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September 03, 2015

Personal Mention

Priya NarasimhanElectrical and Computer Engineering Professor Priya Narasimhan spoke at the 2015 Connect Sports Marketplace, an annual sports tourism conference, last week in Pittsburgh. Narasimhan participated as a member of the U.S. Olympic Committee Panel, which discussed best practices for its National Governing Bodies. Narasimhan is the CEO and founder of YinzCam, Inc., a Carnegie Mellon spinoff mobile app company specializing in creating applications for professional sports teams and sport venues. Originally founded to monitor National Hockey League games, YinzCam quickly became popular among other professional sports leagues, including the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, the National Rugby League, the National Collegiate Athletic Association and the Canadian Football League. “It is extremely important that fans get instant visualization of the entire game, and can stay in touch with the real-time game action, anytime, anywhere. This technology gives fans access to player bios, a depth chart and real-time stats, player by player, drive by drive," Narasimhan said. Learn more about YinzCam.

Shelley AnnaShelley Anna, a professor of mechanical engineering and chemical engineering, recently received a three-year, $364,613 grant from the National Science Foundation for a project that will explore ways to optimize capsules, micrometer-sized liquid drops or bubbles covered in an elastic shell of nanometer-sized particles, for a wide range of therapeutic and commercial applications. Capsules are known for their unique mechanical properties. They can control the release of specific substances, making them particularly useful in a variety of products such as drug delivery formulations, waste water treatment, cosmetics, paints and inks. Learn more

Albert PrestoLaura KellyAssistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering Albert Presto (left) and new Social Media Manager Laura Kelly (right) are among seven people with CMU ties named to Pittsburgh Magazine’s 40 Under 40 list. The annual honor recognizes 40 people under the age of 40 “who are committed to shaping our region and making it a better place for everyone to live, work and play." Selected from a nomination pool of more than 240 candidates, winners were chosen based on their passion, commitment, visibility, diversity and overall impact on the region. In addition to Presto and Kelly, CMU’s honorees include Jordan Pallitto, adjunct teaching assistant at the Heinz College, and four alumni, Bibhoti Aryal (TPR, 06), Olivia Benson (HSS ’07), Ketaki Desai (HNZ ’13) and Justin Brett Kaufman (TPR ’04). The honorees will be formally recognized at a celebration on Oct. 30 at the Westin Hotel. Find out more

Ten faculty members have earned Google Research Awards for Summer 2015. The one-year awards are unrestricted gifts to universities to support the work of world-class full-time faculty members at top universities around the world. The grants cover tuition for a graduate student and provide both faculty and students the opportunity to work directly with Google researchers and engineers.

Recipients are:

  • Chris Dyer, assistant professor, Language Technologies Institute;
  • Willem-Jan Van Hoeve, associate professor of operations research, Tepper School;
  • Pulkit Grover, assistant professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering;
  • Laurie Heller, associate teaching professor, Psychology;
  • Bruno Sinopoli, associate professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering;
  • Norman Sadeh, professor, Human-Computer Interaction Institute;
  • Andy Pavlo, assistant professor, Computer Science;
  • Lorrie Cranor, professor, Institute for Software Research, CyLab, and Engineering and Public Policy;
  • Brandon Lucia, assistant professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering;
  • Kayvon Fatahalian, assistant professor, Computer Science.

Learn more

Obituary: Joseph F. Traub

Joseph TraubJoseph F. Traub, a pioneering computer scientist who led Carnegie Mellon's Computer Science Department (CSD) during a crucial period in its history, died unexpectedly Aug. 24 in Santa Fe, N.M. He was 83.

Traub, most recently the Edwin Howard Armstrong Professor of Computer Science at Columbia University, was known for his research on computational complexity and quantum computing and for his academic leadership in computer science — expanding and strengthening CMU's CSD in the 1970s and later founding the Computer Science Department at Columbia.

After spending much of his early career at Bell Laboratories, Traub was teaching at the University of Washington when he was offered the position of CSD head in 1971. He replaced Alan Perlis, the first head of the CSD, who had moved on to Yale University.

"He had to build up the department from this small size (10 faculty members) to a larger base without straining the university," University Professor Raj Reddy said of the challenge facing Traub.

The CSD's future may have been uncertain, but Traub, then age 38, was undaunted.

By the time he left in 1979 for Columbia, where he modeled its new Department of Computer Science after CMU's, the CSD faculty numbered around 50. The new recruits included many who would become leaders at CMU, including Mary Shaw and Dan Siewiorek.

Find out more.