April 17, 2003

Vol. 13, No. 38

The "8 1/2 x 11 News" is published each week by the Department of Public Relations. News of campus interest should be sent to
Ed Delaney, 412-268-1609 (ed47@andrew.cmu.edu) or Bruce Gerson, 412-268-1613 (bg02@andrew.cmu.edu). The newsletter is available on the official.cmu-news and cmu.misc.news bulletin boards.

2001 Editions are available online.

2002 Editions are available online.

Previous editions are available online.

William L. "Red" Whittaker, the Fredkin Professor of Robotics, will participate in the March 13, 2004, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Grand Challenge, a 250-mile off-road race from Los Angeles to Las Vegas for autonomous robotic vehicles. There can be no human intervention. The winner will receive $1 million.

—The exact course, which will be announced two hours before the race begins, will include hills, water hazards, dry lake beds and crude roads.

—Whittaker is a veteran developer of autonomous mobile robots for hazardous environments. He built the robots that cleaned up the Three Mile Island nuclear disaster in the late '70s and early '80s, and also built robots that have traveled through deserts, explored the insides of active volcanoes and found meteorites in Antarctica.

—For more details visit www.RedTeamRacing.org/

CONSTRUCTION WILL CAUSE TEMPORARY CLOSING OF HAMBURG ROAD

Construction of the new Collaborative Innovation Center will cause the temporary closing of Hamburg Road—the access drive west of Hamburg Hall from Forbes Avenue to the steps leading to the Facilities Management Services building—beginning Monday, April 21, through completion of the building, scheduled for summer 2004. During weekdays the road will be closed from 6 a.m. - 5 p.m. The road will be open on weekends and from 5 p.m. - 6 a.m. on weekdays. The sidewalk along the road will remain open.

ENTERTAINMENT TECHNOLOGY CENTER SPONSORS INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

The university's Entertainment Technology Center will host the second annual International Conference on Entertainment Computing (ICEC), May 8 - 10. The conference will bring together researchers, developers, industry practitioners, critics, and scholars working in the area of entertainment computing. It will cover a wide range of entertainment computing, including theoretical issues, hardware/software algorithms and implementations, systems engineering, human-computer interfaces, applications, critical commentary, and academic and curricular issues related to teaching entertainment technology.

—Further information, including the registration form, biographies of the speakers and the program schedule, is available at www.etc.cmu.edu/icec2003/

NEWS BRIEFS

—The Carnegie Mellon chapter of "Students in Free Enterprise" (SIFE) won the SIFE USA Regional Competition in Philadelphia on April 10. The team will advance to the SIFE USA National Exposition in Kansas City, Mo., May 11-13.

—The University Libraries invite nominations of library staff for its 2003 Outstanding Achievement Awards. Winners will be announced at the Library Appreciation Party in early summer. Any member of the Carnegie Mellon community may nominate library faculty or staff for excellence in any of the following categories: satisfying customers, increased productivity, library citizenship, forwarding instruction and research, and innovation. The nomination form is at www.library.cmu.edu/Libraries/AchievementNomination.html

PERSONAL MENTION

—Yang Cai, systems scientist, Human-Computer Interaction Institute, has received a NASA Faculty Fellowship from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He will spend 10 weeks this summer at the NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va., for collaborative research on intelligent discovery systems with NASA scientists.

—Aseem Sood, a junior majoring in computer science and math, has won a one-year Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship. Sood, whose career goal is a Ph.D. in artificial intelligence, is interested in research involving the development of intelligent machines capable of communicating and interacting at the human level. The scholarship covers tuition, fees, books and room and board for one or two years up to $7,500 a year.

—Theatre design students Jennifer Alexander and Jeff Hinchee are among 10 students who received United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT) Awards for Young Designers and Technicians in the Performing Arts at the USITT annual conference and stage expo in Minneapolis. Alexander received the Barbizon Award for Lighting Design and Hinchee the W. Oren Parker Award for Scene Design.

—For significant contributions to both theory and experimental biophysics, husband and wife scientists John Nagle and Stephanie Tristram-Nagle have received the Avanti Award in Lipids from the Biophysical Society. Their work focuses on lipid bilayers, which form the fundamental core of the biological membranes that encapsulate a cell's contents.

—Rebecca Kluchin, Ph.D. candidate, History, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, has received a one-year, $3,000 dissertation grant from the Woodrow Wilson Foundation. Her proposed dissertation title is "Sterilization and Reproductive Rights in America, 1964 - 1984."

—The College of Humanities and Social Sciences has named Sylvia Borzutzky the 2002-03 winner of the Elliot Dunlap Smith Award, which is given every year by the college to recognize distinguished teaching and educational service.

CALENDAR HIGHLIGHTS

—April 17 - 19; 22 - 26: The School of Drama presents "One Red Flower: Letters from 'Nam," a new musical composed by Paris Barclay and based on a collection of letters written by soldiers while serving in the Vietnam War. Tuesday - Thursday: 7:30 p.m., Fridays: 8 p.m. Saturdays: 2 and 8 p.m., Purnell Center.

—Monday, April 21: Distinguished Lecture Series. "Tallying Up Endocrine Disruption: How Much Does It Affect Your Life?" Theodora Colborn, co-author of "Our Stolen Future," has been described as the "Rachel Carson of the '90s" for her multidisciplinary approach to research on the effects of everyday chemicals on child development. 4:30 p.m., McConomy Auditorium, UC. Free. Reception and book signing follow, 6 - 7 p.m., Rangos 2, UC.

—Thursday, April 24: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Seminar Series. "Extracting Thread-level Parallelism on Simultaneous Multithreaded Processors." Susan Eggers, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Washington. 4 - 5 p.m., Scaife Hall 125. Refreshments at 3:30 pm. Further information: amp.ece.cmu.edu/ECESeminar/

—Friday, April 25: The university community is invited to a farewell reception for Ann Curran, editor of Carnegie Mellon Magazine, who has announced her resignation after 22 years. 4 - 5:30 p.m., Danforth Lounge, UC.

—Friday, April 25: Mellon College of Science (MCS) Staff Recognition Awards Ceremony. Winners of the MCS Rookie, Outstanding Achievement, and Merit awards will be announced, and several staff members will be honored for their dedicated service. 11 a.m., Mellon Institute Auditorium. A reception follows.

—Friday, April 25: Mechanical Engineering Seminar. "Design Engineering for the Entertainment Industry." Jon Cardone, director of design, ShowMotion Inc. 2:45 p.m., Scaife Hall 125.

—April 28 - May 2: Art exhibit. "Dancing With Colors" by Kelly Young, graphic designer, Carnegie Mellon. 8:30 a.m. - 5 p.m. UC Art Gallery. Reception: 4 - 6 p.m., Thursday, May 1. Free admission.

—Monday, April 28: Chemical Boat Competition. 2:30 - 4:30 p.m., at the Fence. Professor Gary Powers' Introduction to Chemical Engineering class will conceive, design, build, test and race chemical boats. The students will decide on the chemistry, propulsion system and design to move their boat from the start to finish line. Distance and load will be given to each team 30 minutes prior to the race's start.

—Wednesday, May 7: Annual Master of Science in Electronic Commerce Practicum Fair. Student teams will build a prototype E-Commerce system to address a problem furnished by a client. 1 p.m., Mellon Auditorium, Posner Hall. If you plan to attend, RSVP to csalerno@andrew.cmu.edu by April 30.

The 8 1/2 x 11 News, Carnegie Mellon News, Carnegie Mellon Magazine, press releases and recent news clips are available on the Web at www.cmu.edu/news/index.html

-Back to the top-