January 28

If interpreting homicide rates is this tricky, what does that say about overall crime rates, which experts say are more vulnerable to underreporting and subjectivity? Those issues are part of the reason the Federal Bureau of Investigation warns efforts to use its U.S. crime statistics to rank cities or states.

Homicide is a "serious crime that many people are concerned with, it is well-measured, and it is to a large degree well-reported and -recorded," says Alfred Blumstein, a criminologist at Carnegie Mellon University. "That is not to say that there aren't a variety of ways for fudging the measurement."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204661604577185122672243992.html?KEYWORDS=%22Carnegie+Mellon%22

January 26

Privacy experts worry that the risks of having too much personal information online far exceed the potential rewards.

"At the moment in the US, there are almost no protections," says Lorrie Cranor, associate professor of computer science and engineering and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University.

"It would be good to have some baselines established - certain types of data uses that can't be done. To really make it illegal for companies to go and sell this info to your employer or your insurance company, for instance," she says.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16749076

January 25

Other videos focus on passing the puck, making a save and stopping abruptly on the ice and analyze the science behind reflexes, reaction time and linear motion.

In each video, a scientist with the National Science Foundation explains a principle. The scientists are Edward Burger of Williams College, Irene Fonseca of Carnegie Mellon, Jim Gates of the University of Maryland, Robert Gehrz of the University of Minnesota and Patricia Shewokis of Drexel University.

http://slapshot.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/25/nbc-brings-science-of-n-h-l-hockey-to-tvs-and-classrooms/?scp=2&sq=%22Carnegie%20Mellon%22&st=cse

January 24

By announcing a target, the Fed could smooth the path to another round of bond buying should the recovery falter.

“It's a good idea whose time has come,” said Marvin Goodfriend, a professor at the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and a former senior Fed policy adviser.

In the eyes of Goodfriend and some policymakers, laying out an agreed inflation goal would squelch the idea that the Fed might allow for a faster pace of price gains as it tries to drive unemployment lower.

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/business/americas/2012/01/24/329746/Bernanke-nears.htm

January 23

“An inexpensive, accessible treatment -- not a designer drug -- is the ideal solution,” said Adam Linstedt, a biologist at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and a study author, in a statement. Most of the illnesses from Shiga take place in the developing world, so cheapness is important, he said.

The toxin is also produced by Shigella, which can be acquired through contaminated food or water. About 14,000 cases of this illness are reported in the U.S. every year.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-01-20/deadly-e-coli-toxin-can-be-stopped-with-manganese-study-says.html

January 20

Some background: The four were arrested in New Zealand for alleged online piracy-related activities in the United States. A federal indictment accuses the site of costing content creators at least $500 million in lost revenue. In a statement, Megaupload officials said the figure was "grotesquely overblown."

The arrests came at a particularly sensitive time in the debate about online piracy, coming just a day after websites such as Wikipedia had led protests against bills in Congress known as the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, and the Protect IP Act, or PIPA.

NPR posed questions to Barrett Lyon, an ex-hacker and founder of 3Crowd, an Internet services company; and Nicolas Christin, associate director at Carnegie Mellon University's Information Networking Institute.

http://www.npr.org/2012/01/20/145529027/five-questions-answers-about-the-megaupload-case  

January 14

Compelling pictures from a traceable source may also prove to be a double-edged sword for protesters. Police can mine video files for hidden information (“metadata” in the jargon) that could help identify the camera’s owner, or use face-recognition software on the people being filmed. A study by Alessandro Acquisti and his colleagues at Carnegie Mellon University found that a program developed there, known as PittPatt, was able to identify one in three students who were stopped and photographed voluntarily, just by matching the photos with their public ones on Facebook.

This is why Guardian Project and Witness, two non-profit groups, are developing some software called Obscuracam. It lets mobile-phone users upload video with the metadata stripped out and people’s faces pixelated to protect their identities. Another work in progress is Informacam, which will add location information and a digital seal that shows if a file has been tampered with. That would allow someone to upload both a sanitized version for public viewing and a verified version to a secure server to provide legally solid evidence if necessary.

http://www.economist.com/node/21542748  

January 5

This fall, students in Rwanda will begin classes at Carnegie Mellon University’s Kigali campus when the U.S. research university opens its new graduate program in the East African country.

Bruce Krogh, Director of Carnegie Mellon in Rwanda, said the Master of Science in Information Technology graduate program is a perfect fit for the Rwandan government’s 2020 vision to become an information economy – and he added Africa as a whole is ripe with opportunity in the mobile communications arena for cloud computing, broadband and more.

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/africa/Prestigious-US-Research-University-to-Open-Rwanda-Graduate-Program-136743643.html 

January 5

Dave Andersen looked into a desk drawer filled with tiny computers. Each was no bigger than a hardback novel, and their chips ran no faster than 600 MHz. Built by a little-known company called Soekris Engineering, they were meant to be wireless access points or network firewalls, and that’s how Andersen — a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon — used them in a previous research project. But that project was over, and he thought: “They’ve got to be good for something else.”

http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2012/01/wimpy_nodes/  

January 4

Jon Delano, a political analyst from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, said that low rating may give Santorum a shield against some attacks. Still, Delano said, the former senator would remain vulnerable to accusations that he’s “part of the Washington establishment.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-04/santorum-pro-labor-votes-lurk-as-rivals-attack-early.html

January 1

Offering master’s degrees in engineering and information technology, the program has the backing of the government of Rwanda and the African Development Bank, which is hoping to use it as the model for a string of centers across the continent. As with the Ceibs program, which flies in faculty members from Shanghai and Beijing, students will study with Carnegie Mellon faculty. “We are offering Carnegie Mellon credits towards a Carnegie Mellon degree,” said Bruce Krogh, professor of electrical engineering and the new program’s director.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/02/world/africa/02iht-educlede02.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=%22Carnegie%20Mellon%22&st=cse

January 1

1. "2011 Pittsburgh Biennial," at Pittsburgh Center for The Arts, Pittsburgh Filmmakers, Carnegie Museum of Art, Carnegie Mellon University's Miller Gallery and the Andy Warhol Museum. Featuring the work of nearly 100 artists from the Pittsburgh region, this massive exhibit took up five venues around the city to represent the creative capital of our region, and rightly so.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/ae/theater/s_774041.html