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June 3 -
9, 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 June 3 - 9,
Carnegie Mellon Media Relations counted 302
references to the university in worldwide
publications. Here is a sample.
Special Coverage: Grand Challenge
San Jose Mercury News (ASSOCIATED PRESS) |
June 7
Post-Gazette | June 7
Tribune-Review | June 7
The New York Times (ASSOCIATED PRESS) | June
7
National News Stories
Philadelphia Inquirer (ASSOCIATED PRESS) |
June 9
The Wall Street Journal | June 7
Chicago Sun-Times | June 7
USA Today | June 6
Student Experience
BusinessWeek | June 8
Arts and Humanities
Newsday | June 6
Information Technology
Post-Gazette | June 9
Cybersecurity
Post-Gazette | June 4
Post-Gazette | June 3
Regional Impact
Post-Gazette | June 5
Post-Gazette | June 5
Local News Stories
Post-Gazette | June 8
Post-Gazette | June 6
Post-Gazette | June 4
Post-Gazette | June 4
Tribune-Review | June 3
International News Stories
The Scotsman, Scotland | June 9
Independent, UK | June 8
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Special Coverage: Grand Challenge
San Jose Mercury News (ASSOCIATED PRESS) | June
7
Let the battle of the machines begin again. Forty self-navigating robots
were chosen Monday to compete in the Oct. 8 sequel to last year's first-ever
robot race across the Mojave Desert. Only half of the semifinalists
will qualify for a spot on the starting line, based on how they maneuver
- without human help - through a series of obstacle courses. The stakes
are higher this time around: Organizers of the Pentagon-sponsored race
doubled the prize money to $2 million after none of the 15 contestants
finished the rugged desert course last year. A converted Humvee by Carnegie
Mellon University was the best performer last year despite
traveling only 7 1/2 miles across the desert before breaking down. The
Red Team that designed the Humvee nicknamed Sandstorm is back for another
shot with an improved version and is entering a second robot in the
competition. "This year is a dogfight. It's going to be a real
rumble," said William "Red" Whittaker,
a robotics professor at Carnegie Mellon University who leads the Red
Team.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news
/local/states/california/northern_california/11829622.htm
| back to top
Post-Gazette | June 7
Carnegie Mellon University's Red Team has landed both
of its robotic racing machines among the 40 semifinalists for this fall's
$2 million Grand Challenge race sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency. "It's just a tremendous field," said William
"Red" Whittaker, the Carnegie Mellon roboticist who
heads the Red Team. "The teams are more solid now than they were
at last year's qualifying competition -- and we've still got four months
to go." DARPA's director, Anthony Tether, likewise said the high
quality of the 118 entries that received site visits in the past month
made it difficult to winnow the field. Those 40 semifinalists will compete
at a qualifying event this September at the California Speedway in Fontana
for 20 spots in the Oct. 8 race. The event is slated to cover about
175 miles at an as-yet-undisclosed location somewhere in the desert
Southwest.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05158/516889.stm
| back to top
Tribune-Review | June 7
Carnegie Mellon University and Virginia Tech University
are the only institutions entering more than one robot vehicle in the
2005 Grand Challenge, a 150-mile race in the Mojave Desert for a $2
million prize. "We're highly appreciative and excited about being
in, but the tough challenge is yet to come," said William
"Red" Whittaker, Carnegie Mellon Fredkin professor
of robotics and leader of the Oakland university's Red Team. The Defense
Advanced Research Project Agency, the federal sponsor of the race, announced
the 40 semifinalists Monday from a field of 118 entrants who survived
a round of site visits. The agency launched the race last year to help
develop technology under a congressional mandate to replace one-third
of the nation's military vehicles with autonomous robots by 2015. "The
teams that moved to this point (Monday) are considered to have a credible
chance to finish the Grand Challenge," said Tom Goodwin, a spokesman
for the DARPA Grand Challenge staff.
http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review
/trib/regional/s_341603.html | back
to top
The New York Times (ASSOCIATED PRESS) | June
7
Let the battle of the machines begin again. Forty self-navigating robots
were chosen Monday to compete in the Oct. 8 sequel to last year's first-ever
robot race across the Mojave Desert. Only half of the semifinalists
will qualify for a spot on the starting line, based on how they maneuver
-- without human help -- through a series of obstacle courses. The stakes
are higher this time around: Organizers of the Pentagon-sponsored race
doubled the prize money to $2 million after none of the 15 contestants
finished the rugged desert course last year. A converted Humvee by Carnegie
Mellon University was the best performer last year despite
traveling only 7 1/2 miles across the desert before breaking down. The
team that designed the Humvee nicknamed Sandstorm is back for another
shot with an improved version and is entering a second robot in the
competition.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline
/science/AP-Robot-Race.html | back
to top
National News Stories
Philadelphia Inquirer (ASSOCIATED PRESS) | June
9
Pittsburgh's public charities slipped from a No. 1 ranking last year
to No. 5 in the country, according to annual survey. The New Jersey-based
nonprofit Charity Navigator studied more than 4,000 U.S. charities found
that Pittsburgh's 32 largest charities ranked among the best in program
spending, overall saving and reasonable compensation for chief executives.
Pittsburgh follows Denver, Houston, Minneapolis/St. Paul and top-ranked
San Diego. Pittsburgh was ranked 10th two year ago. Animal Friends,
Brother's Brother Foundation, Carnegie Mellon University,
Extra Mile Education Foundation, Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens,
and The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust were the top rated charities, according
to the survey.
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/11853612.htm
| back to top
The Wall Street Journal | June 7
Prime Minister Tony Blair visits President Bush today to make his case
for new G-7 aid to the world's poor, particularly Africa. Headlines
notwithstanding, the disagreement between the two men is not about whether
rich countries ought to help the poor, but rather how ... As for the
Blair-Bush meeting, both leaders agree that forgiving the bad debts
of the world's poorest countries is the place to start. But Mr. Blair's
proposal, backed by Bono of U-2 fame, amounts to a mulligan for borrowers
and the multilateral institutions (such as the World Bank) that lent
money so wrecklessly. This do-over is not just debt "forgiveness."
It also seeks huge amounts of new capital to continue business as usual.
The Bush Administration is right to want to try something new ... Lenders
stopped expecting repayment on this money years ago. In fact, since
1985 the HIPCs have been regular recipients of new funds to cover their
debt service, as Carnegie Mellon economist Adam
Lerrick shows in a new paper out from Congress's Joint Economic
Committee. This has put the HIPCs further into debt. But the process
continues so the World Bank and International Monetary Fund can boast
-- preposterously -- that they've never made a bad loan.
http://online.wsj.com/article/
SB111810079273852308-search.html | back
to top
Chicago Sun-Times | June 7
The number of murders fell last year for the first time since 1999,
part of a nationwide decline in all types of violent crime, according
to FBI data released Monday. Cities with more than 1 million people
had the greatest decrease in violent crime, 5.4 percent, while cities
under 10,000 saw the greatest decrease in murder, 12.2 percent. Murders
fell by 3.6 percent from the 16,500 reported in 2003, meaning there
were nearly 600 fewer. Chicago was largely responsible for the drop
... Alfred Blumstein, a criminal justice expert at
the Heinz School at Carnegie Mellon University, said,
''It's nice that it dropped, but the drops were by no means universal.''
Murders in the western part of the country rose 0.4 percent, and violent
crime rose in some smaller- and medium-size cities.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/
news/cst-nws-crime07.html | back
to top
USA Today | June 6
Veteran New York firefighter Eddie Zagajesky is trained to handle surprises.
So when he and his team of four younger fighters responded to the hazardous
spill at a chemical plant, he thought he had it under control. But within
minutes, he realized he had an even bigger emergency on his hands. "The
[firefighter] next to me, his view through his mask got blurry,"
he says, remembering the moment. "That's when I knew he was overcome
and we had to stop and get him out of there first." Fortunately
for both first responders, this was only a training exercise. But thanks
to software based on the interactivity and storytelling tools of the
video-game industry, the game called "Hazmat: Hotzone" is
a highly realistic experience, one that Zagajesky says is teaching him
a lot about the decisionmaking that goes on during emergencies ... "Hazmat:
Hotzone" is a computer-based training program developed by the
Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) at Carnegie Mellon
University in Pittsburgh. Working with the Fire Department of New York
City (FDNY), the team uses tools of the video-game world to create what
the firefighters call a powerful instructional aid for those who tackle
hazardous emergencies such as chemical spills or terrorist attacks involving
biological weapons.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/
2005-06-06-emergency-games_x.htm | back
to top
Student Experience
BusinessWeek | June 8
Want to win your way into college? Higher education is the ultimate
prize, say creators of The Scholar, ABC's (DIS ) newest reality TV series
that has overachieving high school seniors from underprivileged backgrounds
competing for scholarship money. Contestants include a home-schooled
kid who works up to 80 hours a week to help support his family, a Russian
immigrant who spends her free time doing stem-cell research, and a single
mom's child who passionately studies Spanish, ancient Greek, and Latin.
Of course, all 10 rank at the top of their class and have high SAT scores
to boot. You might be thinking your average son or daughter can't beat
out kids like this for college cash. But students don't have to be superbrains
or near-professional athletes to win scholarships, grants, awards, and
fellowships, all of which never have to be paid back. Part of the motivation
for putting The Scholar on the air is to help families understand that
higher education is within everyone's reach ... Universities themselves
also offer financial-aid packages that include free money. In 2005,
Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh set aside
about $46 million in scholarships or grants for around 3,300 undergraduates.
Even graduate students have opportunities. Those at the Tepper School
of Business at Carnegie Mellon are considered for merit scholarships
that on average amount to $7,500 per year.
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/
dnflash/jun2005/nf2005068_3083_db085.htm |
back to top
Arts and Humanities
Newsday | June 6
After the 2004 U.S. Olympic fencing team beat the Hungarians in a stunning
upset in the quarterfinals, they cheered their opponents and shook their
hands, recalls captain Jeff Bukantz. It was a different story, though,
when the American squad faced off against France in the semifinals.
A referee's controversial call gave the French a 1-point victory and
a shot at a gold or silver medal, but Bukantz says what happened after
the match infuriates him to this day: The French fencer celebrated his
victory by air-machine-gunning the American team. "It was in front
of a worldwide audience. He should have been sanctioned for that,"
Bukantz says. "That certainly was an example of how not to win."
Winning and losing are a part of life, whether you're vying against
another athlete on the field, a colleague for a job or promotion at
work, a sibling in a game of Scrabble or another suitor for a true love's
affection. Some people's discomfort about losing is due to the way our
society defines it, says Scott Sandage, a Carnegie
Mellon University history professor and author of the new book
"Born Losers: A History of Failure in America".
http://www.newsday.com/news/health/ny-
adcova4292803jun06,0,6387963.story?coll=
ny-health-headlines | back to
top
Information Technology
Post-Gazette | June 9
One measure of how effective battlefield robots have become, says a
top Pentagon robotics official, is that the enemy has begun to target
them. Reconnaissance robots, such as the backpackable Dragon Runner
developed by Carnegie Mellon University, and those
that dispose of unexploded mines and bombs have shown that they save
soldiers' lives, Hudson said yesterday during a break in the Joint Robotics
Program Working Group meeting at the Sheraton Station Square Hotel Pittsburgh.
The success with small ground robots, as well as with unmanned aerial
vehicles, or UAVs, has bolstered confidence as the armed forces move
toward larger vehicles, such as Carnegie Mellon's 1-ton Gladiator recon
robot, which will have longer range and, eventually, operate autonomously.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05160/518296.stm
| back to top
Cybersecurity
Post-Gazette | June 4
Identity theft has become an enormous problem, and governments aren't
doing nearly enough to protect us from it, former White House counterterrorism
chief Richard Clarke said yesterday. Clarke was the featured speaker
at a conference on cyber security for state legislators and business
leaders at Carnegie Mellon University. Identity theft
-- which is being conducted more and more by international criminal
gangs based in countries where law enforcement is lax -- is primarily
a crime problem, but is also a national security problem, said Clarke,
who headed an interagency task force on terrorism in the Clinton administration
and in the first Bush administration.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05155/515789.stm
| back to top
Post-Gazette | June 3
Over the course of two years, more than 1,500 prescription requests
were submitted to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center by way
of an online form that collected names and Social Security numbers but
lacked basic security protections ... Larry Rogers,
a computer security expert with the CERT program at Carnegie
Mellon University, noted that it's very difficult to know after-the-fact
whether insecure data was inappropriately accessed as it traversed the
Internet. It's like trying to find out whether someone other than the
recipient of a post card read the message as it went through the mail,
Rogers said.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05154/514977.stm
| back to top
Regional Impact
Post-Gazette | June 5
On a frosty March evening during an opening party for Cafe Zao in Downtown's
Cultural District, J. Kevin McMahon greeted guests warmly. Minutes later,
McMahon, president and chief executive officer of the Pittsburgh Cultural
Trust, a $47 million nonprofit that created the city's Cultural District,
shifted into another comfortable role, that of Mr. Fix-It ... McMahon
has succeeded so well in turning up the heat in the 14-square block
Cultural District that he tops this year's list of the region's 50 creative
forces. Founded in 1984, the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust operates Benedum
Center and the Byham, O'Reilly and Harris theaters while serving as
a landlord, arts advocate and catalyst for development. This year, with
Carnegie Mellon University's Elizabeth Bradley
as curator, McMahon staged Pittsburgh's International Festival of Firsts.
Jared Cohon, president of Carnegie Mellon for the past
eight years, is a Pittsburgh Cultural Trust board member who is pleased
with McMahon's efforts. "He is outstanding in every respect,"
Cohon said, adding that, "He's got great vision for the [Cultural]
Trust and Pittsburgh. He's great at executing plans. He works wonderfully
with people in every constituency he has to deal with -- the board,
the performing arts organizations, ... Carnegie Mellon and the donors."
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05156/514815.stm
| back to top
Post-Gazette | June 5
Such a list is, by definition, arbitrary and results from numerous debates
in a conference room where participants champion their favorite candidates,
dissent, disagree and joke while consuming bagels, salsa and chips,
pizza and that omnipresent newsroom snack, cake. Note the name change
for the Top 50: Many donors and benefactors, business administrators
and programmers did not make this year's list because we made the switch
from "cultural" to "creative" to give artists a
bit more sway. But if a leader's artistic vision or persona guides and
informs the programming of an organization, we have done our best to
salute his or her efforts. Also, instead of designating categories as
in recent years, we have returned to a strictly 1-through-50 ranking,
for you list purists out there ... Please note that Carnegie
Mellon was represented in this year's list by several creative
forces including Elizabeth Bradley, Hilary
Masters, Andres Cardenes, John H.
"Doc" Wilson, Tim Collins, and
Reiko Goto.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05156/514812.stm
| back to top
Local News Stories
Post-Gazette | June 8
City Council agreed yesterday to accept $5 million in state funding
for a new computing center on Carnegie Mellon University's
campus. The funding will go toward the Gates Computer Science Center,
according to Marc Knezevich, senior project development specialist at
the city's Urban Redevelopment Authority. The URA will pass the funds
on to Panther Hollow Development Corp., which includes Carnegie Mellon
and the Carnegie Institute, Knezevich said. The 200,000-square-foot
center's total price tag is expected to be $50 million, Knezevich said.
The state funding will be matched by $5 million that the Bill and Melinda
Gates Foundation pledged to Carnegie Mellon.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05159/517710.stm
| back to top
Post-Gazette | June 6
I attended [a program] last week at the American Enterprise Institute
on "The New Neuromorality." For a good part of the day, philosophers,
neuroscientists and lawyers wrestled with literally mind-boggling questions
like "What do recent findings in neuroscience tell us about the
ability of people to make moral judgments or reasoned decisions?"
and "Does this new science undermine the concept of free will?"
There was unanimity on neither question ... Who's right? In terms of
practical effect on the law, Morse may have the better of the argument,
at least according to one of my gurus on criminology, Alfred
Blumstein of the Heinz School at Carnegie Mellon
University. Blumstein said that developments in brain imaging haven't
yet altered the way justice is meted out. He likened the situation to
the argument, first offered 20 years ago, that violent criminals with
an extra male chromosome -- XYY instead of XY -- deserved sympathy because
of a statistical correlation between an extra Y chromosome and violent
tendencies. The courts didn't buy it, and arguments for leniency based
on brain imaging would likely run into similar resistance, because in
both cases a general correlation between a biological trait and behavior
is being offered to challenge the culpability of an individual.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05157/516330.stm
| back to top
Post-Gazette | June 4
Kent Biggerstaff figures 17 years spent making all kinds of arrangements
for major-league baseball players prepared him well for two weeks accommodating
the needs of 10,000 senior athletes. He'll find out starting today ...
He negotiated with North Hills municipalities and school districts to
borrow their fields for softball and for Allegheny County to upgrade
the North Park fields. He recruited local authorities such as Pitt swim
coach Chuck Knoles and Carnegie Mellon track coach
Dario Donatelli to run their respective sports.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05155/515875.stm
| back to top
Post-Gazette | June 4
While his original proposal to cap property assessment increases
is in court, Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato has proposed
a revised method for determining values for 2006. Onorato is sticking
to his promise not to use the original 2006 assessment values, which
would have caused an average countywide increase of 20 percent. Instead,
he's ordering a complete reassessment -- this time with a slight twist
... "You should let the data and statistical methodology estimate
values for properties that didn't sell," said Robert Strauss,
a professor of economics and public policy at Carnegie Mellon
University.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05155/515800.stm
| back to top
Tribune-Review | June 3
Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato announced Thursday that
he will appeal a judge's ruling striking down his plan to cap increases
in the taxable value of property and unveiled a new method for reassessing
property based on values calculated three years ago. "We are going
back to the drawing board," Onorato said. Onorato's new plan requires
major changes in county laws, including the deletion of a requirement
that county assessments meet recognized standards set by the International
Association of Assessing Officers. Onorato said the reassessment will
meet standards set in state law. Robert Strauss, a
professor of economics and public policy at Carnegie Mellon
University, worried that abandoning recognized industry standards could
give the Onorato administration power to randomly set individual assessments.
"There are no limits or standards against which (the assessments)
could be evaluated," Strauss said.
http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/
trib/pittsburgh/s_340471.html | back
to top
International News Stories
The Scotsman, Scotland | June 9
Tiny robots that can turn into any shape - from a replica human to a
banana to a mobile phone - are being developed by scientists in the
United States. The new science of claytronics, which will use nanotechnology
to create tiny robots called catoms, should enable three-dimensional
copies of people to be "faxed" around the world for virtual
meetings. A doctor could also consult with a patient over the phone,
even taking their pulse by holding the wrist of the claytronic replica,
reports New Scientist. And the nano "clay" could be carried
around, shape-shifting into virtually anything when required. Your claytronic
mobile phone could turn into a hammer for a spot of DIY and then a pair
of shoes to go jogging. The creator, Dr Todd Mowry,
director of Intel's research labs in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, said:
"You could have a little lump of this stuff you carry around and
it could be a million different things. It's like the world's ultimate
Swiss army knife." His partner, Dr Seth Goldstein,
of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, said: "It's absolutely
going to work."
http://news.scotsman.com/scitech.cfm?id=632012005
| back to top
Independent, UK | June 8
Picture the scene: a desolate, alien-looking plain, cowering beneath
a blistering sun. In the middle of the plain a robotic vehicle, about
the size of a Mini Cooper, is trundling along at a slow walking pace,
as it has been ever since the sun came up a few hours ago. It stops
at a scarred, wind-scuffed rock. Lights flash, cameras whirr. Then it
moves on. Cut to Mission Control, a darkened room in Pittsburgh. It's
late evening. A dozen excited scientists crowd round monitors showing
the wind-scuffed rock. The atmosphere is tense as they examine the image,
pointing at spectral data scrolling down the side of the screen. Finally,
a cheer goes up. It's official. They've found it - life on Earth! Earth?
Yes, the alien plain is actually in the Atacama Desert of Chile, probably
the dryest place on Earth. You would be forgiven for thinking it was
the surface of another planet - like Mars. But this is precisely the
point: the scientists and engineers behind the robotic rover are testing
the technology they hope will one day be used on a world like Mars.
"If you can't detect life in the most inhospitable place on Earth,
what chance will you have on Mars?" says Alan Waggoner,
an Atacama team member and the director of the Molecular Biosensor and
Imaging Center at the Carnegie Mellon University in
Pittsburgh.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/
science_technology/story.jsp?story=645180 |
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