For nearly three decades, Jim McNeil has been giving the Carnegie Mellon University community a lift.

Since 1990, McNeil has been a shuttle and escort driver for students, faculty and staff, providing round-trip transportation from campus to Oakland, Shadyside, Squirrel Hill, the Pittsburgh Technology Center and Bakery Square.

“I used to drive a school bus, so I always liked driving. It’s just my thing. It’s relaxing,” he said.

McNeil usually works the 7 a.m. – 3 p.m. shift and drives the “B” route, one of five designated CMU shuttle routes. He makes 25 stops along the four-mile stretch through Shadyside and East Liberty, and completes about 16 round trips per day, beginning and ending at the Morewood Gardens turnaround.

“I like my job. I like the people I work with. My coworkers are good people. And the students are great. They always say, ‘Good morning! How are you doing? Have a nice day!’ I look forward to going to work,” he said.

The busiest time of the year for McNeil and his fellow shuttle drivers is during the school year, when there are more passengers and traffic, and occasional traffic bottlenecks.

“You just deal with it. It’s part of driving,” he said of the traffic congestion. “I don’t get stressed.”

When he is not driving, McNeil likes to watch sports on television, work around the house and cook on the grill during the summer.

“I’m living a dream,” he said.

By Bruce Gerson

Laura Velasco knows the power of a college education.

“I saw personally how higher education can change lives,” said Velasco, who as a freshman in high school saw her mother go back to college. “She was the first in her family to graduate from college, and she did that when she was a mother of three.”

Velasco said a college degree gave her mother career options and financial security, and inspiration to her children.

“I just wanted anything and everything to do with higher education, because I saw how it changes lives. I want to help change lives,” she said.

Velasco is one of five researchers in CMU’s Institutional Research and Analysis Office. She designs surveys and studies, and analyzes the data to help her clients — colleges, schools, centers, departments and programs — make informed decisions to benefit the university community.

Among her clients is CMU-Africa in Kigali, Rwanda. Over the past year, Velasco gathered information about five master’s degree students who enrolled there with assistance from a university partnership with the MasterCard Foundation. The partnership benefits economically disadvantaged students from Africa as part of the MasterCard Foundation Scholars Program. She also gathered information about 42 other students who entered in fall 2016.

Velasco conducted email surveys, in-person interviews and focus groups.

“Because it’s the first year of the [MasterCard] program, we were looking to set a baseline,” she said. “We talked to them about their experiences so far and their perceptions of CMU-Africa. Eventually, we want to look at outcomes.”

Velasco said she was impressed with the students, who are working hard to advance Africa in information technology and electrical and computer engineering.

“Everyone we talked to there had a clear vision of what was happening. I got a jolt seeing the impact of higher education,” she said.

She also was impressed with Kigali.

“It’s world-class. Our accommodations were 5-star. The entire infrastructure was beautiful. Everything is very well maintained,” she said.

Velasco also works with CMU-Qatar’s Summer College Preview Program for high school students. She measures the students’ perceptions and confidence levels about their academic readiness for college before and after the program.

Velasco is also responsible for Carnegie Mellon’s annual online Factbook. She said she is now collecting new information to publish in January.

Outside work, Velasco enjoys running and kayaking, but her time is mostly spent with her 9-month-old son.

“Right now, that’s all I do,” she said.

Have a suggestion for the Staff Spotlight? Send it to piperweekly@andrew.cmu.edu.

By Bruce Gerson

Mike Poljak, CMU’s academic coaching program coordinator, leads one of the workshop sesssions.

Twenty-two children of CMU faculty and staff received valuable advice during an Academic Development workshop to help start their college careers.

The brainchild of Linda Hooper, director of CMU’s Academic Development program, “Academic Success in College: Starting Off on the Right Foot,” addressed important topics like time management, using technology on campus, managing stress, note taking, study strategies and techniques, and setting goals.

Of the 22 workshop participants, 13 will attend CMU.

“It’s a broad-strokes preparation for college,” said Mike Poljak, CMU’s academic coaching program coordinator who directed the second annual workshop. “A lot of these students did really well in high school, and they haven’t run into any difficulties yet. So we want to open their eyes to the difficulties that may come, and give them some skills and ideas to handle them.”

Poljak oversees about 25 CMU students who have been trained to serve as academic coaches. The coaches meet weekly with fellow students to help them develop effective study skills and to cope with difficult situations that may arise. Two of the coaches, Mikaela Lewis and Roman Kaufman, helped lead the two-day, 16-session workshop.

Lewis, a senior studying biology and psychology, has been an academic coach since the spring of her freshman year. This fall she will be starting an accelerated master’s degree program in health care policy and management at the Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy.

Her top three tips to first-year college students are to stay positive and not stress over the little things; do not commit to too many activities at once; and to create a structured weekly schedule and stick to it as much as possible.

“They have to remember that things can get stressful more quickly in college,” Lewis said. “If students know what time they have available and where their time is going, they will be able to manage it better and determine a schedule that works best for them.”

Kaufman, a junior majoring in mechanical engineering, also is an academic coach. He encourages students to embrace a healthy routine; make deliberate plans to accomplish tasks; and make pursuing activities outside of studies that make them happy and help them cope with adversity a priority.

“Relying on inspiration, willpower or midnight-before-it’s-due heroics cannot be sustained. A consistent daily or weekly routine is the way to healthily juggle the CMU workload,” Kaufman said.

Dan Bittner, the son of Kimberly and Robert Bittner, who work in the Admission Office and National Robotics Engineering Center, respectively, said he found the workshop very useful.

“I’m actually learning things. It’s a lot of information you think you know, but it helps to be told by someone who has been in your shoes,” said Bittner, who will study musical theater in the School of Drama.

Alex Havrilla, whose father, Jeffrey, works at the Software Engineering Institute, also said it was valuable to learn from CMU students.

“Being able to hear insider anecdotes about CMU gives you a better idea of what to expect and how to plan for success. You learn best from your peers. They have a lot of valuable stories to share with the rest of us,” said Havrilla, who plans to major in mathematical sciences.

Jenna McKinley, whose mother, Deborah Shank, works in the Tepper School of Business, said she enjoyed the discussion about short-term and long-term memory. She learned that associating something you know with what you learn, and reviewing notes each day can help transition information into knowledge.

Jonathan Monroe, whose father, Robert, is an associate teaching professor at the Tepper School, liked learning about the “don’t know notebook.” Kaufman and Lewis illustrated taking notes on paper in a two-column format with class notes on the left side and questions about what you don’t understand on the right side. This allows you to quickly locate the questions you need to resolve.

“That’s something I think I will be using,” Monroe said.

By Kelly Saavedra

From hiking the trails to the Incan city of Machu Picchu to sea kayaking off the coast of Alaska, Barb Kviz spends her leisure time enjoying the environment she works to protect.

Kviz’s career at Carnegie Mellon began 30 years ago, when she left a nuclear power plant in the Midwest to become a radiation technician in Mellon Institute. When Pennsylvania began requiring large municipalities to recycle in the late 1980s, Kviz worked with a student on campus to set up a recycling program for the university.

“I’ve gotten a lot of satisfaction working with the students,” she said. “The students come here with their passion for some particular environmental issue they want to see move forward, and I enjoy helping them navigate the university to make it happen.”

Kviz managed university service contracts in Facilities Management Services — waste, recycling, elevators, window washing and more — until she could work as an environmental coordinator for the university fulltime.

In this role, and through her involvement with the Green Practices Committee, Staff Council and Scotty Goes Green program, Kviz advocated for a number of the environmental initiatives that are in practice today.

“It went beyond recycling, and it wasn’t just me,” Kviz said. “When it became possible to harness wind power in Pennsylvania, the Green Practices Committee promoted it. We became professional nudgers of all things that help sustain the environment.”

Kviz said she is very proud of the university’s LEED-certified buildings program, its green roofs and its purchase of renewable power.

But it is the company of people she meets through her work that she enjoys the most.

“I’ve been invited to departments and areas in the university that I normally wouldn’t visit. I get to learn about their processes and what they’re doing in their departments, and I help them find ways to be more efficient,” she explained.

“It’s not just about recycling, but rather looking at their processes and how they can be more environmentally friendly,” she said.

For more information about environmental programs at CMU, visit the Environment at CMU, Campus Commitments and the Staff Council Sustainability Committee websites.

Melanie Lucht, senior manager for Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity, has been appointed to the newly established position of assistant vice president for Enterprise Risk Management at Carnegie Mellon University, effective Aug. 1.

Rodney McClendon, CMU’s vice president for operations, said the Enterprise Risk Management program will help the university proactively manage and mitigate the many inherent risks associated with operating a global institution of higher education. He also said the program will help to bolster ongoing efforts to keep the campus community safe and resilient.

“In this new role, Melanie will provide direction and strategy on issues involving enterprise risk management, environmental health and safety, disaster recovery and business continuity, and, in coordination with other campus experts, emergency response,” McClendon said.

Lucht joined CMU in 2013 to head the university’s efforts in disaster recovery and business continuity. She also is currently serving as interim director of Environmental Health and Safety. Previously, she was vice president for Enterprise Business Resiliency at PNC Financial Services and has an extensive background in the insurance industry.

“I feel privileged and honored to be chosen to lead this important initiative,” Lucht said. “By working together with members of the university community, I’m confident we will be able to build a program that will support and enhance the safety and wellbeing of everyone at CMU.”

A master business continuity professional and certified insurance counselor, Lucht has earned national certification in incident management and command from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“Melanie has a proven track record of success assisting and motivating constituents to take personal ownership of mitigating risks and thoughtful planning for service recovery,” McClendon said.

Lucht earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and a master’s degree in administration of justice from Mercyhurst College.

By Bruce Gerson

Emil Schultz makes sure the heat is on at Carnegie Mellon University.

“We take care of anything that has to do with heat,” said Schultz, one of nine steamfitters in Facilities Management Services. “Even in the dead of summer, you need to heat the air. The air conditioning dehumidifies and chills the air to about 45 degrees and then we reheat it to about 65 or 70 degrees. Heating plays an important role in cooling.”

Schultz, who began working at Carnegie Mellon more than four years ago, is assigned to the west side of the Pittsburgh campus, which includes Warner, Cyert, Wean, Doherty, Scott, Roberts, Hamburg and Hamerschlag halls.

Schultz primarily handles heating-related tasks and in between service calls performs preventive maintenance on pumps, couplings, valves and filters. He recently responded to a call about a faulty heating valve that made four offices too cold.

“People are more forgiving when they’re cold than when they’re hot,” he said.

A native of Mars, Pennsylvania, Schultz learned his trade from his father, who owned a commercial heating and air conditioning company. He ran the operation for 25 years.

Schultz said he enjoys the working environment at CMU, which allows him to work independently and as part of a team.

“Everybody’s nice, and my co-workers are great. We’re like a family,” he said. “When someone needs a hand everyone jumps in to help.”

In his spare time, Schultz enjoys helping at a family firm that makes custom-made iron gates and railings. His grandfather started the company, and he worked there as a child painting railings. It is now owned by his son.

“That’s where I go to play,” he said. “When he needs something done, I can help.”

Have a suggestion for the Staff Spotlight? Send it to piperweekly@andrew.cmu.edu.

Ahren Hollis is great at solving puzzles, on and off the job.

Hollis has been a systems analyst for Carnegie Mellon University’s Environmental Health and Safety (EH&S) Department since 2003.

“When I started here, every unit in this department — biological, chemical, radiation, fire safety, ergonomics — had their own systems. They had their own databases, their own spreadsheets, and none of their systems were integrated,” Hollis said.

Hollis was hired to analyze the systems and find a way to make them work together. He discovered they fit together like a puzzle.

“Each system was a piece of the whole. Without each piece the picture was not complete,” he said.

Hollis works with students, principal investigators, staff, EH&S administrators and external partners, including a company that provides software for safety training and laboratory inspections.

“The challenge is finding creative solutions that meet the needs of everyone we’re trying to serve,” Hollis said.

One of the most visible changes for Hollis has been the growth of the CMU-Alert emergency notification system.

“Right after I started here, CMU had a power outage. We had to notify every researcher whose laboratory experiments relied on power, and all we had were paper lists with phone numbers,” Hollis said.

Hollis helps to maintain the CMU-Alert system, which notifies students, faculty and staff of emergencies through text and voice messages, email and social media.

Hollis said CMU’s support of the LGBTQ community was one of the primary reasons he wanted to work at the university.

“To work in a community where I feel supported is amazing,” Hollis said.

His interests include mini-dachshunds, gardening and jigsaw puzzles, which he regards as a highly competitive sport.

“The largest puzzle I’ve done was 9,000 pieces. At that time, it was the largest one the company made,” he said.

Have a suggestion for the Piper Spotlight? Send it to piperweekly@andrew.cmu.edu.

By Bruce Gerson

Mandy Rothmeyer has traded in her computer screen for a more natural canvas.

Rothmeyer, a gardener at Carnegie Mellon University, is using her educational background in graphic design and her landscaping know-how to help beautify the Morewood Avenue grounds around Mudge House, Stever House, Morewood Gardens and the Cyert Center for Early Education.

She cuts the grass, trims the bushes, and plants and takes care of the colorful garden beds.

“I still have that artist in me,” said Rothmeyer, who earned a bachelor’s degree in graphic design at LaRoche College before earning a master gardening certification at Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens. “I like to put colors together. I like to be creative, neat and orderly.

“We have a lot of parents and prospective students visiting campus now, and I want them to say ‘this is a nice place, this is a neat place,’” she said.

Rothmeyer begins mapping out her flower gardens during the winter and presents her ideas to her supervisor, David Wessell.

“I’ll come to him with a binder full of notes and designs with what I want to do and what it’s going to cost. That’s the graphic designer in me,” she said.

Next year, Rothmeyer said she is thinking about using different colors — orange and salmon — in the circular flowerbed at Morewood Gardens. “That’s what’s fun about this job — coming up with new ideas.”

She also enjoys the presence of children at the Cyert Center, where she recently designed a butterfly garden for the children to raise caterpillars and butterflies.

“I love the kids there, they are so interested in everything,” said Rothmeyer, who has a 6-year-old son.

Rothmeyer often brings plants to her home garden to nurse them back to health.

“That’s where I learn. My home is my test bed,” she said.

Have a suggestion for the Piper Spotlight? Send it to piperweekly@andrew.cmu.edu.

By Kelly Saavedra

Good help can be hard to find, but a new online service, CareLink, makes it easier for faculty, staff and students at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh to find help or offer services to the university community.

Through the CareLink website, which is available only to members of the university community, users can post needs they have for child care, pet care, tutoring, music lessons, lawn care, odd jobs and other services. Users also can offer services or recommend a service provider.

Lorrie Cranor, a computer science and engineering and public policy professor who has been instrumental in the creation of the site, said the idea for CareLink arose from recent discussions among the Committee on Faculty Diversity, Inclusion and Development.

“We were talking about ways we could help retain faculty and improve their quality of life, and one issue that came up is that it’s difficult and time-consuming to find child care in Pittsburgh,” Cranor said.

The committee modeled CareLink after similar services offered at other institutions.

“We learned of students who were offering to provide services to make money during their free time. At the same time, we were aware of graduate students who were struggling to find some of these services and staff who were interested in doing odd jobs,” she said. “It seemed like it would help everybody.”

Kathryn Roeder, vice provost for faculty and co-chair of the Committee on Faculty Diversity, Inclusion and Development, said she hopes CareLink will address the perennial challenge of finding good quality child care and other services.

“Faculty, students and staff all have busy schedules, so CareLink is a convenient forum to offer or acquire services from people they trust,” Roeder said.

The service is expected to grow through word-of-mouth and recommendations. Anyone with a CMU Andrew ID can login to carelink.cmu.edu and use the service to post a job or post their resume.

“We hope to see a lot of people posting jobs and resumes, and a lot of people finding matches,” Cranor said.

The CareLink project is sponsored by the Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty.

George Papuga carries what is probably the biggest key ring on Carnegie Mellon University’s Pittsburgh campus.

As operations manager for Facilities Management and Campus Services, Papuga oversees the maintenance of university buildings and gives people access to the Mellon College of Science building and CMU facilities from Second Avenue to East Liberty, Lawrenceville and along the Craig Street corridor.

“I get calls, and I dispatch the appropriate personnel. It makes the day go fast,” he said.

Occasionally, those calls come from Hollywood film crews. Papuga has worked with production personnel for several movies that have filmed scenes on campus, including “The Dark Knight Rises,” “Mothman Prophecies,” “Wonder Boys” and “Hoffa.”

Earlier this month in the Gates Center, crews filmed scenes for “Where’d You Go, Bernadette” starring Cate Blanchett, Laurence Fishburne and Billy Crudup.

“Film crews mostly want to know: ‘Can we change this? Can we paint this? Can we tear this apart? Can we take these doors off?’” Papuga said. “It’s a matter of doing our best to help them get the scene they want. Preparing for high-profile events during the academic year can be a challenge, but my job is to make sure they have everything they need without disrupting other operations."

For the White House Frontiers Conference last October, SpaceX brought a space capsule to put on display.

“We had to get the space capsule from the street onto the campus. So, it’s a matter of logistics a lot of the time,” he said.

When he is not at work, Papuga likes to golf and spend time with his family and grandchildren. In his 35 years at Carnegie Mellon, Papuga said he has seen tremendous growth at the university.

“I’m proud to be part of an institution that is recognized worldwide,” he said.

By Bruce Gerson

Marcia Gerwig plays a central role in Carnegie Mellon University’s campus life.

Gerwig has been director of the Jared L. Cohon University Center since the building opened in 1996. A nexus for the CMU community in Pittsburgh, the Cohon Center is the most popular venue on campus for meetings, student performances, concerts, movies and guest speakers. It also hosts conferences, commencement activities and large student events like the Lunar Gala, Meeting of the Minds and the technical and business career fairs.

“Every major university event touches this building in some way,” Gerwig said.

Gerwig oversees the building’s operations, including the information desk. She also sets policies, helps with logistics for each event and “keeps the trains running on time.”

“It’s different every day. I like putting the pieces of the puzzle together,” she said. “We do amazing things. We can get anything done with a lot of collaboration and partners on campus. The students are incredible, creative, challenging, enjoyable, smart and helpful. They’re just a pleasure to work with and so is the staff.”

Gerwig works with four staff members and 32 student workers. The team works with the Athletics Department and Dining Services, which operate the building’s physical fitness facilities and eating locations, respectively. They also work with Facilities Management and Campus Services and Custodial Services, which Gerwig said are vital to the center’s success.

“We really could not get through the day without their help. They take ownership of the building. They understand the big picture and what needs to be done to make a good experience for everyone,” she said.

One of her most memorable events in the Cohon Center was the 2016 White House Frontiers Conference, in which national thought-leaders, including President Barack Obama, discussed building America's capacity in science, technology and innovation.

“That type of an event is on a whole new level,” she said. “It was amazing. They transformed the entire building overnight. Our existing furniture went on the road for a day and the next day it was back to normal. It was like nothing ever happened. It was unbelievable.”

Gerwig usually arrives at work around 6:30 a.m. and often meets with student groups after 4:30 p.m. to help plan events in the Cohon Center. On most days she makes the five-mile commute to and from work on her bicycle.

“It’s a good way to wake up in the morning,” she said.

In addition to cycling, Gerwig enjoys watching late night comedy and police drama shows. She also likes to do yoga, cook and bake.

“Cookies, cakes and pies are my specialty,” she said.

Have a suggestion for the Piper Spotlight? Send it to piperweekly@andrew.cmu.edu.

By Bruce Gerson

Carnegie Mellon University is farming out a landscaping job for the environment’s sake.

Goats from Allegheny Goatscape, a herd of four-legged, eco-friendly laborers, will spend about three days and nights on campus, Sept. 12-14, to clear the steep, overgrown hillside between the Gates Center and Purnell Center for the Arts. The area has been invaded by Kudzu vines, which are strangling the native plants and trees.

Steve Guenther, director of operations for Facilities Management and Campus Services (FMCS), said this is a trial program in support of the Green Practices Committee and the university’s commitment to a healthy environment.

“Goats do a good job of eating invasive plants and weeds, their hooves are gentle on the ground, not like a heavy piece of equipment, and the end product is fertilizer,” said Guenther, who noted the goats’ digestive system kills the weeds’ seeds.

“We don’t want to start spraying that hillside with herbicide. We’re hoping the goats will eradicate the area and cut down on the regrowth. It’s all part of our commitment to a long-term maintenance plan that may combine goats with manual labor,” he said.

David Wessell, FMCS supervisor, said an electric fence will keep the Nubian goats and their protective miniature donkey inside the work area on the hillside. FMCS will install a three-foot-high, green plastic fence with signage around the perimeter of the electric fence to keep onlookers at a distance.

“We’ll set it up, and they’ll put the donkey and goats in there. About six goats can clear an acre of ground in a week and we have about two-thirds of an acre. So, we’re thinking three to four days should do it,” Wessell said.

“This is the first time on campus for something like this. This is an ecological approach to general vegetation removal. It’s a learning opportunity for the campus community,” he said.

Gavin Deming, founder and executive director of Allegheny Goatscape, said he is excited to come to Carnegie Mellon and is glad people are thinking about goats to help landscape difficult, overgrown areas.

“When we use goats we’re avoiding using any kind of chemical that goes into the plants, into the ground and into the air. It’s surely a benefit if we can avoid pesticides and herbicides at any cost,” Deming said. “Also, when you’re using goats you’re not using excess gasoline and oil for machinery that is often used in trickier landscaping situations.”

Deming said it makes sense to take advantage of what goats do best.

“It’s a very natural thing for goats to eat nearly any type of plant. So, why not make use of what they do naturally,” he said.

The best place to view the goats at work will be from the Pausch Bridge.

“We will be putting up signs on the bridge. There’s a perfect view from there,” Guenther said.

By Kelly Saavedra



Kristin Ward props up drama students with her artistry and ingenuity.

As a fulltime props coordinator working in the Purnell Center for the Arts, Ward assists students in creating every conceivable item the actors need on stage to achieve their most authentic performances.

“At the moment, we’re upholstering furniture for a show set in the Victorian era. But the script calls for an exploding can of tomatoes, and soon I will have to help the students figure out how to make that happen,” she said.

Ward fell in love with theater in high school, mostly from a performance perspective. She graduated from Nazareth College of Rochester, where she learned acting, costuming and how to build scenery.

“There are certain ways that you build scenery and you do that over and over again. It’s the same with costumes; even when you have different designs, you’re using the same set of skills,” she said. “With props it’s always something different, and that’s what I like about it. It allows me to constantly learn and use my imagination.”

When she is not working behind the scenes, Ward likes to return to acting. She wrote, produced and performed a one-woman show, “Swan,” inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale “The Ugly Duckling.”

“‘The Ugly Duckling’ is a story about how the outside world can be so brutal. For me, that hasn’t been my experience,” she said. “I wanted to create something about learning from others who are different from you, and about sharing and finding commonalities and defining who you are not just by how you were born but how you’ve been shaped by the world around you.”

Ward performed “Swan” at the Pittsburgh Fringe Festival in March, and she will perform it again at 1 p.m. Friday-Sunday, Nov. 17-19, at the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh. She said the message she works to convey through the show is that to find where you belong, you must look with your heart.

“Even if you feel like the odd one out, sometimes you just have to open up, step forward and find your belonging through a little bit of bravery,” she said.

Ward feels like she belongs at CMU.

“I like the community feel of Carnegie Mellon University,” she said. “I feel like I’m part of something, that we’re all on the same team.”

Have a suggestion for the Piper Spotlight? Send it to piperweekly@andrew.cmu.edu.

By Kelly Saavedra

From hiking the trails to the Incan city of Machu Picchu to sea kayaking off the coast of Alaska, Barb Kviz spends her leisure time enjoying the environment she works to protect.

Kviz’s career at Carnegie Mellon began 30 years ago, when she left a nuclear power plant in the Midwest to become a radiation technician in Mellon Institute. When Pennsylvania began requiring large municipalities to recycle in the late 1980s, Kviz worked with a student on campus to set up a recycling program for the university.

“I’ve gotten a lot of satisfaction working with the students,” she said. “The students come here with their passion for some particular environmental issue they want to see move forward, and I enjoy helping them navigate the university to make it happen.”

Kviz managed university service contracts in Facilities Management Services — waste, recycling, elevators, window washing and more — until she could work as an environmental coordinator for the university fulltime.

In this role, and through her involvement with the Green Practices Committee, Staff Council and Scotty Goes Green program, Kviz advocated for a number of the environmental initiatives that are in practice today.

“It went beyond recycling, and it wasn’t just me,” Kviz said. “When it became possible to harness wind power in Pennsylvania, the Green Practices Committee promoted it. We became professional nudgers of all things that help sustain the environment.”

Kviz said she is very proud of the university’s LEED-certified buildings program, its green roofs and its purchase of renewable power.

But it is the company of people she meets through her work that she enjoys the most.

“I’ve been invited to departments and areas in the university that I normally wouldn’t visit. I get to learn about their processes and what they’re doing in their departments, and I help them find ways to be more efficient,” she explained.

“It’s not just about recycling, but rather looking at their processes and how they can be more environmentally friendly,” she said.

For more information about environmental programs at CMU, visit the Environment at CMU, Campus Commitments and the Staff Council Sustainability Committee websites.

Roeder, the UPMC Professor of Statistics and Life Sciences and CMU’s vice provost for faculty, has played a pivotal role in developing the foundations of DNA forensic inference. Her current research focuses on statistical genomics and the genetic base of complex disease, with an emphasis on autism. Recent discoveries by Roeder include developing new statistical tools that identified 65 genes associated with risk for autism spectrum disorder; providing clues about the genetic makeup of the disorder; and determining that although rare mutations can have a big impact on genetic risk for autism, most risk stems from common inherited genetic variants.

Salakhutdinov, the UPMC Professor of Computer Science, is a leading researcher in deep learning, a branch of machine learning that is transforming artificial intelligence. By mimicking processes used by the brain’s cortex, deep learning has helped computers dramatically improve their ability to understand human speech and language, to identify objects and actions in images and to discover substances that hold promise as pharmaceuticals.

Wasserman, the UPMC Professor of Statistics and Data Sciences in the Dietrich College, researches both theoretical and applied statistics. On the theoretical side, he focuses on the intersection of statistics and machine learning, which is becoming increasingly important in the era of big data as both deal with analyzing data for high-dimensional problems. His work has provided new methods and theory for simultaneously estimating the relationships between large numbers of variables and for finding subtle spatial structure in complex datasets.

Dietrich College Dean Richard Scheines and Simon Initiative Research Scientist Lauren Herckis’ Global Learning Council presentation on "Walking the Talk – Overcoming Barriers to Implementation of Best Practices in TEL for Higher Education" has been making headlines since the late June event. Times Higher Education published "Academics 'Fail to Change Teaching Due to Fear of Looking Stupid,'" which was then picked up by Inside Higher Education, e-Literate and many other blogs and outlets and sparked an intense conversation about why professors do not use TEL tools. To respond to the article, Scheines, Herckis and Joel Smith, distinguished career teaching professor of philosophy, wrote an opinion piece for Times Higher Education, "Failure to Embrace New Teaching Techniques Not Just About Fear of Embarrassment.” 

Joseph S. Hezir, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) former chief financial officer, will join Carnegie Mellon University’s Wilton E. Scott Institute for Energy Innovation as professor of the practice on Aug. 1. Hezir, who earned degrees in chemical engineering and public policy from Carnegie Mellon, will assist the Scott Institute’s leadership team in strategic planning, including developing objectives, strategies and implementation plans. “Joe has a highly successful track record working in government, academia and the private sector,” said Scott Institute Director Jay Whitacre. “His expertise will help position the Scott Institute in a leadership role in areas of high-impact innovation and further foster the Institute’s growth and prominence.” Hezir also will guest lecture throughout campus and assist in developing new policy oriented publications that will enhance the understanding of policymakers and other stakeholders to the value of research and analysis developed at his alma mater. Find out more. http://www.cmu.edu/energy/news/2017/joe-hezir.html

Obituary: David Fowler

David Fowler, professor of history, emeritus, died July 5 at the age of 92. Before his retirement from CMU in 1996, Fowler taught courses relating to minorities in American history, the American presidency, the development of American society, business history and advertising and the American Constitution. A private ceremony will be held in Pittsburgh, and he will be laid to rest next to his wife, the late CMU English Professor Lois Josephs Fowler. Read his full obituary.

ETC Student Projects Win International Play Awards

Two Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) student projects have won awards at the 2017 International Serious Play Awards.

Angle Jungle, created during the spring 2017 semester for the Allegheny County Intermediate Unit and the Colonial School, won a gold medal. The iPad app, a puzzle-solving game for 4th- to 6th-grade students reinforces basic concepts of angles through a fun experience. The free app is currently available in the app store. The "Tiny" project team included Jibran Khan, game designer; Yonglin (Carl) Zhang, programmer; Jun Wang, co-producer and UI/UX designer; and Xueyang (Lena) Wang, co-producer and 2-D/3-D artist. The team instructors were Scott Stevens and Ricardo Washington. Learn more about the team. See Angle Jungle's iTunes preview. 

Smash, created during the spring 2016 semester for the Colonial School, won a silver medal. The student project team, “Athena,” created an iPad game geared toward 8-11 year-old boys with social and emotional challenges. The Athena team included Kanishk Chhibber, Ruchi Dangwal, Elaine Fath, Milind Nilekani and Luna (Luqing) Zhang. The project instructor for the team was Shirley Saldamarco. Learn more about the team.

The Conference on Serious Games was held July 18-20 at the George Mason University Science and Technology Campus. Serious Play is a gathering where creators and learning professionals can have critical conversations about game design requirements and share their knowledge with peers. The focus of the conference is exploring opportunities, challenges and the potential of game-based learning.

New York Times Tells How SCS Remade Pittsburgh

What do Pittsburgh's "food boom," the establishment of Uber's Advanced Technologies Center and the return of Jean Yang to her hometown have in common? The School of Computer Science (SCS), says writer Steven Kurutz in the July 23 edition of The New York Times.

Kurutz' Style section article, "Pittsburgh Gets a Tech Makeover," explains how SCS has helped change not only the economy of Pittsburgh, but also its culture — making the city more attractive to young, single people.

"While young, cool Pittsburgh may be a recent development, the research at Carnegie Mellon in the field of artificial intelligence has a long history," Kurutz writes.

"Put simply, where the tech world is going — self-driving cars; personal A.I. concierges; robot workers — is where Carnegie Mellon's faculty and students have been for decades."

Read "Pittsburgh Gets a Tech Makeover."

Emil Schultz makes sure the heat is on at Carnegie Mellon University.

“We take care of anything that has to do with heat,” said Schultz, one of nine steamfitters in Facilities Management Services. “Even in the dead of summer, you need to heat the air. The air conditioning dehumidifies and chills the air to about 45 degrees and then we reheat it to about 65 or 70 degrees. Heating plays an important role in cooling.”

Schultz, who began working at Carnegie Mellon more than four years ago, is assigned to the west side of the Pittsburgh campus, which includes Warner, Cyert, Wean, Doherty, Scott, Roberts, Hamburg and Hamerschlag halls.

Schultz primarily handles heating-related tasks and in between service calls performs preventive maintenance on pumps, couplings, valves and filters. He recently responded to a call about a faulty heating valve that made four offices too cold.

“People are more forgiving when they’re cold than when they’re hot,” he said.

A native of Mars, Pennsylvania, Schultz learned his trade from his father, who owned a commercial heating and air conditioning company. He ran the operation for 25 years.

Schultz said he enjoys the working environment at CMU, which allows him to work independently and as part of a team.

“Everybody’s nice, and my co-workers are great. We’re like a family,” he said. “When someone needs a hand everyone jumps in to help.”

In his spare time, Schultz enjoys helping at a family firm that makes custom-made iron gates and railings. His grandfather started the company, and he worked there as a child painting railings. It is now owned by his son.

“That’s where I go to play,” he said. “When he needs something done, I can help.”

Have a suggestion for the Staff Spotlight? Send it to piperweekly@andrew.cmu.edu.

2017-2018 Academic Calendars Now Available

The 2017-2018 academic calendars are now available at the University Store. Academic Calendars can be purchased on the lower level of the University Store at $2.09 each. For bulk orders (over 50) or orders for off-campus locations, details can be sent to art-store@andrew.cmu.edu.

More information about calendar orders is available online.  

Group Travels To Witness Poland's Past and Present

The soft smile on the face of Holocaust survivor Howard Chandler at a heritage festival was one of this summer's memorable moments for 2016 alumna Laurnie Wilson. She imagined he had moments in his life when he thought smiling would never again be possible.

Wilson, a freelance writer, and CMU professors Laurie Zittrain Eisenberg, Paul Eiss, Michal Friedman, John Weigel and Roni Rosenfeld spent eight days traveling through Poland on a Classrooms Without Borders (CWB) tour. CWB tours focus on experiential learning — participants meet people personally affected by the course of history who then demonstrate how the events resonated.

"Everywhere we went we met a person with a compelling story. To be there in the place where it happened is so powerful. It really engages your brain, your heart, your senses and your imagination — it was just a phenomenal educational experience," said Eisenberg, teaching professor of history.

Pictured are (l-r); John Weigel, Paul Eiss, Michal Friedman, Laurnie Wilson, Laurie Zittrain Eisenberg and Roni Rosenfeld.

Find out more.

Movie Filming in Gates Hillman, Aug. 7-8

Annapurna Pictures will be filming scenes for an upcoming major motion picture in the Gates and Hillman centers Aug. 7-8. “Where’d You Go Bernadette?” is being filmed in various locations throughout the buildings.

Parking on Frew Street will be reserved for production crews, Aug. 7-8, but the street will be open to local traffic. Wiegand Gym in the Cohon University Center will be used for catering on filming days.

CMU is working closely with the production company to ensure the university, its students, faculty and staff will benefit from the movie-making experience with minimal disruptions to normal operations. It is expected that references to CMU will be made in the movie and opportunities will be afforded to students while the movie is filming in Pittsburgh this fall.

The movie, based on the novel by Maria Semple, revolves around 15-year-old Bee, who discovers her mother’s troubled past in her efforts to find her after she disappears.

Jumpstart Your Idea: I-Corps Applications Due Sept. 8

The Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship has announced that the National Science Foundation I-Corps application deadline is Sept. 8.

CMU teams — faculty, staff, students and recent alumni — looking to jumpstart their science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) business ideas may apply. Benefits of the program include:

• Up to $2,500 to further your business venture through customer discovery;
• Access to six entrepreneurial workshops focused on agile innovation;
• Become part of the Project Olympus incubator;
• Access to a dedicated Swartz Center mentor to help hone your business idea;
• Priority opportunities to showcase your venture at LaunchCMU and Olympus Show & Tell; and
• Guidance in writing proposals for the national I-Corps Team program, SBIR/STTR grants, regional accelerator programs and other external funding.

Applications must be submitted online.

Learn more.

Remembering Randy

This September marks 10 years since Randy Pausch delivered his Last Lecture, a talk that went on to inspire millions of people. Are you among them? We are looking for individuals who were in the audience for the lecture to interview in celebration of the anniversary. These interviews will be packaged into a video piece for Carnegie Mellon's social media channels. Video interviews will be conducted Aug. 7-9 in Danforth Lounge. If interested in being interviewed, contact Laura Kelly at laurak@andrew.cmu.edu.

Sidewalk Repairs Underway

The sidewalks near Walking to the Sky and the bus shelter on Forbes Ave. are being repaired. The work is expected to continue through Friday, Aug. 11. Access to this area will be limited for the duration of the construction. Please use caution walking in this area and pay attention to the areas that are closed to pedestrian traffic. The bus stop will remain open during the repairs.

Jessica Hodgins, professor of computer science and robotics, has received the highest honor in computer graphics.  The Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques (ACM SIGGRAPH) has been named her the 2017 recipient of its Steven Anson Coons Award for Outstanding Creative Contributions to Computer Graphics. Hodgins was selected in recognition of her foundational work in character animation, her support and cultivation of emerging researchers, her extensive volunteer service to the computer graphics community, her leadership and career-spanning achievement. A pioneer in the use of physical simulation and control as a means to produce character animation, Hodgins has been passionately involved in computer graphics for most of her career. She played an important role in developing library-based control, such as motion graphs, both for animated characters and for robotics. She also worked on how both animated characters and robots can move in expressive ways — an important ingredient in both entertainment and human-robot interaction. Find out more.

Joseph S. Hezir, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) former chief financial officer, joined Carnegie Mellon’s Wilton E. Scott Institute for Energy Innovation as professor of the practice on Aug. 1. Hezir, who earned degrees in chemical engineering and public policy from Carnegie Mellon, will assist the Scott Institute’s leadership team in strategic planning, including developing objectives, strategies and implementation plans. “Joe has a highly successful track record working in government, academia and the private sector,” said Scott Institute Director Jay Whitacre. “His expertise will help position the Scott Institute in a leadership role in areas of high-impact innovation and further foster the Institute’s growth and prominence.” Hezir also will guest lecture throughout campus and assist in developing new policy oriented publications that will enhance the understanding of policymakers and other stakeholders to the value of research and analysis developed at his alma mater. Find out more.

Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor Pulkit Grover recently presented a tutorial on information theory at the IEEE International Symposium in Aachen, Germany. Grover and Penn State Assistant Professor Viveck Cadambe discussed resilient parallel computing for Big Data processing, such as machine learning for neuroscience and solving differential equations for protein folding and molecular dynamics. Students in Grover’s lab, particularly Yaoqing Yang and Sanghamitra Dutta, have led work in this new field. Grover said resilient tools are necessary because as data dimensions explode, parallel computing has emerged as a natural solution. New techniques from resilient communication systems have been introduced into computational systems to make up for slow processors that slow down the entire processing.