http://storybank.stanford.edu Stories of discovery and learning at Stanford en-us editor@mysite.com webmaster@mysite.com Story Bank Feed Creator The new Summer Institute for Entrepreneurship (SIE) is an intensive four-week business program offered by the GSB for Stanford grad students in non-business fields. The program combines team projects and workshops with guest speakers and visits to Silicon Valley companies ranging from start-ups to large firms, from high-tech to retail. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_4/tab_videos The shift to a global economy and to knowledge-based industries means more competition for jobs that require more schooling, Professor Martin Carnoy explains. "There's a great fear out there of not getting a good job." As a result, he says, "You've got a tremendous expansion of education. It's worldwide." http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_9/tab_videos You may not know it, but it is likely you need the services of a computational mathematician. Lucky for you, you're at Stanford. Engineering has always had two pillars: theory and experimentation. Computational mathematics-the result of the dizzying increase in computers' ability to compute-has now created a third pillar, uniting the other two. Modeling and simulation are now possible to such a degree that they play a role equal to that of theoretical math and hands-on experimentation. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_15/tab_videos When Engineering Dean Jim Plummer was asked recently to predict the hottest new field, the uncharted territory just ahead, he didn't take but a second to reply. "Nano," he said. "It's a sea change." Nanotechnology, by which certain physical and chemical operations enable mastery over unbelievably tiny structures, which in turn can benefit everything from medicine to sportswear, is occupying the time of a growing number of Stanford researchers. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_16/tab_videos Elisabeth Pat-Cornell specializes in understanding risk-going behind the scenes to perceive threats and trying to prevent them from materializing. "If we're doing our job well, nobody hears about it," says Pat-Cornell, Stanford's Burt and Deedee McMurtry Professor of Engineering and chair of the Department of Management Science and Engineering. It's a kind of analysis that has applications far from engineering itself, from detecting terrorists' plans to fighting infectious diseases to predicting human error in a variety of situations. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_18/tab_videos What makes Stanford different, according to the people at the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, otherwise known as the d.school, is "design thinking," the philosophy that good process ensures good ends and that problems can be solved through observation. The idea is that any problem can be approached from an experiential, observational, hands-on manner. Watch and listen, figure out the problem, then solve it. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_20/tab_videos Since her freshman year at Stanford, Efundunke "Dunke" Hughes, '05, MA '06, knew her future lay in teaching others. However, by the time she was a junior, Hughes felt discouraged. She had been planning to earn a master's degree and California teaching credential through the Stanford Teacher Education Program (STEP), one of the most respected teacher training courses in the country. But the price tag for the program was daunting. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_21/tab_videos Terrorism, notes Stanford Law School Professor Allen S. Weiner, is a surprisingly unexamined phenomenon given the gravity of the problem. So when the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) at Stanford announced new grants for interdisciplinary research and teaching on critically important global issues, Weiner teamed up with his colleague Amir Eshel, professor of German Studies and Comparative Literature, to seize the opportunity to create a new course to examine modern terrorism. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_22/tab_videos "When people ask me what I'm doing with my new Environmental Engineering PhD from Stanford," says Matthew Davie, "they're pretty surprised when I tell them that I'm starting a travel agency." Ask a few more questions, though, and it starts to make sense.  The newly launched agency, Whole Travel, Inc., was developed in Evaluating Entrepreneurial Opportunities, an integrated lab course at Stanford's Graduate School of Business. Requiring at least two MBA students to collaborate with a non-MBA student, the class guides students through the process of evaluating a business opportunity http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_23/tab_videos By one estimate, about a tenth of this warming planet's population lives near a coast at an elevation of less than 10 meters. That's 600 million people who need someone to keep a sharp set of eyes trained on the earth's poles, where ice melting into the oceans could put their homes at risk. Stanford electrical engineers Howard Zebker and Shadi Oveisgharan are developing precisely such a sentry for detecting changes in polar ice masses. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_24/tab_videos The Internet is enough of a marvel that most people would never ask, "Is this really how we would build it if we could design it all today?" But asking that very question is the job of a broad-based team of Stanford researchers. Taking a nothing-is-sacred approach to better meet human communications needs, they recently launched a new program called the Clean Slate Design for the Internet. They presented their ideas March 2007 during a day-long workshop at the annual meeting of the Stanford Computer Forum. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_30/tab_videos According to Stanford psychology professor, Carol Dweck, people's self-theories about intelligence have a profound influence on their motivation to learn. Students who hold a "fixed" theory are mainly concerned with how smart they are-they prefer tasks they can already do well and avoid ones on which they may make mistakes and not look smart. In contrast, she says, people who believe in an "expandable" or "growth" theory of intelligence want to challenge themselves to increase their abilities, even if they fail at first. Dweck's research about intelligence and motivation, and http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_57/tab_videos While architects, engineers, and builders often try to make buildings more energy efficient, they need better tools and technologies to succeed. Hoping to help, Professors Goldsmith, Fischer, and Haymaker have each launched research projects sponsored by Stanford's Precourt Institute for Energy Efficiency (PIEE) aimed at developing just such tools and technologies. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_56/tab_videos At the turn of the 20th century, Americans' life expectancy at birth was 47. A century later, 30 years had been added.  The Center on Longevity, led by Professor Laura Carstensen, wants to help society capitalize on these longer life spans.  To that end, faculty from all seven Stanford schools will participate in the center's work.  "Our strength is research across disciplines-from economics to psychology to engineering," says Tom Rando, associate professor of neurology and neurological sciences and the center's deputy director. One area researchers will focus on is mobility-reversing http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_58/tab_videos Four Stanford students-from China, India, Pakistan, and the Czech Republic-discuss the financial challenges of getting to Stanford and the incredible experiences they've enjoyed with help from scholarship donors. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_61/tab_videos A 16-year-old girl spars in the boxing ring. A Catholic nun examines patients in a rural health clinic. A woman looks back on her life as a man. People with disabilities create art with found objects. We see their worlds in student films from Stanford's award-winning graduate program in documentary film and video. With support from the Stanford Arts Initiative, the program is expanding to include an undergraduate major in Film and Media Studies. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_62/tab_videos Jeremy Bailenson, assistant professor of communication, is director of Stanford's Virtual Human Interaction Lab. In this video, he demonstrates how an avatar can mimic movement and discusses how this ability can influence interactions in cyberspace. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_54/tab_videos The official dedication of the Jerry Yang and Akiko Yamazaki Environment and Energy Building on March 4 underscores the university's broader commitment to finding ways to reduce its carbon footprint - its amount of greenhouse gas emissions - in the coming years. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_71/tab_videos Jerry Yang and Akiko Yamazaki joined President Hennessy at the dedication of the Y2E2 Building, which will bring together researchers from all of the university's seven schools into one energy-efficient building to work together on environmental issues. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_79/tab_videos Stanford's Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Environment and Resources (IPER), seeks to create and inspire new types of scholars and leaders. Bringing diverse academic backgrounds and life experiences from all over the world, IPER students pioneer innovative approaches to society's biggest environmental challenges. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_80/tab_videos The rushing floodwaters in Evan Almighty, the heaving seas of the latter two Pirates of the Caribbean movies and the dragon's flaming breath in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire all featured computer-generated fluids in spectacular action. The science behind those splashy thrills was recognized with a 2008 Academy Award for Ron Fedkiw, associate professor of computer science at Stanford, and two collaborators at the special effects firm Industrial Light and Magic (ILM). http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_82/tab_videos The old adage that you get what you pay for really is true when it comes to that most ephemeral of products: bottled wine. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_101/tab_videos Through Stanford's diverse legal clinics, students and professors provide services to people who otherwise couldn't get them. These experiences also serve as a bridge between the classroom and real-world cases involving fundamental rights and vital public issues. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_122/tab_videos Begin writing your summary... http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_129/tab_videos Researchers have developed a solid state device that enables interaction between just two particles of light. This could lead to the development of scalable quantum computers that offer much faster performance and absolute security in communication.  http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_132/tab_videos Department's research has stretched from searching out long lost wreckage at the bottom of the ocean to investigating the rarefied heights of Einsteinian physics in orbit. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_137/tab_videos The SEP is an online trove of academically rigorous thinking on subjects as diverse as race, ethics, children's rights, and torture. It was conceived in 1995, and is accessed about 700,000 times per week by readers around the world.   http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_141/tab_videos Stanford researchers have gained a new understanding of how energy can be transferred in collisions at the molecular scale. Professor Richard Zare uses a love triangle analogy to explain this advance in fundamental chemistry. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_167/tab_videos