08-25-2008

Among the Best

Carnegie Mellon continued to have a strong showing in U.S. News & World Report magazine’s annual Best Colleges guide. In the 2009 edition, the university ranks 22nd in the Best National University category. The Tepper School of Business undergraduate business ranking improved one spot to sixth best in the country, and the College of Engineering undergraduate programs remained ninth best in the nation.

In specialty categories, the Tepper School ranked second in Management Information Systems, third in Production/Operations Management, third in Quantitative Analysis, 10th in Finance, 16th in Entrepreneurship and 24th in General Management.

In engineering specialties, Carnegie Mellon ranked third in Computer Engineering, 10th in Electrical/Electronic Engineering, 10th in Environmental Engineering, 11th in Civil Engineering, 11th in and Materials/Metallurgical Engineering, 12th in Mechanical Engineering and 14th in Chemical Engineering.

The university, which ranked 17th among national universities by high school guidance counselors, was also recognized among the best in several categories, including Great Schools, Great Prices; Undergraduate Research; Economic Diversity; Freshmen Retention Rate; Highest Graduation Rate; Racial Diversity; and International Students.

Abby Houck

08-22-2008

A Top 25 "Greenie"

Carnegie Mellon is one of America’s 25 environmentally responsible schools, says the "Kaplan College Guide 2009.” To develop the guide, Kaplan reviewed a range of green criteria, including environmentally responsible campus projects; initiatives and courses offered; organizations and student groups on campus; and achievements noted in the Sustainable Endowments Institute's "College Sustainability Report Card 2008," which named Carnegie Mellon a Campus Sustainability Leader.

Kaplan's green list highlights "schools whose efforts reflect a commitment to long-term sustainability and to encouraging students to make better choices."

Carnegie Mellon's commitment to creating a more sustainable environment also was recognized in Sierra Magazine's top 10 list of the "Coolest" Schools in its November/December 2007 cover story. Among some of the features that helped Carnegie Mellon make the list include its LEED certified green buildings, its use of solar panels and its recycling efforts.

Click here for more on Carnegie Mellon's green practices.

Abby Houck

08-20-2008

Dorm of Distinction

Stever House has been recognized as a “Dorm of Distinction” by University Business magazine.  The newest Carnegie Mellon residence hall was one of two runners-up in the Large Private Institution category along with 10 West Street at Suffolk University. The category winner was Truman Hall at Emory University.

Formerly known as New House, Stever House, built in 2003 on Morewood Avenue, was the first dormitory in the nation to be certified for its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) from the U.S. Green Building Council. It has a “silver” LEED rating for its low environmental impact in both construction and function.

The University Business article cited Stever House for its community kitchen with stainless steel appliances, its outdoor patios and grills, and for its floor-to-ceiling windows for natural light and visibility to enhance safety. It also noted the individual temperature controls for each room and public space, and a forced-air system that helps decrease student illness and allergies.

This past May, the residence hall was renamed Stever House in honor of H. Guyford Stever, the university's fifth president from 1965-1972.

Bruce Gerson

08-20-2008

Levin Coaches Gold

Add Lori Levin to the list of coaches who have helped their performers win a gold medal. The associate research professor in Carnegie Mellon’s Language Technologies Institute, recently returned from the sixth International Linguistics Olympiad in Slanchev Bryag, Bulgaria, where as an associate coach she helped U.S. high school students win 11 of 33 awards, including gold medals in individual and team events.

Sixteen teams from around the world participated in this year’s Olympiad. U.S. Team 1 won a silver cup and U.S. Team 2 won a gold cup in the team competition. Team 2 also won the trophy for highest combined score in the individual competition. Hanzhi Zhu of Shrewsbury, Mass., captured a gold medal in the individual competition.

The U.S. team members, which included Josh Falk from Shadyside Academy, were selected from more than 750 high school students who participated in qualifying events at Carnegie Mellon and other sites across the U.S. and Canada. Levin described them as “brilliant young people who live and breathe languages, linguistics and problem-solving.” The national and international Olympiads are designed to identify students who have the talent and interest to become computational linguists. “I already feel like they are colleagues,” said Levin, co-chair of the North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad.

Locally, the computational linguistics competition has been sponsored by Carnegie Mellon, Carnegie Mellon’s Leonard Gelfand Center for Service Learning and Outreach, the University of Pittsburgh, M*Modal, Vivisimo and JustSystems Evans Research.

Byron Spice