Carnegie Mellon University

The Piper

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November 01, 2012

Personal Mention

Kim Abel, director of Housing & Dining Services since 2007, has been named director of Learning & Development within Human Resources, effective Feb. 1. As director of L&D, Abel will run the university's staff development and education programs. "Kim's proven leadership and teaching capabilities, her passion, creativity and strong work ethic, her deep and abiding commitment to the university, and her keen ability to identify and fulfill customer needs will be important foundations as she builds a program that furthers the university's mission and also solidifies CMU as an employer of choice," wrote Dianne Kenney, associate vice president for Human Resources, and Michael Murphy, vice president for Campus Affairs, in an email announcement. Kenney and Murphy praised Abel for shepherding "profound improvements in the university's residential housing throughout the campus and community," and for putting dining "on a path of continuous improvement." The search for a permanent director of Housing & Dining Services will be launched in the coming weeks.

M. Stephanie Murray has been named director and academic adviser of the BXA Intercollege Degree Programs, part of the College of Fine Arts. Murray also serves as adjunct assistant professor at CMU. In her new role, Murray will increase her involvement in the administration of the BXA programs, working with affiliated departments, schools and colleges that are part of this cross-disciplinary experience. The three BXA bachelor's degree programs offer students the opportunity to combine fine arts and other areas of study for "integrated degrees" that are increasingly popular — not only among students, but also among companies recruiting graduates who are both academically and creatively accomplished. "We're confident that Stephanie's leadership will be key to helping the BXA programs continue to flourish and grow," said Dan Martin, dean of the College of Fine Arts. "We're seeing more students investigating where a BXA degree can take them, and Stephanie will help them craft a plan."

William F. Eddy, the John C. Warner Professor of Statistics, has chosen to accept Emeritus status. Since joining Carnegie Mellon in 1976, Eddy has worked in a variety of disciplines, with research covering theoretical probability, statistics and applied problems. His research has focused on the data generated by functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), a technique used by cognitive neuroscientists to chart brain activity. A distinguished scholar, Eddy has published more than 100 research papers and authored or edited 20 books and monographs. Eddy will be honored at a reception at 4:30 p.m., Friday, Nov. 2 in the Newell Simon Hall Atrium.

On Oct. 23, Joseph B. (Jay) Kadane, the Leonard J. Savage University Professor of Statistics and Social Sciences, emeritus, was named Statistician of the Year by the Chicago Chapter of the American Statistical Association for his outstanding contributions to the field of statistics.

Kiron Skinner, a renowned expert on foreign policy and political strategy, is advising the Mitt Romney Presidential Campaign. Skinner will appear on the WQED special "The Road to the White House," which will air from 8 to 9 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 1. Hosted by Chris Moore, the program will feature several experts discussing the upcoming presidential election. Skinner is associate professor of social and decision sciences, director of the Center for International Relations and Politics and the university’s national security policy adviser.

Susanne Slavick, the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Art, will participate in "Social Structures," presented by Nicholas Cohn Art Projects at CONTEXT/Art Miami Dec. 4-9. In addition, her solo show, “WROUGHT,” opens at Accola Griefen in Chelsea, NYC, Dec. 7, 2012, - January 12, 2013, with a reception on Dec. 13.

Senior professional writing major Anna Walsh has been named a finalist in the Opinion/Editorial category of the Associated Collegiate Press Print Story of the Year competition. Walsh wrote "Panera Bread’s racist, sexist practices warrant boycott" for the Dec. 5, 2011, edition of The Tartan. Winners of the competition, co-sponsored by the Deadline Club, the New York chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, will be announced Saturday at the ACP/College Media Convention in Chicago.

The Future of Privacy Forum (FPF) has selected the 2012 Privacy Papers for Policy Makers, highlighting eight leading privacy writings that were voted by the FPF Advisory Board to be most useful for policy makers. The selected writings include two papers authored by Carnegie Mellon faculty and Ph.D. students. They are:

  • “Smart, Useful, Scary, Creepy: Perceptions of Online Behavioral Advertising,” by Blase Ur (Ph.D. candidate, Institute for Software Research), Pedro G. Leon (Ph.D. candidate, Engineering and Public Policy), Lorrie Faith Cranor (associate professor, ISR and EPP), Richard Shay (Ph.D. candidate, ISR) and Yang Wang (former post-doc at CyLab now at Syracuse);
  • and “Will Johnny Facebook Get a Job? An Experiment in Hiring Discrimination via Online Social Networks,” by Alessandro Acquisti (associate professor, Heinz College) and Christina Fong (senior research scientist, Social and Decision Sciences).
  • Earning notable mention was “Why Johnny Can’t Opt Out: A Usability Evaluation of Tools to Limit Online Behavioral Advertising,” by Pedro G. Leon, Blase Ur, Rebecca Balebako (Ph.D. candidate, EPP), Lorrie Faith Cranor, Richard Shay and Yang Wang.

The digest of selected papers will be released at a Nov. 7 event at the Microsoft Innovation and Policy Center in Washington, D.C. Read more at http://www.futureofprivacy.org/privacy-papers-2012/