June 16, 2005

Vol. 15, No. 47

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.

2004 Editions are available online.

Previous editions are available online.

Hilary Robinson, head of the School of Art and Design at the University of Ulster, Ireland, has been named dean of the College of Fine Arts, effective August 1. She succeeds Martin Prekop, who has led the college for 12 years and will rejoin the College of Fine Arts faculty in 2006. Robinson has been a member of the University of Ulster faculty since 1992, when she took a post teaching the History and Theory of Art to studio fine art students. She was chosen to direct the school's research in 1998 and became head of the school in 2002. "Hilary Robinson is very passionate about the role of the arts in society," said Provost Mark Kamlet. "She has done a wonderful job building relationships abroad and throughout the United States. We have great confidence she will lead the college in an exciting new direction in its centennial year, following the legacy of Martin Prekop."

—Further information: http://www.cmu.edu/PR/releases05/050614_robinson.html

TICKETS FOR EMPLOYEE PICNIC AT KENNYWOOD GO ON SALE JUNE 28

This year's employee picnic at Kennywood Park, presented by Staff Council, is Saturday, July 9. Pavilions 8 and 9 will be reserved all day. Tickets will be on sale at the following times and locations: Tuesday, June 28, 11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m., University Center (UC); Thursday, June 30, 11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m., UC; Friday, July 1, 11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m., UC; Tuesday, July 5, 11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m., Mellon Institute; Tuesday, July 5, 4:30 - 5:30 p.m., UC; Thursday, July 7, 11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m., UC.

—Only employees presenting their own Carnegie Mellon ID may purchase one Employee Ride-All-Day ticket for $5 (valid only on July 9). Up to four additional Ride-All-Day tickets may be purchased for $12 each. Five additional Ride-All-Day tickets (limit) are $17 each. Information: official.cmu-news, June 8.

C-MITES OFFERS AUGUST CLASSES FOR CHILDREN ENTERING GRADES 1 - 9

C-MITES, the university's center for academically talented students, is offering 40 different classes this August for children entering grades 1-9 in the fall. Courses include: "3-2-1 Blast Off!" "Atoms, Cryogenics and the Triangle of Fire;" "Do You Want to Drink the Water?" "The Great Chocolate Cape"; "Engineering Ups and Down"; "Mysteries of Ancient Egypt"; "Robotics Programming and Design"; "The Science of Harry Potter"; "The Science of Sports"; and "World Series of Mathematics: Family Edition." Instructors include Carnegie Mellon professors Karen Stump and Garry Warnock. The one-day classes run during the week of Aug. 7. Financial aid is available.

—For more information or to register, call 8-1629, email cmites@cmu.edu or visit http://www.cmu.edu/cmites.

ANDY AWARD NOMINATIONS DUE JULY 8

Nominations for this year's Andy Awards, the university-wide staff recognition program, are due July 8. The Andy Awards, now in its 11th year, honor individual staff members and/or teams whose outstanding dedication and performance have had a significant impact on the university. Awards are given in five categories: Dedication, Innovation, Enthusiasm, Citizenship and Culture. For more information and nomination forms, visit the Web at http://www.cmu.edu/andyawards/

NEWS BRIEFS

—On June 20 - 24, the campus will host its first Communication Symposium uniting those who teach English and communication on both the Pittsburgh and Doha campuses. The purpose of the symposium will be to share information, hold workshops and address issues that face the development of a transnational communication program at Carnegie Mellon. Participants include representatives from the departments of English and Modern Languages, Information Systems Program, the Tepper School, School of Computer Science, College of Engineering, Human Resources Division, and the International Communication Center. Information: Vickie Makel, vm29@andrew.cmu.edu

—Online Faculty Course Evaluations for Summer-1 will open on Monday, June 20, and will be available until Thursday, June 23, at 11 p.m. Students should go to http://www.cmu.edu/fce to begin their evaluations.

PERSONAL MENTION

—Steve Roth, a longstanding friend of the School of Computer Science (SCS), died Sunday, June 12. He had been on the faculty of both the Robotics Institute and the Human-Computer Interaction Institute. When he founded Maya Viz, a software design firm in 1998, he left his position as senior research scientist at Carnegie Mellon, but maintained a strong connection to SCS. Further info: official.cmu-news, June 13.

—Andrew Moore, a Carnegie Mellon professor of Robotics and Computer Science, has been elected a fellow of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence for "significant contributions to machine learning, data mining, and statistical AI, and for major roles in transferring these technologies to industry and government." He is one of only four fellows elected this year and joins 13 other past and present Carnegie Mellon faculty members who received this award: Hans Berliner, Jaime G. Carbonell, Scott E. Fahlman, Takeo Kanade, Pradeep Khosla, Matthew T. Mason, Tom Mitchell, Raj Reddy, Reid Simmons, Katia Sycara, Charles E. Thorpe, Manuela Veloso and William L. "Red" Whittaker.

—Recent statistics posted by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) show that Kristof Matyjaszewski, University Professor of Chemistry and director of the Center for Macromolecular Engineering at the Mellon College of Science, ranks fifth worldwide in the number of citations to his 272 academic publications. Colleagues have cited his papers in their articles more than 10,000 times to date.

—Suzanne Laurich-McIntyre, director of alumni and student relations in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, has been appointed Assistant Vice Provost for Graduate Education, effective July 1.

—Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences Brooke McCartney has received the prestigious Basil O'Connor Starter Scholar Research Award from the March of Dimes. She received the $150,000 award in support of her research on understanding signaling molecules used within cells to regulate processes during animal development and to maintain daily cell functions. Further information: official.cmu-news, June 9.

—Bennett McCallum, H.J. Heinz Professor of Economics in the Tepper School, was a keynote speaker at two recent central bank conferences in Asia. On May 27, he spoke at a conference sponsored by the Bank of Korea, in Seoul, sharing the session with the governors of the central banks of China and Japan. On May 30, he was one of two keynote speakers at the 12th international conference of the Bank of Japan's Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies held in Tokyo.

—Jessica Cooper recently received the 2005 Graduate Student Travel Award from the American Chemical Society (ACS) to attend the annual ACS meeting in San Diego. The Travel Award is given to a graduate student who shows outstanding academic merit and is making his/her first presentation at an ACS national meeting.

—Carnegie Mellon Provost Mark S. Kamlet has been appointed to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Public Access Working Group, which will monitor the impact of recent policy for open access to results of NIH-funded research.

—At a ceremony in Washington, D.C., last week, Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences Russell Schwartz was one of 58 young innovators to receive the 2004 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). Established by the White House in 1996, the PECASE program honors scientists and engineers who, early in their careers, have already blended excellence in pioneering research and service to their communities through scientific leadership and outreach activities.

—Radu Marculescu, associate professor ECE, and alumnus Girish Varatkar (E'03) have won the 2005 IEEE Circuits and Systems Society TVLSI Best Paper Award for "On-Chip Traffic Modeling and Synthesis for MPEG-2 Video Applications." The paper was published in IEEE Transactions on VLSI Systems last January.

CALENDAR HIGHLIGHTS

—Saturday, June 18: Heinz School information session for the Master of Public Management (MPM) and Master of Science in Information Technology (MSIT) programs. 10 a.m., Hamburg Hall 1003. Snacks will be provided, so please RSVP. Learn more about the MPM and MSIT programs at http://www.heinz.cmu.edu/mpm and http://www.msit.cmu.edu. RSVP to Amy George at 8-2164 or email ageorge@andrew.cmu.edu.

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