July 3, 2008
Vol. 18, No. 48
In this issue:
Children's School Earns Re-accreditation from NAEYC
Carnegie Mellon's Children's School has earned re-accreditation from the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) - the nation's leading organization of early childhood professionals - and is one of the first early childhood programs to complete the more rigorous accreditation process introduced in September 2006. To earn NAEYC accreditation in the new system, the Children's School completed an extensive self-study process, measuring the program and its services against the 10 new NAEYC Early Childhood Program Standards and more than 400 related accreditation criteria.
The Children's School offers kindergarten and preschool programs for children aged 3 - 5. It serves as a research lab for psychology students studying early childhood cognitive development.
For more on the Children's School: http://www.psy.cmu.edu/~kidsweb/
For more on NAEYC: http://www.rightchoiceforkids.org/
Carnegie Mellon Named a United Way Top 100 Donor
Carnegie Mellon has been named a Top 100 Donor in Allegheny County for 2007 by United Way. Four hundred thirty two Carnegie Mellon employees - just more than 10 percent of full- and part-time faculty and staff - gave a total of $215,992 to the United Way's 2007 campaign. In 2006, the Carnegie Mellon community raised $187,512. The United Way supports many local and regional programs and social services that help people in the community.
For more:
http://www.unitedwaypittsburgh.org/
Audio System Makes PC World's Top 100 New Products
"Audacity," an open source audio editor and recorder, originally designed and implemented by Carnegie Mellon Associate Research Professor
Roger Dannenberg and former computer science doctoral student
Dominic Mazzoni - now at Google - has earned a spot on PC World's list of 100 best products of 2008. "We introduced a new data structure to audio editing that's often far faster than commercial editors," said Dannenberg. "Audacity is popular mainly because it's simple, free and reliable. It's probably used by over one million people. It remains an open source project with quite a few active developers."
PC World editors select the year's best technology products by examining and rating hundreds of products on design, functionality, performance and impact.
For more:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,146161/article.html
Audacity downloads can be found at:
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/
Tickets On Sale for Staff Council-Sponsored Kennywood Picnic
Tickets to Carnegie Mellon's Kennywood Park Picnic, Saturday, July 12, will be on sale at the following times and locations:
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Tuesday, July 8: 11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m., Mellon Institute; 4:30 - 5:30 p.m., University Center (UC)
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Wednesday, July 9: 11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m., UC
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Thursday, July 10: 11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m., UC
Employees must show university ID to buy one "Funday" ticket for $5 (valid only on July 12) and four additional tickets for $13 each. Ticket lines will close 15 minutes prior to the scheduled sale times.
For more:
http://www.cmu.edu/staff-council/
News Briefs
- Senator Barack Obama's June 26 visit to campus was part of a summit on ensuring America's competitiveness in the global economy. The presidential candidate proposed investing significantly in a green energy sector, early childhood education and healthcare reform. He led a discussion on these and other topics among a group of business and academic leaders - including Carnegie Mellon alumnus Vinod Khosla (E '78), who co-founded Sun Microsystems and is working on alternative energy solutions. This past April 15, presidential candidate Senator John McCain came to the university and addressed his plans for tax policies aimed at stimulating the economy. To view Obama's speech: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTHmd6alnXQ; to view McCain's speech: http://youtube.com/watch?v=FJDYb1HTyhI
- As of July 1, the computer repair services offered by Computing Services' Computer Maintenance Department became available at the University Store. To see if your computer hardware can be serviced, contact the University Store at x8-2636 or repair@andrew.cmu.edu. Tartan Trust Cards, major credit cards and debit cards are accepted. For more: http://www.cmu.edu/computing/repair/maintenance/
- The Heinz School in Adelaide, Australia, is now publishing an e-newsletter with regular updates of what's happening on the campus. To subscribe: http://post.cmu.edu.au/SC000005NTg0.HTML
- This year's walk for pancreatic cancer research is being held in honor of Randy Pausch at 10 a.m., Sunday, Aug. 17 at the North Park Boathouse in Allison Park. A group from Carnegie Mellon will be participating in the walk, and invites the entire campus community, families and friends to join them. To register or support Randy's team, visit http://www.kintera.org/faf/home/default.asp?ievent=277595 and click on "Pausch's People."
Personal Mention
- University Professor Takeo Kanade is one of seven finalists for The Design News' Engineer of the Year Award. A pioneer in computer vision robotics and director of the National Science Foundation's Quality of Life Technology Engineering Research Center, Kanade is designing robotic programs and systems to help older adults and people with disabilities stay safer and independent longer with the use of interactive robotic rehabilitation devices. Vote for Kanade online by July 11: http://www.designnews.com/article/CA6447985.html?nid=2876
- Ihor Lys, who graduated from Carnegie Mellon with bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in electrical and computer engineering, was named America's most outstanding inventor of 2008 for his invention of PowerCore(r), a breakthrough technology for increasing the efficiency and lowering the cost of LED lights. Lys co-founded Color Kinetics (now Philips Solid State Lighting Solutions) in 1997 with fellow Carnegie Mellon graduate George Mueller. The National Inventor of the Year award is sponsored by the Intellectual Property Owners Education Foundation. For more: http://www.ipoef.org
- Charlotte A. (Chuck) Tancin, librarian at the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, has received the 2008 Charles Robert Long Award of Extraordinary Merit from the Council on Botanical and Horticultural Libraries. The award recognizes her contributions in the field of botanical and horticultural literature, information service and research. Tancin, who joined the Hunt Institute staff in 1984, is in charge of the institute's book collections.
- The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development recently awarded Associate Professor of Psychology Kevin Pelphrey a grant of $1,414,579 for a project exploring how the brain influences how children develop abilities to understand numbers and individual differences in math abilities. His research will use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to identify the patterns of change in brain activity associated with developmental changes in aspects of number perception and numerical cognition during early childhood.
- Executive Producer Don Marinelli and the Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) will participate in Cleveland's Ingenuity Festival, July 25 - 27. The festival features high technology firms, various colleges and universities alongside acclaimed artists, creating an interactive and experiential festival that draws and celebrates diversity. The ETC intends to present Quasi the interactive robot, the giant Nintendo consoles, a Head Mount Display (HMD) with a Building Virtual Worlds (BVW) world, Dragon Question, and the Wii Exercise platforms. For more: http://www.ingenuitycleveland.com/; http://www.etc.cmu.edu/
Calendar Highlights
- Wednesday, July 9: "Does It Matter How People Feel in the Workplace?" 9 a.m. - noon, McKenna/Peter/Wright room, University Center (UC). Lola Mason leads the session, designed for managers, on fostering creativity and collaboration and the key drivers of employee engagement. To register: https://acis.as.cmu.edu/gale2/servlet/HRLearn2
- Thursday, July 10: Communicating Assertively. Noon - 1:30 p.m., Connan Room, UC. Ron Placone leads session on conflict resolution style, how assertiveness differs from aggressive behaviors, and ways to communicate more assertively. To register: https://acis.as.cmu.edu/gale2/servlet/HRLearn2
- Monday, July 14: The Discovery Science Channel's new series, "Robocars," will feature Carnegie Mellon's Tartan Racing team and its autonomous vehicle, Boss. 10 p.m. The six-part series focuses on last year's $2 million DARPA Urban Challenge robot race, which Boss won 19 minutes ahead of its nearest competitor.
- For more news and events, visit http://my.cmu.edu/site/events/
