Carnegie Mellon University

The Piper

CMU Community News

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June 12, 2014

News Briefs

Andy Awards LogoAndy Award Nominations Now Being Accepted

The nomination period for the 2014 Andy Awards is now underway through July 9. 

The Andy Awards, named for Andrew Carnegie and Andrew Mellon, are a tribute to the spirit of teamwork and dedication embodied by the staff at Carnegie Mellon. Individual staff members and teams of colleagues whose work has had a significant impact on the university are recognized for their outstanding performance and commitment to excellence through the Andy Awards program.

Awards are given in six categories: Commitment to Students, Community Contributions, Culture, Dedication, Innovation and University Citizenship.

For more information on the awards and the nomination process, visit the awards website.

Last Call for Kennywood Tickets

Tomorrow (Friday, June 13) is your last chance to buy tickets to Carnegie Mellon’s Employee Picnic at Kennywood Park this Saturday, June 14. Tickets will be on sale from 11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. in the Jared L. Cohon University Center.  

Employees can purchase one ticket for $10 with their CMU ID (valid on the June 14 picnic day only), up to four additional tickets for $17 each, and up to five more tickets for $22 each. Please note, the $10 and $17 ticket is available to Carnegie Mellon employees only. All individuals with a sponsored ID can purchase the $22 funday tickets. Sandcastle ($22) and Idlewild ($25.99) tickets also will be available.

Kennywood Park's Pavilion 14 will be reserved all day for CMU employees and their families on the day of the picnic. A prize giveaway for children 10 years of age and younger will be held at 4 p.m. followed by an adult raffle at 4:15 p.m. You must present your CMU ID to claim a prize. Ice cream will be given away to everyone beginning at 4 p.m.

If you have any questions, please contact Staff Council’s Sharon Cavlovich at sharonw@cmu.edu or Nicole Stenger at nstenger@cs.cmu.edu.

Learn To Swim, Stroke Improvement Lessons Begin Friday

Adult learn to swim lessons and stroke improvement instruction begins tomorrow, Friday, June 13 in the Cohon University Center pool.

Learn to swim lessons will be held from 6:30 - 7 a.m., June 13, 20 and 27. Week 1 will be devoted to bobbing, floating, gliding and kicking. Week 2 will be devoted to backstroke, freestyle arms and breathing. Week 3 will focus on elementary backstroke and breaststroke.

Stroke improvement sessions will be held from 7 - 7:30 a.m., June 13, 20 and 27. Week 1 will focus on freestyle, week 2 on backstroke, week 3 on elementary backstroke and breaststroke.

The cost of each group of lessons is $45. For more information and to register, contact Pattye Stragar at 412-268-1235 or pls@andrew.cmu.edu.

Chemical Engineering Hosts Conference and Workshop

The Pittsburgh-Cleveland Catalysis Society (PCCS) Annual Conference, sponsored by Micromeritics and the North American Catalysis Society, was hosted by Carnegie Mellon's Chemical Engineering Department earlier this month. The meeting had its largest turnout in several years with over 60 people attending from six different universities. Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering John Kitchin is president of the PCCS.

Invited speakers were Paul Barger from Universal Oil Products LLC, John Keith and Yanni Mpourmpakis from the University of Pittsburgh and Chunshan Song from Penn State University. Students also presented their work with oral presentations and a poster session. Natalie Austin from the University of Pittsburgh won the award for best poster and Gamze Gumuslu, a chemical engineering graduate student from CMU, and Ian McCrum from Penn State won awards for the best talks.
 
Chemical Eng Wkshp*** 

Carnegie Mellon also hosted 124 attendees for the Mixed-Integer Nonlinear Programming Workshop last week. The meeting was sponsored by the Mathematical Optimization Society and held in cooperation with the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) and the SIAM Activity Group on Optimization. Carnegie Mellon’s SIAM representative is Chemical Engineering Professor Nick SahinidisLearn more about the workshop.

Pictured at right during the workshop are (l-r) CMU Professor Nick Sahinidis, Dimitri Varvarezos of Aspen Technology and CMU's Ignacio Grossmann, the Rudolph R. and Florence Dean University Professor of Chemical Engineering.

Senior Citizens Needed for Dalcroze Eurhythmics Classes

Annabelle Joseph, director of the School of Music Dalcroze Training Center, is recruiting 15 active senior citizens to participate in classes in Dalcroze Eurhythmics, a method that engages brain and body in response to music.

Physical, mental, social and emotional well-being are essential as we age. All four are integrated in the fun-filled Dalcroze Eurhythmics classes as participants experience the joy of music.

Classes will be held from 3 – 4:30 p.m., July 1, 2, 8, and 9 in Margaret Morrison 119. For more information and to register contact Joseph at aj12@andrew.cmu.edu.

EH&S To Conduct Building Evacuations July 3

To comply with the City of Pittsburgh’s All Hazards Plan, Environmental Health & Safety (EH&S) will conduct building evacuations of four of CMU’s high-rise buildings on Thursday, July 3. The buildings and evacuation schedule is as follows:

•    Mellon Institute, 9 a.m.;
•    Gates/Hillman centers, 10 a.m.;
•    Wean Hall, 11 a.m.;
•    Hamerschalg Hall, 1 p.m.

An evacuation announcement will be made over the building’s public address system, followed by the sounding of the fire alarm. Once the fire alarm sounds, occupants should quickly leave the building via the nearest exit and assemble in the building’s designated assembly area, which can be found at http://www.cmu.edu/ehs/emergency-response/emergency-procedures/index.html.

Failure to leave a building when the fire alarm sounds is a violation of a City of Pittsburgh ordinance and can result in a fine and court appearance.

Questions about the evacuations should be directed to Richard Caruso at 412-951-3089 or rmcaruso@andrew.cmu.edu.

Street Parking Rates Around Campus Reduced

The parking study being conducted by Tepper School of Business professors Stephen Spear and Mark Fichman has reduced street parking rates on Tech Street, Schenley Drive, Margaret Morrison Street and Frew Street.

Tech has been lowered from $2 to $1.75 per hour; Schenley Drive has been lowered from $1.25 to 75 cents per hour; Margaret Morrison has been reduced from $1.25 per hour to $1; and Frew has been lowered from $1.75 to $1.50 per hour. The 5000 block of Frew Street adjacent to Skibo Gym is $1.25 per hour.

The rates will be in effect at least until the end of June. The study seeks to let the marketplace identify hourly rates at which parking spaces are more than three-quarters full during regular business periods. This establishes a reasonable level for usage and revenue while allowing for some parking availability throughout the business day.


Staff Council Offers Tickets to Hershey Park

Staff Council is offering discount tickets to Hershey Park this summer. Purchase your tickets via http://tinyurl.com/cmu2014 using promo code 85214. If you purchase tickets before July 6, you will receive an extra savings on the regular 1-day pass and tickets can be used ALL summer long.

Purchases made before July 6

  • Regular 1-day pass (ages 9-54) - $39.95
  • Regular 1-day pass (ages 9-54) - $46.95 (rate for purchases beginning July 7)
  • Jr/Sr 1-day pass (ages 3-8; 55-69) - $34.95
  • Senior+ 1-day pass (ages 70+) - $22.95
  • Regular 2-day pass (ages 9-54) - $78.20
  • Jr/Sr 2-day pass (ages 3-8; 55-69) - $57.50

The gate rate for regular passes is $60.80 and the Jr./Sr. rate is $38.30. Each ticket is subject to a $.75 processing fee. If you have any questions, please contact Sharon Cavlovich at sharonw@cmu.edu or Nicole Stenger at nstenger@cs.cmu.edu. For more information on Hershey Park, visit http://www.hersheypark.com/.

Cedar Point Tickets Available, Too

Staff Council also is offering discounted tickets to Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio. You can access the discounted ticket offers at http://www.CedarPoint.com/affiliates. The user name is CARNEGIEMU and the password is cmu2014. The user name and password are case sensitive.

Ticket prices are:

  • Ride & Refresh: $49.99 (not available at the gate)
  • Cedar Point: $45 ($14.99 off the gate price)
  • Soak City: $28 ($5 off the gate price)
  • Ride & Slide: $79.99 ($8 off the gate price)

If you have any questions, please contact Sharon Cavlovich at sharonw@cmu.edu or Nicole Stenger at nstenger@cs.cmu.edu.

CMU Day at PNC Park, July 6

Carnegie Mellon Day at PNC Park will be Sunday, July 6, when the Pirates take on the Philadelphia Phillies at 1:35 p.m.

Sixty-five tickets in Section 305 are available for $18 each. Before the game, join fellow CMU community members at the #1 Cochran Family Fun Zone on Federal Street from 11 a.m.- 1 p.m. CMU Pre-College students will be singing the national anthem.

Sundays are Kids Days and on this day children 14 years of age and younger will receive an Andrew McCutchen poster. Kids also get a chance to run the bases following the game, weather permitting.

For tickets, contact Pattye Stragar at pls@andrew.cmu.edu.

Be a Middle School Mentor

Join the biggest mentoring project in the region’s history and learn more about how you can provide a one-on-one relationship to an at-risk child through the Be a Middle School Mentor Program (facilitated through a partnership with the United Way of Allegheny County). 

To showcase this important work, Communities in Schools is hosting a Volunteer Recruitment Event from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. today (Thursday, June 12) at the Rivers Club, 301 Grant Street, downtown. 
 
A recent report commissioned by the National Mentoring Partnership with support from AT&T found these insights to be true about at-risk youth with mentors:

  • Youth with mentors are more likely to report positive behaviors and less likely to report negative ones;
  • At-risk young adults who had a mentor are more likely to aspire to enroll in and graduate from college than those who did not have a mentor (76 percent vs. 56 percent);
  • At-risk young adults who had a mentor are more likely to be enrolled in college than those who did not have a mentor (45 percent vs. 29 percent);
  • At-risk young adults who had a mentor are more likely to volunteer regularly in their communities than those who did not have a mentor (48 percent vs. 27 percent).

Share your time, interests and work experiences with local kids to empower them to stay in school and achieve great things. RSVP  for the Volunteer Recruitment Event by calling 412-805-9821 or sending email to csickles@cispac.org.

If you have any questions, contact Gloria Gruber at 412-268-9685 or ggruber@andrew.cmu.edu.

Cyert Center Has Openings for 2014-2015

The Cyert Center for Early Education has openings for 2014-2015 for children who will be 4 years old by the end of September through kindergarten age. The new program year begins Aug. 18, 2014, and ends Aug. 7, 2015. Email ccee-info@andrew.cmu.edu or call 412-268-2149 for details.

Call for Library Excellence Award Nominees

The Library Awards Committee is accepting nominations from the CMU community for its Library Excellence Awards. The deadline for nominations is June 20.

The annual awards program recognizes library employees for excellence in any of five areas: Citizenship, Customer Satisfaction, Innovation, Outreach and Productivity. The Transformation Award recognizes library employees for activities that have dramatically changed thought or action within the libraries. Learn more about the program and nomination process.