How Dr. Joy Buolamwini is Working Towards Equitable and Accountable Technology June 28, 2023 Share Several years ago, while still a graduate student at MIT’s Media Lab, Joy Buolamwini began to notice a troubling pattern in facial recognition technology––an inability to detect a wide range of skin tones and facial structures, even in widely available systems employed by Big Tech, government agencies, and law enforcement.
51 Pegasi b Fellow Discovers First Extrasolar Radiation Belt: Q&A with Dr. Melodie Kao June 13, 2023 Share A team of scientists led by Dr. Melodie Kao, a 51 Pegasi b postdoctoral fellow based at the University of California, Santa Cruz, has discovered the first extra-solar radiation belt, a zone of energetic charged particles that are captured by and held around a planet by that planet’s magnetosphere. See below for a Q&A with …
Letter from the President and CEO — Spring 2023 June 6, 2023 Share The Greenland ice sheet extends more than 600,000 square miles, covering most of the country. It is about four times the size of California and it is melting. The loss from the ice sheet is responsible for a significant percentage of today’s sea level rise.
New Report: Grantee NASEM on Closing the Opportunity Gap for Young Children May 31, 2023 Share When it comes to investing in equitable education opportunities for young children, factors related to the opportunity gap cannot be overlooked. For young children, some of these structural and institutional forces that maintain and exacerbate inequality include poverty, food insecurity, exposure to violence, inadequate access to health care, well-funded quality schools, and mental health care.
Solving the Astrophysical N-body Problem More Efficiently May 26, 2023 Share A new algorithm developed by a grantee of the Foundation’s Science program has the potential to trace the evolution of large astrophysical systems, such as galaxies, planetary systems, or clusters of stars.
Communicating with Multilingual Populations: New Language Access Toolkit for Nonprofits May 24, 2023 Share How does your organization ensure that individuals and communities with limited English proficiency have the same level of engagement with your organization’s work as those who speak English as their primary language?
President Biden Announces Intent to Appoint Liz Simons as Member of Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention May 12, 2023 Share Today, President Biden announced key appointments to several boards and commissions, including his intent to appoint Liz Simons, Chair of the Board of the Heising-Simons Foundation, to serve as a member of the Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
Q&A with Grantee UnboundEd: Finding Common Ground for Effective Literacy Instruction in California May 8, 2023 Share In California, twenty percent of students attending public schools are classified as English learners, a term that identifies students who speak a language other than English at home, and who are learning English in other settings. As the state with the largest English learner population in the country, discussions on how to deliver appropriate reading …
New Initiative Lifts Up Early Childhood Practitioners in California with $2 Million in Awards May 8, 2023 Share The Heising-Simons Foundation’s Education program is pleased to share that Practitioners’ Voice California (PVCA), housed at Tides Foundation, has granted nearly $2 million to community-based organizations across California to build up the leadership power of early childhood practitioners. PVCA is supported by a consortium of foundations, including Heising-Simons Foundation.