6 ms·

Neri Oxman reportedly plagiarized undergrad thesis of student she supervised

40 points by Geekette 3y ago

gmerc 3y ago
So … there’s millions spent to give profs the technology to perform plagiarism checks on their students (with all the annoyance, false positives, etc) but nobody runs the same technology against the universities own archive corpus.
KenArrari 3y ago
Very hilarious that her husband started this slap-fight just to shut down critics of Israel and now it's the only thing that shows up when you look at his wifes name.
Proven 3y ago
[dead]
Geekette 3y ago
She apparently plagiarized another 250+ words from the same source[1] in addition to the 120-word paragraph indicated above and various passages from wikipedia[2]. [1]https://twitter.com/sTeamTraen/status/1745950571687792967 https://twitter.com/sTeamTraen/status/1745950571687792967 [2]https://www.businessinsider.com/neri-oxman-plagiarize-wikipedia-mit-dissertation-2024-1 https://www.businessinsider.com/neri-oxman-plagiarize-wikipe...
- 082349872349872 3y ago
  we have internet; easy enough to check? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38998297 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38998297
mensetmanusman 3y ago
I work in the area of thin film materials research, and I can confirm that boiler plate text describing methods is often copy pasted by academic researchers working together, since it's nearly the least important part of a paper. Plagiarism of the discussion section and analysis would be one thing, but a list of methods or materials is a nothing burger. (it's an analogous to listing the constituents of your bread recipe, and it's compassion on your reader not to rewrite these constituents in a new way every time.)
- g42gregory 3y ago
  Very interesting. Thank you for letting the community know!
- cyanydeez 3y ago
  essentially java boilerplate. as a engineering consultant, the most valuable assets are the reports I can pull and reuses. while original research and academics should reference text, even M&P should reference where it came from. knowing what deviated and what adheres to any given procedures are still important. if this were some consultant report, then go nuts. also, keep in mind the context that this person, her husband and I believe Harvard are a discussion about "plagiarism"
throwaway1o24 3y ago
Neri (and one of her grad students) photographed and published some of my colleagues work and passed it off as their own when I was at MIT My colleague (another grad student) innocently showed them their work and was very open with them.
- eureka-belief 3y ago
  I saw her speak once at a technology and art conference and I remember getting the sense that much of what she was saying was hot air skillfully applied to draw in grants from companies who want to have partnerships with the prestigious brand of MIT.
lern_too_spel 3y ago
https://nitter.net/sTeamTraen/status/1745937835121631369 https://nitter.net/sTeamTraen/status/1745937835121631369
infamouscow 3y ago
[flagged]
- SomeoneFromCA 3y ago
  We all know why president of Harward was resigned, but we are not allow to say this loud. Hint: something-something latest war.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
- lukev 3y ago
  So you're admitting this has nothing to do with actual concerns about academic integrity, and instead is about an "oncoming storm" to purge woke social justice lunatics? Sounds about right. Glad you have no "agenda" though.
  - infamouscow 3y ago
    When the Greek soldiers emerged from the Trojan Horse, declaring 'this isn't a gift' would be a monumental understatement. Continuing to dwell on such an observation is akin to debating the quality of the woodwork while the city falls around you. It's a distraction, and frankly, it's preferable to keep it that way. Better to have the enemy class lost in trivialities than rallying to mount a defense.
  - jrflowers 3y ago
    https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/01/03/christopher-rufo-claudine-gay-harvard-resignation-00133618 https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/01/03/christophe... There’s a sort of nazi propagandist that just openly tweets out his plans to bamboozle people into supporting his agenda. When it works out he gets interviewed and praised. We’re way, way, way past good faith on a lot of issues
    - eureka-belief 3y ago
SomeoneFromCA 3y ago
[flagged]
SkyMarshal 3y ago
I haven't read the details on the recent plagiarism dramas, either Claudine Gay's or Neri Oxman's, but does anyone know how original were the parts they plagiarized? Eg, was it a key original idea central to the work's thesis, in which they may have stolen someone else's breakthrough insight? Was it an important bit of supporting information, but not a core part of the thesis? Or was it background/extraneous stuff that's not really important?
- ethanbond 3y ago
  Every example I saw of Gay’s plagiarism actually directly cited the work she pulled from, she just didn’t put quotations around them. There was no way you’d read the passages and not understand where the ideas came from, you’d just have thought Gay rephrased them, which she didn’t. Maybe there were other more egregious examples I didn’t see, but that seems like an editing or style error more than what I’d consider plagiarism. (Obviously students, who are being assessed directly on the writing itself, have very rigid requirements they need to meet)

40 points by Geekette 3y ago

So … there’s millions spent to give profs the technology to perform plagiarism checks on their students (with all the annoyance, false positives, etc) but nobody runs the same technology against the universities own archive corpus.

KenArrari 3y ago

Very hilarious that her husband started this slap-fight just to shut down critics of Israel and now it's the only thing that shows up when you look at his wifes name.

Proven 3y ago

[dead]

Geekette 3y ago

She apparently plagiarized another 250+ words from the same source[1] in addition to the 120-word paragraph indicated above and various passages from wikipedia[2]. [1]https://twitter.com/sTeamTraen/status/1745950571687792967 https://twitter.com/sTeamTraen/status/1745950571687792967 [2]https://www.businessinsider.com/neri-oxman-plagiarize-wikipedia-mit-dissertation-2024-1 https://www.businessinsider.com/neri-oxman-plagiarize-wikipe...

082349872349872 3y ago
we have internet; easy enough to check? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38998297 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38998297

mensetmanusman 3y ago

I work in the area of thin film materials research, and I can confirm that boiler plate text describing methods is often copy pasted by academic researchers working together, since it's nearly the least important part of a paper. Plagiarism of the discussion section and analysis would be one thing, but a list of methods or materials is a nothing burger. (it's an analogous to listing the constituents of your bread recipe, and it's compassion on your reader not to rewrite these constituents in a new way every time.)

g42gregory 3y ago
Very interesting. Thank you for letting the community know!
cyanydeez 3y ago
essentially java boilerplate. as a engineering consultant, the most valuable assets are the reports I can pull and reuses. while original research and academics should reference text, even M&P should reference where it came from. knowing what deviated and what adheres to any given procedures are still important. if this were some consultant report, then go nuts. also, keep in mind the context that this person, her husband and I believe Harvard are a discussion about "plagiarism"

throwaway1o24 3y ago

Neri (and one of her grad students) photographed and published some of my colleagues work and passed it off as their own when I was at MIT My colleague (another grad student) innocently showed them their work and was very open with them.

eureka-belief 3y ago
I saw her speak once at a technology and art conference and I remember getting the sense that much of what she was saying was hot air skillfully applied to draw in grants from companies who want to have partnerships with the prestigious brand of MIT.

lern_too_spel 3y ago

https://nitter.net/sTeamTraen/status/1745937835121631369 https://nitter.net/sTeamTraen/status/1745937835121631369

infamouscow 3y ago

[flagged]

SomeoneFromCA 3y ago
We all know why president of Harward was resigned, but we are not allow to say this loud. Hint: something-something latest war.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
lukev 3y ago
So you're admitting this has nothing to do with actual concerns about academic integrity, and instead is about an "oncoming storm" to purge woke social justice lunatics? Sounds about right. Glad you have no "agenda" though.
- infamouscow 3y ago
  When the Greek soldiers emerged from the Trojan Horse, declaring 'this isn't a gift' would be a monumental understatement. Continuing to dwell on such an observation is akin to debating the quality of the woodwork while the city falls around you. It's a distraction, and frankly, it's preferable to keep it that way. Better to have the enemy class lost in trivialities than rallying to mount a defense.
- jrflowers 3y ago
  https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/01/03/christopher-rufo-claudine-gay-harvard-resignation-00133618 https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/01/03/christophe... There’s a sort of nazi propagandist that just openly tweets out his plans to bamboozle people into supporting his agenda. When it works out he gets interviewed and praised. We’re way, way, way past good faith on a lot of issues
  - eureka-belief 3y ago

SomeoneFromCA 3y ago

[flagged]

SkyMarshal 3y ago

I haven't read the details on the recent plagiarism dramas, either Claudine Gay's or Neri Oxman's, but does anyone know how original were the parts they plagiarized? Eg, was it a key original idea central to the work's thesis, in which they may have stolen someone else's breakthrough insight? Was it an important bit of supporting information, but not a core part of the thesis? Or was it background/extraneous stuff that's not really important?

ethanbond 3y ago
Every example I saw of Gay’s plagiarism actually directly cited the work she pulled from, she just didn’t put quotations around them. There was no way you’d read the passages and not understand where the ideas came from, you’d just have thought Gay rephrased them, which she didn’t. Maybe there were other more egregious examples I didn’t see, but that seems like an editing or style error more than what I’d consider plagiarism. (Obviously students, who are being assessed directly on the writing itself, have very rigid requirements they need to meet)