|
|
|
May 20 -
27, 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 May 20 - 27,
Carnegie Mellon Media Relations counted 180
references to the university in worldwide publications. Here is a sample.
National News Stories
Scientific American | June 2005
Reno Gazette-Journal (ASSOCIATED PRESS) | May
22
Qatar Campus
Gulf Times, Qatar | May 22
Student Experience
Post-Gazette | May 27
Arts and Humanities
CBS News | May 23
Information Technology
Post-Gazette | May 27
The New York Times | May 22
Environment
Tribune-Review | May 27
Post-Gazette | May 22
Regional Impact
Tribune-Review | May 24
Post-Gazette | May 21
Post-Gazette | May 19
Local News Stories
Tribune-Review | May 27
Post-Gazette | May 21
International News Stories
Donga, South Korea | May 24
International Herald Tribune, France | May
24
New Scientist, UK | May 20
-
-
National News Stories
Scientific American | June 2005
Call a large company these days, and you will probably start by having
a conversation with a computer. Until recently, such automated telephone
speech systems could string together only prerecorded phrases. Think
of the robotic-sounding "The number you have dialed ... 5 ... 5
... 5 ... 1 ... 2 ... 1 ... 2...." Unfortunately, this stilted
computer speech leaves people cold. And because these systems cannot
stray from their canned phrases, their abilities are limited. Computer-generated
speech has improved during the past decade, becoming significantly more
intelligible and easier to listen to. But researchers now face a more
formidable challenge: making synthesized speech closer to that of real
humans--by giving it the ability to modulate tone and expression, for
example--so that it can better communicate meaning. This elusive goal
requires a deep understanding of the components of speech and of the
subtle effects of a person's volume, pitch, timing and emphasis. That
is the aim of our research group at IBM and those of other U.S. companies,
such as AT&T, Nuance, Cepstral and ScanSoft, as well as investigators
at institutions including Carnegie Mellon University,
the University of California at Los Angeles, the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology and the Oregon Graduate Institute.
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006
&articleID=000CC9A5-0057-1289-BC2083414B7F0000 | back
to top
Reno Gazette-Journal (ASSOCIATED PRESS) | May
22
An unmanned 1986 Humvee was the best performer in last year’s
first-ever robot vehicle race across California’s Mojave Desert,
but completed only 71⁄2 miles of a 142-mile course. Now the race
is even longer — but the skilled team working on the high-tech
marvel, called "Sandstorm," say it’s a much-improved
front-runner for $2 million in federal prize money...The crew of Carnegie
Mellon University’s Sandstorm cheered and applauded as
it avoided blue plastic garbage cans placed in its path by DARPA staffers
during recent test runs on a short course at a remote site some 12 miles
southwest of Silver Springs. There were more cheers as Sandstorm completed
a nearly one-mile optional run over a narrow, winding dirt road. "We’re
in it for the long run," said Red Whittaker, a
Carnegie Mellon professor and expert in mobile robotics who leads the
Sandstorm team. "This is a growing game, and the Grand Challenge
is a way to really distinguish yourself."
http://www.rgj.com/news/stories/html/2005/05
/22/100051.php?sps=rgj.com&sch=LocalNews&sp
1=rgj&sp2=News&sp3=Local+News&sp5=RGJ.com
&sp6=news&sp7=local_news | back to top
Qatar Campus
Gulf Times, Qatar | May 22
Qatar Academy beat out its fellow competitors to win the Carnegie
Mellon University in Qatar’s Botball Robotics Challenge.
One of the four area schools to participate, Qatar Academy edged out
the competition by scoring the highest points overall. Omar Bin al-Khattab
Educational Complex for Boys (known as the Scientific School) was placed
second, followed by the International School of Choueifat, with the
fourth place going to the American School of Doha. Carnegie Mellon faculty
Matthew Mason, professor of computer science and robotics
and director of the Robotics Institute, and Illah Nourbakhsh,
associate professor of robotics, the Robotics Institute, judged the
event.
http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&
item_no=37439&version=1&template_id=36&parent_id=16
| back to top
Student Experience
Post-Gazette | May 27
Carnegie Mellon's Amy Staloch, a freshman from Midland,
Mich., earned All-American honors by reaching the semifinals of the
NCAA Division III Women's Individual Championships this past weekend
at Kalamazoo College in Kalamazoo, Mich.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05147/511270.stm
| back to top
Arts and Humanities
CBS News | May 23
As CBS News Correspondent Wyatt Andrews reports, clearly this is not
your father's college campus. It's all high energy, but is it academics?
"This is about building real things that really affect people,"
says [Carnegie Mellon] professor Jessie Schell.
Schell, a veteran of Disney, calls video game development the dominant
art form of the century. "If you would agree that writing and art
and film and engineering are all valid academic pursuits, this really
is just a combination of those, with psychology thrown in," says
Schell. To the older crowd, of course, too many video games have too
much mindless carnage. But to these students, carnage is not where the
industry is going. They're building a firefighter game, in fact, to
help train the New York Fire Department's hazmat team.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/
05/23/eveningnews/main697346.shtml | back to top
Information Technology
Post-Gazette | May 27
The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center has removed from its Web
site an online form used to collect patient information, including names,
Social Security numbers and prescriptions, after realizing the form
lacked basic security protections...When a computer user completes an
online form and submits it, the information may be broken down into
smaller pieces that traverse the Internet and are reassembled by the
computer server on the receiving end, explained Larry Rogers,
senior member of the technical staff at Carnegie Mellon
University's CERT computer security program. Eavesdroppers who gain
access to the network and the path between the computers can use programs
to reassemble the information just as the server computer system does.
To guard against this, sites can encrypt this information so that when
the eavesdropper reassembles the information, it cannot be read.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05147/511216.stm
| back to top
The New York Times | May 22
As an object of modern surveillance, e-mail is both reassuring and troubling.
It is a potential treasure trove for investigators monitoring suspected
terrorists and other criminals, but it also creates the potential for
abuse, by giving businesses and government agencies an efficient means
of monitoring the attitudes and activities of employees and citizens.
Now the science of e-mail tracking and analysis has been given a unlikely
boost by a bitter chapter in the history of corporate malfeasance: the
Enron scandal...Scientists had long theorized that tracking the e-mailing
and word usage patterns within a group over time - without ever actually
reading a single e-mail - could reveal a lot about what that group was
up to. The Enron material gave Skillicorn's group and a handful of others
a chance to test that theory, by seeing, first of all, if they could
spot sudden changes. Working with the Enron e-mail messages, about a
half-dozen research groups can report that after just a few months of
study they have already learned that they can glean telling information
and are refining their ability to sort and analyze it. Kathleen
Carley, a professor of computer science at Carnegie
Mellon University in Pittsburgh, has been trying to figure
out who were the important people at Enron by the patterns of who e-mailed
whom, and when and whether these people began changing their e-mail
communications when the company was being investigated.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/
05/22/weekinreview/22kola.html | back to top
Environment
Tribune-Review | May 27
A Pittsburgh environmental project that saved homes, businesses and
a historic church from polluted water streaming from an abandoned Hill
District mine was one of five winners of 2005 Western Pennsylvania Environmental
Awards. Other winners were AMD&ART, of Vintondale, Cambria County,
in a category for environmentally friendly design, construction and
building practices; the Western Pennsylvania Watershed Program of Alexandria,
Huntingdon County, in the community projects category; the Allegheny
College Arts & Environment Initiative, of Meadville, Crawford County,
in higher education; and the SCUBA Do Project, of Erie, in primary and
secondary education. The five winners were selected from 16 finalists.
Local finalists were: a study of city hillsides by the Allegheny Land
Trust, Perkins Eastman Architects and Three Rivers Second Nature; EnviroEducation,
of Shaler, which connects students with environmental resources at colleges
and universities; and Carnegie Mellon University's
Steinbrenner Institute for Environmental Education.
http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/
trib/regional/s_338369.html | back to top
Post-Gazette | May 22
We at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh appreciate the call to action
laid out by Teresa Heinz and The Heinz Endowments ("Taking on the
Toxins," May 8 Forum). Children's has been partnering with The
Heinz Endowments from the earliest stages of its environmental health
initiatives. We are committed to becoming one of the first (if not the
first) "green" pediatric medical centers in the country. In
partnership with The Heinz Endowments and Carnegie Mellon
University, the hospital is working with experts from Carnegie Mellon's
Department of Architecture to develop rigorous green practices at our
current facility in Oakland. We will take them with us to the new Children's
Hospital when it opens in 2008. **Please note that this letter was written
by Roger A. Oxendale, President and CEO of Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05142/508195.stm
| back to top
Regional Impact
Tribune-Review | May 24
Many adults have fond, fuzzy memories of childhood summer camps, where
they roasted marshmallows with friends among bunk-filled cabins in the
woods. Today, children might share the same traditional, great-outdoors
camp experience that their parents enjoyed. Many kids, however, pursue
specialty "camps" -- some of which barely fit the classic
definition of camp -- that have become popular in this generation. One
example of a nontraditional, specialty camp is pre-college residency
programs, which Carnegie Mellon University offers.
The school offers a six-week, intensive program for high school students
inclined toward fine arts. Students live in the dorms with roommates
and study the field that interests them, and gain many of the benefits
of a traditional camp minus the woods. "We try to simulate for
them what a collegiate environment will be like," says Mike
Steidel, director of admissions. "This is not going to
be a nature experience ... but it's really meant to be an immersion
kind of experience. It's very much of a bonding experience. A lot of
self-discovery and a lot of confidence is gained."
http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/
entertainment/summerfun/s_337226.html | back to
top
Post-Gazette | May 21
These guys are all over the place. Tony Lacenere and Charlie Schliebs,
the principals at venture capital firm iNetworks LLC, not only are working
to raise a $100 million fund but also are trying to gather up $10 million
to plop into the hands of Carnegie Mellon University's
Dean of the College of Engineering, Pradeep Khosla.
Khosla will then identify the best pre-seed and seed stage deals to
funnel the money into. Perhaps next week I'll have more on the other
folks around town who said to be mulling over building seed funds. Everybody
says the region desperately needs the money -- the fun is seeing who
actually steps up to the plate to deliver it.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05141/508223.stm
| back to top
Post-Gazette | May 19
It's really a strange day when residents of a school district recommend
raising school taxes -- especially after the district unveiled a preliminary
budget with no proposed tax increase. But that's what happened last
week in the Baldwin-Whitehall School District, where the district proposed
in its preliminary budget to use $1.9 million from its fund balance
to balance the 2005-2006 budget. That plan was introduced as a way to
avoid raising property taxes, but a nine-member group of residents who
volunteered to taken an independent look at the budget, had a different
idea. "We ask that you consider raising taxes by 1 mill to meet
the 2005-2006 budget instead of using the reserve fund," said resident
Thomas Hajduk, a Carnegie Mellon University
professor who presented the findings at the school board's May 11 meeting.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05139/506693.stm
| back to top
Local News Stories
Tribune-Review | May 27
Hitchhiking across the country and boarding a tramp steamer to the Orient
was unusual behavior for a young man raised in a Presbyterian minister's
home in the Midwest. Yet, the year that John Ormsbee Simonds spent among
the people of Borneo and Tibet was the experience that shaped his career
as a landscape architect. Mr. Simonds, of Kilbuck, the founder of Environmental
Planning & Design in Pittsburgh, died on Thursday, May 26, 2005,
at his home. He was 92. "Dad credited Mom, who received her psychology
degree from Swarthmore College, with editing his technical books, including
'Landscape Architecture.' It was the book that emerged from his 13 years
on the faculty of the School of Architecture at Carnegie Mellon
University," his son said.
http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/
trib/regional/s_338355.html | back to top
Post-Gazette | May 21
Carnegie Mellon University plans to begin offering
two master's degree programs in Adelaide, Australia, beginning in early
2006. The South Australian state is planning to commit nearly $20 million
over four years toward the effort.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05141/508451.stm
| back to top
International News Stories
Donga, South Korea | May 24
Carnegie Mellon University, the world’s most
competitive school in computer science and IT, is planning to establish
an Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) in Korea. An ETC is a research
center dedicated to sectors that combine arts and technology, such as
games and film. Plans are underway for opening ETCs in Korea and Australia
following the one in Pittsburgh, USA where Carnegie Mellon is located.
http://english.donga.com/srv/service.php3?
bicode=020000&biid=2005052487758 | back to top
International Herald Tribune, France | May 24
As an object of modern surveillance, e-mail is both reassuring and troubling.
It is a potential treasure trove for investigators monitoring suspected
terrorists and other criminals, but it also creates the potential for
abuse, by giving businesses and government agencies an efficient means
of monitoring the attitudes and activities of employees and citizens.
Now the science of e-mail tracking and analysis has been given a unlikely
boost by a bitter chapter in the history of corporate malfeasance: the
Enron scandal...Scientists had long theorized that tracking the e-mailing
and word usage patterns within a group over time - without ever actually
reading a single e-mail - could reveal a lot about what that group was
up to. The Enron material gave Skillicorn's group and a handful of others
a chance to test that theory, by seeing, first of all, if they could
spot sudden changes. Working with the Enron e-mail messages, about a
half-dozen research groups can report that after just a few months of
study they have already learned that they can glean telling information
and are refining their ability to sort and analyze it. Kathleen
Carley, a professor of computer science at Carnegie
Mellon University in Pittsburgh, has been trying to figure
out who were the important people at Enron by the patterns of who e-mailed
whom, and when and whether these people began changing their e-mail
communications when the company was being investigated.
http://www.iht.com/articles/
2005/05/23/business/email.php | back to top
New Scientist, UK | May 20
The newest entry to a yearly robot desert race - a customised sports
utility vehicle - could go further than any autonomous vehicle yet,
after clocking hundreds of autonomous kilometres in practice. No vehicle
completed the course in 2004 event, which saw a number of competitors
crash spectacularly and some struggle to make it from the starting line
after malfunctioning. The most successful vehicle was a modified Humvee
built at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh,
US, which completed 12 km before being deactivated close to a cliff
edge...Last year’s best placed team - Red Team Robot Racing from
Carnegie Mellon University - will be hoping to take top spot once again.
They have entered two modified Humvees: 2004's contender, Sandstorm,
and a new model, called Highlander. These vehicles are also armed with
video, laser range-finding and several onboard computers.
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7407
| back to top
|
