November 5, 2009
Vol. 20, No. 18

In this issue:

• Calendar Highlights
• Make Your 2010 Benefit Elections; Open Enrollment Runs Through Nov. 16
• $1.5M NSF Grant Allows Researchers To Track Energy Consumption Inexpensively
• Carnegie Mellon's United Way Campaign Is Under Way
• Research Shows Optimism May Be Detrimental for Mental Health
• Toys for Tots Drive Kicks Off Nov. 16 With Mobile WW II Museum
• News Briefs
• Personal Mention

Calendar Highlights

Picks of the Week

• Monday, Nov. 9: Carnegie Mellon Philharmonic. 8 p.m., Carnegie Music Hall, Oakland. Maestro Ronald Zollman leads the performance of works by prominent European-Jewish composers whose music was banned during the Nazi regime. For details and ticket information, visit http://www.cmu.edu/news/archive/2009/October/oct21_philharmonichumanity.shtml.
• Wednesday, Nov. 11: Cans Across the Cut. 9 a.m. – 4 p.m., The Fence. As part of Staff Council's annual food drive, the event encourages teams to participate by helping to create a line of canned goods from The Fence to Forbes Avenue. Individuals or teams can register at http://www.cmu.edu/staff-council/committees/food-drive/cans-cut.html. The team that brings the most cans wins a trophy. For more information, contact Jennifer Cox at jcox@andrew.cmu.edu.
• Thursday, Nov. 12: Biweekly pay information session. 9 a.m. – noon, Rangos 1, University Center (UC). Colleen Bendl and Linda Schmidt will discuss important changes and procedures for non-exempt employees who are currently paid on a monthly basis and will be moving to the biweekly payroll in January. To register: https://hr-apps.as.cmu.edu/hrlearn/HRLearn2

Featured Events

• Thursday, Nov. 5: SEI Blood Drive. 9 a.m. – 3 p.m., SEI Building, Training Room A. Register online at http://www.centralbloodbank.org and enter the sponsor code CU040013. Walk-ins are welcome. Contact Dale at dellgass@itxm.org for more information.
• Friday, Nov. 6: Sustainability and Computer Science Seminar. 3 p.m, Rashid Auditorium, Hillman Center. Jim Morris, Lorrie Cranor and Kusat Ozenc will discuss their study of a ridesharing service concept that would leverage technology. For more: http://calendar.cs.cmu.edu/scsEvents/demo/5566.html
• Friday, Nov. 6: "ANDREW 25 (plus 1) Reunion: Public Talk." 5:15 p.m., Rashid Auditorium, Hillman Center. James Gosling (SCS'83), vice president of Sun Microsystems and the inventor of the Java programming language, will discuss "Reflections on Java, the Future and Mobile Applications." Refreshments will be served at 5 p.m. For more: http://calendar.cs.cmu.edu/scsEvents/demo/5567.html
• Nov. 6-8: "Mobile Art && Code." Associate Professor of Art Golan Levin is directing the symposium on mobile media and interactive arts, sponsored by Microsoft Research and Carnegie Mellon's Center for Computational Thinking and the Studio for Creative Inquiry. For a full schedule of events, including a free lecture marathon on Saturday, Nov. 7, visit http://artandcode.ning.com.
• Saturday, Nov. 7: Heinz College Part-time Programs Information Session. 9:30 a.m. – 1 p.m. The program will provide information about public management and information technology graduate programs for working professionals, including a mock classroom presented by Heinz College faculty members. Employees also will learn more about applying the university's tuition benefit. For more information and to RSVP, visit http://www.heinz.cmu.edu/visit-heinz-college/info-sessions/index.aspx or call 412-268-2164.
• Monday, Nov. 9: Humanities Center Lecture. 4:30 p.m., Porter 100, (Gregg Hall). Karen Piper of the University of Missouri-Columbia will discuss "Is Water 'The New Oil'?: The New Water Monopolies and the World's Poor." For more: http://www.cmu.edu/uls/november/piper.html
• Monday, Nov. 9: Monday Night Football Tailgate Party. 8:30 p.m., Tartans Pavilion. Watch the Steelers game on the big screen and tailgate with CulinArt. For more weekly events, find the dining newsletter at http://www.cmu.edu/dining/.
• Tuesday, Nov. 10: Fostering Team Creativity. Noon – 1:30 p.m., McKenna/Peter/Wright Room, UC. Ron Placone will lead the brown bag session on how managers and team leaders can stimulate innovative work teams. To register: https://hr-apps.as.cmu.edu/hrlearn/HRLearn2
• Thursday, Nov. 12: Intel Labs Pittsburgh Open House. 3 – 6 p.m., Collaborative Innovation Center, Suite 410. The campus community is invited to learn about the lab's research, including work on personal mobile robots, neighborhood-aware networking and video-based gesture recognition. For more: http://pittsburgh.intel-research.net/openhouse/

Make Your 2010 Benefit Elections; Open Enrollment Runs Through Nov. 16

Open enrollment has begun. Use HR Connection to review your current elections and their rates in 2010, and to make any necessary changes by Monday, Nov. 16. If you don't actively make new elections, your 2009 benefits will carry over to 2010. New plan features and rates will apply. For more details, and to access HR Connection, visit http://www.cmu.edu/hr/benefits/OE/. If you have not received your open enrollment packet at your home address, please contact the Benefits Office.

If you are switching to the biweekly payroll and have any questions about how this may impact your benefits, be sure to attend the information session on Nov. 12; register online at http://www.cmu.edu/hr/learning/.

$1.5M NSF Grant Allows Researchers To Track Energy Consumption Inexpensively

College of Engineering professors Lucio Soibelman, H. Scott Matthews and Jose M.F. Moura received a three-year $1.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to identify inexpensive ways to track energy consumption in buildings. Matthews, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, said the team is very excited by the project because getting information about energy use of buildings to owners is vital for the health of the planet.

One of the goals of the project is to develop low-cost and easy to install devices that could carefully monitor the overall energy consumption of the building, and from that work infer the energy usage of individual appliances. As much as 40 percent of the total primary energy consumption in the U.S. is used to generate electricity, with almost 75 percent of that consumed by commercial and residential buildings. Reducing these electricity demands, even by small amounts, can help achieve large energy-savings for the country.

For more: http://www.cmu.edu/news/archive/2009/November/nov5_electricityconsumption.shtml

Carnegie Mellon's United Way Campaign Is Under Way

Carnegie Mellon's annual United Way Campaign, which supports regional programs and services, runs through November. Last year, the university's campaign raised more than $215,000 for United Way of Allegheny County. With the continued economic challenges facing so many in our area — through April of this year alone, more than 300,000 people turned to the United Way for basic needs like food and clothing — it's critical to help with a donation of any amount.

You can donate online, via pledge form or through payroll deduction. Learn more about the campaign and the donation process at http://www.cmu.edu/hr/united-way.html. The security of the online pledge process meets the university's standards of confidentiality and information security policy. Please contact Courtney Bryant at cbryant@andrew.cmu.edu with any questions about the campaign.

Research Shows Optimism May Be Detrimental for Mental Health

Holding on to hope may not make patients happier as they deal with chronic illness or disease, according to new research by Carnegie Mellon Professor George Loewenstein and Dylan M. Smith, Aleksandra Jankovic and Peter A. Ubel of the University of Michigan. The study measured the emotional well-being of patients with both reversible and irreversible colostomies over a six-month period. The results confirm that people do not adapt well to situations if they're believed to be short-term.

"We usually assume that hope is a good thing and that it's better to have the possibility of relief," said Loewenstein, the Herbert A. Simon Professor of Economics and Psychology. "But, we found that hope has a major downside and can prevent happiness."

While there is no absolute answer on how to handle the prospect of hope, it is clear that in some uncertain situations emphasizing optimism is harmful to emotional health. Read more at http://www.cmu.edu/news/archive/2009/November/nov2_happilyhopeless.shtml.

Toys for Tots Drive Kicks Off Nov. 16 With Mobile WW II Museum

First-year engineering students will kick off their fourth annual U.S. Marine Corps Toys for Tots drive by showcasing a mobile World War II museum from noon to 3 p.m., Monday, Nov. 16 on campus near the intersection of Forbes and Morewood avenues. The mobile World War II museum will include a traditional field hospital, an airplane repair hut, World War II vehicles and a display showcasing how dogs were used to transport important documents and assist in security. Parts of the mobile museum will be staffed by Carnegie Mellon alumni who served in World War II and a team of re-enactment experts.

The students are raising money to purchase toys, and will be collecting toys from members of the campus community between Nov. 16 and Dec. 4 at various locations throughout campus, including 110 Scaife Hall. All donated toys must be new and unwrapped. Read more about the Toys for Tots drive at http://www.cmu.edu/news/archive/2009/November/nov2_toysfortotsdrive.shtml.

News Briefs

• Nominations are being accepted through Friday, Nov. 13 for the Mark Gelfand Award for Educational Outreach. The annual award is given to a member of the university community who has combined "sustained, effective community service with academic coursework to enhance the learning experience, teach social responsibility and improve some aspect of life in the community." Nominations may be made by any group of at least three persons, each of whom is either a current or retired faculty or staff member or a current or former full-time undergraduate or graduate student. Full details are available at http://www.cmu.edu/celebration-of-teaching/gelfand-award/gelfandnom.html.
• The School of Music offers beginner, intermediate and advanced studio lessons and classes for all university students and staff through its Music Extension Program. The semester fee for 14 lessons is $350. Please note that tuition remission benefits do not cover the Music Extension fee. To register, call 412-268-3667 or send an email to dbarrett@andrew.cmu.edu.
• The Children's School is raising money for its scholarship fund. From 6 to 8 pm. on Thursday, Nov. 5, Ten Thousand Village's store in Squirrel Hill will donate a percentage of their net sales to the fund. Visit http://www.tenthousandvillages.com/home.php to learn more about this multicultural fair trade store located on Forbes Avenue. In addition, Kidstuff coupon books are available for $25, with 50 percent of the cost going toward the Children's School scholarship fund. The book includes coupons for IKEA, Kmart, Sears, Dick's Sporting Goods, Office Depot, Fuddrucker's and Cold Stone Creamery, which are valid through December 2010. For every five books you buy, you get one free. To order by Nov. 30, contact Allison Drash at 412-268-2199 or ed-admin@andrew.cmu.edu.
• The Steinbrenner Institute for Environmental Education and Research (SEER) is hosting a photo contest open to the entire Carnegie Mellon community. The competition is divided into three categories: people, nature and places. Please print your name, phone number and email address on the back of the 5X7 hard copy photo entries along with a CD of the photos submitted. Entries are due by Nov. 23 to Chriss Swaney, Room 118, Scaife Hall. Winners will receive certificates and their photos will be published on the Steinbrenner Institute's Web site. For details and more SEER news, visit http://bit.ly/SEERNews.
• Global Entrepreneurship Week, Nov. 16-22, aims to connect young people through local, national and global activities designed to help them explore their potential as self-starters and innovators. Sponsored by various Carnegie Mellon colleges, schools, clubs and departments, events on campus include a young alumni panel, networking night, elevator pitch competition, faculty panel on commercializing technology, social entrepreneurship program and social innovation job fair. Visit http://www.unleashingcarnegiemellon.org for more details and a full schedule.
• The CIT Staff Awards Committee is accepting nominations through Nov. 13 for the 15th annual CIT Staff Awards. For details on the awards, visit http://www.cit.cmu.edu/faculty_staff/staff_awards/index.html.
• The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has granted H&SS' Information Systems program $206,000 over the next two years to continue its "Information Systems in the Community" summer program. The program brings students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities to Carnegie Mellon for an intensive, six-week session in which they learn software development best practices, project management and teamwork. Read more about the program, led by Program Director Randy Weinberg, at http://www.cmu.edu/news/archive/2009/November/nov2_informationsystemsprogram.shtml.

Personal Mention

• Natalie Ozeas, associate head of the School of Music, has been appointed president of the National Urban Music Leadership Conference, the nation's premier organization supporting music education in urban school districts. In this role, she will become a liaison to the National Association for Music Education, and will serve as a public policy advocate for music in the public schools. Ozeas holds two bachelor's degrees and a master's degree from Carnegie Mellon, and an Ed.D. from the University of Pittsburgh.
• Elaine A. King, School of Art professor, presented a paper titled "Roots in Martin Heidegger" at the 43rd Association of International Critics of Art Congress on Oct. 26 in Dublin, Ireland, where the discussion focused on the theme of "The Relations Between Art and Science." King also was elected to the board of directors at the annual assembly meeting on Oct. 30 and will represent the U.S. with the larger international board of the Congress.
• Feng-tso "Lucas" Sun and Heng-Tze "Michael" Cheng, both doctoral students at Carnegie Mellon's Silicon Valley campus, were named fellows by Nokia Research Center, Palo Alto, in association with the CyLab Mobility Research Center. As Nokia Fellows for the academic year, Sun and Cheng will focus on context-aware mobile computing. Read more at http://www.cmu.edu/silicon-valley/news-events/2009/nokia-fellows.html.
• A selection of notable Carnegie Mellon alumni, including Freddy Anzures (CFA'99) and Elaine Konigsburg (MM'52), are featured in this new video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nJDzJ_vyJU.

For more events, visit http://my.cmu.edu/site/events.

For daily news updates, visit http://www.cmu.edu/news/news-notes/index.shtml.

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The "8 1/2 x 11 News" is published weekly by the Internal Communications Team. To submit news of campus interest, email Abby Ross at abbyross@andrew.cmu.edu.

For current issues of the 8 1/2 x 11, visit http://www.cmu.edu/news/news-notes/weekly/2009/index.shtml. For past years' issues of the 8 1/2 x 11, visit http://www.cmu.edu/news/weekly/index.shtml.