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April 1
- 7, 2005
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 April 1-7,
Carnegie Mellon Media Relations counted 213
references to the university in worldwide publications. Here is a sample.
National News Stories
National Geographic News | April 6
U.S. News & World Report | April 1
The New York Times (ASSOCIATED PRESS) | March
31
Student Experience
Post-Gazette | April 7
BusinessWeek | April 7
Tribune-Review | April 4
Post-Gazette | April 1
Post-Gazette | April 1
Arts and Humanities
Tribune-Review | April 7
The New York Times | April 5
Tribune-Review | April 4
San Jose Mercury News | April 3
Information Technology
Slate | April 4
Biotechnology
Post-Gazette | March 28
Environment
Post-Gazette | April 4
Regional Impact
Post-Gazette | April 7
Post-Gazette | April 1
Local News Stories
Tribune-Review | April 6
Tribune-Review | April 3
Post-Gazette | April 2
Tribune-Review | April 1
Post-Gazette | April 1
International News Stories
The International Herald Tribune, France |
April 7
The Times, UK | April 2
Reuters, UK | March 31
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National News Stories
National Geographic News | April 6
By peering into the deep belly of the universe, scientists have found
that massive black holes are growing simultaneously with the galaxies
in which they are situated. Using powerful x-ray technology, astronomers
surveyed distant galaxies more than ten billion light-years away. They
found that the black hole in the center of each galaxy appears to be
growing continuously throughout a burst of star formation. The observations
confirm a theory that the total mass of the stars in a galaxy corresponds
to the mass of the black hole. The findings suggest that black holes
are pivotal to the formation of galaxies and the structure of the universe...Tiziana
Di Matteo, an astrophysicist at Carnegie Mellon
University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, led a recent computer simulation
of this phenomenon. The program showed that these mergers drive particles
and gas toward the central regions of galaxies. The matter produced
stars and provided the fuel that feeds the black hole, enabling it to
grow.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005
/04/0406_050406_blackholes.html | back
to top
U.S. News & World Report | April 1
Top Engineering Schools: Carnegie Mellon ranked 9th
overall; Engineering Specialty Programs: Computer Engineering ranked
4th; Electrical/Electronic/Communications ranked 8th; Environmental/Environmental
Health ranked 8th; Mechanical ranked 10th. [The magazine also included
several photos of the engineering department and a quote by Pradeep
Khosla.] Top Psychology Schools: Carnegie Mellon ranked 9th
overall and the Tepper School ranked 36th overall; Psychology Specialty
Programs: Cognitive Psychology ranked 2nd; Experimental Psychology ranked
5th. Top Business Schools: Tepper School ranked 17th overall; Business
Specialty Programs: Information Systems ranked 2nd; Production/Operations
ranked 2nd; Supply Chain/Logistics ranked 7th. Top Economics Schools:
Carnegie Mellon ranked 20th overall.
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu
/grad/rankings/rankindex_brief.php | back
to top
The New York Times (ASSOCIATED PRESS) | March
31
It could be called Andy Warhol's first studio. It was where he got his
inspiration for his paintings of Campbell's soup cans. It was where
he became consumed by celebrity and first began drawing pop icons. It's
also a little disappointing...But Warhol's last home in Pittsburgh before
moving to New York could see better days if a group -- including his
older brother, a real estate agent, a community activist and professor
-- has its way...the house was where his mother encouraged him to draw
and paint. He often drew Temple and took free art classes at the nearby
Carnegie Institute of Technology, now Carnegie Mellon
University, where he later majored in pictorial design. Warhol moved
out in 1949 and John Warhola, his older brother, sold the house in 1960
for $9,000 when their mother moved to New York City. " I should
have just rented it out. Who knew Andy would be famous? It is always
easy to look back," Warhola said. Warhola would like to see the
three-bedroom house, built in 1915, repaired and possibly rented out
to students at nearby Carnegie Mellon University. "He always wanted
to help young artists. It would be a good place to call home. You could
say, 'I'm living in a house where Andy was raised,'" Warhola said.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/arts
/AP-Warhol-Home.html | back
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Student Experience
Post-Gazette | April 7
Susan Bassett isn't looking to rebuild Carnegie
Mellon's athletic programs when she officially becomes the
athletic director in July, but she hopes to see a new building on campus
in the near future that will replace antiquated Skibo Gym. "Carnegie
Mellon is at a critical point in their history," Bassett said yesterday
from her office at William Smith College in Geneva, N.Y., where she
has been athletic director the past 10 years. "Athletics has been
important and Carnegie Mellon is ready at this point to develop its
programs further. They talked to me about expanding their facilities
with a new field house. That's something that intrigues me. There's
a real need there." Skibo Gym has been the home of Carnegie Mellon's
basketball teams and other winter sports since the 1920s. "I wasn't
actively in the market searching for jobs," said Bassett, who replaces
David Belowich, the interim athletic director since John Harvey retired
after 15 years in May. "I made a promise to myself that when openings
came up I'd stay open-minded. I've made my career in Division III.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05097/484244.stm
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BusinessWeek | April 7
When the deans of seven of the top U.S. business schools got together
for their biannual meeting on a chilly, gray day earlier this year,
the usual topics of conversation -- MBA recruiting, new courses, and
leadership training -- quickly gave way to a gloomier subject. According
to people privy to the secretive meetings, the men, gathered at an Ivy
League campus, solemnly broached a sensitive topic: Applications for
the class entering in the fall would be down -- just as they were last
fall. Indeed, applications to BusinessWeek's Top 30 MBA programs have
dropped almost 30% overall since 1998, with some schools seeing declines
of 50% or more. And with the job market improving, more prospective
applicants may find themselves with opportunities that will, if history
is any indicator, pull them away from B-school. What's more, to cope
with sliding interest, some schools have gone so far as to quietly reduce
the number of students they enroll each year, BusinessWeek has learned.
Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business
has cut its class size from 240 students to a target of 160. Vanderbilt
University's Owen School of Management dropped from 220 to 180 students
per class. Other schools have done the same.
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash
/apr2005/nf2005047_8428_db016.htm | back
to top
Tribune-Review | April 4
Robert had spent two months in jail and received four years of probation
for his 2003 conviction for selling marijuana. The Erie man, who asked
that his last name not be used, completed a rehab program and wanted
to go to college. As he filled out his six-page application for financial
aid to attend Penn State-Behrend in the fall, Robert confronted Question
31. That's the one that asks whether an applicant has been convicted
of possessing or selling illegal drugs. A federal law adopted in 1998
denies federal loans, grants and jobs through Work Study programs to
college students convicted of possessing or selling drugs. When it was
implemented in 2000, it also was extended to applicants with drug convictions
who want to enter college...President Bush's proposed 2006 budget would
ease the ban so it would apply only to students convicted of drug crimes
while they're in college. The U.S. House, meanwhile, is considering
a proposal to repeal the entire law -- rekindling a debate about whether
society should forgive and forget drug crimes. "In many cases,
the kinds of loans available are the only way kids can go to school,"
said William Elliott, vice president of enrollment
at Carnegie Mellon University. "The real question
is what is our society going to require of people when they've transgressed."
http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review
/trib/regional/s_320250.html | back
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Post-Gazette | April 1
U.S. News & World Report has issued its graduate school rankings,
putting some programs at Carnegie Mellon University,
the University of Pittsburgh and Penn State University in the top 25.
For the first time, Carnegie Mellon had four of its engineering programs
in the top 10: computer engineering, fourth; electrical/electronic/communications,
eighth; environmental/environmental health, eighth; and mechanical,
10th. The engineering school as a whole ranked ninth. Carnegie Mellon
also ranked 17th among business schools, with its information systems
and production/operations programs both ranking second and supply chain/logistics
seventh. Other Carnegie Mellon rankings included psychology, ninth,
with cognitive psychology ranked second and experimental psychology
fifth; and economics, 20th.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05091/481256.stm
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Post-Gazette | April 1
Susan Bassett has been named Carnegie Mellon
University's director of athletics and physical education. She succeeds
John Harvey, who retired last May. Bassett comes to Carnegie Mellon
from William Smith College where she was director of athletics.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05091/481306.stm
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Arts and Humanities
Tribune-Review | April 7
Art and ... hockey? Beginning Friday evening, hockey will return to
Pittsburgh for three weeks. No, the Penguins, who have been sidelined
thanks to the cancellation of the NHL season, aren't back in play. But
a group of second-year master of fine arts students from Carnegie
Mellon University are. They have created a hockey rink to rival
Mellon Arena inside the Downtown exhibition space Future Tenant and
from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday, they will swap their paintbrushes for hockey
sticks for the opening ceremonies of the S.H.L. -- Scab Hockey League
-- an extended interactive event that addresses the economic and emotional
effect that the cancellation of the NHL season has had on the Pittsburgh
community...Page's grand finale. Choral conductor Robert Page
will be characteristically looking forward at his final concert as music
director of the Mendelssohn Choir by leading the world premiere of Nancy
Galbraith's "Requiem" on Sunday evening. Page, who came to
Pittsburgh in 1979 to raise the professional standards of the Mendelssohn,
is a big fan of Galbraith's music. He'll continue to teach and conduct
at Carnegie Mellon, where he is the Paul Mellon Professor of Music.
http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review
/entertainment/events/s_321302.html | back
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The New York Times | April 5
Talking to babies in their own language - baby talk - may help them
learn new words faster. A group of researchers led by Dr. Erik
D. Thiessen, an assistant professor of psychology at Carnegie
Mellon University, tested 40 8-month-old infants. The babies
were played tapes of two sets of four-word nonsense sentences, one spoken
in ordinary adult conversational tones, the other in the pitch and rhythm
of baby talk. For a few minutes, the babies listened to the sentence.
Then a single word was repeated while a light flashed on one side of
the room. As long as the infant looked at the light, the word continued
to repeat. When the baby looked away, the recording stopped.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04
/05/health/05chil.html | back
to top
Tribune-Review | April 4
Oboist Cynthia DeAlmeida takes special delight in sharing
her discoveries from the vastness of good but unfamiliar music. Tonight,
the Pittsburgh Symphony's principal oboist will be joined by colleagues
from the orchestra and faculty at Carnegie Mellon University
for an evening of music she's confident none of the audience will have
heard before. For example, she'll play the opera diva in "Capriccio"
by Amilcare Ponchielli, best known for "La Gioconda" and the
most important mid-19th century opera composer after Giuseppe Verdi.
Ponchielli also wrote an entertaining Piano Quintet for winds.
http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review
/entertainment/music/s_320509.html | back
to top
San Jose Mercury News | April 3
So long, soccer moms in minivans. Hello, hot moms in miniskirts. Americans
may still feel the same way about apple pie, but the image of Mom in
the sentimental land of June Cleaver and Harriet Nelson is undergoing
what some might call an extreme makeover. Hot moms have graced the covers
of three non-mom-oriented magazines recently, underscoring the spreading
popularity of a concept that is as complex as it is controversial. If
"there are no ugly mothers on Wisteria Lane," as Kathy
Newman, an English professor and specialist in media studies
at Carnegie Mellon University, pointed out, neither
is there a simple definition of what makes a mom hot. Teri Hatcher,
who plays the divorced, work-at-home mother of a teenage daughter on
ABC's soapy suburban series "Desperate Housewives," appeared
on the recent covers of two very different magazines -- the upscale
fashion book Harper's Bazaar and the down-and-slightly-dirty so-called
"lad mag" FHM. Each had a decidedly different take on the
new hot mom.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld
/mercurynews/living/11300806.htm | back
to top
Information Technology
Slate | April 4
It's spring training at Carnegie Mellon's MultiRobot
Lab. On a 6-by-4-meter, green-felt field, little robot dogs run through
drills: shooting, passing, goaltending. Every Wednesday, the Sony AIBOs
line up for a full scrimmage, their heads swiveling to find the ball
and their rumps pointed to the sky. It's last week's code against this
week's code—may the best robots win. The Carnegie Mellon robot
dogs, known as CMDash'05, are the defending champions in the four-legged
division of the RoboCup U.S. Open. After going for a repeat title in
May, they'll head for the RoboCup world championships in Osaka, Japan,
and a potential matchup with the juggernaut defending champs from Germany.
The championships will include more than 150 robot teams in five leagues:
simulation, small-size, middle-size, four-legged, and humanoid. Each
division has the same goal: "By the year 2050, develop a team of
fully autonomous humanoid robots that can win against the human world
soccer champion team."
http://slate.msn.com/id/2116163/
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Biotechnology
Post-Gazette | March 28
A novel, noninvasive way of watching genes at work could help researchers
make new drugs faster and learn more about biological processes. Carnegie
Mellon University biologist Eric Ahrens and
his team devised a technique that gets cells to produce their own contrast
agents, making them easily visible with magnetic resonance imaging.
The contrast essentially puts the gene being studied in the spotlight
on an MRI scan. "We developed a marker that we can attach to the
gene of interest," Ahrens explained. "When the gene of interest
is turned on in the cell, the marker is turned on. Then we can visualize
that with MRI."
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05087/478559.stm
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Environment
Post-Gazette | April 4
Girty's Run is dirty, even when it's barely running. Dry Run is full
of sewage even when it's almost dry. And last week, visitors to Saw
Mill Run saw a creek tinged orange with acid mine drainage that masked
the strong dose of sewage that bacteriological tests show is always
there. The three streams are among 15 in Allegheny County that have
serious sewage pollution problems even in dry weather, a surprising
finding that raises public health concerns. It also calls into question
whether the state's surface water assessment program is producing a
true and accurate picture of the pathogens that pollute the region's
rivers and creeks. "In those 15 streams the dry weather water quality
is astronomically bad," said Tim Collins, a research
fellow at Carnegie Mellon University who directed 3
Rivers 2nd Nature, a five-year project to study pollution in the county's
waterways. "There are significant potential public health impacts
because those streams run through some of the county's densely populated
areas, backyards and public parks." Test data compiled during the
recently completed project by Carnegie Mellon's STUDIO for Creative
Inquiry, confirmed sewage contamination problems in the Allegheny, Monongahela
and Ohio rivers and the county's 53 streams during wet weather when
combined sewers overflow into them.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05094/482308.stm
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Regional Impact
Post-Gazette | April 7
Since its founding in 1964, Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation
has been quietly growing the next generation of preservationists. Since
Landmarks expanded its education programs in 1994, the foundation has
reached 5,000 children in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties, including
about 500 students at four South Side elementary schools now participating
in the "Spotlight on Main Street" project focusing on East
Carson Street. It's funded by a $10,000 "Save Our History"
grant from the History Channel, which comes to town today to honor their
work with the presentation of plaques for each school. The project began
in December, when fifth-grade students from Phillips Elementary School
visited Douglas Cooper's panoramic Pittsburgh mural at Carnegie
Mellon University's University Center and learned about his
technique, which includes the use of oral histories to develop the mural's
content. Working with Louise Sturgess, Landmarks' executive director,
and Kelly Docter of Carnegie Mellon's School of Architecture,
they learned how poetry could be used to describe buildings, and they
wrote poems and made drawings inspired by Cooper's mural and based on
photographs of South Side buildings.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05097/484066.stm
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Post-Gazette | April 1
South Side-based specialized chip developer Akustica Inc. said yesterday
that it had raised $15 million in financing. The firm, which specializes
in so-called MEMs technology, for micro-electromechanical systems, is
developing tiny speakers and microphones for use in such devices as
cell phones, personal digital assistants and laptop computers. The latest
round of venture capital financing is in addition to $12.5 million Akustica
had previously raised since being founded by Chief Technology Officer
and Carnegie Mellon University engineering professor
Ken Gabriel and Chief Executive Officer James Rock
in early 2002.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05091/480948.stm
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Local News Stories
Tribune-Review | April 6
Kissing up to the boss and kissing the boss are completely different
things. Both create great gossip for around the water cooler, and both
can spawn scorn among colleagues. But when are office romances actually
prohibited? Not as often as companies would prefer, Peter Madsen
said. Vault, a career information Web site offering job boards and employee
surveys, conducted an office romance survey and found 58 percent of
employees have been involved in an office romance. "It's hard to
have a rule against love," said Madsen, the executive director
of the Center for the Advancement of Applied Ethics at Carnegie
Mellon University. "People are more reluctant to do the
bar scene, so they're meeting others on the job. And it's hard to create
a policy that prohibits people from falling in love."
http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review
/trib/newssummary/s_321185.html | back
to top
Tribune-Review | April 3
John Mazzoni remembers four decades ago when he started working at U.S.
Steel Corp.'s Edgar Thomson Works in Braddock, a time when steel was
king in the Mon Valley and his union was pretty much steelworkers. But
now, steelworkers are a minority among the almost 600,000 active members
of the United Steelworkers of America. The union has almost 180,000
members employed in the primary and fabricated metals industries, but
the majority of the membership is spread across the economic landscape
-- the chemicals, glass, rubber, tires, transportation, utilities and
container industries, and even health care...While it may be difficult
for some to see how steelworkers fit into a union with paperworkers,
"there's nothing radical in the fact that PACE (representing paperworkers
and chemical workers) fits into a steel union," said Ben
Fischer, a distinguished public service professor of labor
relations at Carnegie Mellon University's H.J. Heinz
School of Public Policy.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review
/business/s_319000.html | back
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Post-Gazette | April 2
Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato sparred yesterday with
a Carnegie Mellon University professor over how best
to confront the county's recurring problems with property assessments.
During a taping of "KD/PG Sunday Edition," Robert
Strauss, a professor of economics and public policy at Carnegie
Mellon, suggested that Onorato's decision to put a 4 percent cap on
property assessment increases is politically motivated, a charge the
chief executive hotly denied.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05092/481705.stm
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Tribune-Review | April 1
Carnegie Mellon University economist Allan
H. Meltzer hailed the election Thursday of Deputy Defense Secretary
Paul Wolfowitz to head the World Bank. Wolfowitz was unanimously elected
to succeed James Wolfenson, who retires May 31 after leading the bank
for a decade. The bank, formed in 1945 to promote Third World development,
invests about $20 billion annually. Meltzer, an internationally recognized
development expert, has called the bank "dysfunctional."
http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review
/trib/regional/s_319463.html | back
to top
Post-Gazette | April 1
City Councilman Sala Udin remembers the sign he saw outside a riverboat
casino he visited in Vicksburg, Miss.: "Social Security and Welfare
checks cashed inside." "That's one way to run a casino,"
he said yesterday. "That doesn't have to be the way we run casinos
here in this city." Udin is one of 23 people who has been appointed
by Mayor Tom Murphy to serve on an advisory board that will study the
impact of a proposed slots parlor to be built in the city, interview
potential operators, and be the "voice of Pittsburgh" before
the state panel that will award the license. Co-chairing the Pittsburgh
Citizens Gaming Advisory Panel will be Ronald Porter,
an adjunct instructor at Carnegie Mellon University's
Heinz School of Public Policy and Management, and Anne J. Swager, executive
director of the American Institute of Architects Pittsburgh.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05091/481056.stm
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International News Stories
The International Herald Tribune, France | April
7
Talking to babies in their own language - baby talk - may help them
learn new words faster. A group of researchers led by Dr. Erik
Thiessen, an assistant professor of psychology at Carnegie
Mellon University, tested 40 8-month-old infants. Discussing
his findings, Thiessen said, "This way of talking, which we all
have an urge to do, is actually beneficial for babies." But he
warns against adopting any particular method to help a baby's linguistic
development. "Babies can learn from a wide variety of speech, not
just baby talk," Thiessen said. "It's more important to interact
through language in natural ways than to try to use some specific technique
you think will make your baby grow up smarter."
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/04
/06/healthscience/snvital.html | back
to top
The Times, UK | April 2
Police technology could soon come to the aid of people who can’t
recognise faces. Most of us are instinctively able to scan thousands
of faces to recognise ones we know. But people with prosopagnosia are
face-blind. It may affect one person in 50 and can be mistaken for autism.
Now psychologists at Carnegie Mellon University, in
the US, are working on high-tech aids to help people who, because of
their genes, can’t recognise faces. They plan to give patients
the face-recognition computer programs being introduced by UK police
to compare CCTV footage against photographs of hundreds of thousands
of criminals. Marleen Behrmann, a psychologist, says:
“We are also designing programs that could train patients to improve
their recognition skills.” Many prosopagnosics cope by looking
for distinctive hairlines, beards or eyebrows.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article
/0,,8122-1549447,00.html | back
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Reuters, UK | March 31
T he World Bank is meeting to approve Paul Wolfowitz as its president
despite misgivings by some member countries over the deputy secretary
of defence's role as the Bush administration's architect of the Iraq
war. The outcome had already been largely decided in the capitals of
the bank's major shareholders before the 24-member board was to meet
for a vote to be conducted by consensus. Wolfowitz will replace James
Wolfensohn who steps down on May 31 after 10 years at the helm of an
organization that approves billions of dollars for projects that reduce
poverty...Allan Meltzer, an economics professor Carnegie
Mellon University who chaired a U.S. review panel on World
Bank and IMF reforms, said Wolfowitz would bring a new enthusiasm and
direction to the bank. "The bank has many, many programs but no
methods for finding out which ones work and which ones don't do it is
rather dysfunctional," Meltzer commented.
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx
?type=worldNews&storyID=2005-03-31T161834Z_
01_HOL158510_RTRUKOC_0_WORLDBANK-WOLFOWITZ.xml
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