January 8, 2009
Vol. 19, No. 24
In this issue:
New Campus Smoking Policy Being Phased In
The new smoking policy on campus, which permits smoking only in outdoor designated areas, will be phased in over the next several months, according to an email announcement from
Anita Barkin, director of Student Health Services, and
Madelyn Miller, director of Environmental Health & Safety. This is to allow more time for a diverse, 18-member, university-wide committee to research and recommend potential designated smoking zones and to allow feedback on the potential sites from the university community.
"Once the committee completes a proposed list of designated smoking areas, a campus-wide survey created by Institutional Research & Analysis will be conducted to gather your feedback and input on which areas would work best. Look for this survey early next year," Barkin and Miller wrote in their email to the campus community.
In the meantime, smokers are being asked not to smoke in several smoke-free zones. These zones include the Cut, the Hamerschlag Mall, the Children's School and tennis courts, the Cyert Center and its adjacent playground, and areas around athletic facilities, including Gesling Stadium and the intramural field. No penalties or fines will be assessed during the phase-in period.
Until the official designated smoking areas are established, smoking will be permitted in accordance with the university's previous policy. Outside of the above-mentioned smoke-free zones, smoking will be permitted 20 feet away from a building entrance or air intake vent. Cigarette butts should be properly disposed of in approved containers.
GigaPan Most Widely Read Tech Story of 2008
The Times of London's "Times Online" reports that its story on Carnegie Mellon's Gigapan Camera System was the most widely read among the top 50 technology stories it covered in 2008. The GigaPan story beat out articles on the large hadron collider, invisibility devices and the Indian Space Agency's newly developed rival to Google Earth.
The Gigapan Camera System is a low-cost robotic device that enables any digital camera to shoot breathtaking, multi-billion pixel panoramas that can be navigated in depth through the Internet. It was developed by
Illah Nourbakhsh, associate robotics professor, and
Randy Sargent, a project scientist at Carnegie Mellon's Silicon Valley campus, in collaboration with scientists at NASA's Ames Research Center. The system is currently in beta tests for commercial release. For more on the GigaPan system, see
http://www.gigapan.org.
Four Professors Named AAAS Fellows
Four Carnegie Mellon faculty members have been awarded the distinction of Fellow by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), an honor bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers in recognition of their distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications.
They are
Tom M. Mitchell, the Fredkin Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning and head of the School of Computer Science's Machine Learning Department;
Eswaran Subrahmanian, research professor in the Carnegie Institute of Technology's Institute for Complex Engineered Systems;
Michael Widom, professor of physics at the Mellon College of Science (MCS); and
John L. Woolford, professor and acting head of the Department of Biological Sciences at MCS.
For more:
http://www.cmu.edu/news/archive/2008/December/dec19_aaasfellows.shtml
Tepper School Finds Women at Executive Level Get Higher Salaries
Female executives who break through the "glass ceiling" in corporate America are rewarded with higher overall compensation than their male counterparts and benefit from the same rate of promotion, according to new research from the Tepper School. However, the study also found that the number of females in top executive positions remains a mere fraction of business leadership overall largely due to the tendency of women to leave the workforce earlier than men.
"Women aren't climbing as many rungs on the executive ladder because they are more likely than males to retire earlier or switch careers," said
Robert A. Miller, professor of economics and strategy at the Tepper School and one of the study's co-authors. "Although women may still be likely to face gender discrimination through unpleasant work environments or tougher, less rewarding assignments, our results find that there does appear to be equal pay and equal opportunity for women if they stay in the workforce and get to the executive level."
For more:
http://www.cmu.edu/news/archive/2008/December/dec12_executivecompstudy.shtml
News Briefs
- In 2008, School of Music faculty members released nine CDs of classic, contemporary and original compositions. For a full list, see http://www.cmu.edu/news/archive/2008/December/dec15_facultyrecordings.shtml.
- At the 40th anniversary celebration of Carnegie Mellon's Children's School on Dec. 18, Pittsburgh City Council President Douglas Shields presented a proclamation declaring Dec. 18 as "Children's School Day in Pittsburgh," recognizing the school's four decades of outstanding commitment to early childhood education. School Director Sharon Carver also received a commendation from President George W. Bush, in which he said, "Your dedication to America's youth reflects the spirit of our nation." For more on the Children's School, see http://www.cmu.edu/news/archive/2008/December/dec19_childrensschoolanniversary.shtml.
- The Tepper School was awarded a Beyster Fellowship Grant from the Foundation for Enterprise Development to address issues aimed at improving the performance of business models that will advance innovation in knowledge-based industries, particularly biotechnology and energy. The study will be led by Professor Art Boni and University Professor Lester Lave. For more: http://www.cmu.edu/news/archive/2009/January/jan7_beystergrant.shtml
- Due to the university's Martin Luther King Jr. Day Celebration, there will be no classes after 12:30 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 19. For a full schedule of events, including President Jared L. Cohon's "State of Diversity" address and keynote speech by Michael Eric Dyson, visit http://www.studentaffairs.cmu.edu/first-year/mlk/.
- The 2009 Leadership Symposium, which includes presentations on legal issues, management practices, work/life balance and leadership development, will take place on Thursday, March 12 in the University Center. The program features a keynote lecture on "Evidence-based Management" by Denise Rousseau and a performance by Interactive Theatre. For more: http://www.cmu.edu/hr/learning/leadership/symposium.html
- Many students returned to campus this week for an early start to the spring semester. A select group of sophomores are participating in Odyssey, a program sponsored by the Fellowships and Scholarships Office and the Vice Provost for Education. Odyssey is designed to help students further develop the communication and decision-making skills necessary to compete for prestigious fellowships and scholarships. Concurrently, the student-organized Summit program is offering three days of courses as diverse as Wilderness Training and Swing Dancing. Throughout the first two weeks of the spring semester, Student Development will also host JumpStart, a series of programs designed to help students increase personal success skills and promote campus resources. For more on Summit, see http://www.cmu.edu/summit/. For more on Jump Start, see http://www.studentaffairs.cmu.edu/student-development/personaldevelopment/jumpstart.html.
- To register for a session of Human Resource's Learning and Development program, visit https://hr-apps.as.cmu.edu/hrlearn/HRLearn2. Classes are filled on a first-come, first-served basis.
Personal Mention
- The Jan. 4 episode of CBS News' "60 Minutes" featured a report by Lesley Stahl on research by Tom Mitchell, chair of the Machine Learning Department, and Marcel Just, professor of psychology, on how the mind encodes the meaning of words. The report explored how machine learning and language technologies may someday make it possible to use brain scans to identify thoughts. For a video of the report, see http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4697682n.
- Four members of the technical staff at the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) have written a book, titled "The Method Framework for Engineering System Architectures," recently published by Auerbach Publications. It argues that there is no one best way to engineer the architectures of software-intensive systems and provides a repository of reusable method components that architects can use to select, tailor and integrate these method components to produce appropriate, project-specific architecture engineering methods. The book's authors are SEI's Donald Firesmith, Peter Capell, Tom Merendino and Charles Hammons; Dietrich Falkenthal, MITRE; and DeWitt Latimer (CIT '02, SCS '01, '97), US Air Force.
- Carnegie Mellon Trustee Robert Dunlap, former president, CEO and director of Thermoretec Corporation, and a faculty member at Carnegie Mellon from 1967 to 1977, died Monday, Jan. 5 in Tucson. He was 71. As a member of Carnegie Mellon's Board of Trustees, Dunlap served on the Executive Committee and was chair of the Research and Technology Commercialization Committee. He was also a co-chair of the advisory boards for the departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Engineering and Public Policy, and Materials Science and Engineering.
- President Jared L. Cohon will be the special guest on KQV's Global Press Conference, a weekly radio program of the World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh. Cohon will discuss his recent trip to Iran and his impressions of the country. The show will air on KQV (1410 AM) at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 9; 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 10; and 10:30 a.m. on Sunday, Jan. 11. The interview will also be available afterward at the World Affairs Council Web site, http://www.worldaffairspittsburgh.org/kqv.jsp.
- Architecture student Kaitlin Miciunas has been named the winner of the 2009 Gindroz Prize for Travel/Study. Miciunas will travel to Europe and research how the experiential qualities of architecture, landscape and urban space are influenced by sound. Upon her return, she will present a lecture to the Carnegie Mellon community and plans to produce a gallery exhibition based on her experiences and research in Europe. For more: http://www.cmu.edu/news/archive/2008/December/dec15_gindrozprize.shtml
- Undergraduate Biomedical Engineering students and the Society of Women Engineers at Carnegie Mellon each received a $1,000 award from Merck's Manufacturing Division. The award to the biomedical engineering group will be used for transportation to attend an FDA presentation in Washington, D.C., on how a new drug is certified. The Society of Women Engineers will use its award to sponsor its "High School Day" program in the College of Engineering.
Calendar Highlights
