News Briefs
Institute Offers New Master's Degree in International Relations & Politics
Carnegie Mellon's Institute for Politics and Strategy (IPS) has launched a new Master of Science in International Relations and Politics program (MS IRP) and is accepting applications for its first cohort to begin in fall 2020.
"The Institute for Politics and Strategy is uniquely situated as a university-wide institute at a top research university dedicated to interdisciplinary work. The MS IRP provides students with the resources they need to understand, navigate and lead in our rapidly changing political landscape," said Kiron Skinner, IPS director and the Taube Professor of International Relations and Politics.
Through the full-time, two-year program, IPS seeks to train the next generation of political scientists to examine and understand domestic and international government institutions and processes in the 21st century's continuously changing global political structure. Find out more.
CMU, Air Force Partner To Advance Materials Science Research
In an effort to push forward the state-of-the-art in materials science research, Carnegie Mellon and the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) are establishing a collaborative Center of Excellence. The center will leverage the strengths of the two institutions to develop next-generation aerospace materials, establish a pipeline of research talent with both AI and materials science expertise, and advance the materials science field by integrating AI into materials research and design.
The five-year, $7.5 million joint Center of Excellence, named Data-Driven Discovery Of Optimized Multifunctional Material Systems (D3OM2S), is supported by an award from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) and the AFRL Materials and Manufacturing Directorate.
“CMU is uniquely positioned to incubate this type of cross-disciplinary research, as we have deep expertise in both materials characterization and discovery, as well as computational science and machine learning,” said Liz Holm, a professor in materials science and engineering and the center’s principal investigator. Find out more.
Carnegie Mellon System Locates Shooters Using Smartphone Video
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon have developed a system that can accurately locate a shooter based on video recordings from as few as three smartphones.
When demonstrated using three video recordings from the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas that left 58 people dead and hundreds wounded, the system correctly estimated the shooter's actual location — the north wing of the Mandalay Bay hotel. The estimate was based on three gunshots fired within the first minute of what would be a prolonged massacre.
Alexander Hauptmann, research professor in CMU's Language Technologies Institute, said the system, called Video Event Reconstruction and Analysis (VERA), won't necessarily replace the commercial microphone arrays for locating shooters that public safety officials already use, although it may be a useful supplement for public safety when commercial arrays aren't available.
One key motivation for assembling VERA was to create a tool that could be used by human rights workers and journalists who investigate war crimes, terrorist acts and human rights violations, Hauptmann said. Find out more.
Webinars Aim To Ensure Your Digital Content Is Accessible
CMU’s Digital Accessibility Committee is providing a new series of webinars to help creators of documents and websites ensure that digital content is accessible to people with and without disabilities. If you write Word or PDF documents, create PowerPoint presentations, or build or update websites, these webinars are for you. They are organized in such a way that you can select the webinars most relevant for the work you do.
Check them out:These pre-recorded webinars are available to all faculty and staff. Please help us ensure that our campus is as digitally accessible as possible by taking advantage of these great online resources. Learn about CMU's Office of Disability Resources.
Did You Know?
Five of the six CMU fall sports teams advanced to post-season play in 2019. Here's the lineup:
- Women’s Soccer – NCAA Semifinalist;
- Men’s Cross Country – finished 18th at the NCAA Championships;
- Women’s Cross Country – finished 24th at the NCAA Championships;
- Volleyball – advanced to the first-round of the NCAA Championships; and
- Football – selected to play in the ECAC Scotty Whitelaw Bowl.
- Learn more about CMU athletics.