukhoi Superjet 100, which uses a French-Russian engine (though Russians are working on a substitution). Production of the Yakovlev design bureau’s MC-21 passenger airplane faces significant delays due to sanctions that force substitution of its Western-made parts. Sanctions even helped push Russia out of a joint venture with China to produce the CR929 widebody aircraft. While China is happy to help Russia thwart sanctions, this plane needs Western systems that sanctions complicate. In response, Russia has adapted to and thwarted some aviation sanctions, which I predicted would happen because Putin’s regime is reproducing a state-centered aviation sector rooted in the Soviet past. The war has accelerated the state’s growing control over this vital economic sector, which began before Russia’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine. Examples include the state’s 51% ownership of Aeroflot since 1994, the merger of two smaller, state-run airlines in 2003 and the consolidation of aircraft manufacturing in the state-owned United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), which was created in 2006. More recently, the Russian state has helped the country’s airlines weather sanctions by facilitating the illegal confiscation of foreign aircraft. Russian airlines have also proven resourceful by purchasing spare parts through brokers in the United Arab Emirates and Turkey. Better known for supplying Russia with drones, Iran also agreed to provide Russian airlines with spare parts and has been fixing an Aeroflot Airbus for months. Many foreign airlines continue to fly to Russia, and Putin’s regime rewards friendly countries with overflight rights. But the longer sanctions remain, the harder it’s getting for Russia. To regain profitable foreign routes, its airlines are receiving government assistance to legitimately purchase the Western aircraft they illegally seized, although recent holdups in allocating such funds are causing doubts. In a throwback to the Soviet era, Putin’s regime boasts that Russia doesn’t need the West’s airplanes anyway since its one manufacturer, the UAC, will pick up the slack. Such import substitution is unlikely to succeed, as multiple delays suggest. More likely, Russia’s aviation sector will grow more reliant on the state, if not actually part of it like the UAC. This will make Russian aviation less efficient, less innovative and more expensive. Iranian airlines, which have long suffered under foreign sanctions despite some success circumventing them, present their Russian counterparts with a grim vision of the future such as being shut out of lucrative air travel markets and falling behind in emerging aviation technology. How does this shape safety in Russia’s skies? The short answer is that it’s not as bad as headlines suggest and the impact of sanctions is ambiguous at best. Click bait stories paint a dire picture but often conflate commercial, military and general aviation into alarming numbers that do not accurately capture what ordinary passengers face. Some accounts, such as one claiming 120 accidents occurred in 2023, provide few details or sources. Annual safety reports from Russia’s Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC) allow for comparison over time but often obscure Russia’s situation by combining data from each post-Soviet state it monitors. Its 2019 report is mysteriously missing and its decision not to investigate the fatal crash of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Embraer Legacy 600 plane suggests meddling from above. That said, the IAC source base is the most systematic we have. Keeping in mind the potential for the politicization of its conclusions, what does a critical reading of its data alongside other sources suggest? First, fatal crashes in commercial and general aviation actually decreased in Russia from 18 in 2021 to 13 in 2022, and related deaths decreased from 70 to 24. Data for the first half of 2023 points in the same direction, with six fatal crashes and nine deaths. This trend was likely helped by the 14% decline in traffic after February 2022. While so many fatal crashes sound substantial, all but three in 2021 and all but one in 2022 involved small aircraft under 5,700 kilograms, not the jetliners we associate with most commercial flying. Absolute figures on crashes and deaths capture headlines but they don’t say much about safety without considering their relation to passengers flown or departures. According to the IAC, the rate of aviation accidents and the rate of fatal crashes per one million departures both increased from 2020 to 2021 but then decreased in 2022. The IAC does not single out Russia from other post-Soviet states for this metric. But since Russia has the largest aviation sector among those countries, these data suggest that its aviation safety has not dramatically worsened since early 2022. Indeed, even critics who argue that Russian airlines are less safe partly because of sanctions conclude that “2022 and 2023 were also good years for airline safety [in Russia] compared to 2021.” Comparisons with the U.S. similarly suggest that passenger aviation is not as disastrous as some headlines suggest. The IAC data indicates that Russia and other post-Soviet states are usually but not always behind the U.S. in passenger aviation safety. In 2018, for example, IAC countries reported a 0.8 rate of fatal crashes per 1 million departures of passenger aircraft above 5,700 kilograms. Comparable statistics from the National Transportation Safety Board showed a 0.11 rate for that year for scheduled U.S. carrier flights. In 2019, the rates were 2.3 (IAC) and 0.10 (U.S.), but in 2020, both IAC countries and the U.S. enjoyed a 0.0 rate of fatal crashes. The following year, however, IAC countries reported a 1.9 rate of fatal crashes, whereas the NTSB reported a 0.0 rate.1 Against this background of Russian airline safety, let’s now turn to the impact of sanctions. While some commentators emphasize that no fatal crashes have been tied to sanctions, others claim they make Russian airlines unsafe and that it’s only a matter of time before such a fatal crash happens. Some even argue that life-threatening dangers prove aviation sanctions are effective and could help turn Russians against Putin. To reassure the public, Russian aviation officials insist the country’s airlines are safe despite sanctions, as do Russian business media and aviation journalists. This plays to Putin’s claims to legitimacy based in part on withstanding anything the West throws at him. In sharp contrast, Ukrainian media tells Russians their airlines are a disaster waiting to happen precisely because of sanctions. Independent Russian journalists banished by Putin concur, raising alarms about efforts to cover up the impact of sanctions and about the many ways Russian airlines cut corners on safety. In short, an information war exists around the morbid question of whether a Russian jetliner will crash and the role sanctions could play. Fears of a fatal crash were validated by the emergency landing of a Ural Airlines A320 in September, apparently caused by malfunctioning hydraulics tied to sanctions. But a closer examination by a Russian aviation journalist suggests the pilots played a more important role by pressing on to an airport for which there wasn’t enough fuel. Recent Russian state assessments of aviation safety similarly point to pilot error and poor training as the chief causes of aviation incidents. More generally, airplane disasters are usually caused by a convergence of factors—bad weather, a manageable mechanical failure and pilot error—not just one problem. In public discussions, however, pinpointing sanctions’ role tracks more with the politics of the war than technical expertise. At the end of the day, Russian airlines and aviation authorities are solely responsible for putting planes in the sky and Russians’ lives at risk. They continue to claim that everything is fine. But if a fatal crash of a Boeing or Airbus flown by a Russian airline kills hundreds, I predict this narrative will quickly change. Putin will blame the West as he does for everything else affecting his legitimacy, from Russia’s economic problems and his diplomatic failures to protests against his regime and even the war he started in Ukraine. Such a scenario will be a serious test for policymakers who argue that punishing Russia with sanctions is still worth it. To prepare for this, they need to take a page from the Biden administration’s release of intelligence on Russia’s military buildup before the full-scale invasion: publicize as much intelligence as possible on sanctions and their impact, as well as Russia’s aviation sector and what it does or doesn’t do to ensure safety. As Putin’s regime falls back on Soviet-era secrecy about airline safety, sharing such intelligence will be a powerful tool. This will also contribute to broader Western efforts at combatting Russia’s better known disinformation campaigns such as those denying its human rights abuses in Ukraine.
Florida Tech, Kennedy Space Center to Study Waste Treatment in Space
Associate professor of chemical engineering Toufiq Reza has spent years researching sustainable waste conversion techniques on Earth. When Florida Tech offered him a sabbatical, he took the chance to learn what that conversion process looks like in outer space while further strengthening the university’s already deep ties to NASA. In Fall 2023, Reza became the first professor to leverage school funding to spend a semester at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. He worked with Annie Meier, who leads a team developing ways to convert astronaut-generated trash into fuel during missions, known as in-situ resource utilization (ISRU). “I wanted to do something different that I haven’t done. I have been doing research in my field; I know who the players are,” Reza said.” I could have easily gone to a research lab at another university and continued my research. But I wanted to learn something new.” His sabbatical prompted a new partnership between NASA Kennedy and Florida Tech. This summer, they signed an annex to their existing Space Act Agreement which will allow Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and the university to conduct joint research regarding logistical waste treatment and ISRU. “At NASA, we want researchers who are doing something that could help us, that could be synergistic, and to not reinvent the wheel,” said Jose Nuñez, university partnerships and small sat capabilities manager at NASA Kennedy. “The goal is to find professors who can benefit the agency in an area that needs more research.” As part of the agreement, KSC will share raw materials, waste simulant samples and information such as gas composition data with Florida Tech. In return, the university will analyze and share findings, such as what useful products can be taken from trash-to-gas waste for use as plant nutrients, and evaluate value-added applications. “I will encourage students to work on some of their technologies, test them in our lab and vice versa. This is a massive thing,” Reza said. “We can learn from each other to help each other.” Already, Reza’s students have visited Meier’s lab, and Meier and her KSC team came to Florida Tech to present her research and visit the university’s research facilities. Meier’s goals are similar to Reza’s: Both researchers want to find sustainable ways to convert trash and waste into energy, materials and chemicals. However, the methods aren’t completely transferrable between the two different environments of Earth and space. On Earth, Reza explained, waste can be burned or stored in a landfill. Neither of those options are viable in space. “You cannot dig up the moon soil and start burying. There is no oxygen or air to actually burn it…there is no water,” Reza explained. Currently, astronaut waste, such as food packaging, clothing, hygiene items and uneaten food, is launched back towards Earth and incinerates on the way there. However, Meier is working to advance waste mitigation technology, which Reza got to see up close. One of her projects, the Orbital Syngas/Commodity Augmentation Reactor (OSCAR), mixes oxygen, heat and trash in a reactor, which burns the trash and collects the gas it creates. Over the course of the semester, Reza assisted in KSC’s Applied Chemistry Lab, where Meier’s research took place. He offered both expertise and extra hands, from helping measure samples to reading through literature. He also took note of innovative technology for potential new research ideas, such as potentially developing a way of protecting metal coatings in space using the tools he learned. Meier’s waste conversion technology is built for a space environment, but Reza said it is unlikely that her complete systems could be used for waste conversion on Earth. Just as water and oxygen are limited resources in space but are plentiful on Earth, vacuums are plentiful resources in space but are expensive to create back home. However, that doesn’t stop the researchers from seeking inspiration through the new partnership. “We can learn from them and then take a part of their technology and integrate it with ours to make our technology more sustainable and vice versa,” Reza said. “They can improve their technology by utilizing part of our technology as well. As Meier said, “I wanted to learn on the terrestrial side how we can infuse some of our technology, and he wanted to learn from us to grow into the space sector, so it was a really cool match.”
Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams '95 M.S. took the trip of a lifetime in June, traveling to the International Space Station (ISS) on Boeing's Starliner spacecraft. Not long after their arrival to the ISS, however, the spacecraft began having mechanical issues. Since then, the pair have been left stranded in space with no return flight booked to come home. As the scientific world, public and international media watch, experts like Don Platt from Florida Tech are supporting ongoing media coverage until the two astronauts return to Earth. To return Starliner to Earth, the thrusters need to fire correctly at the right time to get the crew safely out of orbit. "Clearly, you need to have thrusters to be able to position your spacecraft, to move away from the space station, to get into the position to safely reenter the Earth's atmosphere," said Don Platt, associate professor of space systems at Florida Tech. "They claim just doing a rocket burn, they can probably make it home, but they don't know where'd they land," said Platt. The problem lies with the propulsion system inside the service module. "It sounds as if they've experienced a different amount of heating than expected with some of these thrusters, and had some affected things like valves that control the flow of propellant to the thrusters. So sometimes those valves will leak or not open all the way based on the amount of heat they are experiencing," said Platt. Platt explained that the valves for these thrusters are comparable to fuel injectors in a car. They simply open and close to feed the propellant into the combustion chamber − the end result being thrust (power). Part of the challenge for Boeing teams is that they can't exactly replicate what the spacecraft is experiencing in space. Platt said that heat is not just created from the thruster itself, but from the Sun. August 11 - Florida Today Don Platt, the director of Florida Tech’s Spaceport Education Center in Titusville and an associate professor of space systems, explained that Boeing is currently trying to figure out what went wrong with Starliner and to see if there is still a chance to use the thrusters. "There's probably very little they can do to fix them at this point," Platt said. "What they can do is they can look at what thrusters are working properly, and how can we then use those thrusters to efficiently get the vehicle back into the atmosphere and then to the surface of the Earth." While Starliner has been having extensive issues and now Boeing has some tough decisions to make about what's next, Platt said we need to remember that this was a test mission. "I think that we've had a lot of success in space over the last decade or so, and we've probably gotten used to things going perfectly," Platt said. "Although space is not that easy, and we can see problems, problems do pop up from time to time. Even back in the days of the shuttle program, there used to be issues with the orbiter, even on orbit, and they'd have to think about, 'can we keep flying this mission, or do we need to return to the Earth?'" August 13 - Central Florida Public Media For now, all we can do is watch and wait. But if you're a journalist following this ongoing story, then let us help with your coverage. Dr. Don Platt's work has involved developing, testing and flying different types of avionics, communications, rocket propulsion systems as well as astrobiology/biotechnology systems and human deep space exploration tools. Don is available to speak with media anytime. Simply click on the icon below to arrange an interview today.
Olympics 2024: Expert details the danger of headings in soccer
One of the most popular Olympic sports is soccer, and one of its most exciting plays – headers – is more commonly deployed by international teams. Given the risk of concussions during that play, experts like the University of Delaware's Thomas Kaminski will be watching the event closely during the 2024 Summer Games. Kaminski, professor of kinesiology and applied physiology in UD's College of Health Sciences, is a leading expert on concussions in soccer and serves as the sole U.S. representative on the FIFA Heading Expert Group. “FIFA is concerned about the disparity in concussions between men and women,” Kaminski said. “Women are at a higher risk of concussion due to a variety of reasons, including neck strength and overall body strength.” Concussions often occur during aerial challenges. “When players compete for the ball at the same time, they need to use their body to protect their head space, taking the strain off the head,” Kaminski said. Expect the ball to be in the air quite a bit in Olympic competition. “Many international teams tend to play the ball in the air more, but the USA will be ready for that. They know what to do,” Kaminski said. What to keep an eye out for: “Anytime a ball is scored from a header, it’s a picture of beauty in the game,” Kaminski said.
Veronica Chandler’s north Wilmington home is her sanctuary, and it shows. From the soft instrumental music to the scent of lavender to the comfy seats that invite visitors to put up their feet, the message is clear – rest, relax, recharge. Original artwork by Veronica Chandler In this space, Chandler celebrates her rediscovered self, and it’s a journey she shares with all who visit. Part of the cozy feeling in her home comes from the artwork that lines the walls – mostly her own paintings and drawings created over the last six years as she navigates the challenges and triumphs of motherhood and discovers new ways to care for herself and those she loves. After experiencing anxiety, panic attacks and profound depression following the birth of her daughter in 2018, Chandler sought help at the ChristianaCare Center for Women’s Emotional Wellness, where a combination of medication and therapy helped her feel healthier and reconnected. She also returned to a former passion – art. “When I started painting, I found a way of silencing my brain, of calming it down. Being able to just focus on one thing on its own let my body regulate my nervous system,” she said. “I didn’t know what was happening to me. I just felt amazing.” More than ‘baby blues’ Perinatal mood and anxiety disorders are among the most common complications that occur in pregnancy or in the first year after delivery, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Although many parents experience feelings of anxiety, fatigue and sadness in the first days with a new baby, postpartum depression can occur several months after childbirth. Symptoms are often more severe and can include extreme stress. Despite increased awareness efforts in recent years, perinatal mood and anxiety disorders – including postpartum depression, which occurs in up to 20% of all births – remain underdiagnosed, untreated or undertreated, even though the health impact extends beyond the person giving birth, said Malina Spirito, Psy.D., MEd, director of the Center for Women’s Emotional Wellness. The center opened in 2013 to help patients and their loved ones understand the challenges associated with perinatal mood and anxiety disorders. Since then, the program has tripled the number of clinicians and expanded services to include inpatient and outpatient consultations, ongoing psychotherapy and psychiatric medication management. “Just because we know something is common does not mean we have to put up with it, especially because the effects will be lasting if we don’t address them,” Spirito said. “Perinatal mood disorders have an impact on the overall health of a family. When a mom feels better, the relationships they have with the people around them are better as well.” Breaking the ‘super mom’ stereotype Looking back, Chandler recognizes her struggles with sleeping and anxiety following the birth of her first child may have been signs of postpartum depression. The symptoms went away only to return after her daughter was born two years later. Veronica Chandler sought help from the ChristianaCare Center for Women’s Emotional Wellness for postpartum depression. Caring for herself helped her rediscover her love of creating art. Although overjoyed by her growing family, Chandler deeply missed her mother, who lived in her native Ecuador. Added to those challenges were longer stays in the hospital for Chandler, who had a Caesarean section birth, and for her daughter, who had some minor health issues. In the weeks after giving birth, Chandler battled dizziness caused by anemia. Though exhausted by caring for a newborn, she couldn’t sleep. She constantly felt on edge, and her skin itched without relief. Worried when her symptoms didn’t abate after three months, Chandler’s husband broached the idea of postpartum depression. For Chandler, it was a relief another person noticed something was wrong, but she was scared to think about what might be needed to get better. “I think we’re programmed by our cultures and by our beliefs to think that we need to be ‘super moms’ and give everything we have,” said Chandler, who grew up in Ecuador and moved to the United States after marrying her husband. “I was in such a fog that I didn’t know I could still shine and be happy and content. The default for so many moms is to pour until there’s nothing left.” ‘Rediscovering who I was’ Chandler sought help at the Center for Women’s Emotional Wellness and soon began taking an anti-depressant as part of her treatment. She also saw a therapist to talk about the feelings she was experiencing. “Therapy was such a big part of this whole journey of rediscovering who I was. When you talk and someone listens, you figure things out,” Chandler said. While on a trip to Arizona with a cousin, Chandler discovered kachina dolls, a Native American art form often used to provide guidance to young people and instill the connection between nature and the spirit. The intricately designed images further fueled Chandler’s reignited passion for art. That passion helped Chandler manage the additional challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic when her anxiety and depression resurfaced. Using painting, sculpture and other media, she has examined her own feelings relating to motherhood, family and society. Her work has been featured internationally in Vogue and closer to home in local art galleries. “Some people like to cook, and some people like to write. Art is my creative outlet that allowed me to come back to who I am,” she said. “We all have to release that creativity in some way.” Entering care sooner While the Center for Women’s Emotional Wellness has always focused on pregnant and postpartum patients, it has grown to address mental health needs related to preconception health, including artificial reproductive technology such as in vitro fertilization, Spirito said. The center also sees patients grieving a pregnancy or neonatal loss. More people are thinking about their mental health before they give birth, said Malina Spirito, Psy.D., MEd, director of the ChristianaCare Center for Women’s Emotional Wellness. “One of the most notable observations I’ve seen over the years is that birthing people are entering care sooner. It isn’t uncommon for women to seek out consultation prior to getting pregnant about how to manage their mood disorder should they become pregnant,” said Megan O’Hara, LCSW, a behavioral health therapist with the Center for Women’s Emotional Wellness. “Patients are educating themselves now and expecting their providers to consider their mental health as well as their physical health when getting care.” Women’s mental health care also has become more accessible, said Cynthia Guy, LMSW, MSCC, a women’s health behavioral consultant with the Center for Women’s Emotional Wellness. Behavioral health services are available in every ChristianaCare women’s health practice, including virtual and in-person care. “I can be the bridge connecting the patient with the resources they need to help them manage symptoms and what they are going through,” Guy said. Filling the cup As a result of her own experiences, Chandler teaches classes to help other mothers create their own art as a means of expression. It’s a small way of helping them to fill their own cup. The woman who once hid in her own closet to hide her feelings speaks openly about mental health with the hope people will lose their preconceived ideas about depression and anxiety. “I am so thankful for the journey and the many people I’ve met that have postpartum depression,” she said. “When we talk about what makes the best moms, I think the best mom is a healthy mom who is in balance and harmony.”
Sport and Study: Villanova University Faculty Offer Academic Lens to Paris Olympics Storylines
All eyes are on Paris: more than 10,000 athletes from 206 nations are set to compete in the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad, the third Olympics in the City of Love and the first since 1924. Below, Villanova University faculty members provide their academic expertise on the unique storylines and narratives already taking place as Paris 2024 gets underway. Portraying a National Image in the Opening Ceremony Étienne Achille, PhD Director of French and Francophone Studies After months of speculation, the daily Le Parisien has officially confirmed that renowned French-Malian singer Aya Nakamura will lend her vocals to an opening ceremony featuring an iconic backdrop steeped in history. “Nakamura is the most-streamed Francophone singer in the world, embodying France’s culture on a global stage, and she’ll be paying homage to one of the most cherished representatives of the chanson française,” said Dr. Achille, referring to reports she will sing one of beloved French crooner Charles Aznavour’s greatest hits. According to Dr. Achille, the pop star’s presence is significant and symbolic. “A performer, or even a flagbearer, can easily become the face of a global event like the Olympics,” he said. The details of the setting for the ceremony – in the heart of Paris, along the Seine – are just as intentionally symbolic. “Not only will this be the first opening ceremony to take place entirely outside of a stadium; its location along the river and the fact the delegations will be on boats are key. “It represents movement and connection to the world,” Dr. Achille said. “And Nakamura’s performance projects the image of a modern, multi-ethnic nation building on tradition while proudly marching into the future.” Swimming in the Seine: Safe or Not? Metin Duran, PhD Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering It is, perhaps, the most-asked question of the last few weeks. Is the Seine River, set to host multiple swimming events, safe? The river has been illegal to swim in for a century due to the presence of harmful bacteria such as E. Coli, and recent testing has reaffirmed this concern. The Seine, which had undergone an expensive cleaning to mitigate this issue, received the endorsement of Paris Mayor Ann Hidalgo, who personally took a dip in the water herself to attest to its safety. The stunt did little to convince experts such as Dr. Duran, who studies wastewater, to abandon concern about the potential health risks of athletes being exposed to pathogens in the water. “When we have fecal pollution, there is a high likelihood of pathogens being present,” Dr. Duran said. “Those could be viral, like a norovirus, or protozoan. “If you’re swimming in that water, you run the risk of ingesting it. Once you ingest that polluted water, you’re likely to contract some of those disease-causing pathogens. Ingesting this water doesn’t mean you’re necessarily going to get sick, but based on the number of people in a big city like Paris, there is a very high likelihood of some of these pathogens existing now in the river.” Accommodations for Breastfeeding Athletes Sunny Hallowell, PhD, APRN, PPCNP-BC Associate Professor of Nursing The IOC and Paris 2024 Organizing Committee is providing support to all breastfeeding athletes competing in the Games. A few national governing bodies, like the French Olympic Committee, are going a step further and offering hotel rooms near the Village for their country’s breastfeeding athletes to share with their children and spouses. “A few decades ago, the idea of a female athlete who also wanted to breastfeed their child was so taboo it may have prevented an athlete from competing,” said Dr. Hallowell. “Now, many female athletes who choose to breastfeed their newborns or toddlers conceptualize breastfeeding as another normal function of their remarkably athletic bodies.” Accommodation for breastfeeding athletes and increased awareness are needed more than ever. Dr. Hallowell notes that in addition to changing views on breastfeeding, the needs for such accommodations are increasing as the age of peak athletic performance also increases. “Advances in sports nutrition, wellness and lifestyle have extended the longevity and performance of many athletes into adulthood,” she said. And while some athletes with rigorous training regimens might feel “frustrated incorporating breastfeeding into the routine,” Dr. Hallowell says that for others, “breastfeeding provides both physical and socio-emotional benefits for the mother and the infant that allow the athlete to focus on the job of competition.” Protecting Against the Parisian Heat Ruth McDermott-Levy, PhD, MPH, RN, FAAN Professor of Nursing The potential for extreme heat in Paris has been a topic of concern for athletes and organizers, prompting certain outdoor events to be proactively scheduled at times to avoid the day’s worst heat. Current forecasts predict temperatures in the 90s for several days early on in the Games, which could be exacerbated by Paris’ reputation as an urban heat island, unable to cool due to lack of green space and building density. Dr. McDermott-Levy says the athletes are inherently vulnerable, because “the added stress of physical exertion during their events puts them at greater risk of heat-related illness.” But she also notes that many of the athletes have likely undergone pre-competition training in extreme heat conditions to acclimate and will have trainers and health professionals monitoring them frequently. “The group of concern are the workers at the stadiums, outdoor workers and spectators who are there to enjoy or work at the events and may have had little to no acclimation,” Dr. McDermott-Levy said. “They need to follow local instructions and take frequent breaks from the heat, seek shade and maintain hydration by avoiding alcohol and sugary drinks and drinking water.” How Nature Can Inspire Future Use of Olympic Infrastructure Alyssa Stark, PhD Assistant Professor of Biology Gone, hopefully, are the days of abandoned Olympic Villages and venues, overrun with weeds and rendered useless soon after the Games conclude. The IOC’s commitment to sustainability has been transparently relayed ahead of the 2024 Games, featuring a robust range of initiatives and programs. Dr. Stark is particularly interested in one aspect of ensuring a sustainable Olympics. “How will the structures, materials and systems they developed for the Olympics be re-used, re-shaped or re-worked afterward?” she posed. “This could include re-using buildings to larger scale or re-working transportation systems set in place for the Games that could then integrate into day-to-day life post Olympics.” At the root of her interest is the concept of biomimicry. “A lot of the way we think about designing, if we’re using this biomimicry lens, is how do we learn from nature to solve problems that we have in a sustainable way, keeping in mind the environment we are in?” Dr. Stark said. In this case, consider how something like a dwelling of a living creature might be repurposed to fit the needs of another creature, or serve another natural purpose, without harming the ecosystem. Could that inspire a way to re-use the Olympic infrastructure? “There are a ton of examples of [biomimicry] being used and working in products,” Dr. Stark said. “But I would say the next step is looking at the social levels of these big ecosystems – building architecture, city planning, flow of information and, in this instance, repurposing what was created for the Olympics.” Paris Could Be a Transportation Model for Major City Events in the United States Arash Tavakoli, PhD Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering Paris has invested 250 million Euro the last several years to transform the city to a 100% cycling city, making it one of the most bike-friendly municipalities in the world. Currently, more trips are being made by bicycles in Paris than by cars (11% vs. 4%), a trend that has permeated to the surrounding suburbs as well. With an influx of travelers in Paris for the Games, Dr. Tavakoli, an expert in human transportation, said, “The Olympics will be a test for how well these kinds of systems respond to high fluctuations in the population as compared to vehicle-centric systems.” While Paris is thousands of miles away from the United States, how bicycle, pedestrian and vehicle systems work during the Games could provide helpful insight ahead of major events in American cities. “With the World Cup coming to the U.S. in a few years, it will be interesting to compare [Paris] with how our own system responds to people’s needs,” Dr. Tavakoli said. “Not just based on traffic data and congestion, but also considering factors like how comfortable the transportation system is, how much it affects our well-being and how much it attracts a nonresident to enjoy the U.S. when their only option, for the most part, is a vehicle.”
It Has to Matter Who Wins: Futurecasting the MLB All-Star Game
Globe Life Field in Arlington, home of the 2023 World Series champion Texas Rangers, will play host to the 94th edition of the Major League Baseball All-Star Game on July 16, marking the second time in franchise history the Rangers will host the Midsummer Classic. MLB’s All-Star game – which matches up the best players from the American League and National League as selected by fans, managers and players – is considered one of best all-star contests among professional sports, said Kirk Wakefield, Ph.D., executive director of the Curb Center for Sales Strategy in Sports and Entertainment (S3E) program at Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business. However, the game faces continued headwinds, Wakefield said, ranging from lagging viewership to fan voting to a game that is more an exhibition than a meaningful game. Wakefield Weighs In: Five Thoughts on MLB's All-Star Game Is the MLB All-Star game the best All-Star contest of all major leagues? Wakefield: Yes, it’s the only one where players seem to try their best. The NBA and NFL – who have practically given up – have declining viewership since 2011. Unfortunately, MLB All-Star game is on the same downhill skid. (According to Statista, viewership has declined from 22 million in 1993 to seven million in 2023.) The reason why is it doesn’t really matter who wins. If the players don’t care who wins, neither will fans. Further, fans aren’t particularly a fan of only one league so that it really matters if one league has bragging rights. That was less the case years ago before interleague play. How could viewership improve in any of the All-Star games? Wakefield: It has to matter who wins. MLB tried this with home field advantage for the World Series. They gave that up. The current approach in baseball is truly an exhibition because every player gets to play, so it’s like three players at every position playing three innings. That’s not how a manager would play it if trying to win. And it’s not like it used to be when the starters (who were more likely to be the best at their positions) played longer. One suggestion I’ve heard is to make the payoff big enough for the winners so that the players gave it their best. Get a sponsor to put up the money so the winners each make seven figures and could be the players and managers will play more like a team trying to win. Does Monday’s prelude, the hugely popular Homerun Derby, enhance Tuesday’s game? Wakefield: The Homerun Derby is popular because fans do follow individual players. It matters more who wins. That said, the HR derby’s viewership has still lagged. Bottom line: Fans are loyal to teams more than to leagues or individual players. Fan voting… Need we say more? Wakefield: Major market teams with huge fan bases will dominate, but what about the Kansas City Royals, who at one point in the season were on pace for the biggest year-over-year improvement in wins and losses? Given the way fan voting has become essentially a promotion game to get more fans to vote more often, it’s hardly representative of anything other than largest markets with the best promoters. The good news is that the MLB All-Star game will be quite the occasion in Arlington, Texas, with a bevy of game-related activities and events July 13-16. Wakefield: Arlington is an optimal location central to the U.S. with plenty of space to blow out the occasion. It’s like the Texas State Fair came to baseball, where all the rides and attractions are baseball-happy. ABOUT KIRK WAKEFIELD, PH.D. Kirk Wakefield, Ph.D., is The Edwin W. Streetman Professor of Retail Marketing at Baylor University, where he is the Executive Director of the Curb Center for Sales Strategy in Sports and Entertainment (S3E) program in the Hankamer School of Business at Baylor University. The author of Team Sports Marketing and founder of Wakefield Research Partners, Wakefield has conducted fan research on partnerships, pricing, promotions, sportscape, service, and anything else that explains why fans do what they do in nearly every venue in sports, including the NBA, NFL, MLB, MLS, NHL and NASCAR. His scholarly works appear in a breadth of journals: Journal of Marketing, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Service Research, Journal of Retailing, Journal of Advertising, Journal of Advertising Research and Journal of Sport Management, among others. Wakefield is a regular contributor to Sports Money on Forbes.com. ABOUT THE CURB CENTER FOR SALES STRATEGY IN SPORTS AND ENTERTAINMENT (S3E) The Center for Sales Strategy in Sports and Entertainment (S3E) at Baylor University is the only program in the U.S. focused on generating revenue for sports. S3E graduates have career opportunities in sales, digital marketing or business analytics for major league teams, university athletics, corporations and agencies. Baylor is the only university combining learning with practice in partnership with the Athletics Department to prepare graduates for careers in the business of sports. The S3E program is unique in vision, values, mission and culture to transform the business of sports and entertainment. Consistent with the Christian mission and purpose of Baylor University, we prepare passionate servant leaders to positively influence lives in places people go to play or watch others play.
Key topics at RNC 2024: Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Cybersecurity
As the Republican National Convention 2024 begins, journalists from across the nation and the world will converge on Milwaukee, not only to cover the political spectacle but also to cover how the next potential administration will tackled issues that weren't likely on the radar or at least front and center last election: Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Cybersecurity With technology and the threats that come with it moving at near exponential speeds - the next four years will see challenges that no president or administration has seen before. Plans and polices will be required that impact not just America - but one a global scale. To help visiting journalists navigate and understand these issues and how and where the Republican policies are taking on these topics our MSOE experts are available to offer insights. Dr. Jeremy Kedziora, Dr. Derek Riley and Dr. Walter Schilling are leading voices nationally on these important subjects and are ready to assist with any stories during the convention. . . . Dr. Jeremy Kedziora Associate Professor, PieperPower Endowed Chair in Artificial Intelligence Expertise: AI, machine learning, ChatGPT, ethics of AI, global technology revolution, using these tools to solve business problems or advance business objectives, political science. View Profile “Artificial intelligence and machine learning are part of everyday life at home and work. Businesses and industries—from manufacturing to health care and everything in between—are using them to solve problems, improve efficiencies and invent new products,” said Dr. John Walz, MSOE president. “We are excited to welcome Dr. Jeremy Kedziora as MSOE’s first PieperPower Endowed Chair in Artificial Intelligence. With MSOE as an educational leader in this space, it is imperative that our students are prepared to develop and advance AI and machine learning technologies while at the same time implementing them in a responsible and ethical manner.” MSOE names Dr. Jeremy Kedziora as Endowed Chair in Artificial Intelligence MSOE online March 22, 2023 . . . Dr. Derek Riley Professor, B.S. in Computer Science Program Director Expertise: AI, machine learning, facial recognition, deep learning, high performance computing, mobile computing, artificial intelligence View Profile “At this point, it's fairly hard to avoid being impacted by AI," said Derek Riley, the computer science program director at Milwaukee School of Engineering. “Generative AI can really make major changes to what we perceive in the media, what we hear, what we read.” Fake explicit pictures of Taylor Swift cause concern over lack of AI regulation CBS News January 26, 2024 . . . Dr. Walter Schilling Professor Expertise: Cybersecurity and the latest technological advancements in automobiles and home automation systems; how individuals can protect their business operations and personal networks. View Profile Milwaukee School of Engineering cybersecurity professor Walter Schilling said it's a great opportunity for his students. "Just to see what the real world is like that they're going to be entering into," said Schilling. Schilling said cybersecurity is something all local organizations, from small business to government, need to pay attention to. "It's something that Milwaukee has to be concerned about as well because of the large companies that we have headquartered here, as well as the companies we're trying to attract in the future," said Schilling. Could the future of cybersecurity be in Milwaukee?: SysLogic holds 3rd annual summit at MSOE CBS News April 26, 2022 . . . For further information and to arrange interviews with our experts, please contact: Media Relations Contact To schedule an interview or for more information, please contact: JoEllen Burdue Senior Director of Communications and Media Relations Phone: (414) 839-0906 Email: burdue@msoe.edu . . . About Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) Milwaukee School of Engineering is the university of choice for those seeking an inclusive community of experiential learners driven to solve the complex challenges of today and tomorrow. The independent, non-profit university has about 2,800 students and was founded in 1903. MSOE offers bachelor's and master's degrees in engineering, business and nursing. Faculty are student-focused experts who bring real-world experience into the classroom. This approach to learning makes students ready now as well as prepared for the future. Longstanding partnerships with business and industry leaders enable students to learn alongside professional mentors, and challenge them to go beyond what's possible. MSOE graduates are leaders of character, responsible professionals, passionate learners and value creators.
Expert Q&A: Should We Permit AI to Determine Gender and Race from Resumes?
The banner ads on your browser, the route Google maps suggests for you, the song Spotify plays next: algorithms are inescapable in our daily lives. Some of us are already aware of the mechanisms behind a targeted ad or a dating profile that lights up our phone screen. However, few of us may actually stop to consider how this technology plays out in the hiring sector. As with any major technological advancement, it usually takes society (and legislation) a while to catch up and adjust for unintended consequences. Ultimately, algorithms are powerful tools. Like any tool, they have the potential for societal benefit or harm, depending on how they’re wielded. Here to weigh in on the matter is Assistant Professor of Information Systems & Operations Management Prasanna Parasurama, who recently joined Emory Goizueta Business School’s faculty in fall of 2023. This interview has been edited for clarity. Describe your research interests in six words. Six words…that’s difficult to do on the spot. How about “the impact of AI and other digital technologies on hiring.” Is that condensed enough? That works! What first interested you in the intersection of AI and hiring practices? Before I did my PhD, I was working as a data scientist in the HR analytics space at a start-up company. That is where my interest in the topic began. But this was a long time ago. People hadn’t started talking much about AI, or algorithmic hiring. The conversation around algorithmic bias and algorithmic fairness picked up steam in the second or third year of my PhD. That had a strong influence on my dissertation focus. And naturally, one of the contexts in which both these matters have large repercussions is in the hiring space. What demographics does your research focus on (gender identity, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, all of the above)? Do you focus on a particular job sector? My research mostly looks at gender and race for two main reasons. First, prior research has typically looked at race and gender, which gives us a better foundation to build on. Second, it’s much easier to measure gender and race based on the data that we have available—from resumes, from hiring data, like what we collect from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. They typically collect data on gender and race, and our research requires those really large data sets to draw patterns. They don’t ask for socioeconomic status or have an easy way to quantify that information. That’s not to say those are less important factors, or that no one is looking at them. One of the papers you’re working on examines resumes written by self-identified men and women. It looks at how their resumes differ, and how that influenced their likelihood of being contacted for an interview. So in this paper, we’re essentially looking at how men and women write their resumes differently and if that impacts hiring outcomes. Take resume screening algorithms, for example. One proposed way to reduce bias in these screening algorithms is to remove names from resumes to blind the applicant’s gender to the algorithm. But just removing names does very little, because there are so many other things that serve as proxies to someone’s gender. While our research is focused on people applying to jobs in the tech sector, this is true across occupations. "We find it’s easy to train an algorithm to accurately predict gender, even with names redacted." Prasanna Parasurama What are some of those gendered “tells” on a resume? People write down hobbies and extracurricular activities, and some of those are very gendered. Dancing and ballet tend to denote female applicants; you’re more likely to see something like wrestling for male applicants. Beyond hobbies, which is sort of obvious, is just how people write things, or the language they use. Female applicants tend to use a lot more affective words. Men, on the other hand, use more of what we call agentic words. Can you explain that a little more? In social psychology, social role theory argues that men are stereotyped to be more agentic, whereas women are stereotyped to be more communal, and that their communication styles reflect this. There’s essentially a list of agentic words that researchers have come up with that men use a lot more than women. And women are more likely to use affective words, like “warmly” or “closely,” which have to do with emotions or attitudes. These communication differences between men and women have been demonstrated in social sciences before, which has helped inform our work. But we’re not just relying on social science tools—our conclusions are driven by our own data. If a word is able to predict that an applicant’s resume belongs to a female versus male applicant, then we assign different weights, depending on how accurately it can predict that. So we’re not just operating on theories. Were there any gendered patterns that surprised you? If you were to assign masculinity and femininity to particular words, an algorithm would likely assign “married” to be a feminine term in most contexts. But in this particular case, it’s actually more associated with men. Men are much more likely to use it in resumes, because it signals something different to society than when women use it. "One of the most predictive terms for men was references to parenthood. It’s much easier for men to reference kids than for women to reveal information about their household status. Women face a penalty where men receive a boost." Prasanna Parasurama Studies show that people perceive fathers as being more responsible employees, whereas mothers are regarded as less reliable in the workplace. We haven’t studied this, but I would speculate that if you go on a platform like LinkedIn, men are more likely to disclose details about fatherhood, marriage, and kids than women are. There were some other tidbits that I didn’t see coming, like the fact that women are much less likely to put their addresses on their resume. Can AI predict race from a resume as easily as it can predict gender? There’s surprisingly very little we know on that front. From existing literature outside of algorithmic literature, we know differences exist in terms of race, not just on the employer side, where there might be bias, but we also on the worker side. People of different races search for jobs differently. The question is, how do we take this into account in the algorithm? From a technical standpoint, it should be feasible to do the same thing we do with gender, but it just becomes a little bit harder to predict race in practice. The cues are so variable. Gender is also more universal – no matter where you live, there are probably men and women and people who identify as in between or other. Whereas the concept of race can be very specific in different geographic regions. Racial identities in America are very different from racial identities in India, for instance. And in a place like India, religion matters a lot more than it does in the United States. So this conversation around algorithms and bias will look different across the globe. Beyond screening resumes, how does AI impact people’s access to job opportunities? A lot of hiring platforms and labor market intermediaries such as LinkedIn use AI. Their task is to match workers to these different jobs. There’s so many jobs and so many workers. No one can manually go through each one. So they have to train algorithms based on existing behavior and existing design decisions on the platform to recommend applicants to particular jobs and vice versa. When we talk about algorithmic hiring, it’s not just hiring per se, but spaces like these which dictate what opportunities you’re exposed to. It has a huge impact on who ends up with what job. What impact do you want your research to have in the real world? Do you think that we actually should use algorithms to figure out gender or race? Is it even possible to blind AI to gender or race? Algorithms are here to stay, for better or worse. We need them. When we think about algorithmic hiring, I think people picture an actual robot deciding who to hire. That’s not the case. Algorithms are typically only taking the space of the initial part of hiring. "I think overall, algorithms make our lives better. They can recommend a job to you based on more sophisticated factors than when the job was chronologically posted. There’s also no reason to believe that a human will be less biased than an algorithm." Prasanna Parasurama I think the consensus is that we can’t blind the algorithm to gender or other factors. Instead, we do have to take people’s demographics into account and monitor outcomes to correct for any sort of demonstrable bias. LinkedIn, for example, does a fairly good job publishing research on how they train their algorithms. It’s better to address the problem head on, to take demographic factors into account upfront and make sure that there aren’t drastic differences in outcomes between different demographics. What advice would you give to hopeful job candidates navigating these systems? Years of research have shown that going through a connection or a referral is by far the best way to increase your odds of getting an interview—by a factor of literally 200 to 300 percent. Hiring is still a very personal thing. People typically trust people they know. Prasanna Parasurama is an Assistant Professor of Information Systems & Operations Management at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. Prasanna’s research areas include algorithmic hiring, algorithmic bias and fairness, and human-AI interaction. His research leverages a wide array of quantitative methods including econometrics, machine learning, and natural language processing. Prasanna is available to talk about this important and developing topic - simply click on his icon now to arrange an interview today.
On the T-Swift beat? Our expert can fill any of the blank spaces you might have in your coverage
She's everywhere - and this month Taylor Swift restarts her world tour meaning coverage of this American mega-star will be global. Recently TCU's Naomi Ekas was featured in USA Today and Time Magazine where her expert opinion and insight into Taylor Swift's impact on American psychology is helping to explain her place atop planetary pop-culture. Professor Naomi Ekas teaches a course about the connection between psychology and Swift's place in pop culture at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas. She believes there are universal themes listeners have experienced in Swift's lyrics but notes that the pop star's particular worldview may not translate to everyone. At the beginning of the spring semester, Ekas asked her students what labels they attached to Swift. Many of the responses reflected that were "these are white girl experiences, and this is white girl music and there isn't kind of that representation or that connection kind of outside of that particular racial group," she tells USA TODAY. "Everyone's dated the bad boy and they’ve had the friendship breakups and they’ve, you know, crashed and burned in relationships, revenge – these are pretty common themes across humankind, but then her particular life and how she's living them out might not connect to everybody," Ekas says. April 24 - USA Today Last year, when millions of people were trying to snag Eras Tour tickets, students at Texas Christian University were working just as hard to get into "Psychology (Taylor’s Version)," a new class offered by developmental psychologist Naomi Ekas. “We take different topics and themes from her music or her life and apply a developmental perspective to it,” she says. Classes have centered, for example, on infidelity, revenge, attraction, and breakups. During one recent class, Ekas played Marjorie, the devastating Evermore tune that pays tribute to Swift’s grandmother. (I should've asked you questions, I should've asked you how to be, she sings.) Many of the 120 students started crying and asked if they could have a few minutes to text their grandmother or their mom or their dad. “We were all like, ‘Do we continue with class today? Because we’re very sad,’” Ekas recalls. April 19 - Time Magazine There will be no shortage of Taylor Swift coverage in the coming months - and if you're a journalist looking to fill a blank space in your story and avoid a cruel summer with no expert sources - then let us help. Naomi Ekas's research program utilizes a developmental psychology approach to understanding children’s social and emotional development. She also teaches a course about the connection between psychology and Swift's place in pop culture. Naomi is available to speak with media - simply click on her icon now to arrange a time today.
