July 28, 2005

Vol. 16, No. 4

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.

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2003 Editions are available online.

2004 Editions are available online.

Previous editions are available online.

Pennsylvania Governor Edward G. Rendell joined Carnegie Mellon and Pittsburgh leaders last Monday to announce Apple Computer's tenancy in the Collaborative Innovation Center and celebrate the governor's Keystone Innovation Zone (KIZ) program. Apple joins current tenants Intel Research Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon CyLab and the Software Engineering Institute's Network Systems Survivability program, which includes the world-renowned CERT Coordination Center. The Korean Information Security Agency, a research division of the Korean information technology ministry and a CyLab partner, is also a tenant.

—The Collaborative Innovation Center represents the hub of Carnegie Mellon's engagement in the KIZ, a program that accelerates economic growth and promotes collaboration between colleges, universities, local economic developers, local government and businesses within a region. The facility promotes regional economic development as Carnegie Mellon researchers work with industry to develop new technologies, business ventures and jobs. The center was funded with state capital and Department of Community Development funds, Carnegie Mellon financing, and support from the City of Pittsburgh and the Regional Industrial Development Corporation.

—Further information: http://www.cmu.edu/PR/releases05/050725_colab.html

UNIVERSITIES SUPPORT E-LEARNING PROGRAM IN INDIA

Carnegie Mellon is among six American universities that have signed a three-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with India's Space Research Organization (ISRO), its Department of Science and Technology, India's Amrita University, Microsoft India Pvt. Ltd., Qualcomm and Cadence to support and participate in an e-learning educational program that virtually connects four learning centers in India. The EDUSAT program, developed by ISRO and Amrita, will focus on improving education in India in the disciplines of computer science, engineering, information technology, electronics and communication, manufacturing, bioinformatics and healthcare. Provost and Senior Vice President Mark Kamlet signed the MOU on behalf of Carnegie Mellon during a July 20 meeting with India Prime Minister Mammohan Singh in Washington, D.C.

—Further information: official.cmu-news, July 21.

HONDA FOUNDATION HONORS RAJ REDDY FOR "OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENTS"

Raj Reddy, the Mozah Bint Nasser University Professor of Computer Science and Robotics, has been awarded the 2005 Honda Prize by the Honda Foundation for his outstanding achievements in computer science and robotics. Established in 1977, the Honda Foundation advocates "Eco-Technology," which does not pursue efficiency and profits alone, but is also geared toward harmony with the environment surrounding human activities.

—In announcing the award, the Honda Foundation cited Reddy's international leadership in the fields of human-computer interaction, artificial intelligence and speech and visual recognition by machine. The foundation also praised his career as an educator, highlighting his vigorous promotion and enhancement of the international robotics community through the Robotics Institute, of which he was founding director, and by accepting and educating researchers from around the globe. "As a result, robotics has become one of the most promising technological areas for today's industry as well as future society in the sense that it helps create more harmonious relationships between man and nature through the involvement of intelligent machines," the announcement said. Reddy will receive a medal and a 10 million yen (approximately $90,000) award in Tokyo in November.

HEINZ SCHOOL STUDENTS PRESENT RECOMMENDATIONS TO LOCAL OFFICIALS

Graduate students at the Heinz School, in collaboration with the Women and Girls Foundation of Pittsburgh, have conducted research into the composition of city and county boards and generated a strategy for the City of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County to use in implementing an inclusive public board appointment policy. The students will present their findings and strategy at 2 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 4, in Hamburg Hall 1001. A press conference with Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato and Heather Arnet (HS'97), executive director of the Women and Girls Foundation, follows at 3 p.m. in Hamburg Hall 1004.

CARNEGIE MELLON TEAMS PLACE IN AAAI ROBOT COMPETITION & EXHIBITION

Three Carnegie Mellon research groups won awards at the Annual Robot Competition and Exhibition sponsored by the American Association for Artificial Intelligence July 9 -13. The Claytronics Project, headed by Computer Science associate professors Seth Goldstein and Todd Mowry, who also directs Intel Research Pittsburgh, won a technical achievement award for developing a new form of programmable matter that enables the transmission of moving, 3D facsimiles of objects to distant places using millions of self-contained computing systems working together. The Tekkotsu project, an application development framework for intelligent AIBO robots headed by Research Professor David Touretzky, also took a technical achievement award for visualization for educational robots. Carnegie Mellon's CMDash'05 received honorable mention for robust tracking and real time adaptability associated with their RoboCup team software.

—Further information: http://www.aaai.org/Conferences/National/2005/aaai05.html/

NEWS BRIEFS

—The Heinz School's Institute for the Study of Information Technology and Society (InSITeS) will provide technical support for the Healthy Black Family Project, as part of their sponsored research project with the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Public Health, Center for Minority Health. Launched in 2004, the Healthy Black Family Project was established to address the disproportionate incidents of type 2 diabetes and hypertension among Pittsburgh's African-American community. The project's goal is to help 100 families or up to 10,000 individuals develop better nutrition, exercise and support networks while targeting risk factors that contribute to hypertension and diabetes. InSITeS will provide Web site design, policy guidance, public outreach and communication support.

—Benefits-eligible faculty and staff can request a bus pass sticker through HR Connection's Bus Pass Module beginning Aug 1. The sticker gives faculty and staff free use of Port Authority Transit buses, inclines and the T. Passes may be mailed to your home or picked up in Human Resources. Further information: http://hr.web.cmu.edu/current/work-life/transportation.

—Learning and Development is partnering with LifeWorks to offer four family health programs. All seminars will be from noon to 1:30 p.m. in Whitfield Hall. The free courses include: The Single Parent Experience (Aug. 8), Internet Safety--Helping Children Make Safe Choices (Aug. 9), Talking to Your Parents About Their Future (Aug. 10) and Dual Career Relationships (Aug. 12). To register, visit http://hr.web.cmu.edu/current/ld.

—The new Weight Watchers at Work session begins Aug. 2 in the Dowd Room, University Center from 11:45 to 12:45 p.m. The cost for the new session is $144. Fifteen paying members are needed before Aug. 2 for the new meetings to begin. To sign up, contact Rita Motor at rita@andrew.cmu.edu by Aug. 1.

PERSONAL MENTION

—Retired Professor Earle Swank died July 15 in Danville, Pa. He was 83. "This man gave his life to Carnegie Mellon," said fellow professor and former dean Erwin Steinberg. "He was totally consumed with helping students and with helping the university grow."

—Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) student Sheida Nabavi received the best student paper award at the International Symposium on Optical Memory and Optical Data Storage for "Comparative Evaluation of Equalization Methods for Holographic Data Storage Channels." Her advisor, ECE Professor Vijayakumar Bhagavatula, co-authored the paper.

—Jure Leskovec, a Ph.D. student in computational and statistical learning in the Center for Automated Learning and Discovery (CALD) in the School of Computer Science, won the Best Research Paper award at the 11th ACM SIGKDD International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining for his paper "Graphs Over Time: Densification Laws, Shrinking Diameters and Possible Explanations," co-authored with Jon Kleinberg and Christos Faloutsos. Faloutsos, professor of computer science and a faculty member in CALD, is Jure's advisor.

—Alumni Relations has appointed Kevin Wesley assistant vice president of University Advancement and deputy director of alumni relations. Wesley had been director of alumni relations at Bowdoin College in Maine.

—Associate Director for Alumni Relations Lynn DeFabio has been promoted to director of class programs with responsibility for all aspects of class programming.

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