Personal Mention

Lorrie Cranor, the FORE Systems Professor of Computer Science and Engineering and Public Policy, has joined 11 other distinguished computer scientists on the Technology Policy Council, newly formed by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). The ACM, the world’s largest association of computing professionals, created the council to coordinate the agenda for its policy activities around the globe. It also will serve as the ACM’s contact point for its interaction with government organizations, the computing community and the public in matters of public policy related to information technology and computing. Cranor is the director and Bosch Distinguished Professor in Security and Privacy Technologies at the CyLab Security and Privacy Institute. She also directs the CyLab Usable Privacy and Security Laboratory and co-directs the privacy engineering master’s program. In 2016, she served as the chief technologist of the Federal Trade Commission.

Nathan Beckmann, an assistant professor in the Computer Science Department, has received a five-year, roughly $500,000 Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award, the National Science Foundation's most prestigious award for young faculty members. Beckmann's research interests include computer architecture and performance modeling. The NSF grant will support his work crafting and evaluating a new computer system design that makes accessing data faster and cheaper. Beckmann said more energy efficiency is needed to sustain growth in computing power for machine learning, social networking and robotics. Learn more. 

Melanie Lucht, associate vice president for Enterprise Risk Management and chief risk officer, was a presenter at the 50th Annual University Risk and Insurance Manager’s Association annual conference in Boston. Her presentation, titled “Launching a Sustainable Business Continuity Program in Higher Education,” discussed the strategies and tools used by CMU to overcome barriers, and effectively launch and sustain its successful business continuity program, which has had widespread support over the past six years. Lucht also was recently quoted in Risk Management magazine on building enterprise risk management programs in higher education. Lucht joined CMU in 2013 to head the university’s efforts in disaster recovery and business continuity. In 2017, she was named Continuity and Resiliency Professional of the Year for the private sector by The Business Continuity Institute. In 2018, she was appointed asociate vice president for Enterprise Risk Management, a position in which she oversees the development and deployment of risk management tools and practices across the university.