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June 05, 2019

Personal Mention

Jan Hoffmann, an assistant professor in the Computer Science Department, is the recipient of a five-year, $519,000 Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award, the National Science Foundation’s most prestigious award for young faculty members. Hoffmann’s research specialties are programming languages and verification. The NSF award will support his work regarding quantitative properties, such as available memory and execution time, associated with formal verification techniques. For instance, Hoffmann said it would be insufficient to verify the correctness of software for a self-driving vehicle without considering whether the system had sufficient memory to execute the program or could do so fast enough to allow the vehicle to respond to live traffic situations. Likewise, formal methods could determine how long it takes to run a program on the cloud and thus justify charges by cloud computing providers. Hoffman joined the CMU faculty in 2015. Find out more.

image of Kathleen CarleyKathleen M. Carley, professor in the Institute for Software Research and the Engineering and Public Policy Department, and founder and director of the Center for Computational Analysis of Social and Organizational Systems, was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics of the University of Zurich. She was honored for her “pioneering contributions to our understanding of social systems by means of computational methods. Through the development of new methods to study social networks, she shaped the development of data science and computational social science and provided important stimuli for the study of digital societies.” Carley, a faculty member in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon since 1984, has made seminal contributions to the computational and data-driven study of social organizations and is a pioneer of data science and computational social science. Learn more.

image of Giovanni LeoniMathematical Sciences Professor Giovanni Leoni has received the Mellon College of Science’s 2019 Richard Moore Award for his substantial and sustained contributions to the educational mission of the college. One of Leoni’s greatest impacts has been the creation of the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee in the Department of Mathematical Sciences, which has completely transformed and strengthened the undergraduate program over the last decade. Since its inception, Leoni has served as chair of the committee with the goal of providing excellent mathematical education to all Carnegie Mellon students, regardless of major or college. The committee’s main achievements include a complete redesign of the introductory course sequence for math and computer science students and a redesign of the honors course sequence for mathematics majors. Find out more.

image of Isaac MillsSenior track and field athlete Isaac Mills has been awarded an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship for excelling academically and athletically while showing leadership and commitment to the community. Mills has earned 14 All-University Athletic Association (UAA) honors through the indoor and outdoor track and field seasons and was a UAA Champion in the 4x800-meter relay this year at the UAA outdoor championship meet. The senior mid-distance runner is also part of the distance medley relay team that holds the school record and three track championships as the Tartans won both the indoor and outdoor titles in 2017 to go with this year's 2019 indoor crown. Off the track, Mills served as the Student-Athlete Advisory Council president and helped coordinate the annual Field Day for local Pittsburgh children. He also demonstrates other leadership qualities as a captain of the track and field team and a Carnegie Mellon Welcome Center Ambassador. He carries a 3.59 GPA in chemical engineering and will return to Carnegie Mellon next fall to complete his master's degree in chemical engineering. Find out more.

image of Danna TaylorFreshman Danna Taylor was the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Women's Rookie of the Year. Taylor was chosen as the top freshman in the Atlantic-South and stood out among the three other regional honorees to become the second Tartan to earn the national award. Taylor compiled a singles record of 29-10 and a doubles record of 26-13 while winning the ITA Southeast Regional Singles and Doubles Championships. The first-year Tartan played first singles and doubles, and finished second in the nation in doubles play and fifth in singles at the ITA Cup last fall. Taylor closed her rookie campaign with the school record for most singles wins by a freshman and the most matches played with 39.  At the NCAA Championships, Taylor advanced to the Round of 16 in both singles and doubles. Find out more