Carnegie Mellon University

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April 04, 2013

News Briefs

Meet Candidates for Dean of University Libraries

Next week the  Dean of University Libraries Search Committee will be hosting two candidates. The entire campus community is invited to meet the candidates and attend their public presentations. The first presentation will be given by Mark Winston at 9 a.m., Wednesday, April 10 in Posner Center. The second presentation will be given by Keith Webster at 9 a.m., Friday, April 12 in the Grand Room, Tepper Building. Following each presentation, there will be time for questions and informal interaction. 

We encourage attendance at these forums and participation by faculty, students and staff members in this important process. Candidate evaluation forms will be available at the public presentations. If you have any questions or are interested in reviewing copies of the candidates’ CVs, please contact Edna Jackson (edna@cmu.edu), director of the Provost’s Office.

Drama Alums Screen New Indie Film; Proceeds Benefit Senior Showcase

School of Drama alumni Neal Dodson, Victor Quinaz, Haj Chenzira-Pinnock and Zach Quinto will screen their new indie film, “Breakup at a Wedding,” at 4:30 p.m., Tuesday, April 16, in McConomy Auditorium. Following the screening, several members of the cast and production company will participate in a Q&A session with the audience. The event is open to the public.
 
Tickets are available at the Purnell Center Box Office in advance — $5 for students with ID and $10 for all others. Advance tickets can be purchased with cash, check, Visa or Mastercard. Tickets sold at the door must be paid with cash or check only. All proceeds will go to the Senior Showcase Fund for graduating 2013 School of Drama students.

Conflict Kitchen Reopens in Schenley Plaza

Conflict Kitchen, which features food from countries in conflict with the United States, has moved from East Liberty to the Schenley Plaza in Oakland. On the menu through June is food with an Iranian theme.

The take-out eatery, founded by Associate Professor of Art Jon Rubin and Dawn Weleski, is open from noon to 6 p.m. daily. This summer food from Cuba will be featured with dishes from the Middle East on tap soon thereafter.

For more on Conflict Kitchen, go to http://www.conflictkitchen.org

CMU Discount Available for Mercury Soul Friday

CMU faculty, staff and students are eligible for a discount on tickets to Mercury Soul, a hybrid musical event that blends electronica with classical music, at 9 p.m., Friday, April 5, at STATIC, 1650 Smallman Street in the Strip District.  Interspersed with thrilling performances by Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra musicians and the thumping beat of PSO's Composer of the Year, DJ Mason Bates, Mercury Soul gives audiences the freedom to dance, roam and experience music and visual arts in a club setting. Visual director Anne Patterson collaborates with CMU's School of Drama to create media and lighting design that merges striking abstracted video of Pittsburgh, architecturally mapped projections, live performance video and evocative programmed lighting. You must be 21 or older to attend and present ID upon entering.

Tickets are $20 ($15 with student ID). Faculty, staff and students can get a 10 percent discount when purchasing tickets online at www.pittsburghsymphony.org/CMU

CMU-led Team Awarded Additive Manufacturing Funding

Carnegie Mellon and Case Western Reserve University are leading a team of five universities, five companies and two national laboratories that has won funding for two projects to better control and understand three-dimensional printing technologies for fabricating metal components.

The projects are part of the U.S. Department of Defense's new National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute (NAMII). Located in Youngstown, Ohio, the institute is being used to help develop additive manufacturing technology, better known as 3-D printing. The technology speeds up production time while decreasing the cost of products, including jet engine parts and medical implants. Read more.

Group Swimming Lessons Begin

Carnegie Mellon’s fitness program is offering adult group swimming sessions for beginners to learn to swim and for experienced swimmers to improve their stroke.  Sessions will be held this month.

Stroke improvement sessions will be held from 6:30 – 7 p.m., April 10, 17 and 24. Learn to swim sessions will be held April 9, 16, 23 and 30. For more information, contact Pattye Stragar at pls@andrew.cmu.edu.

Spring Carnival Concert Features Ludacris

This year’s Spring Carnival Concert, featuring rapper Ludacris, will take place Friday, April 19, on the Mall between Doherty Hall and Baker/Porter Hall beginning with CMU DJs at 7:30 p.m. Ludacris will take the stage at 9 p.m., followed by fireworks.

Please note that soundchecks will take place on the Mall during the day on Friday, April 19,  beginning as early as 2 p.m.

Staff Council At-Large Nominations Open Through April 5

The online nomination period for Staff Council at-large representatives is under way and will run through Friday, April 5. Staff Council seeks representatives from all departments and areas of the university. You can nominate up to five individuals, including yourself.  Read more about Staff Council and the nomination process.

Take Our Daughters & Sons to Work Day Registration Now Open

Registration will be open through April 19 for this year's Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day on Thursday, April 25. Take Our Daughters & Sons to Work, sponsored by Staff Council, is for girls and boys between the ages of 8 and 15. The event will begin with lunch at noon in Rangos, University Center, followed by a variety of session tracks in the afternoon. All sessions take place in the University Center.

For more information and to register your child, go to http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/org/todtw beginning Monday, April 1. Please contact Alicia Angemeer at adbrown@andrew.cmu.edu with any questions.

If you’d like to volunteer for the event — for even one hour — please contact Gloria Gruber at ggruber@andrew.cmu.edu. Volunteers are needed for the lunch program and session guides.

Student Employee Appreciation Week is April 7-13            

In recognition of the important contributions students make to the daily operations of Carnegie Mellon, President Jared L. Cohon has declared the week of April 7-13 as Student Employee Appreciation Week. More than 4,100 students provide essential services and valued contributions throughout campus. The Student Employee Appreciation Lunch on April 10 will celebrate all student employees and recognize those students nominated for the Student Employee of the Year Award.

University Libraries Want Your Feedback

Based on student feedback, University Libraries last year added a single search box on its homepage, where users could search CAMEO and licensed content. After nine months, University Libraries is now seeking your feedback and comments to help improve single-search for everyone. Take the survey at http://search.library.cmu.edu and win a chance for a free Kindle Fire.

Tartans Host Fun Field Day for Kids, Sunday, April 14

Carnegie Mellon’s Athletic Department will host its third annual Field Day from 12 to 3 p.m., Sunday, April 14 in Skibo Gym and Gesling Stadium. Children between the ages of 6 and 12 are invited to come, participate and have fun doing football, soccer, basketball and track drills with CMU student-athletes. T-shirts and lunch will be provided. You must register by March 29 to receive a T-shirt. For more details and to register, contact Liam McGrath at 610-389-1534 or liamhmcgrath@gmail.com.

McGinnis Venture Competition Spotlights Student Innovation

More than 100 student innovators and entrepreneurs from across the university made their most compelling new product and service pitches while competing for $60,000 in cash prizes at the 2013 McGinnis Venture Competition in late March. The program, which began in 2004 as an international competition, was relaunched this year with a new three-round, five-month format focusing exclusively on CMU students.

Three teams receiving top honors and sharing $60,000 in investment were:

  • Playpower Labs is a new company combining game design and learning science. Its first commercial product, Fraction Planet, is a game-based supplemental curriculum for fractions instruction that provides comprehensive coverage of the new nationwide Common Core State Standards.
  • SolePower is an energy harvesting startup dedicated to developing mobile and renewable power sources that capture wasted energy from human motion and convert it into usable electrical energy. SolePower’s first product is a power-generating shoe insert that charges small, portable electronics.                                                                                                     
  • Lumator is an intelligent, automated services company aimed at helping residential electricity consumers save money, time and resources by optimizing how to buy and use electricity. Lumator’s service uses machine-learning technology to offer personalized solutions to consumer energy choices.

Read more at http://www.tepper.cmu.edu/news-multimedia/news/news-detail/index.aspx?nid=586

Dietrich College Seeks Student Volunteers To Organize Colloquium

Dietrich College (DC) is looking for student volunteers to serve on an organizing committee for an undergraduate colloquium for DC majors and minors this Nov. 1-2. The colloquium has been conceived as a student-centered event in which undergraduates would present completed research or research in progress from courses, SURG/SURF research, experiences from alternative break projects and creative works.

Student volunteers, with the help of DC faculty mentors, would be responsible, for various components of the colloquium, including website development and/or a Facebook page for publicity, advertising, proposal guidelines, reading abstracts and making presentation selections, printing badges, ordering food, reserving space and providing technology support.

Interested students (and faculty mentors) should plan to attend an information (no commitment!) meeting at 5:30 p.m., Wednesday April 10 in Porter Hall A18A. If you are interested but cannot attend the meeting, contact Catharine Youngs (cqy@andrew), Meredith Crenshaw (mmc @andrew), Christa Orvik (corvik@andrew), or faculty mentors Bonnie Youngs (byoungs@cmu.edu) or Adam van Compernolle (vancomp@andrew).

Road Closures for Scott Hall Construction

There will be multiple road closures in the coming weeks related to the Scott Hall construction.

  • Roberts Road will be closed through April 6 from the FMS pedestrian bridge to the top of the drive near Scaife Hall. 
  • FMS Drive, the section of Roberts Road from the CIC to FMS, will be closed April 8-10 from 6:30 a.m. – 5 p.m.
  • Roberts Road will be closed April 29 through the duration of the Scott Hall project (October 2015) from the FMS pedestrian bridge to the top of the drive near Scaife Hall. 
  • Access to Roberts Hall loading dock will be maintained; deliveries will be coordinated. 
  • During these closures there will be no pedestrian traffic, thru traffic or parking at specified locations.

Please see the links below for detour routes.

FMS Drive Detour Route: View Map
 
Hamerschlag Drive Detours
Route 1 View Map
Route 2 View Map