November 8, 2007
Vol. 18, No. 18

In this issue:

• Tartan Racing Wins $2 Million DARPA Urban Challenge
• Open Enrollment Ends at 5 p.m., Nov. 9
• New Mascot Image To Be Unleashed at Football Game
• Carnegie Mellon Night at the Symphony is Saturday, Nov. 10
• News Briefs
• Personal Mention
• Calendar Highlights

Tartan Racing Wins $2 Million DARPA Urban Challenge

Carnegie Mellon's Tartan Racing team won the $2 million Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Urban Challenge on Nov. 3 in Victorville, Calif., after its self-driving SUV, "Boss," was the fastest of 11 autonomous vehicles to complete the 55-mile course on suburban and urban roadways. Boss averaged about 14 miles per hour, finishing the course 20 minutes ahead of second-place finisher, Stanford. Virginia Tech placed third.

"Robots sometimes stun the world, inspire a lot of people and change the belief of what is possible," said Robotics Professor William "Red" Whittaker, team leader of Tartan Racing and a Carnegie Mellon alumnus. "We've seen that here and once the perception of what's possible changes it never goes back. This is a phenomenal thing for robotics."

"Everything that I saw Boss do looked great," said alumnus Chris Urmson, the team's director of technology. "It was smooth. It was fast. It interacted with other traffic well. It did what it was supposed to do."

Tartan Racing includes Carnegie Mellon faculty, staff and students from the Robotics Institute and the College of Engineering. It received major support from General Motors, Caterpillar and Continental AG. Strengthening the team were engineers from GM, Caterpillar, Continental and Intel who were embedded with the team in Pittsburgh. Tartan Racing's sponsors also included Intel, Google, Applanix, TeleAtlas, NetApp, Vector CANTech, Ibeo, Mobileye, HP, CarSim, CleanPower Resources, M/A-Com and McCabe Software.

Further information: http://www.tartanracing.org

Open Enrollment Ends at 5 p.m., Nov. 9

You must process any benefit changes online through HR Connection by the Open Enrollment deadline of 5 p.m., Friday, Nov. 9.  If you do not submit changes, your 2007 benefits will roll over into the same level of coverage for 2008. New rates and plan provisions will apply. Human Resources encourages you to use HR Connection's Open Enrollment module even if you do not anticipate making changes to ensure you don't need to update a benefit election or dependent information. Open Enrollment is your only chance to make changes to your benefits for 2008, unless you experience a life status change.

New Mascot Image To Be Unleashed at Football Game

Fans will have an opportunity to "see what all the barking is about" when the new graphic image of Carnegie Mellon's official mascot, the Scottie Dog, is revealed at the Nov. 10 football game against Washington & Lee. Kickoff is at 1 p.m. at Gesling Stadium. The Carnegie Clan will be handing out free t-shirts after the official image is unveiled on the new stadium scoreboard. The University Store will sell Scottie Dog merchandise beginning that afternoon and it will add additional items in time for the holidays. Once a Scottie Dog costume is complete, the mascot will greet fans and community members at university events. In the future, interactive Web and video elements also will be available on Carnegie Mellon's Web site.

Carnegie Mellon Night at the Symphony is Saturday, Nov. 10

Carnegie Mellon and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (PSO) invite students, staff, faculty and guests to Carnegie Mellon Night at the Symphony at 8 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 10 at Heinz Hall, downtown. Guest Conductor Marek Janowski will lead the orchestra in Beethoven's Piano Concert No. 4 in G major, Opus 58 with pianist Nikolai Lugansky. The program also includes Brahms' Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Opus 98 and Hungarian Dances (Nos. 17-19 and 21). This concert is part of the PSO's new live recording project of Brahms' complete symphonies on the PentaTone label, the first volume of which was released at the end of August 2007.

Following the performance, PSO musicians and Carnegie Mellon guests can enjoy a post-concert dessert reception hosted by the President's Office. Discounted tickets can be purchased at the Information Desk at the University Center (UC). They can also be purchased online at www.pittsburghsymphony.org/cmunight.html. Tickets start at $12.

News Briefs

• The Carnegie Mellon chapter of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) received the 2007 Outstanding Collegiate Section Award for their outreach programs for middle and high school students at the annual SWE Conference in Nashville last month.
• Staff members are invited to join the Carnegie Mellon Walking Club for daily walks during the lunch hour. The club meets at 12:10 p.m., Monday through Friday, in front of Hamburg Hall for a 30-minute walk from 12:15 to 12:45 p.m. For more information, contact Jackie Cipa at jcipa@andrew.cmu.edu or Kelley Anderson at kelleya@andrew.cmu.edu

Personal Mention

• The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has named Baruch Fischhoff chairman of its Risk Communication Advisory Committee, which is charged with advising the FDA on how to best communicate to the public the risks and benefits of FDA-regulated products. Fischhoff, an expert in risk perception and communication, is the Howard Heinz University Professor of Social and Decision Sciences and Engineering and Public Policy. Further information: http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2007/NEW01739.html
• Gloria Hill, assistant vice provost for education at the Qatar campus, will receive the Educational Leadership Award at the 2008 Black Engineer of the Year Awards Conference, Feb. 14-16 in Baltimore. "This is a great recognition of all that Gloria has done for the engineering (and other) undergraduate minority students here, both as advisor to individuals and as a designer of various programs," said Vice Provost for Education Indira Nair.

Calendar Highlights

• Nov. 8 - 9: Talks by world-renowned cognitive neuroscientist Stanislas Dehaene, author of "The Number Sense: How the Mind Creates Mathematics." "Characterizing the dynamics of conscious access: theory and experiments," noon, Nov. 8, Rangos 1, UC, and "Recycling the visual brain for reading," noon, Nov. 9, Social Room, 3rd floor, Mellon Institute. Dehaene is the director of the Inserm-CEA Cognitive neuroimaging unit, Neurospin center, Saclay, France, and professor at the Collège de France, Paris.
• Friday, Nov. 9:  Center for Africanamerican Urban Studies and the Economy Lecture Series. "We Already Have the Italian Squad, Why Not the Colored Squad: Race and Law Enforcement in Early Twentieth Century New York," by Kimberly Sims (HS '98), assistant professor of history, American University. 4:30 p.m., Steinberg Auditorium, Baker Hall A53.
• Friday, Nov. 9: Mechanical Engineering seminar. "Methods for Alleviating Heat Transfer to Turbine Vane Endwalls." Karen A. Thole, professor and department head, Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, Penn State University.  2 p.m., Hamerschlag Hall B-103.
• Saturday, Nov. 10: The university community will pay tribute to the late William E. Brown, beloved professor, mentor, researcher and colleague who died this past summer. The program will celebrate Brown's life and his impact on students, science and the campus, national and global communities. The tribute will be simulcast to the Carnegie Mellon Qatar Campus. 10 a.m., Rangos Ballroom, UC.
• Tuesday, Nov. 13: Venture Capital Speakers Series. "What is your company worth?" by Sean Sebastian of Birchmere Ventures. Topics include due diligence, market research, industry experts, business model validation, establishing valuation and financing startups.  11:30 a.m. - 2 p.m., Connan Room, UC.
• Tuesday, Nov. 13: The Center for the Arts in Society Research Forum. Riccardo Schulz, associate teaching professor, School of Music, presents an award-winning recorded performance of American composer George Crumb's famous Black Angels and Makrokosmos III, compositions for two pianos and percussion. The recording, on the Mode record label, is conducted by Juan Pablo Izquierdo and features Cuarteto Latinoamericano pianists Luz Manriquez and Walter Morales, tenor Douglas Ahlstedt, and students from Carnegie Mellon's percussion studio. 4:30 p.m., Alumni Concert Hall, College of Fine Arts. Reception to follow.
• Wednesday, Nov. 14: Center for the Arts in Society BYOBrain Series. French Professor Beryl Schlossman will discuss "Art, History, and Images of the Feminine in Baudelaire's Paris." Noon - 1 p.m., CFA 303.
• Friday, Nov. 16: Mechanical Engineering seminar. "Designing Systems and Products for Changeability," presented by Olivier de Weck, associate professor of Aeronautics & Astronautics and Engineering Systems, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 10:30 a.m., Scaife Hall 125.
• For more events, visit http://my.cmu.edu/site/events/