Personal Mention

Entertainment Technology Center Distinguished Professor of the Practice Jesse Schell was named to the inaugural class of the Higher Education Video Game Alliance (HEVGA) Fellows program. Established earlier this year, the HEVGA Fellows program recognizes senior scholars in the games domain who have made significant contributions to the field in design, theory or research. HEVGA Fellows are elected by their peers for outstanding contributions to games-based research and design in higher education. Fellows serve as integral ambassadors for the organization and are inducted as lifetime members.

Three CMU seniors were honored as George Washington Prize winners at the Engineering Society of Western Pennsylvania (ESWP) Engineers’ Week Banquet. Maya Holay, (far left) a chemical engineering and biomedical engineering major, was chosen as the first-place winner of the 2017 prize. Margaret Smith, (center) a mechanical engineering and biomedical engineering major, and Stephanie Tian, a civil and environmental engineering major, were selected as finalists. The George Washington Prize, named in honor of the first president of the United States, was created to encourage continued excellence in engineering education and includes both a fellowship and cash award.

Distinguished Computer Science Professor Lenore Blum was a panelist for a presentation hosted by the Congressional Inventions Caucus on Wednesday (March 22) in Washington, D.C., in the Dirksen Senate Building, titled “Mothers of Invention: Celebrating Women Innovators.” Blum spoke about Project Olympus and Women@SCS and the roles they play in increasing the participation of women in computer science and entrepreneurship. Blum is founding director of Project Olympus, an incubator for CMU startups, and founder of Women@SCS, an organization that creates, encourages and supports academic, social and professional opportunities for women in computer science. Blum is faculty co-director of the Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship. Joining Blum on the panel were patent attorney Antoinette Tease; Megan Bettilyon, senior manager of research and policy for Intellectual Ventures; and Karen Burg, a AAAS-Lemelson Foundation Invention Ambassador at the University of Georgia whose breast cancer research resulted in inventions that became a startup.

Kiron Skinner, director of the Institute for Politics and Strategy in the Dietrich College, wrote an opinion piece for the Hoover Institution on "Moving Forward: The Need For Innovations In Technology And Strategy.” In it, Skinner concludes that "politics, economics, religion, culture, personal ambition, and avarice are enduring causes of war. As a tool of war rather than one of its causes, technological innovation will have to be paired with the innovation of ideas, strategy, and doctrine. These latter factors have more to do with enhancing credible deterrence, peace, and stability than rapidly-changing exotic technologies.” Skinner is also a fellow of the Hoover Institution. Read the piece.