The Scoop
Parsing the Past of Our Present in History 10
The new gateway course, which aims to expose students to different ways of doing, practicing, and talking about history, was advertised on Canvas under the headline: “Not your high school history class!”
AI Glasses Cover Photo
Caine A. Ardayfio '25-'26 and AnhPhu D. Nguyen '25-'26 met in a makerspace their freshman year. Now, the pair have created a pair of AI sunglasses that can provide wearers with information about strangers.
AI glasses vertical portrait
Ardayfio and Nguyen argue that their “awareness campaign” has taught people how easily others can access their personal information on the internet, challenging people’s assumptions of how they should act and whom they should trust in public.
Caine Ardayfio portrait
I-XRAY leverages the recording function in the smart glasses to feed video footage directly to users’ phones via an Instagram livestream. An algorithm written by Ardayfio and Nguyen then detects faces in the footage and prompts face search engines to scour the internet for matching images.
Third Floor Biolabs
The third floor of Bio Labs has had a long history of hosting Nobel Prize winners, though some professors contest using the awards as a metric for the floor's success.
Rich Losick portrait
Molecular and Cellular Biology professor Richard M. Losick views the Bio Labs as a "Nobel incubator."
Is the Bio Lab a “Nobel Incubator?”
To Molecular and Cellular Biology professor Richard M. Losick, an intense culture focused on scientific excellence had resulted in the Bio Labs becoming a “Nobel incubator." But colleagues of his disagree.
Could Strangers Become a Thing of the Past?
Media outlets have framed Caine A. Ardayfio ’25-26 and AnhPhu D. Nguyen ’25-26 as architects of a terrifying doxxing device. But the pair argue that their new facial recognition glasses are a “public awareness campaign.”
House or Home? Recent Grads’ Strategies of Stickin’ Around
No more than four rooms in the dorms or in faculty deans’ residences of each house are earmarked every year for these people who love Harvard so much that they stay, simultaneously building community and operating in the shadows.
Quincy house aides photo
In Quincy, house aides bake in bulk for the faculty deans’ famous open houses, cook for events such as “Feast and Film,” and organize Quincy’s Junior Family Weekend.
Resurrecting Film Photography in the Eliot House Basement
When Elmer and Social Studies lecturer Bonnie Talbert stepped into the position of Eliot’s faculty deans earlier this year, they wanted to bring a piece of themselves into House life. So Elmer decided to resurrect the abandoned Eliot darkroom and teach a House seminar on film photography.
Want to Become a Lorax? A New Course Rethinks Environmental Rights
In their new course, “The Rights of Nature,” visiting Law School professor James Salzman and American History and Harvard Law School professor Jill Lepore investigate a burgeoning American legal movement known as the Rights of Nature. The movement argues that granting legal personhood to wildlife and natural features could help stave off environmental destruction.
The Academic Policing of Academics on Policing
In 2022, professors Christopher Lewis and Adaner Usmani argued that to reduce violent crime, the U.S. needs to drastically shorten its prison sentences — and increase its police force by half a million officers. Their ideas soon become a flashpoint of online discourse.
The ‘Necessary Evil’ of Computer Science 124
Most students aren’t taking Computer Science 124: Data Structures and Algorithms for pride. They’re taking it to fulfill the computer science concentration’s Algorithms requirement. Hence the course’s description as “a necessary evil” in the Q Guide.
Right to Read Exhibit
At the Harvard Law School library’s latest exhibit, “Challenging Our Right to Read,” controversial books, formerly resigned to the shadows, are once again on display — right beside the objections raised against them.
Should Harvard Red Light or Green Light the Blue Lights?
For how important they are to Harvard's discussion of safety, and despite their prevalence and accessibility, Harvard's emergency phone system is not something most Harvard students think about day to day. Dotting the grounds like glittering blue breadcrumbs, Harvard’s 530 blue light phones blend in with streetlights and gates and other doodads, becoming just another thing on campus.
Do We Have the Right To Read?
“Do we, as a society, have an ethical obligation to create safe spaces and boundaries for particular groups of people?” asks Jocelyn Kennedy, one of the curators of the Harvard Law School library exhibit, “Challenging Our Right to Read.”
Blue Lights Photo
Students expressed mixed feelings about the blue light phone system, with some saying they view them as deterrents to crime and others saying they likely would not use them in a real emergency.
Armaan Tipirneni and Pranav Ramesh
In the span of three or four days, Ramesh and Tipirneni created Classiq.red, choosing to collaborate on the project because they had known each other for a while and trusted the other to be up for the challenge.
my.harvard's Makeover
Nearly one decade after the last update, Harvard University Information Technology is now planning to launch a new update for my.harvard, with the help of some student recruits.