Media Tips
How can we improve efficiency of brain surgery?
Matt Oberdier, a Ph.D. candidate in biomedical engineering, James Burgess, a neurosurgeon and adjunct lecturer and James Antaki, an associate professor in biomedical engineering, Carnegie Mellon
Carnegie Mellon University researchers are developing a new hydrosurgery system to help physicians better manage excessive bleeding during surgery. The device will house a clear, hermetically sealed dome through which instruments may be passed and a special pump to apply fluid pressure and monitor the flow to the surgical area. The new tool will save time and has the potential to benefit more than 35 million patients.
Contact: James F. Antaki, 412.268.9857
How can we improve cybersecurity for today’s school children?
Dena Haritos Tsamitis, director of the Information Networking Institute, Carnegie Mellon
Carnegie Mellon’s Information Networking Institute and CyLab received a $20,000 grant from the Verizon Foundation for a cyberawareness outreach program that will design, create and deliver targeted educational workshops and materials that raise cyberawareness and promote safe and responsible computing in the Point Breeze St. Bede community.
Contact: Dena Haritos Tsamitis, 412.268.3297
What is the real risk of driving a recalled Toyota?
Paul Fischbeck, a professor in engineering and public policy and social and decision sciences
Carnegie Mellon's Paul Fischbeck calculated the risk of driving a recalled Toyota and found that the accelerator problem increases the driving risk by only two percent. His risk analysis, for example, found that walking a mile is 19 times or 1,900 percent more dangerous than driving a mile in a recalled Toyota. And driving while using a cell phone would increase the risk much more than the chance of having a stuck accelerator.
Contact: Paul Fischbeck, 412.268.3240
How can we help preserve scarce water resources?
Chris Hendrickson, professor of civil and environmental engineering, Carnegie Mellon
Chris Hendrickson recently released a study that gives both consumers and industry a way to look at how to use water more efficiently and how we can start generating new ideas and technology for better management. The study found that it takes almost 270 gallons of water to produce $1 worth of sugar; 140 gallons to make $1 worth of milk and 200 gallons of water to make $1 worth of cat and dog food.
Contact: Chris Hendrickson, 412.268.1066
How can we better detect earthquakes?
Jacobo Bielak, professor of civil and environmental engineering, Carnegie Mellon.
Carnegie Mellon University's Jacobo Bielak was awarded $1.6 million over the next four years from the prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) PetaApps program to develop earthquake computer simulations that play an important role in reducing seismic risk for large urban coastal cities. The new research will give Bielak and his team the opportunity to integrate the ground motion of large sedimentary basins like the Los Angeles area with a variety of large databases, such as entire building inventories, to study the impacts of large magnitude earthquakes on buildings, transportation systems and other important underground infrastructures.
Contact: Jacobo Bielak, 412.268.2958
What kind of consumer education is Carnegie Mellon CyLab spearheading?
Dena Haritos Tsamitis, director of the Information Networking Institute, Carnegie Mellon.
Carnegie Mellon CyLab has created The MySecureCyberspace Portal. The portal (www.mysecurecyberspace.com) provides users of all ages with the tactical countermeasures to stay cybersafe and to better understand the privacy issues related to cybersecurity threats. The portal provides customized information to users.
Contact: Dena Haritos Tsamitis, 412.268.3297
What is being done to thwart Internet eavesdropping?
Adrian Perrig, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and public policy, and David Andersen, assistant professor of computer science, Carnegie Mellon.
The growth of shared Wi-Fi and other wireless computer networks has increased the risk of eavesdropping on Internet communications, but researchers at the College of Engineering and Computer Science have developed a low-cost system that can thwart these “Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) attacks. The system, called Perspectives, also can protect against attacks related to a recently disclosed software flaw in the Domain Name System (DNS), the Internet phone book used to route messages between computers.
Contacts: Adrian Perrig, 412.268.2242 or
David Andersen, 412.268.3064
What is the future of mobile device technologies?
Priya Narasimhan, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering and computer science.
Carnegie Mellon recently launched a new research center to study business organizations and technical issues related to mobility in managing systems found in cell phones, home appliances and building infrastructures. The Mobility Research Center, which involves students and faculty from both Carnegie Mellon’s Pittsburgh and Silicon Valley campuses, will develop underlying technologies that will ensure the privacy, security and reliability of sensitive and valuable information.
Contact: Priya Narasimhan, 412.268.8801
Contact: Chriss Swaney, 412.268.5776