News Flash

Carnegie Mellon University has signed an agreement with South Australian Premier Mike Rann to establish a branch of Carnegie Mellon University's H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management in Adelaide, Australia.

Beginning in May, Carnegie Mellon's Heinz School Australia will offer the Master of Science in Information Technology and Master of Science in Public Policy and Management degrees from its new home in the historic Torrens Building, Victoria Square, Adelaide.

"Our objective is to have a significant impact on societies and economies in the Asia-Pacific region by training the next generation of leaders in public policy and information technology," Carnegie Mellon Provost and Senior Vice President Mark Kamlet said. "South Australia is an exceptional platform for us to pursue that objective because of the vision of the state's premier and the leadership role Australia is playing in the region.

"Reaching this milestone agreement has only been possible because of the shared vision and commitment demonstrated by Premier Rann and the South Australian and Australian governments," he said.

"Our relationship with South Australia is unique and provides the Heinz School with an opportunity to become a global leader in offering U.S. education in the Asia Pacific and East Asian Hemisphere. The Heinz School aspires to have impact on the evolution of governance, policy making and growth of the global economy in this important region of the world," Heinz School Dean Mark Wessel added.

A series of agreements relating to the opening of the Heinz School branch also were signed, including a tri partite agreement with the Chinese Ministry of Personnel and South Australia, whereby the two governments will provide shared scholarships to selected future leaders from the Chinese civil service to undertake the Master of Science in Public Policy and Management at Carnegie Mellon, Adelaide. Up to 20 scholarships will be offered, commencing later this year.

Carnegie Mellon is also actively seeking to develop collaborative relationships with South Australia's universities, including Flinders University. To that end, Kamlet also signed an agreement that will facilitate joint research, explore collaborative public policy and management teaching, share international networks and allow the universities to support each other administratively.

When the Heinz School degree programs begin this spring, they will be supported by at least five full-time faculty members recruited from Australia and the U.S. In four years, full-time enrollment is expected to grow to about 150 to 200 students.

Rann and Kamlet said the Australian government would also be working with the university to establish an extension of Carnegie Mellon's Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) next year in Adelaide, where the Master of Entertainment Technology will be offered. Entertainment technology is a rapidly evolving and high-growth sector and includes gaming, special effects and computer animation.

"We are very excited by the addition of the world-renowned ETC, which I visited in Pittsburgh in May this year, because it will fit so well into our burgeoning film and entertainment industries," Rann said. "Companies like Rising Sun, Midway Games (formerly Ratbag), Kukan, Kojo and m.Net will be among the many businesses and organizations expected to benefit from the ETC's presence in Adelaide."

Non-invasive Technique Detects Transplant Rejection at Cellular Level

Research Could Revolutionize Care of Transplant Patients

Organ transplant patients face years of invasive biopsies that help doctors monitor the body for signs of organ rejection. Carnegie Mellon scientists hope a new technology they developed makes such invasive procedures a thing of the past—and improving the quality of life for transplant patients.

Biological Sciences Professor Chien Ho and his colleagues have developed a promising tool that uses magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to track immune cells as they infiltrate a transplanted heart in the early stages of organ rejection. This pre-clinical advance, described in an upcoming issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), ultimately could provide a noninvasive way to detect transplant rejection in patients.

"We have reported for the first time the ability to monitor single immune cells in a live animal using MRI. This could revolutionize the management of transplant patients," Ho said.

"Successful translation of this work to the clinic ultimately will reduce the number of biopsy procedures and should greatly improve the quality of life for cardiac transplant patients, especially children," added Ho, who directs the Pittsburgh NMR Center for Biomedical Research. "Perhaps most importantly, this advance will allow doctors to provide highly personalized care that could prevent transplant rejection."

Organ transplantation is the preferred clinical approach to treat end-stage organ failure, but transplant patients face a lifetime of immunosuppressive therapy and the risk of losing the new organ due to rejection. Physicians typically monitor patients for organ rejection following a heart transplant by performing frequent heart biopsies for the first year. Heart biopsies are invasive procedures that involve threading a catheter through the internal jugular vein to the heart's right ventricle and snipping out several tiny pieces of tissue. A pathologist then tests the tissue to identify the presence of immune cells (such as macrophages) as well as other pathological changes in the transplanted heart tissue that indicate the graft is being rejected by the body's immune system.

These procedures are costly, uncomfortable and must be repeated annually to monitor and treat any rejection. Biopsies also are problematic, according to Ho, because they do not look at the whole organ. By only sampling several small areas, a biopsy may miss the area of the transplanted organ where immune cells are gathering—one of the first signs of rejection.

Ho's novel approach investigates transplant rejection non-invasively by observing macrophage accumulation in heart tissues using MRI.

"We were able to use MRI to visualize individual macrophages. By tracking individual cells, we also were able to observe, for the first time, that rejection progresses from the outside of the heart to the inside," said Ho. "Up to now, this phenomenon hasn't been observed in pre-clinical or clinical research because biopsy samples are very limited in location and size."

The reported findings also have broader implications for biology and medicine, according to Ho.

"We now have the ability to visualize non-invasively and with sensitivity individual cells and their movement to targeted sites. Our new approach offers almost unlimited potential for monitoring cell therapies, such as those using stem cells, and for tracking cellular and developmental processes," Ho said.

For the research reported in PNAS, Yijen Wu, research biologist at the Pittsburgh NMR Center for Biomedical Research, tagged macrophages with nanometer (USPIO)- or micrometer (MPIO)-sized paramagnetic iron oxide particles, which are very sensitive to the magnetic fields used during MRI. Wu injected the MPIO or USPIO particles into rats that had received heart transplants three days earlier. Macrophages, which typically ingest foreign materials inside the body (bacteria, for example), incorporated the particles. Using MRI, the researchers then are able to track tagged macrophages that infiltrate transplanted hearts. The locations of the tagged macrophages are highly defined and appear circular in shape, said Wu. This finding indicates that the new, real-time tracking method is very good at pinpointing exactly when and where rejection is taking place.

The researchers used a heterotropic heart model to study organ rejection. In this model, a rat receives a second functional heart, which is grafted into its abdomen. The rat's native heart functions normally. In this way, the researchers can study how a transplanted heart changes through sequential stages of rejection while the rat stays healthy. This aspect of the research was conducted primarily by Qing Ye, a research biologist at the Pittsburgh NMR Center for Biomedical Research.

Ho's team at the Pittsburgh NMR Center for Biomedical Research is now pursuing research using larger animal models. They are collaborating with researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, including Dr. David Cooper, professor of surgery in the Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute; Dr. Jeffrey Teuteberg, assistant professor of medicine at the Cardiovascular Institute, Heart Failure/Transplantation; and Dr. Fernando Boada, associate professor in the Department of Radiology.

The research is funded by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, the National Center for Research Resources, the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, as well as the Health Research Formula Funds of the Pennsylvania Commonwealth University Research Enhancement Tobacco Settlement.

Established in 1986 and funded continuously since 1988 by the National Institutes of Health, the Pittsburgh NMR Center for Biomedical Research is dedicated to enhancing molecular, cellular and functional imaging using small animals. The center, sponsored jointly by Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh, makes major contributions to the rapidly growing field of nuclear magnetic resonance in biology and medicine.

The Mellon College of Science at Carnegie Mellon develops innovative research and educational programs in a range of scientific, interdisciplinary areas.

Carnegie Mellon Professor to Head Google’s New Office in Pittsburgh

Andrew W. Moore, Carnegie Mellon University professor of computer science and robotics, has been chosen by Google Inc., developer of the award-winning search engine, to head a new engineering office that will open in Pittsburgh sometime in 2006.

The new engineering office will focus on creating a variety of search tools for Google and could act as an engine for creating new high-tech jobs in the Pittsburgh area.

Moore, 40, is an expert in data mining and artificial intelligence. His research lab, which includes 30 students, programmers and faculty, is well-known for finding new ways to organize information to make it practical to quickly find meaningful statistical patterns. For the past five years, Moore and his collaborators have been developing new ways to find patterns in massive amounts of data and building new machine learning systems that have been deployed in many commercial applications, as well as in the fields of medicine and physics.

Early in his career, Moore established himself as an expert in using robotics and data mining to solve manufacturing problems. Software produced by his research is now used routinely by several companies to improve the productivity of their manufacturing operations.

Moore is a graduate of the University of Cambridge in England. He joined the Carnegie Mellon faculty as an assistant professor of computer science and robotics in 1993, and since then has compiled an outstanding body of work that focuses on collaboration between academia and industry. He envisions a future in which companies will become dramatically more productive by mining data in all aspects of their operations.

"It is astonishingly exciting to be moving to Google and helping to start this new engineering office," said Moore. "For me, Carnegie Mellon—and the Pittsburgh region—was already one of the most exciting places on the planet for someone interested in new ways for computers to process and organize information.

“Like everyone else, I have been amazed by what Google has achieved, both as a computer scientist, looking at it in terms of a technical challenge, and in the broad view of how this seven-year-old company has helped hundreds of millions of people change the way they access knowledge. So having Google opening an engineering office in Pittsburgh is like a dream come true. I think the things we'll be doing here will be amazing,” Moore said.

"We open engineering offices where there are great engineers, and we're very excited about the talent the Pittsburgh area has to offer," said Craig Nevill-Manning, engineering director at Google. "We're working on some very interesting problems, and we're excited about hiring smart Pittsburgh computer scientists to help us solve them."

"Google is one of the world's great companies," said Carnegie Mellon President Jared L. Cohon. "By any measure—in creating value to shareholders, in making significant technical contributions, in setting high standards for ethical business practices—it has an outstanding record. We could not be more delighted and honored that Google has chosen to set up an engineering office in our city. We are also grateful to Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell and Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato for their support and vision of the role of universities as catalysts for economic growth in Pennsylvania," he said.

Pennsylvania state officials are also enthusiastic about the addition of another high tech company to the Pittsburgh economic scene.

"With leadership from the Commonwealth, Carnegie Mellon University and Google, the announcement brings the promise of new opportunities and jobs to Southwestern Pennsylvania," said Department of Community and Economic Development Secretary Dennis Yablonsky. "International companies like Google are locating in Southwestern Pennsylvania to take advantage of not only its quality of life and broad base of technology industries the region has to offer, but also the world-class research colleges and universities and deep talent pool that is needed for these companies to grow and expand here in Pennsylvania. We look forward to continuing to work with Google to provide a supportive business environment and the needed resources to ensure their success and growth in Pennsylvania."

"Andrew Moore has built his career on the twin challenges of developing techniques to extract patterns from large data sets and applying these machine learning methods to real-life problems," said Randal E. Bryant, dean of Carnegie Mellon's School of Computer Science. "He has shown that machine learning can be applied in diverse ways, ranging from searching for distant asteroids to detecting possible bioterrorism incidents based on patterns of people buying over-the-counter medications. His talents line up well with Google's mission to 'organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.'"

The Google Engineering Office in Pittsburgh will be the latest addition to the company's growing number of facilities in Tokyo, Japan, Zurich, Switzerland, and Bangalore, India, as well as in New York, Phoenix, Santa Monica and Mountain View, Calif., where the company is headquartered.

Carnegie Mellon and Google

Carnegie Mellon University researchers have joined forces with Google on several initiatives, including Global Connection, a software system that can overlay images onto Google Earth, the company's Earth imaging browser. The purpose of Global Connection is to enable people around the world to be more aware of their neighbors and appreciate the oneness of the planet.

Another project uniting Google and Carnegie Mellon is ESP, an online, multi-party game that harnesses human cognitive capabilities to index images on the Web. As people play the game, they identify and accurately label images, enabling more efficient searches, improving the accuracy of assisted reading devices for the visually impaired and helping Internet users block inappropriate images.

Google also sponsors Women@SCS, a professional organization in the School of Computer Science renowned for on-campus and outreach programs that have contributed to the school's success in attracting and retaining women.

The company also sponsored Carnegie Mellon's Red Team, whose autonomous vehicles Sandstorm and H1ghlander successfully competed in the DARPA Grand Challenge, a 132 mile-desert race for robots, earlier this year.

As many as 50 Carnegie Mellon alumni work for Google, including Kai-Fu Lee, who oversees the company's growing presence in China; and Howard Gobioff, principal engineer and director of engineering at Google's Tokyo Research Laboratory.

Miller Gallery Features Century of Talented Alumni in “100% Centennial”

The artwork of such illustrious Carnegie Mellon alumni as Andy Warhol, Mel Bochner, Joyce Kozloff, Deborah Kass, Philip Pearlstein and John Currin highlight “100% Centennial,” the new exhibit in the Regina Miller Gallery celebrating the College of Fine Arts 100th anniversary.

The exhibit, which runs through March 5, is 100% Carnegie Mellon as the gallery’s three floors include works by alumni representing all five of the college’s schools—artists, musicians, architects, designers and those in the drama fields.

The third floor features “100% Centennial: Collecting CFA.” This exhibit focuses on works by prominent alumni artists from the collections of The Butler Institute of American Art, The Carnegie Museum of Art, The Andy Warhol Museum, Milton and Sheila Fine, Marshall and Wallace Katz, and other private collections.

The second floor presents “100% Centennial: Wall-to-Wall CFA,” an energetic and inclusive salon-style installation of digitally documented and physical works encompassing the diversity of CFA graduates.

The ground floor welcomes visitors with “100% Centennial: Representing CFA.” This exhibit highlights documented static and/or time-based art forms through projections, video kiosks, headphones and monitors.

In addition to the abovementioned alumni artists, the show includes Dara Birnbaum of New York City, Renee Stout of Washington, D.C., Katherine Kuharic of St. Louis and Katie Grinnan, Raymond Saunders and James Welling of California.

The exhibit also features public monuments and commissions by artists like Jonathan Borofsky and Raymond Kaskey who have distinguished the urban landscapes of cities around the world. Also included are the works of distinguished artist professors such as Harvey Breverman at the University of Buffalo, Philip Morsberger, formerly at Oxford University and now emeritus at Augusta State University (Ga.), the late Ken Ferguson, emeritus at the Kansas City Art Institute, and Robert Lepper, who taught several of the prominent artists at Carnegie Mellon.

The 2005-06 academic year represents the centennial anniversary of the College of Fine Arts. In the fall of 1905 the first students matriculated in the School of Fine and Applied Arts at The Carnegie Technical Schools. The College of Fine Arts is a community of nationally and internationally recognized artists and professionals organized into: Architecture, Art, Design, Drama and Music, and their associated centers and programs.

History Professor’s Bananas Book is No Laughing Matter

History Professor John Soluri’s new book is a little bananas.

Wait, that’s an understatement. The book is a lot of bananas. In fact, it’s nothing but bananas. And that’s not as crazy as it sounds. Bananas are the world’s most popular fruit, and the major export of crop of several Latin American nations, including Honduras and Ecuador.

In “Banana Cultures: Agriculture, Consumption, and Environmental Change in Honduras and the United States” Soluri explores the relationship between the production and consumption of bananas as a cultural and economic phenomenon. The book spans more than 100 years, starting in the 1870s, when bananas spread from small-scale farms in Cuba, Jamaica and the Bay Islands to mainland Central America.

Bananas, once an exotic fruit in the United States, rapidly became widely available in the 1870s. They were the first affordable fresh fruit available year-round in the United States.

“The export banana is a great example of globalization, because it gave rise to multinational corporations, biotechnologies, and novel forms of cultural exchange starting 100 years ago,” Soluri said. “Immigrant mill workers in places like Homestead could at least on occasion enjoy a taste of the tropics.”

Bananas came to dominate lowland Central American agriculture, and have played a major role in the economies and social fabric of the region. They also shaped U.S. perceptions of Central America, imbedding terms like “banana republic” in the popular consciousness, according to Soluri.

The banana industry followed a pattern typical of modern agriculture, with large concerns swallowing up small farms and devouring farmland. The dominant player in the trade for years was the United Fruit Company—now called Chiquita Brands—which was originally based in Boston, later moving to New York and now headquartered in Cincinnati.

The large banana exporters behaved not unlike American industry—often exploiting workers but with a paternalistic bent that included the construction of worker housing, hospitals and ballfields. These “banana zones” featured higher wages and standards of living, and much of the workforce eventually succeeded in unionizing after organizing massive strikes.

“The banana industry brought modernity to these low-lying tropical areas,” Soluri said.

Soluri spent a year in Honduras, talking to workers, examining a variety of archives and investigating the environmental impact of the banana industry. The first half of the 20th century witnessed large-scale deforestation as banana monocultures consumed more and more land, and led to the draining of wetlands.

Much of Soluri’s research examines the historical effects of plant diseases on the industry. For more than 100 years, export banana growers have wrestled with the devastation wrought by fungi, which led them to abandon the Gros Michel variety of banana in the 1960s and which may cause the industry to replace the Gros Michel’s successor, the Cavendish banana, in the near future. Soluri argues that these diseases are not natural disasters but rather the outcome of mass production techniques that favor monocultures and mass markets that favor standardized products.

Banana eaters, however, need not fear. Recent media reports about the fruit’s possible demise are greatly exaggerated. There are hundreds of varieties cultivated worldwide. The challenge for the future, according to Soluri, is to develop production methods and mass market structures that foster an export banana that fosters a sustainable and equitable use of resources in the tropics.

Said Soluri, “If that happens, we might be able to say, ‘Yes, we have no banana republics today.’”

“Banana Cultures” was published by the University of Texas Press and is available at http://www.utexas.edu/utpress/books/solban.html.

Related Links:
“Banana Cultuers”
John Soluri

College of Fine Arts Revives Beaux Arts Ball, March 4

Costumes encouraged for "Light and Shadow" themed gala; tickets on sale now

After a 10-year hiatus, the College of Fine Arts will revive its legendary Beaux Arts Ball, a multi-disciplinary art party, on Saturday, March 4, to celebrate the college's 100th anniversary.

"The Beaux Arts Ball is a tradition going back to the earliest years of the college: a tradition of provocative costumes, energetic dancing and beautiful decoration," said Douglas Cooper, architecture professor and co-chair of the Beaux Arts Ball Committee. "I could think of no more fitting way for our faculty, staff, students and alumni to initiate the college's second century."

The Beaux Arts tradition originated in 1648 at L'Ecole National Superieure Des Beaux Arts in Paris—also known as the National Academy of Architecture, Painting and Sculpture. Students celebrated the end of exams by staging outrageous all-night revels and masked balls that encouraged freedom of expression and offered social equality for the disguised.

Carnegie Mellon began its tradition in 1911 when architect Henry Hornbostel, a member of the first faculty and a dean of the college, introduced the Beaux Arts Ball to campus. The ball became a costume party, usually held every four years in the College of Fine Arts building. The ball was such an important part of the institution that many faculty included aspects of its planning into their curricula.

This year's theme, "Light and Shadow," was chosen by the faculty, staff, students and alumni who compose the Beaux Arts Ball Committee. The theme celebrates timeless paradoxes: black and white, backward and forward, art and technology, the studio and the lab, while underscoring the educational ideals that distinguish the College of Fine Arts.

Costumes are encouraged, but not mandatory. Prizes will be awarded for best costumes.

The Beaux Arts Ball will be held from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. in the College of Fine Arts building. Tickets are $40 for students; $75 for alumni, faculty and staff; and $250 for an exclusive Patrons ticket. Tickets can be purchased by check or credit card, by mail or in person at the School of Drama box office in the Purnell Center for the Arts. Credit cards will also be accepted by phone at 412- 268-2407. Limit two tickets per person. All tickets must be purchased by Feb. 28. No tickets will be sold at the door.

The 2005-06 academic year represents the centennial of Carnegie Mellon's College of Fine Arts, which accepted its first class to the School of Fine and Applied Arts in the fall of 1905. A century later, the College of Fine Arts is a community of nationally and internationally recognized artists and professionals organized into schools of Architecture, Art, Design, Drama and Music.

Related Links:
College of Fine Arts
CFA Centennial

Green Chemistry a Hit at Pittsburgh’s First Night Celebration

A little girl did a simple chemistry experiment five times at this year's First Night celebration in downtown Pittsburgh. First, she took a dark-colored vial of liquid and added two chemicals, one after the other. Then, she swirled the mixture and showed how dirty water could become clean.

The girl was one of about 1,000 visitors who had fun conducting a Carnegie Mellon-designed green chemistry experiment as part of the downtown New Year's Eve revelry, presented by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust with the Three River's Arts Festival. The experiment, based on the green chemistry research developed at the Institute for Green Oxidation Chemistry, wowed hundreds of kids and their parents.

“We couldn’t have been happier to have the green chemistry experiment for First Night. It was the hit of the night,” said Lindsay Clark, family programs coordinator for First Night. “Hopefully, this experiment sparked a love of science in all the kids who participated.”

Leading this initiative was Colin Horwitz, research professor of chemistry. Horwitz corralled numerous dedicated individuals to help. These included seven graduate students, a post-doc, five faculty (including a visiting faculty member) and their children, a technology transfer specialist and his wife, as well as local scientists with Lanxess and PPG Industries.

"Colin has led us all perfectly in showing green chemistry and our Fe-TAML® technology off to the children and parents of Pittsburgh," said Terry Collins, the Thomas Lord Professor of Chemistry and developer of the Fe-TAML technology used in the experiment. "The team of people helping at First Night presented a genuinely warm and positive image of our communal endeavors to building a sustainable civilization," added Collins, director of the Institute for Green Oxidation Chemistry in the Mellon College of Science.

The children and parents conducted a simple experiment showing how the chemical reagent Fe-TAML combined with another natural, safe chemical— hydrogen peroxide—could be used to clean water, just as the Carnegie Mellon chemists are doing in the laboratory and in field tests with various industries.

The revolutionary Fe-TAML technology was developed over the course of 20 years in response to a complex problem—water pollution. Dangerous, pervasive chemicals build up in water used for drinking, swimming, agriculture and industrial processes. Just a small amount of Fe-TAMLs can destroy bad chemicals produced by different industries. Fe-TAMLs work by turbocharging hydrogen peroxide to achieve their phenomenal results.

Fe-TAMLs are one of the most promising green chemistry solutions in development to rid water of unsightly, unhealthy chemicals. And because they help some industries become cleaner, they should help companies produce better materials more cheaply and with less waste.

The night was so successful that visitors from the University of Nottingham in the U.K. later emailed Horwitz requesting information on how to do something similar for the public near their university.

"The bottom line is that Fe-TAMLs may help our environment win against more than 100 years of pollution that we need to fix," said Horwitz.

It's this green legacy he wants to leave his own two sons, who were busy experimenting that night.

Related Links:
Institute for Green Oxidation Chemistry
Colin Horwitz

Is America Falling Behind? Engineers Discuss Ways to Stem the Brain Drain

A panel of experts led by Carnegie Mellon University Engineering Dean Pradeep Khosla recently shared ideas on how the United States can prepare itself to compete in the ever-changing global economy.

"We must train engineers who will be managing, creating and deploying innovation,” said Khosla during a panel discussion entitled “Is America Falling Behind?”

More than 60 engineers, academics, researchers and business leaders jammed a second floor meeting room at the Engineering Society of Western Pennsylvania in downtown Pittsburgh to discuss ways to stem the brain drain.

Moderated by William J. Holstein, editor-in-chief of CEO Magazine, panel members included Bob Black, deputy executive director of the American Society for Engineering Education; Peter Faletra, assistant director of the Office for Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy; and Alex G. Sciulli, a senior vice president at Mellon Financial Corp. and first vice president at the Engineering Society of Western Pennsylvania (ESWP).

Despite recent studies by the American Society for Engineering Education and the National Academy of Engineering reporting that fewer than 5 percent of undergraduate degrees awarded in 2004 were in engineering, America can remain “at the top of the food chain” if it trains its engineers in management, finance, policy and entrepreneurship, Khosla said.

“We need to change the perception of engineering,” said Sciulli. “One of our greatest challenges is to prep engineers in topics that are considered ‘soft’ by some—public speaking, leadership and writing,” he said.

Panel members said it’s not enough anymore to be a technical genius, you have to be able to develop a business plan and execute it, too.

“It’s a new world out there and we need to understand how important engineers and scientists are,” Faletra said. “Scientists and engineers make up less than 5 percent of the population but create up to 50 percent of our gross domestic product.”

But in the disciplines underpinning our high-tech economy—engineering, math, and science—America is steadily losing its global edge. China will likely produce six times the number of engineers next year than will graduate in the U.S., according to the American Society for Engineering Education. As other countries create the learning centers and jobs to hang on to their best and brightest, the U.S. is losing a dependable pipeline of talent.

Ten years ago, for example, American companies and engineers were granted 10,000 more U.S. patents than foreign companies. Now, that margin is down to 4,000, and six of the top 10 companies are foreign.

Still, Khosla argues that all is not lost in the U.S. quest to remain a global superpower.

“We still lead the world in research and development,” Khosla said. “We can make the changes necessary to be competitive.”

Sciulli said that you don’t have to be an engineer and work in technology. “You can take leadership roles in other areas,” he said.

That leadership goal is a big part of the ESWP’s mantra as the 125–year-old organization holds quarterly educational panel discussions about key engineering issues, and supports speakers interested in giving talks at area high schools about careers in engineering.

Related Links:
College of Engineering
Pradeep Khosla

DC Alumni Reach Super Bowl of Flag Football League

They aren’t exactly the Pittsburgh Steelers, but like the Steelers, Carnegie Mellon’s co-ed alumni flag football team in Washington, D.C., made it to this year’s Super Bowl…of the Capital Alumni Network Flag Football League.

Although they were defeated, 6-0, by Colorado in the title game, the Tartans enjoyed their most successful season in the league, winning their division with an 8-2 regular season mark before posting playoff victories over Wisconsin (28-0), George Washington (22-12), Purdue (22-6) and Penn State (20-14).

“Our season was nearly flawless,” said Sam Ferraro-Pollak (E’00), who said there were 50 teams in the league this year. “Our offense ranked 6th in the league, averaging 22 points per game, while our defense ranked 3rd, yielding less than 6 points per game. Our biggest victories during the regular season were against our cross-town rivals from the University of Pittsburgh (20-7) and a 44-0 blowout of the University of Pennsylvania. Seven different players scored a touchdown against Penn.”

Ferraro-Pollak says there were many star performances this year, but overall Robb Traister (S ’01), defensive captain Matt Young (E ’00) and Season Dietrich (HSS’01, HNZ ’02) made the biggest contributions. “Mike Walsh’s (HSS ’01) punt return for a TD against George Washington was particularly spectacular,” he said.

This year’s team members included: Ferraro-Pollak (E,’00)—Coach; Matt Streyle—Coach (E’00) Matt Young (E’00)—Defensive Captain; Landon Witcher (HNZ’01)—Team Sage; Dave Calvo (E’95); Wing Chu (HSS’03, HNZ ’04); Koshi Delaney-Karell (E’98); Steve Deluca (S’04); Season Dietrich (HSS’01); Greg Dodson***; Neal Draves (HNZ’04); Jesse Felter (HSS’04); Shira Fishman***; Dave Hines (E’96); John Hsieh (E’00); Benny Kil (S’03); Erin Morrow (E’00); Lee Rider (TPR’99); Thinzar Russell (HSS’00); Mike Schultz (E’03); Tameka Simpson (E. HNZ’01); Eugene Smith (HSS’91); Robb Traister (S’01); and Mike Walsh (HSS’01).

*** non-alumni

Related Links:
Alumni Relations
Washington D.C. Alumni

Carnegie Mellon Celebrates Success of Spin-Off Akustica Inc.

President Cohon Praises John Rangos Sr. for his Steadfast Support

Carnegie Mellon University President Jared L. Cohon recognized the success of Akustica, Inc., as well as the university’s overall contributions to the economic development of the Pittsburgh region at a reception during a recent meeting on campus of Akustica’s Board of Directors.

Founded in 2001 by Carnegie Mellon Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor Ken Gabriel, Akustica, located in Pittsburgh’s South Side Works, builds microphone chips for laptops, cell phones and other digital media using microelectromechanical technology. Gabriel said the “smart chips” improve voice quality wherever microphones are used.

The company, which has grown to more than 40 employees, recently shipped several of its test products to the marketplace and is awaiting its first orders. “We’re hoping 2006 will be our year,” said co-founder Jim Rock. “We hope you can soon go to Best Buy to purchase products that have Akustica inside.”

Gabriel said Akustica’s success was a team effort. He cited Carnegie Mellon’s tech transfer office, scientists in the university labs, its board of directors and its investors, including Carnegie Mellon Trustee John Rangos Sr.

President Cohon recognized Rangos’ commitment to tech transfer and his efforts to help create new companies to reshape the region. “John has been steadfast in his support of an aggressive plan for innovation and in his support in fostering a creative environment. On behalf of the entire Carnegie Mellon family and this city, I congratulate all that you have done.”

Rangos, whose sons John Jr. and Alex sit on the Akustica board, deflected praise back to Carnegie Mellon and President Cohon. Rangos said he was proud of Carnegie Mellon for its academic prowess and for its strength in fostering economic development in the region. He called President Cohon “a remarkable man and a great strategist who gets the best from his people.”

In his remarks, President Cohon also noted the university’s local ties with international information leaders, such as Apple, Google, Intel and Seagate.

Apple Pittsburgh and Intel Research Pittsburgh have offices in Carnegie Mellon’s Collaborative Innovation Center and are working closely with Carnegie Mellon faculty and students. Intel Research Pittsburgh is under the direction of Todd Mowry, associate professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon.

Google recently named Carnegie Mellon Computer Science Professor Andrew Moore to head its new engineering office in Pittsburgh, which will open this year. Mark Kryder, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Carnegie Mellon, is vice president for research and development for Seagate, the global leader in the production of hard disc drives. Kryder agreed to lead Seagate’s Research and Development Center only if it was located in Pittsburgh.

According to Bob Wooldridge, director of Carnegie Mellon’s Center for Technology Transfer and Enterprise Creation, more than 170 companies have either been spun-out of the university or have been created by Carnegie Mellon faculty, staff, students or alumni over the past 11 years. There were eight university spin-offs in Fiscal Year 2005 and six have been spun-out thus far in Fiscal Year 2006.

Related Links:
Carnegie Mellon’s Center for Technology Transfer

Putting “Dr. King” Back in Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Carnegie Mellon Celebrates King’s Life with Thoughtful Discussion and Dialogue

To most people, Martin Luther King Jr. Day creates a welcome three-day weekend that temporarily dispels January’s bleakness. Shopping malls and ski slopes jam with customers and amateur athletes enjoying their “day off.” But are those skiers and shoppers remembering King’s work and teachings? Probably not. Moguls and MasterCards don’t often bring to mind a great civil rights leader.

But Carnegie Mellon University annually puts Dr. King back into Dr. Martin Luther King Day, holding firm to the “a day on, not a day off” national theme for the holiday. Classes are held in the morning, but suspended in the afternoon and evening so students, faculty and staff can attend special programming on campus designed to encourage thoughtful dialogue on the late civil rights leader’s work.

“We do this out of deep respect for Dr. King, and we think the way we do it is especially meaningful and fitting,” said Carnegie Mellon President Jared L. Cohon. “And I think he would approve.”

Carnegie Mellon continued its “day on, not a day off” tradition on Jan. 16. President Cohon, chairman of the university’s Diversity Advisory Council (DAC), began the day’s events by discussing the university’s progress in building diversity on campus. He reported that Carnegie Mellon has one of the highest percentages of international undergraduate students among its peers. Female undergraduate enrollment is steadily increasing, and women made up 40 percent of the student body in 2005 (up from 32 percent 10 years ago). Tenure among female faculty members is showing “slow but steady” progress, and there has been a substantial increase in the number of female research faculty on campus.

Though the university showed progress in these areas, Cohon highlighted numerous areas for improvement, such as increasing the number of minorities in faculty and professional positions, and improving the representation of women in science, engineering and business. “Diversity, in all of the meanings of that word, is one of Carnegie Mellon’s strategic priorities,” Cohon wrote in the annual DAC report. “Through the efforts of the Diversity Advisory Council, and all the members of the university community, we will continue to become more diverse—and better.”

As part of his address, Cohon also presented the 2006 Barbara Lazarus Award for Culture and Climate to Associate Department Head and Modern Languages Professor Susan Polansky. Named for Barbara Lazarus, associate provost for academic affairs who died in 2003, the award is annually awarded to a faculty or staff member who has demonstrated extraordinary leadership and made a demonstrable impact on improving the culture and climate in the Carnegie Mellon community.

Following the president’s address, students from Carnegie Mellon and local high schools read narratives revealing their experiences with racial difference and discrimination as part of the university’s seventh annual Martin Luther King Jr. Writing Awards ceremony. The awards, sponsored by Carnegie Mellon's Creative Writing Program, present cash prizes to local high school and Carnegie Mellon students who submit poetry or prose about how race has impacted their lives.

After the awards, a panel of university and civic leaders discussed “King’s Dream in the Wake of Katrina’s Nightmare” in the Community Conversation. Led by moderator Everett Tademy, the university’s director of diversity and equal opportunity services, the panel included former Allegheny County Medical Examiner Cyril Wecht, YWCA of Greater Pittsburgh Chief Executive Officer Cecilia Golden, KDKA radio and "On Q" host Chris Moore, University of New Orleans Professor and Black Collegiate Magazine Editor James Perry, and Carnegie Mellon Interfaith Council member John Tyler. Panelists spoke on the effect race played in FEMA’s delayed response to hurricane victims and branched into a broader discussion of the roots and impact of racism. “There’s much work to do—that’s our challenge,” Tademy concluded.

Following the panel discussion, faculty, staff and students honored King’s commitment to non-violent protest with a candlelight procession that symbolized his own marches for civil rights and against segregation. The procession began at the university’s Purnell Center for the Arts and concluded in Rangos Hall in the University Center, where constitutional law expert Derrick Bell delivered the keynote address, “Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: Was He a 20th Century Jesus?”

The first African American to receive tenure at Harvard University, Bell became the only academic to relinquish such a coveted position to protest Harvard Law School’s failure to appoint African American women. He has received six honorary degrees in the last decade and teaches constitutional law at the New York University School of Law. His seven books include the New York Times best-seller “Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism.”

In his address, Bell compared Jesus and King, noting that the latter’s inspiration came largely from the former’s teachings.

“While he hoped and prayed for victory in his work for racial and economic justice, King recognized a value of non-achievement of his goals. In one essay…King preached of the setbacks: the time he spent in jail…the dangerous character of his adversaries,” said Bell. “King knew those adversaries expected him to harden into a grim and desperate man. But he writes, ‘they fail, however, to perceive the sense of acclamation generated by the challenge of embracing struggle and surmounting obstacles.’

“That statement defines the spirit and the essence of what Jesus taught and what Dr. King manifested in his lifetime, urging by example for others to do the same,” Bell said. “King’s holiday could be a time—should be a time—less of commemoration and more of realization that in whatever ways we can, we should continue his work in the spirit of his life.”

Alumna Feels Forever Connected

Oopali Operajita will always feel connected to Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon, her home in America. It’s a city of “three mighty rivers and dozens of glistening bridges,” and a university that lifts her “like incense to the pewter marble expanse of the Great Hall at the College of Fine Arts.”

And it’s a place that inspired her poem, “Always Connect,” which she recently sent to Carnegie Mellon Today. Her poem, below, will appear in her first book of poetry, which will be published later this year.

Operajita of Bhubaneshwar, India, is a classical Indian dancer and poet who was a fellow at Carnegie Mellon’s STUDIO for Creative Inquiry during the late ‘80s and ‘90s. She frequently performed and lectured at dance exhibitions on campus, and she earned a master’s degree in professional writing from Carnegie Mellon in 1995. Her son, Ayus, is a sophomore in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

Operajita, who has been a political advisor and strategist for several prominent Indian leaders, says the poem’s title “Always Connect” is from English author and critic E.M. Forster’s “Howard’s End.”

“At the end . . . one of his memorable characters says, ‘Always connect the prose and the passion.’ I think that is a beautiful sentence to guide us through our lives,” she said.

Always Connect

You stand silent within the tangle
Of New Delhi’s voices.
On its streets, I think the spathodea trees
Have unleashed their tumultuous flame flowers
To welcome you.

In your presence, the jade and lapis
Of another city — and the inkteal
Of three mighty rivers, and dozens
Of glistening bridges — resonate in my eyes:
These are the colours of Pittsburgh,

My home in America.

I am lifted, like an incense
To the pewter marble expanse
Of the Great Hall
At the College of Fine Arts
In Carnegie Mellon University.

I hear the rustle breeze voices
Of young students
At the Alumni Concert Hall.
They ask me, incredulous,
If the text of my dance is really etched
In the Sun Temple of Konarak.*

When my lecture is over, they run onstage
And clasp my hands.
I can hear the goddess Saraswati’s** veena
Play in their eyes.

Nations, narratives,
The numinous arc of art engulfs all of us.

* The 13th c AD Sun Temple of Konarak in Orissa contains a comprehensive catalogue of reference of classical Odissi dance. Every significant pose and posture used by the contemporary Odissi dancer is etched on its walls.

** The goddess Saraswati, one of the major goddesses in the Hindu pantheon, is goddess of wisdom, knowledge and music.

Related Links:
STUDIO for Creative Inquiry

Collection Published by Carnegie Mellon Named Finalist for Prestigious Literary Award

Poet Blas Manuel De Luna is among five finalists in poetry for the National Book Critics Circle Award for his debut collection "Bent to the Earth," which was published by the Carnegie Mellon University Press. This is the first time that a book published by the university press has been nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award, one of publishing's highest honors.

De Luna's poems tell the story of the hardscrabble lives of immigrant workers. De Luna was born in Tijuana, Mexico, and raised in Madera, Calif. He teaches high school English in California.

"Blas Manuel De Luna is a young poet with great potential who Carnegie Mellon University Press has been pleased to publish. His 'Bent to the Earth' was one of two manuscripts selected from nearly 500 that were submitted to the press during the fall of 2004," said English Professor Gerald Costanzo, who runs the press.

"The National Book Critics Circle citation brings great honor to this well-deserving writer as well as to the press. I also want to commend the students in my Editing and Publishing class who were instrumental to the selection of Blas' book," Costanzo said.

In 1986, Carnegie Mellon published poet Rita Dove's "Thomas and Beulah," which was awarded the Pulitzer the following year. In addition, three of the past five Pulitzer Prize winners for poetry, including U.S. poet laureate Ted Kooser, either started or spent some portion of their careers with the university press.

Costanzo founded the Carnegie Mellon University Press 30 years ago, and he is assisted each year by five to seven student interns from his Editing and Publishing course. Those students—many of whom have gone on to careers in publishing—work at every stage of the publishing process, and they help Costanzo choose the 20 titles he publishes each year from among the hundreds of manuscripts he receives.

Carnegie Mellon Mourns Distinguished Alum, Director Emeritus of Master of Software Engineering Program

Fondly known as “Coach,” James E. Tomayko, teaching professor in Carnegie Mellon’s School of Computer Science (SCS) and director emeritus of its Master of Software Engineering program (MSE), died on Jan. 9 after a long illness. He was 56.

During his more than 16-year tenure at the university, Tomayko not only helped to found SCS’ highly successful MSE program, but also initiated an extensive program in distance learning that currently includes 140 students who reside all over the world. At the same time, he served as a part-time senior member of the technical staff at the university’s Software Engineering Institute (SEI) making important contributions in their Product Line Systems program.

Earlier in his career, Tomayko was the leader of the Academic Education Project at SEI, and to this day, his courses on managing software development and overviews of software engineering are among the most widely distributed courses in the SEI Academic Series.

“Jim has been a contributor to software engineering education here, almost from the day he walked into my office and introduced himself in the late ’80s, just as we were starting the SEI,” recalled Carnegie Mellon’s Perlis Professor of Computer Science Mary Shaw. “He served as the head of the MSE Studio, which is the heart of this intensive professional program, and in doing so, he earned the nickname ‘Coach’ from the students he guided through the program. Later he served as director of the program until his health failed. I'll miss him personally as well as professionally.”

Before coming to the SEI in 1990, Tomayko founded the software engineering graduate program at Wichita State University in Wichita, Ks., where he was a professor in the Computer Science Department. He also worked in industry, and had employee, contract or consulting relationships with NCR, NASA, Boeing Defense and Space Group, CarnegieWorks, Xerox, the Westinghouse Energy Center, Keithley Instruments and Mycro-Tek.

He was a frequent speaker at numerous professional seminars on software fault tolerance, software development management and software process improvement in the United States, Canada, Mexico, South America and Europe.

An avid flight enthusiast who earned a pilot’s license in 1991, Tomayko pursued a parallel career in the history of technology, specializing in the history of computing in aerospace. He wrote three books and two articles on spacecraft computer systems and software, concentrating primarily on systems developed by NASA. Over the past decade, he researched the history of fly-by-wire technology and published three papers on the subject. He also served on the editorial staff of the IEEE Annals of the History of Computing.

His publications included “Software Engineering Education: SEI Conference on Software Engineering (1991),” “Computers in Space: Journeys with NASA (1994)” and “Computers Take Flight: A History of NASA's Pioneering Digital Fly-by-Wire Project (2000).” His most recent book. “Human Aspects of Software Engineering,” (with Orit Hazzan) was published in 2004.

Tomayko grew up in Charleroi, Pa., where he attended Mon Valley Catholic High School. After graduation, he came to Carnegie Mellon where he earned a bachelor’s degree in history in 1971. He also ran cross-country at the university.

A man of diverse interests, Tomayko earned a master’s degree in Chinese from the University of Pittsburgh in 1972 and then attended the University of Kansas, where he earned a doctor’s degree in social studies and secondary education. After graduating from Kansas, he became a high school teacher in Garden City, Ks. He coached the men’s and women’s track teams where he first earned the title of “coach,” which stuck with him for the rest of his life. After starting an alternative high school in Kansas, he once again returned to Carnegie Mellon, where he earned a doctor ‘s degree in history in 1980.

Tomayko was active in alumni affairs at Carnegie Mellon. He was a long-time member of the Andrew Carnegie Society (ACS) and sat on the ACS Executive Board. He served as president of the Alumni Association Board from 2000-2002.

Last summer Tomayko received the inaugural “Coach” award at the MSE’s 15th anniversary celebration. The award, which will be presented annually, was established to recognize his many contributions to the program and the university.

“Jim possessed a remarkable combination of technical expertise, management skill and personal understanding that made him unusually effective as a leader in software engineering education,” said William Scherlis, director of the Institute for Software Research International, (ISRI), the division of SCS in which the MSE program resides. “He was a great communicator, authoring numerous books and articles on software engineering and the history of computing. He was in constant demand as a speaker, and he won the enduring respect of both students and colleagues. We will miss his technical contribution, his mentorship and his friendly presence.”

“Those of us who knew and loved Jim will remember him for his courage in adversity, his indomitable spirit, his sense of humor, and his boundless enthusiasm and energy,” added Clyde Chittister, chief operating officer of the SEI.

Tomayko is survived by his wife, Laura, and two children—Gabriela and Alison—and a brother, Jack. The family asks that memorial contributions be made to the Jim Tomayko Memorial Fund, C/O Institute for Software Research International, 5321 Wean Hall, Pittsburgh, Pa. 15213

Carnegie Mellon Researchers Create Research Center for Urban Water Quality

Carnegie Mellon Civil and Environmental Engineering professors Jeanne VanBriesen and David Dzombak will lead a new center to study urban water quality. WaterQUEST (Water Quality in Urban Environmental Systems), which has $1 million in university seed funding, builds on a wide-range of existing water-related research spanning several departments at Carnegie Mellon.

Both VanBriesen and Dzombak say human health and quality of life are at risk if nothing is done to improve water quality. Urban watersheds are a complex mix of natural and man-made water flows that provide clean, safe water to people and industries. Most existing systems are old and in need of repair in many urban areas. And the natural systems are over-taxed by the input of persistent toxicants and pathogens, according to Carnegie Mellon researchers.

Many urban areas, like Pittsburgh, face water quality challenges related to inadequate infrastructure for storm water and wastewater management. Storms cause infiltration of rain into sewers, overloading older systems and causing an overflow of raw sewage into local streams and rivers.

Nationwide, routine monitoring finds pathogens and fecal indicator bacteria at significant levels in surface waters, making them unsuitable for recreational use.

"Pittsburgh and other regions are in need of advances in urban water management science and technology for cost-effective solutions to this large-scale, costly problem," said Dzombak, center co-director.

Industry watchers report that there are 250,000 water main breaks each year in the United States, and smaller leaks cause millions of gallons of treated drinking water to leak out of systems before reaching customers' taps, wasting valuable water resources. In addition, water main breaks result in millions of dollars of damage and lost business annually. In fact, damage claims are still being fielded by the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority for disruptions caused by a 36-inch water line break in the city's central business district in August 2005.

In an era in which abundant, clean, cheap drinking water and safe recreational water have been taken for granted, Carnegie Mellon's new WaterQUEST Center will provide a research forum designed to keep drinking water safe, and to protect and restore the quality of our natural waters, researchers said.

"Every day, we interact with our urban water, and the health and quality of this water is central to our health and quality of life," said VanBriesen, center co-director. "WaterQUEST research targets a variety of persistent problems in urban water systems, and we are working on tools for modeling, monitoring and cleaning up our urban waters," VanBriesen said.

WaterQUEST will focus on problems that are national in scope but local in impact. "The Pittsburgh region, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the nation face difficult challenges to improve and protect surface water and groundwater quality in urban areas," said Dzombak. "WaterQUEST Center faculty and students at Carnegie Mellon, and our collaborators from Pittsburgh and around the country will work to bring new ideas and approaches to meet these challenges."

Honors and Accolades

Polansky Wins Lazarus Award...Susan Polansky, teaching professor of Spanish, won the 2006 Barbara Lazarus Award for Culture and Climate. Lazarus, who died in 2003, was associate provost for academic affairs. The award, which is given every year by President Jared L. Cohon as part of the university's Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration, is awarded to faculty and staff who, like Lazarus, have demonstrated extraordinary leadership and demonstrable impact on improving the culture and climate in the Carnegie Mellon community. "We all know that Susan has established, and maintains, exceptionally strong standards in terms of ensuring that the culture and the climate of Modern Languages is warm, welcoming and supportive," said department head Dick Tucker. For more, see http://www.cmu.edu/cmnews/extra/060120_polansky.html.

Rousseau Named Sunningdale Institute Fellow...The U.K.’s National School of Government has named Denise M. Rousseau, H.J. Heinz II Professor of Organization Behavior, one of the first fellows of its Sunningdale Institute, a group of internationally rated academics and industry figures that advises government and public service organizations on operational and delivery issues. The institute offers knowledge exchange, consultancy, and learning and development activities for senior public servants. Fellows are available as speakers and to lead research projects, give advice to organizations and teams, and produce advisory documents. For more, see http://www.heinz.cmu.edu/whatsnew/2006/Rousseau.html.

Barth Receives Grant to Develop Seizure-Preventing Therapy...Alison Barth, assistant professor of biological sciences, has received a $50,000 grant from the Milken Family Foundation to accelerate the development of a novel therapy to treat epilepsy. Barth has developed a new approach to study the electrical activity of neurons following a seizure. Recent findings from Barth's lab show that the abnormal electrical activity of neurons following a seizure can be restored to normal by blocking a specific ion channel. Ion channels allow electrically charged atoms (or ions) into and out of cells. This activity starts and stops the electrical impulses by which neurons communicate with one another. For more, see http://www.cmu.edu/PR/releases05/051209_epilepsy.html.

Designers Chosen to Present at “PGH 100”...Several School of Design faculty and students were chosen to make presentations at the “PGH 100,” the annual show of the Pittsburgh Chapter of the AIGA, the professional association of design. Student participants included Andy Babb, Tammy Chang, Michael Sui, Margaret Szeto and James Soracco. Faculty participants were Kristin Hughes (for design of the School of Drama posters) and Stacie Rohrbach (for design of the alumni newsletter).

Bier Receives NSF Funding To Build Mass Spectrometer...Mark Bier, associate research professor and director of the Center for Molecular Analysis in the Department of Chemistry, has received a $546,000 grant from the National Science Foundation's Instrument Development for Biological Research program to build a heavy-ion mass spectrometer. This one-of-a-kind device will characterize with unprecedented sensitivity large biomolecules, such as protein complexes, virus particles and DNA. It may also provide a new tool for analyzing large man-made polymers used in nanotechnology. "This is a new frontier in mass spectrometry research," said Bier. "We anticipate that this work will help to advance research in proteomics, virology, molecular biology and nanotechnology." For more, see http://www.cmu.edu/PR/releases06/060110_heavyion.html.

Goodstein and Schweizer Earn Luce Fellowships...Michelle Goodstein and Vanessa Schweizer have each earned a Clare Booth Luce Fellowship, which promotes the advancement of American women through higher education in the sciences, engineering and mathematics. Goodstein is a Ph.D. student in computer science and Schweizer is a doctoral student in engineering and public policy. For more, see http://www.cmu.edu/cmnews/extra/051101_luce.html.

Finance Professor Receives TIAA-CREF Institute Award...Richard Green, a professor at the Tepper School, and Jonathan B. Berk of the University of California, Berkeley, received the 2005 TIAA-CREF Paul A. Samuelson Award for Outstanding Scholarly Writing on Lifelong Financial Security. The pair received the award for their article, "Mutual Fund Flows and Performance in Rational Markets," which appeared in the December 2004 issue of the Journal of Political Economy. The award was recently presented at the Allied Social Science Association meeting in Boston. Green is the Richard M. and Margaret S. Cyert Professor of Economics and Management and chair of the Ph.D. program at the Tepper School. For more, see http://www.cmu.edu/PR/releases06/060112_green.html.

Football Players Garner Academic All-America Honors...Junior defensive back Aaron Lewis and senior offensive guard Bryan LeBude earned First Team ESPN the Magazine Academic All-America honors from the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). Lewis, a business administration major with a 3.95 GPA, earned First Team All-University Athletic Association (UAA) honors for the third straight year with a league-leading 115 (61 solos) tackles. He also ranked second in the UAA with six interceptions. LeBude, a biological sciences major with a 3.75 GPA, started every game and helped the Tartans average a UAA-leading 219.8 rushing yards per game. He led an offensive line that gave up only 13 sacks in 10 games, which also ranked first in the UAA. For more, visit http://www.cmu.edu/cmnews/extra/051205_espn.html.

Freed’s Film Honored...Professor of French and Applied Linguistics Barbara Freed's film, "A Model for Matisse: The Story of the Vence Chapel," received the Pierre Salinger Award for the Best Documentary at the Avignon/New York Film Festival Nov. 13 in New York City. Previously, her film was honored as the best film for television at the 2004 International Festival of Film on Art in Montreal.

Music Major Wins Tuition in Poker Tournament...Jeremy Olisar, a senior from Naperville, Ill., won AbsolutePoker.com’s "Win Your Tuition" online poker tournament in October. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported that he outplayed students from more than 300 colleges in a free No Limit Texas Hold'em Tournament and survived a 5 1/2-hour final round to win the grand prize. Olisar, who is majoring in clarinet performance and music education, has four minors and a 4.0 GPA. Among his many campus activities are participating in the Kiltie Band and teaching in the Music Preparatory School. For more, see http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/entertainment/events/s_395648.html.

Levin Named WTN Fellow...Golan Levin, assistant professor of electronic time-based media in the School of Art, was named a World Technology Network (WTN) Fellow for the Arts. Voted by their peers in 20 categories like biotechnology, ethics, entertainment and space, the top individuals in each category win the distinction of WTN fellow. The WTN is a global meeting ground, a virtual think tank and an elite club whose members are focused on the business and science of bringing emerging technologies into reality. For more, see http://www.genengnews.com/news/bnitem.aspx?name=1107589XSL_NEWSML_TO_NEWSML_WEB.xml.

Urban Named a Top 50 Innovator by Scientific American Magazine...Nathan N. Urban, assistant professor of biological sciences and a member of the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, has been named to the 2005 Scientific American 50 (SA 50). Recognized as the nation's top science magazine, Scientific American annually acknowledges people and organizations working on society's science and technology mysteries. The SA 50 recognizes scientists and business and policy leaders whose innovations in science and technology set them apart from their peers. Urban, a neuroscientist whose research involves the olfactory region of the brain, is being honored along with his lab members and outside collaborators for their research achievements in neuronal activity. For more, visit http://www.cmu.edu/cmnews/extra/051128_urban.html.

Around Campus...

Carnegie Mellon Among “Most Connected Campuses”...Carnegie Mellon ranks among the 25 “Most Connected Campuses" according to the latest Princeton Review survey of colleges and universities offering the most cutting-edge technology. Criteria for choosing the schools included breadth of the computer science curriculum; sophistication of campus technology, including streaming media of classes and extracurricular offerings; availability of school-owned digital cameras and equipment for student use; wireless Internet access; and support for handheld computing. The Top 25 is available at http://www.forbes.com/connected.

Admission Launches New Web Site, Sets Record for Applications...The Office of Undergraduate Admission launched its new Web site at http://www.cmu.edu/admission. Interactive Flash movies throughout the site allow visitors to experience Carnegie Mellon or explore Pittsburgh. The new admission site was built within Carnegie Mellon's existing portal system, which permits the site to pull relevant content from elsewhere in the university's Web environment. The Office of Admission also set a record this year with more than 18,000 applications for 2006-07 admission. The old record of 16,696 applications was set in 2001 when Carnegie Mellon joined the Common Application, a non-profit organization that provides a single online or print application that students may submit to any of its nearly 300 member institutions.

CERT Partners With Qatar's Supreme Council to Battle Cyber Risks...The Software Engineering Institute’s (SEI) CERT® Coordination Center (CERT/CC) and the Qatar Supreme Council for Information and Communications Technology have partnered to establish Qatar CERT (Q-CERT). Funded by the Qatar Supreme Council, Q-CERT will serve as the national organization to conduct and coordinate the cybersecurity activities needed to protect Qatar's critical infrastructures. For more, visit http://www.cmu.edu/PR/releases05/051215_qcert.html.

Center for the Arts in Society Continues Lecture Series, Seminars...The Center for the Arts in Society continues its art histories lecture series, "Aesthetics Out of Bounds," this spring. The series provides a framework for the new course "Aesthetics Out of Bounds: History and Art Outside the Frame." The program brings top scholars in the arts, humanities and sciences to campus to speak on their specialty and lead one seminar for faculty, graduate students and undergraduate students. In addition to attending each lecture, students participate in a group of seminars on the topic of "arts histories." The objective of the arts histories program is to connect the artistic, social, political and technological to broader historical frameworks. This spring’s speakers are listed at http://www.cmu.edu/PR/releases06/060109_cas.html.

Study Shows Teens Unaware of STDS Until They Catch One...Most sexually active teenage girls know relatively little about sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) until it is too late, according to a paper by Carnegie Mellon researchers that was published in the January edition of the Journal of Adolescent Health. "For the most part kids learn about sexually transmitted diseases when they are getting diagnosed with them," said Julie Downs, lead author of the study and a member of the Department of Social and Decision Sciences. The study's findings are troubling because teenagers who know little about STDs are more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior and to delay the treatment of STDs. This latest study was co-authored by Wandi Bruine de Bruin and Baruch Fischhoff of the Department of Social and Decision Sciences, and Pamela J. Murray, director of adolescent medicine at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. For more, visit http://www.cmu.edu/PR/releases05/051221_std.html.

PNC Bank Opens on Campus...PNC Bank opened a new Electronic Customer Service Center in the lower level of the University Center near Andy's on Jan. 23. All deposits and withdrawals will be processed at two ATM machines and a 24-hour Internet station will support Web-based banking. PNC staff will be present during regular business hours: 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday; and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Thursday. Special features include free student savings and checking accounts and financial literacy seminars.

Heinz School Announces Suresh Konda Memorial Lecture...The Heinz School is establishing the Suresh Konda Memorial Lecture to foster dialogue about information security policy and management issues. The lecture will honor Konda, an alumnus and long-time Carnegie Mellon employee, who died in 2003. He was considered a pioneer in information security research and recognized widely for his work on the security of large networks. He received the SEI's first Angel Jordan Award for Innovation in 2002. The lecture is being established through contributions from classmates, friends and colleagues who want to honor him and the lasting contributions he made to the field of information security. For more, visit http://www.cmu.edu/cmnews/extra/060113_konda.html.

School of Drama Announces Dramaturgy, Sound Design Options...The School of Drama added programs in production dramaturgy and professional sound design to its bachelor of fine arts offerings in acting, music theatre, design and production this spring. Dramaturgy unites scholarship with hands-on production work to enhance the theatre-making experience for a theatre company. The dramaturgy option will involve academic and artistic training, emphasizing research methods, aesthetic and critical theories, historical knowledge and professional experience with productions. Students will complete 90–110 units of coursework related to dramaturgical study and production, mostly divided between English and History.

Students who take sound design will work in the 18 productions planned for the drama season. "Given the strong, established core design program in the School of Drama—not to mention resources in the schools of Music, Art, Design, the ETC and the School of Computer Science—Carnegie Mellon is positioned to train a unique and potent breed of sound designers capable of working and excelling in all areas of the entertainment industry," said program director Joe Pino. For more on dramaturgy, see http://www.cmu.edu/PR/releases06/060105_drama.html. For sound design, visit http://www.cmu.edu/PR/releases06/060110_sound.html.

PSC Celebrates 20th Birthday...Twenty years ago (Jan. 17, 1986) the National Science Board approved funding for the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center. As the fifth supercomputing center to be approved through a National Science Foundation initiative, PSC came into the supercomputing world running to catch up. Twenty years later, the original five are three, and PSC is solidly established as one of the world's leading centers in implementing new high-performance computing technologies as productive tools for science and engineering research. The PSC is a joint effort of Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh together with Westinghouse Electric Company. The PSC is supported by several federal agencies, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and private industry, and is a leading partner in the TeraGrid, the National Science Foundation's cyberinfrastructure program.

Carnegie Mellon Showcases Security Research at Taiwanese Symposium...Carnegie Mellon researchers and members of Taiwan's government-affiliated Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) unveiled new security technology Dec. 6 in Hsinchu, a research-rich area south of Taipei. Among the innovations on display was ICTrack, a toolbox for tracking unauthorized cars or intruders in a company's parking lot. The second technology unveiled at the Taiwan symposium was a dime-size motion sensor designed to track lost or stolen laptops and cell phones. It could also be used to assist with personal navigation. In addition to showcasing new technologies, President Jared L. Cohon gave a keynote address about innovation in America, and Ed Schlesinger, head of electrical and computer engineering, spoke on Carnegie Mellon's research in devices and materials. For more, see http://www.cmu.edu/PR/releases05/051205_taiwan.html.

Data Storage Systems Center Adds Four Partners to Research Mix...Fujitsu and Alps Electric Co. Ltd. of Japan and U.S-based Western Digital and Quantum Corp. recently joined forces with the Data Storage Systems Center (DSSC) to tackle a variety of projects designed to help industry create nanometer-scale technology that will lead to fast, low-cost compact information storage devices. For the past decade, the DSSC has worked closely with more than 15 other industry affiliates to define projects to help the $60 billion information storage market continue to grow and expand. "The DSSC is an important multidisciplinary resource center for the region, and our new affiliates will help stimulate continued growth," said Jim Bain, associate director of the DSSC. For more, visit http://www.cmu.edu/PR/releases06/060125_dssc.html.

Carnegie Mellon-led Team Finds First Evidence of Living Memory Trace...An international team of scientists has detected a memory trace in a living animal after it has encountered a single, new stimulus. The research, done with honeybees sensing new odors, allows neuroscientists to peer within the living brain and explore short-term memory as never before, according to scientist Roberto Fernández Galán, a leading author on the report and postdoctoral research associate at Carnegie Mellon. Galán noted that capturing these memory traces could ultimately provide a new way to understand how short-term memory works. The findings are scheduled for January publication in the journal Neural Computation. For more, see http://www.cmu.edu/PR/releases05/051114_galan.html.

Carnegie Mellon, Pitt Receive $1 Million from Howard Hughes Medical Institute...Carnegie Mellon, in partnership with the University of Pittsburgh, has received a $1 million grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) to support the development of an interdisciplinary joint doctoral program in computational biology. The grant, one of only 10 awarded from a competition of 132 applicants nationwide, will support the new Ph.D. program in Computational Biology that the two universities jointly established last year. The primary focus will be on curriculum development, emphasizing a new laboratory course for computational biologists and expanded course offerings in bioimage informatics and computational structural biology. For more, visit http://www.cmu.edu/PR/releases05/051122_grant.html

Research Team Uses Internet Ideas to Transform DNA Microarray Analysis...A standard Internet protocol that checks errors made during email transmissions has inspired a revolutionary method to transform DNA microarray analysis, a common technology used to understand gene activation. The new method, which blends experiment and computation, strengthens DNA microarray analysis, according to its Carnegie Mellon inventor, Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Biological Sciences Ziv Bar-Joseph, who published his findings in the December issue of Nature Biotechnology with collaborators at The Hebrew University in Israel. For more, see http://www.cmu.edu/PR/releases05/051208_dna.html.

Fletcher Named President, CEO of Aspen Music Festival & School...Alan Fletcher, head of the School of Music since 2001, has been named president and CEO of The Aspen Music Festival and School in Aspen, Colo., effective March 1. The Aspen Music Festival and School is one of classical music's most distinguished and prolific institutions. It is a high-level training and performance ground for the world's next generation of professional musicians. It is also host to a premier classical music summer festival that presents more than 350 musical events in nine weeks and serves as a summer retreat for many of the world's great musical practitioners. Fletcher will be the seventh president and CEO of the AMFS in its 57-year history.

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