How the Equifax hack could hurt your credit and job search

How the Equifax hack could hurt your credit and job searchHow the Equifax hack could hurt your credit and job searchFor the estimated 145.5 million Americans affected by the hack on credit reporting agencyEquifax, they will not only have to reckon with fraudulent activity in their credit history in the months and years to come, but also with an unfair side effect having to explain that fraudulent credit history to potentially unsympathetic employers.According to a 2012surveyby the Society for Human Resource Management, nearly half of employers are subjecting job candidates to credit checks. Forty-seven percent of employers admitted to checking job applicants credit reports as part of the hiring process.Thats because, whether you like it or not, employers often look at your credit history before choosing to hire you.The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission prohibits employers from having a financial requirement if itdoes not help the employer to accurately identifyresponsible and r eliable employees, but if an employer can prove that the credit check is relevant to the job, they can go ahead and look up your credit background.Of course, you have to consent to have this searched, but if you want that job, its not much of an option.Research shows credit reports a poor indicatorWhats especially troubling about how many employers use credit reports is that research shows the information contained therein has almost no predictive power as to what kind of employee someone will be. The information in the report may be flat-out incorrect or have activity out of your control, such as hack-related debt. One in four credit reports has an error, according to the Federal Trade Commission.Use of these reports may also say more about an employers biases than they say about your qualifications. A 2017 studyfound that employers go beyond the numbers - worryingly, these reports can become jump-off points for hiring managers to engage in moral storytelling.My research suggests that the moral distinctions employers draw vary according to their own life experiences - carrying student loans, say, makes one more empathetic to candidates struggling to pay off their education debt - as well as according to their class, gender, and perhaps even race, she writes about her conclusions for The Atlantic.As accurate as tea leavesAlthough these managers conclusions can be as accurate as fortune telling at predicting a candidates qualifications, they can be used to conclusively shut out good candidates from being hired.Unless credit reports are banned for use in the hiring process or employers wise up to their lack of predictive power, this will remain an unfair bind for job seekers damned if they disclose, damned if they opt of good jobs asking for this sensitive, too-often wrong and misleading information.

An Environmentally Friendly Muscle Car

An Environmentally Friendly Muscle Car An Environmentally Friendly Muscle Car An Environmentally Friendly Muscle CarEnvironmentalists, start your engines?When you think about the Camaro, the term muscle car comes to mind. But the term green? Maybe not. But thats what a competition like EcoCAR3, partly sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, is about changing the publics thinking with regard to what a car like the Camaro can be. Its fast, yes. But it could also be an environmentally friendly with new design specs.A gruppe at the University of Alabama has leapt forward in the process. This four-year competition has seen them finish eighth nationally in their first year and then vaulting to fourth overall after the second year of the competition. Now theyre ramping up to try and do even better in Year 3, now at roughly the halfway point in the competition.Josh Stoddard, project manager and engineering manager for the team, has been involved in the competition for the school since th e beginning. The first year was mostly design work and choosing an architecture and designating how torque will be produced in the vehicle, he says. You do a bunch of analysis on how crazy you want to get in design and what can you feasibly do and what you can afford to do. It also involves doing customer research to figure out how to market this. With the Camaro, we want to retain the Camaro sports car way, but also determine where it can be a hybrid. The first year wraps up with a completed design and chosen architecture.Students transform a classic American car into an environmentally friendly vehicle. Image The University of AlabamaTeam member Trevor Ford said going forward with Year 2 involved a large amount of redesigning. The fuel tank was an example, offers Ford, a senior mechanical engineering major. Its now made out of aluminum. Also, working on a coolant system, replacing with aluminum hard lines. The rubber version was bulky. And redesigning mounts for certain motors. We have the P-1 and P-3 motors. They are electric motors and we redesigned mounts for those because we have the liberty of where we can put it. Theres no set space on where it has to be.For Year 3s competition, Ford says their Camaro is slated to be drivable and the competition itself will have them at General Motors headquarters right outside of Detroit for testing in the first week. The second week will take place in Washington, DC, where the team will give presentations for sponsors and organizers of the competition covering everything theyve worked on. Both weeks are after the conclusion of their spring semester.Ford explains the structure of the team, which has electrical team leads, mechanical team leads, and an engineering manager. They are working extremely hard in the lab, sometimes theyre in there fifty to sixty hours a week, he says. Theres a real commitment and pride to come up with a great result.Members of the UA EcoCAR team with their Chevrolet Camaro. Image The Univers ity of AlabamaFord, who did a co-op with BMW for four semesters at BMWs manufacturing plant in South Carolina, with the first three focused on hybrid technology, says this experience taught him almost as much as that time with the German car leader. Its a top opportunity to expand your engineering knowledge but put it into action, he says. To get a option to adjust the Camaro, thats a big thrill. Redesigning something like this from the ground up, its unique.But can the Camaro come out of this with a chance to be known for being a green car beyond the competition? I definitely think its possible, Ford says. Many people have never experienced driving a hybrid. Because of its battery torque, there is strength in the area of acceleration and that makes it fun. Muscle cars and environmentally friendly design can go hand in hand.Eric Butterman is an independent writer. For Further Discussion To get a chance to adjust the Camaro, thats a big thrill. Redesigning something like this from th e ground up, its unique.Trevor Ford, University of Alabama

Where the Robot Meets the Road

Where the Robot Meets the Road Where the Robot Meets the Road One of the great inventions we take for granted is right beneath our feetand often beneath our wheels. Roads have gone from simple, narrow paths to intricate infrastructure systems connecting states, countries, and even continents. Still, though they may look strong, they age, and they crack. Filling in those cracks can be a long, expensive challenge. The Georgia Tech Research Institute has been working on a system that travels a different path, and might give the worlds roads a healthier future. Named Roadbot, this system utilizes features such as stereo camera technology and light-emitting diodes to identify cracks and fill them with the aid of a multi-nozzle system. Originally, the thought was doing it with a dot matrix approach, and even the GDOT [Georgia Department of Transportation] ended up getting involved, says Jonathan Holmes, senior researcher at the Georgia Tech Research Institute. We have been able to test Roadbot over a few miles but we want to find a partner to expand it to many miles. The Roadbot extends the life of roads by slowing down the aging process, says Holmes, adding that it may extend the lifespan of the average road from six to eight years to possibly nine to eleven years. Pictured left to right: Project director Jonathan Holmes, lead engineer Wayne Daley and David Jared of GDOT. Image: Tasnim Shamma / WABE / Georgia Tech Getting the Picture It starts with a camera detecting the images, like a flashlight, he says. As you change the angle of a flashlight, you can highlight some features as shadow is cast, he says. As a camera sees the shadows, we distinguish between good pavement and cracks with machine vision-processing algorithms. You then generate a pixilized map where the camera takes a picture to find the cracks. The next piece is transferring the information, such as coordinating transformation going from the image frame of the camera to where the physical system is. The physical system is an array of nozzles that are charged with very high, pressure-heated asphalt, he says. They are waiting to turn on when they drive over the crack, he says. So when this [system] is pulled down the road, the movement of the truck allows the system to move forward following the road. Once this coordinate system transformation is made from the camera to the crack-sealing system, with the hardware doing its work, then they are able to fire at the right time. From this, you get this asphalt thats been shot at high pressure, high velocity into the cracks and thats ultimately how the crack is filled. Fast to the Filling The time between getting the picture of the crack and the hardware filling the crack is actually only about a tenth of a second, Holmes says. Theres also a small accumulator for each nozzle. If youre driving down the road and theres one crack and all nozzles fire at the same time then you have a pressure drop in the system and the nozzle farthest away from the pump wont fire well. Instead, you have individual accumulators for each nozzle. You have a very small volume that goes with each nozzle and is spring loaded and charged on its own. Holmes believes the Roadbot has the ability to make quite a difference and it identifies approximately 90% of cracks at present. A road wears down where predominant contributors are changes between earth and asphalt, he says. It can heat up in a day and cool down in a night. You have stress fractures. And freezing expands the cracks also. Many things are working against the road but hopefully we can put this to work to help it. Eric Butterman is an independent writer. Many things are working against the road but hopefully we can put this to work to help it.Jonathan Holmes, Georgia Tech Research Institute