Olivia DrakeIn this issue of The Wesleyan Connection, we speak with Aviv Fraiman from the Class of 2015. Q: Aviv, what are you majoring in and why? A: I’m majoring in neuroscience and behavior because I find the brain absolutely fascinating. When I think of the brain, I’m reminded of a puzzle, except instead of the pieces being cardboard shapes, they’re an interwoven tangle of yarn. All the different pathways – it’s really chaotic, but there’s such beauty in its design. Neuroscience is a field where there’s an endless amount to learn and that really excites me. Q: You're currently President…
By examining highly-detailed satellite images, researchers can spot small channels formed on the sides of craters on Mars. These channels may be evidence of flowing water on Mars. Since scientists don't exactly know what the surface of Mars is composed of, Wesleyan student Peter Martin ’14 created a modeling program that can simulate the kinds of salty water, or brine, solutions that would possibly form on Mars. For his efforts, Martin was awarded the Thomas R. McGetchin Memorial Scholarship Award. The $1,500 prize is given annually by the Universities Space Research Association in honor of the former Lunar and Planetary Institute Director, and…
Lily Myers ’15, a member of WeSlam, performed a poem about her family that has received more than 1.7 million views on YouTube. The poem, titled "Shrinking Women," won Best Love Poem at the 2013 College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational in April, and expresses the pressure women feel to take up less and less space, to be quiet, to be small and to eat sparingly. Fellow slam poet Evan Okun ’13 said, “Her piece exemplifies Wesleyan's progressive thinking, innovative writing, and emotional honesty when it comes to Slam Poetry.” Myers also appeared in Upworthy.com and The Huffington Post. She is currently studying abroad…
Natalie Robichaud ’14The 2nd Wesleyan Hackathon Challenge took place from noon on Friday, Sept. 6 until noon on Sunday, Sept. 8. Each participating team was provided a 1 GB Linode VPS on which to host their application, which must live and operate without using additional computing resources. While brainstorming and server maintenance were allowed before and after the allotted time slot, all code writing and editing had to take place within 48 hours. A team of Wesleyan Computer Science alumni judged the submissions and named winners based on creativity (Does the app solve a problem in a novel way? Does it do…
Hannah Norman '16 spent five weeks this summer participating in a Fiona Ayerst Underwater Photography internship in Guinjata Bay, Mozambique. The internship program introduces aspiring wildlife photographers and videographers to the art of underwater photography. As an intern, she received special training and career guidance on how to develop from an enthusiastic amateur level to a professional level, capable of producing professional work and making a paying career out of this niche. She explored the Manta Reef, a popular diving destination, and tidal flats near Inhambane, Mozambique. She also attempted to photograph whales and dolphins on an ocean safari. View…
Q: Coady, what are you majoring in and why did you choose Wesleyan? A: I'm double majoring in astronomy and physics. I had actually never been to Wesleyan before applying, but I had heard very good things from friends, and its reputation for being unconventional was very appealing to me. The clincher though was the very generous financial aid that the university offered me, without which I definitely would not be here. Q: Tell us about your efforts with the Long Lane Organic Farm. Why did you decide to become a student-farmer? A: After coming to Wesleyan, I fell in with…
Kate CarlisleIf you’ve ever spent an evening looking up old flames on Facebook, shopping online and watching questionable YouTube videos, you may have wished there were a way to preserve your anonymity on the World Wide Web. It turns out there is a way; and a Wesleyan senior’s capstone work explored how to make that way faster and better. Julian Applebaum ’13, a computer science major, spent the year working on a simulation of Tor, a global network run by volunteers, that allows internet users to remain anonymous. There is one problem: Tor is painfully slow. His work attempts to simulate…
The Patricelli Center for Social Entrepreneurship is pleased to announce its 2013 Seed Grant and Internship Grant recipients. The PCSE Seed Grant program was launched this spring. Individuals and teams of students competed for $5,000 prizes intended to provide capital to help Wesleyan students launch their socially-oriented project or idea and/or build capacity of their existing social enterprise. The winners are: Circles and Ciphers Project Leader: Evan Okun ’13 Description: This grant will fund a project in Chicago with a leadership development organization that fuses restorative justice practices with hip-hop culture to empower and support predominantly African-American and Latino males,…
Bill FisherTwelve students participated in the Senior Week Hackathon in Exley Science Center May 18-19. For 36 hours straight, the students worked in teams of four to create different web application products. The winning team was "WesMaps+." Team members included Justin Raymond '14, Tobias Butler '13, Max Dietz '16 and Anastasis Germanidis '13. See their app online at: http://wesmapsplus.com/ Wesleyan computer science alumni Sam DeFabbia-Kane ’11, Carlo Francisco ’11, Micah Wylde ’12, and Ryan Gee ’11 judged the final apps on a scale of 1-11 in creativity, technical difficulty and polish. A video and photos of the Hackathon are below: [youtube width="640" height="420"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24UJulhFo7I[/youtube] (more…)
Oladoyin Oladapo ’14 received a $500 Enrichment Grant in 2013 from the Patricelli Center for Social Entrepreneurship. This funding allowed her to get private training in HTML and JavaScript, which she will use in her entrepreneurial endeavors. During spring break, she spent time learning programming languages with Brian Macharia ‘14, a computer science major who has professionally developed websites for companies and students internationally since he was 14. "Learning to code in this short time was rigorous and challenging. I worked from 9 to 5 learning code. I worked on HTML for the first three days. This language was relatively…
Lauren RubensteinTwo Wesleyan students have been awarded grants through the Davis Projects for Peace Program to bring their grassroots project proposals to fruition. Class of 2014's Mfundi Makama’s $10,000 grant will support The Buddies Program, which he recently created as a way to empower young women in Swaziland through educational achievement. Greg Shaheen ’13 will use the funds to establish a community-based eco-center focused on environmental education and action for teenagers in Lebanon. The projects will take place this summer. Student applicants at more than 90 Davis United World College Scholar Program partner schools—including Wesleyan—design grassroots projects that promote peace, build…
When Anna Haensch tells new acquaintances that she’s a mathematician, many people immediately recoil. “There’s this repellent nature to math,” she said. “There’s this big wall up around it—people find it terrifying or uninteresting.” That’s exactly why Haensch, a Ph.D. student who just successfully defended her dissertation, wants to learn how to communicate better to the general public about math. She is the recipient of a Mass Media Fellowship, administered by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Haensch's fellowship is sponsored by the American Mathematical Society (AMS). The 10-week summer program, which starts June 3, places graduate and post-graduate…