Computer Science Prof. Randy Pausch's "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams," is one of six videos nominated for Most Inspirational, while Johnny Chung Lee, a Ph.D. student in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute, and his "Head Tracking for Desktop VR" are nominated for Best Instructional video. Overlooked: Lee's Wii remote merits a Best Supporting Gizmo award, but unfortunately that category doesn't yet exist.

You can vote once a day for your favorite in each of 12 categories and you have until March 19. You know what you need to do. Both of these nominated videos, BTW, are available on Carnegie Mellon's YouTube channel.

Pausch maintains that all pancreatic cancer patients need not share his fate; at least not if the federal government would increase research funding for the deadly disease. On Capitol Hill today, he is scheduled to testify before the House Appropriations Committee's Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies. He plans on reminding Congress that the National Cancer Institute spends less than 2 percent of its research budget on pancreatic cancer even though pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer deaths.

"Ironically, the National Cancer Institute developed a pancreatic cancer research plan back in 2001," he said in his prepared remarks. "The problem is it was never fully implemented. In fact, only five of the plan's 39 recommendations were acted upon."

Pausch has joined with the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network to support an updated version of the plan and to seek $170 million in federal funds to implement it over the next five years.

"My mother always liked to refer to me as her son, the doctor, but not the type of doctor who helps people," he said. "I hope that by being here today, I will help people by shining a spotlight on this disease and urging you to provide necessary research funding for this disease."

The Pennsylvania General Assembly is considering a number of bills regarding driving safety, including the banning of hand-held phones while driving. But as Carnegie Mellon neuroscientist Marcel Just will testify today at a hearing of the House Transportation Committee here in Pittsburgh, drivers need not dial, hold or even talk into a cell phone to be distracted. Simply listening intently is enough to impair driving.

Just and his colleagues used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study volunteers using a driver simulator. When they concentrated on a sentence they heard, they were more likely to weave in their lane than when they were driving undisturbed. Moreover, the fMRI scans showed that listening reduced by 37 percent the activity in the area of the brain associated with driving.

A team led by Hollis, a research professor in the Robotics Institute, developed a haptic interface based on magnetic levitation, which enables computer users to feel virtual objects. Most other haptic interfaces use motors and mechanical linkages to make it seem as if you feel an object, or experience some force feedback. Even some video game control pads can vibrate to give players some tactile feedback. But Hollis built a device with a single moving part that floats on magnetic fields and the result, he says, is perhaps the most realistic sense of touch provided by any such device in the world.

A group of local journalists got their hands on the devices this morning and the larger campus and technical community are likewise giving the interfaces a test drive this afternoon at a lab open house. They can draw a virtual stylus across different surfaces, feeling the varying textures, or they can push a box around inside a larger box on a computer screen, not only watching it bounce off the inner walls of the larger box, but feeling the rebound in their hands. In another demo, involving one haptic interface for each hand, they can lift and throw boxes or balance balls, feeling the heft of each.

This isn’t a technology that most people will have in their homes any time soon. In fact, only now, thanks to some funding from the National Science Foundation, has Hollis made enough of these devices to share them with other haptic interface researchers in the U.S. and Canada. But Hollis believes they could be used eventually to teleoperate robots, train surgeons and dentists and check the fit of parts designed on computers before they are ever built, among other uses. No one yet knows what all of the possibilities might be.

Clemente, a Carnegie Mellon doctoral student in history, recently gave a talk on campus titled "You Look Terrible: How NOT To Dress for a Job Interview." According to the former fashion editor, students have been trendsetters for decades, spawning such trends as tennis shoes, jeans, sports coats and khaki pants. But in an era of business casual dress, she believes students can benefit from tips on how to look professional without being constricted to a traditional black suit.

Before pursuing studies at Carnegie Mellon, Clemente earned a master's degree from the Fashion Institute of Technology and was a fashion writer for Mademoiselle, Self and the New York Times.

Click here to watch Clemente reveal her "seven deadly sins" of dressing for a job interview.

The study, which was led by Engineering and Public Policy visiting scholar Elmar Kriegler, names certain areas of the planet, or "tipping elements," at the greatest risk for sudden change. It notes that the Arctic sea ice and the Greenland ice sheet are in the most danger.

If the Greenland ice sheet were to melt, the study says, it would displace enough water to raise sea levels 23 feet. Coastal Florida wouldn't be the only area in trouble. Bangladesh and many other regions worldwide would be swallowed up as well.

Kiron Skinner, associate professor of history and political science and director of the International Relations Program at Carnegie Mellon, will be featured on C-SPAN2’s “Book TV: After Words.”  Marcus Mabry, international business editor for The New York Times, interviews Skinner about the book she recently co-authored with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice titled “The Strategy of Campaigning.”  The book looks at the political careers of Ronald Reagan and Boris Yeltsin.

The program airs at the following dates and times.

Saturday, Jan. 19, 9 p.m.
Sunday, Jan. 20, 6 p.m.
Sunday, Jan. 20, 9 p.m.
Monday, Jan. 21, 12 a.m.
Monday, Jan. 21, 3 a.m.

Check your local listings for the C-SPAN2 channel near you.

If children are skiing, sledding or ice skating, parents are urged to inspect equipment and an activity's location for possible hazards. In addition to providing common sense tips for parents, the Children's School maintains an active research program about kids and how they learn and interact.

Not so good were Carnegie Mellon’s C+ for Weather and its D minus for Campus Parking. But, hey, the semester just started, right? We have plenty of time to improve.

When Boss won the DARPA Urban Challenge and its $2 million prize on Nov. 3, the team received a lot of coverage in local, national and international newspapers, magazine and Web sites. But the major TV networks didn’t show up for the race in Victorville, Calif., and largely ignored it in their newscasts.

The CES, by contrast, is a magnet for journalists. Thousands of reporters show up to see the latest thin-panel TV screens, video notepads and other high-tech toys unveiled at this giant event. In addition to Microsoft chairman Bill Gates’ annual keynote, General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner is presenting a keynote address Jan. 8, highlighting the company’s plans to spends millions to develop a car that can brake and accelerate on its own and take action to avoid accidents.

As a major sponsor of Tartan Racing, GM naturally arranged to have Boss on hand to demonstrate what Wagoner is talking about. Chris Urmson, the team’s director of technology, is on hand, as are teammates Bob Bittner and Jarrod Snider.

So far, the media are eating it up. This morning, viewers of NBC’s Today Show saw weatherman Al Roker climb into Boss’ passenger seat, press a big green button and be robotically chauffeured around a parking lot; over at CBS’ Early Show, viewers saw correspondent Daniel Sieberg take a similar spin. Word is Boss – and perhaps Urmson – will appear on this evening’s CBS Evening News; by all means, tune in.

The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times both included Boss in advance stories they ran this morning on Wagoner’s upcoming speech.

Viva Las Vegas!