Sarah Rasmussen

Assistant Prof of Math at UIUC. Recently moved from Cambridge U, UK. PhD @Harvardmath. BS Physics. Other interests Covid-19, med journal reform, education.

[Sarah Rasmussen @SarahDRasmussen]

@stephaniemlee @bethmcmurtrie Roughly half of my students cheated on homework (which is a significant part of student grades) the last two semesters I taught. Last spring, the cheating was roughly 30% Chegg, 70% AI. By Fall, the cheating was more like 3% Chegg, 97% AI.

[Sarah Rasmussen @SarahDRasmussen]

@TaliaRinger @estarianne Wait. What server was this? I haven’t tried mastodon yet since didn’t have the free time to gamble on it.

But what kind of exclusionary elitist nonsense attacks someone for turning to one of the largest sources of math jobs in the country when jobs are so scarce in some fields?

[Sarah Rasmussen @SarahDRasmussen]

@JoBrodie @Kapur_AK Maybe you could clarify. Is your concern with the assumptions one would need to make to interpret the question? (Eg, it mentions 6 children and a team, then lists statements by 6 people without confirming these are the children or that their statements relate to team membership.)

[Sarah Rasmussen @SarahDRasmussen]

@JoBrodie @Kapur_AK It saddens me to see so many women on here reinforcing the cultural trend that encourages women to grossly exaggerate logical or quantitative inability and then boast about it.

Girls are watching.

If you think a question is trite, a poor choice, etc, you could say that instead.

[Sarah Rasmussen @SarahDRasmussen]

@lpachter @kareem_carr Yes.

Intentional notational or semantic ambiguity often gets high engagement, but he could easily have raised this discussion without saying false things about math, which is one of the fields most obsessed with clarifying assumptions and specifying entire solution spaces.

[Sarah Rasmussen @SarahDRasmussen]

@Ananyo @pwr2dppl @WanderingPoint @stevenstrogatz I’ve seen a few sources claiming that Heims’ book recounted some problematic behaviours, but I haven’t read his book (nor do I know how reliable it is). I tried to see if Google books had any of these comments included in its scanned sections, and found this:

[Sarah Rasmussen @SarahDRasmussen]

@TaliaRinger Thanks! That would be great. We just arrived on Tuesday. Currently camping out on air mattresses in a mostly empty house while our stuff travels by boat. We’re just about to leave again for an extended stay with grandparents, but we’ll be back by the second week of August.

[Sarah Rasmussen @SarahDRasmussen]

@Quasilocal It’s weird. Pure math Twitter is so tiny I thought I followed a decent chunk of the accounts, but I keep seeing references to toxic discussions of category theory without any of the discussions themselves showing up on my feed. Why is everyone seeing them but me? Am I just lucky?

[Sarah Rasmussen @SarahDRasmussen]

@kareem_carr A coercive controller’s motivation to shut down a surfing career isn’t “hot barbie behavior make jealous.” It’s to target what’s most important to her, what gives her power.

All sorts of passions, pursuits, and careers can empower a person, including academic and STEM ones.

[Sarah Rasmussen @SarahDRasmussen]

@kareem_carr I know it was meant as a Fisher joke, but

1) Jokes about early-stage coercive control are about as funny as rape jokes.

2) The joke obliquely implies CC DA doesn’t occur in academia. It does. There are STEM academics who’ve received instructions analogous to this from partners.

[Sarah Rasmussen @SarahDRasmussen]

@baumlab For instance, below, I asked ChatGPT to write a sample EDI statement for a white male applicant for a trainee position in your lab. And I don't mean to pick on you here, because I as well would very much like to know how to weed out creeps. I just don't don't see how these help.

[Sarah Rasmussen @SarahDRasmussen]

@baumlab Tbh, I don’t understand how this helps. One of the worst offenders I know showed me a flawless EDI statement he’d whipped up in an hour or so. By contrast, for those who’ve suffered harassment/assault from academic seniors, it can be traumatising try to write such a statement.

[Sarah Rasmussen @SarahDRasmussen]

@johnennis @ianjhurst @AndyMasley Sorry, just checked your profile. You’re likely already aware of such patterns then.
Also, Harvard’s math PhD program administers its qualifying exams on arrival (or at least they did when I was there), so many of its grad courses are somewhat more taught with its ugrads in mind.

[Sarah Rasmussen @SarahDRasmussen]

@johnennis @ianjhurst @AndyMasley That is correct.
But grad courses are often relevant to ugrad students, because at any university often the math ugrads planning to continue in academia take at least a few grad courses. Eg, all the math and physics courses I took my junior and senior year were grad courses.

[Sarah Rasmussen @SarahDRasmussen]

@RexDouglass @ajordannafa There certainly exist areas of science for which it is common to run experiments that measure something meaningful. Eg particle physics. But there are so many research subfields in medicine, education, etc for which the experiments, as run, might as well have just invented data.

[Sarah Rasmussen @SarahDRasmussen]

@katief1978 Considering there are more writers than physicists, I’d have thought Eng Lit was the more practical degree. So that’s fine if it’s what she thinks she’d enjoy, but it shouldn’t be with the idea that it’s rebelling against the practical. Most who study physics do so for enjoyment.

[Sarah Rasmussen @SarahDRasmussen]

@ama_ro_jo @harmlesslife Yes, I’m wondering if this is more a UK thing. (I’ve been in UK about a decade.) In US, 4 extended family members of mine work in MH. In all their gossiping about patients I’ve only heard the psychiatrists call them patients and the therapists call them patients or clients.

[Sarah Rasmussen @SarahDRasmussen]

@richardbutchins @harmlesslife Interesting. I’m not sure why it took me so long to notice usage of the term, but I agree with your take.

For that matter, from my experience of trying to help someone I care about access care in the UK, I think that in many cases the term “waitlist user” might be more accurate.

[Jelani Nelson @minilek]

The California State system is, I believe, the largest university system in the USA (by enrollment). Its systemwide academic senate has published a formal resolution stating the UC is approving courses as math that don't meet state standards. Specifically, data science courses 1/