Latest news with #SSAC
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
MPS plans to enhance student voice in decision-making, ensure students have seat on board
Milwaukee Public Schools is looking to reaffirm a half-century-old policy that would allow students to have a consistent seat on the School Board. The policy reaffirmation is taking place to see what students want revised within the current legislation, said School Board President Missy Zombor. The board hopes to cut down barriers to participation and appoint a student representative to sit on the board. Zombor said students may currently struggle to participate due to the number of board meetings, which can be difficult to attend on top of schoolwork and personal responsibilities. Additionally, she said, some meetings may not feel relevant to students. Zombor is seeking student feedback on which meetings they think make the most sense for representatives to attend. "This is about opening up that conversation," Zombor said. "How do they envision what would give them the most impact, and give them the most access to the board in a way that helps them share what's most important to them?" MPS adopted Administrative Policy 8.18: Student Involvement in Decision Making in December 1971 and most recently revised the policy in July 2012. The policy states that as societal changes take place, schools make decisions that "vitally affect" students, who "wish to be involved in these decisions and express their feelings about them." The MPS Superintendent's Student Advisory Council, comprising student representatives from each high school in the district, seeks to create dialogue between students and the superintendent. Administrative Policy 8:18 states that the SSAC should develop a process for two students to be selected annually to sit with the board during deliberation. These two students are free to attend all non-executive board sessions, receive all nonconfidential materials and speak to the board, under the administrative policy. However, students on the board are not allowed to vote or make motions. Zombor explained that MPS is bound by state statutes that require voting members to be selected by the electorate. Despite this, she said the board will still try to give students to as much access as possible. "Having a student on the board helps remind us that every decision we make impacts students," Zombor said. "I'm really looking forward to reaffirming that policy." David Valdés, student engagement associate for SSAC, said it's important to him to see students expressing themselves freely to adults who are willing to listen. He cited school safety and mental health as two concerns that students frequently bring up in SSAC meetings. "We need to build a bridge so that our kids are able to speak openly about what's going on in their school without shame," Valdés said. "They should be able to have adults in their life in the district who are willing to listen to them." Having a student seat on a school board isn't unique to MPS, Zombor said. Some nearby school districts already have this in their administrative policy. Kaymin Phillips, a senior at Shorewood High School, has served as one of the Shorewood School Board student representatives for a year. The student body elected her in June 2024, and she began attending biweekly board meetings in September. Phillips said she applied for the position her junior year because she's always been interested in politics and felt it was a chance to be involved in a "mini government." "As a minority, I know a lot of people don't feel heard, and I know that having those voices in that type of seat is very important," Phillips said. "Being able to advocate for my fellow students and everything feels good, to know that we're helping make a difference." Phillips said it makes her hopeful to hear that MPS is working to implement student voices on its board. She said students should use the opportunity to speak up for their teachers with everything MPS is going through. On May 13, the Shorewood School Board voted unanimously to eliminate one staff position and reduce three other positions to part time. Phillips said she and other students pitched ideas to the board opposing the cuts and supporting their teachers. "My voice really helped during that decision," Phillips said. "I feel like they were just thinking of money, but not thinking of the students who it was affecting, cutting classes that we enjoy and cutting teachers." The policy reaffirmation will be requested at the Committee on Legislation, Rules and Policies meeting June 12. Zombor said the School Board has asked Valdés for any student-recommended policy changes and has invited students to reach out to board members directly with their thoughts. "This is a really great way for students to get involved in the district and get involved in change, and learn how one person can make change through policy," Zombor said. The immediate implementation of a student seat on the school board will depend on whether SSAC students can elect a representative by the beginning of the school year, Zombor said. She added that while the student representatives would ideally start by the September board cycle, she wants them to participate in some sort of orientation before jumping into meetings. In the future, Zombor said the policy can always be revised to reflect what works best for students. "I feel like a lot of schools might think it's cool to add a representative position just for the outside look and showing that 'We value our students,'" Phillips said. "But I think it's really important for the actual school members to be listening to what they say, instead of just having them there to listen." Contact Mia Thurow at mthurow@ This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: MPS School Board president wants to add student seat
Express Tribune
28-04-2025
- Science
- Express Tribune
Pakistani-born scientist appointed to Scottish Science Advisory Council
With a research portfolio exceeding £13 million and over 500 peer-reviewed publications in top international journals — including the prestigious Nature family — Professor Abbasi is also the editor of 14 scientific books. PHOTO: University of Glasgow Listen to article Professor Qammer Hussain Abbasi, a distinguished academic and scientist originally from Murree and a graduate of the University of Engineering and Technology (UET), Lahore, has been appointed as a member of the Scottish Science Advisory Council (SSAC) — Scotland's highest scientific advisory body. This council provides independent, expert advice to Scottish Ministers through the Chief Scientific Adviser on science and technology issues. Abbasi is the first-ever Pakistani to receive this honour. According to the SSAC's official website, Abbasi currently serves at the James Watt School of Engineering, University of Glasgow, as a Professor of Applied Electromagnetics and Sensing. He also acts as Co-Director of the Centre for Doctoral Training in Diversity-Led, Mission-Driven Research and Director for Communication Sensing and Imaging hub. With a research portfolio exceeding £13 million and over 500 peer-reviewed publications in top international journals — including the prestigious Nature family — Abbasi is also the editor of 14 scientific books. His wide-ranging work spans areas such as intergrated sensing and communication, 6G and 5G technologies, terahertz electronics, wireless and nano-scale communications, sensors, radio frequencies for healthcare, and even brain–machine interfaces. He has received multiple accolades, including a Global Talent endorsement from the Royal Academy of Engineering, teaching excellence award and the Sensor 2021 Young Scientist Award. His multidisciplinary approach continues to bridge the worlds of electronics, computing, and biomedical engineering. Notably, Abbasi was also appointed as an advisor to the UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology in November 2024, where he contributes policy recommendations related to converging technologies such as semiconductors, quantum computing, AI, and future telecommunications. "My role in both bodies is to provide technical guidance to shape national science and innovation policy. These insights are passed on to the Secretary of State and ultimately to wider government. The goal is to converge emerging technologies to support sustainable economic growth," Abbasi said in an interview with The Express Tribune. Adding to his list of historic achievements, he was recently elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) (the national academy of Scotland) — the same prestigious institution that once included luminaries like James Clerk Maxwell and James Watt. He is the youngest Pakistani ever to receive this honour.
New York Times
04-03-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Sloan conference preview: Rise of college GMs, AI's impact and are nerds ruining basketball?
This Friday in Boston, more than 2,500 sports-industry leaders, practitioners and students will convene for the 19th annual Sloan Sports Analytics Conference. Once endearingly dubbed 'Dorkapalooza' by Bill Simmons, the conference has established itself as one of the most interesting sports business events of the year. Advertisement Co-founded in 2006 by Kraft Analytics Group CEO Jessica Gelman and Philadelphia 76ers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey and perennially managed by MBA students at MIT's Sloan School of Management, SSAC is known for its lively panel discussions, thought-provoking research competitions and jostling hallway networking, which ranges from top executives pitching ideas to each other to ambitious MBA students hustling those same execs for entry-level front-office jobs. I have participated as a SSAC panel moderator a few times and also attended as a curious fan, but even when I can't go, I pay close attention throughout the weekend to the social media handle (@SloanSportsConf), hashtag (#ssac25) and YouTube page (@42analytics, where you can check out panels from previous years) as a barometer for emerging ideas in sports business and management. Which panels on this year's agenda have caught my eye? My connection to Gelman goes back even further than SSAC's launch. Before that, she and I were classmates at Harvard Business School, where the former Harvard basketball player regularly schooled me in the campus gym and intramural hoops league when she wasn't breaking down a case study in the classroom. Since then, she has become one of the leading voices in the sports industry not just for amplifying the application of analytics, but also for developing wider opportunities for women in sports. I connected with Gelman to get her perspective on the weekend ahead. (The conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.) What specific themes or topics have emerged as the most hot-button for the 2025 event? 'Analytics in Motion' is our overarching theme this year, as we are seeing how much analytics is changing the game on the field/court and, simultaneously, how fan consumption and engagement are evolving with streaming, digital and a more connected gameday. Advertisement Those changes are happening across five major areas: globalization, investing, college sports, women's sports and AI. Each of those areas is woven throughout all our discussions with a focus on how analytics is driving and affecting the growth and changes of the sports industry. This is Year 19 of SSAC, so what has surprised you most about the evolution of the conference over the past decade? The acceptance of analytics as part of the fabric of sports. Ten years ago, we were still talking about whether analytics mattered, and you may remember Charles Barkley's comments then ('Among other things, I've always believed analytics was crap'). This year's panel, 'Have the Nerds Ruined Basketball?' highlights how accepted analytics is (although not in understanding, application and usage) and the need to be constantly evolving the game and fan experience as the underpinnings and insights change. So, today, there is acceptance, but from our perspective on the sporting side and especially on the business side, we are still in the very early days of analytics application and usage. Many new sports are starting to use it, especially individual sports and equally, this year, we have a panel highlighting the data accessibility limitations in women's sports. Significantly, as analytics has gained acceptance these past 10 years, we recognized how we could play a role in highlighting analytics as a growing focus of sports and focused on creating opportunities for historically under-represented populations in sports at SSAC. This year, we will have our seventh women's luncheon, welcome our fifth mentorship class and continue efforts since inception, including résumé review and career conversations. We have always had a careers-focused element, given that we are a student-run conference, and we love how many alumni are now leaders in the industry. Advertisement These broader efforts over the past decade have a long tail, and we are very proud to see many former mentees getting their break in sports through SSAC. The mentors' willingness and desire to give back highlights how special this sports analytics community is. Any advice for people who want to follow along but won't be able to be in Boston? Our roots are focused on education and increasing the adoption of analytics in sports. We live-stream our main panel room at no cost and have done so for more than a decade. As a student-run, non-profit that sprung out of a class, Daryl and I were teaching at MIT Sloan, multiple forms of access is an area we pride ourselves on. If the collective brainpower of every SSAC attendee could be harnessed to solve one consistently vexing sports-business question, what would you pick? Your question is specific to the sports business, so that is the focus. College sports are at a crossroads, and the potential impact on Olympic and women's sports is an area we should all be focused on. We are seeing increasing interest and investment in these sports professionally, as they are more readily accessible and available digitally. As the 'training ground' for athletes (including five percent international) and, more importantly, teaching great skills for life, ensuring continued opportunity and growth for those sports is critical. The impact of college sports participation on future business executives is well-documented: 95 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs were collegiate athletes and 94 percent of C-suite women were collegiate athletes, so ideating on this is a collective imperative. (Photo of Daryl Morey: Tim Nwachukwu / Getty Images)
