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Tepper School Women's Conference

February 06, 2019

News Briefs

Negotiation, Advocacy Focus of Tepper Women in Business Conference

Mid-career professionals and male allies are invited to attend the fourth annual Tepper Women in Business Leadership Conference in the Tepper Building on Sunday, Feb. 17.

This year’s “Negotiation and Advocacy” theme will focus on the opportunities and challenges women face in their careers. The conference provides attendees with professional development opportunities through a series of interactive break-out sessions, enlightening keynote speakers and leadership coaching.

This MBA student-led initiative organized by the Tepper Women in Business Club, Tepper School Forté Fellows and the Accelerate Leadership Center seeks to provide leadership development opportunities for professionals in part by amplifying the conversation on women’s leadership both on campus and across the greater Pittsburgh region.

Attendees will participate in morning and afternoon break-out sessions, which focus on key topics such as workplace allyship, career growth and networks. Keynote speakers include Linda Babcock, professor of economics and author of "Women Don’t Ask: Negotiation and the Gender Divide," and Rosalind Chow, professor of organizational behavior and theory, will highlight research on challenges women face at work and the ways women can serve as advocates for themselves and others. Accelerate Leadership coaches will discuss tactics to grow as a female leader in the workplace.

Find out more.

Scaling Up Search for Analogies Could Be Key to Innovation

Investment in research is at an all-time high, yet the rate of scientific breakthroughs isn't setting any records. To resolve this quandary, scientists are turning to artificial intelligence and crowdsourcing for help in identifying a key inspiration for innovation — the perfect analogy.

Wilbur Wright, for instance, famously got his idea for using wing warping to balance an airplane while twisting a cardboard box. Using similar methods to solve disparate problems is a common theme in the history of innovation. But as problems become more complex and the amount of scientific information explodes, finding helpful analogies can be difficult, said Niki Kittur, a professor in Carnegie Mellon's Human-Computer Interaction Institute.

As described in a new report to be published online this week by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers are addressing this problem by breaking down the process of identifying analogies, using crowd workers to solve individual steps in the process and training AIs to do part of the work automatically.

"We're developing new tools that could unlock a whole set of interesting possibilities," said Kittur, the lead author. "We're just beginning to see how people might use them."

Find out more.

Tepper School Hits 5-Year High in Employment Success for Full-Time MBAs

With nearly 90 percent of the MBA Class of 2018 accepting offers within three months of graduation, the Tepper School of Business is celebrating a five-year high in employment success for the Full-Time MBA, according to the 2018 Full-Time MBA Employment Report. In addition to traditional employment success, seven students in the Class of 2018 started a business. The Report summarizes employment outcomes for the graduating class of full-time MBA students, as well as summer internships for rising second-year students, by industry, function, geography and median compensation. 

The Report also found for the fourth year in a row, the graduating class set a new record for starting salaries, with an average accepted offer of $125,000 — an increase of $5,000 over last year’s average.

As compared to recent classes, this year’s graduates saw a more balanced distribution among industries with tech sector jobs still holding the top place at 33 percent; followed by 23 percent for consulting; 11 percent went into financial services; and 11 percent went into biotechnology, health care, and pharmaceuticals.

Find out more.

Volunteers Needed for Take Our Daughters & Sons to Work Day

CMU Staff Council is looking for staff, faculty, students and groups to present a session on what they do at CMU, a hobby or a topic of interest for Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day on April 25. Sessions are held from 1:15 - 2 p.m. and from 2:15 - 3 p.m. with groups of 10 to 20 children. More than 350 children participate, and these sessions provide them with an opportunity to explore, imagine, innovate and see the amazing CMU community and what it has to offer. If you are interested in presenting, please complete the online form. Volunteers are also needed to help the kids navigate around campus, as well as support event logistics.


Attention: Online Content Managers

If you manage content for a Carnegie Mellon website using the university’s content management system (CMS), this is a reminder that tomorrow, Feb. 8, is the last day to access your preview site(s) to get familiar with the new interface before the CMS version 6 launch. Use your current credential to log in to preview your site(s). If you need help getting acquainted with the new V6 interface, review the Quick Start Guide. If you have any questions, please stop by the CMS team’s office hours or email it-help@cmu.edu. For more information about CMS Version 6, visit cmu.edu/web.