September 4, 2003

Vol. 14, No. 9

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.

This year's Andy Award nominees include 30 individual staff members and teams whose dedication and performance have had a significant impact on the university in the following categories.

—Innovation: Stacy Pane, Guy Winn, the CERT Analysis Center and the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) Annual Report Team.

—Enthusiasm: John Mazur, Suzanne Lyons Muth, Nancy Tetlow, Sue Tolmer and Randy Vandermolen.

—Citizenship: James Gindlesperger.

—Dedication: Chang-Hsin Chang, Judy Cvejkus, Allison Frankoski, Jan Harkes, Jean Harpley, Richard Henius, Lisa Krieg, Kathy Lachenauer, Jill Marie Lentz, Bill McSteen, Jan Morgan Vargas, Sherry Stokes, the CERT Fusion Analysis Team, the Heinz School's Office of Fiscal Management, the Office of International Education, Telecommunications Information Service Operators and the University Police Team.

—Culture: Creig Doyle, Patricia Laughlin and Rhonda Moyer.

—Winners will be announced at noon, Monday, Sept. 29, in McConomy Auditorium, University Center (UC). A reception will follow in Rangos Hall, UC. For more information, visit www.cmu.edu/andyawards/.

RESEARCHERS DEVELOP CONTEXT-AWARE MOBILE PHONE

Professors Asim Smailagic and Dan Siewiorek, along with a team of students from the College of Engineering, the School of Computer Science and the Human-Computer Interaction Institute, have developed a new context-aware mobile phone technology called SenSay that can keep track of many everyday details in a person's life, including email sent, phone calls made and the user's location. The phone also adapts to dynamically changing environmental and psychological conditions.

—In addition to manipulating ringer volume, vibration and phone alerts, SenSay can provide remote callers with the ability to communicate the urgency of their calls, make call suggestions to users when they are idle and provide the caller with feedback on the current status of the user.

— SenSay uses sensors like thermometers, light and microphones mounted in a wearable unit on the human body to provide data about the user. Industry analysts report that the new technology will not only increase data traffic on their networks, but also place the cell phone even more squarely at the center of people's daily lives.

CFA SPONSORS CHINESE OPERA THEATER PERFORMANCES

The Chinese Opera Theater will present two programs on campus, Sept. 9 - 10, at the Philip Chosky Theater in the Purnell Center for the Arts. "Monkey King" will be performed on Sept. 9 and "Farewell My Concubine" and "Golden Falcon" will be performed on Sept. 10. Each production will feature elaborate costumes, spectacular dance and martial arts. The performances are co-sponsored by the School of Drama and the Asian Studies Center/University Center for International Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. General admission is $24; students are $10. Tickets can be purchased by calling the School of Drama box office at 412-268-2407. For more information—including show times—see official.cmu-news, Aug. 15.

NEWS BRIEFS

—The Carnegie Mellon Women's Association will hold its Fall Member Reception, hosted by Maureen Cohon, from 4:30 to 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 17, at the president's residence. RSVP to Gloria Claus at gc2v@andrew.cmu.edu by Monday, Sept. 8. Visit www.cmu.edu/CMWA for more details.

—A memorial service in honor of Annaswamy Gopal will be held at 1:30 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 12, in Newell-Simon Hall 3305. Gopal, director of business development for the ISRI, died suddenly of a heart attack on July 4. All who knew Gopal are invited to attend the service, where colleagues, friends and family will share reflections on his contributions to the university. For further information, contact Jane Siegel at 412-268-6764 or jals@cs.cmu.edu.

—"Behind the Scenes: Drama Discussion," a Learning and Development discussion group, will be held from 10 a.m. to noon on Friday, Sept. 12, in the Class of 1987 Room, UC. Elizabeth Bradley, head of the School of Drama, will share insights into the background for this year's performance selections at this informal discussion. Register at www.cmu.edu/learning-programs. (Follow the Learning and Development link.)

—President Cohon will host an open student office hour from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 9. Students interested in meeting with President Cohon should email Michael Murphy, dean of student affairs, at mm1v@andrew.cmu.edu.

PERSONAL MENTION

—Materials Science and Engineering doctoral student Neill McDonald won second prize in the Minerals, Metals and Materials Society Graduate Student Outstanding Paper contest for his paper "Peritectic Reaction and Mechanical Equilibrium in Iron-Nickel Alloys." The prize was $250 in cash and an additional $250 for travel expenses to the 2004 annual conference in Charlotte, N.C.

—The Trademark Licensing Office's licensing coordinator, John "Jay" Marano, was recently elected to a four-year term to the Board of Directors of the International Collegiate Licensing Association (ICLA). Marano served on the Board of Directors of the Association of Collegiate Licensing Administrators from 1998 to 2000, which merged with the National Collegiate Licensing Association in 2002 to become the ICLA. Marano has been with Carnegie Mellon since 1995 and currently reports to the Office of the General Counsel.

—Ayanah Moor, assistant professor of art, opens a solo exhibit of prints, "A to Z Like Me," Sept. 6, at Anchor Graphics in Chicago. She will lecture and give a demonstration from 3 to 4 p.m. that day, with the opening reception following from 4 to 6 p.m. The exhibit runs through October 18.

—Greg Ganger, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and computer science, and the Parallel Data Lab (PDL) have received an $80,000 equipment grant from IBM Corporation. The grant provides an early testbed for PDL's new self-storage project, which seeks to create large-scale, self-managing, self-organizing self-tuning storage systems from generic servers.

—A group of faculty members led by ECE research engineer Chenxi Wang have received $1.5 million from the Advanced Networking Infrastructure Division of the National Science Foundation for the proposal "Defending Against Virus Propagation on the Internet." Co-principal investigators on the project are John McHugh and Sven Dietrich of CERT, and Benoit Morel of Engineering and Public Policy.

CALENDAR HIGHLIGHTS

—Sept. 5: Welcome reception for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students, faculty, staff and friends. 4:30 to 6:30 p.m., Connan Room, UC.

—Sept. 12: Seventh Memorial DeGroot Lecture presented by University of Chicago Professor Steve Stigler. 4:15 pm, McConomy Auditorium, UC. A reception follows in the McKenna/Peter/Wright Rooms. This biennial event is hosted by the Department of Statistics to honor the memory of its founder, Morris H. DeGroot. The lecture is in conjunction with the seventh workshop "Case Studies in Bayesian Statistics." For more information visit www.stat.cmu.edu/bayesworkshop/

—Sept. 13 - 14: Conference on Conflict of Interest, sponsored by the Carnegie Bosch Institute at the business school and the National Science Foundation. The event, open to invited guests only, will be held in the university's Posner Hall. For a complete schedule and list of speakers, go to www.conflictofinterest.info/

—Sept. 20: Information session for the Master of Public Management (MPM) and the Master of Science in Information Technology (MSIT) programs. 10 to 11 a.m., Hamburg Hall, Room 1004. The MPM and MSIT programs offer evening classes and a distance-learning format. For more information, contact Amy George at 8-4720 or visit www.heinz.cmu.edu/mpm and www.msit.cmu.edu/. Refreshments will be served. RSVP by either calling 8-4720 or emailing ageorge@andrew.cmu.edu.

—Sept. 24 - 26: Science2003: Improving the Human Condition. The University of Pittsburgh's third annual showcase of science and technology will highlight significant local research in biotechnology, health sciences, engineering and the impact they've had on the regional economy. Admission is free and open to the public, but advance registration is required. For more information, or to register, visit www.science2003.pitt.edu/

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