Carnegie Mellon University

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CMU Community News

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January 24, 2013

News Briefs

Global Communication Center To Celebrate Grand Opening

Provost and Executive Vice President Mark Kamlet is hosting a grand opening of the Global Communication Center (GCC) from 5 to 7 p.m., Wednesday, Jan. 30 on the ground floor of Hunt Library. The Global Communication Center is a new resource supporting CMU students’ written, oral and visual communication skills. Attend the opening to learn more about the Global Communication Center’s mission and services for students and faculty. Members of the GCC Advisory Board also will be introduced at the event. Refreshments will be served.

Hunt Library Exhibit Documents City of Asylum Writer

A new exhibit at the Hunt Library documents one of the city's most prestigious nonprofit organizations. The exhibition of photographs, created by documentary photographer and library staff member Andy Prisbylla, "Writer-in-Exile: Israel Centeno & City of Asylum Pittsburgh" examines the City of Asylum Pittsburgh and its current writer-in-residence Venezuelan author Israel Centeno through words and pictures. The exhibit will be on display Feb. 1-March 10, fourth floor, Hunt Library.

First Textbook on Quality of Life Technologies Released

The Quality of Life Technology (QoLT) Center has published the first textbook on QoLT. Now available from CRC Press, "The Quality of Life Technology Handbook" is a comprehensive resource on the process of developing, testing, and commercializing advanced technologies that improve the quality of life and functioning of older persons, persons with disability, and ultimately, everyone.
 
The book describes the QoLT Center's key learnings from its interdisciplinary team approach to the process of technology development, and discusses the state of the art and future directions of technologies that improve people's everyday lives. The work also provides direction on how to identify user needs and preferences, engage end-users in the design and development process, and evaluate and commercialize the technologies.
 
Contributors include award-winning faculty, researchers and staff of the Quality of Life Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh. CMU-based authors include: QoLT Center Director Daniel P. Siewiorek; Anind Dey; Takeo Kanade; Martial Hebert; Reid Simmons; Siddhartha Srinivasa; Asim Smailagic; and James F. Jordan. The book is edited by Rich Schulz, professor of psychiatry, director of the University Center for Social and Urban Research, director of Gerontology, and associate director of the Institute on Aging at the University of Pittsburgh.
 
The book release marks the third in a series of milestone publications for the QoLT Center.  In August, the "Proceedings of the IEEE" released a "Special Issue on Quality of Life Technology" edited by Takeo Kanade, and in September, Dan Siewiorek’s article on virtual coaches, "Generation Smartphone," appeared as the cover story of "IEEE Spectrum."

CMU Joins HathiTrust

Carnegie Mellon has joined HathiTrust, a partnership whose goal is to build a comprehensive digital archive of published literature from around the world. Members have access to more than 10,600,000 works that have been digitized by Google, the Internet Archive and Microsoft, or by partners’ individual initiatives. Full-text search features allow users to mine content and create customized collections while remaining compliant with U.S. copyright law.

HathiTrust began in 2008 as a collaboration of 13 universities to establish a repository for archiving and sharing library collections that were digitized as part of the initial Google Book project. Today, more than 60 research libraries worldwide have committed to long-term availability of the cultural record.

HathiTrust was named for the Hindi word for elephant, hathi, symbolic of the qualities of memory, wisdom, and strength evoked by elephants, as well as the huge undertaking of congregating the digital collections of libraries in the United States and beyond.

Student Affairs Coordinates Book Drive in Memory of Sandy Hook Shooting Victims

The Office of the Dean of Student Affairs is coordinating a book drive through the We Can Read project in memory of the students and faculty who died in the December shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. Donations from CMU will benefit the library at Pittsburgh Public Schools’ Arsenal PreK-5 in Lawrenceville. The school’s librarian has created an Amazon Wish List of more than 300 books, and the drive will run until all of the books are purchased. Books purchased through the Wish List will be directly shipped to the school. Those interested in purchasing books from the Wish List at a different retailer are asked to click “Buying this gift elsewhere?” to mark the book(s) as purchased and drop them off at 301 Warner Hall. For more information, contact Joanna Dickert at joannad@andrew.cmu.edu or 412-268-2075.

Graduate Student Service and Teaching Award Nominations Due Feb. 8

The Graduate Student Service and Teaching Award nominations are due on Friday, Feb. 8. The committees would greatly appreciate your support in soliciting and submitting nominations of graduate students who have excelled in teaching or service so that their efforts can be recognized by the university community. Nomination information can be found at http://www.cmu.edu/celebration-of-education/graduate-student/index.html. The Awards will be presented on Thursday, April 4, at the Innovation with Impact: Graduate Student Celebration of Research, Teaching and Service during Graduate Student Appreciation Week. Recipients also will be recognized at the Celebration of Education on Tuesday, April 30.

Student Employee of the Year Nominations Due Feb. 20

Nominations are now being accepted for the Student Employee of the Year Award sponsored by the Northeast Association of Student Employment Administrators and the National Student Employment Association. This award program recognizes the outstanding contributions of college students who work while attending college.  All student employees, undergraduate and graduate, are eligible for nomination. Application deadline is Feb. 20. The nomination process and nomination form are available online at:  www.cmu.edu/career/student-employment-experiential/index.html. For questions, contact Pati Kravetz at pk13@andrew.cmu.edu.