Latest news with #WesternSydneyUniversity
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- Daily Mail
Birdie hacked Western Sydney University to change a 'fail' to a 'pass', cops say. These are the alleged EXTREME lengths she took next..
An electrical engineering student accused of covertly hacking into her university has resorted to a much less sophisticated strategy to hide her identity: a pink jumper. Birdie Kingston, 27, set upon her path of alleged cyber-crime by first seeking discounted parking on a Western Sydney University campus and changing one of her grades from a fail to a pass, police claim. They allege her attacks escalated until she was waging an 'ongoing and sustained campaign' against the university. She is accused of holding the university to ransom beginning in November, eventually demanding $40,000 in cryptocurrency to stop her revealing sensitive data about staff and students. Kingston appeared with her parents at Penrith Local Court on Friday. Magistrate Stephen Corry was told the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions had not decided whether it would take control of the matter from police. Outside court, the 27-year-old was escorted by her father as she covered her head with a light pink jumper to hide her face from reporters. She did not say anything as she struggled to open the door of a waiting car driven by her mother. A police search of the student's residence in September 2023 and a further raid of her Kingswood apartment in June resulted in her arrest on 20 fraud and cyber charges. She has not made any pleas and her matter will return to the same court on August 1. In June, Western Sydney University said the attacks had a significant impact on the university community and upgrades were made to prevent similar incidents in future. 'This includes employing specialist staff, implementing new technologies that enhance our ability to detect, respond to and defend against threats to our digital environment,' it said in a statement.
Sydney Morning Herald
04-07-2025
- Health
- Sydney Morning Herald
Is being bilingual good for your brain? Perhaps
Reams of papers have been published on the cognitive advantages of multilingualism. Beyond the conversational doors it can open, multilingualism is supposed to improve ' executive function ', a loose concept that includes the ability to ignore distractions, plan complex tasks and update beliefs as new information arrives. Most striking, numerous studies have even shown that bilinguals undergo a later onset of dementia, perhaps of around four years, on average. But some of these studies have failed to replicate, leaving experts wondering whether the effect is real, and if so, what exactly it consists of. The good news is that it is never too late to start learning a new language, if you want your brain to benefit. A study from 2019 showed that although a moderate amount of language learning in adults does not boost things like executive function, it does mitigate age-related decline. The biggest benefits seem to come to those who master their second languages fully. That in turn is usually because they speak the two as natives, or at least have spoken them on a near-daily basis for a long time. A bit of university French does not, unfortunately, convey the same advantages as deep knowledge and long experience. Switching languages frequently in the course of a day (or conversation) may be particularly important. Studies of interpreters and translators have provided some of the strongest evidence for a bilingual advantage. For example, they are faster at repeatedly jumping back and forth between simple addition and subtraction problems than monolinguals, suggesting generally better cognitive control. But elsewhere is 'a forest of confounding variables', says Mark Antoniou of Western Sydney University. Bilinguals are not like monolinguals in lots of ways. The child of diplomats, raised in a foreign language abroad, may have cognitive and educational advantages that have nothing to do with bilingualism. At the other end of the socioeconomic ladder, though, studies have found striking evidence that in poorer parts of the world multilingual people show the strongest advantages from speaking several languages. Where schooling is scant, researchers surmise that bilingualism exercises children's brains in a way that their schooling may not. Loading Age plays a role, too. Studies suggest that the effects of languages on the brain are stronger for young children and the old than they are for young adults. Bilingual tots seem to outperform in cognitive development in the early years, but their monolingual classmates may catch up with them later. One meta-analysis on the topic revealed that 25 studies out of 45 found a bilingual advantage in children younger than six, while only 17 found them in children aged six to 12. At the other end of life, Ellen Bialystok of York University, in Canada, the godmother of the field, has compared the cognitive protection bilingualism offers to the coverage of a piece of bread afforded by a slice of holey Swiss cheese. Doing other things that are good for the brain, such as exercise, is akin to stacking the slices. Their holes occur in different places, and thus collectively offer greater protection.
The Age
04-07-2025
- Health
- The Age
Is being bilingual good for your brain? Perhaps
Reams of papers have been published on the cognitive advantages of multilingualism. Beyond the conversational doors it can open, multilingualism is supposed to improve ' executive function ', a loose concept that includes the ability to ignore distractions, plan complex tasks and update beliefs as new information arrives. Most striking, numerous studies have even shown that bilinguals undergo a later onset of dementia, perhaps of around four years, on average. But some of these studies have failed to replicate, leaving experts wondering whether the effect is real, and if so, what exactly it consists of. The good news is that it is never too late to start learning a new language, if you want your brain to benefit. A study from 2019 showed that although a moderate amount of language learning in adults does not boost things like executive function, it does mitigate age-related decline. The biggest benefits seem to come to those who master their second languages fully. That in turn is usually because they speak the two as natives, or at least have spoken them on a near-daily basis for a long time. A bit of university French does not, unfortunately, convey the same advantages as deep knowledge and long experience. Switching languages frequently in the course of a day (or conversation) may be particularly important. Studies of interpreters and translators have provided some of the strongest evidence for a bilingual advantage. For example, they are faster at repeatedly jumping back and forth between simple addition and subtraction problems than monolinguals, suggesting generally better cognitive control. But elsewhere is 'a forest of confounding variables', says Mark Antoniou of Western Sydney University. Bilinguals are not like monolinguals in lots of ways. The child of diplomats, raised in a foreign language abroad, may have cognitive and educational advantages that have nothing to do with bilingualism. At the other end of the socioeconomic ladder, though, studies have found striking evidence that in poorer parts of the world multilingual people show the strongest advantages from speaking several languages. Where schooling is scant, researchers surmise that bilingualism exercises children's brains in a way that their schooling may not. Loading Age plays a role, too. Studies suggest that the effects of languages on the brain are stronger for young children and the old than they are for young adults. Bilingual tots seem to outperform in cognitive development in the early years, but their monolingual classmates may catch up with them later. One meta-analysis on the topic revealed that 25 studies out of 45 found a bilingual advantage in children younger than six, while only 17 found them in children aged six to 12. At the other end of life, Ellen Bialystok of York University, in Canada, the godmother of the field, has compared the cognitive protection bilingualism offers to the coverage of a piece of bread afforded by a slice of holey Swiss cheese. Doing other things that are good for the brain, such as exercise, is akin to stacking the slices. Their holes occur in different places, and thus collectively offer greater protection.
Sydney Morning Herald
04-07-2025
- Automotive
- Sydney Morning Herald
The car that can travel 300 kilometres on the energy a Tesla uses for 25
It's the car that can travel 300 kilometres using the same amount of energy a Tesla uses to go 25. Meet UNLIMITED 6.0, a solar car created by 20 students from Western Sydney University set to compete in the 2025 Bridgestone World Solar Challenge. The vehicle, which will race 3000 kilometres from Darwin to Adelaide against 36 other teams from 16 countries next month. The World Solar Challenge was first held in 1987, but this year's race poses a new challenge for teams: Previously run in mid-October, the 2025 challenge will begin on August 24, well before daylight savings time begins. The expected 20 per cent less sun will make energy management difficult, but the team's mechanical lead, Aaron Sharman, said the team could use live weather data to determine optimal speeds for adverse weather conditions. 'We can calculate where the clouds are, and then we receive information from the car, and then we can use machine learning algorithms to computationally create the ideal speed to go in the rain,' he said. The WSU team last raced in 2023, coming ninth. Since, they have created a new solar-powered car to compete in the challenger class, a time-based competition for single-seat solar vehicles. In 2023, UNSW team Sunswift Racing placed first in the cruiser class, in which teams develop vehicles designed to be road-legal.
The Age
04-07-2025
- Automotive
- The Age
The car that can travel 300 kilometres on the energy a Tesla uses for 25
It's the car that can travel 300 kilometres using the same amount of energy a Tesla uses to go 25. Meet UNLIMITED 6.0, a solar car created by 20 students from Western Sydney University set to compete in the 2025 Bridgestone World Solar Challenge. The vehicle, which will race 3000 kilometres from Darwin to Adelaide against 36 other teams from 16 countries next month. The World Solar Challenge was first held in 1987, but this year's race poses a new challenge for teams: Previously run in mid-October, the 2025 challenge will begin on August 24, well before daylight savings time begins. The expected 20 per cent less sun will make energy management difficult, but the team's mechanical lead, Aaron Sharman, said the team could use live weather data to determine optimal speeds for adverse weather conditions. 'We can calculate where the clouds are, and then we receive information from the car, and then we can use machine learning algorithms to computationally create the ideal speed to go in the rain,' he said. The WSU team last raced in 2023, coming ninth. Since, they have created a new solar-powered car to compete in the challenger class, a time-based competition for single-seat solar vehicles. In 2023, UNSW team Sunswift Racing placed first in the cruiser class, in which teams develop vehicles designed to be road-legal.
