Around Campus

Printing to the Sky...School of Art graduate student William Cravis displayed his 65-foot-tall project, called "Printing to the Sky," around the flagpole on the Cut for 24 hours on April 17 to recognize Earth Week (April 17-21). He received permission from the university - and help from a lift and lift-operator - to surround the flagpole from top to bottom with copy-paper boxes that he collected from computer clusters and printing centers on campus for a year. Through the sculpture, Cravis aimed to expose Americans' penchant for over-consumption and promote conservation. In the end, he stacked between 300 and 400 boxes. At 10,000 sheets of paper in each box, the sculpture represented nearly four million sheets of paper that had been used just for printing in the computer clusters. Cravis contacted The Guinness Book of World Records in an attempt to gain credit for the tallest stack of boxes. We'll keep you posted!

New Undergraduate Research Journal Lands on Campus... Thought, Carnegie Mellon's new undergraduate research journal, debuted as an insert in the May 1 edition of The Tartan, the university's student-run newspaper. The journal, which works with the Undergraduate Research Office, is supported by the university and managed entirely by students. Thought is published by a team of students from various disciplines who solicit and edit submissions and create the visual materials for the journal. Students also manage marketing and finances. Thought, which will feature the top three to seven submissions each semester, also includes articles geared toward student researchers. The debut issue highlighted research on international relations, the coffee regime, complexity and the mind, how touch can be visual, and replacing flash memory. Future issues may be theme-based, or may be a collection of topics from various fields. Thought is available for download from The Tartan's Web site, thetartan.org. For more, see www.cmu.edu/PR/releases06/060511_thought.html

H&SS, MCS Deans Reappointed... John Lehoczky and Richard D. McCullough have been reappointed to second five-year terms as deans of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Mellon College of Science, respectively.

A committee of H&SS faculty appointed to review Lehoczky's performance recommended his reappointment and described him as an excellent administrator who is well-liked and respected by department heads, faculty and staff. Lehoczky, the Thomas Lord Professor of Statistics and Mathematical Sciences, has led H&SS since 2000. During his tenure, he has overseen the launch of the college's ambitious Humanities Initiative, a collaborative effort of Carnegie Mellon's humanities departments to produce alumni who have the skills to solve real-world problems, the flexibility to adapt to changing technology and markets, and a respect for intellectual and cultural diversity. Lehoczky has also been a strong advocate for developing Carnegie Mellon's international programs. For more on Lehoczky, see www.cmu.edu/PR/releases06/060519_lehoczky.html.

McCullough, a professor of chemistry, was lauded by faculty for his visionary, strategic leadership of MCS during his first term. A committee of senior MCS faculty approved the reappointment and praised McCullough for his grasp of the science in the college, his skill as a spokesperson, his support of department initiatives and his rapport with alumni and friends. McCullough became dean in 2001 after leaving his post as head of the Chemistry Department, a position he held from 1998 to 2001. As dean, he has helped to build upon Carnegie Mellon's strengths in biotechnology and has guided the university's strategic planning in biotechnology as a member of the Biotechnology Implementation Committee. For more on McCullough, see www.cmu.edu/PR/releases06/060504_mcs.html.

Study Shows That Lower Income, Education Lead to Greater Stress Levels... A new study by Sheldon Cohen, the Robert E. Doherty Professor of Psychology, shows that people with low incomes are more likely to be under stress than their wealthier peers. Researchers measured the income and years of education for 95 men and 98 women, and then tested their urine and saliva for stress hormones. Cohen and his co-authors found that the lower the income and education levels, the higher the levels of three stress hormones: epinephrine, norepinephrine and cortisol. The paper, recently published in Psychosomatic Medicine (the journal of the American Psychosomatic Society), was co-authored by William J. Doyle, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh; and Andrew Baum, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute. For more, go to www.cmu.edu/PR/releases06/060522_stress.html.

Carnegie Mellon Hosts Botball Challenge in Qatar... Carnegie Mellon Qatar concluded a successful seven-week robotics programming course with the Second International Botball Challenge on May 27. Omar Bin Khattab Scientific School won the challenge with the highest overall score. Al Khor International School took second place, and third place went to Amna Bint Wahhab Independent S.S.G. Six schools took part in this year's challenge to showcase their autonomous robots, which were created with the help of Carnegie Mellon Qatar. Teams from each school designed, developed, programmed and documented their robots. The teams competed on a playing field the size of a ping-pong table in a high energy tournament. Botball is a U.S.-based organization that introduces robotics to high schools. Student teams are equipped with a Lego Mindstorm robot, along with instructions on how to program it to move autonomously through a course. Carnegie Mellon Qatar arranged an intensive two-day robotics workshop seven weeks prior to the competition that gave teams the necessary background and expertise to build and program robots. For more, see www.cmu.edu/PR/releases06/060601_botball.html.

Hikers Stay on Track With Trailposts.com... The STUDIO for Creative Inquiry's MapHub team has launched Trailposts.com, a Web site where long-distance hikers on the Appalachian Trail can share their comments, location and journals with other hikers, family and friends. The Web site was created using technology developed by the MapHub.org project that links a geographic or cultural community through a shared online map and database. Trailposts allows hikers who spend months on the Appalachian Trail to keep track of water supplies, clean shelters and where they can find their friends or other hikers. As the project develops, the creators plan on using Trailposts for state park and river trails. For more, see www.cmu.edu/PR/releases06/060427_trailposts.html.

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