2013 Mentions
June
Student Team's Paper Accepted to International Conference
A research paper by a student team–made up of INI students Shrikant Adhikarla, Divya Natesan, Isaraporn (Cherry) Kulkumjon and Matthew Schlau–has been accepted to the IEEE International Conference on Services Computing (SCC 2013). The team was advised by faculty member Jia Zhang, an associate research professor at Carnegie Mellon's Silicon Valley Campus, and NASA researchers. The topic of the piece is service oriented computing (SOC).
Dayal Awarded the EMI Leonardo Da Vinci Award
CEE Assistant Professor Kaushik Dayal has recently been awarded the ASCE 2013 EMI Leonardo Da Vinci Award for his important contributions to understanding far-from-equilibrium molecular dynamics; domain patterns in ferroelectrics; and phase transformations in peridynamics analyses.
Zhu Appointed CMU Co-Director of Joint Institute of Engineering
Jimmy Zhu, director of the Data Storage Systems Center and a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, has been appointed as the CMU Co-Director of the SYSU-CMU Joint Institute of Engineering (JIE). The Institute is the result of a partnership between Carnegie Mellon University and Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU) of China, which will expand and strengthen engineering education and research in Guangdong Province, China.
CEE Students Develop Structure for FMS
Every year, CEE's "Design and Construction" course, taught by Lawrence "Larry" Cartwright, allows students to get hands-on experience constructing a space that will make CMU's campus even better. This year, the students focused on a problem developed by the construction of the Sherman and Joyce Bowie Scott Hall: Facility Management Services (FMS) needed to find a new space to store the electric vehicles it uses to maintain the campus. The students designed a structure for FMS to solve this problem.
CMU-SV Students Place Second at Tizen Hack Competition
A team of Carnegie Mellon University Silicon Valley (CMU-SV) students won second place for an application they built at the recent Tizen Hack Competition. The app advertises information about recruiting events and was developed by David Liu, Sky Hu, Clyde Li, David Liu, Sean Xiao and Sungho Cho.
Stillo Named to Academic All-America Division III Team
Swimmer and recent CIT graduate Breanna Stillo has been named to the 2013 Capital One Academic All-America Division III Women's At-Large Team (first team). Stillo, a conference champion in the 200-yard medley relay and three-time school-record holder, graduated in May with a 4.0 GPA in biomedical and mechanical engineering.
Zejnilovic Presents Poster about Algorithms in Networks
Sabina Zejnilovic, a student in the Carnegie Mellon | Portugal Program, recently presented a poster about algorithms in networks at the Inaugural Symposium of the program. Sabina states she "discovered that some slower algorithms are in fact more efficient than the faster ones, as they require overall less communication to achieve the same goal."
Peña Awarded Scholarship for Sustainable Energy Finance
Ivonne Peña, a dual degree Ph.D. Student in Engineering and Public Policy, was awarded one of five available scholarships to participate in the Summer Academy on Sustainable Energy Finance held July 14-19, 2013 by the Frankfurt Finance School and the UNEP Collaborating Centre for Climate and Sustainable Energy Finance. This is a highly competitive program, directed towards professionals and experts from different disciplines that work on areas related with financing climate change solutions.
Fedder Named to New Position of Associate Dean for Research
Gary Fedder has been appointed to the newly-created position of Associate Dean for Research, effective July 1, 2013. The Associate Dean for Research's main responsibilities will be to identify major college-wide research opportunities, steward–and in some cases lead–the development of proposals for such opportunities, and to help build and manage a small group of professionals who will assist the Associate Dean and CIT PIs in responding to major research opportunities. Fedder will continue as director of ICES with support from an associate director to be appointed.
Bielak Elected USACM Fellow
Jacobo Bielak, the Paul Christiano University Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, has been elected as a fellow of the U.S. Association for Computational Mechanics. The Fellows Award recognizes individuals with a distinguished record of research, accomplishment and publication in areas of computational mechanics and demonstrated support of the USACM through membership and participation in the association, its meetings and activities. Bielak is currently a member of the Executive Council of the Association.
CMU | Portugal Alumnus Receives Best Young Teacher Award
Denzil Ferreira, alumnus of the Carnegie Mellon | Portugal program, received the Best Young Teacher Award from the University of Oulu in Finland, where he is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Ubiquitous and Mobile Computing. Ferreira received this award due to his "contribution to developing training material and facilitating student projects on two courses: Human-Computer Interaction and Mobile & Social Computing."
Pileggi Writes Historical Novel
Leah Pileggi, professional assistant in ECE, has written Prisoner 88, a historical novel for middle-school readers. Prisoner 88 tells the story of a courageous boy who faces danger and finds friendship under unusual circumstances. The book is inspired by an actual 10-year-old boy who served time in the Idaho Territorial Penitentiary in the 1880's. Prisoner 88 will be available August 1, and it can be pre-ordered now through Charlesbridge, Barnes and Noble or Amazon.
Acquisti Quoted in Wired UK
CyLab's Alessandro Acquisti talked to Wired UK about the future of facial recognition software in an article about a wearable device that helps the user identify people. He states that this sort of technology will likely begin by providing the names of people the user has already met and then move on to later be able to identify strangers.
Evans Partners with Sierra Ventures on CIO Survey Report
Sierra Ventures recently partnered with Stuart Evans of Carnegie Mellon University Silicon Valley and the Sierra CIO Advisory Board, which includes Fortune 500 CIOs and CTOs, to produce its CIO Survey Report, "Seizing Opportunity – The Transition from Legacy to Innovation in Enterprise IT." The report is the first in a series that identifies pain points and opportunities for CIOs to increase innovation in IT enterprise.
Mauter Named Wimmer Fellow
EPP professor Meagan Mauter has been selected as one of the 2013-2014 Wimmer Faculty Fellows at the Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence and Educational Innovation. This program is designed for junior faculty members interested in enhancing their teaching through concentrated work with an Eberly consultant. The Wimmer program, now in its eighth year, is supported by a grant from the Wimmer Family Foundation. This grant provides a stipend to each fellow to acknowledge the intellectual work it takes to be an effective educator.
McHenry Gives Keynote Address
On May 21, Michael McHenry, a professor of Materials Science Engineering and Biomedical Engineering, gave the keynote address at "Frontiers in Science" held at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL): "Fundamentals, Applications and Challenges of Soft Magnetic Materials."
May
Vancouver Sun Quotes Dean Garrett
The Vancouver Sun talked with James H. Garrett, Jr., Dean of the College of Engineering and Thomas Lord Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, about a recent bridge collapse in Washington state. The accident was caused by a truck hitting part of the bridge's steel framework. Garrett discusses what it means that the bridge had been deemed "structurally obsolete," explaining that while structurally obsolete bridges are considered safe, they do have certain imperfections. The article also mentions that Garrett and his colleagues are researching ways to retrofit older bridges with measuring devices that could help prevent accidents.
Balebako Wins Google Scholarship
Rebecca Balebako, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Engineering and Public Policy, has been named a Google Anita Borg Scholar. Thirty students from North America were selected, six of which attend Carnegie Mellon University.
Diversity Magazine Features INI Director and Student
The summer issue of Diversity/Careers in Engineering and Information Technology Magazine offers a focus on college and shines a spotlight on two members of the INI's community, INI Director Dena Haritos Tsamitis and recent graduate Trenton Johnson. In an article on graduate school titled "IT and CS grad students prepare for leadership roles," the director describes the diverse student body at the INI. From the INI's Class of 2013, Trenton Johnson is highlighted in the article for his pursuit of the Master of Science in Information Technology-Mobility (MSIT-MOB).
Jenn's Work Recognized
EPP Ph.D. student Alan Jenn recently presented his paper, which was co-authored with Christian Blanco, William Chernicoff and EPP Professor Inês Azevedo, at the 2013's International Symposium on Sustainable Systems and Technologies. He won third place for best student paper. Corporate Average Fuel Economy, or CAFE, standards were recently passed as a joint effort between the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to increase fuel efficiency and reduce carbon emissions of passenger cars and light trucks. The paper examines the effects of this policy on the future vehicle fleet mix, broken down by vehicle class and vehicle type, specifically improving on earlier works by capturing consumer behavior.
CEE's Mitch Small Chairs NAS Discussion Panel
Mitchell Small, the NAS committee chair and a professor of civil and environmental engineering, moderated a discussion on a survey of concerns about lesser-studied drilling issues including impacts on rural quality of life, domestic animals, industry transparency and social justice. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette quoted Small about how the discussion was beneficial because it allowed scientists to clarify what they know about shale gas drilling and what topics require further study.
Zhang Chosen for Gallagher Young Investigator Award
The U.S. Association for Computational Mechanics awarded MechE Professor Jessica Zhang the 2013 Gallagher Young Investigator Award "for pioneering research in high-fidelity geometric modeling and mesh generation with broad interdisciplinary finite element applications in computational biomedicine, material sciences and engineering." The Gallagher Young Investigator Award recognizes outstanding accomplishments, particularly outstanding published papers, by researchers of 40 years or younger. The Gallagher medal and cash award are supported by John Wiley & Sons in recognition of Richard H. Gallagher, the founding editor of the International Journal of Numerical Methods in Engineering.
Biegler Named Head of Chemical Engineering
Lorenz (Larry) T. Biegler will become Department Head of Chemical Engineering, effective November 1, 2013. Biegler, both a university professor and an NAE member, is in his 32nd year as a member of the ChemE faculty, starting as an assistant professor in 1981 and advancing through academic ranks to his current appointment as the Bayer Professor of Chemical Engineering. His research interests lie in computer aided process engineering (CAPE) and include flowsheet optimization, optimization of systems of differential and algebraic equations, reactor network synthesis and algorithms for constrained, nonlinear process control.
DuCarme Named to 2013 PING Mid-Atlantic Region
Chemical engineering sophomore Ben DuCarme was named to the 2013 PING Mid-Atlantic Region team by the Golf Coaches Association of America. He is the eleventh Tartan to make the team. He played nineteen rounds and averaged 77.6 per round, making five finishes in the top 10. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported on the story.
INI Administrative Coordinator Completes Degree
Marilú Lundeen, an administrative coordinator at the Information Networking Institute (INI), received her bachelor's degree in Hispanic Studies with an additional major in European studies on Sunday. The full-time staff member started taking classes in 2003 while working as the coordinator of Latin American Activities for the late Paul Goodman at the Tepper School of Business. Lundeen said that she "loved the contact with people and classes that were creative, such as 'Political Drama in Spain' and 'Acting for Nonmajors' as well as art classes on 'Picasso' and the 'Ballets Russes.' It was a fresh breath to do something so different and self-fulfilling in my life. ... It's been challenging, but very fun." Prior to earning her CMU degree, Lundeen earned an associate's degree in applied science in 1989.
2013 Meeting of the Minds Award Winners Announced
A number of CIT students were recognized with awards at the Meeting of the Minds, the university's annual undergraduate research symposium. They include: Canute Haroldson (MechE), Alcoa Undergraduate Research Awards, Third Place for "Project Loci: Tangible Interactions with Information Systems"; Neil Abcower (ECE), Boeing Blue Skies Award, First Place for "Low-Level Position Control for the Omni-Directional Bases in a Manufacturing Environment"; Spencer Barton (ECE), Steven Cunningham (MechE), David Lu (ECE), and Rudina Morina (ECE and BME), Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry Award, Second Place for "Mechanical Logic"; Alan Fu (BME and MSE) and Siri Amrit Ramos (MechE), Johnson and Johnson Undergraduate Research Award, Second Place for "Re-designing the Epinephrine Auto Injector"; Adewale Desalu (ECE), Brooke Gladstone (MSE), Sohini Roy (MSE), Andre Sutanto (MechE), Ramyata Upmaka (MSE), Johnson and Johnson Undergraduate Research Award, Third Place for "Scottie Dock: A Mobility Assist Device for Manual Wheelchair Users"; Mikio David (MechE), Richard Schoenwald Phi Beta Kappa Undergraduate Research Prize, Third Place for "The Design and Optimization of Lorentz Force Driven Engines"; Juan Infante (MSE), SRC-URO Poster Competition, First Place for "Fabrication and Resistive Switching of Ruddlesden-Popper Oxide"; Niharika Singh (ECE), SRC-URO Poster Competition, Second Place for "Joint Logic Restructuring and Pin Reordering against PBTI and NBTI inducted Degradation in 22nm Technologies"; Andrea Pickel (MechE), SRC-URO Poster Competition, Third Place for "Thermal and Thermomechanical Modeling of Solder/Magnetic Nanocomposites for Area-Array Packaging"; Yunhao Young (ECE), Statistics Competition, First Place (Poster) for "Estimating the Hubble Telescope ACS Point Spread Function through Statistical Methods"; Elissa Goldner (CEE), Agnieszka Marszalik (CEE), Toyota Ideas for Good Scholars Award for "Regional Economic Impact on the Twin Ridges Wind Farm"; Karthik Nagarajan (Econ and MechE), Undergraduate Economics Program (UEP) Competition, Second Place (tie) for "School Choice: Diversity Constraints"; Albert Liang (ChemE), Undergraduate Environmental Research Award, Runner Up for "Quantitative Characterization of Physical Solvents using Raman Spectroscopy and Modeling for Pre-Combustion CO2 Capture"; Sarah Ramp (CEE), Undergraduate Environmental Research Award, Runner Up for "Implementing a Stormwater Sustainability Ratings System for Distressed and Vacant Urban Properties."
Students' Research Presented at WiSec Conference
A technical paper by a Carnegie Mellon team was accepted by The Sixth ACM Conference on Security and Privacy in Wireless and Mobile Networks (WiSec). INI student Shrikant Adhikarla (MS23), ECE student Min Suk Kang along with Silicon Valley faculty member Patrick Tague, assistant research professor at the INI and CyLab, authored the paper, titled "Selfish Manipulation of Cooperative Cellular Communications via Channel Fabrication." WiSec is a major industry conference that took place April 17-19 in Budapest, Hungary.
CBS Pittsburgh Features Culinary Mechanics Course
MechE's Phil LeDuc recently spoke with CBS Pittsburgh about his new course on culinary mechanics. The course involves having students study how engineering influences the taste of food, such as how carrots cut with dull blades taste differently from those cut with a sharp blade. This year, students in the class produced an easily-portable french toast bite that has a bubble of syrup inside. Read more about this course.
Matthews to Serve on BEST
EPP faculty member Scott Matthews has been elected to serve on the board of Environmental Studies and Toxicology (BEST). BEST is the National Research Council's principal unit for organizing and overseeing studies relating to environmental problems affecting human health and environmental impact and the assessment and management of related risks to human health and environment.
Stillo Receives Judith A. Resnik Award
BME senior Breanna Stillo is the recipient of the Judith A. Resnik Award, presented annually to an outstanding woman graduating in the sciences or engineering who shows promise for high achievement in her field.
Cribbs To Become Manager of Web Communications
Susie Cribbs, communications manager in the Data Storage Systems Center and Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, has departed from CMU to become Manager of Web Communications for Duquesne University's Office of Public Affairs. Cribbs, who earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in professional writing at CMU, was formerly the associate director of Internal Communications at Carnegie Mellon, and is an active volunteer for CMU's Kiltie Band.
Savvides to Appear on 60 Minutes
Marios Savvides, assistant research professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department and director of the CyLab Biometrics Center, will be on CBS' "60 Minutes" at 7 p.m. (EDT), Sunday, May 19. Savvides will be discussing his work on facial recognition in his Biometrics Lab as it relates to the recent Boston Marathon bombings. He also will address his work on PBS' "Nova" at 9 p.m. (EDT), Wednesday, May 29.
Cohon and MechE Alumnus Ralston to Speak at Commencement
Carnegie Mellon University President Jared L. Cohon, who is also a professor of civil and environmental engineering, has announced that he will give the keynote address at this year's commencement ceremony, and that mechanical engineering alumnus Aron Ralston (E'97) will be sharing the stage with him as a keynote speaker. Many know Ralston from the Oscar-nominated Hollywood movie 127 Hours, which was based on his book Between a Rock and a Hard Place. He has inspired millions not just with his story of survival in Blue John Canyon 10 years ago, but through his life of adventure, commitment and genuine human decency.
Kitchin to Attend China-America Symposium
ChemE Professor John Kitchin is attending the 2013 China-America Frontiers of Engineering Symposium in Beijing, China from May 15-17. The symposium is designed to promote international and cross-disciplinary collaboration, promote innovation in engineering and help develop a network of engineers who excel in their field. Kitchin will present his research on carbon dioxide capture, water splitting, computational materials design and computing in engineering.
Horner and Vaishnav Selected for USAEE Case Competition
EPP students Nathaniel Horner and Parth Vaishnav have been, for the second year in a row, selected as the top runners for the student case competition organized by the United States Associate for Energy Economics (USAEE). Last year, the two won second place.
Thacker, Pioneering Computing Designer, Speaks at CMU-SV
Chuck Thacker spoke at Carnegie Mellon University Silicon Valley’s (CMU-SV) Talks on Computing Systems (TOCS) series on April 30, 2013. In his talk, Thacker led an audience of software engineering graduate students down memory lane, describing the inner workings of Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in the 1970s. Reflecting on the Alto and the laboratory that produced it, Thacker shared his thoughts on the relevance and lessons of a forty-year old technology for the 21st century of aspiring software leaders.
Erra-Hernandez Named UAA Most Outstanding Field Performer
MSE junior Zachary Erra-Hernandez was named the University Athletic Association (UAA) Most Outstanding Performer in the field events, as announced Wednesday, May 1. Erra-Hernandez won two UAA titles and claimed a second-place finish while helping the Tartans finish second at the UAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
Chi Epsilon Inducts Three New Members
The Chi Epsilon Carnegie Mellon Chapter inducted three new members this spring: CEE undergraduate students Jeffie Chang ('14), Jennifer Chan ('13) and Melissa Daly ('13). Chi Epsilon is the National Civil Engineering honor society in the United States. The organization honors engineering students who have exemplified the principles of "Scholarship, Character, Practicality and Sociability" in the civil engineering profession.
Meeting of the Minds Poster Competition Winners Announced
The winners of the 2013 Meeting of the Minds CIT Senior Honors Research Project Poster Competition were recently announced. First place went to Nathaniel Ondeck (ChemE/BME) for his project "Selective Adsorption on Chiral Nanoparticles." ECE's Evan Quirk received second place for "Quantum Dot Microdisk Lasers for HAMR." Third place went to Sangita Sharma (MSE/BME) for "Self-Assembly and Strength Toughening of Polymer-Grafted Nanoparticle Thin Films Due to Homopolymer Addition."
Pittsburgh Children's Museum Hosts Exhibit by Cranor
The Pittsburgh Children's Museum is hosting an exhibit of six quilts made by Associate Professor Lorrie Faith Cranor. Cranor, who has joint appointments at the Institute for Software Research, the Engineering and Public Policy Department and CyLab, is on sabbatical this semester and is a fellow at the STUDIO for Creative Inquiry. The exhibit, which is on the yellow wall opposite the "Garage" room, includes a quilt she based on an art installation called "More Light" by Dick Esterle in the museum's great dome. See photos of the exhibit and read more on her blog.
CMU-SV Team Places First in HTML5 Hackathon
Campus Technology reported on CMU-SV's first HTML5 Hackathon, in which a team of five CMU-SV students won first place for their CoCoDojo app. They also won the Microsoft-sponsored Audience Favorite prize and took home $500 from Yahoo!, $200 from Microsoft and an array of other sponsored gifts. The team consisted of Sky Hu, Lydian Lee, Clyde Li, Sean Xiao and Dan Fortner. Their product, a "Collaborative Coding Dojo," allowed several users to simultaneously program together and also featured a virtual whiteboard for brainstorming. Read more about the CMU-SV HTML5 Hackathon.
PA University/Industry Partnership Funds Advanced Manufacturing Research
Since receiving state funding last year, the Research for Advanced Manufacturing in Pennsylvania (RAMP) development program has been providing small incentive grants to innovative research projects in manufacturing. Managed by Carnegie Mellon University through ICES and Lehigh University, RAMP recently awarded 17 grants to faculty-led teams at CMU, Lehigh University and the Pennsylvania State University, each project partnering academic researchers with a Pennsylvania company. One of the many partner companies is Jay Whitacre's Aquion Energy, Inc.
CMU-SV Holds Fireside Chat with Prasad Setty and Stuart Evans
Carnegie Mellon University and the San Francisco Bay Area Alumni Chapter recently hosted the first Gateway to Silicon Valley Fireside Chat with Stuart Evans, CMU-SV Distinguished Service Professor, and Prasad Setty, Google’s Vice President of People Analytics & Compensation, at the CMU Silicon Valley campus in Mountain View, California. The Fireside Chat dealt with several initiatives of Google’s People Organization, including Project Oxygen, an effort to build a better manager and identify what makes a good leader.
Sinopoli Plays Role in Bringing New Technology to Market
ECE Associate Professor Bruno Sinopoli has joined forces with Seco USA Inc. and AidiLab to promote UDOO, a tiny, single-board computer that integrates two processors and bridges the gap between Arduino microcontrollers and the Raspberry Pi single-board computer. UDOO aims to facilitate rapid prototyping of professional solutions and support teaching activities related to physical computing, Internet of Things and interaction design.
Hug Wins 2013 IEEE PES Outstanding Young Engineer Award
Gabriela Hug, a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, has won the 2013 IEEE PES Outstanding Young Engineer Award. The award recognizes young engineers who have made outstanding contributions in the leadership of technical activities. Hug will be recognized in a ceremony in Vancouver, Canada on July 23.
CIT Intramural Soccer Team Wins CMU IM Soccer Tournament
A team of seven CEE grad students and one BME grad student won the CMU Intramural Indoor Soccer Tournament. The team, called Civilization, beat Fuego FC 6-2 on the evening of April 25 after winning the semifinals with a score of 10-3. Civilization includes CEE students Arka Roy, Mehmet Kosa, Navid Kazem, Suman Giri, and Neil Patel and BME student Tyson Montidoro. The team's captains are CEE students Milad Memarzadeh and Enze Li.
Leitch Awarded GROW Travel Grant
CEE grad student Megan Leitch has been selected by the National Science Foundation and the Academy of Finland for a Graduate Research Opportunities Worldwide (GROW) travel grant to conduct research at Aalto University in Helsinki. Leitch plans to analyze the suitability of nanocellulose aerogels for use in membrane water desalination.
April
Alum Named Chief Operating Officer for dck Worldwide LLC
CEE alumnus Joseph G. Belechak (E '81) has recently been promoted to chief operating officer, a new position, at Pittsburgh-based contractor dck Worldwide LLC. Since joining dck Worldwide in September 2012, he has been senior vice president of strategy and operational excellence. Belechak has 25 years of experience in the energy (nuclear, electric and gas), consulting, energy services and communications industries.
Chase Selected as Wimmer Faculty Fellow
BME's Steve Chase has been selected as a CMU Wimmer Faculty Fellow for 2013-2014, designed for junior faculty members to enhance their teaching through designing a course, innovating new materials or exploring a new pedagogical approach.
Fallin Earns Qualcomm Fellowship Honorable Mention
Fourth-year ECE Ph.D. student Chris Fallin has earned an Honorable Mention in the 2013 Qualcomm Innovation Fellowship Award competition. Working with Dr. William D. and Nancy W. Strecker Early Career Professor Onur Mutlu, Fallin and his project partner, SCS's Gennady Pekhimenko, are investigating energy-efficient core microarchitecture, with a specific focus on heterogeneity within the core in order to better adapt to different application types.
New Dean's Early Career Fellowship Recipients Announced
Kaushik Dayal (Assistant Professor in CEE), Franz Franchetti (Associate Research Professor in ECE), Erica Fuchs (Associate Professor in EPP) and John Kitchin (Associate Professor in ChemE) are the first recipients of the newly-established Dean’s Early Career Fellowship. The awards were established by Dean Garrett in Spring 2013 to recognize junior faculty members. Candidates are nominated by their Department Head and reviewed by the CIT Faculty Review Committee, who then make recommendations to the Dean.
Griss Delivers Talk on Smart Communities
Director of Carnegie Mellon University's Silicon Valley campus Martin Griss gave a talk at the Palo Alto Colloquia, part of Lockheed Martin's Advanced Technology Center (ATC). Griss' talk, "Making Smart Communities Resilient," focused on recent activities at the campus' Disaster Management Initiative (DMI) to develop interoperable technologies in efforts to empower and connect citizens in communities, first responders and emergency managers in a disaster situation.
Selker to Give Talks at SIGCHI Paris and ENSCI Les Ateliers
Carnegie Mellon University Silicon Valley's Distinguished Service Professor Ted Selker will give a joint talk with Annie Gentes of Télécom ParisTech on April 24th, 2013 in Paris, France. Their talk will introduce ideas for how to incorporate social awareness into the design of information systems and artifacts. The pair will also be giving a talk about how models and prototypes are a part of the poetic dimension in the process of design at ENSCI Les Ateliers, a French design school.
Robinson Named Raymond J. Lane Distinguished Professor
Allen Robinson, Head and Professor of Mechanical Engineering, has been named the Raymond J. Lane Distinguished Professor in Mechanical Engineering. Robinson is also a Professor in Engineering and Public Policy and a member of the Center for Atmospheric Particle Studies. Robinson is not only an outstanding educator, but also his research focus on the atmospheric transformation of particulate matter emissions from cars, trucks, and other combustion systems will have a lasting impact on our environment. The Lane Professorship was endowed by Ray and Stephanie Lane in memory of Ray Lane’s late father, a graduate of Mechanical Engineering at CMU.
Bielak Named Paul Christiano Professor of CEE
Jacobo Bielak, University Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, has been named the Paul Christiano Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Bielak, an NAE member since 2010, has made important and lasting contributions to both education and research in earthquake engineering. The Paul Christiano Professorship was made possible through the generosity of a group of donors who endowed the professorship in recognition of Christiano’s significant and enduring contributions to Civil and Environmental Engineering, CIT and the university.
Moura Named Philip and Marsha Dowd Professor of Engineering
José Moura, University Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, has been named the Philip and Marsha Dowd Professor of Engineering. In addition to his commitment to his students and his research, Moura has served as a co-founder and co-director of the Center for Sensed Critical Infrastructures Research (CenSCIR). He also founded and directs the Information and Communications Technologies Institute that manages the Carnegie Mellon | Portugal Program.
MIT Technology Review Talks to Savvides
In a recent article about ways in which suspects from the bomb attacks in Boston could have been identified from poor photographs, MIT Technology Review discusses Marios Savvides' research. His work allows for low-quality pictures, or even pictures in which the suspect is partially turned away, to be improved to the point where facial recognition software has a much greater chance of identifying the individual.
Researchers Awarded PITA Grant
CEE Professors Jeanne VanBriesen and David Dzombak have recently been awarded research funding from the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Technology Alliance (PITA). VanBriesen and Dzombak will be collaborating with ChemE's Meagan Mauter, Aquatech, a Pennsylvania company led by CEE Alumnus Venkee Sharma (E' 87), and CEE graduate student Lauren Strahs. The team will evaluate a recently developed organic carbon characterization method, Parallel Factor Analysis of Fluorescence Spectroscopy, as a way to better predict membrane fouling potential in wastewaters.
CIT Students Receive NSF Graduate Research Fellowships
CEE PhD students George Lederman and Joe Moore along with MechE students Lizmarie Comenencia-Ortiz and Chris McCombhave have been awarded NSF Graduate Research Fellowships (GRF). This competitive fellowship supports their research efforts and studies for three years and provides international research and professional development opportunities. The GRF Program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines who are pursuing research-based master's and doctoral degrees at accredited United States Institutions. As the oldest graduate fellowship of its kind, the GRFP has a long history of selecting recipients who achieve high levels of success in their future academic and professional careers.
Time Magazine Highlights CMU and NAMII
The cover story of the most recent edition of Time Magazine reports on the resurgence of U.S. manufacturing. It mentions towns in the Pittsburgh region are home to companies developing specialized metals, robotics and bioengineering thanks in part to their proximity to the "engineering powerhouse" of CMU. The article also highlights CMU's involvement with the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute.
Alum Named eBay's VP of Customer Optimization and Data
eBay has named CIT alumnus Zoher Karu as its first Vice President of Customer Optimization and Data. Karu will be responsible for providing customers with a more personal experience. He previously worked as the Vice President of Marketing Analytics and Insight for Sears.
Alum Writes Piece Published in CNNMoney
David Kelley, who received a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from CIT in 1973, wrote a piece published in CNNMoney about how he began his company IDEO. IDEO is a design firm that has helped produce products such as the Apple mouse and Proctor and Gamble's Swiffer.
Researchers Win IEEE Donald O. Pederson Best Paper Award
A team of ECE researchers and their collaborators have won the IEEE Donald O. Pederson Best Paper Award. The paper was part of ECE alumnus Wangyang Zhang's Ph.D. work with his advisors Assistant Professor Xin Li and Adjunct Professor Rob Rutenbar. Collaborators included ECE Professor Shawn Blanton, and IBM's Frank Liu and Emrah Acar. Their paper describes a new methodology for modeling spatial variations of silicon wafers from a minimum set of measurement data.
Pittsburgh Business Times Announces Energy Leadership Winners
The Pittsburgh Business Times has recently announced the winners of their 2013 Energy Leadership Awards: Aquion Energy, which was founded by EPP and MSE professor Jay Whitacre, and MechE alumnus Rich Fiztgerald (E '81). Whitacre is also the CTO of Aquion Energy. The Energy Leadership Awards are designed to recognize individuals and organizations that are creating new opportunities in the Pittsburgh region's energy sector.
Marculescu Named ELATE Fellow
ECE Professor Diana Marculescu has been named a 2013-2014 fellow in the Executive Leadership in Academic Technology and Engineering (ELATE) program, a national leadership development program designed to advance senior women faculty in academic engineering, computer science and related fields into effective institutional leadership roles within their schools and universities. A program of Drexel University and Drexel University College of Medicine, ELATE is an intense full-year, part-time fellowship program tailored to the needs of faculty women in engineering and technology.
IEEE Computer Society Honors Gligor
Virgil D. Gligor, the co-director of CyLab and an ECE professor, was recently honored by the IEEE Computer Society. He was one of five technologists to receive a 2013 Technical Achievement Award.
Bielak Presents at T.T. Soong Student Lecture Series
CEE Professor Jacobo Bielak recently presented at the T.T. Soong Student Lecture in the Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering (CSEE) at the State University of New York at Buffalo. His talk discussed the use of Hercules, a code developed by the CMU Quake group to model the initiation, path and effects of an earthquake as well as the Domain Reduction Method (DRM), a methodology for incorporating the incoming seismic motion into the analysis of the earthquake response of civil infrastructure in a localized region.
WPTV.com Features Alumnus' Innovative Product
A recent article on WPTV.com featured MechE alumnus Jonathan Buford and his $200 MakiBox 3-D printer. Buford explained that he was interested in making a 3-D printer that is more affordable for consumers, and he's curious about how people will use these devices.
Fenves Travel Grants Awarded
The Steven J. Fenves Travel Grant was created to provide students the opportunity to travel to professional conferences in order to present a paper discussing their research. The following students have been awarded support to attend various conferences over the summer months: Yuxin Wang, Arka Roy, Xue Yang, In-Soo Jung, Sumon Giri, Vaibhav Agrawal and Prashant Jha.
Rajagopal's Work Highlighted in NewScientist
NewScientist recently wrote an article about a device developed by ECE doctoral student Niranjini Rajagopal and his colleagues. The device monitors electricity usage through electromagnetic waves with 98% accuracy, which can help consumers decrease their electricity bills without having to buy expensive smart appliances.
Alumnus to Chair EPA Committee
EPP alumnus H. Christopher Frey (E '91), Distinguished University Professor of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering at North Carolina State University, has been appointed by US Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson to chair the independently chartered Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) for two years.
Alum Named to List of Top 100 Under 50 Diverse Executives
CIT alumnus Kevin Joy (E'89) was recently named to Diversity MBA Magazine's list of 2012 Top 100 Under 50 Diverse Executives. Joy was active in Carnegie Mellon's black student organization Spirit during his undergraduate work, and later during his time at Goldman Sachs, he co-championed one of the teams responsible for diversity in recruiting. Today, he is settled into a job at Heartland Funds, in charge of institutional client development.
Anumanchipalli Receives IEEE Spoken Language Processing Student Grant
Gopala Anumanchipalli, a dual degree doctoral student in Language Technologies at Instituto Superior Técnico of the Universidade Técnica de Lisboa and Carnegie Mellon University, was the recipient of one of two IEEE Spoken Language Processing Student Grants for his paper at the International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP-2013). The paper is titled A Style Capturing Approach to F0 transformation in Voice Conversion.
New Facilities Reflect Commitment to CMU | Portugal’s Mission
The Madeira Interactive Technologies Institute (M-ITI), a not-for-profit innovation institution, which was created in the scope of the Carnegie Mellon | Portugal Program in 2009, opened its new facilities on March 22, 2013. The new space will welcome faculty, researchers and students, as well as support services, and will continue to host research on computer science and human-computer interaction. It is expected that the facilities will help M-ITI in joining the best institutions in Europe working in this area.
EPP Students Receive NSF Fellowships
EPP doctoral students Leslie Abrahams and Casey Canfield have been selected to receive 2013 National Science Foundation (NSF) Fellowships.
NYTimes Features Acquisti
The New York Times recently featured CyLab's Alessandro Acquisti in an article about users and privacy. The article discussed a number of Acuisti's studies, including a 7-year study of user behavior on Facebook. Acquisti discusses how he became interested in privacy economics, and talks about how, while users value privacy, their actions do not always protect their privacy because their immediate concerns and distractions can keep them from considering long-term consequences.
EPP Research Recognized by ERL
Two papers written by EPP individuals have been recognized as being among the best papers published by Environmental Research Letters in 2012. They include a paper co-authored by EPP professors Jay Apt and David Keith, entitled "Cost analysis of stratospheric albedo modification delivery systems," and another by Vanessa Schweizer (EPP PhD '10) and Elmar Kriegler (EPP visiting scholar, 2006-08). Schweizer and Kriegler examined the internal consistency of the prolific IPCC SRES scenarios and found wide variation in their internal consistency. They also found that, in the absence of climate policy, futures with high carbon dioxide emissions had strong internal consistency under a variety of socioeconomic assumptions, while low emissions futures did not.
March
CEE's Ergan and Akinci Awarded PITA Grant
CEE Assistant Research Professor Semiha Ergan and Professor Burcu Akinci have recently been awarded research funding from The Pennsylvania Infrastructure Technology Alliance (PITA) for their project: "Bridging Facilities Operations with Maintenance to Improve Understanding of Building System Behaviors." Their project, through integrated analysis of data, aims to better understand the behaviors of building systems and look at areas where improvements can be made to more efficiently consume energy.
Beckler Wins Grad Student Service Award
ECE Ph.D. student Matthew Beckler has been selected to receive the 2013 Carnegie Mellon University Graduate Student Service Award. Presented annually during Graduate Student Appreciation Week (this year, April 1–5), the award encourages and recognizes exemplary service to both graduate students and the university—someone who has contributed to an improved quality of life for graduate students; the entire academic community; and even, in this case, the education of Pittsburgh.
Dzombak Named to EPA's Science Advisory Board
David Dzombak, director of the Steinbrenner Institute for Environmental Education and Research and a CEE professor, has been named to the Environmental Protection Agency's Science Advisory Board. The panel will assess the EPA's fracking study, which examines the five steps of hydraulic fracking and their potential risk to drinking water.
CEE Alumnus Wins ASCE Leadership Award
Christopher Ejiofor (CE '14) recently received the Student Award Foundation – American Bridge Leadership Award at the ASCE Pittsburgh Section Annual Awards Banquet. The award recognizes the emerging leaders in the engineering programs in the Pittsburgh area. Ejiofor is currently the CMU ASCE chapter president and works with freshmen helping them determine what area of engineering best suits their interests.
Lowry & Gregory Awarded 2012 Best Feature Article: ES&T
CEE professors Greg Lowry and Kelvin Gregory have recently been awarded the 2012 Best Feature Article in Environmental Science & Technology (ES&T) Journal. Their article, "Transformations of Nanomaterials in the Environment," explores various scenarios of nanomaterials' impact on the environment once they have been released. The awarded paper will also feature a video summary of their piece.
Ovon Receives "Faculty for the Future" Fellowship
EPP grad student Carol Ovon has received the 2013-2014 Schlumberger Foundation "Faculty for the Future" fellowship. The fellowship is awarded to women pursuing a degree in the physical sciences or a related discipline abroad.
CMU-SV Part of New Resource for Graduating Students
Carnegie Mellon University Silicon Valley is one of three universities that are a part of the launch for Collegefeed, which was co-founded by CMU-SV graduate Aman Khanna. Collegefeed is a new social site that helps students and recent graduates get connected with employers and allows employers to get to know applicants better than they can in a short interview. CMU-SV students can utilize the resource during their job search. Read more about Collegefeed.
CMU-SV Students Place in Top 10 at EA Hackathon
Three teams from Carnegie Mellon University Silicon Valley placed in the top 10 at the Electronic Arts (EA) Hackathon. The teams represented the Software Management, Ph.D. and bicoastal Information Networking Institute (INI) programs. The Ph.D. team (Eric Chen, David Huang, and Max Siniavine) placed 4th while the MS SM team (Dan Fortner, Andres Ramirez, and Petch Wannissorn) placed 7th, and the INI team (Ditaya Das, Pooja Gada, and Divya Natesan) placed 8th.
Dean's Office Launches Creative, Insightful Training Series
The CIT Dean's Office has launched the Creative, Insightful Training Series, which is designed to provide staff with continuous learning opportunities that will expand both their personal and professional growth and will strengthen our CIT staff team. The series will include workshops covering a variety of topics, from Microsoft Excel to Sponsored Research Administration. The series is part of CIT Staff Focus, which now has two components: the Professional Speakers Series and the Compelling, Insightful Training series.
Naperville Sun Features Vyas
The Naperville Sun recently interviewed MechE senior Anisha Vyas about her experience in Walt Disneys Imagineering's ImagiNations Competition, in which Vyas' team won second place. The team included MechE's Laura Laham and Andre Sutanto. The article discusses the challenges that the competition poses to students, and Vyas talks about what she enjoyed most about competing. Read more about the CMU ImagiNations Team.
Follow the Construction of Scott Hall
Watch the construction of the new Sherman and Joyce Bowie Scott Hall, future home to the new Wilton E. Scott Institute for Energy Innovation. Several camera views of the construction are available. See the latest images and learn more about the building and the institute.
Acquisti Gives Talk at South by Southwest Interactive
CyLab's Alessandro Acquisti recently spoke at South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi), which is part of the SXSW conferences that happen yearly in Austin, Texas. He discussed his research about social media security and explained that he was able to use Facebook to predict people's social security numbers with off-the-shelf facial recognition technology.
ECE Launches Technology-Enhanced Hybrid Master's Program
ECE has launched its new Technology-Enhanced Hybrid Program, which allows students to earn their master's degree in ECE without being a residential student for all semesters they're registered in the program. Unlike the department's traditional residential programs, which require students to take courses in person at a Carnegie Mellon location, the Technology Enhanced Hybrid Program allows master's students to pursue a fully integrated, online experience through courses offered to both residential and remote students in the same degree program, in the same virtual classroom.
Hulu Appoints Alumnus as Acting CEO
Hulu announced that electrical and computer engineering alumnus Andy Forssell will serve as the acting CEO of the company, effective at the end of the month. Forssell has been with the company since 2007 and currently is the Senior Vice President of Content. Read about Forssell's experience at Carnegie Mellon University and his career at Hulu.
CEE Alumnus Receives ESWP's Engineer of the Year Award
CEE alumnus Tom Leech (E '69) recently received the Engineer of the Year Award from the Engineers' Society of Western Pennsylvania. The award recognizes individuals who have significant technical and professional accomplishments that contribute to the engineering profession, and who are active in civic and community affairs. Leech has worked for Gannet-Fleming for the past 44 years and is a part-time faculty member of Penn State University. His technical advice is sought on the most complex bridge issues, and he has influenced designs on many western Pennsylvania bridges.
Majidi Receives AFSOR Young Investigator Award
MechE Professor Carmel Majidi has received one of 40 Young Investigator Research awards from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. The AFOSR awards program seeks to foster basic creative research in science and engineering and enhance early career development of young outstanding investigators in the field. Majidi's research is rooted in soft robotics and active multifunctional materials.
U.S. News Ranks CIT Fifth Best Graduate Engineering School
U.S. News & World Report has released the 2014 edition of "America's Best Graduate Schools" and ranked CIT as fifth in the nation for graduate engineering schools, two points better than the last ranking. Computer engineering (part of ECE) went from fourth in the nation to third, while Civil (part of CEE) moved from 11th place into 10th. MSE also was ranked higher, 12th instead of 14th, and ChemE went from 14th to 13th.
Acquisti Co-Authors a Seven-Year Study about Privacy on Facebook
CyLab's Alessandro Acquisti has co-authored a seven-year study with CMU's Ralph Gross and Fred Stutzman that found evidence of three contrasting trends in the amount of information Facebook users disclosed over time: decreasing public disclosures; abrupt changes in disclosure due to interface and policy changes; and increasing private disclosures. The 2005-2011 study is the first longitudinal study to document how privacy and disclosure evolve on social network sites over an extended period of time. Numerous media outlets have covered the study, including ABC News, The Huffington Post, and a blog in the technology section of The New York Times.
Miller Elected Fellow of AIChE
James Miller, an associate research professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering, has been elected a fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) in recognition of his professional achievements, significant accomplishment in the area of catalysis, and especially for his outstanding leadership and service in the Pittsburgh local section of AIChE. Miller earned his bachelor's (1977), master's (1983) and doctoral (1995) degrees from Carnegie Mellon.
Pittsburgh City Paper Features Parzych's Company
Pittsburgh City Paper recently featured MechE junior Casey Parzych, who is the president of the company Midnight Madness Distilling. Parzych started the company last year in an entrepreneurship class with CMU's Doug Heckmann and Anthony Lorubbio. The article discusses the distillery's vodka Fortis, which is made from organic, fair-trade sugar cane, and discusses how the group became interested in producing spirits.
Aquion Energy Recognized
Aquion Energy, a Carnegie Mellon University spin-off and battery technology company founded by MSE/EPP professor Jay Whitacre, has been named as one of MIT Tech Review's 50 Disruptive Companies of 2013.
ICES Participates in National Engineers Week Event
On February 22 and 23, ICES participated in the annual National Engineers Week event at the Carnegie Science Center. The ICES activity "How to Build a Bone" challenged students to construct a bone-like structure from simple materials and by following design parameters. Students then test their bones for strength by seeing how much weight they can support. National Engineers Week occurs each year in February and is designed to inspire people to explore engineering.
Alumna Named Vice Chair of Board of Directors
Kathryn J. Jackson (E'87, '90) has been elected Vice Chair of the Board of Directors for ISO New England Inc., the operator of the region's bulk power system and wholesale electricity markets. She is SVP and CTO at Westinghouse Electric Company, based in Pittsburgh.
February
Alla Named UAA Athlete of the Week
The Tartan recently covered CEE first-year student Abhishek Alla, who was named the University Athletic Association (UAA) Athlete of the Week for his performance the weekend of Feb. 16–17. Alla helped lead the Tartans to victory with his 2–0 dual-match record against some of the team's toughest competition to keep them at an unbeaten 6–0.
FeedZai Achieves Profitability with Application Focus
FeedZai, a startup created as a result of the Carnegie Mellon | Portugal Program and funded by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), has achieved profitability 18 months after its first product availability. FeedZai's new fraud prevention software protects over $85B in electronic payments per year for Global 2000 customers.
Alumna Patterson Receives Award from Tennessee Tech
CIT alumna Mary Patterson will receive Tennessee Tech's 2013 Computer Scientist of Distinction award. Patterson completed her undergraduate degree at Tennessee Tech and received her master's degree in engineering administration in 1968 from CMU. Patterson is a retiree of IBM, where she finished her career as Director of Network Consulting for the North American division.
Roy Receives 2013 Ladle & Secondary Refining Best Paper Award
The Ladle and Secondary Refining Technology Committee awarded recent MSE graduate student Debdutta Roy the 2013 Ladle and Secondary Refining Award for Best Paper for her work entitled "The Effect of Silicon on Desulfurization of Al-Killed Steels." Established in 2005, this award is presented to the author of the technical paper judged to be the best of the class by the AIST Ladle and Secondary Refining Technology Committee, which is part of the AIST Refining and Casting Technical Division. Dedbutta will receive this award at a presentation in May 2013.
Obituary: George A. Roberts
George A. Roberts (B.S. '39, M.S. '41, D.Sc. '42) passed away on February 15, 2013 in Dallas, TX at the age of 93. Roberts first worked as a metallurgist for Vanadium Alloys Steel Corporation in Latrobe, PA, eventually becoming its President. In 1966, it merged with Teledyne, Inc. where he became President and Chief Executive until his retirement. He was a former trustee of CMU and provided initial funding for the construction of the George A. Roberts Engineering Hall. Roberts Hall was opened in 1997 and, at that time, it was the first new CMU engineering building in 35 years. Dr. Roberts is survived by his wife Ellen Seay Roberts, and children George Thomas Roberts, William John Roberts, and Mary Ellen Elphick, Margaret Lorenz Griffes, son-in-law Robert Fleming See, Jr., and their children and grandchildren.
Timothy Brown Joins CMU-R
Timothy X. Brown, a professor in computer and energy engineering, has joined the faculty at Carnegie Mellon in Rwanda. His research interests include adaptive network control, machine learning and wireless communication systems. Brown's projects include the role of mobility in network control of unmanned aircraft, denial of service vulnerabilities in wireless protocols, spectrum policy frameworks for cognitive radios, and indoor wireless network performance.
Russell Talks at FutureMed
ICES/BME's Alan Russell recently gave a talk on Day 5 of FutureMed, which is a program that promotes one-on-one interactions with world-class faculty in the field of medicine. Russell discussed his research and CMU's Institute for Disruptive Health Technology.
Faculty and Student Authors Awarded Best Paper at VDA 2013
Carnegie Mellon University Silicon Valley professors Ole J. Mengshoel and Ted Selker along with Ph.D. student Priya Sundararajan were awarded Best Paper at the 2013 Conference on Visualization and Data Analysis. Their paper, "Multi-Focus and Multi-Window Techniques for Interactive Network Exploration," was recognized along with four other papers at the conference in Burlingame, CA. The CMU-SV paper addressed the issue of comparing nodes in different parts of a network.
Students Win SPI Student Scholarship Competition
Madelyn Gioffre (CEE '15) and Natalie Peracchio (DC '15) have been awarded the third place prize in the SPI: The Plastics Industry Trade Association's "Plastics Mean Innovation" 2012 Student Scholarship Competition. Gioffre's and Peracchio's winning video discussed a current collaborative project with Engineers Without Borders and students across various departments. The students are developing a machine to automate the recycling process to reuse plastic bottles and create thatched roofing material to be used in Ecuador.
ICES Awards 2013 PA Junior Academy of Science Projects
This marks the fourth year that ICES has awarded middle and high school students' science projects at the annual Region 7 Meeting of the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science (PJAS). At this year's competition, held on Saturday, February 2, Derek Wang from North Allegheny Senior High School and Eleanor Yaruss from The Ellis School received ICES PJAS awards.
CMU-R Receives Ricoh Innovations Grant for eHealth Research
Carnegie Mellon University in Rwanda (CMU-R) has been awarded a grant from Ricoh Innovations Inc. (RII) to advance research on information and communication technology (ICT) for healthcare in developing countries. The unrestricted grant will be used to support the research of CMU-R Assistant Professor Hedda Schmidtke and Scholar-in-Residence Suzana Brown in the area of ICT for healthcare. An article in College Technology featured the news, and quoted Bruce Krogh, CMU-R's director.
Canfield Selected to Attend NIEES Seminar
EPP doctoral student Casey Canfield has been selected to attend the The National Institute for Energy Ethics and Society (NIEES), a week-long seminar in energy research to examine ethical and societal issues associated with US energy choices. The seminar will take place at Arizona State University in early April.
Alumnus Wins App Contest
An app created by CIT alumnus Neil Soni and Whav Owolabi was one of the 20 winners of the College Knowledge Challenge, a contest that was co-hosted by the Gates Foundation and Facebook. Soni's community-centered app is called CollegeZen, and it helps prospective students find their perfect university. Soni and Owalabi are founders of the startup The College People, which aims to help prospective students, parents and education administrators.
E&TIM Students Win Social Innovation Solutions Challenge
The winning teams of the Heinz College's Social Innovation Solutions Challenge, which calls upon students to submit innovative product solutions to remedy specific social concerns, include E&TIM students: Jillian Chen is on the first place team, which developed a social media site for Latin American school teachers; Prateek Arora, whose team won for a backpack-like water transportation and filtration system, is on the second place team; Dhir Kothari, whose team won for a nutrient bar with an oral re-hydration solution, is on the third place team; and Anisha Jhaveri, Apeksha Mehta, and Ameya Bhat are on the fourth place team, which developed rehabilitation equipment for paraplegics using NASA anti-gravity technology and electric stimulation.
Peha Takes Part in Global Young Scientists Summit
The Global Young Scientists Summit, recently held in Singapore, brought together the next generation of leading researchers from around the world to rub shoulders with laureates from the fields of medicine, chemistry, and physics. The invitation-only meeting was the first such event of its kind held in the country. EPP professor Jon Peha was in attendance and spoke about the new era for radio spectrum management.
EPP Alumna Working to Fight Flooding
The Rockefeller Foundation has pledged $3 million in support of a new public-private program to help cities finance and build defense systems against severe weather events and rising sea levels. The project is a collaboration including c.dots development and CH2M Hill. EPP alumna Shalini Vajjhala is cofounder of c.dots development, a company committed to "public service and private sector innovation."
Alumni Startup ComicBin Launches iPad App
Two alumni at Carnegie Mellon University's Silicon Valley campus have recently launched an iPad app of their startup, ComicBin, a subscription service for digital comics. Jason Goldsmith and Markus Lachinger started ComicBin after graduating in August 2012 from the MS Software Management program focused on software innovation and entrepreneurship. The ComicBin service offers accounts through Facebook and Twitter, allowing members to read comics from a growing database, then discuss and share recommendations with friends. With ComicBin's expansion into the Apple iOS Store, users can now browse and read hundreds of comics on the iPad.
EPP Research to be Presented at Upcoming Conference
Carbon capture research done by EPP faculty members Sean McCoy and Mitch Small and EPP doctoral students Olga Popova and Stephen Rose will be presented at the STGlobal 13th Annual Conference on Science & Technology in Society. Their paper is titled "Spatial stochastic modeling of sedimentary formations to assess CO2 storage potential: A case study for the Pennsylvania Part of the Appalachian Basin."
Azevedo contributes to NRC committee report
EPP Assistant Research Professor and CEDM Executive Director Ines Azevedo contributed to the recently released National Research Council (NRC) committee report on "Assessment of Advanced Solid State Lighting."
2012 CIT Faculty Award Recipients Announced
The 2012 CIT Faculty Award winners have been announced: CEE professor Jeanne VanBriesen received the Philip L. Dowd Fellowship Award; ECE and EPP professor Marija Ilic received the Steven J. Fenves Award for Systems Research; David Brumley, a professor of electronic and computer engineering, and Adam W. Feinberg, a professor of both Biomedical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering, were awarded the George Tallman Ladd Research Award; MechE professor Kenji Shimada received the Outstanding Research Award; and MechE professor Fred Higgs and ECE professor Larry Pileggi were awarded the Benjamin Richard Teare Teaching Award.
Goenka Receives Shri Ram Arora Award
Sumit Goenka, a graduate student in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, will be recognized by The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society (TMS) with the Shri Ram Arora Award. Goenka will receive the award at the TMS 2013 Annual Meeting & Exhibition in San Antonio, Texas, on March 5.
Privacy Day Highlights Challenges and Showcases Research
At Carnegie Mellon, Data Privacy Day (January 28) was recognized with a CyLab-sponsored panel discussion and poster session. Moderated by CyLab researcher Norman Sadeh, the panel included CyLab researchers Lorrie Cranor and Jason Hong, along with computer science faculty Travis Breaux. Privacy was the overarching topic, but the discussion focused on key points regarding data collection and usage practice, and regulation.
Radu Marculescu Wins Most Influential Paper Award
ECE professor Radu Marculescu and ECE Ph.D. alumnus Jingcao Hu have earned the 10-Year Retrospective Most Influential Paper Award from the Asia and South Pacific Design Automation Conference (ASP-DAC) for their work "Energy-Aware Mapping for Tile-Based NoC Architectures Under Performance Constraints." Established in 2012 with support from the IEEE Council on Electronic Design Automation, the award honors the most influential paper presented at the ASP-DAC conference a decade earlier.
Small to Chair NRC Study
EPP professor Mitch Small will chair a new National Research Council (NRC) study on Risk Management and Governance Issues in Shale Gas Extraction. The Committee will oversee two workshops this summer as its principal activity.
Un-Conference Brings Together Students and Alumni
The Gathering is an annual CMUSV event that brings together students and alumni to connect, recharge and reflect on issues in the industry. The Gathering 2013 took place on January 12, and over the course of three slotted session times, students and alumni engaged in discussion over topics ranging from how to conquer coding interviews, startup prototypes, continuous deployment, Big Data, moving IT infrastructure to the cloud, to how to start a table tennis tournament on campus. Many left the conference with insight about software issues and tools gained from interfacing with peers throughout the day.
Disaster Management Expert Joins Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley
Art Botterell recently joined Carnegie Mellon University's Silicon Valley Campus as a full-time researcher and Associate Director of the Disaster Management Initiative (DMI). Botterell is an experienced practitioner in the field of emergency information and public warning systems, with more than four decades of experience in government public safety and disaster response with the U.S. Federal Emergency Management System and Department of Defens as well as for state and local agencies and the United Nations Development Program.
Grover Wins Leonard G. Abraham Prize
New ECE faculty member Pulkit Grover earned the Leonard G. Abraham Prize from the IEEE Communications Society. Presented annually, the award honors the best original paper published in any journal financially sponsored or co-sponsored by the society in the past three years. Grover's paper, "Towards a Communication-Theoretic Understanding of System-Level Power Consumption," co-authored with Kristen Woyach and Anant Sahai, appeared in the September 2011 issue of the IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications.
Holm Named President of TMS
Elizabeth Holm, a professor of materials science and engineering, will become president of The Minerals Metals & Materials Society in March. She explains she will focus on bringing new people to the society. Holm's new role as president was featured in TribLive.
INI Alumna Among the Team That Devised Grammar-Aware Password Cracker
A team led by INI alumna Ashwini Rao (MS21), a software engineering Ph.D. student in the Institute for Software Research, developed a password-cracking algorithm that took into account grammar and tested it against 1,434 passwords containing 16 or more characters. The grammar-aware cracker surpassed other state-of-the-art password crackers when passwords had grammatical structures, with 10 percent of the data set cracked exclusively by the team's algorithm.
Happy Groundhog Day! Alum is Part of Phil's Inner Circle
CEE alumnus Jason Grusky (CE '95) is a member of Phil's Inner Circle, a top-hatted group of Punxsutawney local dignitaries in charge of planning the annual festivities and ensuring that Punxsutawney Phil (who in the off-season lives in the town library with his "wife" Phyllis) stays content and well-fed. The Inner Circle was created in the early 1960's to oversee Groundhog Day and uphold its traditions.
January
First Class in Master of IT Strategy Graduates
Five students have become the first to earn their degrees from a unique Carnegie Mellon University graduate program designed to train students to manage the military's top cyber security and information technology needs. The program, established in 2011, draws on expertise from Carnegie Mellon's College of Engineering (CIT), School of Computer Science and Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences and focuses on big data and analytics, decision and science policy, information security, software engineering and systems engineering and networking.
Grossman Selected as Agustin Vazquez Vera Lecturer
Ignacio Grossmann, a professor of chemical engineering, was selected as the Agustin Vazquez Vera Lecturer by the Instituto Tecnologico de Celaya in Mexico in recognition of his contributions to chemical engineering and his support to the scientific development of Mexico. On Jan. 15, Grossmann delivered the lecture "Discrete and Continuous Optimization Models for the Design and Operation of Sustainable and Robust Process Systems."
Moura Earns 2012 IEEE Signal Processing SPS Society Award
José M. F. Moura, director of the Carnegie Mellon | Portugal program and a BME and ECE university professor, has earned the IEEE Signal Processing Society's 2012 SPS Society Award for outstanding technical contributions and leadership in signal processing. Presented annually, the Society Award honors outstanding technical contributions in a field within the scope of the Signal Processing Society and outstanding leadership within that field, as evidenced by publications, patents, books and lectures.
Berlin Technical University Awards Biegler Honorary Doctorate
Berlin Technical University will award ChemE faculty member Lorenz Biegler an honorary doctorate in recognition of his outstanding scientific achievements in the field of process systems engineering on January 25, 2013.
Tsamitis Speaks at NSF Workshop about SFS Program
Dena Haritos Tsamitis, director of the Information Networking Institute and director of education, training and outreach for CyLab, presented an invited talk at a January 9 NSF workshop hosted by George Washington University on the NSF-funded CyberCorps Scholarship for Service (SFS) program. Tsamitis spoke about best practices for implementing cybersecurity education programs to an audience of university faculty and federal agency employees.
Elastic Intelligence Names Alumnus CEO
Elastic Intelligence, a Menlo Park, California-based provider of a platform to access cloud data has named ECE alumnus Ajay Singh CEO. He previously worked at BMC Software and was the founder and CEO of ProactiveNet.
Huffington Post Features CMUSV in Top Ten Satellite Campuses
The Huffington Post featured TheBestColleges.org's list of the best satellite campuses: those that enhance their flagship campuses and also do their own important work. Carnegie Mellon University Silicon Valley was ranked #1 in the United States.
CMUSV Researcher Chairs Conference on Cognitive Systems
Patrick Langley, a Distinguished Scientist at Carnegie Mellon University Silicon Valley, recently chaired the First Annual Conference on Advances in Cognitive Systems. The meeting, which was held from December 6-8 at the Oshman Jewish Community Center in Palo Alto, California, brought together researchers interested in the original goals of artificial intelligence.
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CIT Staff Award Winners Announced
The CIT Staff Awards Committee recently awarded the Staff Awards, which honor staff members who demonstrate outstanding qualities such as job performance, dedication, positive attitude and being a team player: Keri L. Baker, Business Manager in the Biomedical Engineering Department, won the Rookie Award; Ann Lyon Ritchie, Manager of Communications at the Information Networking Institute (INI), received the Staff Recognition Award; and Lori D. Spears, Associate Director of the Information and Communication Technologies Institute (ICTI), was awarded the Burritt Education Award.
Oppenheim Serves as Acting Department Head of CEE
Irving J. Oppenheim has agreed to serve as Acting Department Head of Civil and Environmental Engineering, effective January 1, 2013. Oppenheim has been a faculty member at Carnegie Mellon since 1972, with a joint appointment between the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the School of Architecture. He earned his B.E. from The Cooper Union in 1968, his M.S. from Lehigh University in 1970, and his Ph.D. from Cambridge University in 1972, and he is a Professional Engineer. He has authored more than 180 articles and conference papers, and is Co-Director of CenSCIR, the Center for Sensed Critical Infrastructure Research.
Alums Receive Awards for Start-Ups
The Open Field Entrepreneurs Fund has awarded four CIT alums with funding for their start-up companies: Kelly Collier (E'11) for her company ActivAided Orthotics; Doug Bernstein (E'12) for his company PECA Labs; and Alexander Soto (E'11) and Matthew Bauch (E'12) for their company Tunessence. The OFEF was established by Jonathan Kaplan and his wife and provides early-stage business financing and support to alumni who have graduated from CMU in the last five years.
CMU Ranked 7th by Students in Graduate Programs
Graduate Programs, an online resource that compiles student reviews and testimonies for those interested in pursuing a master's degree, ranked Carnegie Mellon University's engineering program seventh. The ratings are based upon rankings from students through November 2012.
Gregory, Oppenheim and Grieve Receive NSF Award
CEE professors Kelvin Gregory and Irving Oppenheim, along with ECE professor David Grieve, have been awarded a new project from the National Science Foundation's Sensors and Sensing Systems Program in the Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation Division. The grant supports the design, prototyping and testing of a device that will use augmented surface acoustic wave technology to select and separate biological cells from complex mixtures of cells.
Izard Awarded EPA Fellowship
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced Carnegie Mellon doctoral student Catherine Izard is one of its recipients of the Science to Achieve Results (STAR) Fellowships for Graduate Environmental Study. Izard, who is pursuing a Ph.D. in civil and environmental engineering and engineering and public policy, was one of approximately 80 students nationwide to receive a fellowship.
Tilton Elected Fellow of AIMBE
BME and ChemE professor Bob Tilton has been elected fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering in recognition of his being a top leader in academic medical and biological engineering. He will be introduced as Fellow of AIMBE at the Annual AIMBE event on February 17-19, 2013.
June
Schlesinger Quoted in WSJ
T.E. (Ed) Schlesinger, Department Head of Electrical and Computer Engineering, was recently quoted in a piece in The Wall Street Journal about money laundering. He states how there is currently no technology that could effectively identify money laundering.