Delaware

Taylor Swift inspired workshop at University of Delaware helping students learn data analytics

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2 years ago

February 22, 2024

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Taylor Swift inspired workshop at University of Delaware helping students learn data analytics

Inside University of Delaware’s Taylor Swift inspired data analytics series

A Taylor Swift-inspired workshop series at the University of Delaware is helping students learn data analysis.

Data Enchanted is the clever title of a University of Delaware workshop series on data analytics and, if it sounds intimidating, Assistant Economics Professor Dr. Kathryn Bender gets that.

“The friendship bracelets. Yes!” she said. It is a favorite of Taylor Swift fans.

“You’re just sitting there putting a bead on a string and it also makes meeting new people and talking to people a little bit easier,” said Dr. Bender who came up with the theme.

Beyond a bedazzled doorway is where the magic of data happens.

“Are you ready for your life to be changed?” said the professor to the students.

Zach Seymour is a data mentor.

“We’re really there as auxiliaries to help along the students,” he said. Data mentors wear an introduction tee-shirt with a twist to the Taylor song Anti Hero. Seymour says what is happening here is important for entering the workforce.

MORE TAYLOR SWIFT HEADLINES:

“It just gives somebody a real understanding of what they learn in class that they don’t really get just through doing homework and exams,” he said.

And the Taylor tie?

“Taylor Swift songs specifically data from Spotify. So looking at some variables we have made, like how playable it is for a car ride, time signature or length of the song,” said Seymour.

Emma Aucker says she had never done data analysis.

“It’s not something just like raw data. It is like oh, it is her streaming data or something like that. So it is more approachable if you are new to things,” said Aucker. She is excited about learning to use the data analytics tool Stata.

“It’s a way to clean your data, organize your data and manage your data,” she said. The knowledge gained here is for everyone.

However, Aucker does not want bad blood with super fans so she has a confession.

“I do not self-identify as a Swifty because I feel like that’s a little insulting to Swifties. I am very much a Taylor Swift appreciator but I do not think I have their level of commitment,” she laughed. The workshop is eight sessions and awards each student a certificate of completion.

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Delaware

Trump will pay his respects in Delaware to 6 US service members killed in the Middle East

Published

3 hours ago

March 18, 2026

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Trump will pay his respects in Delaware to 6 US service members killed in the Middle East

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is set to pay his respects on Wednesday at a Delaware military base when the remains of six U.S. service members killed in the crash of a refueling aircraft are returned to their families.

It will be the second time since launching the war on Iran on Feb. 28 that the Republican president will attend the solemn military ritual known as a dignified transfer, which he once described as the “toughest thing” he has had to do as commander in chief.

All six crew members of a KC-135 Air Force refueling aircraft were killed last week in a plane crash over friendly territory in western Iraq while supporting operations against Iran. They were from Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio and Washington state.

The crash brought the U.S. death toll in Operation Epic Fury to at least 13 service members. About 200 U.S. service members have been injured, including 10 severely, the Pentagon has said.

Trump last traveled to Dover Air Force Base on March 7 for the dignified transfer of six U.S. service members who were killed by a drone strike at a command center in Kuwait. He saluted as flag-draped transfer cases containing the remains of the fallen service members were carried from military aircraft to vehicles waiting to take them to the base’s mortuary facility to prepare them for their final resting place.

“It’s the bad part of war,” he told reporters afterward. Asked then if he worried about having to make multiple trips to the base for additional dignified transfers as the war continued, he said, “I’m sure. I hate to do it, but it’s a part of war, isn’t it?”

U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, said that the crash followed an unspecified incident involving two aircraft in “friendly airspace” over Iraq but that the loss of the aircraft during a combat mission was “not due to hostile or friendly fire.” The circumstances were under investigation. The other plane landed safely.

The crash killed three people assigned to the 6th Air Refueling Wing at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida: Maj. John A. “Alex” Klinner, 33, who served in Birmingham, Alabama; Capt. Ariana Savino, 31, of Covington, Washington; and Tech. Sgt. Ashley Pruitt, 34, of Bardstown, Kentucky.

The three others were assigned to the 121st Air Refueling Wing at Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base in Columbus, Ohio: Capt. Seth Koval, 38, a resident of Stoutsville, Ohio, who was from Mooresville, Indiana; Capt. Curtis Angst, 30, who lived in Columbus; and Master Sgt. Tyler Simmons, 28, of Columbus.

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Delaware

Delaware High School Boys Basketball State Champions & Runners-Up – March 17, 2026

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15 hours ago

March 17, 2026

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The 2026 Delaware boys basketball season has come to an end, and a champion has been crowned.

After months of competition, the teams listed below rose above the field to capture the state title.

High School On SI has the completed brackets along with the champions and runners-up for every classification.

Take a look below to see the teams that finished on top and the full path each squad took to reach the state finals.

Champion: Howard Wildcats

Runner-Up: St. Georges Tech Hawks

More Boys Basketball Coverage from High School On SI

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Delaware

Delaware’s Calidore unlock origin story of their golden instruments

Published

1 day ago

March 17, 2026

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Delaware’s Calidore unlock origin story of their golden instruments

The Calidore String Quartet, in residence at the University of Delaware, features instruments with unique histories.
Calidore’s next show is at University of Delaware on April 6.
The group’s oldest instruments are from 1775.

When you’re in a world-class chamber group like The Calidore String Quartet in Delaware, each instrument carries more than just a rich tune.

Those prized instruments also string together a colorful backstory.

Calidore, which serves as the Distinguished String Quartet in Residence at University of Delaware, unveiled the tales behind each member’s instruments, before their homecoming concert at UD’s Gore Recital Hall in Newark April 6.

Jeffrey Myers of Calidore rocks a violin from 1775

Chamber musicians widely recognize Antonio Stradivari, the 17th-century Italian craftsman, as the No. 1 violin maker, Calidore violinist Jeffrey Myers said.

The No. 3 spot is claimed by the guy who made Myers’ violin: Giovanni Battista Guadagnini, the 18th-century Italian who crafted his “Eisenberg” instrument in circa 1775. He currently uses bows by Dominique Peccatte and Francois Tourte.

Myers’ instrument belonged to the late David Niwa, assistant concertmaster for the Columbus Symphony Orchestra in Ohio, who died young in his 50s in 2022. Myers is originally from Columbus, Ohio, and was already familiar with that particular violin, long before he started using it.

“I actually grew up watching and hearing this instrument being played,” Myers said.

Niwa’s wife, a pianist, has decided to loan the instrument to Myers on an extended basis.

“I’m very fortunate to get to play it,” Myers said. “These instruments are … they’re really just pieces of artwork.”

Jeremy Berry finds his stringed boo: ‘I never turned back’

Calidore violist Jeremy Berry has the youngest instrument in the group: one made by Umberto Muschietti from circa 1903, with a bow by Pierre Simon.

Berry said he stumbled across that viola when he was getting a previous one repaired and needed a substitute. That’s when Julie Reed-Yeboah, the acclaimed owner of Reed Yeboah Fine Violins in New York City, played matchmaker and introduced him to his current stringed boo.

Reed-Yeboah “was clearly a very good salesperson,” Berry said with a laugh. “She said, ‘why don’t you play on this for a bit?’ And I never turned back.”

Estelle Choi’s cello ‘has a lot of sentimental value’

Around 2013, Estelle Choi began playing a cello created by Charles Jacquot (circa 1830). The instrument was loaned by her former teacher Ron Leonard, an esteemed musician who was on the cello faculty at Colburn School Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles, before he retired in 2017.

Choi said she initially used a different cello on loan, but after taking it in for an “annual check-up,” she asked Leonard if she could borrow one of his.

“At that point, that’s when he lent me this cello that I now own,” Choi explained. After about a decade of borrowing the instrument, Choi finally bought it from her former teacher, just two or three years ago.

“I own the instrument that my teacher originally got as a teenager,” she said. “It sort of has a lot of sentimental value.”

Ryan Meehan knew it was love at ‘first note’

Calidore violinist Ryan Meehan uses a bow by Joseph Henry and a violin by Vincenzo Panormo (circa 1775). The instrument is tied with Myers’ for being the oldest in the group, and Meehan acquired it thanks to Robert Lipsett, the violinist’s former instructor at the Colburn School.

Meehan said Lipsett is a “world-renowned violin teacher” who is also “a great collector of instruments.”

When Meehan was looking for an instrument, Lipsett called to let him know there was a violin he might be interested in that another student passed on. But Lipsett didn’t know if the instrument was still available. Meehan eventually tracked it down.

“I knew from the first note that, that was [my instrument],” Meehan said. “After searching for so long, you know it when you know it. I feel very lucky.”

If you have an interesting story idea, email lifestyle reporter Andre Lamar at alamar@gannett.com. Consider signing up for his weekly newsletter, DO Delaware, at delawareonline.com/newsletters

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