1. Nominate a woman in tech: March is Women's History Month
March is Women’s History Month and we would like for UCLA to contribute to the UC WIT Committee’s annual “UC Women Rock IT” blog article. The article will be published in March and will highlight the contributions of women in tech across the UC system.
The 2022 article will spotlight the compelling accomplishments of one woman or one team of women from each UC campus – describing their significant contributions any time from last March 2021 through the present. The contributions can highlight work that is very tech oriented or work that reflects the mission and values of UC WIT.
If you have a nominee to be honored in 2022 to be spotlighted, we ask for your submission by submitting the following survey before Monday, February 21st. Fill out the survey.
2. Movie Recommendation: Kimi (on HBO)
Kimi is the name of an Alexa-style device with a key USP: people. A large scattered team of operatives sift through the many interactions between users and machines to perfect the dynamic, ensuring that miscommunication is kept to a minimum. Zoë Kravitz’s agoraphobic Angela (perhaps a reference to The Net’s similarly named hacker) spends her days listening to such audio, quarantining herself from the world as Covid rumbles on. The pandemic has set her anxieties back and she refuses to go outside despite an over-the-road neighbour (comedian Byron Bowers) trying to tempt her on a date. But when Angela hears something sinister on a flagged Kimi stream, her safe, insulated world is suddenly in disarray. Read a review.
3. Sweating the small stuff: Smartwatch developed at UCLA measures key stress hormone
The human body responds to stress, from the everyday to the extreme, by producing a hormone called cortisol.
To date, it has been impractical to measure cortisol as a way to potentially identify conditions such as depression and post-traumatic stress, in which levels of the hormone are elevated. Cortisol levels traditionally have been evaluated through blood samples by professional labs, and while those measurements can be useful for diagnosing certain diseases, they fail to capture changes in cortisol levels over time.
Now, a UCLA research team has developed a device that could be a major step forward: a smartwatch that assesses cortisol levels found in sweat — accurately, noninvasively and in real time. Described in a study published in Science Advances, the technology could offer wearers the ability to read and react to an essential biochemical indicator of stress. Continue reading.
4. Tesla investigated over 'phantom braking' problem
The US government is investigating reports of Tesla cars braking unexpectedly on motorways.
The so-called "phantom braking" problem is being looked at by US regulator the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
It received 354 complaints in the past nine months and its investigation will cover approximately 416,000 Tesla Model 3 and Model Y vehicles from 2021-22.
Drivers say the issue occurs using the Autopilot driver assistance system. Continue reading.
5. Book Suggestion: Race After Technology
From everyday apps to complex algorithms, Ruha Benjamin cuts through tech-industry hype to understand how emerging technologies can reinforce white supremacy and deepen social inequity. Far from a sinister story of racist programmers scheming on the dark web, Benjamin argues that automation has the potential to hide, speed, and even deepen discrimination, while appearing neutral and even benevolent when compared to racism of a previous era. Presenting the concept of the "New Jim Code," she shows how a range of discriminatory designs encode inequity: by explicitly amplifying racial hierarchies, by ignoring but thereby replicating social divisions, or by aiming to fix racial bias but ultimately doing quite the opposite. Check it out at the UCLA Library.
