Personal Mention

Devan Shimoyama, an assistant professor of art, is the winner of the 2016 Miami Beach PULSE Prize at PULSE Miami Beach. PULSE Miami Beach is an annual contemporary art fair that is recognized for providing the international community of emerging and established art galleries with a dynamic platform for connecting with a global audience. Shimoyama’s work was the subject of a solo presentation at the booth of Los Angeles’s Samuel Freeman Gallery, a first time exhibitor at the fair. The artist transformed the booth, painting the walls black and decorating them with glittery black banana leaves, attempting to draw a connection between Shimoyama’s brightly-colored self portraits and nature. The installation was completed by bedazzled white swings that hang from the ceiling. Learn more about Shimoyama.

A one-act opera co-written by Computer Science Professor Roger Dannenberg will make its world premiere tomorrow, Dec. 16, in Valencia, Spain. La Mare dels Peixos (Mother Fish), based on an old Valencian folk tale about how a magical fish changes a family’s fortunes, includes computer and electronic elements. Dannenberg, whose research focuses on computer music, hopes to arrange a performance in Pittsburgh. Dannenberg’s co-author was Jorge Sastre, a professor at the Polytechnic University of Valencia and former visiting researcher at CMU.

Howie Choset, professor of robotics, and Manuela Veloso, head of the Machine Learning Department, are two of eight founding editorial board members of Science Robotics, the latest member of the Science family of journals. The journal’s inaugural issue, published on Dec. 6, included an article on bio-inspired robots written by Matt Travers, systems scientist in the Robotics Institute, and Choset. Science Robotics will promote the communication of fundamental research, general principles, original developments, and new applications of robotics.

Franco Sciannameo, senior associate dean of the College of Fine Arts and a teaching professor of music, has been appointed editor of “Cultural Expressions in Music,” a print series published by Routledge for The College Music Society. Born in Italy, Sciannameo, a violinist, musicologist and cultural historian, is not new to the publishing world. He has directed, edited and published periodicals, music collections, and pedagogical and scholarly books. He studied in Rome at the Conservatorio di Musica “Santa Cecilia” and later at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. He is a visiting professor of applied musicology in the School of Music at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom.

CMU bioethicist Alex John London has been appointed to the Advisory Committee on Blood and Tissue Safety and Availability. As part of the committee, London, professor of philosophy and director of the Center for Ethics and Policy, will advise, consult and make policy recommendations related to the safety of blood, blood products, organs and tissues. London’s work focuses on foundational ethical issues in human-subjects research, issues of social justice in international contexts and methodology issues in theoretical and applied ethics. Read more.

Rob Kass gave a keynote address at the third annual BRAIN Initiative Investigators Meeting workshop on challenges and opportunities in large-scale neural data science. His talk focused on the problem of analyzing neural activity across large networks that evolve while the brain performs different behaviors. Kass is the Maurice Falk Professor of Statistics and Computational Neuroscience, co-director of the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition and a member of BrianHub’s executive committee. He also has an appointment in the Machine Learning Department. Learn more about the BRAIN Initiative.

Alumnus Bart Astor, a 1969 graduate of the Dietrich College, has authored his 14th book. "Graduate from College Debt-Free: Get Your Degree With Money in the Bank!" is a comprehensive guide to saving for college, scholarships and financial assistance. Astor’s last book, “AARP Roadmap for the Rest of Your Life” was on The Washington Post bestseller list and was number on in Amazon’s Retirement category for six weeks. An expert in college financing, Astor has appeared on ABC’s “Good Morning America” and PBS’s “Marketplace.”