November 16, 2006
Vol. 17, No. 19

In this issue:

• Tartans Receive Bid to NCAA Playoffs; Host Millsaps College Saturday
• Carnegie Mellon, UPMC Sign Research Agreement
• ETC, National University of Singapore To Offer Digital Media Degree
• New Supply of Flu Shots Available After Thanksgiving
• News Briefs
• Personal Mention
• Calendar Highlights

Tartans Receive Bid to NCAA Playoffs; Host Millsaps College Saturday

The Carnegie Mellon Tartans will be playing for the NCAA Division III Football Championship after being selected as one of 32 teams in the national field. This is the sixth time the Tartans have made the playoffs dating back to 1978 and the first time since the 1990 season. Preliminary round action for the Tartans starts at noon on Saturday, Nov. 18, in Gesling Stadium, when they will host Millsaps College (Miss.). Carnegie Mellon closed out its fifth undefeated season in school history last Saturday with a 14 - 7 win at Thiel College. "It's been 16 years since we've made the national tournament," said Carnegie Mellon Head Coach Rich Lackner. "It's awfully exciting for the coaches and the players." Tickets will be sold at the gate: $8 for adults and $4 for students with school ID.

Information: http://www.cmu.edu/athletic/football/headlines/2006/ncaabid.htm

Carnegie Mellon, UPMC Sign Research Agreement

Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) have signed a five-year, $10 million agreement for sponsored research in computer science, engineering, robotics and other advanced technology areas related to health care. The partnership plans to look at ways to make more reliable and efficient use of health care information and to explore projects involving technology-enhanced training and simulation; secure, ubiquitous communication and access to health care information; business process management and optimization; medical robotics; and medical-image processing and other related research areas.

Information: http://www.cmu.edu/news/archive/2006/november/nov.-9-agreement-with-upmc.shtml

ETC, National University of Singapore To Offer Digital Media Degree

Carnegie Mellon's Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) is partnering with the National University of Singapore's (NUS) School of Computing and the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore to offer a degree in Interactive Digital Media. The new opportunity allows students to obtain both a Bachelor of Computing in Communications and Media (BComp C&M) degree from NUS and a Master of Entertainment Technology (MET) degree from Carnegie Mellon in five years. Outside the concurrent program, the BComp program takes four years to complete, and the MET requires two years. Students will spend the first 3 1/2 years at NUS for completion of their BComp degree and the next 1 1/2 years at one of the various ETC campuses around the world to meet the MET degree requirements.

Information: http://www.cmu.edu/news/archive/2006/november/nov.-9---etc,-singapore-join-forces.shtml

New Supply of Flu Shots Available After Thanksgiving

The Student Health Service will receive 700 doses of the flu vaccine after Thanksgiving. Student Health will publicize the days/times for the vaccination clinics as soon as the vaccine arrives. Staff, faculty and students on the waiting list will be contacted by Student Health.

News Briefs

• Carnegie Mellon will host a high school math, science & technology competition sponsored by the Siemens Foundation on Nov. 17 - 18. Fifteen gifted high school students from across the middle states region will compete to win a $3,000 scholarship. One winning team and one individual winner will advance to New York City, where they'll compete for a $100,000 scholarship against winners of regional competitions held at Stanford, the University of Texas at Austin, Notre Dame, MIT and Georgia Tech. A poster exhibition and reception showcasing these research projects in biochemistry, bioengineering, materials science, virology, genetics and chemistry will be open to the public from 5 to 6:30 p.m., Friday, Nov. 17 in Rangos 1, UC. The students oral presentations are also open to the public from 8 a.m. - 12:40 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 18 in the McKenna Peter Wright rooms of the UC. For more information, contact Beth Yazemboski or Carolyn Manley at 412-268-1125.
• Carnegie Mellon's United Way Campaign deadline has been extended to Dec. 1. All contributions, no matter the amount, can make an impact in creating lasting change in people's lives. United Way supports many local and regional programs like the Center for Hearing and Deaf Services, Life'sWork and Three Rivers Youth Inc. You can contribute by returning your pledge card or donating at www.unitedwaypittsburgh.org/carnegiemellon/.

Personal Mention

• Ben Fischer, Distinguished Public Service Professor of Labor Studies and Public Policy Emeritus at the Heinz School, died on Sunday, Nov. 12. He was 92._ Prior to 1980, Fischer was an official of the United Steelworkers of America for 37 years, starting in economic research and then assistant to four union presidents. Throughout his career he was active in many phases of community life on a local, state and national level. He led national major labor negotiations involving the nation's metal industries, including the establishment of programs to alleviate worker problems during the restructuring of the steel industry during the '60s, '70s and '80s. Fischer served as a major architect in developing the system of labor arbitration, including expedited arbitration of grievances and the no-strike Experimental Negotiating Agreement in the basic steel industry. Further information: http://www.cmu.edu/news/archive/2006/november/nov.-13-ben-fischer-obituary.shtml/
  
• Jean-Jacques Servan-Schrieber, author, soldier, publisher, politician, and friend and advisor to world leaders who studied, taught and advised at Carnegie Mellon, died Nov. 7 in Fecamp, France. He was 82. Servan-Schrieber was a Distinguished Service Professor of Strategic Thinking from 1988 to 1994 at the Graduate School of Industrial Administration, now the Tepper School, and played a key role in the founding of the Carnegie Bosch Institute for Applied Studies in International Management. He was recognized by the Tepper School and awarded a plaque in February 2004 for his "outstanding teaching in the MBA Program."  Further information: http://business.tepper.cmu.edu/default.aspx?id=144222
• Publishers Weekly has selected Associate Professor of Creative Writing Terrance Hayes' book "Wind in a Box" as one of its top 100 books of the year.
• The Marketing Science Institute in Cambridge, Mass., has announced that Brett R.Gordon, a Ph.D. student at the Tepper School, is a winner in the 2006 Alden G. Clayton Doctoral Dissertation Competition for his dissertation "Replacement Cycles and Innovation in the PC Processor Industry." Two winners were selected from 85 entries. Winners receive a $5,000 honorarium.
  
• Four Carnegie Mellon students have been awarded $5,000 scholarships by the Pittsburgh Chapter of the Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS) Foundation. Awardees include Ph.D students Armen C. Arevian, Department of Biological Sciences at the Mellon College of Science and The Center for Neuroscience at the University of Pittsburgh; Thomas Diaz, Department of Mechanical Engineering; Alysha Grenko, Department of Materials Science and Engineering; and Kevin Gimpel, Language Technologies Institute, SCS. The ARCS Foundation provides scholarships to academically outstanding U.S. citizens studying to complete degrees in science, medicine and engineering. 
  
• Carnegie Mellon will host seven visiting Fulbright scholars for the 2006 - 07 academic year. They are: Yong Jin Cha, Kangnam University, Kyunggi, Korea; Juan Francisco De Dios Hernandez, Cardenal Cisneros Public High School, Alcala de Henares, Spain; Gonzalo Guillen Gosalbez, Polytechnical University of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain; Arturo Jimenez Gutierrez, the Technological Institute of Celaya, Celaya, Mexico; Ella Miron-Spektor, Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel; Vicente Rico Ramirez, the Technological Institute of Celaya; and Pawel Jerzy Szabelski, Maria Curie-Sklodowska University, Lublin, Poland.
  

Calendar Highlights

• Friday, Nov. 17:  Mechanical Engineering seminar.  "Finite Element Modeling of Interfacial Fracture Behavior in Semiconductor and Optoelectronic Packages," presented by Herman F. Nied, professor and department chair, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics, Lehigh University. 10:30 a.m., Scaife Hall 125.
• Sunday, Nov. 19: The Carnegie Mellon Baroque Ensemble presents its annual fall concert under the direction of Stephen Schultz, associate teaching professor in flute and music history. The program will feature Georg Friedrich Handel's "Concerto Grosso, Op. 6, No. 11 in A major" and "Concerto Grosso, Op. 6, No. 12 in B minor;" J.S. Bach's "Concerto for Two Keyboards and Strings in C Major" and "Brandenburg Concerto #1 in F Major." WQED-FM 89.3 will broadcast the concert live. 7 p.m., Alumni Concert Hall, College of Fine Arts.
• Due to the Thanksgiving holiday, the next issue of the 8.5 x 11 News will be published on Thursday, Nov. 30.