ACS Insider - Fall 2025
Building on a Legacy
This fall marks the beginning of CMU’s 125th anniversary year, and I couldn’t be more excited to celebrate with you. It’s a moment to reflect on CMU’s legacy of innovation, impact and achievement, and to look ahead to the future we’re shaping right now. As an ACS member, you’re a vital part of both. Your support is making a remarkable impact today and charting the course for tomorrow. Thank you.
We can’t talk about CMU’s legacy without recognizing the Tartans who built it. In this issue of ACS Insider, you’ll meet Megan Garvey and Eddie Sears, a married couple who met at CMU and helped build the Tartan Athletics legacy as members of the swim team. You’ll also get an inside look at the new Robotics Innovation Center (RIC) and learn about the ACS Board Challenge being planned for Giving CMU Day on Dec. 2.
Like Megan, Eddie and myself, every Tartan has a story. And new ones are being written every day. From the halls of Hamerschlag to the test labs at the RIC, CMU students, staff, faculty and alumni are shaping the future — right here, right now. ACS members like you play an important role in that future. Your support fuels the innovations and breakthroughs that will change the world as we know it over the next 125 years.
With gratitude,
Katherine Kohatsu (ENG 1997; TPR 2005)
President, Andrew Carnegie Society
Shaped by CMU
Andrew Carnegie Society members Megan Garvey and Eddie Sears hope to give Tartans the opportunity to have a transformative student experience — just like they did.
The alumni couple met as first-year students in 2010. They were both members of the swim team and had chosen CMU for the same reason.
A Look Inside the Robotics Innovation Center
Carnegie Mellon is widely recognized as a global leader in robotics research and education — and it has a new world-class facility to match.
The Robotics Innovation Center (RIC) at Hazelwood Green is a 150,000-square-foot facility that brings together fundamental and applied robotics research in a dynamic and adaptive environment. It includes a high bay and other open project spaces, workshops, a wet lab, a motion capture facility, a water tank for underwater robots, an outdoor drone cage and a 1.5 acre outdoor “running room” for robots, including an area for robot agriculture. Part of the building’s gallery is also dedicated to special exhibits from the archives of the University Libraries and CMU roboticists.
The RIC was designed to support integrated, translational research and provide space for CMU researchers to seamlessly field test robots and autonomous systems across indoor, outdoor, aquatic and virtual environments.
The building’s common spaces — namely the lobby, gallery, event space and planned cafe — will be open to the public, providing opportunities for the community to engage with CMU roboticists and learn about robotics and AI.
Faculty, students, projects and robots are beginning work in the space. The historical exhibits and “robot archive” will come next, and a formal building dedication is planned for February 2026.
Final stages of construction were underway when photos were taken.
The entry lobby of the RIC.
A seating area located to the left of the RIC lobby.
The open-layout wet lab.
The soaring, flexible high bay project space.
The water tank for underwater robots.
Historic volcano-exploring robot Dante will hang above the main entrance to the RIC.
Save the Date for Giving CMU Day
Tuesday, December 2
It’s a special year for CMU, so the ACS Board is giving you a special opportunity to amplify your impact on Giving CMU Day.
Visit givingcmuday.cmu.edu for details about the new ACS Board Challenge and help make this the most successful single day of giving in CMU’s 125-year history!