Latest news with #STEM
Hamilton Spectator
3 hours ago
- Science
- Hamilton Spectator
Halton students 1st and 3rd in national STEM competition. Here's how the winner wants her Burlington school to spend the $50K grand prize
Two Halton schools are celebrating big wins at a national STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) competition last month. Burlington's Aldershot School was awarded first place in the 2024-25 Samsung Solve for Tomorrow contest for Grade 12 student Keerthana Srinivasan's fault detector for photovoltaic farms. It also earned the School for Tomorrow title. Milton's Elsie MacGill Secondary School received the third prize for a plate that can generate electrical energy. It was designed by Grade 11 students Hassan Rasheed and Karam Noori. STEM Innovation High School in Calgary got second place. While Aldershot received the grand prize of $50,000 in Samsung technology resources, Milton and Calgary schools were each awarded $10,000 in technology. First-place winner Srinivasan's pitch promotes solar technology. Srinivasan said many communities want to switch to renewable energy but don't have the incentive to do so. Maintenance is also 'hard.' She feels her photovoltaic fault detector, which can locate issues 'within seconds,' can change that. 'Solar farms can use it to detect faults within 11 to 40 seconds rather than waiting for a maintenance team that could be several hours away,' she explained. 'It can also be used for rooftop panels.' The Grade 12 student said the idea came while troubleshooting a photovoltaic fault on a simulated Mars mission. ' SARAH (System Analysis and Reporting for Advanced Hardware) was created in a space context, but I realized it could also work on earth and started transitioning it toward rural and low-income communities,' she said. Srinivasan is looking forward to using the prize money for her school. 'I've been wanting my school to have all-girls hackathons for two or three years now. So, I'm happy to have an award that can be used toward these coding events,' she said. Srinivasan believes girls should be encouraged to 'get into computer science and STEM.' 'A lot of our clubs only have boys. Even if there are girls, they have less of a role,' she said. 'I want to use the Samsung money to create a space where girls from all HDSB (Halton District School Board) schools can come to Aldershot to learn how to code or pursue STEM.' Principal Scott Williamson said the school is 'over the moon' with Srinivasan's success and 'pleased' with the recognition it brings for women in science. 'It has been an amazing experience. I'm hearing from parents, school council, our trustee and superintendent who are all blown away by this accomplishment,' he added. Williamson said the school will be consulting with Srinivasan on how to spend the prize money. 'Keerthana is also working with us on a mural about women in science and we hope to have this done very quickly,' he added. Else MacGill Secondary School's Karam Noori and Hassan Rasheed received the third prize for their kinetic plate that can generate electrical energy. Third-place winners Rasheed and Noori said their kinetic plate offers a solution for the current energy crisis. 'When stepped or driven on, it transforms the kinetic energy that is pushing it down into usable electrical energy that could be used to power a phone, bulb or street light,' Noori explained. Rasheed recommends using it in high traffic areas to generate the most output. 'You could easily implement it as a tile in schools and malls,' he said. 'All people have to do is step on the plate, and the energy can be generated and stored.' According to Noori, he and Rasheed originally designed the plate to be a crosswalk signal, as part of a Grade 10 I-STEM project aimed at keeping students safe. 'Over time we focused on the electricity part and that's how it grew into what it is now,' he explained. The Grade 11 Milton students are happy with the recognition and the possibility of implementing their idea in the community. 'We spoke with MPP Zee Hamid, who offered to connect us with the Ministry of Energy to talk about implementing this in our school and then across Milton,' Noori said. In an email statement, the Milton MPP said the students' project 'offers a glimpse into real-world solutions that tackle energy and sustainability challenges.' 'I was so impressed by their passion when we met, and I look forward to exploring how we can support local initiatives like this right here in Milton,' Hamid wrote. Principal Mark Duley praised the project-based I-STEM program which 'stretches students critical thinking and creative skills.' He said the Samsung competition has provided 'the next stepping point for our students.: 'This year we came third, maybe next year we will come first,' he said. Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
New Indian Express
9 hours ago
- General
- New Indian Express
TN schools to ring water bells, circular soon
KRISHNAGIRI: The School Education Department in Tamil Nadu will soon send circulars to schools asking to commence the 'water bell' programme, announced Minister of School Education Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi on Friday. The water bell initiative, which is followed in a few southern states and Puducherry, aims to promote timely intake of drinking water by students to avoid dehydration. "The Kerala government has been carrying out the water bell initiative for the past two years. In Tamil Nadu, our teachers have been verbally instructing the students to drink more water. Considering the well-being of the children, we have been the first to launch the "Chief Minister's Breakfast Scheme". Soon we will send circulars instructing schools to commence the water bell initiative," said Minister of School Education Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi at a press meet. Prior to the press meet, the minister participated in the inauguration of the 'STEM Innovation and Learning Centre' in eight schools in Krishnagiri. "Sixteen STEM innovation centres and learning centres have been opened in Krishnagiri district at a cost of Rs 4.44 crore. Out of the 83 STEM innovation centres in the country, Tamil Nadu has 33, and of these, 16 are in Hosur. Students would learn through practical hands-on learning in fields of science, engineering, IT, and other sectors," the minister said. The minster also participated in a conference organised by teachers of the Tamil Nadu Urdu Primary and Middle School. "Urdu is not a foreign language. It is an Indian language with beautiful literature. As per the 2001 survey, over 6% of the population, roughly around 52 million people, speak Urdu in India," Anbil Mahesh noted. Later, the minister also participated in the State Level Achievement Survey (SLAS) events at Mookandapalli, Hosur and Adhiyamankottai in Dharmapuri. "The SLAS aims to improve the performance of teachers and schools for the betterment of students' education," the minister stated. The minister also announced that over 2,346 vacancies for teachers would be filled soon.
Glasgow Times
a day ago
- Science
- Glasgow Times
TechFest launches STEM Next essay competition for students
The STEM Next competition, run by Scottish charity TechFest, invites students aged 16 to 18 to submit essays of 1,000 to 3,000 words in one of three categories: Energy and Innovation, Medicine and Psychology, or Chemistry and Biological Sciences. Wendy Findlay, national programme manager at TechFest, said: "The STEM Next competition isn't just about essays, it's about unlocking the potential of young people who are genuinely excited about STEM but often unsure of where to start. (Image: Supplied) "As someone involved in this project, I've seen firsthand how powerful it is for students to have a role model. "Someone they can talk to directly, learn from, and show them that a career in STEM is within reach. Read more: John Souttar seen training in Portugal as he recovers from hernia surgery Safeguarding team deployed at Glasgow station to reduce incidents "It's an incredibly rewarding experience, to watch a young child's confidence grow and know you played a part." The competition aims to help students develop research, analysis, and communication skills. Participants will also have the opportunity to connect with industry professionals for interviews. The competition launched on June 16, and the deadline for submissions is August 29. First place winners in each category will receive £200 in Amazon vouchers, with £100 for second place and £50 for third. Students and volunteers must register their interest by June 27 at The project is supported by CNOOC International, Serica Energy, SSE Renewables, and Thistle Wind Partnership. Mike Seaton, project director for Coire Glas at SSE Renewables, said: "STEM Next is helping develop the skilled talent we'll need to tackle real-world challenges. "That's why we believe it's vital to engage young minds early, encouraging them to think creatively and practically about the future, especially as we work towards a more sustainable, renewable energy landscape."
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
New study claims AI 'understands' emotion better than us — especially in emotionally charged situations
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. In what seems like a further blow to a capability in which we thought computers would never outdo us, scientists now suggest AI understands emotions better than we do. Scientists have found that AI understands emotions better than we do — scoring much higher than the average person at choosing the correct response to diffuse various emotionally-charged situations In a new study published 21 May in the journal Communications Psychology, scientists from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and the University of Bern (UniBE) applied widely-used emotional intelligence (EI) tests (STEM, STEU, GEMOK-Blends, GECo Regulation and GECo Management) to common large language models (LLMs) including ChatGPT-4, ChatGPT-o1, Gemini 1.5 Flash, Claude 3.5 Haiku, Copilot 365 and DeepSeek V3. They were investigating two things: firstly, comparing the performance of AI and human subjects, and secondly, the ability to create new test questions that adhere to the purposes of EI tests. By studying validated human responses from previous studies, the LLMs selected the "correct" response in emotional intelligence tests 81% of the time, based on the opinions of human experts, compared to 56% for humans. When ChatGPT was asked to create new test questions, human assessors said these efforts stood up to the original tests in terms of equivalent difficulty and clearing the perception they weren't paraphrasing original questions. The correlation between the AI-generated and original tests were described as 'strong', with a correlation coefficient of 0.46 (where 1.0 refers to a perfect correlation and 0 refers to no correlation). The overall conclusion was that AI is better at "understanding" emotions than us. When Live Science consulted several experts, a common theme in their responses was to keep the methodology firmly in mind. Each of the common EI tests used was multiple choice — hardly applicable to real-world scenarios in which tensions between people are high, they pointed out. 'It's worth noting that humans don't always agree on what someone else is feeling, and even psychologists can interpret emotional signals differently,' said finance industry and information security expert Taimur Ijlal. 'So 'beating' a human on a test like this doesn't necessarily mean the AI has deeper insight. It means it gave the statistically expected answer more often.' The ability being tested by the study isn't emotional intelligence but something else, they added. 'AI systems are excellent at pattern recognition, especially when emotional cues follow a recognizable structure like facial expressions or linguistic signals, 'said Nauman Jaffar, Founder and CEO of CliniScripts—an AI-powered documentation tool built for mental health professionals. 'But equating that to a deeper 'understanding' of human emotion risks overstating what AI is actually doing.' Related: People find AI more compassionate than mental health experts, study finds. What could this mean for future counseling? Quizzes in structured, quantitative environments — rather than an appreciation of the deeper nuance that true emotional understanding requires — are where AI shines, and some experts pointed out one crucial point: that AI performs better on tests about emotional situations not in the heat of the moment — the way humans experience them. Jason Hennessey, founder and CEO of Hennessy Digital — who has spent years analyzing how search and generative AI systems process language — equates the study to the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test. This is a common tool to gauge a subject's emotional state and one AI has shown promise in. But as Hennessey said, when variables as routine as the lighting in the photo or cultural context changes in such tests, "AI accuracy drops off a cliff." Overall, most experts found the claim AI "understands" emotions better than humans to be a bit of a stretch. "Does it show LLMs are useful for categorizing common emotional reactions?" said Wyatt Mayham, founder of Northwest IT Consulting. "Sure. But it's like saying someone's a great therapist because they scored well on an emotionally themed BuzzFeed quiz." But there's a final caveat, with evidence that even though AI is using pattern recognition rather than true emotional understanding, it has outperformed humans at identifying and responding to emotional states in at least one example. Aílton, a conversational AI used by over 6,000 long-haul truck drivers in Brazil, is a multimodal WhatsApp assistant that used voice, text and images, and its developer, Marcos Alves CEO & Chief Scientist at HAL-AI, says Aílton identifies stress, anger or sadness with around 80% accuracy - about 20 points above its human counterparts, all in context within emotional situations as drivers interact with it in real time. In one case, Aílton responded quickly and appropriately when a driver sent a distraught 15 second voice note after a colleague's fatal crash, replying with nuanced condolences, offering mental-health resources and automatically alerting fleet managers. RELATED STORIES —If any AI became 'misaligned' then the system would hide it just long enough to cause harm — controlling it is a fallacy —AI is just as overconfident and biased as humans can be, study shows —AGI could now arrive as early as 2026 — but not all scientists agree 'Yes, multiple-choice text vignettes simplify emotion recognition,' Alves said. 'Real empathy is continuous and multimodal. But isolating the cognitive layer is useful. It reveals whether an LLM can spot emotional cues before adding situational noise.' He added the ability of LLMs to absorb billions of sentences and thousands of hours of conversational audio means it can encode micro-intonation cues humans often miss. 'The lab setup is limited,' he said of the study, 'but our WhatsApp data confirms modern LLMs already detect and respond better than most people, offering scalable empathy at scale.'
Wales Online
2 days ago
- Business
- Wales Online
£300m railway project in Powys delayed by five years risks local job opportunities and economic boost
£300m railway project in Powys delayed by five years risks local job opportunities and economic boost A report to a Powys County Council committee has revealed that one of the biggest employment projects in the county is running five years later than planned The project would potentially introduce hundreds of jobs (Image: Local Democracy Reporting Service ) A rail track testing facility project near Ystradygynlais has experienced significant delays, now running at least five years late, according to recent disclosures. The plan promises substantial economic benefits by potentially introducing hundreds of jobs and is anticipated to inject approximately £300m into the local economy. During a Powys County Council's Governance and Audit committee session, councillors together with lay members reviewed a report on the risks the council faces from repurposing the former Nant Helen coal drift mine into a state-of-the-art Global Centre of Railway Excellence (GCRE). Diane Reynolds, director of economic development and growth, informed the committee that they can expect GCRE to submit additional planning applications for the site to the council in the upcoming year. For our free daily briefing on the biggest issues facing the nation, sign up to the Wales Matters newsletter here Planning permissions confirming the fundamental viability of redeveloping the location were secured from both Powys and Neath Port Talbot council's planning committees back in 2021. In the previous year, GCRE had secured approval from planning authorities to extend the time permitted to deliver detailed designs for the project. A site masterplan shows how the GCRE will take shape. (Image: Local Democracy Reporting Service ) Article continues below The facility was initially slated to be up and running by 2025, however this no longer appears to be the case. Ms Reynolds clarified: "These things change over time they are looking to put in a revised planning applications." The upcoming plans are set to include the refurbishment of a footpath encircling the area, which could become part of a new cycle route. She added: "I think they are looking at improving access as well." Committee vice-chairman and lay member John Brautigam expressed concern, stating: "There is a risk stated in the report that there is a skills deficit for the jobs that would be needed there. What is being done about that?". Ms Reynolds responded that they have a massive programme to attract people into the world of engineering. She explained: "They have been conducting STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) sessions with Year Six pupils, reaching out to all of the local schools, providing training and sparking interest among young people in the types of skills that will be required for the future operation of such a site. "We don't anticipate the site to be operational until 2030 so we're talking five years. "They have also been working diligently with the Welsh and UK Government on any individuals that will be displaced as part of the steelworks ceasing. "They have been re-training local people in the rail industry so they can assume positions in the future." Mr Brautigam responded: "Thank you I'm glad to hear there is some activity in that direction anyway." Committee chairwoman and lay member Lynne Hamilton suggested that another report on the development should be presented to the committee in the future to ensure that the council's risks are being "managed appropriately,". Article continues below
