Carnegie Mellon University

The Piper

CMU Community News

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March 13, 2014

News Briefs

Parking Changes To Be Discussed

Brian Burnett of Parking and Transportation Services will update staff on the university’s future plans for parking at the Staff Council general body meeting from noon - 1 p.m., Thursday, March 20 in Cyert Hall B6A and B6B. Burnett will speak about the upcoming changes when construction begins for the University Center expansion and Tepper Quadrangle. You do not need to be a member of Staff Council to attend. For directions to the meeting, go to http://www.cmu.edu/staff-council/meetings/maps-and-directions/index.html.

EQT Fund To Support ProSEED

The EQT Foundation, the charitable arm of the EQT Corporation, has announced a $1 million gift over a five-year period to support innovative ideas through the newly announced ProSEED seed-funding grant program at Carnegie Mellon.

The EQT Foundation’s gift will sponsor university-wide seed grants through ProSEED for basic research, technology development, computational modeling and simulation, and energy policy in a number of closely interconnected theme areas that encompass energy exploration, extraction and use, the environment, water and related topics, particularly those dealing with natural gas.

"This inaugural gift from the EQT Foundation to support seed funding through ProSEED will enable our innovative faculty and students to develop new approaches that address important technological and societal issues," said CMU President Subra Suresh.

ProSEED will select projects through a peer-review process available to the entire campus community, and it will engage relevant on-campus centers and activities in the selection of the grants.

Read more about ProSEED at http://www.cmu.edu/proseed/.

Presenters, Volunteers Needed for Take Our Daughters and Sons To Work Day

Staff Council’s Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work committee is looking for activity leaders/presenters and general volunteers to contribute their time and enthusiasm to this year’s Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day event on Thursday, April 24. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the national Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work program, and the theme is “Plant a Seed, Grow a Future.”

Faculty and staff are encouraged to bring their children between the ages of 8 and 15 to campus to give them a glimpse of the wide range of career and learning opportunities that exist at CMU. After a group lunch program, the children can attend two activity sessions for which they have pre-registered. The Staff Council committee is looking for individuals on campus who would like to create and lead an activity or presentation for one or two sessions in the afternoon. The commitment of presenting a program has been streamlined in order to minimize the impact to your regular academic schedule.

Each session will run roughly 45 minutes. If you volunteer for both sessions, your total commitment will be from approximately 12:40 – 3:20 p.m., including set-up and tear down. Depending on the nature of your activity/presentation, you will have either a smaller group of children (15 maximum) or a larger group (30 maximum).

If you are interested in leading an activity or presentation, please go to https://cmuprecollege.wufoo.com/forms/todastw-presenter-registration-form-cmu/. For more information about presenters, please contact M. Shernell Smith at mssmith@andrew.cmu.edu or 412-268-2075. 

If you would like to volunteer as a general assistant to serve as a chaperone, lunch server or monitor at the end of the day (3 -4 p.m.) for the parental pick-up in Weigand Gym, please contact Gloria Gruber at ggruber@andrew.cmu.edu or 412-268-9685.

If you are interested in either leading an activity or volunteering generally, please express your interest by March 24.

Data Supercell: Storage Available for CMU Users

CMU users with data storage needs have a local resource available to them at a very economical price — the Data Supercell at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC), a department in CMU’s Mellon College of Science.

The Data Supercell is a Petabyte-scale, disk-based storage system that facilitates rapid data transfer and also incorporates high reliability and security features for optimized data replication, safety and movement. This unusual combination of capacity, speed and security allows the system to serve roles ranging from long-term storage for funding-agency-mandated data management plans to dynamic storage of large research databases for memory-intensive Big Data computing. Data Supercell is competitively priced at $250/TB/year (minimum 1TB), and is a local Carnegie Mellon resource.
 
Various departments at CMU, the University of Pittsburgh and elsewhere are already using the Data Supercell.  For more information about the Data Supercell and its advantages over conventional archival systems, visit http://www.psc.edu/index.php/projects/data-supercell.  To discuss whether the Data Supercell could meet your data storage needs, you can either send mail to datasupercell@psc.edu or click on the information form on the right side of the page to complete a request form.

@CMU_FMSAnnounce Tweets Campus Advisories

Follow @CMU_FMSAnnounce on Twitter to get up-to-the-minute information about shutdowns, outages, structural impediments and repairs happening at Carnegie Mellon's Pittsburgh campus.  Tweets are sent by CMU_FMSAnnounce every time FMS issues an advisory notice.  Each tweet gives a brief description and a link to the full notice on the FMS website. If you prefer to see full notices in your email, see the instructions on joining the email lists at http://www.cmu.edu/fms.  Follow the link to FMS Shutdown Notices.

Schedule of Classes Has New Look and Features

The Schedule of Classes (SOC) has an updated appearance and new features thanks to the Student Services Suite (S3) team and University Registrar’s Office. The new look was part of the latest S3 release on March 10.

The SOC is viewable to the public since it does not have a connection to Student Information Online or registration. Public access allows those outside the university to learn about Carnegie Mellon academics and the variety of courses offered. The only section of SOC the public cannot access is the complete schedule section, as it requires a login by Andrew account holders.

In addition to the modern-looking portal, users will notice that all search items have been combined into one course search page. This will allow users to select more than five departments at a time or search all departments at once, as well as search a specific teaching location (i.e. Rwanda), instructor, time or keyword.

A teaching location column and a column indicating mini-courses have been added to the SOC results page and users can also view when a course schedule was last updated. The new portal was created with ease of view in mind; cancelled sections are highlighted in red and course detail access links are blue.

The new banner at the top of SOC offers helpful, easy-to-find navigation to related websites — including a campus map, legend and textbook information. Users can report technical issues, provide general comments and ask questions within the updated feedback section.

The complete schedule feature allows Andrew account users to save or print a PDF or HTML version of the complete schedule of classes. The Excel format will no longer be accessible.

If you have questions or comments send email to university-registrars-office@andrew.cmu.edu.

Engineering Students Get Real World Experience

Fourteen Carnegie Mellon engineering students are networking with industry leaders and getting valuable job advice this week (March 12-14) in the annual Real World Engineering (RWE) Program in Washington, D.C. In the program sponsored by CMU's College of Engineering, students shadow engineering professionals, attend a networking reception with alumni and D.C. industry professionals, and tour Lockheed Martin's Energy Solutions Center and Space Experience Center.

"This is a wonderful opportunity for our students to see firsthand what the job market has to offer and to get valuable tips from industry leaders," said Treci Bonime, director for undergraduate studies at CMU's College of Engineering. "It is important to keep students interested in engineering due to the increasing need for these skilled workers."

The 2014 CMU RWE participants are Jonathan Dyer, Thomas Murray, Shahana Ganesharajah, Veronica Jaime-Lara, Divya Kothandapani, Roslyn Lee, John McDonald, Edward Cao, Grant Langevin, Nicholas Tan, Wing Tung Wong, Grace Yee, Lyinoluwa Akinlabi-Oladimeji and Jaime Chu.

Read more.

Alice 3 Software Now in Arabic

Carnegie Mellon's popular educational software tool, Alice 3, is now available in Arabic thanks to a four-month translation project that involved university students across Jordan working with CMU and the Oracle Academy.

"Alice has been running successfully in all countries in the Middle East for many years, but we were conscious that we could reach more students if the program were in a language with which they were more familiar," said Jane Richardson, EMEA Director of the Oracle Academy. "We were delighted when Carnegie Mellon University — the creators of Alice — gave us an opportunity to approach universities in the country to enlist the help of student volunteers to drive the translation process."

Learn more.

Tartans Offer Swimming Lessons for Kids

Carnegie Mellon’s swimming team is offering one-on-one swimming lessons for children ages 3 and up every Tuesday and Thursday in April in the CMU pool.  Lesson times are 4:30 – 5, 5 – 5:30, 5:30 – 6 and 6 – 6:30 p.m. The cost is $20 for one session, $70 for four lessons, $100 for six and $140 for all eight half-hour sessions.

For more information and to register, contact Kellie Ayres at klayres@andrew.cmu.edu or 412-268-6082.

Free Fridays at Warhol Museum

The Andy Warhol Museum and UPMC Health Plan present free Fridays for the month of March. The museum is free and open to the public every Friday from 5 – 10 p.m. The events also feature a cash bar in The Warhol’s newly renovated entrance space, and DJ Shawn Watson specializing in an all-vinyl set of funk, punk, reggae and rock. For more information, visit http://www.warhol.org or call 412-237-8351.

Buggy Practices Continue

Buggy practice sessions will continue every weekend through April 5-6. Tech Street, Frew Street and Schenley Drive will be closed to traffic and parking from 5 - 9 a.m. on the following dates:

  • March: 15, 16, 22, 23, 29, 30; and
  • April:  5, 6

This year's 100th anniversary of Spring Carnival is April 10-12. Learn more about Spring Carnival.

Student Employee Appreciation Lunch Registration Deadline is March 28

Registration is now open for the Student Employee Appreciation Lunch from 12 – 1:30 p.m., April 2 in the  University Center’s Rangos Hall. Campus supervisors can host their student employees, and join them for lunch to celebrate the great work they do. Entertainment will be provided by musical theater students in the School of Drama. Registration deadline is March 28. Register at http://www.cmu.edu/career/student-employment-experiential/.

Responsible Conduct of Research Seminars Continue

The Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) Seminar Series continues. Upcoming sessions are scheduled from 12 – 1 p.m. in the University Center. Dates and topics are:

  • Tuesday, March 18: Who Owns the Data?
  • Wednesday, March 26: Data Security
  • Tuesday, April 8: International Research Considerations: Foreign Travel and Foreign Collaborators
  • Tuesday, April 15: Ethical Issues with Research Involving Human Subjects
  • Tuesday, April 22: Research Data Management

More information is available on the RCR website. Space is limited, so please register early.