May 8, 2008
Vol. 18, No. 40
In this issue:
Tepper School Team Wins "Super Bowl" of Business Plan Competitions
For the ninth time, a team of students from the Tepper School of Business has won the prestigious Moot Corp® business plan competition at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin. The win, at what is considered the "Super Bowl" of business plan competitions, gives the Tepper School the most victories of any school in the 25-year history of the event.
This year's winner — NeuroBank — has developed a breakthrough proprietary technology to extract and preserve adult neural stem cells, which could be used to develop treatments for Alzheimer's disease, stroke or traumatic brain injury. The NeuroBank team of MBA candidate Dr. Raymond Sekula and Sasha Bakhru, a Ph.D. candidate at the College of Engineering, beat out 37 other teams from leading business schools and universities worldwide. The team was advised by S. Thomas Emerson, the David T. and Lindsay J. Morgenthaler Professor of Entrepreneurship.
NeuroBank will receive a prize package valued at $100,000, including $25,000 in cash. Team members will also open the NASDAQ Stock Market on Aug. 15 in New York City.
For more: http://tepper.cmu.edu/news-multimedia/news/news-detail/index.aspx?nid=355
NIH Grants Support Research Into Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms
The Vascular Biomechanics and Biofluids Laboratory, under the direction of Associate Research Professor
Ender Finol of the Institute for Complex Engineered Systems, has received two grants totaling $600,000 from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The funding is to support biomechanics research in abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs), and to train pre-doctoral and post-doctoral fellows in vascular biomechanics. These grants will enable a clinical research study to be conducted at Allegheny General Hospital to assess the significance of vascular wall thickness as the primary biomechanical determinant of aneurysm rupture. The sponsored NIH projects are entitled "In Vivo Assessment of AAA Biomechanics with Dynamic Wall Properties" and "Bioengineering Studies of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Fluid and Wall Dynamics."
For more:
http://www.ices.cmu.edu/vascular-biomechanics/
New Technique To Analyze Cells Could Help in Drug Discovery
Researchers in Carnegie Mellon's Lane Center for Computational Biology have discovered how to significantly speed up critical steps in an automated method for analyzing cell cultures and other biological specimens. The new technique, created by
Geoffrey Gordon, associate research professor in the School of Computer Science's Machine Learning Department, biomedical engineering student
Shann-Ching "Sam" Chen and computational biologist
Robert F. Murphy, promises to enable higher accuracy analysis of the microscopic images produced by today's high-throughput biological screening methods, such as the ones used in drug discovery, and to help decipher the complex structure of human tissues.
Improved accuracy could reduce the cost and the time necessary for these screening methods, make possible new types of experiments that previously would have required an infeasible amount of resources, and perhaps uncover interesting but subtle anomalies that otherwise would go undetected, the researchers said.
For more:
http://www.cmu.edu/news/archive/2008/May/may1_bioimageanalysis.shtml
May 21 Picnic Celebrates Staff Contributions
Carnegie Mellon's annual free Staff Picnic, hosted by President
Jared L. Cohon and Provost and Senior Vice President
Mark Kamlet in recognition of staff contributions to the university, will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the University Center's Wiegand Gym and Rangos Hall. Picnic-goers must present a valid Carnegie Mellon Staff ID. Shuttle transportation will be provided as follows from off-campus locations to and from the University Center turnaround.
- Entertainment Technology Center: pick-up 11:10 a.m.; return 1 p.m.;
- Mellon Institute, SEI, Whitfield Hall, INI, 407 S. Craig St., UTDC, 300 S. Craig St. and 4616 Henry St.: continual loops every 20 minutes beginning at 10:50 a.m. The shuttle will stop first at Dithridge and Fifth Avenue for the Mellon Institute and SEI, then continue to Whitfield Hall and the final pick up at 407 South Craig. Return trips begin at 1 p.m. and end at 2 p.m.
- National Robotics Engineering Consortium and Penn Avenue Building: pick-up at the NREC at 11 a.m. and at Penn Ave. at 11:15 a.m. Return trips at 1 and 1:30 p.m.
- PPG Building: continual loops every half-hour from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Shuttles to campus will leave on the hour. Return trips will depart on the half-hour.
Andy Award Nominations Due July 2
Nominations are being accepted for the 2008 Andy Awards, the university-wide staff recognition program that honors individuals and/or teams for outstanding dedication and performance. Awards are given in five categories: dedication, innovation, commitment to students, citizenship and culture. Nomination deadline is July 2. Nomination forms are available at
http://www.cmu.edu/andyawards/. The 2008 Andy Awards ceremony will be held at noon, Sept. 12 in McConomy Auditorium.
News Briefs
- Arts and Special Collections on the fourth floor of Hunt Library will be closed for six weeks (May 19 - June 29) to enable staff to complete the Dewey to LC Reclassification Project before Pre-College classes begin June 30. Most arts books and CDs will remain available to users through a paging service (24-hr. turnaround time) Monday through Friday. For more: http://www.library.cmu.edu/transformation/
- The tuition grant for children of staff attending another university in the 2008-09 academic year has been increased $200 per semester and is now $3,250 per semester, or $6,500 per year. Eligibility rules apply. For more: http://hr.web.cmu.edu/current/work-life/tuition/child/
- Hosting an event — other than a diploma or honors ceremony — over commencement weekend? If so, and you haven't already informed the University Events Office, please phone 412-268-5052 or send email to commencement@andrew.cmu.edu with the following information: name of the event, day/time, location and audience information. The information will be made available to volunteers staffing the Commencement Welcome Area in the University Center during the weekend.
Personal Mention
- Dean of Student Affairs Jennifer Church has announced her resignation, effective July 31, to pursue a new professional opportunity for her husband in Indianapolis. G. Richard Tucker, the Paul Mellon University Professor of Applied Linguistics, will serve as interim dean until a successor is named. Associate Vice President MichaelMurphy will chair the search committee.
- John Grasso, director of strategic development and distance education for the Institute for Software Research, has received the Suzhou Science and Technology Prize from the government of the city of Suzhou in the People's Republic of China. The award recognizes his work advising the city's software industry and his help in bringing the SEI's SEPG Conference there in 2006 and 2007.
- George Loewenstein, the Herbert A. Simon Professor of Economics and Psychology, has been named a fellow of he American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Loewenstein is a behavioral economist whose research explores a wide range of topics — from altruism to consumer behavior. For more: http://www.cmu.edu/news/archive/2008/May/may5_loewenstein.shtml
- Janel A. Sutkus, former director of admissions at Adrian and Cornell colleges, has been named director of Institutional Research & Analysis (IR&A), effective July 1. Sutkus succeeds Stacey Lopez, who last fall became assistant vice president of IR&A at the University of Pennsylvania. Sutkus, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Michigan's Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education, has been a teacher and administrator in higher education, and is a student of research methodology.
Calendar Highlights
