The student newspaper of Stevens Institute of Technology, and creator of Attila the Duck.
No power in the towers
We write Stevens history VOLUME CXX No. 15
HOBOKEN, NJ | FEBRUARY 3, 2023
www.thestute.com Instagram @thestute facebook.com/stevensthestute NEW STUTE EVERY FRIDAY • EST. 1904
Groundhog sees shadow
Inaugural CAL Associate Dean of Undergrad Studies
BY ISABELLA ZIV, LAYOUT EDITOR The groundhog has spoken: six more weeks of winter! Every February 2 on Groundhog Day, Punxsutawney Phil of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania emerges from his hole to predict the fate of our next few weeks. The legend says if the groundhog sees its shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter and if not, spring is coming early. On Thursday morning Phil saw his shadow, predicting six more weeks of Winter. This prediction was communicated in “Groundhogese” to Phil’s “inner circle” who are in charge of caring for him and planning the Groundhog Day festivities in Punxsutawney. According to The Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, the tradition has been running since 1886 with the same groundhog for 135 years, a seemingly impossible lifespan. Phil even has some local rivals, including Staten Island Chuck from the Staten Island Zoo, who did not see his shadow and predicted an early spring. Staten Island Chuck has had an 80% accuracy rate
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BY ANNA DABROWSKI OPINION COLUMNIST
In the most recent 2022 Best Online Programs ranking of “U.S. News and World Report,” three Stevens schools were recognized: the Charles V. Schaefer School of Engineering and Science (SES), the School of Systems and Enterprises (SSE), and the School of Business. Stevens was placed nationally in seven online graduate education categories and has claimed the number one program in New Jersey in three of those categories, marking the seventh year in a row that Stevens’ online program MBA (Master of Business Administration) has ranked number one in New Jersey. The rankings for all of the seven programs were: Best Online Graduate Engineering Specialties for Industrial (Systems) Engineering, No. 7 (No.1 in New Jersey), Best Online Graduate Engineering Specialties for Engineer/ing Management, No. 9 (No. 1 in New Jersey), Best Online Graduate Engineering, No. 25 (No. 1 in New Jersey), Best Online Graduate Computer Information Technology, No. 8 (No. 1 in New Jersey), Best NEWS (2)
Heard about ChatGPT? ChatGPT is a new artificial intelligence service that can potentially affect how college institutions evaluate acadmic integrity. FEATURE (3)
Learn how to maintain a healthy heart and a healthy lifestyle during American Heart Month
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PHOTO COURTESY OF @STEVENSDUCKS ON INSTAGRAM
International programs’ fair and new website BY EVAN PAPAGEORGE, STAFF WRITER One office that helps Stevens students learn around the world is the Office of International Programs. On January 25, the department hosted the Study Abroad Fair in the Babbio Atrium. Several companies and organizations that send students abroad to study presented
StevensOnline graduate program ranks best in NJ BY ADVAIT DANTULURI, STAFF WRITER
have studied abroad during their time here at Stevens. Full-time staff members of international programs were present and available for questions and assistance. Rachouh, the event organizer, was proud to host such an event. She emphasized the importance of the fair in spreading information quickly since the of-
The College of Arts and Letters (CAL) department has a new Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies, Professor Jennifer McBryan. Professor McBryan has a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Rutgers University set her up for an “interdisciplinary career path in the humanities.” In graduate school, she received extensive training in the art of teaching writing and specifically teaching the shift that first-year students experience when transitioning from high school to college. The focus in writing switches from receiving knowledge in high school to producing knowledge in college. McBryan believes that her generalist background has been integral in “showing students how to be interested in a wide range of things.” Her career at Stevens began in the Writing and Communications Center, and she later served as the director of
Online MBA - Business Analytics Specialty, No. 19 (No. 1 in New Jersey), Best Online Graduate Business (nonMBA), No. 28 (No. 2 in New Jersey), and Best Online MBA, No. 42 (No. 1 in New Jersey). Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Jianmin Qu said, “As a leading provider of technology-infused graduate education, we are dedicated to providing our online students with top-flight programs and a rich learning experience. These prestigious rankings confirm the value of our innovative online learning technologies and pedagogies and our dedication to meeting the needs of today’s students no matter which learning modalities they choose.” Senior Vice Provost for Graduate Education Dr. Constantin Chassapis said, “I am particularly proud that three of our programs are ranked in the top 10 of their respective categories as we continue to pursue our goal to deliver world class education to our online students. This distinction validates our plans to grow our online offerings to provide students a competitive advantage as
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Subway stations found to have the worst air quality Read more about a recent study conducted by New York University investigating this topic. PULSE (10)
Read answers from the Stevens community to our weekly Roving Reporter, plus solve our weekly crossword puzzle and sudoku
to students interested in learning outside the country. A representative of The Stute attended the fair and spoke with Susan Rachouh, Director of International Programs. The fair was on Wednesday, January 25, in the Babbio Atrium. Many different programs around the world presented options for students interested in spending either a winter session, semester, or summer at an
international institution while still receiving credit here at Stevens. Some, like the Institute for the International Education of Students, are non-profits that host students at different universities. Others, like the Queen Mary University of London, are specific schools or exchange programs. The fair also included student volunteers who work for the international programs office or
ChatGPT poses challenges for academic integrity BY EVAN PAPAGEORGE, STAFF WRITER ChatGPT, the powerful artificial intelligence program that has gone viral in recent months for its ability to emulate human writing, has prompted concerns about its potential for abuse among students. ChatGPT is an interactive artificial intelligence and machine learning program that allows users to communicate directly with a computer running the powerful natural language syntax. OpenAI, the company that runs and owns ChatGPT, is a leader in machine learning and has produced many other power intelligence programs in the past. ChatGPT, released in November 2022, follows the success of OpenAI’s GPT-3. The program takes inputs from a user in their natural language and can produce accurate and specific text responses and make computer code. However, with the power of a synthetical study of the entire Internet, students have begun to take advantage of ChatGPT responses, which are undetectable by traditional plagiarism and anti-cheating software. In the history of academ-
ic integrity, there have often been developments in technology that require the educational systems to adapt and evolve to combat ways to cheat. When smartphones entered the market, there was a consideration of how to prevent students from using them to cheat. With the advent of ChatGPT and other more advanced systems like Chegg, Photomath, and other machine-learning academic aid programs, academic integrity must reform again. ChatGPT is uniquely challenging for professors and schools for two reasons: it is easy to use and hard to trace. The program is simple and takes only a quick Internet search, an email, and a login. From there, the user can ask the program any question, from simple prompts like “What is the weather today?” to much more complex ones, like “Write a C++ program to track daily activity in 500 lines of code.” With only a few words, it is possible to do entire projects for the user. Worsening the challenge schools face with ChatGPT is how difficult it is to detect the presence of ChatGPT
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Stevens earns“Great Place To Work” certificate BY ADVAIT DANTULURI, STAFF WRITER Many students have had positive learning experiences at Stevens, but is it a great place to work? According to Patch, Stevens Institute of Technology has been certified by “Great Place to Work,” the global authority on workplace culture, employee experience, and leadership behaviors proven to deliver market-leading revenue, employee retention, and increased innovation. The organization is recognized worldwide by employees and employers alike and is the global benchmark for identifying and recognizing outstanding employee experience. And it’s not something that comes easy — according to Sarah Lewis-Kulin, Vice President of Global Recognition at Great Place to Work, “It’s the only official recognition determined by employees’ real-time reports of their company culture. Earning this designation means that Stevens Institute of Technology is one of the best companies to work for in the country.” Patch says that Stevens is a university on the rise. Its community of more than 1,000 faculty and staff work together to create a learning environment where
students are inspired and equipped to solve some of our world’s most challenging problems. According to the “Great Place to Work,” 75% of employees at Stevens Institute of Technology say it is a great place to work compared to 57% of employees at a typical U.S.-based company. Of those employees, 87% of them said people here are given a lot of responsibility, 84% of them said that they’re proud to tell others they work here, 83% said that when they look at what we accomplish, they feel a sense of pride, 81% said that they are able to take time off from work when they think it’s necessary, and 81% said they feel good about the ways we contribute to the community. According to President Farvardin, “We owe our continued success to Stevens’ dedicated faculty and staff, who earned this incredible recognition with their voices and excellent service. Continuing to strengthen our university culture is a high priority of our new strategic plan, and I am confident we will continue to make progress in the coming years.” Sheraine Gilliam, Vice President and Chief Human
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