Carnegie Mellon University

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CMU Community News

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March 19, 2015

News Briefs

George Takei, Azar Nafisi Headline Pittsburgh Humanities Festival

Azar NafisiGeorge TakeiTickets are now on sale for the Pittsburgh Humanities Festival, a joint effort between CMU's Humanities Center and the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. The festival, “Smart Talk About Stuff That Matters,” runs March 26-29 and features internationally renowned academics, artists and intellectual innovators talking about topics ranging from art, literature and music to science, policy and politics.

Headlining the event are actor and social justice activist George Takei (left), the most influential person on Facebook, and Azar Nafisi (right), author of the bestseller "Reading Lolita in Tehran." CMU presenters will include Chris Warren, Kiron Skinner, and Tim Haggerty and Harrison Apple.

Festival passes are on sale for $20, $10 for students. Learn more

Qatar Campus Welcomes Honors String Quartet

String QuartetThe Carnegie Mellon Honors String Quartet visited Doha last week, performing at Carnegie Mellon Qatar and the Education City Student Center. They were accompanied by Denis Colwell, head of the School of Music. The musicians also visited the Qatar Music Academy and several local schools.

Gregory Leet, a teacher at the American School of Doha, said the quartet’s presentation at the Lower Elementary School was “wonderfully appropriate and fun for the children.”

Dean Ilker Baybars hosted the quartet as part of an ongoing effort to bring CMU’s fine arts programs to the Qatar campus and wider community.

The quartet includes (l-r) Kurt Munstedt, violin; Greta Mutlu, violin; Tim Paek, cello; and Si Yu, viola.

ORCID @ CMU

ORCID logoFarnam Jahanian and Nathan Urban have launched a campaign urging CMU researchers, authors and other scholarly collaborators to register for an ORCID ID (identifier) and, when they have one, to link it to their Andrew ID in the campus identity management system. University Libraries has simplified the entire transaction with an app, https://orcid.library.cmu.edu/.

Why? Reputations and careers are built on enabling others to quickly and confidently identify you and your body of work. Funders, publishers, scholarly societies and associations, fellow researchers and potential collaborators need to be able to identify you and your work for many reasons, from benchmarking and record keeping, to discovery and access.

Why ORCID? ORCID plays well with others. It enables you to gather together works and data associated with other identity systems and institutions, including those maintained by funders and publishers. You maintain all key information in one place and control privacy settings, including what information is displayed publicly and what is shared with trusted partners.

Why now? At CMU, campus systems will strategically harvest ORCID IDs from the identity management system. For example, the Sponsored Programs and Research Compliance System will use the IDs to facilitate communication with research sponsors.

Learn more about identifiers in general and ORCID in particular. 

University Libraries Seeking Excellence Award Nominees

Nominations for University Libraries' Excellence Awards are invited through April 17. The award program recognizes library employees for exceptional performance in any of five areas: Citizenship, Customer Satisfaction, Innovation, Outreach or Productivity. The awards committee encourages faculty, staff and students to nominate exemplary library personnel so their efforts can be recognized by the university community. Award winners will be selected and announced in May.

For more information and to submit a nomination, go to http://tinyurl.com/lqd5ht7.

CMU-Q Hosts Case Competition

CMU-Q Case Competition winnersStudents from Qatar and Pittsburgh recently competed in CMU-Q’s Internal Case Competition, in which they were challenged to consider the business implications of tougher regulations on shisha (hookah) smoking in Qatar.

The winning team, Beta Consulting, comprised CMU-Q students (right, l-r) Tarek Alhariri, Sanjeet Sahni, Shashank Shetty and Munammad Suhaib, who received their awards from Dean Ilker Baybars. Second place went to Team Epsilon, comprising Saad Asim, Medina Ali, Sampriti Jain and Fazail Ahmad from CMU-Q and Annie Huang from the Pittsburgh campus.

Milton Cofield, executive director of the undergraduate Business Administration program at the Tepper School of Business, joined Qatar campus faculty and alumni as judges. Patrick McGinnis, director of the Qatar campus Business Administration program, organized the two-day competition.

ProSEED/Crosswalk Grant Proposals Due April 1

Students, faculty and staff are invited to submit proposals for the next round of ProSEED/Crosswalk seed funds; proposals are due April 1. This program aims to foster and promote new ideas that cross boundaries within and outside of CMU. Funds ranging from $500 - $2,500 may be requested to support the development of new initiatives in areas such as quality of campus life, service learning, student competitions, new course development, entrepreneurial activities and pilot projects.

Learn more about ProSEED. Email questions to proseed@andrew.cmu.edu.

SURG, SURF Proposal Deadline is March 25

The proposal deadline for summer and fall Small Undergraduate Research Grants and Fellowships is 5 p.m., Wednesday, March 25.

Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships (SURF) are open to ALL undergraduates interested in any form of research. The $3,500 awards are for eight to 10 weeks of full-time summer research on campus in any field of study. Students may work alone or in a group, but must apply for the fellowship as an individual — no group awards are available. There are special guidelines for Arts and Creative Humanities proposals.

Small Undergraduate Research Grants (SURG) are open to ALL undergraduates in any discipline. Grants are available — $500 for single entries and up to $1,000 for group entries — to cover such things as the costs of supplies and materials, time on laboratory equipment, or travel to another city for data.

Students should apply online at www.cmu.edu/uro/. It is strongly recommended that students review a draft of their proposal with Stephanie Wallach, director of the Undergraduate Research Office (sw4s@andrew.cmu.edu), or Jennifer Keating-Miller, assistant director of the Undergraduate Research Office (jkeating@andrew.cmu.edu), at least a week before the deadline.

Students also are encouraged to participate in the upcoming SURG/SURF application workshops:

  • Thursday, March 19: 4:30-5:30 p.m., University Center, Dowd Room;
  • Friday, March 20: 12–1 p.m., University Center, McKenna Room.


Gelfand Center Offers Summer Outreach Classes for K-8 Students

The Gelfand Center is presenting STEM-focused summer courses for K-8 students, designed by Carnegie Mellon faculty and staff. These weeklong workshops will be held in July.

Class titles are “Anatomy and Robotics,” “Green Engineering,” “Beginning Alice Programming,” “Science and Engineering Summer Sampler,” “Science of Everyday Stuff,” and “Robotics Programming and Designing.”

Advance registration for families affiliated with Carnegie Mellon can be found online.  

Summer Camps Offered at Carnegie Museums

Registration is now underway for summer camps at the Carnegie Museum of Art and Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Weeklong, half- and full-day camps accommodate children between the ages of 4 and 13. Additional programs are available for preschoolers and high schoolers. The Andy Warhol Museum will host camps at its North Shore location.

For more information and to register your child, go to http://artandnaturalhistory.org/camps/.

Seeking Presenters and Volunteers for 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 23.

The organizing committee is looking for individuals who would like to create and lead an activity or presentation for one or two sessions in the afternoon. 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 small group of children (15 maximum) or a larger group (30 maximum).

If you would like to lead a session, please register online. If you would like to be a general volunteer to help that day, please contact Gloria Gruber at ggruber@andrew.cmu.edu by Monday, March 23.

Register for Student Employee Appreciation Lunch

Registration is now open for the Student Employee Appreciation Lunch from noon - 1:30 p.m., April 8, at Rangos Hall in the Cohon University Center. Campus supervisors can host their student employees, and join them for lunch to celebrate the great work they do.

At the lunch, students nominated for the Carnegie Mellon Student Employee of the Year Award will be honored and Carnegie Mellon's representative for the National Student Employee of the Year honor will be announced. There also will be entertainment and a special guest speaker, Cassandra Osterman, who was Carnegie Mellon’s 2014 Student Employee of the Year.

Register online by April 3

Field Day for Kids is April 12

The CMU Student Athlete Advisory Council is hosting the 6th annual Field Day from noon – 3 p.m., Sunday, April 12. The event provides children between the ages of 6 and 12 with the opportunity to play sports with CMU varsity athletes.

Field Day provides a unique chance for CMU student athletes to mentor young children through the sports in which they specialize and participate in during the school year. Student athletes from each varsity sport will be volunteering their time to show area youth how much fun sports can be.

Participants will have the opportunity to race on the track, go through soccer drills and play small-sided games, run training drills for football, play volleyball, and work on shooting, dribbling and passing for basketball, all in a fun and relaxed environment.

For more information and a registration form, visit http://athletics.cmu.edu/athletics/saac/fieldday/index.

Posner Internship Applications Due April 7

The Posner Center Internship Program is searching for student applicants.

During the fall 2015 semester, the CMU student intern will research a topic of their choice using books and artifacts in the Posner Memorial Collection, and curate an exhibit that will be displayed in the Posner Center in spring 2016.

Watch former Posner interns reflect on their internship experiences in this video.

The application deadline is 11:59 p.m., Tuesday, April 7. Visit http://www.cmu.edu/posner-center/internship/ for internship details and an online application, or call 412-268-6622.  

Carnegie Bosch Institute Seeks Proposals

Carnegie Bosch Institute LogoThe Carnegie Bosch Institute is seeking research and seed grant proposals from CMU faculty.

The award program aims to identify and support cutting-edge research and outstanding Carnegie Mellon faculty in fields relevant to the CBI research agenda. Available grants include:

  • Mid-sized Project Grants: 1 - 2 Awards: $30,000 - $50,000; and
  • Small Project Grant or Seed Funding: Up to 5 Awards: $2,000 - $10,000.

The application deadline is April 15. Visit www.tepper.cmu.edu/CBIResearchAward for grant details, a proposal template and an online application, or call 412-268-7344.

AED/CPR Training Offered

The Environmental Health & Safety Department is offering two upcoming AED/CPR training classes for the university community. Those who have been certified more than two years ago also can attend to renew your certification. Classes are from 10 a.m. to noon in Rangos 2, Cohon University Center. Dates are March 24 and April 21.

Register for classes at https://cmu.bioraft.com/node/284547/sessions

Conduct of Research Seminar Series Underway

CMU's Office of Research Integrity and Compliance (ORIC) is sponsoring the Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) Seminar Series during the spring 2015 semester for faculty, students and staff. All sessions for the spring 2015 semester are from 12 – 1 p.m. in the CUC, except where noted**.  Upcoming session dates and topics are scheduled as follows:

  • Wednesday, March 25: Data Security;
  • Wednesday, April 1: Safeguarding Your Writing: Fair Use and Proper Attribution;
  • Wednesday, April 8: Intellectual Property at CMU, 1 – 3 p.m.; and
  • Wednesday, April 22: Human Subject Research Best Practices.
  • Friday, May 1: Export Control Topics and Fundamental Research, 1 – 3 p.m., presented by Kevin King of Cooley, LLP

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