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August 18, 2006
This internal publication contains information about recent coverage
of Carnegie Mellon that appeared primarily in national newspapers, magazines
and online publications. Please note that some sources may require registration
or a subscription in order to access their information online.
Please send comments and suggestions to thomas@cmu.edu
The media coverage archive is available at www.cmu.edu/clips
From August 11 to August 17 ,
Carnegie Mellon Media Relations counted 227 references to the university in worldwide
publications. Here is a sample.
Special Section: Rankings
Kaplan/Newsweek | August 21
U.S. News & World Report | August 18
MSNBC (Newsweek) | August 13
National News Stories
MSNBC (Newsweek) August 21
The New York Times (AP) | August 16
ABC News (PC Magazine) | August 15
MSNBC (Newsweek) | August 14
The Washington Post (Reuters) | August 10
NPR | August 9
Education for Leadership
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette | August 16
Economist | August 14
Information Technology
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review | August 14
Boston Globe | August 14
Chicago Tribune | August 14
CNET | August 10
CNET | August 10
Environment
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette | August 15
Local News Stories
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette | August 17
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review | August 16
Pittsburgh Business Times | August 11
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review | August 11
Pittsburgh Business Times | August 11
Pittsburgh Business Times | August 11
International News Stories
The Sydney Morning Herald | August 15
Gulf Times | August 13
ABC Science Online (Reuters) | August 11
Deutsche Welle | August 11
Discovery Channel Canada | August 10
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Special Section: Rankings
Kaplan/Newsweek | August 21
You could call it a classic case of supply meeting demand. A generation ago, elite schools were a clearly defined group: the eight schools in the Ivy League, along with such academic powerhouses as Stanford, the University of Chicago, MIT and Caltech. Smaller liberal-arts colleges—like Williams, Amherst, Middlebury, Swarthmore and Wesleyan—were the destinations of choice for top students who preferred a more intimate campus. But in the past few decades, the number of college-bound students has skyrocketed, and so has the number of world-class schools. The demand for an excellent education has created an ever-expanding supply of big and small campuses that provide great academics and first-rate faculties. ... A major national research university, Carnegie Mellon serves 5,500 undergrads and 3,000 grad students in seven colleges reflecting Carnegie Mellon's academic diversity: Carnegie Institute of Technology (engineering), the College of Fine Arts, the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, the Mellon College of Science, the Tepper School of Business, the School of Computer Science and the Heinz School of Public Policy and Management.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14325172/
site/newsweek/ | back to top
U.S. News & World Report | August 18
Carnegie Mellon ranked 21st overall among national universities. Undergraduate business and engineering programs were ranked eighth overall. In business specialty offerings, Carnegie Mellon ranked second in management information systems and quantitative analysis, and third in production and operations management. In engineering specialties, Carnegie Mellon ranked third in computer engineering. Carnegie Mellon also ranked among the best for "undergraduate research/creative projects",
"economic diversity" and "international students." The university also ranked 33rd in the nation in the category "Great Schools, Great Prices."
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/home.htm | back to top
MSNBC (Newsweek) | August 13
In response to the same forces that have propelled the world economy toward global integration, universities have also become more self-consciously global: seeking students from around the world who represent the entire spectrum of cultures and values, sending their own students abroad to prepare them for global careers, offering courses of study that address the challenges of an inter connected world and collaborative research programs to advance science for the benefit of all humanity. To capture these developments, Newsweek devised a ranking of global universities that takes into account openness and diversity, as well as distinction in research. ***Carnegie Mellon ranked 75th.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14321230/site/
newsweek/ | back to top
National News Stories
MSNBC (Newsweek) August 21
Forget the days when a coveted foreign degree meant costly travel and a few years away from home. Today it's often the institution—not the student—that moves. Since 2000, the number of branch campuses worldwide has roughly doubled to about 80, as more colleges tap into the growing demand for a prestigious Western education; foreign satellite campuses have become a small but fast-growing segment of the $30 billion international-education industry. America still dominates this market, but other providers—notably the British and the Australians—are pushing in. All are realizing that it makes sense for universities to invest in bricks-and-mortar facilities close to the richest markets, namely in Asia and the Middle East. ... For their part, the incoming institutions get the chance to internationalize their reputations and build a global brand. "Sitting here in the United States, we see the world changing and evolving, with economic development moving to the Pacific, and we would like to be part of that world," says Mark Kamlet, provost of Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania, which has a second base in Qatar.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/
14320415/ | back to top
The New York Times (AP) | August 16
Ballbot, a narrow, 5-foot-tall robot, balances delicately on what looks like a bowling ball. Swaying slightly on a laboratory floor, the aluminum-framed droid seems ready to fall at any moment. But much like a circus animal balancing on a beach ball, Ballbot stays stable, its motors whirring to keep it upright. Some experts say robots such as Ballbot might one day help provide care and companionship to the disabled and the nation's aging population. "We're very good at making machines that can compute and play chess really well," said Louis Whitcomb, a professor of mechanical engineering at Johns Hopkins University. ''We're very poor at developing machines with which we can interact physically, assistants that can do our bidding.'' Ballbot, created by Carnegie Mellon University Professor Ralph Hollis, represents pioneering work in the emerging field of ''human-centered robotics,'' Whitcomb said. ... Researchers are working to add arms and perhaps a vision system to Ballbot. But while the technology behind the robot is promising, Hollis said practical applications remain far off. "We don't know whether we'll succeed or not,'' he said. ''But we're trying to push the idea as far as we can." ***This Associated Press article was featured in over 50 media outlets.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/technology
/BC-TechBits-Balancing-Robot.html?_r=1&oref=slogin | back to top
ABC News (PC Magazine) | August 15
Under a somber, slate-gray sky, a red bus rolled out onto Pittsburgh's hilly roads. Despite the inclement conditions, the mood inside the bus (outfitted for some reason to resemble an old-fashioned trolley, right down to the uncomfortable wood and metal seats) was light and full of anticipation. I was on a field trip, along with around Microsoft Rolls Out Robotics Dev Kit 40 RoboBusiness Conference attendees, to Carnegie Mellon University's famous Robotics Institute. The institute is the birthplace of the Crusher, the DARPA Challenge's Red Team Sandstorm and Highlander, and the Robot Hall of Fame. I was as excited as a school kid; all that was missing was my sack lunch. Founded a quarter of a century ago, the Robotics Institute is considered to be a hub of robotics innovation, on a par with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Robotics Lab. This trip would be my first chance to peer behind the wizard's curtain. As the bus navigated Pittsburgh's steep hills and hairpin curves, I pondered what wonders I might see. Carnegie Mellon's robotics work is actually split up into three locations: the institute that I was about to visit; Robot City (a former steel mill near the Monongahela River where Dr. William "Red" Whittaker plans on developing and testing large, mobile robotics); and the National Robotics Engineering Consortium (NREC). The latter is where Carnegie Mellon turns robotics ideas into commercially viable applications for contracted clients. We were greeted by the institute's affable director, Matthew Mason, who is a professor of computer science and robotics at Carnegie Mellon.
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/
ZDM/story?id=2319188 | back to top
MSNBC (Newsweek) | August 14
Watch your inbox. If you get a message from a computer program called Identity Angel, you may be vulnerable to having your identity stolen. On July 23, the program—developed at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh—began combing the Internet for your Social Security number (usually, the last four digits don't appear on public records). For identity thieves, it's a free pass to your bank and credit-card accounts. (The other two elements of the ID thief's "holy trinity"—name and address, and date of birth—are usually easy to find on the Internet.) If Identity Angel finds your holy trinity, it will send an e-mail warning (assuming it finds your e-mail address). In the first week or so, the program had already discovered about 5,000 holy trinities, says Carnegie Mellon professor Latanya Sweeney, head of the project. On Wednesday, Sweeney will begin releasing the e-mail notifications. ... Sweeney hopes the Federal Trade Commission or private companies will one day use Identity Angel as a prevention tool. "We would love to be able to say, 'Look at how many tens of thousands of people we saved from identity theft,'" she says.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14205540/ | back to top
The Washington Post (Reuters) | August 10
Chemicals sitting in anyone's bathroom at home could be used to make an easily smuggled bomb that would badly damage a passenger jet, and experts have been warning about this danger for years. The difficult part, experts say, is putting together such a bomb without blowing yourself up. British police said they foiled a plot on Thursday to blow up aircraft flying between Britain and the United States, and U.S. and British authorities banned liquids, including drinks, hair gels and lotions, from carry-on baggage. "My hunch is that the reason they are prohibiting this stuff is that it does obviously have the potential of being assembled on board so that it doesn't look like a bomb going through the X-ray machine," said Alfred Blumstein, a criminologist at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh who helped write a government report on explosives threats to airlines.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/
article/2006/08/10/AR2006081000845.html | back to top
NPR | August 9
Today, people will begin receiving emails from a Carnegie Mellon University program that trolls the internet for names, dates of birth and social security numbers. If you're contacted, you're a likely victim of identity theft. Don't worry--Identity Angel will tell you how to fix things. ***To listen to the NPR interview with Latanya Sweeney go to the following link.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/
story.php?storyId=5630787 | back to top
Education for Leadership
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette | August 16
Consider it Carnegie Mellon University's version of "The DaVinci Code" or "Indiana Jones" flicks, but with computer codes and puzzles replacing villains and rolling boulders. Carnegie Mellon's heralded Computer Science Department was chosen this year to create a contest for the ninth annual programming contest of the ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Functional Programming to be held Sept. 18-20 in Portland, Ore. ... "Like most competitions with no real point, people kill themselves to win it," Dr. Robert Harper, Carnegie Mellon professor of computer science who sponsored the project. "We set the bar very high. "The tremendously sophisticated work they did to develop the software was extraordinary," he said of his team. "People were staggered by the sophistication of it." That's to say, the buzz was electric. Contestants even resorted to discussing the contest in chat rooms. ... Carnegie Mellon's made-up contest theme was "computational archaeolinguistics"--a fictional narrative developed by programmers Daniel Spoonhower of Rochester, N.Y., Tom Murphy VII of Hamden, Conn.,and Daniel Licata of Buffalo, N.Y., all Carnegie Mellon students in the Ph.D. computer science program, along with Carnegie Mellon senior Chris Casinghino of Manchester, N.H. Dr. Harper and Dr. Karl Crary, an associate professor in the computer science department, guided their progress.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg
/06228/713708-115.stm | back to top
Economist | August 14
An innovative team of three students and one alumnus of the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University is developing the world’s first non-invasive diagnostic tool for measuring brain pressure. High brain pressure is a common symptom of brain disorders and the new device, which takes measurements through a patient’s eye, should allow doctors to forgo the complicated and time-consuming task of placing monitors in the brain. The team, which includes two doctors, won first prize at the prestigious Moot Corp business plan competition in May. In doing so, they became the second team from Tepper to win the competition in the past three years. As part of their prize the students rang the NASDAQ opening bell on August 11th. More importantly, the team took home $100,000 in cash and prizes and will receive professional help in getting their business, called NeuroLife, off the ground.
http://www.economist.com/business/globalexecutive/
education/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=7266279 | back to top
Information Technology
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review | August 14
The federal government can't keep the personal data it collects from falling into private hands, so it needs to make the information useless when it gets stolen, two Carnegie Mellon University professors said. "This problem is here to stay, and we have to find solutions," said Pradeep Khosla, dean of Carnegie Mellon's College of Engineering. "We have to find ways of giving confidence to the people whose data is being held." In May, the Department of Veterans Affairs lost a laptop that contained Social Security numbers and birth dates for 26.5 million veterans. Police recovered the laptop a month later, and the department says it appears the data wasn't accessed. ... Latanya Sweeney, director of Carnegie Mellon's Data Privacy Lab, said federal agencies also need to tighten the rules for who gets what data. An employee looking at how well hospitals match up with local veteran populations, for example, needs only veterans' ZIP codes--not their Social Security numbers, names or birth dates. Agencies and companies are generally behind the curve on data access policies because it's a relatively new problem, she said.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/
pittsburghtrib/news/today/s_465990.html | back to top
Boston Globe | August 14
State elections officials say specially designed voting machines for people with disabilities might not be available at every polling place in time for the Sept. 19 primary election, despite a federal requirement that the machines be in place this year. Secretary of State William F. Galvin said he is near the end of a lengthy vetting process and could order the machines within days, depending upon an outside expert's evaluation of three models. ... Galvin hired Michael I. Shamos, a computer science professor and co-director of the Institute for eCommerce at Carnegie Mellon University, to test the equipment for security flaws and other potential problems. Shamos has finished his review, and he is expected to report back to the secretary of state's office soon.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/
2006/08/14/voting_tool_for_disabled_
delayed_for_primaries/?page=2 | back to top
Chicago Tribune | August 14
Millions of college students soon will arrive on campuses, armed with new personal computers. And while many will be reasonably computer-savvy, users should note that setting up a machine, downloading security patches and getting safely connected to the Internet all involve more than a few mouse clicks and typing a few passwords. ... Larry Rogers, senior member of the technical staff for the CERT Coordination Center, a part of the Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute in Pittsburgh, believes machines today "can be operational quickly, but not secure." "It's sort of like buying a new car--for a while, all you need is gas, but by 5,000 miles, you have to begin to do some things," Rogers said. "The biggest fault, in my opinion, is that people need to be constantly vigilant. You might have antivirus software loaded and you'll get these pop-ups asking if you'd like some issue addressed, and people think it's too much trouble. You have to stay on top of this stuff."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/
chi-0608140139aug14,1,5572548.story
?coll=chi-business-hed | back to top
CNET | August 10
Robots and legs aren't yet a winning combination, so researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have devised an alternative. The Ballbot balances on a single urethane-coated metal ball, a design intended to make it omnidirectional and better able to navigate among people than lower, squatter robots. It was created by Carnegie Mellon professor Ralph Hollis, seen here. The tall 95-pound machine functions somewhat like a mouse ball, except in reverse: Internal sensors provide balance information to an on-board computer to activate rollers that mobilize the ball. When it's not moving, Ballbot uses three retractable legs to stay standing.
http://news.com.com/2300-11394
_3-6104184-1.html | back to top
CNET | August 10
Dr. Latanya Sweeney has been looking for your Social Security number for years. That's because she is the director of the Data Privacy Lab at Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science. As part of its ongoing research, the lab operates a project (and somewhat of a public service) called "Identity Angel." The program scours the World Wide Web for the four key pieces of information needed to access a individual's personal or financial records: name, Social Security number, address, and date of birth. If all four of these pieces of information are available, a representative from Carnegie Mellon contacts the individual to let her know that she is at high risk for identity theft. "Deploying these tools combats fraud related to financial and identity crimes that threaten the nation's economic prosperity and security. They demonstrate how AI technologies can improve security while simultaneously enhancing the privacy of citizens," Dr. Sweeney said in a statement.
http://news.com.com/2061-
10789_3-6104205.html | back to top
Environment
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette | August 15
Reuse of old, abandoned industrial sites, like those in Ambridge, remains a high federal priority, said U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator Stephen Johnson. But lack of funding continues to hamper such projects. Mr. Johnson, speaking to a crowd of 100 at yesterday's "Brownfields in Our Neighborhoods 2001-2006: Stronger Than Steel" workshop in Ambridge, said the Bush administration has asked for additional funding to accelerate brownfield redevelopment, but has not received it from Congress because of "other funding issues pressing on the federal budget." ... The three-day workshop, sponsored by Carnegie Mellon University's Steinbrenner Institute for Environmental Education and Research, is a follow-up to a 2001 workshop that also focused on brownfield redevelopment in the Ambridge area, 12 miles down the Ohio River from Pittsburgh. Deborah Lange, director of the Western Pennsylvania Brownfields Center and the Steinbrenner Institute, said brownfield problems are complex and require a broad, interdisciplinary approach. Jared Cohon, president of Carnegie Mellon, where the first brownfield research center was established in 1996, said such post-industrial sites present the "perfect problem" for university research. "Our faculty is interested in solving real problems," he said, "and brownfields present an opportunity to make a difference in this region, and through that effort, nationally."
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/
06227/713549-85.stm | back to top
Local News Stories
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette | August 17
Fourteen startups were spawned from technology generated at Carnegie Mellon University in the fiscal year that ended in June, school officials said yesterday. Ten of the startups are located in the Pittsburgh region, with another settling in nearby Cleveland, said Robert A. Lowe, director of enterprise creation at Carnegie Mellon's Center for Technology Transfer and Enterprise Creation. Despite Carnegie Mellon's noted strength in computer science and robotics research, the firms were created from technologies that run the gamut, including medical devices, robotics, gaming, chemistry and software. The latest fiscal figures mark a record number of companies spun out from Carnegie Mellon in any one year, Dr. Lowe said. Eight startups were spawned in fiscal 2005 and four in fiscal 2004.
http://www.post-gazette.com/
pg/06229/714105-28.stm | back to top
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review | August 16
Carnegie Mellon University has been dubbed one of 25 "New Ivies," according to a guidebook scheduled to go on sale Monday. "There are truly many excellent schools that don't have to be in the Northeast or have ivy growing up their walls," said Annette Riffle, a contributing editor to the 2007 Kaplan/Newsweek "How to Get into College Guide." She said the list recognizes some excellent universities that used to be backup schools but are now first choices. The schools were chosen on the basis of their selectivity and observations by admissions officers, faculty, alumni and students. ... Carnegie Mellon is the only Pennsylvania school on the list. Other private schools on the list are New York University and Washington University in St. Louis and public institutions such as UCLA, the University of North Carolina and the University of Michigan. "We're pleased to be described as a 'New Ivy' in the recent Kaplan/Newsweek guide and for past recognition in the guide for our campus technology and our student placement efforts," Carnegie Mellon spokeswoman Teresa Thomas said.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib
/news/today/s_466241.html | back to top
Pittsburgh Business Times | August 11
Plextronics Inc., a four-year-old Harmar Township-based developer of polymer technologies, is close to completing a $10 million funding round, according to investors in the company. Plextronics spokeswoman Jennifer Honig said the round has not yet closed but confirmed it's the firm's first institutional round and largest capital raise to date. She declined to offer additional information until the fundraising is completed. CEO Andrew Hannah was unavailable for comment. ... Plextronics, which spun out of Carnegie Mellon University in 2002 and raised $4.6 million from previous funding rounds, employs 28 and has revenue of around $2 million. It produces polymer inks that help extend the length of organic light emitting diode displays used in high definition television screens and computer monitors. "It's basically a technology that will provide a whole platform of products for a very diverse marketplace," said Art Boni, deputy director of Carnegie Mellon's Donald H. Jones Center for Entrepreneurship. "They've really done a good job of positioning the company in the marketplace."
http://pittsburgh.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/
stories/2006/08/14/story8.html | back to top
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review | August 11
Liquid explosives powerful enough to bring down a passenger jet are not difficult to obtain or concoct from raw ingredients and airports lack sufficient technology to detect these substances in carry-on baggage, experts said Thursday. ... The most well-known liquid explosive is nitroglycerin. "I doubt you can buy nitroglycerin that easily, but it's not that hard to make," said Andrew Gellman, who heads the chemical engineering department at Carnegie Mellon University. ... Regardless of the type of explosive in question, the liquid prohibition on planes makes sense because airport security lacks the technology to detect explosives in most carry-on luggage, Carnegie Mellon criminologist Alfred Blumstein said. ... Some passengers are asked to walk through "puffer" security sensors called trace portal machines, which deliver puffs of air to dislodge microscopic particles that are analyzed for traces of explosives. "But if someone else packed the explosives, it's not clear whether the 'puffer' would get anything from you," said Blumstein, who served on a National Academy of Sciences committee that wrote a 1998 report on the detection of explosives for commercial aviation security.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/
pittsburghtrib/s_465600.html | back to top
Pittsburgh Business Times | August 11
Starting salaries for newly-minted graduates of Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business are up 7 percent from 2005, averaging $94,935, the highest in Carnegie Mellon history. That compares to $29,000 in 1981 and $53,770 in 1991, said Ken Keeley, executive director of Tepper's Career Opportunities Center. "A lot of people who graduated (from Carnegie Mellon) in the '80s and '90s came back to recruit this year," said Keeley. "Their jaws drop when they see the numbers."
http://pittsburgh.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/stories/
2006/08/14/story2.html | back to top
Pittsburgh Business Times | August 11
Carnegie Mellon University, one of the nation's best-known incubators for advanced technology research, is probably the last place you'd expect to find a machine shop. And Lawrence Hayhurst, who sold his machine shop, didn't envision himself back in the saddle. Hayhurst sold his company to Irwin-based Hammel Manufacturing in 2001, used the proceeds to return to Carnegie Mellon and earn his bachelor's degree in computer science two years later. After striking out in the job market, he earned a master's degree in industrial engineering in 2005.
http://pittsburgh.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/
stories/2006/08/14/focus1.html | back to top
International News Stories
The Sydney Morning Herald | August 15
Professor John Buchanan gets excited looking at things from a different point of view. Walking around Sydney three times with three different camera lenses made him realize that photography forces you to look at the world from many different perspectives. "The tools you have change the perspective of the world you live in," says the 43-year-old Colombian-Canadian professor from Carnegie Mellon's Entertainment Technology Center in Adelaide. Professor Buchanan incited people to explore media from a different perspective when he spoke at the Melbourne International Film Festival's X Media Lab last week. "Let's do something interesting in the space before we're consumed by linear media," he says. "Ten years ago linear media ruled with radio, TV and movies. There was no interaction with the media at all. Mobile phones, the internet and video games have now replaced linear as king of media."
http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/
games-guru-wont-walk-the-line/2006/
08/14/1155407745903.html | back to top
Gulf Times | August 13
Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar hosted orientation for its third class of incoming Business Administration and Computer Science students last week, welcoming 38 students and bringing the total enrollment to 124 students. "For the first time in its three-year history, Carnegie Mellon Qatar accepted a higher number of men than women," a spokesman said in a release. "Historically, Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh has enrolled more men than women," said Bryan Zerbe, the director of admissions at Carnegie Mellon Qatar. "Even though we have more men than women in our incoming class, female students still make up a larger portion of the student body in Qatar."
http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article
.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=102353&version=
1&template_id=36&parent_id=16 | back to top
ABC Science Online (Reuters) | August 11
Hair gels and lotions may have been banned from carry-on luggage as they could be assembled on board a plane to make a bomb, a U.S. criminologist says. Professor Alfred Blumstein from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, who helped write a government report on threats to airlines from explosives, was speaking after UK police say they had foiled a plot to blow up aircraft flying to the US. This prompted authorities to ban liquids, including drinks, hair gels and lotions, from carry-on baggage. "My hunch is that the reason they are prohibiting this stuff is that it does obviously have the potential of being assembled on board so that it doesn't look like a bomb going through the x-ray machine," says Blumstein.
http://www.abc.net.au/science/
news/stories/s1712615.htm | back to top
Deutsche Welle | August 11
Bertolt Brecht's dramas continue to touch audiences and spark political criticism around the world 50 years after his death. He carped on capitalism and didn't mesh with the GDR--most importantly, he entertained. "Bertolt Brecht is without a doubt the most important and influential dramatist of the twentieth century worldwide," said Stephen Brockmann of Carnegie Mellon University, who is also a member of the International Brecht Society. "His influence extends far beyond Germany and includes the English-speaking world and much of the Third World," added Brockmann. Bertolt Brecht, a German dramatist, stage director and poet from Augsburg, died on Aug. 14, 1956 at the age of 58. This year has been declared "Bertolt Brecht Year" in honor of the 50th anniversary of his death.
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/
article/0,2144,2127719,00.html | back to top
Discovery Channel Canada | August 10
A new robot perched-atop a rotating ball can perform the same tasks as those which use legs to get around. Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh created "Ballbot", a self-contained, battery-operated, robot that balances on a single metal sphere. Much like multi-legged robots, Ballbot will be used to interact with people who are elderly, disabled, or who need assistance at the office. Robots that have three or more wheels for support generally have bases that are too wide to move around furniture and people, the researchers say. Ballbot's long, thin shape gives it the ability to move in tight spaces.
http://reports.discoverychannel.ca/servlet/an/
discovery/1/20060810/060810_discovery
_ball_bot/20060810?hub=DiscoveryReport | back to top
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