|
|
|
November
5 -11, 2004
This internal publication contains information about recent coverage
of Carnegie Mellon that appeared primarily in national newspapers, magazines
and online publications.
Please send comments and suggestions to thomas@cmu.edu
The media coverage archive is available at www.cmu.edu/clips
From November 5 - 11,
Carnegie Mellon Media Relations counted 163
references to the university in worldwide
publications. Here is a sample.
National News Stories
Bloomberg radio | November 10
BusinessWeek | November 9
The New York Times | November 8
InformationWeek | November 8
Student Experience
Post-Gazette | November 7
Tribune-Review | November 6
Arts and Humanities
InformationWeek | November 8
Post-Gazette | November 7
Tribune-Review | November 6
Information Technology
The New York Times | November 11
The New York Times | November 11
Tribune-Review | November 7
Environment
Science News | November 6
Regional Impact
Tribune-Review | November 10
Tribune-Review | November 5
Tribune-Review | November 5
Local News Stories
Tribune-Review | November 8
Post-Gazette | November 8
Post-Gazette | November 7
Post-Gazette | November 5
-
-
National News Stories
Bloomberg radio | November 10
Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan says the growing U.S. budget
deficit could destabilize the economy. Fed Governor Susan Bies says
Congress spends like it's dipping into a "a cookie jar." St.
Louis Fed President William Poole says Social Security is in jeopardy.
In the last two months, Greenspan and at least seven other Fed officials
have warned lawmakers about tax and spending policies that have led
to record budget and current account gaps...Former President Richard
Nixon said he respected Arthur Burns's independence when he appointed
Burns to the Fed chairmanship. Then Nixon said: "I hope that independently
he will conclude that my views are the ones he should follow,"
Fed historian Allan Meltzer, a political economy professor
at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, wrote
in a recent paper.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?
pid=10000103&sid=aupqr_mhmBUs&refer=us | back
to top
BusinessWeek | November 9
Ken Keeley of the Tepper School says too many MBA students
are "clueless" when it comes to their careers. He's out to
cure that. Keeley is executive director of the Career Opportunities
Center at Carnegie Mellon's Tepper School of Business
(No. 15 on BusinessWeek's 2004 list of Top-30 business schools) in Pittsburgh.
Before arriving at Carnegie Mellon 11 years ago, Keeley was the director
of the MBA program at the Fisher College of Business at Ohio State University.
Choosing a career goal is the key to having an enduring, fulfilling
career. "If students know what they want to do," says Keeler,
"they can stick to their guns and put 80% to 90% of their effort
directly into achieving that goal." He recently spoke with BusinessWeek
Online reporter, Francesca Di Meglio.
http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content
/nov2004/bs2004119_9078.htm | back to top
The New York Times | November 8
The number of inmates in state and federal prisons rose 2.1 percent
last year, even as violent crime and property crime fell, according
to a study by the Justice Department released yesterday. The continuing
increase in the prison population, despite a drop or leveling off in
the crime rate in the past few years, is a result of laws passed in
the 1990's that led to more prison sentences and longer terms, said
Allen J. Beck, chief of corrections statistics for the department's
Bureau of Justice Statistics and an author of the report. Alfred
Blumstein, a criminologist at Carnegie Mellon University,
said one of the most striking findings in the report was that almost
10 percent of all American black men ages 25 to 29 were in prison. Such
a high proportion of young black men behind bars not only has a strong
impact on black families, Professor Blumstein said, but "in many
ways is self-defeating." The criminal justice system is built on
deterrence, with being sent to prison supposedly a stigma, he said.
"But it's tough to convey a sense of stigma when so many of your
friends and neighbors are similarly stigmatized."
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/08
/national/08prisons.html | back to top
InformationWeek | November 8
Al Biland proved to be an ideal choice in 2001 to head toolmaker Snap-on
Inc.'s newly created Diagnostic and Information Group, a unit formed
to sell diagnostic hardware and software tailored for service stations,
carmakers, and fleet managers. As Snap-on's CIO since 1998, Biland not
only knew IT but understood how it affected the business and the company's
customers, too. But after nearly 3-1/2 years of handling what essentially
are two distinct, more-than-full-time jobs, Biland is running out of
bandwidth. "It's extremely difficult to be good at two disciplines,"
he says. Biland soon will relinquish his CIO role...Multitasking is
a trend that isn't impacting just CIOs. Some companies charge heads
of human resources or legal departments with managing customer service,
for instance. It's a win-win for the company and the individual, according
to Robert Kelley, a Carnegie Mellon
University management professor. "The more exposure to different
kinds of business units, the more versatile, and hence more valuable,
you become," he says.
http://www.informationweek.com/story
/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=52200063 | back to top
Student Experience
Post-Gazette | November 7
To say that bringing "Jeopardy!" to the University of Pittsburgh's
Petersen Events Center last month for its college championship tournament
required the coordination of a small army is an understatement. Think
what you want about the flaky nature of Hollywood celebrities, but the
folks behind the scenes know how to draft a schedule and stick to it.
Viewers will get to see the results of that labor beginning at 7 p.m.
Wednesday and running through Nov. 23 when the champion of the college
tournament is crowned. On Oct. 9, the first day of taping "Jeopardy!"
in Pittsburgh, the schedule began early with media on site at 8:15 a.m.
to interview contestants. Reporters got two minutes each with host Alex
Trebek beginning at 10:15 a.m., and TV reporters came from Buffalo,
Youngstown and Lexington, Ky., home of contestant Kermin Fleming, a
junior at Carnegie Mellon University and a "Jeopardy!"
player to keep an eye on.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04312/406797.stm
| back to top
Tribune-Review | November 6
Vijay Palaparty straddles two cultures. While he works toward his second
degree in literary and cultural studies at Carnegie Mellon
University, he pursues his Indian heritage through the study of Indian
classical dances. Most of his family hails from the Hyderabad province
of India; he was born in New Orleans and grew up in Cleveland. Palaparty
began dancing at age 10. He moved to Pittsburgh in 1998 and frequently
performs as a guest artist with Srishti Dances of India, a local dance
company founded by Sreyashi Dey. Saturday night, he will perform a solo
concert at Sri Venkateswara Temple in Monroeville. "I was always
interested in Indian music and dance," he says. "I'm really
interested in rhythm." He took a year off school to travel to Southern
India to study the Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi styles of dance. Both
use intricate hand and facial movements to tell stories based on Hindu
myths.
http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/entertainment
/events/s_269925.html | back to top
Arts and Humanities
InformationWeek | November 8
Carnegie Mellon University's new master's program blends
the disciplines of the university's top-rated computer-science school
with that of its prestigious fine-arts program to yield a master's in
entertainment technology...What do you get if you cross Computer Science
with Fine Arts? No, not Jurassic Park, and no, not just JibJab. Instead,
how about an emerging discipline called Entertainment Technology, whose
practitioners are developing the skills and perspectives to tackle problems
typified by these examples: You're the New York City Fire Department
and you want to make your firefighters not only "New York's Bravest"
but also the world's best-trained and best-equipped first-response team
for handling hazardous-material emergencies. Where do you turn?
http://www.informationweek.com/story
/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=52200323 | back to top
Post-Gazette | November 7
For those familiar with the closing of the steel mills in Pittsburgh,
Lolita Hernandez's first book of fiction might seem eerily familiar.
This collection of 12 stories is set in a Cadillac factory in Detroit
that is in the process of shutting down. She details the struggles of
the workers to cope with the loss of what served as a home for many
years and with the loss of fellow workers, the "family" that
labored and struggled together in that home. Hernandez spent more than
30 years as a member of the United Auto Workers' union, 21 of them at
the Cadillac Plant, so she knows her subject well and cares passionately
about the characters who inhabit her stories. **This book review was
written by Jim Daniels, a poet, fiction writer and
director of the creative writing program at Carnegie Mellon
University.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04312/407388.stm
| back to top
Tribune-Review | November 6
Ambitious and probably more complex than its limited resources could
reasonably support, "When Tyrants Kiss" is a project of the
faculty, students and staff of Carnegie Mellon University,
especially the English Department. It was shot entirely on the Oakland
campuses of the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon and in
Bloomfield, and over just two weeks.
http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/entertainment
/movies/reviews/s_269922.html | back to top
Information Technology
The New York Times | November 11
With e-mail, cellphones and other technology, it's easier than ever
for grandparents to keep in touch with their far-flung children and
grandchildren. But nothing has been able to replicate the physical interaction
that comes with an occasional visit. Now, robotics researchers at Carnegie
Mellon in Pittsburgh have designed a soft, huggable pillow
that uses sensing and wireless phone technology to provide a physical
touch, and thus better social and emotional support, for distant family
members. The pillow, called the Hug, was developed after the researchers
studied how robotics could improve products the elderly use every day.
The research team, financed by a grant from the National Science Foundation,
came up with 53 different ideas for products. They decided to begin
by designing what eventually became the Hug because their research found
that what older people often needed most was emotional support, said
Jodi Forlizzi, an assistant professor of design and
human-computer interaction at Carnegie Mellon.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/11
/technology/circuits/11hugs.html | back to top
The New York Times | November 11
Portable computers that let you give commands or enter text using an
electronic pen on the screen could usher in a new era of information
sharing. But pen computers like Microsoft's Tablet PC have had only
lukewarm success, and writing notes on a palmtop requires learning a
kind of shorthand. Pointing at and clicking on on-screen icons using
a digital pen can be cumbersome and counterintuitive, and writing on
a screen in longhand is much slower than typing. Factor in the huge
amount of variation in handwriting and shorthand and it's little wonder
computers have had a hard time recognizing them. "Lots of people
have trouble recognizing their own handwriting, so it's not surprising
a computer can't do it," said Brad Myers, a professor
in the human-computer interaction institute at Carnegie Mellon's
school of computer science.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/11
/technology/circuits/11next.html | back to top
Tribune-Review | November 7
Michael I. Shamos thinks outside the box -- and the
polling booth. The Carnegie Mellon University professor
wants to make voting so simple that someday you could cast your ballot
at an ATM or lottery machine. The technology is extremely reliable,
interfaces nicely, is seemingly ubiquitous and it is secure. "I
am giving a course in electronic voting," Shamos said. "I'm
exploring the feasibility of alternative systems used by ATMs and lotteries."
He sees nothing wrong with taking a card to pick your favorite candidates
instead of your favorite numbers. And voter intimidation could be eliminated.
http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/opinion
/columnists/vassilaros/s_269580.html | back to top
Environment
Science News | November 6
Farmers derive many benefits from pesticides. When stressed by bugs
and weeds, plants and livestock don't grow as well or as quickly. Moreover,
when it comes to produce, growers know that spotted, nipped at, and
deformed fruits and veggies command a lower price in the marketplace.
However, for all their benefits, pesticides can exact a high toll on
the environment and the health of farm workers. Indeed, one reason these
chemicals work so well at deterring bugs and weeds is that they're usually
stable, long-lasting poisons. Many are broad-spectrum agents, meaning
that they can kill not only the targeted pest, but also many beneficial
organisms. In sufficient doses, most can make people sick. Over the
past 2 decades, chemist Terry Collins and his colleagues
at Carnegie Mellon University have been developing
catalysts that might safely degrade dangerous stores of pesticides so
that they pose less of a hazard to people and farm animals.
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20041106/food.asp
| back to top
Regional Impact
Tribune-Review | November 10
Dozens of red beads the size of sesame seeds vibrated and jumped inside
a clear plastic case, captivating seventh-grader Terry Taylor. Taylor,
13, a student at Milliones Middle School in the Hill District, explained
the interplay of potential and kinetic energy propelling the beads as
expertly as a physics professor. "He is teaching me different stuff
-- stuff that I didn't understand when I was in school," said Taylor,
beaming at his mentor and lab partner, Ryan McNeive, a sophomore at
Carnegie Mellon University. Inside the physics lab
in the basement of Carnegie Mellon's Doherty Hall, a dozen more experiments
were under way Tuesday afternoon. The science outreach program, now
in its seventh year, has paired Pittsburgh Public Schools students with
Carnegie Mellon physics majors who help them navigate complex science
projects for the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science fair in February.
Leonard Kisslinger [a professor of physics at Carnegie
Mellon] founded the program with his own money to pay the student mentors
after learning that no students from the city's technology magnet program
at Milliones competed in the state science fair.
http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review
/education/s_271244.html | back to top
Tribune-Review | November 5
Move over, Cleveland. Pittsburgh has knocked you off as the big city
with the most efficient nonprofit organizations in the country. "Cleveland
didn't decline. They still stayed strong," said Trent Stamp, executive
director of Charity Navigator, a Mahwah, N.J.-based watchdog group that
produced a recent study of nonprofits. "But Pittsburgh arrived
to bump them off the mantel as America's strongest financially healthy
philanthropic community." Pittsburgh topped the list in its first
try. It was added this year when Charity Navigator expanded its ranking
from the 20 biggest metropolitan areas to the top 25. Of the 27 local
charities studied, Carnegie Mellon University was rated
the most efficient. The university spent 93.8 percent of its money on
programs, 4.9 percent on administration and just 1.4 percent on raising
money. "Philanthropy is becoming an ever larger and more important
source of funding for programs in all of the nonprofit community,"
said Robbee Baker Kosak, Carnegie Mellon's vice president
for university advancement. "Citizens of Western Pennsylvania can
take great pride in how effectively their gifts are being put to use."
http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/trib
/pittsburgh/s_269606.html | back to top
Tribune-Review | November 5
Southwestern Pennsylvania needs to identify and nurture small businesses
to help them along and set the stage for sustained regional growth to
reverse anemic economic and demographic trends, local experts said Thursday.
Westmoreland County, along with the rest of the region, should be concerned
about the fates of US Airways and the city of Pittsburgh, as failure
by one or both would damage regional employment levels and the ability
to attract new business. "People tend to think it's a Pittsburgh
problem. But Pittsburgh is a bellwether. It will set the stage for a
lot of other communities," said Jerry Paytas,
Ph.D., director of Carnegie Mellon University's Center
for Economic Development. The research and policy center is an affiliate
of Carnegie Mellon's H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management.
Paytas spoke at Westmoreland County's third-annual economic development
seminar, sponsored by the Westmoreland County Area Labor Management
Committee at Westmoreland County Community College near Youngwood.
http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review
/business/s_269582.html | back to top
Local News Stories
Tribune-Review | November 8
Much of the Alle-Kiski Valley crime that ends in death or injury is
fueled by illegal drug sales, researchers and counselors said. In part,
it's economics, said the Rev. Mitchell Nickols of New Kensington. Nickols
is one of the speakers at Wednesday's Alle-Kiski Violent Crime Summit.
Much of the violence can be attributed to the nature of the drug trade,
and officials should find new ways to reach the people involved in the
violence, Carnegie Mellon University's Alfred
Blumstein. "When there's a dispute in the illicit markets,
you can't go to court as a way to solve the dispute," the nationally-known
researcher said. Violence is used when people can't call the police,
he said.
http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review
/trib/newssummary/s_270507.html | back to top
Post-Gazette | November 8
Those who are intolerant of dissent imperil democracy - On Election
Day, I was out holding a "Vote Kerry" sign. After four birdies
in the first hour, and one 50-something driver sputtering with rage,
I heard a comment that gave me pause: "You should be ashamed of
yourselves!"... My accuser must be thinking of the "mythic"
consensus. Research shows that, contrary to reality, many Americans
think that most of the public agrees with them on public issues. Behind
the mythic consensus may lie a deeper and more troubling issue. Many
Americans understand the political system as guided by a single will...**Editorial
by Peter Muhlberger, a visiting professor of political
science at Carnegie Mellon University.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04313/408415.stm
| back to top
Post-Gazette | November 7
All countries are prepared to fight the last war, not the one that is
coming" is an axiom that President Bush and his team need to pay
close attention to. The French built the Maginot Line in the 1930s,
expecting that WWII would have the same static trench warfare as WWI.
They were wrong. Unfortunately, President Bush's national security team
shows every indication so far of making the same mistake -- preparing
us for another Sept. 11, rather than recognizing the true nature of
emerging terrorist threats. I hope, for the sake of the nation, that
Bush national security team begins to act on at least the following
three issues...**This editorial was written by Jeffrey Hunker,
professor of technology and public policy at Carnegie Mellon.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04312/407566.stm
| back to top
Post-Gazette | November 5
Weekend and weekday after-hours transit service is as important to major
employers such as PNC Bank as it is to bus rider Susan Etters, a blind
woman from Sewickley. Both say they would find themselves in dire straits
if the Port Authority carries out a proposal to slash service drastically
and impose a new round of fare increases. Port Authority officials heard
from more than 150 people during the all-day hearing at the Sheraton
Station Square. Local lawmakers and state officials were invited, too,
but only a few showed up. Alik Widge, a Carnegie Mellon
University graduate student in robotics, spoke on behalf of 3,000 colleagues,
staff and workers whose classes and work take them beyond 9 p.m. weekdays
and who are at school Saturday and Sunday. "We can't afford to
lose any more young people," he said.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04310/407176.stm
| back to top
|
