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Scandal at America's top science fair

karlstack.com

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Re: Scandal at America's top science fair

#21

Post by luyu_wu »

blackeyeblitzar wrote: post #9

Science fairs always have hints of fraud around them. Many of the children putting out incredibly advanced research, beyond their capacity, are benefiting from their parents’ expertise, or friends of family, or access to labs, and such. It’s not talked about much but has been an issue for decades. As a side note, the criticism around this incident seems to have some racial tones. It’s weird to see tweets referring to…

Agree with the last bit. This is the perfect way to start racially stereotyping.

For the first bit, unfortunately that's hard to control and is actually talked about quite a bit (speaking as a HS student). I would be interested in alternative suggestions to limit these advantages, but I don't think it's realistically possible.

Re: Scandal at America's top science fair

#22

Post by _lvbh »

blackeyeblitzar wrote: post #9

Science fairs always have hints of fraud around them. Many of the children putting out incredibly advanced research, beyond their capacity, are benefiting from their parents’ expertise, or friends of family, or access to labs, and such. It’s not talked about much but has been an issue for decades. As a side note, the criticism around this incident seems to have some racial tones. It’s weird to see tweets referring to…

> As a side note, the criticism around this incident seems to have some racial tones.

Noticed that as well. I feel like it has unfortunately become somewhat socially acceptable to be slightly racist against Indians and Chinese people due to a mix of politics and demographics in tech.

Re: Scandal at America's top science fair

#23

Post by zachlatta »

It's frustrating that we encourage fraudulent behavior for the college application process. I blame the judges, and college admissions departments.

It orients the entire USA public education system around training sociopathic behavior into teenagers.

We tell young people the best way to get ahead in life is through exaggerating. Then we train them to do it in their college essays and extracurriculars.

Gross.

Re: Scandal at America's top science fair

#24

Post by _lvbh »

One of the details that strike me is that the cheater comes from a fairly wealthy background and has no need for that prize money at all. They have much more to lose than gain and this doesn’t seem rational at all.

Re: Scandal at America's top science fair

#25

Post by saagarjha »

_lvbh wrote: post #24

One of the details that strike me is that the cheater comes from a fairly wealthy background and has no need for that prize money at all. They have much more to lose than gain and this doesn’t seem rational at all.

They don’t need the money. They want to win so they can get into college.

Re: Scandal at America's top science fair

#26

Post by dataflow »

> The image boxed in red above is a falsified image taken from online, and has had mirroring performed in the hopes that no one would notice.

This probably won't happen in the future... because future competitors will learn from this mistake and know to run their image generation through AI so that their images are "novel"...

> Don't mentors have to sign off along the way? That part I don't get...

Can someone explain this? Is it plausible the mentors genuinely had no idea?

Re: Scandal at America's top science fair

#27

Post by capybara_2020 »

throwawaysleep wrote: post #11

I wrote an earlier reply to someone about how all I learned from the several mandatory ethics courses is that the people who cheat tend to be winners even after their punishment, if any. I bet that even after all this, that kid will still be better off having cheated than not.

I am curious, what is the definition of winners here? Do they make more money or do they invent more successful products/ideas or is it something else?

Re: Scandal at America's top science fair

#28

Post by jgord »

defrost wrote: post #17
userbinator wrote: post #12

[flagged]

What are you attempting to say with "scare quotes" and conspiratorial nods to The Consensus ?

Slightly offtopic : there seems to be a lack of articles loosely related to climate change / green-tech on HN... given the amount of new tech and the size and urgency of warming, Id expect to see more discussion/argument.

It seems to be a self-censored topic on HN, for reasons I genuinely cant guess.

Re: Scandal at America's top science fair

#29

Post by [deleted] »

blackeyeblitzar wrote: post #9

Science fairs always have hints of fraud around them. Many of the children putting out incredibly advanced research, beyond their capacity, are benefiting from their parents’ expertise, or friends of family, or access to labs, and such. It’s not talked about much but has been an issue for decades. As a side note, the criticism around this incident seems to have some racial tones. It’s weird to see tweets referring to…

[deleted]

Re: Scandal at America's top science fair

#30

Post by snickerbockers »

>Everyone makes mistakes — Lord knows I did plenty of stupid, immoral things when I was 17 — and there is always the opportunity for growth and redemption.

when did the definition of 'mistake' change to encompass actions done on purpose? a mistake is when your data is invalid because you did the math wrong, not when all your data is simultaneously false and plagiarized.

i don't mean to disagree with the notion that his entire life shouldn't be ruined over one incident at a science fair when he's a teenager, but let's not make it sound like this is a careless blunder that could happen to anybody.

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