From October 20 to October 26, Carnegie Mellon Media Relations counted 321 references to the university in worldwide publications. Here is a sample.

National

Unlocking the ballot box
Forbes | October 24
A federal election commission thinks it will make your vote more secure and improve the odds that it will get counted correctly. But critics say the government is botching the job, creating opportunities for chaos that will make Americans long for the days of hanging chads. ... Most observers seem to think that current standards aren't high enough to prevent large errors. In the 2002 and 2004 elections, voting machines lost thousands of votes in North Carolina, Florida, Texas and California. At least eight studies conducted since 2001 unearthed previously unknown flaws in approved systems. ... Up until now, those reports have been seen only by the voting machines companies and the testers--the EAC only knows whether the testers have signed off on the machines or not. "We don't own the information," says Wyle spokesman Dan Reeder, "People come to us because they want to be secret." The new guidelines force the manufactures to give the ITA's tests to the EAC and allow the agency to decertify machines that fail. But even if that rule changes, the general public will still be left in the dark--the EAC says it won't release the information to outsiders. That kind of secrecy can foster all sorts of problems, say computer scientists. "The public interest in fair elections trumps any private interest by a vendor in its technology," says Carnegie Mellon computer science professor Michael Shamos.
http://www.forbes.com/security/2006/10/24/election-security-guidelines-security-cx_ll_1024votetesting.html

 

Carnegie Mellon's strategy for well-rounded b-schoolers
BusinessWeek | October 23
To receive a business degree or a well-rounded education? That's the question many high school students are grappling with this admissions season. For many of them, the focus has shifted away from the liberal arts and toward the professional aspect of a degree, says Milton Cofield, executive director for undergraduate business administration at Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business. ... Cofield, who earned an MBA at Wharton and a PhD. in chemistry from the University of Illinois, recently chatted with BusinessWeek.com reporter Julie Gordon about the professionalization of the business degree and other admissions-related issues. An edited transcript of their conversation follows: Why is there a shift toward professionalization of the business degree? I think it's because of the information that's out there. When you look at the amount of informational focus that's put on MBA programs in particular and now increasingly on undergraduate programs, this information focuses on their professional nature.
http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/oct2006/bs20061023_800545.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_b-schools

 

IBM takes on Amazon
BusinessWeek | October 23
In a legal case that could have broad implications for e-commerce and patent law, IBM sued Web retailer Amazon.com on Oct. 23, accusing the company of violating five patents that were filed in the late 1980s and early 1990s. IBM is seeking an injunction that would stop Amazon.com from using the patents, which Big Blue claims are at the heart of the retailer's online business. The patents cover basic methods for conducting commerce online. These include storing data and presenting advertising in an interactive service; using hypertext links in connection with user goals and activities; and ordering items using an electronic catalogue. "These are fundamental patents," says John E. Kelly III, senior vice-president of IBM Technology and Intellectual Property. "If you're doing e-commerce in any way similar to what Amazon.com is doing, you're using this intellectual property." ... Lawyers and intellectual property experts say this case could help clarify the law concerning Internet patents, some of which have been criticized for being overly broad. "It's helpful to get good cases for courts to decide on, and this could be one of them," says Ashish Aurora, a professor of economics at Carnegie Mellon University's H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management.
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/oct2006/tc20061023_158174.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_businessweek+exclusives

 

Firms try drumming up team spirit
The Wall Street Journal | October 23
This summer, publishing executive Christy Light and about 50 colleagues beat drums for 90 minutes to improve their teamwork. The drum sessions are the latest in a long line of offbeat corporate attempts to foster workplace collaboration. From rope courses in the 1980s to office foosball in the 1990s, employers have toyed with games, outdoor quests, and other group activities in hopes of making their work forces jell better. ... Some management consultants are skeptical that banging on a drum has any value beyond entertainment. "It's not going to change your culture; it's not going to change people's behavior long term," said John Putzier, president of FirStep Inc. a Prospect, Pa., management consultancy that helps companies improve workers' performance. "Where I think it is a valuable experience is if you're just trying to break the monotony of a conference." Robert Kelley, an adjunct professor at Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business in Pittsburgh, said these activities frequently don't relate directly to participants' workplace culture and tasks. "What I advise companies is if you're going to do this kind of stuff, build the task around something you actually do," he said. He warns that loosey-goosey activities can backfire if they raise false expectations of workplace change.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116156003095100364.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Education for Leadership

Green study: Task force targets energy use, emissions
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette | October 21
Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, Councilman William Peduto and state Sen. Jim Ferlo have rolled out a 30-member Green Government Task Force, giving it the job of studying city government's energy use. Along with Green Building Alliance Executive Director Rebecca Flora, the three officials will chair the task force. It will work with environmental groups Local Governments for Sustainability and Clean Air Cool Planet, and seven students from Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz School of Public Policy and Management, to write a "state of the city" report on reducing energy use and emissions. That report is to be done by December.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06294/731929-53.stm

 

Carnegie Mellon University primes new generation of bioengineers
VOA News | October 20
It was once the province of science fiction: robotic machines coolly assisting human doctors in delicate surgical procedures. Today, science fiction has become science fact, in a fast-growing field called biomedical engineering. It's one of the degree programs offered at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where students work with local hospitals and surgeons to learn the skills they need to develop the next generation of biomedical devices. Advances in medical technology don't just happen. Neurosurgeon James Burgess at Allegheny Community Hospital believes inspiration comes first. That is why he created a course called 'Surgery for Engineers' that takes the Carnegie Mellon University students on field trips into operating rooms around Pittsburgh. ... Dr. Marco Zenati routinely uses da Vinci for heart bypass surgery. Tonight he operates in one of the surgical suites, but not on a real patient. He has inserted a pig's liver into the simulated chest of a plastic skeleton. He says between the hand of a surgeon and the tip of the instrument now there is a computer chip.
http://www.voanews.com/english/AmericanLife/2006-10-18-voa28.cfm

Arts and Humanities

Poetry notes: Poets raising funds for Darfur
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette | October 25
A Pittsburgh poets organization will hold a program of poetry and music to raise funds for relief efforts in Darfur, western Sudan, at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Carnegie Mellon University. Judith Robinson, member of Poets for Humanity, said that a video appeal by Simon Deng, a refugee from the turmoil in his native Sudan, will also be shown. New York Daily News columnist Heather Robinson will introduce the video. The scheduled poets are Richard St. John, whose work has appeared in the Post-Gazette, Anthony Butts, Carnegie Mellon writing professor, and Patricia Jabbeh Wesley, a native of Liberia.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06298/732582-42.stm

 

Writing 'Lost'
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette | October 24
Decisions, decisions: Saturday night I had two competing events at the same time. I could go to a haunted house with friends or listen to a former "Lost" writer and Carnegie Mellon University grad speak at Carnegie Mellon. I opted for the latter (better not to let anyone see what a big chicken I am). Javier Grillo-Marxuach, a 1991 Carnegie Mellon grad from the school's creative writing and literary and cultural studies programs, returned to campus to share tales of his experiences with current students and the public. For anyone with an interest in writing or how the TV business works (that would be me), it was an interesting and entertaining 90 minutes. Chugging Red Bull before he got started, Grillo-Marxuach explained how a TV script is written. He would know. Currently as a co-executive producer on NBC's "Medium," Grillo-Marxuach has also written for UPN's "Jake 2.0," NBC's "Boomtown," USA's "The Dead Zone," The WB's "Charmed" and NBC's "The Pretender."
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06297/732141-352.stm

 

Arts groups pursue tech's best features to enhance appeal
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette | October 22
Arts organizations--dance companies, classical music ensembles, art museums and the like--are by their nature old-fashioned. They also depend on attracting a constant flow of ticket-buyers and other funding to survive. Some 120 arts officials from around the nation came to Pittsburgh for two days last week to look at the cutting-edge techniques for bridging the old world to the new, and drawing new people and energy to the arts, at a Technology in the Arts conference at Carnegie Mellon University. The question at the conference-- hosted by Carnegie Mellon's Center for Arts Management and Technology--was not whether technology should be part of how people see, experience and support art.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06295/732089-42.stm

Information Technology

Some airlines eye cell phones, Wi-Fi as revenue stream
Orlando Sentinel | October 23
During a recent trip to Panama, Orlando lawyer Robert Terenzio encountered airline passengers breaking the rules and being rude by talking loudly on their cell phones during the flight. ... As soon as next year, however, it might be OK for passengers to make calls from their mobile phones while airborne--though they could have to pay as much as $10 a flight for the privilege. ... But before cell-phone calls are allowed on planes, lingering concerns about safety and security have to be addressed, some experts say. A study this year by the Carnegie Mellon University Department of Engineering and Public Policy, for example, concluded that cell phones and airplanes still don't mix. "Cell phones and other portable devices, like laptops and game-playing devices, can pose dangers to the normal operation of critical electronics on airplanes," the study said.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/nationworld/orl-cellfly2306oct23,0,3535743.story?page=2&coll=orl-newsnation-topheadlines

 

XLNT deals 4 u!: Companies turn to 'mobile' commerce
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette | October 22
Fans of Fergie--she of Black-Eye Peas fame, not Prince Andrew's ex-wife--can send a text message on their cell phones before Monday to try to win a meeting with the singer. But there's a caveat: If they send the message, they shouldn't be surprised when Vanity stores use the same cell phone numbers to hit them with text-messaged coupons and promotions. ... The cell phone, long touted as the next big tool for advertising and commerce, finally is winning over U.S. retailers and marketers ready to reach their customers in a different way. But despite an explosion in consumers' personal use of the cell phone, businesses are approaching mobile commerce, or m-commerce, with care as they try to avoid a scenario in which consumers start refusing to take their calls. "You need to be very selective if you send these things," cautioned Norman M. Sadeh, an associate professor at Carnegie Mellon University and director of its Mobile Commerce Lab.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06295/731760-28.stm

 

Carnegie Mellon researchers get $4M for next-generation chips
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review | October 20
Carnegie Mellon University researchers announced that they have been awarded a six-year, $4.2 million grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to create the next generation of chips that can reconfigure themselves to perform in new ways. The grant used to establish the Center for Memory Intensive Self Configuring Integrated Circuits will be matched by potential industrial partners such as Intel Corp. or Seagate Technology Inc., said Ed Schlesinger, center director and head of Carnegie Mellon's electrical and computer engineering department. "My hope is that eventually in the same way that every 16-year-old today can learn to program a computer, the availability of integrated circuits, or chips, of this sort will allow people to produce their own hardware," Schlesinger said.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_476074.html

Environment

Solar-powered air conditioners could cut pollution, energy use
Pittsburgh Business Times | October 20
The heat of the sun could soon be cooling down business buildings worldwide. This summer, Carnegie Mellon University's School of Architecture received the first complete commercially available solar absorption cooling system in the United States as a donation from BROAD Air Conditioning Co., a Chinese manufacturer of absorption chiller equipment. The huge air conditioning system has been installed on the top of Carnegie Mellon's Robert L. Preger Intelligent Workplace, which is designed to test ways to conserve energy and improve air quality. It uses solar energy to cool buildings, reducing dependence on electricity while improving air quality. Professors at Carnegie Mellon plan to study the economic viability of installing these systems in the United States as well as to study the amount of energy that can be gathered and how efficient the system is. They will look at what the economic payback would be when taking into considerations factors such as climate, building size and internal cooling requirements. "It would be very good for commercial buildings such as superstores or food stores because they have a lot of flat roof, and the roofs get hot," said Volker Hartkopf, director of the Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics at Carnegie Mellon. "In this case, the roofs would be shaded, and the sun that impinges upon it would be converted into useful cooling."
http://pittsburgh.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/stories/2006/10/23/focus2.html

 

Using food for fuel could save money
WPXI | October 19
Families are cranking up the heat as temperatures drop. One local couple said they are using food as fuel. They're using corn to heat, not eat. Not only is the method cheap, but it's good for local farmers and the environment, they said. Ben Cramer loves his old farm house, but not its heating bills. "The gas bills were killing us each year. We had $300 to $400 gas bills each month," said Cramer. He and his wife kept the thermostat as low as they could tolerate, but it was too cold for their baby. So when she was born it was time to find a cheaper way to heat their house. "Corn was attractive to us because it's readily available and it's renewable," said Cramer. The Cramers settled on a corn burning furnace, paying about $3,800 to buy and install it. In just three years, the furnace paid for itself, he said. The Cramers are part of a growing number of local people turning to corn for heat. Mike Griffin, the executive director of the Green Design Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, said that burning corn for heat can save money, but it's not for everyone. "If you have any kind of pioneering spirit and you don't mind doing maintenance every day corn can be a wonderful way to reduce your heating costs," said Griffin.
http://www.wpxi.com/consumer/10114506/detail.html

Regional Impact

Machine Nation
Pittsburgh City Paper | October 19
Victoria Berdnik hands long strips of paper to two women training to work the polls on Election Day. These fresh recruits have never before supervised voting on Allegheny County's electronic voting machines, which replaced lever machines at May's primary election. Here in the Westin Convention Center Hotel Downtown on Oct. 10, they're getting a two-hour course. ... "[V]oters have no real assurance that their votes were counted," said David Eckhardt, a Mount Lebanon judge of elections since 1997 and computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University, where he specializes in computer operating systems and computer networks. ... When the machines are tested for certification by the state, "they are not approached from the point of view of a motivated attacker ...," adds another member of the group, Chad Dougherty of McCandless, an Internet security analyst at Carnegie Mellon's Software Engineering Institute. ... "There's nothing on earth that is so secure that a science-fiction writer can't dream up a script to get around it," says Michael Shamos, who leads the examination and certification of electronic voting machines for Pennsylvania. A distinguished career professor in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University, Shamos is also among the most vocal defenders of computer balloting's security and accuracy.
http://www.pittsburghcitypaper.ws/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A19395

Local

Tour looks at public art in Oakland
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review | October 25
Renee Piechocki wants everyone to know there's lots more to Oakland's public art than guys in bronze. On Thursday, Piechocki, director of the Office of Public Art, will release free copies of "Pittsburgh Art in Public Places --Oakland Walking Tour," an 18-inch-by-24-inch foldout map that outlines a walking tour of 35 works of public art in the Oakland area. ... "Artists such as Richard Serra and Jonathan Borofsky--leading artists of our time--are creating work for our city," Piechocki says. Created by the Office of Public Art in partnership with the Carnegie Museum of Art, the "Oakland Walking Tour" offers a map plus photographs and descriptions of nearly three dozen statues, sculptures and other works at 26 sites within an easy 90-minute walk. The circuit tour of the Oakland neighborhood begins at Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, extends across the Carnegie Mellon University campus, through Schenley Park and ends at Soldiers & Sailors National Military Museum & Memorial.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/living/arts/museums/s_476508.html

 

Doctor-like approach helps boost bottom line
Pittsburgh Business Times | October 23
Steve Zbur started his environmental services company because he felt he could bring greater value to the manufacturers that depend on engineering consultants to help them control toxins and keep regulators off of their backs. But when he started CORE Environmental Services Inc. in 2001, Zbur wasn't prepared for the challenges of going out on his own in the competitive environmental consulting industry. Over the past few years, his key to success has been learning how to drop the left-brain thinking of an engineer and start thinking like an entrepreneur. But it wasn't always that easy. ... Zbur's ability to add business sense to his engineering skills exemplifies the engineers Carnegie Mellon University's School of Engineering is trying to create. Pradeep Khosla, dean of Carnegie Mellon's School of Engineering, has made courses in drama, history and other non-engineering pursuits available to his undergraduate students, with the express purpose of creating more rounded students who have a better chance of competing professionally. Khosla said he also is trying to drive assets such as improving verbal and listening skills into courses across the entire engineering program, but finds that quest challenging. "Not everybody is interested or has the ability to teach these skills," Khosla said.
http://pittsburgh.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/stories/2006/10/23/smallb1.html?page=1

 

MTV Web series brings Carnegie Mellon grad back to Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review | October 23
Eryn Joslyn moved to Los Angeles after graduating from Carnegie Mellon University, but her first big break brought her right back to Pittsburgh. She left the sunny West Coast for rainy Pittsburgh, shooting 25 to 30 four-minute scenes of the new MTV drama "Chloe" in a week and a half. "I never thought I'd come back here," Joslyn said. "And to be quite honest with you, I never thought I'd love Pittsburgh as much as I do now." "Chloe," which just wrapped shooting on the South Side, is one of the first series of its kind, said MTV Entertainment President Brian Graden. He said while YouTube.com has created an explosion of short amateur videos, a drama shot in short bursts, with a series premiere and finale, is unexplored territory.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/tribpm/s_476300.html

International News

'Tower of Babel' translator made
BBC News | October 25
Users simply have to silently mouth a word in their own language for it to be translated and read out in another. The researchers said the effect was like watching a television program that had been dubbed. The system, detailed in New Scientist, is not yet fully accurate, but experts said it showed the technology was "within reach". The translation systems that are currently in use work by using voice recognition software. But this requires people to speak out loud and then wait for the translation to be read out, making conversations difficult. But the new device, being created by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, is different. ... The team currently has two prototypes: one that can translate Chinese into English and another that can translate English into Spanish or German. If the prototypes used a small vocabulary of about 100-200 words they worked with about 80 percent accuracy, researcher Tanja Schultz said.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6083994.stm

 

Pentagon robo-racers to receive trophies, not cash, due to obscure law signed last week
International Herald Tribune (AP) | October 24
After Stanford University won a Pentagon robot race through the Mojave Desert last year, engineers and students hoisted an oversized $2 million check and poured bubbly champagne over their unmanned Volkswagen sport utility vehicle. Next year's winners will not be as rich. The Pentagon's research arm, which has twice hosted the high-tech contests since 2004, blames an obscure section in a defense spending law signed by President George W. Bush last week. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency believes the law prevents the agency from awarding the $2.7 million prize money. So instead, DARPA will hand out shiny trophies to the top three teams whose smart vehicles can weave through congested city traffic without human help. ... Famed robotics professor William "Red" Whittaker of Carnegie Mellon University, whose teams placed second and third last year, said the whole thing is overblown. "No one is dreaming of big bank accounts or struck by lottery fever," he said. "People are out there to innovate."
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/10/24/business/NA_FEA_TEC_US_Robot_Challenge.php

 

Varsity club hosts PS2 tourney
Gulf Times | October 21
The MultiMedia Club at Texas A&M University at Qatar (TAMUQ) has hosted its first PlayStation 2 (PS2) tournament on the popular fighting game, Tekken 5. The event, held in VCU-Q auditorium last Friday, was open to Education City universities' students. TAMUQ's Soud al-Mannai won the first prize of a PlayStation Portable, sponsored by Modern Home. Arslan Arif from Carnegie Mellon University at Qatar came second and bagged a LG Chocolate mobile, sponsored by Jumbo Electronics.
http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=113905&version=1&template_id=36&parent_id=16