Humanities & Society

The members of the Stereotypes, Washington University’s all-male a cappella ensemble, compete Friday, Dec. 6, for the title (and the tiara) of the Mr. Stereotype pageant. Music director and junior Kevin Vondrak talks about the group’s repertoire and new four-song EP.

For Amazon’s recently announced drone delivery system to get off the ground, the company will have to solve numerous difficult technological challenges. Chief among them will be increasing battery life, getting the drones to work without a central command and to “think” on their own, and determining what kind of navigation sensors they will use. As complicated as those tasks may be, says a WUSTL robotics expert, they will be much more easily solved than the seemingly more simple issues of regulation and insurance.

A new study by researchers at Washington University in St. Louis, University of California, Los Angeles, and Indiana University found that listeners can accurately determine the relative heights of speakers just by listening to them talk. The key clue may be contained in a particular type of sound produced in the lower airways of the lungs, known as a subglottal resonance.

Political scientist William Lowry has paid close attention to environmental issues for 25 years, marshaling what he learns each year and testing it in front of a class of critical students. He has honed his class “Environmental and Energy Issues” to the point where it is a white-water ride down a river of arguments and counterarguments that puts everything in context and lays out the facts — but skips the lecturing and fearmongering that characterize this debate. There can be no better guide to the perplexed.

“Christmas Creep,” the “technical” term for the pre-holiday appearance of retail decorations and promotions, crept into stores and marketing in October this year. Major department stores are even pre-empting Black Friday by opening on Thanksgiving Day. Is starting the holiday shopping season earlier and earlier a good marketing move or could it backfire? Four marketing professors at Washington University in St. Louis’ Olin Business School discuss this phenomenon.

Volunteers gathered at the Danforth University Center for a Give Thanks Give Back wrapping party. Sophomores Cherisse Onuigbo (left) and Shawnee Gao helped wrap. WUSTL student groups, departments and residential floors donated money and presents for the “100 Neediest Cases” campaign.

Reducing barriers to breast-feeding and providing a welcoming and accessible space for students and staff to pump milk or feed their babies is the focus of a new initiative at the School of Medicine. Shown is Assistant Vice Chancellor Melissa Hopkins, who is leading the effort.

Tours of the MySci Investigation Station housed at the MySci Resource Center were in full force Nov. 19 at the latest event of the STL PREP (Perception, Reality, Engagement and Partnership) orientation series. The MySci Resource Center hosted a learning session for WUSTL faculty and staff called “Impacting K-12 Education.”

WUSTL’s “Courtesy is Contagious” campaign reminds cyclists to give pedestrians the right-of-way.

Washington University in St. Louis law students have begun offering privacy and Internet safety education to local middle school students. Students, under the supervision of WUSTL law professor Neil Richards, JD, are adapting an original middle school curriculum for privacy education developed by Fordham law school’s Center on Law and Information Policy.