From building robots that map mines to ones that explore the moon, Warren “Chuck” Whittaker has been a driving force in the success of Carnegie Mellon University’s world-renowned Field Robotics Center (FRC).

Whittaker is the senior field robotics specialist in the FRC, where he handles many technical building aspects, including creating 3D models, maps and ground control surveys. He manages the robotics machine shops, labs and high-bay areas, and helps researchers and students with their robotics projects. In 2009, he won an Andy Award as a member of the FRC staff, and he earned an individual Andy in 2011 for his work with students.

"Chuck is a big reason why the FRC is the best in the world at what we do and how we do it,” said his older brother, William “Red” Whittaker, the Fredkin University Research Professor and director of the Field Robotics Center. “He is the engine behind our operational effectiveness. Chuck's broad role, exemplary service and esteemed citizenship are unparalleled within the FRC."

“Chuck's broad role, exemplary service and esteemed citizenship are unparalleled within the FRC." — Red Whittaker

Research Professor David Wettergreen applauds Chuck’s extraordinary dedication and vision.   

“Chuck was there at the origin and as our organization sought to create the future of field robotics, Chuck has built the stable foundation of robots, facilities and people to realize the vision,” Wettergreen said. “There is no one who has put more time, care and attention into the success of field robotics.” 

Chuck began his career as a civil engineer working in the coal mining industry, where his training and experience drawing maps, surveys, gathering scientific data and gaining first-hand knowledge of heavy-duty machinery laid the foundation for his work in robotics.

He also gained valuable experience on the weekends, working with Red.

“Every weekend for one summer we drove to Ohio to work on inspecting a big energy-producing water dam near Cleveland,” Chuck said. “We would work until we dropped dead Sunday night and then go back to work on Monday. There were always projects with Red.”

In 1985, Chuck joined CMU and the team that was building three robots to inspect and gather data in a contaminated basement at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. A partial meltdown of a nuclear reactor there led to a major radiation leak in 1979, and more than a decade-long cleanup effort. One of the robot inspectors built for the cleanup, called Workhorse, was never used and is now housed in the lobby of CMU’s National Robotics Engineering Center. 

“We also worked on a robot that we sent to Chernobyl,” Chuck said. “Everyone was talking to us then.”

Building robots to handle tasks too dangerous for humans was an industry on the move and in the late 1980s, Chuck became a lead engineer, managing projects and directing the technical staff at RedZone Robotics, a spinoff company founded by Red. Clients included the Department of Energy and the Argonne and Oak Ridge national laboratories. 

“There is no one who has put more time, care and attention into the success of field robotics.” — David Wettergreen

“That’s where a lot of the early development and robot building took place for cleanup projects,” Chuck said.  “I was the first employee at RedZone.”

In 2004, Chuck returned to CMU to handle field operations at the FRC, where he’s worked on autonomous vehicles for the DARPA Grand and Urban challenges, robots for mining and robots for outer space.

“You can’t be around here and not get drawn into everything that’s going on in one way or another,” he said.

Today, three moon missions, sponsored by NASA, are shining brightly on his radar. He’s helping to build a robotic mini-rover to land on the moon in 2021, a larger rover to explore the moon, and technologies to allow robots to explore lunar pits, which could provide shelter and resources to sustain future lunar missions. 

While Chuck enjoys working with robots, he’s most rewarded by the researchers, fellow staff and students with whom he works.

“It’s been extremely wonderful to work with such high-caliber scientists and students. Working with great people, that’s the most important thing to me,” he said.

“Working with great people, that’s the most important thing to me.” — Chuck Whittaker

Chuck also enjoys mentoring the high school students in the Girls of Steel, a robotics team led by Senior Systems Scientist George Kantor and sponsored by the Field Robotics Center.

“Working with the Girls of Steel is a joy. We have 50 girls on the team and I have them all working in the machine shop. From January to March, the ‘build season,’ we work Monday, Tuesday and Thursday nights, and all day Saturday. It really is nice to pass it on and pay it forward,” he said.

Red praised the breadth, depth and impact of Chuck’s contributions.

“Chuck has touched so many in so many ways across so many generations. He has supported more student successes and been acknowledged for well-earned reasons in more theses than anyone I've ever known,” Red said.

The two brothers are grateful for each other.

"It has been wonderful beyond any dream to share work, high purpose and technical adventures with Chuck as well as sharing a brother's life and love,” Red said.

“Being Red’s brother matters. He has been the backbone of how I got where I am. I have a great rapport with Red and I have such an appreciation for that,” Chuck said.

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

When Minorities Contribute, Group Members Listen

When women are outnumbered in team settings, they tend to contribute less often to the discussion. Yet ironically, according to new research from the Tepper School of Business, when women do participate, they wield more influence. The takeaway is that organizations that want to reap the benefits of diversity should encourage those contributions. 

The paper, “Participation and Influence: The Countervailing Forces of Expertise Use in Diverse Groups,” published at Academy of Management Discoveries, studied over a hundred groups and was co-authored by Rosalind Chow and Anita Williams Woolley, associate professors of organizational behavior, and Tepper Ph.D. graduate Anna Mayo.

Woolley says the findings apply to both women and men if either gender is in the minority of a group. Both genders tend to get lost in the discussion because they participate less, even when they have relevant expertise, possibly because they assume they won’t be heard.

“But interestingly, if they do participate, and they have expertise, they are listened to — perhaps even more than those in the dominant group,” Woolley said.  Find out more.

Research Identifies New Pathways for Sensory Learning in the Brain

We've all heard the saying that individuals learn at their own pace. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon have developed an automated, robotic training device that allows mice to learn at their leisure. The technology stands to further neuroscience research by allowing researchers to train animals under more natural conditions and identify mechanisms of circuit rewiring that occur during learning. 

A research team led by CMU neuroscientist Alison Barth has used the automated technology to identify new, previously unidentified pathways activated when the brain rewires its circuits in response to experience. Their findings are published online in Neuron.

Barth's lab focuses on understanding the process by which cortical circuits receive sensory information and adapt to it in order to learn. Understanding the algorithm that underlies the changes in the brain's learning circuitry will have important implications for creating engineered systems that use deep learning and artificial intelligence. Find out more.

Graduate Students Across Campus Enhance Statistical Skills

More than 20 graduate students from across the university enhanced their statistical knowledge and skills through a pilot Statistical Learning Summer Workshop.

The Department of Statistics & Data Science, led by faculty members Peter Freeman, Joel Greenhouse and Rebecca Nugent, organized the workshop to introduce CMU graduate students outside of their department to best practices in statistical practice, from exploratory data analysis to using and interpreting various statistical learning algorithms. Graduate students Mikaela Meyer and Pratik Patil served as teaching assistants.

“When we initially proposed holding such a workshop, over 150 graduate students expressed interest in attending, and over 100 eventually applied to participate,” said Freeman, assistant teaching professor and associate director of undergraduate studies. “There is an obvious desire for statistics and data science education on this campus, and we hope to continue offering this workshop in the future. The students that we selected to participate in our first workshop come from a variety of backgrounds; a plurality are mechanical engineers, but we also have English and history and psychology students and more.”  Find out more.

Do Electric Car Policies Really Reduce Carbon Emissions?

Jeremy Michalek, professor of engineering and public policy and mechanical engineering, has recently published a paper with EPP Professor Inês Azevedo and EPP alumnus Alan Jenn that analyzes federal and state policies on electric vehicles and if they really succeed in reducing carbon emissions.

The federal government’s policy incentivizes electric vehicle adoption by allowing automakers selling electric vehicles to follow relaxed emissions standards on their overall fleet (including gasoline and diesel-fueled cars). At the state level, California leads several states mandating that if automakers want to sell vehicles in the state, a certain portion of them must be electric.

Both policies encourage the development of new technologies and incentivize the sale of more electric vehicles, but they interact in a counterintuitive way, Michalek says. While the state policy pushes electric vehicles into the market, the federal policy gives automakers a break on emissions standards for traditional cars when more electric vehicles enter the market. This results in a “dirtier” overall fleet, according to Michalek, and leads to a peculiar situation: people indirectly increase emissions when they buy an electric car.  Find out more.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame: CMU Night is Sept. 17

The fourth annual Carnegie Mellon Night at PNC Park is Tuesday, Sept. 17, when the Pirates host the Seattle Mariners at 7:05 p.m. Buy your tickets online — $23 for a corner box seat or $18 for a seat in the infield grandstand — and you’ll receive a free Pirates hat in CMU colors with the Carnegie Mellon wordmark on the side.

Prior to the game you can enjoy discounts on food and beverages from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. in the concessions area behind sections 133-135.

Purchase your tickets online.

Veronica Hinman, an expert in the field of evolutionary and developmental biology and a member of the Carnegie Mellon faculty since 2006, has been named head of the Department of Biological Sciences. The department focuses on fields that stand to have a significant impact in the science being done today and in the future, including molecular biology and genetics, developmental biology, cell biology, neuroscience, microbiology, biochemistry and biophysics, genomics and computational biology. Hinman researches the evolution of developmental mechanisms, focusing on gene regulatory networks (GRNs), the complex pathways that control the expression of the genes that are present at the beginning of most organisms' lives. "Biology is a truly interdisciplinary field that has a natural place at Carnegie Mellon," Hinman said. "I'm looking forward to strengthening existing interactions, developing new opportunities for life scientists to connect to solve critical problems, and training the next generation of committed citizens and scientists who will continue our work." Find out more.

Kate Whitefoot, an assistant professor of engineering and public policy and mechanical engineering, has been selected as one of the nation’s brightest young engineers to participate in the National Academy of Engineering’s (NAE) 2019 U.S. Frontiers of Engineering symposium in North Charleston, South Carolina, Sept. 25-27. About 100 outstanding early career engineers will meet for an intensive symposium to discuss cutting-edge developments in four areas: Advanced Manufacturing in the Age of Digital Transformation; Engineering the Genome; Self-Driving Cars: Technology and Ethics; and Blockchain Technology. The goal of the Frontiers of Engineering program is to bring together engineers from all engineering disciplines and from industry, universities and federal labs to facilitate cross-disciplinary exchange, and promote the transfer of new techniques and approaches across fields to sustain and build U.S. innovative capacity. 

A study co-authored by Statistics Professor Joel Greenhouse has caused Neflix Inc. to remove a controversial scene from “13 Reasons Why,” a TV show about a teenage girl who commits suicide and the aftermath. The National Institutes of Health-funded study, found the suicide rate among people between the ages of 10 and 17 went up by nearly a third in April 2017 — a month after the show made its debut. Fellow co-author Lisa Horowitz praised Netflix’s decision to cut the scene and said she hopes the action will serve as a wake-up call to the media that how it “portrays suicide may have a bigger impact on younger people than we thought.” Read The Wall Street Journal article.

Jamie Slomka, Miguel Martinez and Vivienne Pham (l-r) took the top three places, respectively, in the Undergraduate Research Office’s Speak Up! Competition. The competition culminated a series of workshops, which aim to improve students’ communications and presentation skills. More than 100 students participated in the program. In the competition each student was limited to three minutes and three slides to explain a snapshot of their research. Finalists presented their work on July 17.

• Slomka, a rising senior in policy and management and decision science, shared her work on the psychology of internet searches and was awarded first place.
• Martinez, a rising sophomore in mechanical and biomedical engineering, presented his work on developing joints and realistic skin for an artificial hand to allow surgeons to practice hand surgeries. He won both second place and the People’s Choice Award.
• Pham, a rising junior studying chemical and biomedical engineering, took third place for her presentation on DNA hybridization techniques for using cells to create heart tissue. Find out more.

Computational Biology Hosted Nation's First Pre-College Program

Twenty-six high school students recently completed studies in Carnegie Mellon’s Computational Biology Department’s first pre-college program, the first in the nation for computational biology. The students split their time between computer labs and wet labs, using computational methods to perform actual microbial research in a matter of weeks that would otherwise take years using traditional methods for colonizing bacteria. 

Phillip Compeau and Josh Kangas, both assistant teaching professors, co-directed the program. Its curriculum was similar to a module of a lab course Kangas teaches for undergraduate computational biology majors. The idea, Kangas said, is to push the students to learn by gathering real biological data and analyzing it with computational methods to solve real problems.

First, the students went on a cruise of Pittsburgh's three rivers, where they collected water samples. Then, working with Kangas, they learned to perform DNA sequencing of the bacteria in each sample. Finally, Compeau taught them how to use software to analyze the data in the computer lab.

The students learned methods and techniques, and also performed actual research, observing how microbial communities in the river differ depending on location, season and proximity to pollution sources.

"This was a really amazing experience," said Stephanie Eristoff, a rising senior at the American School in Tokyo.

Find out more.

New Building Signage Project Gets Underway Aug. 5

The first phase of installation for new exterior building signs on campus will begin during the week of Aug. 5, when approximately 80 new signs will be installed as part of the new campus signage system. The new identification signs, which will replace the existing ones that are more than 20 years-old, will complement the navigation technology that is widely used today. 

The new signs will be mounted directly onto buildings to more easily confirm that a visitor has reached the correct destination. They will include the building name, street address and building abbreviation code that matches the campus map to help navigate the campus. You can view the building names, codes and street addresses online.

“The new campus signage is the next step in the university’s vision to elevate the experience people have on campus,” said Bob Reppe, senior director of planning & design, Campus Design & Facility Development. “With the opening of the new Tepper Quad, the refurbishing of Forbes Avenue, the completion of the Square Project at Forbes and Morewood, and now the new signage, the campus continues to become more unified and recognizable.”

Beth Wiser, director, Visitor Experience, Marketing & Communications, said this new signage system will help everyday users and visitors navigate campus more easily.

“Our goal in creating this new signage system was to improve the experience for campus visitors and our students, faculty and staff from their arrival to their destination.  As people find their way around campus using technology, having the street addresses on the building signs will prove to be beneficial,” she said. “It also will help first responders to find their way quickly in an emergency, and help support the increasing amount of deliveries to campus buildings.”   

The existing red post and panel freestanding building signs, which have faded or suffered damage over the last two decades, will be removed. The new signage system includes a process for repairing or replacing damaged exterior signs, and includes a maintenance plan to keep the campus looking fresh and up-to-date.

The second phase of the project will be completed by mid-October, and will include directional and wayfinding signs throughout campus utilizing the new, unified map. The third phase will include identification signs for the East Campus and Collaborative Innovation Center garages.

The signage project, which began with the revamping of multiple campus maps into one unified map, is being coordinated by a working group with representatives from Campus Design & Facility Development, Facilities Management & Campus Services, and Marketing & Communications.

If you have questions about the campus signage project, please contact Beth Wiser at bwiser@cmu.edu.

Hamburg Entrance, Forbes Sidewalk To Close Through Aug. 14

The main entrance to Hamburg Hall, the driveway directly in front of the main entrance, and the adjacent sidewalk on Forbes Avenue will be closed through Aug. 14, while several revisions are made. The accessible entrance/exit from Hamburg Hall A level will remain open for use during the course of this work.

The renovations will eliminate the stairway leading from the driveway to the sidewalk, which was the pedestrian crosswalk that has been moved. The stairway will be made into a garden area, matching the gardens on both sides of the stairway. The work this summer will set the stage for additional streetscape and pedestrian improvements next summer, including a wider sidewalk and street trees.

For questions or concerns regarding the work, contact Ron Cunningham at rcunning@andrew.cmu.edu.

Enroll Part-Time in INI Master's Degree Programs: New Opportunity for Fall

The Information Networking Institute (INI) is offering a new opportunity to enroll part-time in its highly acclaimed master’s degree programs in Pittsburgh. For fall 2019, students may enroll part-time in the Master of Science in Information Networking program or the Master of Science in Information Security program. If you'd like to learn more, submit an interest form and the admission team will be in touch.

The INI is an integral part of the highly ranked College of Engineering at Carnegie Mellon. Its technical, interdisciplinary master’s degree programs incorporate business and policy perspectives and are an ideal fit for Pittsburgh professionals looking to take the next step in their technology careers. 

Learn more about the INI programs. 

Take Me Out to the Ballgame: CMU Night is Sept. 17

The fourth annual Carnegie Mellon Night at PNC Park is Tuesday, Sept. 17, when the Pirates host the Seattle Mariners at 7:05 p.m. Buy your tickets online — $23 for a corner box seat or $18 for a seat in the infield grandstand — and you’ll receive a free Pirates hat in CMU colors with the Carnegie Mellon wordmark on the side.

Prior to the game you can enjoy discounts on food and beverages from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. in the concessions area behind sections 133-135.

Purchase your tickets online.

William Kramer has been selected as the new director of the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC), a joint research center of Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, effective this fall. Kramer is currently project director and principal investigator of the Blue Waters Project and senior associate director for @Scale Science and Technology at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Kramer has held leadership roles at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and at NASA Ames Research Center. Over the course of three decades, his award-winning career has focused on making large-scale, complex computational and data analytics systems extremely effective, and making the organizations that create and use them highly productive. Most of the systems Kramer has helped create are among the largest supercomputers and storage repositories of their time. He has played a key role in establishing 20 of the world’s most powerful supercomputer systems, six extreme-scale storage systems and five best-in-class high-performance computing facilities. Founded in 1986, the PSC has enabled breakthroughs in many scientific disciplines by providing researchers nationwide with access to the most advanced computational systems available. The center and its collaborators have attracted more than $611 million in federal support to Pennsylvania, $150 million in the last five years alone, and have played a significant role in the Pittsburgh region's thriving technology economy. Find out more.

Mechanical Engineering Professor Jessica Zhang was recently awarded a Simons Visiting Professorship by Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach (MFO), Germany. The Simons Visiting Professors program supports distinguished scientists from outside Europe who wish to combine an existing invitation to an Oberwolfach Workshop with a research visit to a European university of up to two weeks. Zhang was invited to attend the Oberwolfach Workshop of “Mathematical Foundations of Isogeometric Analysis” on July 15-19, and she presented her latest research on "Convergence Rate Study Using Hybrid Non-Uniform Subdivision Basis Functions." Following this workshop, she visited Department of Mathematics, University of Rome “Tor Vergata” on July 22-23 and delivered a seminar on "Image-Based Mesh Generation and Volumetric Spline Modeling for Isogeometric Analysis with Engineering Applications."

Shawn Litster received a 2019 Annual Merit Review Award from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Program, recognizing his leadership and work in fuel cell research and development. Litster, a professor of mechanical engineering, is leading a team of researchers from Carnegie Mellon, the State University of New York at Buffalo, 3M and Giner to develop platinum-free fuel cells that perform for longer durations. Fuel cells, which primarily use hydrogen as fuel, are energy efficient, clean and fuel flexible, with high energy density and no carbon emissions. One of major challenges in making fuel cells more available has been the high cost of platinum, a part of the cell that works as a catalyst.

Chemistry Ph.D. candidate Zoe Wright has been named the recipient of the 2019 Kwolek Fellowship in Chemistry. The fellowship is funded by a bequest from Carnegie Mellon alumna Stephanie Kwolek, best known as the inventor of the synthetic fiber Kevlar. It provides up to $50,000 to women Ph.D. candidates who "have shown significant advances in their research." Wright works in the lab of Assistant Professor of Chemistry Stefanie A. Sydlik, where she focuses on synthesizing new methacrylate-based monomers to act as additives to existing medical adhesives. With the support from her Kwolek Fellowship, Wright plans to work on completing her research projects at Carnegie Mellon to prepare for postdoctoral research. She hopes to be able to expand her therapeutic methacrylic comonomer additives as a platform that could deliver antibiotics from bone cement, and to learn how to do bacterial cell culture. Find out more.

Sophomore Nicholas Acuna has been selected as a 2019 Perryman Scholar by the Perryman Family Foundation. Acuna is pursuing a degree in mechanical engineering and working as a research assistant in the Robotics Institute. The scholarship is designated for students in technology, engineering, math or metals, and rewards hard-working students who hope to apply their education to make a difference in the world. “I have gained more knowledge and practical engineering experience than I could have ever imagined through my studies and while working on the lunar rover project [in the Robotics Institute],” Acuna said. “After growing to love robotics, I am now beginning to consider entering a master’s degree program for it. I am incredibly grateful for the scholarship offered by the Perryman Foundation that will allow me to afford these amazing programs and to continue working on what I love.”

Carnegie Mellon University’s Police Department (CMUPD) paused this week to honor those among them who have gone above and beyond — some risking their own well-being — to keep members of the CMU community safe.

Officer Tyler Jaecke is one of those brave law enforcement officers at Carnegie Mellon who recently put the welfare of a campus community member ahead of his own. During a dramatic move that saved a man’s life, Jaecke, a veteran of the United States Marine Corps, suffered a serious brain injury that required eight months of rehabilitation before he could return to work.

For his selfless, life-saving actions, Jaecke was presented with the Medal of Valor at this year’s CMUPD Awards Ceremony on July 29, which honored 15 men and women in blue.

“Many of these men and women literally put their lives on the line to save a member of our community,” said Lt. Joseph Meyers, who coordinated the event. “It’s important that we show how much we appreciate them, and even more important, for the people who work at Carnegie Mellon and who are part of this community to be aware of what these officers are doing.”

Three members of the CMUPD were honored with the Life Saving Medal for actions they took during the past year: Sergeant Leah Nock, Sergeant Michael Cavaliere and Officer Robert Staaf.

CMU Police Officer Jeff Varchetto and Security Officers Natalie Sullivan and Kathryn Borland each received a Certificate of Recognition for their excellence, dedication and commitment to public safety, while retired university officers Lorraine Underwood, Ray Mialki and James Berry were honored for their decades of service to the city and the CMU community.

“Many of these men and women literally put their lives on the line to save a member of our community."
Lt. Joseph Meyers, CMUPD

Three members of the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police also were recognized at the ceremony, shining a spotlight on the valued partnership between CMUPD and the City of Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh Police Officers Shane Kearns and Cassie Lee and Night Watch Commander Michael Pilyih, who were involved in separate successful life-saving efforts over the past year, were presented with the Life Saving Medal.

“I just thank God I was in the right place at the right time,” Commander Pilyih said. “Zone 4 [in Squirrel Hill] was extremely busy that night. When I put the call on the radio, the CMUPD were there before I think I even let go of the mic, so I thank them for that. They took care of everything.”

CMU Police Chief Tom Ogden said the relationship between CMU, the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police and the City of Pittsburgh is exceptional. Pittsburgh Police Chief Scott Schubert agreed, noting the university is fortunate to have Ogden in charge.

“Chief Ogden is a good man. He cares about what he does. He cares about helping people, and he cares about accountability and fairness. You’re very fortunate to have him as your chief,” Schubert said.

Ogden honored two people in his department with the Chief’s Award. The first went to Security Officer Jim Moran, a former New York City environmental police officer, for his consistent extra effort and dedication to the CMUPD. Widely known as a “go-to” person, Moran consistently pitches in when and where he’s needed. In addition to his security patrol, he helps to train new officers, fills in as a transportation driver, assists with Special Olympics and teaches self-defense as a member of the CMU Crime Prevention Program.

The second Chief’s Award went to Accreditation Manager Rhonda Diercks, for her exceptional supervision of the department’s most recent reaccreditation process.

Ogden said less than 10 percent of law enforcement units in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania are accredited, and the first university police department in Pennsylvania to be accredited was the CMUPD.

“It means we have best practices. It means we’re inspected by outside entities,” Ogden said. “Being accredited is really the key to professionalism because we hold ourselves to a much, much higher standard than most police departments.”

Parking Permit Distribution Begins Aug. 19

The distribution of parking permits for campus lots will begin Monday, Aug. 19 and will continue through Friday, Aug 23.

Aug. 19, 9 a.m. – 1 p.m., Dithridge Street Garage Lobby
Distribution of faculty and staff permits for the following parking areas: 4700 Fifth Avenue, Clyde Street, Dithridge Garage, Fairfax Lot, Fifth & Craig (RAND) Garage, Fifth & Neville lots (lower & upper), GATF Lot, Henry Street/4620 Henry Street lots, Whitfield Lot and Zebina Way Lot.

Aug. 20 – 23, 9 a.m. – 3 p.m., Parking & Transportation Services Office, East Campus Garage
Distribution of all permits, including student permits.

Your Carnegie Mellon University ID is required to pick up your parking permit. If you are paying for your permit directly, payment can be made by cash, check, MC/Visa/Discover, Apple/Google Pay when you collect your permit material(s).

If you are not available to pick up your permit during the listed times, permits can be picked up at the Parking & Transportation Services Office during normal business hours (M-F 8 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.), Aug. 23 - 31. Permits not picked up by Aug. 31, will be cancelled and removed from the database unless you have made other arrangements. Please send email to parking@andrew.cmu.edu if you are unable to pick up the permit by Aug. 31, or if you wish to have someone else pick up your permit in your absence.

Questions? Send email to parking@andrew.cmu.edu, or call 412-268-2052, M-F, 8 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.  

Remember to Bring Your ID to Mellon Institute

The Mellon Institute is a secure building. CMU faculty, staff and students should wear their ID at all times when in the building. Please note that when you are in the Mellon Institute, security may ask to see your ID at any time.

Register Your Child for the Gelfand Outreach Saturday Series

Registration is open for classes in the Fall Gelfand Outreach Saturday Series. The classes for K-9 students are STEM focused and highlight the research and work of Carnegie Mellon faculty and staff.  They are developed to be fun, engaging, rigorous and hands-on. Registration is first-come, first-served.  Spaces fill quickly so don’t delay, register today!

Enroll Part-Time in INI Master's Degree Programs: New Opportunity for Fall

The Information Networking Institute (INI) is offering a new opportunity to enroll part-time in its highly acclaimed master’s degree programs in Pittsburgh. For fall 2019, students may enroll part-time in the Master of Science in Information Networking program or the Master of Science in Information Security program. If you'd like to learn more, submit an interest form and the admission team will be in touch.

The INI is an integral part of the highly ranked College of Engineering at Carnegie Mellon. Its technical, interdisciplinary master’s degree programs incorporate business and policy perspectives and are an ideal fit for Pittsburgh professionals looking to take the next step in their technology careers. 

Learn more about the INI programs. 

Take Me Out to the Ballgame: CMU Night is Sept. 17

The fourth annual Carnegie Mellon Night at PNC Park is Tuesday, Sept. 17, when the Pirates host the Seattle Mariners at 7:05 p.m. Buy your tickets online — $23 for a corner box seat or $18 for a seat in the infield grandstand — and you’ll receive a free Pirates hat in CMU colors with the Carnegie Mellon wordmark on the side.

Prior to the game you can enjoy discounts on food and beverages from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. in the concessions area behind sections 133-135.

Purchase your tickets online.

Jyoti Katoch, assistant professor of physics, has received an early career grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Katoch’s research focuses on understanding the properties of two-dimensional quantum materials. The grant will allow Katoch, a condensed matter physicist, and her research group in Carnegie Mellon’s Lab for Investigating Quantum Materials, Interfaces and Devices (LIQUID) to investigate quantum materials using advanced technologies. She is one of 73 scientists from across the nation to receive funding under the DOE’s Early Career Research Program, which supports outstanding scientists early in their careers as they develop their individual research programs. Katoch joined the Department of Physics in 2018, following research scientist and postdoctoral appointments at Ohio State University. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Central Florida and her bachelor’s degree from Panjab University in India.  Find out more.

University Professor of Architecture Vivian Loftness will receive the Legacy Award from Pittsburgh’s Green Building Alliance (GBA) at its Emerald Evening Gala on Sept. 12 at the MuseumLab. Loftness is being honored for her leadership and ingenuity of spirit, and for her work helping to transform communities locally and globally. Former head of CMU’s School of Architecture, Loftness is an internationally renowned researcher, author and educator with over 30 years of focus on environmental design and sustainability, advanced building systems integration, climate and regionalism in architecture, and design for performance in the workplace of the future. The GBA advances innovation in the built environment by empowering people to create environmentally, economically and socially vibrant places. Founded in 1993, it is one of the oldest regional green building organizations in the United States, serving Pittsburgh and the 26 counties of Western Pennsylvania, with stakeholders across the Mid-Atlantic, United States and the world.

Ariel Procaccia, an associate professor in the Computer Science Department, has been awarded the 2019 Social Choice and Welfare Prize for his work on fair division. In 2014, Procaccia launched the not-for-profit website "Spliddit," which creates provably fair solutions to help people divide anything from cab fare to football tickets. To date, the site has attracted more than 160,000 users. Procaccia and his team developed most of the algorithms used on the site, including the one used for the most popular application — rent division. The award, presented every two years by the Society for Social Choice and Welfare, has primarily recognized economists. Procaccia said it is significant that the community is looking closer at the role of computer science in fair division. Find out more.

Victoria Webster-Wood, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering, presented "Bio-inspired stochastic growth and initialization for artificial neural networks" at the Living Machines Conference last month in Japan. Webster-Wood leads the Biohybrid and Organic Robotics Group at Carnegie Mellon, where she focuses on the use of organic materials as structures, actuators, sensors and controllers toward the development of biohybrid and organic robots and biohybrid prosthetics. Webster-Wood joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering last fall and established the Biohybrid and Organic Robotics Group, bringing together bio-inspired robotics, tissue engineering and computational neuroscience to create novel devices. Learn more.     

More than 2,500 new graduate students from 56 countries will arrive at Carnegie Mellon University next week, and leading the welcoming committee will be Suzie Laurich-McIntyre, assistant vice provost for Graduate Education. 

Laurich-McIntyre and her team of two — Desirée Chronick and Julia Wittkamper — organize Graduate Student Orientation, a three-day, content-rich event that introduces the new students to university services, programs and resources, and helps them get acclimated to Carnegie Mellon and Pittsburgh. Sessions include a “Resource Fair,” “Standards for Academic Life,” “Maintaining Health, Wellness and Balance,” “Get Involved in the CMU Community” and “Living in Pittsburgh.” 

“I have an amazing team and partners,” Laurich-McIntyre said. “We partner with Kaycee Palko in the SLICE Office, who is managing our resource fair this year. We also partner with the Eberly Center, the Graduate Student Assembly, University Health Services, University Police, Computing Services, the Hub and Athletics. We have a broad reach across the university.”

Laurich-McIntyre, who came to CMU in 2003, has seen the tremendous growth of the graduate student population at CMU first-hand.

“When I first started, graduate orientation was one day and we held it in McConomy Auditorium for about 200 to 300 students. Next week we will have about 2,000 students in the tent,” she said.

One of her biggest orientation challenges is presenting information to students in an informative and entertaining way that is not overwhelming, particularly for international students, which make up 66% of this year’s class.

“We have such a large international student population for whom English is not their first language, so it can be very challenging for them when you have someone presenting at a fast pace,” Laurich-McIntyre said. “We always try to provide the slides online after the presentation for reference, and I would love to get to a point when we record the sessions so students can go back and listen again.”

Laurich-McIntyre said her office provides follow-up sessions for students in the fall on issues related to health insurance, health services and counseling and psychological services.

“I have the privilege to work with amazing faculty and staff and I have the honor to work with a lot of fabulous students."

Beyond orientation, Laurich-McIntyre and her team support the graduate education experience for students. The Graduate Education Office hosts professional development programs and seminars, and manages GSA/Provost funding for research grants and attendance at academic conferences. The office also assists students applying for fellowships and manages some of the national and international fellowships that graduate students receive. 

“We do a lot of work and advising around policy and process as it relates to graduate education,” she said. “We support the development and review of handbooks for each graduate department by providing information on new university policies and procedures. We have just over 200 graduate programs,” she said.

During the summer months, Laurich-McIntyre’s team supports several hundred rising university juniors and seniors from around the world participating in Go Research!, an umbrella program for undergraduate researchers from other campuses.

“We support their housing environment, along with Conference and Events Services and Residential Education, in Webster Hall and provide extra programming to help them get acquainted with Pittsburgh. We also hold a series of seminars around the research experience all the way up to applying for graduate school and National Science Foundation research fellowships, as well as a seminar on presentation skills. We have great partners around campus for all of this,” she said.

Laurich-McIntyre said among her biggest joys at CMU is building relationships with students and watching their progression and development. 

“I have the privilege to work with amazing faculty and staff and I have the honor to work with a lot of fabulous students,” she said. “I get to see students from when they walk in the door to when they graduate, whether it’s for two years, four years or even 10 when they complete their Ph.Ds. Some of my best days are when I find out a student has received a National Science Foundation fellowship.” 

Born in Chile, Laurich-McIntyre and her family moved to New Jersey when she was in middle school before eventually landing in Seattle. She earned her bachelor’s degree in ceramic engineering and her Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from the University of Washington, where she became director of its Center for Women in Science and Engineering.

Pittsburgh has grown on her over the past 18 years, she said, except for the weather.

“Everyone says it rains more in Seattle, but I don’t think so,” she said.

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

Movie Opens Friday; Scenes Shot at CMU

Don’t be surprised if you hear “Carnegie Mellon,” recognize the Gates Hillman Center and see CMU swag in "Where’d You Go Bernadette?" the major motion picture that opens in theaters Friday, Aug. 16.

Scenes in the movie, based on the novel by Maria Semple, were filmed in various locations throughout Gates Hillman two years ago. The film, starring Cate Blanchett, Kristin Wiig and Billy Crudup, revolves around 15-year-old Bee, who discovers her mother’s troubled past in her efforts to find her after she disappears.

John Adkins, location manager for Annapurna Pictures, said Gates Hillman poses as a Microsoft lab space in Seattle.

“Potentially, you’ll see staircases and various rooms in the building, actors wearing CMU swag, and CMU specifically named in the movie,” Adkins said.

Swartz Center Seeks NSF Innovation Corps Teams

The Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship is currently recruiting teams for its fall 2019 NSF Innovation Corps (I-Corps) customer discovery training program. Teams are open to CMU faculty, staff, students and recent alumni and can be reimbursed up to $2,500 for eligible expenses to assist researchers in commercializing their technology. Further details about the program and eligibility can be found online. There have been 139 teams in the program since fall 2014 and they have received more than $37 million in additional funding for their ideas. The deadline for teams to apply is Sept. 11 at http://bit.ly/cmu_icorps. 

Parking Permit Distribution Begins Next Week

The distribution of parking permits for campus lots will begin Monday, Aug. 19 and will continue through Friday, Aug 23.

Aug. 19, 9 a.m. – 1 p.m., Dithridge Street Garage Lobby
Distribution of faculty and staff permits for the following parking areas: 4700 Fifth Avenue, Clyde Street, Dithridge Garage, Fairfax Lot, Fifth & Craig (RAND) Garage, Fifth & Neville lots (lower & upper), GATF Lot, Henry Street/4620 Henry Street lots, Whitfield Lot and Zebina Way Lot.

Aug. 20 – 23, 9 a.m. – 3 p.m., Parking & Transportation Services Office, East Campus Garage
Distribution of all permits, including student permits.

Your Carnegie Mellon University ID is required to pick up your parking permit. If you are paying for your permit directly, payment can be made by cash, check, MC/Visa/Discover, Apple/Google Pay when you collect your permit materials.

If you are not available to pick up your permit during the listed times, permits can be picked up at the Parking & Transportation Services Office during normal business hours (M-F 8 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.), Aug. 23 - 31. Permits not picked up by Aug. 31, will be cancelled and removed from the database unless you have made other arrangements. Please send email to parking@andrew.cmu.edu if you are unable to pick up the permit by Aug. 31, or if you wish to have someone else pick up your permit in your absence.

Questions? Send email to parking@andrew.cmu.edu, or call 412-268-2052, M-F, 8 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.  

Remember to Bring Your ID to Mellon Institute

The Mellon Institute is a secure building. CMU faculty, staff and students should wear their ID at all times when in the building. Please note that when you are in the Mellon Institute, security may ask to see your ID at any time.

Register Your Child for the Gelfand Outreach Saturday Series

Registration is open for classes in the Fall Gelfand Outreach Saturday Series. The classes for K-9 students are STEM focused and highlight the research and work of Carnegie Mellon faculty and staff.  They are developed to be fun, engaging, rigorous and hands-on. Registration is first-come, first-served.  Spaces fill quickly so don’t delay, register today!

Enroll Part-Time in INI Master's Degree Programs: New Opportunity for Fall

The Information Networking Institute (INI) is offering a new opportunity to enroll part-time in its highly acclaimed master’s degree programs in Pittsburgh. For fall 2019, students may enroll part-time in the Master of Science in Information Networking program or the Master of Science in Information Security program. If you'd like to learn more, submit an interest form and the admission team will be in touch.

The INI is an integral part of the highly ranked College of Engineering at Carnegie Mellon. Its technical, interdisciplinary master’s degree programs incorporate business and policy perspectives and are an ideal fit for Pittsburgh professionals looking to take the next step in their technology careers. 

Learn more about the INI programs. 

Take Me Out to the Ballgame: CMU Night is Sept. 17

The fourth annual Carnegie Mellon Night at PNC Park is Tuesday, Sept. 17, when the Pirates host the Seattle Mariners at 7:05 p.m. Buy your tickets online — $23 for a corner box seat or $18 for a seat in the infield grandstand — and you’ll receive a free Pirates hat in CMU colors with the Carnegie Mellon wordmark on the side.

Prior to the game you can enjoy discounts on food and beverages from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. in the concessions area behind sections 133-135.

Purchase your tickets online.

Jason D’Antonio, director of the Health Professions Program and Biological Sciences assistant teaching professor, was appointed to the American Medical College Application Service (AMCAS) Advisory Committee. AMCAS is a centralized application processing service for students applying to allopathic medical schools in the United States and is coordinated by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).  As a member of the committee, D’Antonio traveled to Washington, D.C., in early July to meet with medical school admissions counselors and AMCAS leadership to discuss improvements to the current application process and to assess the reception of the new Choose Your Medical School tool. The online tool was designed to enhance communication between applicants and schools and to help accelerate applicants’ decision to commit to their chosen school. He will head to Phoenix in November to attend the AAMC Learn Serve Lead annual meeting to follow up on the goals and initiatives established in Washington, D.C.

Lisa Kay Schweyer, program manager for the Traffic21 Institute and Mobility21, a National University Transportation Center, was awarded a President’s Award for Extraordinary Service by the Association for Commuter Transportation. The Association for Commuter Transportation mission is to “… create an efficient multimodal transportation system by empowering the people, places, and organizations working to advance TDM [transportation demand management] in order to improve the quality of life of commuters, enhance the livability of communities, and stimulate economic activity.” Schweyer has been actively involved in the association since 2003, served in state-wide chapter leadership roles and led the international Vanpool Council for two years.

Physics Ph.D. candidate Dacen Waters attended the 69th annual Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting in Germany. The meeting is a chance for young scientists to meet and mingle with the mavens behind some of science’s greatest discoveries. This year’s gathering brought together 39 Nobel Laureates and 580 scientists from 89 countries for an extensive week of discussions, dialogue and social gatherings. Waters participated in a master class on topology, the mathematical study of shapes and space, which, in recent years, has begun to provide unique insights into the physics of materials. Some of the most memorable moments for Waters included attending a Laureate Lunch with Konstantin Novoselov, who received the Nobel Prize in 2010 for his co-discovery of graphene, and meeting Duncan Haldane, a prominent condensed matter theorist who was awarded the 2016 Nobel Prize for his work on topological phases of matter. “Being able to listen to them and talk about what is going on in the field right now and tell them about my own work was an amazing experience,” Waters said. Find out more.

M. Shernell Smith will serve as interim director of the Student Center for Diversity and Inclusion for the 2019-2020 academic year. During her 16 years as a member of the CMU community, Smith has been a standard-bearer for the university’s commitment to equity and inclusion, and was a member of the working group that identified the need for a common space and interdivisional partnership that became the Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion. Through a number of roles within the Division of Student Affairs, Smith has consistently aided in the expansion of the university’s understanding and efforts in civic engagement and sustainability, as well as equity, diversity and inclusion “She has been a tireless advocate for all students, shining a light on how best to ensure that Carnegie Mellon is a transformative experience regardless of background or identity,” wrote Holly Hippensteel and Jen Gilbride-Brown in an email announcing Smith’s appointment. Smith assumes the duties of Angela Campbell, who stepped down in June due to personal circumstances.

Andrew Wolff and Surya Aggarwal, Ph.D. candidates in the Department of Biological Sciences, have been named recipients of the 2019 Glen de Vries Graduate Fellowship. Made possible through the generosity of alumnus and founder of Medidata Solutions, Glen de Vries, the fellowship is awarded to recognize outstanding research achievement and potential among Ph.D. students in biological sciences.

• Working in the Hinman lab, Wolff is interested in how a wounding response can lead to regeneration in a larval sea star model. His research has directed his focus to the mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK) signaling pathways. Wolff plans to further investigate the MAPK pathway, with additional analysis of gene expression following MAPK inhibition.
• Aggarwal is working in the Hiller lab to gain an understanding of the survival mechanisms of the bacterium Streptococcus pneumonia. This insight may shed a light on the bacterium’s pathogenesis and enable the design of intervention strategies, as Streptococcus pneumonia is the leading cause of lower respiratory infections. Find out more.

CMU Honored for Supporting Military Guards, Reservists

Carnegie Mellon’s Office of Human Resources has received the Seven Seals Award for its support of employees who serve in military guard and reserve organizations. The award is presented by the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR), a Department of Defense program that develops and promotes supportive work environments for military reservists. Employer support of employees who serve in the military reserve enhances retention rates in the Armed Forces and, ultimately, strengthens national security.

Receiving the award on behalf of CMU at the Aug. 8 ceremony in Annville, Pennsylvania, were Steven McCarty, director of safety and security at CMU-Qatar (above, second from left), Human Resources manager Jamell Mihalik (center) and Richard Mundy, chief operations officer and associate dean of management and operations at CMU-Qatar (second from right). Pictured on the far left is Wesley Craig, state chair of ESGR, and at far right is Major General Anthony Carrelli.

Schatz Dining Room Opening Soon

The Schatz Dining Room, which has been closed for renovation this summer, is now in the final stages of its transformation and will be re-opening to the campus community soon. The anticipated opening is Wednesday, Sept. 18. 

The renovated Schatz Dining Room will offer a fast-casual restaurant experience, open exclusively to faculty, staff and graduate students during lunch, Monday – Friday. It will provide additional and flexible seating in a modern and updated space. The menu will feature upscale lunch entrées, a chef action station, made-to-order salads, soups and desserts. Schatz is open to all members of the university community for breakfast, dinner and brunch on the weekends.

A Schatz Dining Room Grand Opening Celebration is scheduled for Friday, Oct. 4. Find out more.

Tepper Building Earns American Architecture Award

The Tepper School of Business building is among the projects receiving a 2019 American Architecture Award. Over 100 buildings are being honored for their design excellence and for their innovative contributions to contemporary American architecture. Now in its 25th year, the American Architecture Awards are organized by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design, and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies. They are among the nation’s most prestigious public awards given by a non-commercial, non-trade affiliated, public arts, culture and educational institution. The Tepper Quad was designed by Moore Ruble Yudell Architects. Find out more.

Tuition Benefits Open Forum Sept. 5

Staff Council and the Office of Human Resources will host a Tuition Benefits Open Forum from noon to 1 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 5 in Rangos 1 in the Cohon University Center.

This forum is open to all staff members who are interested in learning more about the tuition benefits available to Carnegie Mellon staff members. Members from the Human Resources benefits team will be on hand to present a summary of benefits and address any questions. 

To help prepare for this session, we are soliciting questions in advance. Please submit your questions by Thursday, Aug. 29.

If you have questions about the forum, please contact Lynn DeFabio, chair of the Staff Council Benefits Committee,  at defabio@cmu.edu, or Becky McGhee, senior benefits administrator, at rmcghee@andrew.cmu.edu or 412-268-5076.

CMLH Seeks Applications for Fellowships in Digital Health

The Center for Machine Learning and Health (CMLH) is seeking applications for its 2020 Fellowships in Digital Health. Each fellowship provides one year of full support for a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon who is pursuing cutting-edge research that advances digital health, broadly defined. Full-time Ph.D. students with a primary research project related to digital health are eligible. Master's degree students are encouraged to contact the CMLH to determine their eligibility before they submit an application.

Applications that involve diverse approaches and disciplines that apply to health care, including machine learning, computer science, robotics, language technologies, computational biology, electrical and computer engineering, economics, psychology, sociology, public policy, business administration, law, human-computer interaction and statistics are welcome. Applications are due on Friday, Nov. 15. Find out more. 

Swartz Center Seeks NSF Innovation Corps Teams

The Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship is currently recruiting teams for its fall 2019 NSF Innovation Corps (I-Corps) customer discovery training program. Teams are open to CMU faculty, staff, students and recent alumni and can be reimbursed up to $2,500 for eligible expenses to assist researchers in commercializing their technology. Further details about the program and eligibility can be found online. There have been 139 teams in the program since fall 2014 and they have received more than $37 million in additional funding for their ideas. The deadline for teams to apply is Sept. 11 at http://bit.ly/cmu_icorps.

Provost James H. Garrett, Jr. has recently announced that Richard Scheines and Keith Webster have been reappointed as deans of the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences, and University Libraries, respectively.

In an email to Dietrich College faculty and staff, Garrett recognized Scheines as a strategic leader and valuable collaborator who has served as dean since 2014. He noted his leadership in helping to implement groundbreaking academic programs in behavioral economics and neuroscience, and for establishing interdisciplinary grand challenge seminars for first-year students. Garrett said undergraduate applications to the Dietrich College have doubled under Scheines’ watch and the quality of applicants has risen dramatically.  

“Richard advocates passionately for the humanities, and works tirelessly to continuously improve the student experience in the Dietrich College,” Garrett said.

In an email to faculty and staff in University Libraries, the provost said Webster will continue as both dean and director of Emerging and Integrative Media Initiatives, posts he has held since 2013 and 2015, respectively. Garrett called him a forward-thinking and transformational dean.

“Under his leadership, Keith has made substantial progress in elevating key technical infrastructures by implementing a new library management system, and a cluster of digital science products to support research and collaboration,” Garrett said. “Keith has also ensured that the University Libraries add value to Carnegie Mellon through enhanced programming, while fostering a culture of engagement and support among the faculty."

Robert M. Dammon, dean of Carnegie Mellon's nationally ranked Tepper School of Business, has announced he will step down from the position. Dammon will serve as dean until a successor is in place, when he will return to the Tepper School faculty full time. In his ninth year as dean, Dammon's leadership is highlighted by last year's opening of the David A. Tepper Quadrangle, a 315,000 square-foot building that houses the Tepper School and is a hub for collaboration, innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship on the Carnegie Mellon campus. Dammon was tasked with planning, opening and fundraising for the $201 million project, which highlights the Tepper School's leadership at the intersection of business, technology and analytics. "As dean, Dr. Dammon has been instrumental in establishing the Tepper School as one of the nation's premier business schools for undergraduate, graduate and online students," said Jim Garrett, Carnegie Mellon provost and chief academic officer. "He has helped to transform the school in exceptional ways by strengthening and expanding the academic programs, interdisciplinary research opportunities and learning environments for both the Tepper School and the entire university community." Find out more.  

Yulia Tsvetkov, an assistant professor in the School of Computer Science's Language Technologies Institute, and her research team have found that media coverage of the #MeToo movement shows accusers are often portrayed as sympathetic, but with less power and agency than their alleged perpetrators. "The goal of the movement is to empower women, but according to our computational analysis that's not what's happening in news stories," Tsvetkov said. Tsvetkov's research team used natural language processing (NLP) techniques to analyze online media coverage of #MeToo narratives that included 27,602 articles in 1,576 outlets. In a paper published earlier this year, they also looked at how different media outlets portrayed perpetrators, and considered the role of third-party actors in news stories. Their work draws insights from social psychology research, and looks at the dynamics of power, agency and sentiment, which is a measurement of sympathy. The researchers analyzed verbs to understand their meaning, and put them into context to discern their connotation.  Find out more.

School of Computer Science (SCS) Dean Martial Hebert has named James Herbsleb to serve as interim director of the Institute for Software Research (ISR) and Srinivasa Narasimhan to serve as interim director of the Robotics Institute. Herbsleb, an ISR professor, will begin his new role at the end of August, when current director Bill Scherlis goes on leave. Narasimhan will take the place of Hebert, who became SCS dean as of Aug. 15. Both will serve until permanent leaders are identified for their departments.

• Herbsleb is best known for his research in collaboration and coordination on large-scale software engineering projects, and developing and testing a theory of coordination that brings together the technical and human aspects of software development. He has addressed such topics as how development teams can function and collaborate even when they are geographically dispersed. He also has explored issues related to open source development, both in individual projects and in large-scale ecosystems of interdependent projects. He is the recipient of multiple awards, most recently the Outstanding Research Award presented by the Association for Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Software Engineering (SIGSOFT).
• Narasimhan, a professor in the Robotics Institute, has established a notable sensing group within the institute. His group focuses on novel techniques for imaging, illumination and light transport to enable applications in vision, graphics, robotics, intelligent transportation, smart cities, agriculture and medical imaging. He has led development of such innovations as programmable headlights and is leading research into non-line-of-sight imaging. He is associate director of a National Science Foundation Expeditions in Computing that is developing cameras to see deep beneath the skin. Narasimhan was the inaugural director of the Robotic Institute's first-of-its-kind master’s degree in computer vision. He has won a wide variety of awards and best paper citations.

Tartan Cup To Help Cancer Patients, Children's Hospital

Carnegie Mellon's women's soccer team kicks off its 2019 season by hosting a pair of games in the Tartan Cup, Aug. 30 and Sept. 1. On Friday, the Tartans host Aurora University at 3:30 p.m., and on Sunday they will battle Ohio Northern University at 1:30 p.m.

At Friday's game fans will be enouraged to contribute to Go4theGoal Foundation, a nonprofit that works to improve the lives of children battling cancer by providing financial support, developing and implementing unique hospital programs, funding innovative research and granting personal wishes. On Sunday, fans are being asked to contribute to a Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh toy drive. Following Sunday's game the team will host a meet and greet with its fans in attendance.  

September is Fire Safety Month

The Environmental Health & Safety Department is hosting several activities and hands-on training exercises in September to highlight Fire Safety Month. The sessions will teach you what you need to know about fire safety and fire prevention.

Sept. 4
Interactive Fire Safety Discussion & Trivia
10 a.m. – 2 p.m., Cohon University Center Rotunda
Learn important fire safety information.

Sept. 10
Hands-On Fire Extinguisher Training
12 – 1 p.m., 4 – 6 p.m., Merson Courtyard, Cohon Center
Rain location: Cohon Center Rotunda
Learn how to use a fire extinguisher. It could save a life!

Sept. 18
Fire Trailer Demonstration
1 – 3 p.m., Merson Courtyard, Cohon Center
See how quickly smoke can impair visibility and learn how to navigate a fire event.

Sept. 24
Documentary Screening: “After the Fire”
McConomy Auditorium, Cohon Center
12 – 1 p.m., speak with the creators Shawn Simons and Alvaro Llanos
4 – 6 p.m., screening
In “After the Fire,” Simons and Llanos tell their powerful story of survival to reinforce the importance of fire safety. 

Questions? Send email to safety@andrew.cmu.edu

CMU-Alert Test Tomorrow, Aug. 30

A test of the university’s emergency notification service, CMU-Alert, will be conducted at 4:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 30. In the event of an actual emergency, CMU-Alert sends email, voice and text messages that provide brief details and direct people to www.cmu.edu/alert for more information, instructions and updates.

Students, faculty and staff automatically receive CMU-Alert messages to their email and phone numbers listed in the Student Information Online (SIO) and Workday systems. Please make sure your information is accurate in SIO and Workday.

To help faculty and staff update their personal contact information in Workday — specifically office and mobile phone numbers — see the Change Contact Information guide. Please note that faculty and staff wishing to receive text alerts must identify their cellphone number as a mobile device in the drop-down menu. If you need to update your office phone information in Pittsburgh, please contact your department administrator.

You also can now download the new Rave Guardian Mobile App, a virtual buddy system that turns your smartphone into a safety device. To learn more about the app and how to download it, go to https://www.cmu.edu/erm/guardian.html.

Questions about CMU-Alert or the Rave Guardian Mobile App? Send email to cmu-alert@andrew.cmu.edu.

Tuition Benefits Open Forum Sept. 5

Staff Council and the Office of Human Resources will host a Tuition Benefits Open Forum from noon to 1 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 5 in Rangos 1 in the Cohon University Center.

This forum is open to all staff members who are interested in learning more about the tuition benefits available to Carnegie Mellon staff members. Members from the Human Resources benefits team will be on hand to present a summary of benefits and address any questions. 

To help prepare for this session, we are soliciting questions in advance. Please submit your questions by Thursday, Aug. 29.

If you have questions about the forum, please contact Lynn DeFabio, chair of the Staff Council Benefits Committee,  at defabio@cmu.edu, or Becky McGhee, senior benefits administrator, at rmcghee@andrew.cmu.edu or 412-268-5076.

Free Flu Vaccine Clinics Begin Sept. 9

Once again, the university will offer flu vaccinations at no cost for faculty and staff members. The flu vaccine clinics will be hosted by the Office of Human Resources and administered by Giant Eagle Pharmacy.

Visit the Flu Vaccine Clinic Website for the clinic schedule. To obtain your flu vaccination, you will need to present your Carnegie Mellon ID card. While walk-ins are welcome, we recommend you schedule an appointment for faster service. 

As an added incentive, employees who are vaccinated at a mobile clinic are eligible to receive $5 off their next visit to Giant Eagle. You must present your Giant Eagle Advantage Card at the clinic to receive the $5 credit.

CMU Night at the Symphony is Friday, Sept. 20

Carnegie Mellon University students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends are invited to come together for a performance and reception celebrating CMU’s important partnership with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.

A reception will be held at 6:30 p.m. in the Garden Courtyard of Heinz Hall, followed by the PSO opening night performance at 8 p.m., featuring conductor Manfred Honeck and violinist James Ehnes in works by Mozart, Dvorak, Saint-Saens and Borodin.

Reserve your tickets by Sept. 10.

CMLH Seeks Applications for Fellowships in Digital Health

The Center for Machine Learning and Health (CMLH) is seeking applications for its 2020 Fellowships in Digital Health. Each fellowship provides one year of full support for a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon who is pursuing cutting-edge research that advances digital health, broadly defined. Full-time Ph.D. students with a primary research project related to digital health are eligible. Master's degree students are encouraged to contact the CMLH to determine their eligibility before they submit an application.

Applications that involve diverse approaches and disciplines that apply to health care, including machine learning, computer science, robotics, language technologies, computational biology, electrical and computer engineering, economics, psychology, sociology, public policy, business administration, law, human-computer interaction and statistics are welcome. Applications are due on Friday, Nov. 15. Find out more. 

Swartz Center Seeks NSF Innovation Corps Teams

The Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship is currently recruiting teams for its fall 2019 NSF Innovation Corps (I-Corps) customer discovery training program. Teams are open to CMU faculty, staff, students and recent alumni and can be reimbursed up to $2,500 for eligible expenses to assist researchers in commercializing their technology. Further details about the program and eligibility can be found online. There have been 139 teams in the program since fall 2014 and they have received more than $37 million in additional funding for their ideas. The deadline for teams to apply is Sept. 11 at http://bit.ly/cmu_icorps.

Kai Roberts is singing his way into the hearts and minds of students.

As a singer-songwriter with a mindful message, Roberts has been steadily developing his passion for music at CMU since he enrolled in the university’s Arts Greenhouse program as a high school freshman.

He cut his first album while earning a bachelor’s degree in business at the Tepper School. Today, he’s a member of CMU’s Pre-College enrollment management team, where he’s mixing his loves for music and higher education.

“During my college journey, I gained an appreciation for the value of higher education and why Carnegie Mellon is a special place,” Roberts said. “Now, I want to be helpful to my peers and to the next generation of students that follow behind us.”

Roberts released his debut album, “Carnegie Café,” during his junior year. The collection of songs are an exploration of his experiences with mental health, something few people talked about on campus at the time.

Through his musical performances and his work as an Assistant Program Coordinator in CMU’s Arts Greenhouse program, Roberts has been able to explore opportunities and initiatives for opening up the conversation on mental health for students. For starters, he has become involved in Active Minds, an organization that aims to destigmatize mental illness on college campuses across the nation.

“It seemed like the perfect place to continue my work, which is so close to my heart,” he said.

As a speaker for Active Minds, Roberts travels all over the country speaking to students about mental health. Last year, he led a workshop at the Active Minds National Conference in Washington, D.C., where he instructed students how to tell their own personal stories through poetry and rap.

Currently preparing for his 33rd speaking engagement, Roberts continues to revel in the connection he feels with his audiences.

“Whether I’m presenting to a ballroom of people at a national conference or in a more intimate setting with fewer students, my goal is to make other people feel more comfortable with themselves,” he said.

For now, Roberts looks forward to maximizing his impact while he is on CMU’s campus. He hopes to start a nonprofit to promote mental health in minority communities, putting to use the business skills he acquired as a student at the Tepper School.

A Pittsburgh native, Roberts met his fiancée six years ago when they were both undergraduates at CMU. His parents, brother and new nephew live nearby, and although he’s not making a living at making music, he does have a new album coming out soon.

“I want to enjoy this ‘sweet spot’ of life for as long as I can,” he said.

Sandra DeVincent Wolf is building bridges, connecting faculty expertise with industry needs to advance Carnegie Mellon research and the future of manufacturing.

Wolf is making those connections in three appointments at CMU, leveraging her technical expertise — she has a Ph.D. in materials science and engineering — and business acumen.

She is director of research partnerships, focused on materials and manufacturing, for the College of Engineering, home to more than 120 ongoing industry- and government-sponsored projects. She’s executive director of CMU’s Next Manufacturing Center, a position in which she facilitates research collaborations in additive manufacturing, or 3D printing, and coordinates the internal and external activities of the center for nearly 30 faculty, 50-60 students as well as consortium partners from industry, federal agencies and labs. And she’s executive director of the Manufacturing Futures Initiative (MFI), an effort that brings together faculty across campus and seeds interdisciplinary research projects to attract large federal grants and industry partnerships, help manufacturing’s digital transformation and grow the regional economy.

Add to her above portfolio, managing a 3D printing lab, mentoring students, co-creating master’s degree and undergraduate minor programs in additive manufacturing, and playing a key role in the recent opening of MFI’s new home in Mill 19 at Hazelwood Green, and most would call her workload daunting.

Wolf calls it a labor of love. 

“I do them all because I’m very passionate about them,” said Wolf, who earned her undergraduate degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and her master’s and doctorate degrees at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU).

“I’m mission driven. I love to work with students, faculty and external partners, and I love bringing all these people together to run programs that are advancing technology. The overlap is significant between all my roles. It’s all in the same space,” she said. 

Wolf is looking forward to the opportunities a new space will bring at Mill 19. MFI is sharing two floors of the three-story building on the former J&L mill site with Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing (ARM), a public-private partnership operating as part of the Manufacturing USA network, whose mission is to create an ecosystem to speed the movement of industrial robotics technologies into commercial use, while preparing a labor force to operate and manage these technologies across the U.S. The more than 58,000-square-feet of space includes a huge high-bay area, about a dozen large flexible lab spaces, meeting and small breakout rooms, and a workforce training and conferencing center, where technicians and engineers will be trained to work in robotics and other advanced manufacturing technologies. 

“Collaboration will be a little easier with industry and outside partners at Mill 19,” she said. “The high-bay and lab spaces will provide easier access and it will allow our partners to embed researchers for the life of a project, or for just a week or two. Mill 19 gives us more space to do things on an industrial scale and room to grow.”

Example MFI projects include building an environment to enable large-scale automation of existing factories and warehouses, creating a virtual reality interactive training system for using additive manufacturing machines, and the robotic 3D printing of energy-efficient concrete building façade panels. Wolf said MFI’s support of a machine learning application to additive manufacturing helped CMU win a $6.8 million NASA University Leadership Initiative grant this summer to further develop 3D printing for the aviation industry. This is just one example of MFI’s efforts to seed research that leads to significant external support.

Wolf has a rich history in materials and manufacturing. She spent over two years with the Army Materials Technology Laboratory while an undergraduate at MIT. As a NASA Fellow in graduate school, she worked at the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, where the majority of materials research is done. After earning her Ph.D., she continued with NASA as a National Research Council (NRC) Research Associate until relocating to Pittsburgh to lead research and development at a mid-stage startup in casting of composites. She later worked for the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program under contract with Westinghouse and later Bechtel, and spent seven years on the executive team of the Materials Research Society. 

“What’s so fantastic about joining CMU is that I’m putting into play everything I’ve done before,” she said. “From the technical, to government relations, to strategic planning to building partnerships, to event planning.” 

Wolf said she’s been given the autonomy to cut her own path at CMU.

“Those in leadership have allowed me to make this position my own and to make decisions about what I think would advance the mission of each of the activities I lead,” she said. “I’ve been given the freedom to launch programs and participate in activities that are not explicitly part of my job description because they advance the whole enterprise. 

“CMU is an amazing place, with amazing people and amazing innovations. I’m so proud to be part of that.”

In her spare time, Wolf enjoys soccer, a sport she played as a kid, and as a student-athlete in high school and college. She coached and managed her children’s teams and is president of the Pine-Richland Soccer Club. She and her husband are certified referees and together officiate youth games for players ranging from ages 10 to 19. They met playing soccer at CWRU, where they were both studying materials science and engineering.

The Wolfs have two children, also engineers. Their daughter just began graduate studies at CMU in biomedical engineering after graduating from Duke University, and her son is in his sophomore year at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute studying electrical engineering.

Wolf also is active in the region’s materials and manufacturing communities and is part of the new Pittsburgh Chapter of Women in 3D Printing.

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