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April 2008, Vol. 5 No. 2
Cover Story: No Hands on the Wheel
It is barely 40 degrees in the Mojave Desert, but William “Red” Whittaker is comfortably pointing at the horizon. “See that streetlight in the fading dusk?” the Robotics Institute professor asks, poetically directing a group of shivering reporters to an empty parking lot. “That’s where we’re really expected to outperform the competition.”
Properly layered in a white, long-sleeved polo and heavy Tartan Racing jacket, Whittaker decides to finish the press briefing inside. He guides the group into a giant white tent and pulls a laptop from behind a flap in the wall. When he opens the...
Read MoreIn This Issue
April 2008, Vol. 5 No. 2
With winter behind us, it’s time to wash and wax our automobiles and head out on the highway. Amazingly, for Carnegie Mellon’s Red Whittaker, his set of wheels doesn’t need him to go along for the ride! That’s not the only magical news in this issue. Carnegie Mellon has a house that has plenty of hot water without having to rely on fossil fuels. But perhaps most magical of all is Randy Pausch, whose courageous battle with cancer has captured the hearts of everyone, from his students and colleagues to Oprah.
It's a Wonderful Life
Before his "Last Lecture" went viral on the Internet, with 6 million hits and counting, before Oprah and network news shows made his name familiar in households everywhere, before the major book deal with Hyperion...
Sunny Disposition
Brian Kish holds his breath as he looks at the top half of the house wobbling on the cable of a towering crane...
Stressed Out
The roar of jet engines is an ear-popping reality at this elementary school beneath a common flight path to Los Angeles International Airport...
