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Carson Named Head of School of Art... The College of Fine Arts has appointed John Carson the Regina Gouger Miller Department Head of the School of Art. Carson succeeds Susanne Slavick, who will take a year sabbatical and return to the school's faculty. Carson joins Carnegie Mellon from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London, where he was a principal lecturer in fine art and course director for the bachelor of fine arts program. "I believe in the power and necessity of art. I enjoy making art happen, whether it is my work or the work of others," Carson said. "I enjoy sharing ideas and being able to pass on the benefit of my experience to others, and enabling and encouraging learning through experience. I believe that the School of Art at Carnegie Mellon offers a supportive yet intellectually challenging environment for innovative, inspiring and important work." For more, visit www.cmu.edu/PR/releases06/060502_carson.html.

School of Music Offers Online Listening Course... "Repertoire & Listening for Musicians," a four-semester required course created by School of Music faculty member Paul Johnston, is the first course in the School of Music to be taught entirely online. This class exposes music students - and the occasional non-major - to many of the best practitioners of their art. Students listen to the weekly music selections from any location with an Internet connection. They then respond to questions Johnston posts on the Web. Each week, students are expected to listen critically to two or three hours of streamed audio, respond to Johnston's discussion starters, and continue conversation with their classmates through the discussion board on the Web. For more, see www.cmu.edu/PR/releases06/060504_listening.html.

LifeBoat Project Documents Life on the Ohio River... Carolyn Lambert, a fellow in the STUDIO for Creative Inquiry, will navigate the Ohio River this summer in an ecologically retrofitted pontoon boat to create an audio documentary featuring people who live in towns and cities along the river's edge. Lambert will take the Ohio River LifeBoat Project down the 981 miles of the Ohio River and meet with residents of 60 river towns, who are invited to join round-table discussions about the significance of the river in their lives. The project is supported by the Ford Motor Company, the National Wildlife Federation, the Steinbrenner Institute for Environmental Education and Research, the Sprout Fund, Ingram Barge Company, the Port of Pittsburgh Commission, the mayor of Braddock, individual donations and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts through a grant to the STUDIO for Creative Inquiry. For more, see www.cmu.edu/PR/releases06/060601_lifeboat.html.

Carnegie Mellon Strengthens Undergrad Research Through HHMI Grant... Carnegie Mellon has been awarded $1.5 million and the University of Pittsburgh has been awarded $2.1 million from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) to strengthen their undergraduate research and outreach programs in biological sciences. Both grants are for the duration of four years. The grants underscore the region's strength in biological sciences training. Elizabeth Jones, head of biological sciences and principal investigator of the Carnegie Mellon grant, said the award will allow the department to continue its commitment to interdisciplinary research and education. The funding will enable several new, advanced interdisciplinary lecture and laboratory courses to attract students from fields including mathematics, statistics, engineering, and computer science. The HHMI funding will also strengthen the Summer Research Institute for rising sophomores and offer a variety of introductory biology courses tailored to the growing, heterogeneous population of science, social science and engineering students. In addition, the Carnegie Mellon program will expand outreach activities and organize interdisciplinary faculty research symposiums. For more, see www.cmu.edu/PR/releases06/060605_hhmi.html.

Gamenomics Makes Learning Fun and Games... A group of ETC students has designed "Gamenomics," a fun, educational, multiplayer management simulation game that helps college students learn basic concepts like those found in an introductory economics course. Gamenomics allows a professor to guide the students in understanding the economic principles involved as they buy factories, produce goods and compete with each other in a realistic market economy simulation. Players have to make difficult business decisions, such as which markets to enter, at what prices to buy and sell, and how many units to produce - all while dealing with cash-flow problems, supply-chain bottlenecks and competition from other players. David Lamont, associate professor of business strategy in the Tepper School, plans to use the game in his graduate microeconomics class this fall. For more, see www.cmu.edu/PR/releases06/060525_etc.html.

Tepper School Establishes Entrepreneurial Fellowship Program... Beginning this summer, 12 MBA students who have shown an entrepreneurial edge will gain invaluable knowledge of business ventures through a new hands-on mentorship program. As the first James R. Swartz Entrepreneurial Fellows, these students will combine Tepper's leading curriculum in entrepreneurship with an exclusive, mentorship-driven internship over the summer and a leadership-focused experiential program throughout their second year of MBA studies. The new fellows program is the result of a generous gift from venture capitalist and Tepper School grad James R. Swartz, co-founder of the global venture capital firm Accel Partners. In addition to a robust curriculum, fellows will participate in a paid summer internship at an entrepreneurial company that will include intensive mentoring by Tepper faculty, the company's CEO or other designated executive, and a Tepper graduate who is a successful entrepreneur or part of the venture capital industry. For more, visit www.cmu.edu/PR/releases06/060522_swartz.html.

Students Spend Spring Break in St. Petersburg...Undergraduate advisor Naum Kats, a member of the History and Modern Languages departments, led a group of Carnegie Mellon students on a 10-day spring break trip to St. Petersburg, Russia, that included a stop in Prague. Most of the 11 students who traveled with Kats completed his fall freshmen seminar course, "Introduction to Russian Culture and Civilization," which explored the development of Russian culture, art and music from the early 1800s through the 20th century. The students' itinerary included tours of The Peter and Paul Fortress; the Hermitage, Russian and Kunstkamera museums; and the Usupov Palace. The H&SS Dean's Office, the Modern Languages and History departments, and the Division of Student Affairs funded the trip. For more, visit www.cmu.edu/cmnews/extra/060328_stpetersburg.html.

Carnegie Mellon Establishes Nation's First Machine Learning Department... The School of Computer Science has created the nation's first Machine Learning Department. The new designation for what was formerly known as the Center for Automated Learning and Discovery (CALD) reflects the importance of machine learning in such growing areas as data mining and sensor networks, as well as the university's commitment to continue its pioneering efforts in the field. Tom M. Mitchell, the Fredkin Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Learning, heads the department. Mitchell founded CALD in 1997 with Stephen E. Fienberg, the Maurice Falk University Professor of Statistics and Social Science. The new department is the first to offer a Ph.D. in machine learning. For more, see www.cmu.edu/PR/releases06/060330_machine.html.

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