Carnegie Mellon News Headlines
July 2011
Jiyong Jang Receives Symantec Graduate Fellowship
Carnegie Mellon University’s Jiyong Jang is the recipient of the Symantec Research Labs (SRL) Graduate Fellowship for helping researchers better understand and protect against new online threats.
School of Design, Eat'n Park Restaurants Launch Innovative Partnership to Fight Childhood Obesity
With obesity rates on the rise, the Carnegie Mellon University School of Design's Fitwits™ project (
www.fitwits.org) and Pittsburgh-based Eat'n Park Restaurants (
www.eatnpark.com) are joining forces to help fight the epidemic.
Andrew Gellman Recognized for Outstanding Research by the American Chemical Society
Gellman, head of Carnegie Mellon’s
Department of Chemical Engineering, was chosen for the honor because of his outstanding achievements to science and the chemical engineering profession.
June 2011
Carnegie Mellon Launches "Greenlighting Startups" Inititiative
Carnegie Mellon University today introduced "Greenlighting Startups," a new initiative aimed at accelerating CMU's already impressive record of turning campus innovations into sustainable new businesses.
Carnegie Mellon Students Help Industry Promote Products Through Consumer Emotions
John Cagan along with CMU’s Peter Boatwright of the Tepper School of Business base their new Product Emotion Research class on innovative ideas shared in their new book “Built to Love — Creating Products that Captivate Customers.”
Engineering Professors Create World's Smallest Fuel Cell Powered by Biology
Carnegie Mellon University's Kelvin B. Gregory and Philip R. LeDuc have created the world's smallest fuel cell powered by bacteria. Future versions of the biology-powered fuel cell could be used for self-powered sensing devices in remote locations where batteries are impractical, such as deep ocean or geological environments.
May 2011
Metin Sitti Wins Prestigious Nano-engineering Award
Carnegie Mellon University's Metin Sitti received the 2011 Nano-engineering Award from SPIE – the international society for optics and photonics for his work on devices that can manipulate objects on a molecular level.
Silicon Valley Campus to Host Disaster Management Workshop
Carnegie Mellon University's Silicon Valley campus, in conjunction with the California Fire Chiefs Association and the California Emergency Management Association, will host the second annual Disaster Management Initiative Workshop and Mobile Command Center Rally to showcase new technologies for improving mobile emergency communications May 22-23 in Mountain View, Calif.
New Open Field Entrepreneurs Fund to Jumpstart Creation of Innovative Businesses
After revolutionizing the consumer electronics industry with his Flip video camera, Jonathan Kaplan is now further energizing the entrepreneurial spirit at his alma mater, Carnegie Mellon University. Carnegie Mellon announced today that Kaplan and his wife, Marci Glazer, have provided a substantial financial gift to create the Open Field Entrepreneurs Fund (OFEF) at Carnegie Mellon University, which will provide early-stage business financing to alumni who have graduated from CMU within the past five years.
Digital Possessions Have Powerful Hold on Teens
Digital imagery, Facebook updates, online music collections, email threads and other immaterial artifacts of today's online world may be as precious to teenagers as a favorite book that a parent once read to them or a T-shirt worn at a music festival, Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) researchers say.
April 2011
College of Engineering Hosts Portuguese Multimedia CEO Rodrigo Costa
Carnegie Mellon University’s top-ranked College of Engineering will host Zon Multimedia CEO Rodrigo Costa, who will discuss the growth of cable, Internet and mobile phone services in Portugal. Zon Multimedia is a Portugal media holding company and one of the nation’s first dot-com success stories.
College of Engineering Hosts CONSOL CEO J. Brett Harvey
Carnegie Mellon University’s top-ranked College of Engineering continues its successful Leadership Speakers Series by hosting CONSOL Energy Inc.’s Chairman and CEO J. Brett Harvey, who will discuss “CONSOL Energy’s Approach to Powering America: Coal and Gas for the Future.”
Takeo Kanade Wins ACM/AAAI Newell Award For Contributions in Computer Vision, Robotics
The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) has named Takeo Kanade, the U.A. and Helen Whitaker University Professor of Computer Science and Robotics at Carnegie Mellon University, the 2010 winner of the ACM/AAAI Allen Newell Award for contributions to research in computer vision and robotics.
CMU Celebrates National Robotics Week With Open House
Carnegie Mellon University will celebrate the second annual National Robotics Week with research project demonstrations at the Robotics Institute, the annual Mobot (mobile robot) races and the Teruko Yata Memorial Lecture, featuring William Swartout of the University of Southern California.
March 2011
Carnegie Mellon Researchers Electrify Polymerization
Scientists led by Carnegie Mellon University chemist Krzysztof Matyjaszewski are using electricity from a battery to drive atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP), a widely used method of creating industrial plastics.
Jeannette Wing Receives Prestigious Service Award
Carnegie Mellon University's Jeannette Wing, whose ideas have helped shape conceptions of what computer science is and can be, will receive the 2011 Distinguished Service Award of the Computer Research Association (CRA), a leading advocate for computer science research and education.
Cloud Services Measurement Consortium Gains Critical Membership
Carnegie Mellon University today announced that 10 new members have joined the Cloud Services Measurement Initiative Consortium (CSMIC) developed to address the need for industry-wide, globally accepted measures for calculating the benefits and risks of cloud-computing services.
February 2011
CMU and IBM Collaborate on Open Computing System for Advancing Research on Question Answering
Carnegie Mellon University today announced that it is one of eight universities collaborating with IBM to advance the Question Answering (QA) technology behind the IBM “Watson” computing system.
Carnegie Mellon Receives Grant from GM Foundation
Since 2000, the General Motors Foundation and Carnegie Mellon have collaborated on the next generation of automotive information technology via research under way at the Collaborative Lab, which taps the resources of the university’s collaborative, problem-solving environment. And in 2003, the foundation renewed its commitment to the university for an additional five years. The partnership supplements auto industry initiatives to provide passengers safe and easy access to information and entertainment.
Ganger Receives Professorship in ECE for Expertise in Computer Systems
Gregory R. Ganger was awarded the Stephen J. Jatras Professorship in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University for cutting-edge work in computer systems. The professorship is named for the late Stephen J. Jatras (E'47), former chairman of the Telex Corp. and a leader in a variety of academic, civic and community organizations stretching from Pittsburgh to Tulsa, Okla.
CMU Receives $1.2 million NIH Grant for Post-Conflict, Post-Disaster DNA ID Practices
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded Carnegie Mellon University a three-year, $1.2 million grant to analyze ethical and policy problems associated with post-conflict and post-disaster DNA identification and develop recommended practices. For example, how much time and money should be devoted to identifying missing people in the face of many competing priorities, and who owns and controls the biological information that is collected during the identification process?
Former Gov. Tom Ridge Speaks About Marcellus
Ridge, president and CEO of the international consulting firm Ridge Global, will discuss his work with the Marcellus Shale Coalition and the sweeping environmental polices he influenced during his tenure as the 43rd governor of Pennsylvania from 1995-2001. He developed the Growing Greener Initiative that provided critical funding to preserve the state's rivers and streams, and Clean and Green legislation which helps preserve valuable land for agricultural use.
January 2011
Professor Rajkumar Earns Westinghouse Chair for "Driving" Innovative Research
For more than a decade, Rajkumar has been working to help modernize the auto industry and make driving safe and more economical for the consumer.
Lister Earns NSF Career Young Investigator Award for Energy Research
Carnegie Mellon University’s Shawn Litster was awarded a $400,000 Career Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to pursue fuel cell and lithium-ion battery research.
CMU Presents Panel Discussion on Understanding the Brain and Behavior
The enigmatic human brain, central to our development, health and lives, is becoming less of a mystery. World-renowned Carnegie Mellon University scientists are making important discoveries that will help researchers to decipher and improve learning, perception and thinking; deal with aging or injured brains; and treat and understand disorders such as autism, dyslexia and Alzheimer’s. Carnegie Mellon scientists also are using this information to build computers that model the mind and that can think on their own.
Researchers Identify "Facebook Neurons"
Carnegie Mellon University researchers have found that within the brain's neocortex lies a subnetwork of highly active neurons that behave much like people in social networks. Like Facebook, these neuronal networks have a small population of highly active members who give and receive more information than the majority of other members, says Alison Barth, associate professor of biological sciences at Carnegie Mellon
December 2010
Manuela Veloso Named IEEE Fellow for Developing Robot Teams
Manuela M. Veloso, a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University, has been named a fellow of the Institute for Electronic and Electrical Engineers (IEEE) for her contributions to the development of cognition, perception and action in autonomous robot teams.
NSF Extends Program Encouraging African Americans to Pursue Careers in Robotics, Computer Science
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has extended its support for an alliance of nine major research universities, including Carnegie Mellon University, and 19 historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) that encourages African American students to pursue graduate training and research careers in robotics and computer science. The NSF's two-year, $1.5 million extension award will enable the Advancing Robotics Technology for Societal Impact (ARTSI) Alliance to develop additional curricula and outreach activities, as well as continue a summer research program for undergraduates.
Ines Lima Azevedo Will Lead New Center to Develop Climate and Energy Decision Making Strategies
The Center for Climate and Energy Decision Making (http://cedm.epp.cmu.edu/index.php), funded by a five-year, $6 million grant from the National Science Foundation, will develop and implement strategies for protecting everything from fragile marine ecosystems to curbing dangerous carbon dioxide emissions from electricity generation.
Greg Ganger and Ed Schlesinger Named 2010 IEEE Fellows for Extraordinary Contributions
Carnegie Mellon University's Greg Ganger and Ed Schlesinger have joined an elite subset of engineers as Fellows of the Institute for Electronic and Electrical Engineers (IEEE) for their outstanding research.
November 2010
DARPA Chooses CMU to Develop Autonomous Capability for "Flying Car"
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded a 17-month, $988,000 contract to Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute to develop an autonomous flight system for the Transformer (TX) Program, which is exploring the feasibility of a military ground vehicle that could transform into a vertical-take-off-and-landing (VTOL) air vehicle.
CMU's Bone Tissue Engineering Center Receives Defense Department Research Grant
CMU's Jeffrey O. Hollinger, director of the center, and Professor Krzysztof Matyjaszewski have received a three-year, $2.9 million U.S. Department of Defense research grant to develop a therapy that would aid amputees, specifically wounded soldiers. The therapy aims to prevent bone nodules from forming in the muscle at the site of amputation, a painful condition that makes it difficult for amputees to wear limb prostheses.
Daniel Schnitzer Honored for Developing Clean Energy Solutions in Haiti
The second-year Ph.D. student in Carnegie Mellon University's Department of Engineering and Public Policy, and co-founder and executive director of EarthSpark International was recently recognized for his efforts by President Bill Clinton's Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), which convenes global leaders to devise and implement innovative solutions to some of the world's most pressing challenges.
Mario Berges Unveils New System For Monitoring Consumer Electricity Use
Research by Carnegie Mellon University's Mario Bergés found that households could continuously audit their electricity consumption and reduce energy costs by leveraging a method to monitor appliance-level power consumption from a single whole-house meter.
October 2010
CMU Hosts Inaugural Scientific Conference on Gigapixel Imaging
Two hundred scientists, educators and students will come together at the Fine Conference on Gigapixel Imaging for Science Nov. 11-13 at Carnegie Mellon University to explore how science research and education can best use new technologies for creating and analyzing large digital images containing billions of pixels. Alan Eustace, Google Inc. senior vice president for engineering, Pete Worden, director of NASA's Ames Research Center, and Mark Bauman, executive vice president of National Geographic Television, will present keynote addresses at the conference, the first to focus on scientific uses of gigapixel imaging.
CMU Honored with EPA's Green Power Leadership Award
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has honored Carnegie Mellon University with its 2010 Green Power Leadership Award. This marks the first time that Carnegie Mellon has received the distinguished leadership award, which recognizes the country's leading green power purchasers for their commitment and contribution to helping advance the development of the nation's voluntary green power market.
Goldman Sachs Gives $2 Million Grant to Support Students Hurt by Recession
Carnegie Mellon University announced today that Goldman Sachs Gives has made a $2 million gift to assist students whose families have been disproportionately affected by America's economic recession. Goldman Sachs Gives is the donor-advised fund of Goldman Sachs partners.
CMU Researchers Work to Use Gecko Biology for Printing Electronics on Complex Surfaces
Metin Sitti, an innovative and leading-edge professor of mechanical engineering at CMU, and a team of academic colleagues in the U.S., have developed a reversible adhesion method for printing electronics on a cache of sticky surfaces, such as clothing, plastics and leather.
September 2010
CIT Launches Leadership Speaker Series with Westinghouse CEO Aris Candris
Carnegie Mellon University's top-ranked College of Engineering launches a new Leadership Speaker Series Oct. 11 by hosting Westinghouse Electric Company CEO Aris Candris, who will discuss the role of nuclear power in today's energy-constrained world. Candris will speak at 5 p.m. in Porter Hall 100.
CMU Leads HP-Sponsored Consortium Developing New Ways of Measuring Learning
Educators at Carnegie Mellon University will lead a global consortium funded by the HP Catalyst Initiative to develop new technologies for measuring students' competency in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The six members of the consortium include institutions of higher learning in France, Hong Kong, Russia, South Africa and the United States, as well as a New Jersey high school.
Professors Release New Book Focusing on the Science of Product Emotions
Some companies seem to possess an uncanny ability to introduce products and services that can generate a firestorm of excitement into the marketplace and captivate customers — resulting in unparalleled success, profits, and a growing and loyal customer base. Is it just luck? Not according to Carnegie Mellon University professors Peter Boatwright and Jonathan Cagan. Their latest book, “Built to Love: Creating Products that Captivate Customers,” examines how product emotions correlate to market success and explains how companies can, through their products, instill desired emotions into their customers.
Engineering Professor Christopher Bettinger Develops New Biomaterials to Improve Drug Delivery for Patients
Carnegie Mellon University’s Christopher Bettinger is developing new biomaterials for use in a wide range of biomedical applications, including regenerative medicine, neural interfaces and drug delivery.
Carnegie Mellon Receives Funding to Create New Program Studying Environmental Impact of Nanotechnology
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and Howard University in Washington, D.C., have received a five-year, $3.15 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to launch a new interdisciplinary program in the environmental effects and policy implications of nanotechnology.
August 2010
Carnegie Mellon Joins Research Consortium to Pioneer New Energy Efficient Building Designs for DOE
Carnegie Mellon University is part of a team that will receive up to $122 million over the next five years from the Department of Energy (DOE) to establish an Energy Innovation Hub focused on developing technologies to make buildings more energy efficient.
Carnegie Mellon Joins NSF Research Consortium to Develop Tools for Analyzing Autism, Other Behaviors
Researchers in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University will join a five-year, $10 million initiative funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to create novel tools for evaluating social interactions and other behaviors that can be used in diagnosing or treating behavioral disorders such as autism.
Steinbrenner Institute Helps Heritage Community Initiatives Grow Green Collar Jobs
A handful of local and regional business and academic leaders along with a U.S. Labor Department Energy Training Partnership grant, awarded to Heritage Community Initiatives, are putting their resources together in hopes of making western Pennsylvania a green-friendly metro area.
July 2010
IBM and Carnegie Mellon Create Smart Infrastructure Lab
The IBM Smarter Infrastructure Lab at Carnegie Mellon University will develop technologies that are consistent with IBM's Smarter Planet initiative, IBM's offerings in Business Analytics and Optimization, and CMU's work within its Center for Sensed Critical Infrastructure Research. The new lab will be a focal point and catalyst for collaboration with like-minded research colleagues from IBM Research and across CMU including their engineering, architecture, public policy and business schools.
Success STEM's From Summer Academy for Mathematics and Science
Carnegie Mellon University is celebrating the 10th anniversary of its Summer Academy for Mathematics and Science (SAMS), a program designed to increase the number of outstanding college-bound students from diverse backgrounds who pursue education in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) disciplines.
Semiconductor Research Corporation Partners with Carnegie Mellon to Bring More Energy Efficient Systems to Market
Carnegie Mellon University will host a new Smart Grid Research Center as part of a $5 million industry-academic partnership with the Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC), the world’s leading university-industry research consortium for semiconductors and related technologies. The new partnership, called the Energy Research Initiative (ERI), will team energy-related companies with university researchers to address the world’s need for smart alternative energy sources and equip students with the technical skills required for the new burgeoning industry.
Greg Ganger Earns 2010 HP Innovation Research Award
Ganger, a professor of electrical and computer engineering and director of the Parallel Data Lab (PDL) at Carnegie Mellon, will collaborate with HP labs on a research initiative focused on cloud computing issues. This is Ganger's second HP Innovation Award. He received his first HP Innovation Award in 2008 for research involving scalable and self-managing data storage systems.
June 2010
Carnegie Mellon and Bombardier Partner to Launch the New Pennsylvania Smart Infrastructure Incubator
Carnegie Mellon University and transportation giant Bombardier will open a new multidisciplinary $2.2 million research center this fall to explore joint research in a variety of critical technology areas to enable more efficient and sustainable civil infrastructure and transit operations.
SEI Receives Contract Extension
The Software Engineering Institute (SEI) at Carnegie Mellon University has received a five-year contract extension, with a face value of $584 million, from the U.S. government through June 2015.
Silicon Valley Campus Partners With Institut Telecom to Expand Research and Educational Opportunities
Carnegie Mellon University's Silicon Valley campus is partnering with the prestigious Institut Telecom, a consortium of European higher education and research institutes involved in telecommunications and mobility research.
CyLab to Release New Security Report at Bloomberg Boards & Risk Briefing
Carnegie Mellon University's CyLab will release a new report that shows boards and senior executives need to be more involved in the privacy and security of their computer systems and data. The findings from the 2010 governance survey report, which measures how boards and executives are governing the privacy and security of their networks and data, will be presented at the Bloomberg Boards & Risk Briefing on Tuesday, June 15 at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. Carnegie Mellon CyLab is co-hosting the event in conjunction with Bloomberg to explore governance issues facing boards, ranging from executive compensation to cyber risk.
May 2010
Silicon Valley Researchers Collaborate with Industry to Develop Measures of Quality and Performance for Cloud-Computing Services
Carnegie Mellon University is launching an initiative, led by two of its Silicon Valley-based researchers, to address the need for industry-wide, globally accepted measures for calculating the benefits and risks of cloud-computing services.
Silicon Valley Campus to Launch New Certificate Program in IT-Enabled Service Management
Carnegie Mellon University's Silicon Valley campus is launching a new part-time certificate program for professionals interested in becoming leaders in the fast-paced IT-enabled service economy.
Lorrie Cranor to Participate on Panel About Technical Mechanics of Online Adertising
Carnegie Mellon University's Lorrie Cranor will join a panel of experts sponsored by The Progress & Freedom Foundation to discuss the privacy issues swirling around the technical mechanics of online advertising. The panel meets at a time when the business objectives of advertisers and online publishers have sparked concerns by privacy gro
Steinbrenner Institute to Showcase University's Novel Environmental Research to National Media
Carnegie Mellon University's Steinbrenner Institute for Environmental Education and Research (SEER) will host eight top journalists June 2-4 at the seventh annual Steinbrenner Institute Environmental Media Fellowship.
April 2010
Information Networking Institute to Celebrate 20th Anniversary of Innovation Excellence
"We are extremely excited to see over 100 of our alumni and friends return to the university. This event is a wonderful chance to bring our supporters and students together to celebrate our achievements over the years, as well as to offer thought-provoking events for the broader community," said Dena Haritos Tsamitis, director of the INI and director of education, training and outreach for Carnegie Mellon CyLab.
David Dzombak to Chair EPA Science Advisory Committee Reviewing Impacts of Hydraulic Fracturing
The process, called "hydraulic fracturing," involves injecting water and chemicals into wells under high pressure to break up the source rock to unlock oil and natural gas. Along with horizontal-drilling technology, it has transformed formerly uneconomical, low-productivity shale gas formations into highly productive ones. There are various concerns about potential environmental impacts, including possible contamination of groundwater and surface water resources.
Don Marinelli Authors Book About ETC Creation and Randy Pausch
Don Marinelli, the executive producer of Carnegie Mellon University's Entertainment Technology Center (ETC), has released his first book, "The Comet and The Tornado: Reflections on the Legacy of Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture & the Creation of Our Carnegie Mellon Dream Fulfillment Factory."
