Stanford University Student Journals
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Teaching Justice: Mitigating Bias in Machine Learning
No full textEdited by Dr. Carlotta A. Berry and Dr. Brandeis Hill Marshall, two leading Black American women in STEM, the book addresses a longstanding gap in the field by offering a comprehensive and socially responsive guide to understanding and mitigating bias in artificial intelligence systems. Most of all, these two technologists offer a clear, technologically sound set of instructions for responsible model design and maintenance, accompanied by helpful charts and figures
Hillbilly or Scholar? The Struggle for Appalachian Academics to Speak or Succeed
Full text linkAppalachian students and scholars often face linguistic discrimination in academic settings where our dialect is unfairly associated with a lack of intelligence or credibility. This paper explores how biases against Appalachian English manifest in classroom participation and professional advancement, creating barriers to academic success and reinforcing linguistic insecurity. Through personal accounts and existing research, this study highlights the ways in which Appalachian speakers are pressured to conform to standardized English, often at the cost of our cultural identity. By shifting academic norms, we can ensure that Appalachian voices are valued for our contributions rather than judged by our pronunciation
Navigating an Ocean of Mili-Tourism
Full text linkHow do we define this waterscape that we border known as the Pacific Ocean? Is it a vast and empty space? How do we move forward from this limiting imagination? Historically, we have used literature and media to portray the Pacific Islands as peaceful, desolate, and passive, which has aided in the historical process of colonization that still persists today in the Pacific region through U.S. militarization and tourism. While it may seem that these two industries are inherently separate entities, they have co-evolved to become one through “militourism”: a phenomenon, coined by Teresia Teaiwa, in which these industries enable each other to continue displacing and silencing Native Pacific peoples, desecrating sacred spaces and land, controlling Native bodies (human and non-human), and much more. This microfilm will attempt to change mindscapes: inviting audiences to reconceptualize the Pacific Islands and introducing viewers to Pasifika sovereignty and histories such as the effects of militarization and tourism on these communities.
References
1960s Hawaii, Hula Girls Dance, Dancing, Holiday, Archive Footage. (2014). YouTube. Retrieved 2025, from https://youtu.be/by2V5TvjC4s?si=Xb9252BiXRizdysJ.
Smithsonian Channel. (n.d.). The Pacific War in Color. Retrieved 2025, from https://youtu.be/1xPeILtIcGQ?si=ty8dsmpWHzkZ7wJ8.
Tahiti Tourist Development Board, & Caillou, A. (2015). " O TAHITI TELE " 1972 TAHITI / FRENCH POLYNESIA TRAVELOGUE PAPEETE MOOREA BORA BORA 72862. YouTube. https://youtu.be/WiCjnoa_kzM?si=4bGZn4ZvxHtna8b2.
Tahiti, Islands Under The Sun. (2020). Tahiti, Islands Under The Sun (1960s). Retrieved 2025, from https://youtu.be/Q5VyeUog5xI?si=l-_RvQNSBq_nTbGG.
The Process and Outworking of Scientific Advancement
Full text linkScience is a tapestry woven by disruption, scrutiny, and innovation. Threads spun by models characterized by Karl Popper, Thomas Kuhn, and Paul Feyerabend interlace to reveal the dynamic journey of scientific evolution. Popper champions critical testing to distinguish genuine science from imitation, heralding the notion of falsifiability. Kuhn reshapes this narrative by exploring paradigm shifts to highlight the staggered maturation of science, implicated by scientific crises and sociocultural contexts. In stark contrast to these views, Feyerabend favors epistemological anarchism over fixed methods, embracing pluralistic and unconventional structures. In synthesis, these philosophers illustrate science as a dance between order and chaos, society and methodology, offering a deep perspective with which to navigate the challenges of scientific advancement in the ever-changing world
Interview with Michaela Bronstein
Full text linkMichaela Bronstein is an Assistant Professor in the English Department of Stanford University. Professor Bronstein researches the historical context of the novel, focusing on connections to Anglo-American modernism. In inspecting literature from 19th-century Russian and British authors to later 20th-century African and African-American authors, Professor Bronstein seeks to understand the transhistorical afterlives of literary works and examine how narratives that had a particular effect during their own times have become a part of more recent histories. In her most recent work, Professor Bronstein has delved into the modern television realm in order to connect the intimate temporalities of reading with the broad temporalities of reception.
Her publications include her book, Out of Context, as well as her manuscript-in-progress, Crimes for All Humanity: Revolution and the Modern Novel. She teaches a variety of English classes at Stanford such as Narrative and Narrative Theory, Serial Storytelling, and Literature and the Future.
Professor Bronstein attended the University of Oxford for her undergraduate education followed by graduate work in Yale University’s English Department. Prior to joining Stanford in 2016, she also worked as a Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows and a Visiting Lecturer at MIT
mTOR Complexes and Their Role in Oncogenesis, Metastasis, and Targeted Drug Impediment
Full text linkmTOR, a serine-threonine kinase, functions as a core component of mTORC1 and mTORC2, which regulate cellular processes such as growth, protein synthesis, and autophagy in response to nutrient and growth factor signals. It is a central player in several signaling pathways, including PI3K/AKT, TSC1/TSC2/Rheb, AMPK/LKB1, and VAM6/RagGTPases. Dysregulated mTOR is implicated in oncogenesis and cancer progression, and while mTOR-targeted therapies make theoretical sense as a potential therapy, clinical trials have been disappointing. Further research is necessary to elucidate mTOR’s precise role in cancer and the intricate mechanisms cancer cells employ to evade mTOR inhibition to develop more effective therapies.
Keywords: Cellular and Molecular Biology, Molecular Biology, mTOR Signaling, Oncogenesis, Metastasis, Drug Resistanc
Exploring the Benefits and Limitations of Flywheel Regenerative Braking for Sustainable Transportation
Full text linkThis study aims to assess the feasibility of implementing a flywheel regenerative braking system in bicycles as a method to enhance energy efficiency in transportation. The project involves the comprehensive design, fabrication, and testing of a prototype that captures and stores kinetic energy generated during braking in a mechanical flywheel system. Unlike conventional braking systems, which dissipate energy as heat, this approach enables the reuse of stored energy for acceleration, potentially improving overall vehicle efficiency (Wager, 2024). The evaluation process considers multiple performance factors, including energy recovery efficiency, mechanical reliability, and practical applicability. The prototype was tested under controlled conditions to compare its effectiveness against traditional braking systems. Experimental results indicate a substantial capacity for energy recovery, reinforcing the viability of mechanical energy storage as a sustainable alternative to battery-based regenerative braking (Erhan et al., 2021).
Keywords: energy recovery, flywheel regenerative braking, mechanical energy storage, sustainable transportation, vehicle efficienc
A Machine Learning Approach for Assessing Labor Supply to the Online Gig Economy
Full text linkThe online labor market, comprised of companies such as Upwork, Amazon Mechanical Turk, and their freelancer workforce, has expanded worldwide over the past 15 years and has changed the labor market landscape. Although qualitative studies have been done to identify factors related to the global supply of the online labor market, few data modeling studies have been conducted to quantify the importance of these factors in this area. This study applied tree-based supervised learning techniques, decision tree regression, random forest, and gradient boosting, to systematically evaluate the online labor supply with 70 features related to climate, population, economics, education, health, language, and technology adoption. To provide machine learning explainability, SHAP, based on the Shapley values, was introduced to identify features with high marginal contributions. The top 5 contributing features indicate the tight integration of technology adoption, language, and human migration patterns with the online labor market supply.
Keywords: business, boosting, commerce and trade, digital divide, economics, ensemble learning, globalization, machine learning, random forest, social factors, statistical learning, sharing economy, trad
Novel insights into amyotrophic lateral sclerosis progression through machine learning: analysis of biomarkers and clinical observations in a large-scale patient database
Full text linkAmyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a relentless and devastating neurodegenerative disease characterized by the progressive degeneration of motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord. This study aims to enhance the tracking of ALS progression by identifying key predictors of decline using the ALS Functional Rating Scale (ALSFRS) score. Utilizing the comprehensive Pooled Resource Open-Access ALS Clinical Trials (PRO-ACT) Database, a diverse array of machine learning algorithms is employed, including logistic and LASSO regressions, support vector machines, random forests, gradient boosted trees, explainable boosted machines, extreme gradient boosted trees, and neural network modeling. After data preprocessing, the study analyzed a clean cohort of approximately 6,000 patients and over 400 features, representing the most extensive dataset used in ALS research within the Pro-ACT framework to date. This dataset includes detailed demographics, medication usage, and blood marker information. The Explainable Boosting Machine (EBM) demonstrated superior performance, achieving an AUC of 0.81, accuracy of 0.74, recall of 0.73, and precision of 0.64, with significant (80%) overlap in key features identified across models. A total of 24 biomarkers were identified as playing a role in ALS progression, with Bicarbonate, Creatine Kinase, Creatinine, Chloride, Calcium, and Phosphorus standing out as the most significant. Both the feature importance scores from the Explainable Boosting Machine (EBM) and the Mann-Whitney Test (p < 0.001) confirmed the statistical significance of these key biomarkers, validating their critical roles in the analysis of ALS progression
Investigating the Causality and Perceptions of Adverse Events Following Immunization (AEFI) and the awareness of the Novel mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine in Tallinn Upper Secondary Schools
Full text linkThe COVID-19 pandemic launched a multi-billion dollar and highly time-sensitive global search for a vaccine, leading to the world\u27s first mRNA vaccines, which employed a revolutionary method of inoculation. Although mRNA vaccines have proven to be highly effective against COVID-19, their impact on the human body is still being investigated and there have been instances of public distrust of the vaccine, leading to some people refusing to take it. This study investigates three aspects in Tallinn secondary school students: how well they understand the basics of mRNA vaccination technology, why those who refused vaccination did so, and their perception of adverse reactions to the vaccine they received. For the practical part of the research, a questionnaire was used, among students of the 10th and 12th grades of a total of 20 schools. The questionnaire consisted of 13 questions: 10 multiple-choice and three open-ended. Each of the multiple-choice questions also had an "Other" option, which allowed students to input their own answer. The questionnaire was bilingual, including both Estonian and Russian speakers. A total of 168 10th grade students participated in the questionnaire, representing 61.5% of the respondents, and 105 12th grade students, representing 38.5% of the respondents. The results showed that awareness of mRNA vaccines among students in Tallinn was low, and adverse reactions to vaccination consisted mainly of fatigue and muscle pain. Parental refusal was the main reason for not vaccinating, and information was mainly obtained from social media