Constructing a multi-functional robot is now child's play — thanks to Carnegie Mellon University spin-off Modular Robotics and 'Cubelets.'

The reconfigurable robotic building blocks began as Eric Schweikardt's Ph.D. project. He and his advisor, Mark Gross, were inspired by "exciting" research in modular robotics and the hope of teaching early understanding of complex systems.

"The toys we play with as children affect how we see the world," explained Gross, CMU professor of architecture and director of the Computational Design Lab. 

"We generally teach programming and design as a top-down activity, but the real world is more complex. Global behaviors arise from many small local interactions. We wanted to make a toy to foster that kind of thinking."

Each Cubelets 'block' performs one of three general functions — sense, act, or think. The finished creation's behavior depends on how the blocks are assembled.

For example, snap a light-sensor block on top of a drive-action block and the robot scoots away from a flashlight. Flip the driver around and it zooms toward the beam.

Gross and Schweikardt (A'08) knew they were on to something when lab visitors began asking where they could buy the toy. Favorable press resulted in calls from science centers and children's museums worldwide.

It was the beginning of Modular Robotics and they're still struggling to meet the growing demand.

The company secured early private funding through CMU's Center for Technology Transfer and Enterprise Creation (CTTEC). The center is part of Carnegie Mellon's Greenlighting Startups — a consortium of incubators designed to accelerate the university's impressive record of turning campus innovations into sustainable new businesses.

Schweikardt had originally come to CMU to work with Gross and his computation design lab.

"Mark is just fantastic," he added. "He gives tremendous freedom to his Ph.D. students. He encouraged me to head in the direction I found most engaging, and he offered support. It was an incredible opportunity."

And that direction included CMU's renowned Robotics Institute (RI).

"When I arrived, I don't think I'd ever said the word 'robot,' joked Schweikardt. "My first robotics class, though, gave me the basic idea for modules that could be easily reconfigured.  Mark and my RI advisors, Illah Nourbakhsh and Metin Sitti, were invaluable in helping me figure out how Cubelets could have the greatest impact."

As Gross noted, "The College of Fine Arts can be a place for research, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Cubelets were designed, engineered, and executed in the School of Architecture. Real designers know no disciplinary boundaries."

He added, "CMU's own Herb Simon reminds us, "Schools of engineering, as well as schools of architecture, business, education, law and medicine are all centrally concerned with the process of design."

Justine Cassell is the Charles M. Geschke Director of the Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII) at Carnegie Mellon University and regarded as one of the field's leading innovators.

She is one of the world-class faculty members that CMU students of all disciplines can work closely with on some of the most groundbreaking projects in computer science.     

"One of the projects I'm working on concerns children with autism — in particular, children with Asperger's syndrome, or high-functioning autism, who are often very smart and very interested in computers and technology but who may have less of an ability to interact with other people," Cassell explained.

Cassell is researching a way for computers to link those children to the social world. There are many benefits to friendship — to interpersonal connection — and modeling the use of language for children with Aspergers to make and maintain relationships may prove valuable.

"At HCII we try and build learning tools that fully involve the child as a collaborator in his or her own learning."

Cassell recently joined three other CMU faculty members at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, where they were invited to present an IdeasLab session.

"The theme of our IdeasLab was leveraging human-machine collaboration for a better world, something that I really believe in."

This was the third WEF meeting she was invited to attend. At her first meeting in 2011, she also took part in an IdeasLab with CMU faculty. She was then asked to sit on one of the Global Agenda Councils (GACs). The GACs advise the World Economic Forum on global challenges.

"The theme of the WEF this year in Davos was transformational new models, and I can't think of any university in the U.S. or elsewhere that better represents the power of new models in science and technology," Cassell said.

"We are a place that constantly innovates. And it's wonderful to see that the WEF has recognized that Carnegie Mellon is developing new models that the rest of the world needs to hear about."

Students in the HCII have the opportunity to work closely with Cassell and her colleagues, who are leaders in their fields.

"And because we have such a strong belief in interdisciplinarity, we are really devoted to working with students from different backgrounds than our own," she said.

Cassell added that at the HCII the process of revolutionizing new technology also gives students an opportunity to  collaborate with faculty and other students on multidisciplinary teams.

"We recognize that innovation isn't tied to a particular field. It's tied to a particular way of being."

How do you know you've got THE idea? What's the climate for start-ups in Pittsburgh? Should I get an MBA first?

These were a few of the questions posed to last week's panel of alumni entrepreneurs at Carnegie Mellon University's Slice of Life event. Open to the entire CMU community, the free discussion series sponsored by the Office of Alumni Relations invites recent graduates back to campus to share their experiences and connect with both students and fellow alumni.

While last week's four panelists came from diverse backgrounds and industries, all shared a common sentiment — the value of the Carnegie Mellon network.

Significantly, each had chosen to pursue their startup dreams with other CMU alumni.

"The network of people at CMU means everything," said Tracy Brown (CMU'09), founder of Evil Genius Designs, a game design company specializing in interactive, branded experiences.

"It's about that common experience, the shared understanding," she said. "It's a connection that enables you to get through challenges much faster. It's incredibly valuable."

Panel comments included how that network has provided a leg up to their fledgling businesses.

"Being part of the Carnegie Mellon community has been fantastic," noted Tom Matta (E, TPR'07), who recently joined Michael Ressler (CS'02) at StatEasy, a provider of statistics-tracking software with video synchronization for athletic coaching.

"The CMU network is invaluable in connecting with industry thought leaders," Matta said. "You have to talk to the right people to be certain that you're chasing the right opportunity."

"I've been blessed with amazing mentors, like Jack Roseman and Dave Mawhinney of the Don Jones Center."

The Donald H. Jones Center for Entrepreneurship is part of Carnegie Mellon's Greenlighting Startups — a consortium of campus incubators with an impressive record of turning campus innovations into sustainable new businesses.

Along with developing their networks, all panelists agreed that campus activities outside the classroom had proven as beneficial as those within.

"I learned to cultivate a successful work-life balance at CMU," noted Ressler, who, as an undergraduate, created his initial StatEasy software to better manage the CMU women's volleyball team.

"Working hard while maintaining a healthy life — it's something critical that I have a good handle on today."

Slice of Life panels are held three times a year with the next event scheduled for April 21st. A second series, Real Life Stories — also sponsored by the Office of Alumni Relations —  highlights diverse alumni experience in an individual format, and will be held next on February 21st.

Event presenters have included alumni from industries ranging from entertainment to news, including technologists from indie clothing site ModCloth and Nathan Martin of award-winning tech studio Deeplocal.

The CMU ties that these events aim to strengthen also inspire the participants to return and 'pay it forward.'

"I like to get back to the university," said Sheel Mohnot (TPR'02), who traveled in from Chicago where he works with FeeFighters, an online payment-processing reverse auction.

"I feel that I developed so much as a person here," said Mohnot. "It's a big part of who I am."

Christian Borle (A'95), Megan Hilty (A'04) and Leslie Odom, Jr. (A'03) — selected by an elite casting team including Executive Producer Steven Spielberg — star in the highly anticipated television show "SMASH" on NBC.

The show centers on the behind-the-scenes excitement of creating a Broadway musical about the life of Marilyn Monroe.

"Audiences are going to get smart television, great music, and they're going to see what it really is like behind the scenes," Borle said.

Borle's character, Tom Levitt, is a composer and half of a successful songwriting team. The other half is Debra Messing's character Julia Houston and their music will fuel what they hope will be Broadway's next big hit.

Hilty plays Ivy Lynn, a feisty Broadway veteran who is the obvious choice for the lead in the show before her chances are threatened by a newcomer. 

"I think a lot of people can relate to Ivy Lynn. She's been in the ensemble for about 10 years and she's just dying to make that next step to leading lady. I think a lot of people can relate to feeling stuck in their jobs; you don't have to be in theater," Hilty says of her role as Ivy.

Odom made his Broadway debut at age 17 starring as Paul in the hit musical "Rent." Since perfecting his craft at CMU's School of Drama he has had recurring roles on several television shows prior to his current role as Sam Strickland on "SMASH."

All credit CMU as the foundation for their success.

"Aside from the techniques we learned, CMU really prepared us for this hectically creative lifestyle. Anytime I have a hard day I look back and think, if I made it through those days, I can make it through anything," Hilty said.

In addition to studying their craft, the people that they met at CMU guided them and continue to serve as mentors in their careers.

"It was an extraordinary group of teachers," Borle said. "They didn't just make me the actor that I am, they contributed to the man that I am."

Gary Kline, a CMU associate professor of musical theater who instructed both Borle and Hilty, recalls Borle developing "a wonderful voice with real power, which, combined with his vivid imagination, made him fascinating to watch."

He added, "Christian loved the technical work, and did it with gusto. But it was his originality that set him apart. This is a huge and well-deserved step into the television market for him with SMASH."

What he remembers most about Hilty was her ability to focus and deliver a complete heartfelt performance every single time.

"She never once wasted an opportunity to hone her craft to the highest standards," he said.

Don Wadsworth, a professor of voice, speech and dialects at CMU, said, "It's quite common for us to open the New York Times or Variety Magazine or any number of Industry-oriented websites and see our alums in high-profile theater, television or film productions.  It is a thrill to see that sort of validation of the training and our belief in the talent of these performers come to fruition.

Wadsworth says the fact that so many CMU actors have proven themselves over the years has paved the way for the performers who come after them to be looked on favorably. 

"Having a BFA from CMU does not mean these folks will get cast automatically; they still have to work hard to earn their roles. But they very well might get the chance to be seen by the agents and casting directors who can open doors for them."

A trillion-plus pixels. Three-dimensional. Full color. Covering more than a quarter of the sky — including a quarter billion galaxies.

It's the largest map of the universe to date.

Having analyzed it, an international collaboration of researchers led by Carnegie Mellon University's Shirley Ho has gained new knowledge about how the universe is expanding and how much dark energy exists in it.

The research team, led by Ho — an astrophysicist at CMU's Bruce and Astrid McWilliams Center for Cosmology — has analyzed a trillion pixel map of the universe to create the most accurate measurement of the power spectrum of the universe over the past six billion years.

The group's findings were presented Jan. 11 at the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) in Austin, Texas, and will appear in a future issue of the Astrophysical Journal. The results are currently available at http://arxiv.org/abs/1201.2137.

Last year at the AAS meeting, researchers working on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III (SDSS-III) unveiled the largest three-dimensional color map of the universe to date.

The trillion-plus pixel image taken from the SDSS-III's telescope at the Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico covers more than a quarter of the sky and contains more than a half billion objects, a quarter billion stars and a quarter billion galaxies.

"We have this huge map of the universe, the next step was to begin to read the map to find out what we could learn," Ho said.

Ho and colleagues selected 900,000 luminous red galaxies from among more than 1.5 million galaxies observed through the SDSS-III's Baryon Oscillation Spectrographic Survey (BOSS).

They measured the galaxies' brightness in five different colors; from this information the researchers were able to determine the age of the galaxies.

Using the imaging data, the group then gleaned the most accurate measurement of the power spectrum of the universe — a statistical representation of how the density of matter varies throughout the universe.

"The power spectrum tells you how fast the universe is expanding, and how much dark energy, dark matter and neutrinos exist in the universe," Ho said.

"The power spectrum contains a wealth of information that could help to explain what happened at the beginning of the universe and during the expansion of the universe."

For example, the researchers used the power spectrum to gather information about baryon acoustic oscillations (BAOs), relics of sound waves that can be used to measure dark energy in the universe.

By using the new measurements, Ho and colleagues were able to precisely measure BAOs farther back in time than ever before using the colors of galaxies.

They also were able to use the data to estimate that dark energy accounts for 73 percent of the density of the universe — a finding that matches estimations from other datasets.

The researchers will continue to mine the data to find more information about the universe, its expansion and contents.

Commerce Secretary and former CEO John Bryson visited Pittsburgh to tour Aquion Energy, a Carnegie Mellon University spin-off and battery technology company.

While here, he led a discussion with business leaders at CMU, along with CMU Vice President of Research Rick McCullough and Mayor Luke Ravenstahl. The discussion included American business growth, innovation, and public-private partnerships.
 
In his remarks, Bryson noted the Obama Administration's plans to foster a new era of American energy and the Department of Commerce's focus on supporting American manufacturers.

In June 2011, President Obama announced a major manufacturing initiative — the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership (AMP) — which brings together major U.S. manufacturers and top U.S. universities, including Carnegie Mellon.

"We need our U.S. businesses not only to build it here but to take it and sell it everywhere. That's a constant refrain for us," said Secretary Bryson.

Bryson complimented CMU for its entrepreneurial spirit in bringing innovative ideas to market.

Since 2004, CMU has doubled the number of start-up companies created by its faculty and students and now stands as one of the fastest growing entrepreneurial institutions in the United States.

CMU has introduced "Greenlighting Startups," an initiative aimed at accelerating the university's already impressive record of turning campus innovations into sustainable new businesses.

Aquion Energy, founded by CMU Materials Science and Engineering Professor Jay Whitacre, received the 2011 World Technology Award in Energy for its work in creating a safe, reliable and affordable way to store energy.

Bryson reinforced one of President Obama's State of the Union messages with the following: "When American businesses compete on a level playing field, American businesses almost always win. We bring the creativity, the education, the talent, and we win."

He also noted that companies who initially set up their businesses abroad are beginning to come back to the U.S. They have realized that the U.S. supply chain and talent allow Americans to work in ways where wage levels, productivity levels and the quality of products are higher.

Bryson stated, "My commitment to you today is that we will provide tireless and effective support to businesses across the country to both compete and win."

Mayor Ravenstahl commented on the large transformation that the Pittsburgh region has gone through in the last 20 to 30 years.

"What we still do here is we still make things. We are proud of our roots in manufacturing," said Ravenstahl.

CMU Vice President of Research Rick McCullough pointed out that every day CMU students and faculty are creating new innovations that lead to new jobs.

"This is a really important moment in the U.S. as we try to rebuild our economy. With the vibrancy of our faculty and students, we can play a major role."

McCullough is also founder of Plextronics, a CMU spin-off company that specializes in printed solar, lighting and other electronics.

Secretary Bryson was recently named by the President to co-chair the White House Office of Manufacturing Policy.

In 2010, the U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration partnered with the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation to lead an innovation competition called the i6 Challenge.

CMU and Innovation Works, Inc., were announced as one of the winning teams with the best ideas for technology commercialization and entrepreneurship.

[Group photo above, l–r]: Mayor Luke Ravenstahl; Rich Lunak (E'87), President & CEO, Innovation Works; Scott Pearson, CEO, Aquion Energy; Secretary Bryson; Lalit Chordia (E'85), President & Founder, Thar Technologies, Inc.

Let's make a game about communicating. Without text or speech.

This was the initial concept of WAY, a gaming experience with no shared spoken language.

The idea was developed by a team of students at Carnegie Mellon University's Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) to encourage cross-cultural communication and collaboration through play.

With their new online cooperative game WAY, strangers rely on each other to help solve puzzles, and interact via shared virtual body language.

"You and your mysterious partner journey from opposite ends of the earth, traveling toward each other while overcoming the obstacles that separate you," explained Walt Destler (CMU'11), co-programmer and co-designer.

"You each see the world differently, and, at times, one of you will know something about the world that the other does not — such as the location of an invisible trap or where to jump next — and so you must share this knowledge to progress."

And it's all done without words.

"Waving arms could easily mean stop or jump, so choosing how to speak, or deciphering what your partner is trying to tell you, is part of the puzzle, " Destler said.

The team created WAY to address a shortcoming they see in online games.

"The reason few games work across cultures is due to a problem of communication. Players assume they have nothing to offer each other because they feel like they can't engage with someone they can't speak with," Destler explained.

"We hope that our game teaches players that they can — if they try — communicate with others across the Earth. We hope players will find that they have more in common with each other than they previously thought."

Destler and company believe that digital games are the great artistic medium of the 21st century.

"There's so much unexplored territory. It's a fascinating time to be in games right now because we're still figuring out what this medium is capable of."

And he feels CMU is the right place to be because it brings many types of people in art, technology, business, and other fields together in one place.

"To us it makes perfect sense that the Entertainment Technology Center, where we created WAY, was founded at CMU. The school's great history and support of innovation and exploration makes for a great atmosphere in which experimental games like WAY can be crafted."

While WAY is still just a prototype — created in about 12 weeks — players' responses have been remarkably heartfelt. 

The team is now seeking funding partners to help take it from prototype to a fully-realized commercial game with more polish and more puzzles.

"You can also expect a Kickstarter campaign with some neat rewards soon so that fans can help us get there," Destler said.

WAY is an IndieCade 2011 Developer's Choice Winner and an Independent Games Festival 2012 Nuovo Finalist. Team members include Chris Bell, Destler, Cynthia Jiang, Katherine Rubensetein, Hugo Shih and Paulwei Wang.

The ETC's Master of Entertainment Technology degree is jointly conferred by Carnegie Mellon's College of Fine Arts and School of Computer Science.

Co-created by Don Marinelli and the late Randy Pausch, the program is designed to foster collaboration between technologists and fine artists on projects intended to entertain, inform, inspire or otherwise affect audiences.

Twitter users say only a little more than a third of the tweets they receive are worthwhile. Other tweets are either so-so or, in one out of four cases, not worth reading at all.

This is according to a recent new study by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, MIT and Georgia Tech.

"If we understood what is worth reading and why, we might design better tools for presenting and filtering content, as well as help people understand the expectations of other users," said Paul André, a post-doctoral fellow in Carnegie Mellon's Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII) and lead author of the study.

Twitter users choose the microblogs they follow, but that doesn't mean they always like what they get.

Twitter says more than 200 million tweets are sent each day, yet most users get little feedback about the messages they send besides occasional retweets, or when followers opt to stop following them.

André and his colleagues — Michael Bernstein and Kurt Luther, doctoral students at MIT and Georgia Tech, respectively — created the website "Who Gives a Tweet?" to collect reader evaluations of tweets. They will present their findings Feb. 13 at the Association for Computing Machinery's Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work in Seattle, Wash.

People who visited "Who Gives a Tweet?" were promised feedback on their tweets if they agreed to anonymously rate tweets by Twitter users they already follow. Over a period of 19 days in late 2010 and early 2011, 1,443 visitors to the site rated 43,738 tweets from the accounts of 21,014 Twitter users they followed.

Overall, the readers liked just 36 percent of the tweets and disliked 25 percent. Another 39 percent elicited no strong opinion.

"A well-received tweet is not all that common," Bernstein said. "A significant amount of content is considered not worth reading, for a variety of reasons."

Despite the social nature of Twitter, tweets that were part of someone else's conversation, or updates around current mood or activity were the most strongly disliked.

On the other hand, tweets that included questions to followers, information sharing, and self-promotion (such as links to content the writer had created) were more often liked.

"Our research is just a first step at understanding value on Twitter," Luther said. "Other groups within Twitter may value different types of tweets for entirely different reasons."

Nevertheless, the analysis confirms some conventional wisdom and suggests nine lessons for improving tweet content:

• Old news is no news: Twitter emphasizes real-time information. Followers quickly get bored of even relatively fresh links seen multiple times.
• Contribute to the story: Add an opinion, a pertinent fact or add to the conversation before hitting "send" on a link or a retweet.
• Keep it short: Followers appreciate conciseness. Using as few characters as possible also leaves room for longer, more satisfying comments on retweets.
• Limit Twitter-specific syntax: Overuse of #hashtags, @mentions and abbreviations makes tweets hard to read. But some syntax is helpful; if posing a question, adding a hashtag helps everyone follow along.
• Keep it to yourself: The cliched "sandwich" tweets about pedestrian, personal details were largely disliked. Reviewers reserved a special hatred for Foursquare location check-ins.
• Provide context: Tweets that are too short leave readers unable to understand their meaning. Simply linking to a blog or photo, without giving a reason to click on it, was "lame."
• Don't whine: Negative sentiments and complaints were disliked.
• Be a tease: News or professional organizations that want readers to click on their links need to hook them, not give away all of the news in the tweet itself.
• For public figures: People often follow you to read professional insights and can be put off by personal gossip or everyday details.

André said it may be possible to develop applications that can learn a user's preferences and filter out unwanted content.

Or apps might display some information differently; location check-ins are unpopular tweets, but might be valued if plotted on maps.

But it's also possible that users are willing to tolerate unwanted content, he added. Some people may follow others out of social obligation. Others may dislike certain types of tweets, but value them in the aggregate as helping them keep track of people or issues.

"Social media technologies such as Twitter pose questions regarding privacy, etiquette and tensions between sharing and self-presentation, as well as content," André said.

"Continued exploration of these areas is needed for us to improve the online experience."

Devices in hand, a group of students lucky enough to get into one of Carnegie Mellon University's newest classes are already hard at work. They are learning the art of iPad programming.

But they aren't the only ones.

The class lectures are available for free at Carnegie Mellon University on iTunes U — bringing the top-notch instruction of CMU's Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII) to learners far and wide. 

Co-taught by CMU Assistant Professor Niki Kittur and a team of top industry developers, this project-based course will focus on the design and implementation of iPad applications that help users visualize and make sense of large data sets.

Bridging theory and practice, the course will give students:

• a basic background in visualization;
• understanding of the cognitive processes involved in transforming visual representations into mental representations, insight and discovery; and
• instruction on implementing these techniques in real applications for the iPad.

"I'm really excited because it combines cutting-edge development on the iOS platform with research and tools from HCII," said Kittur, who will be teaching the course with Paul Hankes Drielsma, a top industry developer.

Kittur added, "The idea is that we can help students not just understand how to program but also what to program: how to develop iPad apps that take information and turn it into knowledge and insight."

The software engineering topics taught will focus on the latest technologies available in the newly released iOS 5.

For those interested in following along, object-oriented programming experience is recommended.

"Right now we have interested students from all over the school — from computer science to HCI to design to electrical engineering; I think this is a really popular area now," said Kittur.

"The Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon is the premier department for research and education in designing ways for people to more efficiently, more effectively, and more pleasurably interact with devices and information," said Justine Cassell, director of HCII.

"The students we teach here at CMU are top technologists who use their skills to improve people's lives."

Watch the course on iTunes U or on any iOS device with the free iTunes U app.

Restoring vision to a blind person is the ultimate gift — one that Shawn Kelly has been working on for years.

To take his research to the next level, Kelly has recently joined Carnegie Mellon University as a research faculty member in CMU's Institute for Complex Engineered Systems (ICES).

CMU's research environment and Pittsburgh's many resources for startups make it an ideal move as Kelly works to get his Bionic Eye Technologies company off the ground.

"CMU offers a cooperative research environment where I can continue my work on a retinal prosthesis while using the same electronics technology in collaboration with other researchers in other fields of study," Kelly said.

"I have already begun to speak with professors at CMU about applying my neural stimulation circuits or wireless power circuits to other devices."

Kelly pointed out the abundant resources available in Pittsburgh for someone looking to start a medical device company like the one he has in mind.

"Pittsburgh offers a powerful network of research hospitals and doctors, and a strong network of universities producing talented graduates," he said.

"The availability of graduates with strong engineering backgrounds is key. Combined with affordable office space, these features make Pittsburgh an excellent place to start Bionic Eye Technologies."

Determined to restore useful vision to people who have gone blind later in life, Kelly has devoted his life's work to the challenge.

"The bionic eye is interesting because it is one of the hardest problems I can imagine working on," he said.

"We're trying to shrink a pacemaker enough to attach it to the side of the eyeball, then scale up the number of stimulating channels by a factor of 100.  The combination of the safety and hermetic packaging requirements and restrictions on size and power make it an incredibly challenging design."

Kelly noted that his bionic eye won't restore natural vision, but the hope is that it will allow people to navigate as well as identify objects and people's faces. 

"The first two functions can help restore some level of independence to a blind person's life, but the third one can help better connect them to their friends and family, which is at least as important."

Since 2004, CMU has doubled the number of start-up companies created by its faculty and students and now stands as one of the fastest growing entrepreneurial institutions in the United States.

CMU has introduced "Greenlighting Startups," an initiative aimed at accelerating the university's already impressive record of turning campus innovations into sustainable new businesses.