April 29, 2004

Vol. 14, No. 40

The "8 1/2 x 11 News" is published each week by the University Advancement Division. News of campus interest should be sent to one of the following editors:   Ed Delaney, 412-268-1609 (ed47@andrew.cmu.edu)
  Bruce Gerson, 412-268-1613 (bg02@andrew.cmu.edu)
  Susan Cribbs, 412-268-7521 (cribbs@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.

2003 Editions are available online.

Previous editions are available online.

Carnegie Mellon's autonomous soccer-playing AIBO Dogs and its coach simulation team took first place in the International RoboCup Federation's second annual U.S. Open at the University of New Orleans, April 24-27. The simulation team placed third. The AIBO Dogs, CMPACK'04, defeated the University of Pennsylvania, 2-0, in the championship game. Carnegie Mellon's robotic soccer program is led by Computer Science Professor Manuela Veloso, Brett Browning and Paul Rybski of the Robotics Institute, and a cast of doctoral, master's and undergraduate students.

—Veloso said the U.S. Open included "some amazing demonstrations" of Segway Robotic Mobility Platform (RMP) soccer. Carnegie Mellon's Segway-RMP research goal includes designing a new game in which Segway Human Transporters and humans compete as true teammates and against others of similar makeup. The eighth annual RoboCup International will be held in Lisbon, Portugal, June 27 - July 4.

WIRELESS NETWORK TOOL GARNERS FIVE PATENTS

Five patents have been issued for Carnegie Mellon's Rollabout, a mobile cart designed by university researchers to assist in the development of reliable and cost-effective wireless computing networks. Created by a research team led by Alex Hills, Distinguished Service Professor in engineering and public policy and electrical and computer engineering, the cart is equipped to automatically collect data from several base stations, or antennas, and create an accurate coverage map for a particular wireless network. The Rollabout can help to determine the best radio frequency assignments for base stations and correct base station locations in order to provide the bandwidth needed by users. Pittsburgh's Helium Networks, Inc. is commercializing the mobile cart, which can help businesses build cheaper, more reliable wireless networks by speeding up the design process.

BOOK OFFERS GUIDE TO FINDING YOUR SPIRITUAL LIFE ON CAMPUS

Harriet L. Schwartz, assistant director of the Career Center, is editor of a new book "Spirituality 101: The Indispensable Guide to Keeping‹or Finding‹Your Spiritual Life on Campus." "This book," Schwartz tells her undergraduate readers, "is about helping you frame and explore the questions that you face as you explore your spirituality"‹whatever religious tradition that spirituality may involve. Individual chapters involve the intersection of one's personal faith with issues common to a university setting, such as exploring drinking, dating and sex, joining campus religious organizations, sharing one's faith, encountering ignorance or intolerance and navigating crises. Most chapters consist of essays by students and educators at about 30 college campuses across the U.S. "While conservative readers may balk at the book's relentlessly ecumenical tone, those open to exploring their spirituality in college will find this book a helpful guide," says Publishers Weekly.

MEN'S TENNIS TEAM EARNS BID TO NCAA TOURNAMENT

The Carnegie Mellon men's tennis team has earned an invitation to the 2004 NCAA Division III Team Championships for the first time in school history. Led by first-year Head Coach Andy Girard, Carnegie Mellon had nine consecutive victories late in the year to earn the bid as the seventh-ranked team in the region.

—The Tartans (15-6) will face second-seed and host Mary Washington (Va.) College (13-3) at 11 a.m., Saturday, May 1, in the first round of the Atlantic South Regional. The winner of that match will face the winner of the Washington (Md.) College-Swarthmore College match on Sunday. The winner of Sunday's match will be among the final eight teams that will compete for the national championship at Bates College, May 12 - 17.

NEWS BRIEFS

—President Jared L. Cohon will hold an open student office hour at 4 p.m., Wednesday, May 5. Students interested in meeting with President Cohon should send email to Dean of Student Affairs Michael Murphy at mm1v@andrew.cmu.edu.

—The Carnegie Mellon Factbook 2004, Volume 18, published by University Planning, is available at www.cmu.edu/planning

—The University Center (UC) lap pool will be drained beginning at 1:30 p.m., Friday, April 30, for yearly repairs. It is expected to re-open June 7. The dive pool will remain open during repairs to the lap pool.

PERSONAL MENTION

—Richard J. Fruehan, the U.S. Steel University Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, is this year's winner of the American Iron and Steel Institute Medal. The medal honors a technical paper published in the past year that has special merit and importance to the iron and steel industry.

—At the Tepper School of Business' recent staff recognition reception, Dean Kenneth Dunn applauded the efforts and professionalism of several staff members who achieved service milestones and received outstanding performance awards. Recognized for years of service were Patricia Porter, 35 years; Jackie Cavendish, 30 years; Alberta Ragan, 25 years; Donna Klaas, Vickie Motz, atricia Niber and Debbie Slagle Sims, 15 years; Cathy Burstein and Ken Keeley, 10 years. Vicki Keslar received this year's Staff Excellence Award and Brian Wallace was recognized as the staff's First-Year Star.

—In the Student Government elections April 20-21, Erik Michaels-Ober was elected student body president and Julie Beckenstein was voted vice president. Michaels-Ober is a junior ethics, history and public policy major, and Beckenstein is a sophomore English and classics double-major.

—Joan Stein, head of Access Services for University Libraries, has been awarded the 2004 Virginia Boucher-Online Computer Library Center Distinguished Interlibrary Loan Librarian Award by the American Library Association. The award recognizes Stein's outstanding professional achievement, leadership and contributions to interlibrary loan and document delivery at the national level. Information: official.cmu-news, April 27.

—Elaine A. King, professor of art history/theory in the School of Art, was chair of the session "Modern, Post-Modern and Arts Future" at the annual conference of the Popular Culture/American Culture Association in San Antonio, Texas, on April 9. King also presented the paper "Want to Make Art‹Why Not Go to Wal-Mart? The Influences of Popular Culture."

—Irene Fonseca, Mellon College of Science professor of mathematics and director of the Center for Nonlinear Analysis, will receive a Women of Distinction award in math and technology from the Girl Scouts -Trillium Council today, April 29. The award recognizes Fonseca's leadership and accomplishments, as well as her efforts in encouraging young women to pursue research in mathematics.

—The Object Management Group has announced the program for its fifth annual workshop on Distributed Object Computing for Real-time and Embedded Systems. Co-sponsored by Barland Software and DARPA, the workshop will take place July 12 - 15 in Reston, Va. Participating from Carnegie Mellon's Electrical and Computer Engineering Department are Priya Narasimhan, Tudor Dumitras, Soila Pertet, Charlie Reverte, Joe Slember and Deepti Srivastava.

CALENDAR HIGHLIGHTS

—Wednesday, May 5: The "Meeting of the Minds" Undergraduate Research Symposium. Four hundred undergraduates representing every discipline on campus will present their research in posters, oral presentations, visual arts or performances. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., UC. An awards ceremony follows at 5 p.m.

—Thursday, May 6: Staff and Community Blood Drive. 8 a.m.-2:45 p.m., Rangos 3, UC.

—Friday, May 7: Credit Union Annual Meeting. 12 p.m., Connan Room, UC. Light refreshments.

—May 7 - 28: "Maydaze," a show by second-year MFA students from the School of Art. Future Tenant: 801 Liberty Ave. Opening reception: 5 - 8 p.m., Friday, May 7.

—Saturday, May 8: Tepper School of Business informational session for its MBA Flextime Program designed for those interested in obtaining an MBA while continuing their careers. 10 a.m. - 12:30 p.m., Posner Hall, Bach Auditorium (Room 152). Further information: www.cmu.edu/mba or call 412-268-5687.

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