Tartans To Fight Fire in Abu Dhabi Robotics Challenge

A group of Carnegie Mellon students and faculty is among 30 teams from around the world that will compete at the biennial Mohamed Bin Zayed International Robotics Challenge (MBZIRC), one of the world’s largest and most prestigious robotics competitions, Feb. 23–25.

The competition in the United Arab Emirates will literally be a trial by fire, said Oliver Kroemer, co-leader of CMU’s Tartan team, as the organizers have advised that one segment of the competition — a firefighting challenge — will include real flames.

"The competition includes a nice suite of forward-looking applications," said Kroemer, an assistant professor in CMU’s Robotics Institute. The firefighting challenge, for instance, will use drones and ground-based robots to detect and extinguish high-rise fires.

Other challenges include a construction scenario in which robot teams place large blocks in a row. In another, addressing the threat of drones flying too close to airports and military installations, teams will use their drones to track and intercept aerial targets.

Learn more.

Second CMULead Cohort Gets Underway

Thirty-two staff members have been chosen by the University Leadership Council to participate in the second cohort of CMULead, a staff development program aimed at building inclusive leadership competencies, expanding networks and encouraging stewardship of the university’s mission, vision and strategic goals. 

Launched last year, CMULead consists of four day-long sessions held monthly from March to June and a graduation ceremony in September. This year’s program began with a leadership retreat, where Vice President for Operations Rodney McClendon delivered an inspiring address about the important role leaders can play at all levels of the organization. Other topics at the retreat included Building a Leadership Brand with Leanne Meyer, executive director of the Accelerate Leadership Center, and the DiSC Assessment, which taught leaders about individual styles as a way to better connect and collaborate with colleagues in the workplace.  

This year’s session topics are Working at a Top-Tier Research University; Strategy, Vision and Impact; Inclusive Leadership; and Building Leadership Competency for the Future.  A graduation ceremony is scheduled for September 9.

This year’s participants are:

• Christine Bedillion, senior manager, Business Development and Licensing;
• Sean Beggs, director, Master of Information Systems Management, Heinz College;
• Heather Bragg, Contracts Officer, University Research;
• Beth Callaway, director, Sponsored Project Accounting, Receivables;
• Allison Campbell, director, Process Improvement and Project Management, Computing Services;
  Joy Cavaliero, senior associate University Registrar;
• Ashley Chludzinski, director, Corporate and Foundation Relations, Advancement;
• Rebecca Cicco, workplace safety coordinator, Enterprise Risk Management;
• Monika DeReno, associate director for research, Institute for Software Research;
• Gary Delisio, associate director, Undergraduate Education, Information Systems, Dietrich College;
• Ed Dunlea, director, Corporate & Foundation Relations for MCS; MCS Dean’s Office;
• Christine Gilchrist, academic program manager, MCS;
• Andrew Girard, Head Tennis Coach, Operations Manager, Athletics;
• Gretchen Graff, senior business administrator, University Libraries;
• Cindy Griffiths, business manager, Tepper School Operations;
• Gabby Gueguen, Student Accounts Office, Enrollment Services;
• Chris Hertz, manager, academic programs, Mechanical Engineering;
• Matt Hoolsema, research designer and analyst, Institutional Research and Analysis;
• Jenn Joy-Wilson, senior manager, sponsored projects, CFA Dean’s Office;
• Christopher Kamerling, senior manager, Business Applications Development and Support, Business Systems and Services;
• Kristin Lavery, assistant director and business manager, Gelfand Center;
• Stefanie Oldfield, executive assistant to the dean, MCS Dean’s Office;
• Elena Papadakos, assistant director, Office of International Education Operations;
• Jennifer Pesci-Kelly, senior director, Advancement Communications;
• Michelle Porter, director, Parking & Transportation Services;
• Ken Rose, assistant director, University Libraries;
• M. Shernell Smith, interim director, Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion, associate director, Graduate Student Engagement and Support;
• Jennifer Sobol, director, Foundation Relations, Advancement;
• Ali Spetz, project administrator, Provost’s Office;
• Gladys Sripasert, director, Master of Public Policy & Management, Heinz College;
• Lara Steiner, senior director, Marketing, Marketing & Communications; and
• Kristyn Williams, business manager, Chemical Engineering.

Support CMU's 2020 United Way Campaign Feb. 17 – March 27

Carnegie Mellon's United Way Campaign kicked off on Feb, 17 with an email from President Jahanian underscoring the importance of supporting our local community through participation. 

“Carnegie Mellon University has a long-standing tradition of partnering with the United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania to support vital services and programs that help Pittsburgh and the greater region," Jahanian said. "This partnership has historically been one of the most meaningful ways that we make a positive and lasting impact in our community, and we are eager to mobilize the entire campus in supporting this important effort.”

Building on our over 30-year partnership with United Way, the goal this year is to increase participation and awareness to ensure our region’s most vulnerable residents have the support and resources they need. Every donation contributes to achieving this goal. When we donate to United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania, we:

• Help children succeed in school and life;
• Prevent hunger and homelessness for financially struggling families;
• Help people with disabilities live with greater independence; and
• Help seniors living independently avoid hardships and hunger.

The campaign, chaired by the Office of Human Resources with support from champions from across campus, will continue through March 27. Help make this year a success by donating through Carnegie Mellon’s United Way website.

CMU Donates, Reuses More Than 1,000 Items from Doherty Apartments

As CMU prepares to demolish the Doherty Apartments this spring to make way for the new Forbes-Beeler residence hall, it is diverting more than 1,000 items from being dumped in a landfill.

Led by Jan Held and Salonika Garapaty, project managers for Campus Design and Facilities Development, CMU and Mosites Construction have found new homes for nearly 700 items, from furniture, kitchen cabinets and appliances to doors, bike racks and even a piano. More than 300 items are still available for donation.

Items that were not tagged for reuse on campus were donated to ACTION Housing, Construction Junction, Doors Unhinged and the Habitat for Humanity Restore. The upright piano went to the Western Pennsylvania School for the Blind.

Interested in the items still available?  Contact Held at jheld@cmu.edu.  

The Forbes-Beeler residence hall is scheduled to be completed by summer 2022.

Who’s New at CMU?

Carnegie Mellon welcomes the following new staff members.

• Bill Brink, communications specialist, Institute for Politics and Strategy;
• James Burke, security officer, University Police;
• Bridget Irwin, Temporary Employment Service;
• Rachelmae Pulliam, Temporary Employment Service;
• Benjamin Shurtleff, Temporary Employment Service; and
• Lara Sullivan, program manager – Change and Communications, HR Operations.

Students with special needs receive special care from Diane Dawson.

Dawson, a 24-year veteran at University Health Services, has been CMU’s comprehensive care and nurse manager for the past decade. She works with students who have “higher level” health care needs, from chronic medical issues like diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and thyroid disorders to mental health concerns.

Dawson works with about 240 students each year. She meets with each of them individually to create a plan of care and develops and adjusts the plan as needed. She meets with some students weekly to help them meet the various challenges they face.

“I love working with the students. You become close to a lot of them,” she said. “It’s gratifying to see them progress and to see them blossom into these wonderful young adults with great ideas and being productive members of society. They become way more successful than me and that’s great. You always wish better for those you care about.”

Advocating for “her kids,” Dawson often works in close collaboration with the Division of Student Affairs, the Office of Disability Resources, Counseling and Psychological Services, academic advisers, deans, professors, department heads, community agencies, and parents as HIPPA rules allow.

“Some of the parents say I’m their new best friend. We work well together,” she said.

Dawson’s biggest challenge is finding enough time during the day to dedicate to her students’ needs. She said she often takes her work home with her and responds to students during the evening.

“You never know what the need will be. It keeps you on your toes and it keeps me excited to come to work every day,” she said.  “Sometimes they just need to talk, and that’s fine, too.”

“Sometimes they just need to talk, and that’s fine, too.”

Dawson earned nursing degrees from St. Francis College and Mercy Hospital, and a master’s degree in public management at the Heinz College. After years as an emergency room nurse, she joined CMU in 1994 and soon became a nursing supervisor. Following stints as clinical director for MedExpress in Pennsylvania and director of Health Services at Chatham University, she was lured back to CMU in 2011 to take on the hew comprehensive care role.  

During her time at CMU, Dawson said she has “weathered many storms,” from SARS and the Bird Flu, to spikes in the seasonal flu and the recent coronavirus situation. In early February, after the university asked anyone who had traveled to China within the last 14 days to self-isolate as a precaution, Dawson helped several graduate students in their off-campus residences.

“I delivered thermometers so they could monitor their temperature daily, and I called them every day to see if they needed anything, medically or academically. We helped them get their school work and I helped them connect with food delivery services at Target and Whole Foods. Thankfully, they’re all back to school now,” she said.

Dawson said she loves working for Beth Kotarski, executive director of UHS, and calls the administrative staff and professional staff of 10 nurses, a medical assistant, four nurse practitioners, a physician assistant and a full-time physician “phenomenal.”

“They deeply care about the students. That’s why you see a lot of long-term employees here,” she said. “Beth gives me many roles to play and challenges me. We have walking meetings at lunch time.”

Outside of CMU, Dawson is very active in several social service and health care organizations. She’s on the advisory board for the Pittsburgh Public Schools’ Health Tech program and is a member of the board of directors for the Brashear Association, which works with underserved individuals in the South Side and Hilltop communities with economic, social, educational and employment needs. She is on the board of Glade Run Lutheran Services. They provide care for children, adults and families through programs that include help with autism, mental health, education, and unique therapeutic offerings. She also is president of the Mid-Atlantic College Health Association and is heavily involved with the national organization (American College Health Association) as well.

In her spare time, Dawson is a health enthusiast and goes to the gym four to five times per week. She spends time on the weekends with her two granddaughters, Keira and Felicity. 

Dawson’s office is decorated with gifts from her students in appreciation of the time and care she’s given them.

“I still communicate with some of them on a regular basis after they graduate. They’re like my kids,” she said.

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

Randy Trzeciak recently participated in the opening bell ceremony at NASDAQ global headquarters in New York, where he was attending a cybersecurity technical exchange with team members from NASDAQ’s Global Security. The goal of the meeting was to discuss existing security programs, verify and validate security controls, recommend enhancements, and discuss opportunities for the Software Engineering Institute’s CERT Division to assist in the implementation of recommended enhancements. Also on the agenda was a discussion of ways by which NASDAQ can develop a recruiting relationship with CMU and Heinz College for interns and full-time employees. Trzeciak is deputy director of cyber risk and resilience in the SEI CERT Division, director of the Master of Science in Information Security Policy & Management Program in Heinz College, and adjunct professor in the School of Information Systems and Management.  

M. Shernell Smith, a standard-bearer for CMU’s commitment to equity and inclusion during her 16-year tenure at the university, has accepted the position of Executive Director of the Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion, effective immediately. Smith has served as the center’s interim director since August 2019. In an internal announcement to the Division of Student Affairs, Jen Gilbride-Brown, assistant vice provost for Student Success and Equity, and Holly Hippensteel, associate vice president for Community Standards and Diversity Initiatives, praised Smith for advancing CMU’s commitment to civic engagement and sustainability and recognized her work as a founding member of the center. “Shernell embodies our commitment to cultivating deep and meaningful relationships with students, to building community among all members of the CMU community, and to enacting positive change for the CMU experience,” they said. “Shernell brings the experience, passion and commitment to help shape CMU’s ongoing equity and inclusion work and to lead the Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion at this pivotal time for the university.” Find out more.

Alexandra Chouldechova and Haiyi Zhu have been awarded a research grant as part of NSF's Program on Fairness in Artificial Intelligence (AI) in collaboration with Amazon. Chouldechova and Zhu will serve as co-principal investigators of a project that will focus on advancing AI with human-algorithm collaborations. The research aims to close the gap between algorithmic objectives and the complications of real-world decision-making contexts. Chouldechova is an assistant professor of statistics and public policy at the Heinz College and Zhu is an assistant professor in the School of Computer Science’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute. Chouldechova's teaching and research focus on problems related to fairness in predictive modeling. Zhu’s research interests lie at the intersection of human-computer interaction, machine learning and organization science. Learn more. 

Heinz, Metro21 To Host G2U Initiative

Heinz College is one of two new Volcker Alliance Regional Council sites that support the efforts of their signature Government-to-University (G2U) Initiative. The second new Regional Council will be located in Los Angeles. G2U is an innovative approach to addressing critical governance challenges by building structured regional networks of governments and universities. The initiative aims to catalyze a robust local marketplace that can sustainably connect governments' hiring and research needs with local university capacity.

“We have a long history of helping governments become more evidence-based and analytical in their decision-making, and collaborating with an esteemed partner like the Volcker Alliance unlocks new possibilities for creating mutually beneficial relationships between universities and governments,” said Ramayya Krishnan, dean of Heinz College.

The new Pittsburgh Regional Council will be headed by Heinz College and its Metro21: Smart Cities Institute. Metro21 is a university-wide research center that develops and deploys 21st century solutions to the challenges facing metropolitan regions. Metro21 projects address problems related to safe mobility, public health, net zero energy, clean air and water, equitable economic prosperity, and smart building and infrastructure.

“Through our existing partnerships with the City of Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, the Allegheny County Airport Authority, and many other community, government, nonprofit, and private organizations, we have established a collaborative real-world testbed for solutions that have positive and lasting effects on the Pittsburgh metro area and all the people who live here,” said Karen Lightman, executive director of Metro21. “Deepening our partnership with the Volcker Alliance will allow us to further extend our impact throughout the region, including in surrounding suburban, exurban, and rural areas.”

Lunch and Learn with Dining Services 

Dining Services is hosting a Lunch and Learn in honor of National Nutrition Month from noon to 1 p.m., Friday, March 13 in the Cohon Center’s Danforth Conference Room. Chartwells Registered Dietitian Marla Breitbart and Sustainability Coordinator Tyler Iddon will lead a discussion exploring the concept of plant-forward eating — a style of cooking and eating that emphasizes and celebrates plant foods — that can fit into any eating pattern. Chartwells Senior Executive Chef George will share and demonstrate his tips for incorporating more plants into a favorite dish without compromising taste, texture and visual appeal. 

Enjoy a light plant-forward lunch, compliments of Staff Council Wellness Committee and Dining Services. This event is FREE, but seats are limited. Please consider bringing a non-perishable food donation for The CMU Pantry to help combat food insecurity on campus!

CMU’s Pre-College Application Deadline is Approaching

The final application deadline for Carnegie Mellon's Pre-College Programs is March 15.

The programs offer rising high school juniors and seniors opportunities to explore college life inside and outside of the classroom. Students mirror CMU’s robust undergraduate experience, receiving instruction from acclaimed Carnegie Mellon faculty and staff.  

"It gives students the ability to test drive what they think they want to major in as an undergrad," said Susie Rush, director of the Pre-College Programs.

Students are accepted on a rolling basis. Learn more.

Who’s New at CMU?

Carnegie Mellon welcomes the following new staff members.

• Darian Reynolds, housing operations coordinator, Housing Services Administration;
• Hadley Pratt, administrative assistant II, Robotics;
• Davide Coppola, user interface software engineer, Robotics; and
• Kyle Henderson, FMS supervisor/zone manager, FMS Operations.

Did You Know?

Behind the stage of Kresge Theatre in the College of Fine Arts, senior "dramats" — drama students — sign the walls (pictured above) and ceiling before graduating. Among these young hopefuls: (below, l. to rt.) Ted Danson, Blair Underwood and Holly Hunter.

Numbers don’t lie, and for Sakena Washington, a black woman raising a family in Pittsburgh, the numbers are not good.

Washington, who has a background in clinical research, was shocked and fearful after reading the study “Pittsburgh’s Inequality Across Gender and Race.” How could Pittsburgh, once rated the Most Livable City in America, be one of the worst places for black women to live?  

The study, commissioned by Pittsburgh’s Gender Equity Commission, found drastic inequalities between black and white residents in areas such as health, income, employment and education. A burning question immediately popped into Washington’s mind: Should I stay or should I go? 

She’s staying. And she’s not alone. 

Thanks in part to her guest column in the Huffington Post, Washington is rallying support to help make Pittsburgh a more inclusive and sustainable place for everyone.

“I just started writing how I felt,” she said. ”I think it’s important for people to use their voice. I say that because the more I talk about this topic, I’m finding I’m not alone in my observations. I’ve met some women who remind me of myself in the way they look at life and their kids. I also found people that don’t look like me who want to be part of the solution.”

“I just started writing how I felt. I think it’s important for people to use their voice.”

In her column, Washington eloquently writes about Pittsburgh’s deficient socio-economic black infrastructure, and her friends who have chosen to move, where they are prospering and feeling more connected.

Responses have been positive.

“One woman wrote to me and said, ‘I’d love to meet for lunch and talk about schools because I’m thinking about that, too.’ I’ve made several new friends,” Washington said.

She’s heard from a researcher at UPMC Children’s Hospital who wants to talk about livability in Pittsburgh and health outcomes for children. She’s been invited to Pittsburgh’s Gender Equity Commission meetings. She also was recently asked to speak about her article to high school students in the Green Building Alliance’s Emerging Youth program.

“They were making observations about things in their high school that relate to racial and gender equity and the lack of resources for different groups. They got my article. That was the most powerful response yet. I see the next generation trying to be part of the solution,” she said.

Washington’s enthusiasm carries over into her work at CMU, where she recently was hired as director of communications for the Office of the Provost. Prior to starting her new role March 2, she was a digital content manager for Marketing & Communications, where she curated content and visuals for some of the university’s top-level webpages, including the Provost’s Office, and the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and research sites.  She recently finished work on CMU’s new Sustainability Initiative page.

“I really love putting words on the page in a way that’s engaging to the visitor,” she said. “When you can get the message across in a way in which someone can get the gist and move on, they’ll be encouraged to revisit.”

“I really love putting words on the page in a way that’s engaging to the visitor.”

Washington joined CMU three years ago from the University of Pittsburgh, where she managed and developed websites and worked as a qualitative researcher for surgeons at UPMC. She interviewed patients about their medical procedures to help improve processes and health outcomes. She conducted clinical research at UCLA with Huntington disease patients while attending graduate school at Antioch University in Los Angeles, where she earned her master’s degree in creative writing. She earned her bachelor’s degree in English at Clark Atlanta University. 

Throughout her young career, Washington has been writing, from fiction, to book reviews to personal essays. She’s taking a nonfiction essay class with Creative Nonfiction, a local literary magazine and foundation. Her work has been published in Brevity, Fray Magazine, ReWire News and, of course, the Huffington Post.

Washington’s husband, Ricardo, teaches digital art and virtual reality experience at CMU’s Entertainment Technology Center. Their daughter, Kyra, is 8 months old. She said she is optimistic about her family’s future in Pittsburgh, as her work has led people to reach out, connect and work together to make things better. 

“I want to stay here and be a pioneer for change,” she said.

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

Kathryn Roeder, the UPMC Professor of Statistics and Life Sciences, has been selected to give the 2020 Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies (COPSS) Fisher Lecture. The Fisher Lectureship is a very high recognition of meritorious achievement and scholarship in statistical science and recognizes highly significant impact of statistical methods on scientific investigations. Roeder was honored for her “outstanding contributions to statistical science in the areas of mixture models, semiparametric inference, and multiple testing, and to the development of statistical methods aimed at finding the genetic basis of human disease, including the development of powerful methods for discovering genes underlying psychiatric disorders such as autism.” Roeder’s work focuses on developing novel statistical tools to explore large genetic datasets to identify causal genes that increase the risk for autism. “The Fisher Lecture is designed to recognize the importance of statistical thinking, not just for its own sake, but to further scientific inquiry,” Roeder said. "It is thrilling to be able to share the research from my multi-disciplinary research teams with the statistical community.” Roeder will deliver the Fisher Lecture during the COPSS award ceremony, Aug. 5 at the Joint Statistical Meetings in Philadelphia. 

Swarun Kumar, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, has been awarded a National Science Foundation CAREER Award supporting his research on low-power wide-area networks (LP-WANs). Today's LP-WANs struggle to cope with the scale of future Internet of Things deployments and the significant signal attenuation posed by urban environments. Kumar’s research lab, WiTech, has developed new solutions for allowing LP-WANs to scale more efficiently, achieve even longer range in urban settings and save battery life, including solutions that avoid a battery altogether. “We want all of our devices to be smart, everything around us, from the chairs we sit on, to the phones we use to communicate, to the bags we lug around everywhere,” Kumar said. “To achieve this vision, the fundamental question that needs to be addressed is, ‘How are we going to network these devices?’ All of today’s technologies, like cellular, Wi-Fi, and Internet don’t make the cut. The last link between your handbag and the internet does not yet exist.”

Carolyn Rose and John Zimmerman have been named Alan I. Leshner Leadership Institute Public Engagement Fellows by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). They're part of a cohort of 12 researchers studying artificial intelligence who are being recognized for their demonstrated leadership and research excellence, and their interest in promoting meaningful dialogue between science and society.

Rose, a professor in the School of Computer Science's Language Technologies Institute and Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII), was recognized for a research program that spans AI, education and society. Her work focuses on AI technologies including machine learning, text mining, conversational agents and robotics.

Zimmerman is the Tang Family Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Human-Computer Interaction in the HCII. He was recognized for his research on interaction with intelligent systems, service innovation via social computing, human-robot interaction and how technical systems can help people become the person they desire to be.

Find out more. 

CMU Police, CDFD Take the Plunge for Special Olympics

Members of the Carnegie Mellon Police Department and Campus Design and Facility Development were “freezin’ for a reason” last Saturday, when they took the plunge in icey cold swimming pools to benefit Special Olympics Pennsylvania. The CMU team raised over $43,000 dollars for Special Olympics.

CMU's Polar Plunge team.

Staff Council Seeks Nominations for Divisional Reps

Are you or a fellow staff member interested in contributing more to the Carnegie Mellon campus community? Is there an issue that you are passionate about and want to make a change? If so, Staff Council encourages you to participate in the 2020 Staff Council Divisional Elections. You can nominate yourself or other staff members to serve as a divisional representative for the 2020-2022 term.

Staff Council Representatives:

• Attend the general body meeting on the third Thursday of every month;
• Serve on at least one standing committee;
• Communicate information to their colleagues; and
• Serve a two-year term.

A link to your division's nomination form was mailed to each staff member this week. The nomination period closes March 13. Visit the Staff Council website for more information.

Lunch and Learn with Dining Services 

Dining Services is hosting a Lunch and Learn in honor of National Nutrition Month from noon to 1 p.m., Friday, March 13 in the Cohon Center’s Danforth Conference Room. Chartwells Registered Dietitian Marla Breitbart and Sustainability Coordinator Tyler Iddon will lead a discussion exploring the concept of plant-forward eating — a style of cooking and eating that emphasizes and celebrates plant foods — that can fit into any eating pattern. Chartwells Senior Executive Chef George will share and demonstrate his tips for incorporating more plants into a favorite dish without compromising taste, texture and visual appeal. 

Enjoy a light plant-forward lunch, compliments of Staff Council Wellness Committee and Dining Services. This event is FREE, but seats are limited. Please register.  Also, please consider bringing a non-perishable food donation for The CMU Pantry to help combat food insecurity on campus! Find out more.

CMU’s Pre-College Application Deadline is Approaching

The final application deadline for Carnegie Mellon's Pre-College Programs is March 15.

The programs offer rising high school juniors and seniors opportunities to explore college life inside and outside of the classroom. Students mirror CMU’s robust undergraduate experience, receiving instruction from acclaimed Carnegie Mellon faculty and staff.  

"It gives students the ability to test drive what they think they want to major in as an undergrad," said Susie Rush, director of the Pre-College Programs.

Students are accepted on a rolling basis. Learn more.

Who’s New at CMU?

Carnegie Mellon welcomes the following new staff members.

• Neil Uranic, Linux Systems Administrator, SEI OCOS IT Services;

• Tera Monroe, Associate Dean and Director of Residential Education, Residential Education;

• Heather Banning, Dispatcher, University Police; and

• Lisa Fisher, Development Associate – II, Tepper School of Business.

The Piper Will Return March 19

The Piper will be celebrating Spring Break next week. We'll be back Thursday, March 19.

Several new “neighborhoods” will be popping up on campus in the next few years as part of Carnegie Mellon University’s 15-year, $400 million housing master plan.

New residence halls, major renovations and upgrades to existing facilities are the brick and mortar projects in the plan, but a new “neighborhood commons” idea from Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students Gina Casalegno aims to build community in an exciting way for the entire campus community.

Upcoming housing projects — one at Fifth Avenue and Clyde Street, a second at Morewood E Tower and a third at the Hill neighborhood on Margaret Morrison Street — will include large, inviting spaces to bring students together to engage, have fun, study and collaborate. Each “neighborhood commons” will be about 5,000 square feet and will support a range of individual and group activities. A fourth neighborhood commons is on the horizon as part of a new Donner Hall.  

“We know the power of a built environment in cultivating a sense of community,” said Casalegno, a former CMU housefellow. “Gathering places like the Cohon University Center ‘black chairs’ in Kirr Commons, the Gates Café in Gates-Hillman, and the Rohr Commons in the Tepper School building bring people together across disciplines.

“We hear from students they crave more spaces to convene with one another, to collaborate, to study and to explore common interests. Building hubs of engagement in each neighborhood is a great way to catalyze a sense of belonging for all students,” she said.

Gary Aldrich sat in front of a black and white television screen at his grandparents’ house in 1968 and dreamed of one day marching with Team USA in the Olympics opening ceremony. This year Aldrich, head coach of Carnegie Mellon University’s track and field teams, may get the chance to live that dream after being named men’s throws coach for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. 

While the current COVID-19 situation leaves the world uncertain about how many events like the Olympics will proceed, Aldrich is preparing as if the Olympic games will proceed and waiting for further information on how things will unfold. As a proactive measure to fight the outbreak of the coronavirus, CMU Athletics cancelled all spring sports this season. 

Aldrich is now challenged with adjusting his daily schedule and finding ways to give his athletes a sense of normalcy in the least normal of times. While before, his everyday routine involved writing workouts, preparing the team for competition, being around athletes, and hosting meets, he now has started working from home and sending his student-athletes general plans for each week that include training regimens that don’t require weight rooms.

“We found out the season was cancelled with a group of seniors who had qualified for the NCAA Men's Indoor Track and Field Championships in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Every senior knows their career could end at any time, but leaving before the start of the championships was devastating,” Aldrich said.

Aldrich was recruited to coach at CMU 14 years ago by former head coach and alumnus Dario Donatelli. Aldrich had left coaching for 8 years to sell track and field equipment to coaches. It was lucrative, but required he spend more than 40 weeks each year on the road.

“I took a massive pay cut, but money isn’t everything! When I look at myself in the mirror, I’m a coach. That’s who I am, my identity. I was able to get back to that,” Aldrich said. He noted that while some coaching jobs can strain a family, he was actually able to spend more time at home than in his sales role.

“My background is in kinesiology, the study of movement, so it fits with the engineers, and the computer scientists, and the science majors here."

During Aldrich’s 14 years at CMU, the men’s track and field program has won six University Athletic Association (UAA) Championships (three indoor and three outdoor) and finished second 11 times (four indoor and seven outdoor).

With Aldrich’s physical stature, it’s no surprise his original sport was football. He enters each room a friendly giant. The only thing more noticeable than his size is his smile. Originally from Massachusetts, he played football in high school and for Slippery Rock University. He started throwing shotput his senior year of high school, and by his sophomore year of college, found he was having more success in track than football. So, he decided to solely pursue track and field.

That decision set his path. He’s been particularly happy working with the student athletes at Carnegie Mellon.

“The kids we get are very scientific,” Aldrich said. “My background is in kinesiology, the study of movement, so it fits with the engineers, and the computer scientists, and the science majors here. It mirrors what they are.”

This won’t be Aldrich’s first time coaching for USA Track and Field. He has coached throws for six other international teams, including at the 2012 World Junior Track and Field Championships in Barcelona, Spain, and the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto, Canada.

After the Olympics announcement was made, Aldrich received congratulatory messages from all over campus. His daughter Kate, herself a runner at Slippery Rock University, collected the messages from President Farnam Jahanian and Provost Jim Garrett along with news stories and created a poster board that is on display in Aldrich’s office in Skibo Gymnasium.

Aldrich hopes the coronavirus will be in his rear view mirror this summer in Tokyo. And he’ll be marching with Team USA in that opening ceremony.

“Hopefully me getting this opportunity shows that someone from a small school can still obtain their dreams,” Aldrich said. “It’s a great chance to represent Carnegie Mellon while I’m there."

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

Marlene Behrmann, the Thomas S. Baker University Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience, has received two awards for her research into understanding the mechanisms by which the brain interprets the signals from the eyes to yield meaningful visual perception. Her research also focuses on an array of developmental disorders from autism to dyslexia. Behrmann earned the Cognitive Neuroscience Society's Fred Kavli Distinguished Career Contributions Award, which honors senior cognitive neuroscientists for their distinguished career, leadership and mentoring in the field of cognitive neuroscience. She also earned the Vision Sciences Society's 2020 Davida Teller Award, which is given to a female vision scientist in recognition of her exceptional, lasting contributions to the field of vision science. Find out more.

Heinz College alumna Leah Lizarondo, an entrepreneur-in-residence at the Block Center for Technology and Society, is one of six women this year to receive the 2020 Vital Voices Global Leadership Award for her work “to strengthen democracy, increase economic opportunity and protect human rights." Lizarondo will receive the organization's Economic Empowerment Award for her innovative use of technology "to engage Americans in the fight to end hunger, eliminate food waste and combat climate change." Lizarondo is the CEO and co-founder of 412 Food Rescue, an organization that uses technology to recover and directly distribute food to community organizations serving people who are food insecure. Founded in 2015, 412 Food Rescue and its network of over 10,000 volunteers have rescued over 10 million pounds of food from entering landfills, simultaneously reducing food waste and combating hunger. Find out more.

Everett Tademy, assistant vice president for Diversity and Equal Opportunity Services, has announced he will retire, effective April 1. Tademy has worked at Carnegie Mellon for more than 44 years and has played a significant and positive role in the growth and success of the university. He began his career as a graduate assistant, tutoring undergraduate students in the social sciences through the Carnegie Mellon Action Project. He managed at-risk youth programs funded by the U.S. Department of Education and conducted research in the area of compensatory education. Tademy was appointed assistant director for university federal compliance and assisted in the coordination of university compliance reporting and responses to audits in the areas of civil rights. His commitment and dedication to the university led him to become assistant vice president of Equal Opportunity Services within Human Resources. In addition to this role, he was appointed University Ombudsman in 1992 to act as a neutral party in the university’s formal grievance process and assist personnel in resolving conflict involving university policies and procedures.

CMU Transitions 3,000+ Courses to Remote Instruction

Students returned to class yesterday, virtually, as more than 3,000 courses across all CMU locations transitioned to a remote format due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Eberly Center and Computing Services have collaborated to make many resources available to assist students, faculty and staff with remote instruction and learning.

In a message to the campus community, President Farnam Jahanian expressed his appreciation to the people who have been working diligently to prepare for this transition, including countless faculty, staff and student leaders.

"I ask every member of this global community to join me in facing these unprecedented challenges with equal parts patience and cooperation," Jahanian wrote.  "By doing so, we can demonstrate to the world our exceptional innovation and collaboration, which are both the qualities that this moment demands and the values that have always defined the Carnegie Mellon University community."

Get the most up-to-date information on the university's response to COVID-19 at CMU's coronavirus website.

Find out more about faculty resources for remote instruction.

HR Sets Guidelines for Working Remotely

Although the university has decided to conduct classes remotely, CMU remains open and is encouraging people to engage in social distancing practices wherever they may be. At the same time, CMU recognizes that some university work can be performed remotely.

All exempt, non-exempt, non-union staff members and hourly student workers who wish to work remotely and believe their job functions can be performed away from campus should work with their supervisors to determine whether such an arrangement is practicable. Supervisors who need assistance should contact their HR business partners.

Full information about these guidelines, including time off and sick leave options, are available on the Office of Human Resources website.

See CMU's coronavirus website for more on working remotely.

Campus Police Adds Staffing; Focus on Service, Support

Carnegie Mellon University Police has added staffing this week to assist students moving out of their residence halls and to increase patrols of campus buildings. CMU Police Chief Tom Ogden said emphasis is being placed on service and support.

“Our officers are now tasked with checking every building each hour to ensure things are safe and in working order,” Ogden said. “This is very similar to how we handle things during holiday break.” 

Ogden said their police presence appears to be calming.

“Everyone is conducting themselves in a most appropriate way,” he said.  

FMCS Is Making the Moves for Social Distancing

Facilities Management and Campus Services (FMCS) is working to help members of the university community adhere to social distancing guidelines — keeping six feet (2 meters) of distance between you and others.

FMCS crews have removed and reorganized furniture in public spaces across campus, such as in the Cohon Center in Gates Hillman, Newell Simon, the Tepper Quad and Hunt Library. Social distancing signs and guidance have been sent to more than 80 facility coordinators on campus, and notices have been posted in buildings with health care tips and temporary occupancy limits.

If you’re looking to rearrange office furniture in your workplaces to follow social distancing guidelines, FMCS can help.

FMCS has announced that an outside moving company will be available to assist you. If you're looking for moving help, contact FMCS at fixit@andrew.cmu.edu. Find out more about social distancing.

Exterior Building Doors Going to Card-Key Access

With fewer people on campus, FMCS also is enhancing security measures.

Effective today, Thursday, March 19, exterior doors to CMU buildings will be transitioning to card-key access, where possible. You will need to swipe your CMU ID to enter the building. To enter buildings not capable of making the card-key change you will need to show your CMU ID to a campus police officer stationed at the door. Please have your CMU ID when entering campus buildings to ensure access.

Online Appreciation Sale at University Store

Carnegie Mellon’s University Store is having an online Faculty and Staff Appreciation Sale on Apple products. You can save $75 off a MacBook Air, Pro & iMac, and $25 off an iPad Pro. Order today and pick it up on April 17. Custom configured items must be ordered by March 27.

Questions? Email ps00@andrew.cmu.edu or go online.  

Team Explorer Places Second in DARPA Challenge

Team Explorer from Carnegie Mellon and Oregon State battled to the end in the DARPA Subterranean Challenge's Urban Circuit competition, ultimately finishing second.

Explorer was tied with CoSTAR — a team led by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and including MIT, CalTech and South Korea's KAIST — going into the last run on the last day of the competition. CoSTAR located and identified more artifacts during its final run to win 16-11.

The Subterranean Challenge, sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), is a multi-year competition in which autonomous robots map underground environments and look for objects, such as simulated human survivors, backpacks and emergency equipment, much as a first responder might during an emergency response.

Explorer deployed various combinations of its three ground robots and four drones during its runs. The CMU Robotics Institute's Sebastian Scherer, who co-leads the team with Matt Travers, a systems scientist, said the performance of the team's drones was a highlight of the competition. Find out more.

Who’s New at CMU? 

Carnegie Mellon welcomes the following new staff members.

• Eugene Hastings, DevSecOps Specialist, The Simon Initiative;
• Samuel Lemley, Librarian, University Libraries;
• Annika Horgan, Associate Software Developer, SEI ETC Leadership;
• Christopher Russo, Laborer I, FMS Operations;
• Daniel Gongaware, Financial Coordinator, Language Technologies Institute;
• Eleni Andrulonis, Accounting Assistant I, FMS Operations; and
• Brendan Hart, Senior Accountant, Investment Office.

Vanguard Participants: Important Update Regarding the Transition to TIAA

As communicated in February, Carnegie Mellon University will be consolidating administration of the retirement plans to one recordkeeper relationship with TIAA. Due to market volatility concerns stemming from the coronavirus, CMU has decided to postpone the transfer of balances from Vanguard to TIAA and therefore there will be no blackout period at this time.

For those with balances in Vanguard, your balance will remain with Vanguard for the near-term. Until we set a new date to transfer balances, you should direct any questions about your current Vanguard account or requests for assistance to the existing Vanguard phone number and/or website. 

Other parts of the transition are proceeding according to the original timeline and as previously communicated in the Transition Guide [pdf]:

• New Retirement Choice/Retirement Choice Plus accounts with TIAA will be set up on March 23 for participants who are currently contributing and/or hold a mutual fund balance. Once your account is set up, you may review your beneficiary designations and adjust your investment allocations.
• Vanguard investment options are being added to the TIAA platform as planned.
• All future contributions will be directed to your new accounts at TIAA starting March 26. Plan participants with balances in Vanguard will need to log into their accounts through both Vanguard and TIAA to view complete account information: Vanguard for current balances and TIAA for contributions after March 26.

Learn more about the Transition to Single Recordkeeper, including available support resources.

The Fence

CMU's unofficial university billboard, the Fence is painted between midnight and sunrise by students who then stand guard as long as they want their message to stay. Fun Fact: The original Fence was once the "most painted object in the world" until it collapsed and was replaced by a steel-concrete fence.

In a matter of days, Carnegie Mellon transitioned more than 4,900 classes — over 4,500 on the Pittsburgh campus alone — to remote instruction, showcasing its creativity, resilience and years of leadership and expertise in teaching and learning. Leading the quickly developing university-wide effort was Marsha Lovett.

Lovett is director of the Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence and Educational Innovation, associate vice provost for Teaching Innovation and Learning Analytics, and a teaching professor in the Department of Psychology. As the coronavirus situation began to escalate in the United States, Lovett began thinking how the Eberly Center could help more than 1,700 faculty and instructors translate their courses to a remote model.

One of her first moves was to establish academic department liaisons to act as a bridge between their faculty and the Eberly Center to communicate important information about key needs and resources. 

“The liaisons played a crucial role in so many ways,” Lovett said. “They identified courses that would be difficult to translate online because they relied heavily on in-class equipment or group-based, in-person interactions. They also helped collect information on courses’ readiness to be taught remotely. Over just a handful of days, 95% of our courses were ready.”

Lovett said her colleagues in the Eberly Center quickly mobilized to create online resources to help instructors. She said their approach centered around using Canvas, CMU’s learning management system; Zoom, an online web conferencing platform; Google apps for education; and a variety of Canvas “plug-ins.”

“Using this common toolkit, students and faculty would not have to learn many different tools, and everyone could more easily share knowledge across the CMU community,” she said. “Faculty who were effectively using other online tools were encouraged to continue to use what was working for them. The goal was to minimize the disruption and ease the learning curve for all involved.”

The Eberly Center also made available a series of interactive how-to webinars, established an email address (eberly-assist@andrew.cmu.edu) where faculty could submit questions and worked with department liaisons to coordinate meetings to help faculty make the transition. Everyone at the Eberly Center contributed to this major effort – from creating reports for the liaisons summarizing the course readiness data, to helping faculty identify which tools best match their teaching needs, to providing timely how-to help, to consulting on syllabus changes.

“This was going to be a big challenge, but I knew with everyone pitching in, we would be able to do it,” Lovett said. “The Eberly Center team interacted with Computing Services the most, but there were other units across campus that made key contributions, including the Registrar's Office, the Student Academic Success Center, including the Office of Disability Resources, the Office of General Counsel and Marketing & Communications.”

Lovett lauded CMU’s technical expertise.

“It's important to highlight that CMU has both an amazing central Computing Services team and a host of highly skilled and collaborative IT professionals working within CMU's schools and colleges. Seeing all of these units communicate about the problems they were facing and collaborate on solutions was incredible.”

While the most common approach to remote instruction is moving in-person classes to "live" Zoom meetings, some of the more interesting and innovative class transitions, according to Lovett, are the science labs and drama courses.   

“This was going to be a big challenge, but I knew with everyone pitching in, we would be able to do it.”

Now that previously planned live performances on campus are not possible, faculty in the School of Drama are grappling with the challenge of how to adapt nine student theatre productions in the next seven weeks.

Faculty recast this challenge as an opportunity for students to engage their creativity and apply their craft. Via Zoom, faculty gathered the 152 artists collaborating on these productions and leveraged six breakout rooms to collectively generate creative ways to adapt productions when both audience and artists are engaged in social distancing.

“We can't wait to see the results,” she said.

Lovett said some science lab instructors were able to pre-record lab procedures so students could view the process remotely and receive corresponding datasets to analyze and interpret.

Thus far, the herculean transition to remote instruction has been a success, “knock on wood!”

“The first few days went incredibly well,” Lovett said. “Approximately 1,000 class meetings were held on Wednesday [the first day of classes] alone. Last Wednesday through Friday, we had more than 40,000 logins and 1.5 million page views on Canvas. We've heard numerous stories of faculty and students connecting in their online classes and feeling good to be back in learning community with each other.” 

Lovett said her team is now looking to help instructors with best practices for teaching students across multiple time zones and administering exams online. The Eberly Center has prepared webpages with strategies and suggestions on each topic.

With phase one — the “make it run” stage — completed, Lovett and the Eberly Center are now turning their focus to phase two of the transition.

“We can now consider ways to incorporate more active learning strategies into the online format,” she said. “Online instruction certainly has its own challenges, but it also offers a new set of opportunities, and I look forward to helping faculty and students get the feedback and help they need to make refinements as we all develop new approaches to online teaching and learning.

“Folks have done an amazing job,” she said.

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

Marlene Behrmann, the Thomas S. Baker University Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience, has received two awards for her research into understanding the mechanisms by which the brain interprets the signals from the eyes to yield meaningful visual perception. Her research also focuses on an array of developmental disorders from autism to dyslexia. Behrmann earned the Cognitive Neuroscience Society's Fred Kavli Distinguished Career Contributions Award, which honors senior cognitive neuroscientists for their distinguished career, leadership and mentoring in the field of cognitive neuroscience. She also earned the Vision Sciences Society's 2020 Davida Teller Award, which is given to a female vision scientist in recognition of her exceptional, lasting contributions to the field of vision science. Find out more.

Alexis Adams and Patience Stevens are the 2020 recipients of the Dietrich College Humanities and Social Sciences’ graduate student teaching awards.

Adams, a Ph.D. candidate in the Second Language Acquisition doctoral program in the Department of Modern Languages, was honored for teaching courses for both the Modern Language Department as well as Department of English. In her teaching statement, Adams emphasizes the importance of self-reflection in her classroom. “To teach all students, you have to get to know who they are, where do they come from and adjusting my teaching depending on these factors,” Adams said. “In order to become a better teacher, I go through these same self-reflection processes as my students.”

Stevens, a graduate student in the Department of Psychology, was honored for teaching workshops with the CMU Psychology Graduate Outreach program as well as assisting in a course on research methods in developmental psychology. Stevens conducts her research in reading processes, specifically in reading acquisition and word recognition. She appreciates how CMU interconnects teaching and learning to benefit students and professors alike.

Find out more about Adams and Stevens.

Everett Tademy, assistant vice president for Diversity and Equal Opportunity Services, has announced he will retire, effective April 1. Tademy has worked at Carnegie Mellon for more than 44 years and has played a significant and positive role in the growth and success of the university. He began his career as a graduate assistant, tutoring undergraduate students in the social sciences through the Carnegie Mellon Action Project. He managed at-risk youth programs funded by the U.S. Department of Education and conducted research in the area of compensatory education. Tademy was appointed assistant director for university federal compliance and assisted in the coordination of university compliance reporting and responses to audits in the areas of civil rights. His commitment and dedication to the university led him to become assistant vice president of Equal Opportunity Services within Human Resources. In addition to this role, he was appointed University Ombudsman in 1992 to act as a neutral party in the university’s formal grievance process and assist personnel in resolving conflict involving university policies and procedures.

Get a New Zoom Background from University Libraries

University Libraries has created a Box folder with interior library images as well as campus images to be used as custom backgrounds for Zoom. Check out all the options.

Online Appreciation Sale at University Store

Carnegie Mellon’s University Store is having an online Faculty and Staff Appreciation Sale on Apple products. You can save $75 off a MacBook Air, Pro & iMac, and $25 off an iPad Pro. Order today and pick it up on April 17. Custom configured items must be ordered by March 27.

Questions? Email ps00@andrew.cmu.edu or go online.  

Athletic Venues Closed Following Stay-at-Home Order 

To align with Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf’s stay-at-home order, Gesling Stadium, the outdoor track, the soccer field, the outdoor basketball court, and the tennis courts have been closed to all community members. Signage will be posted around these and other outdoor spaces prohibiting social interaction and sports competition.

Need exercise? Rather than a game of football, soccer or frisbee, take a walk or run around campus or Schenley Park to exercise — but please keep six feet of distance between you and others. The Department of Athletics and Recreation will soon be offering a number of virtual opportunities and challenges for all members of our community to stay active and fit, while maintaining appropriate social distancing.

Pittsburgh Paid Sick Days Act Implemented

On March 15, the Office of Human Resources (OHR) implemented a process to provide eligible employees with paid sick time to care for an employee’s or their family member’s illness, injury or health condition in accordance with the City of Pittsburgh’s Paid Sick Days Act (PSDA).

Eligible employees will accrue one hour of paid sick time for every 35 hours worked within the geographic boundaries of the City of Pittsburgh, up to a maximum of 40 hours in a calendar year. Employees who are currently eligible for paid time off through the university are not eligible for Pittsburgh Paid Sick Leave. During the current emergency situation, employees can borrow up to 40 hours even if the time has not yet been accrued for COVID-19 related absences.

At this time, eligible employees will submit requests for paid sick time through their pay worklet located in Workday. In the future, OHR will launch an enhancement in Workday that will allow eligible employees to view accrued time and submit requests online similar to the existing process for paid time off and time entry requests.

Please visit the Paid Sick Days webpage for detailed instructions on how to submit requests and other information related to the PSDA including additional details regarding who is eligible.

Provost Postpones Office Hours

Provost Jim Garrett is postponing this week’s open office hours and rescheduling to Thursday, April 2, from 4:30 - 6 p.m. via Zoom. He welcomes you to use this time as an opportunity to tell him what's on your mind, and share your experiences, ideas, and aspirations for Carnegie Mellon. Details on how to connect will be posted on the Provost’s Office hours page: https://www.cmu.edu/leadership/the-provost/office-hours/index.html.

Take the Fitness Challenge, Virtually

The Department of Athletics and Recreation is hosting a Social Distancing Fitness Challenge. It’s a little friendly competition between members of the campus community – students, faculty and staff — to see who moves the most.  Enter how many minutes you worked out, what the activity was and the time you worked out on the spreadsheet! Sign up by adding your name to the tracking form. 

Athletics and Recreation is also offering GroupX classes online via GroupX On Demand.

CaPS, UHS Offering Services Remotely

Counseling & Psychological Services (CaPS) is able to provide telemental health distance counseling services using Zoom Healthcare, a secure and confidential virtual platform, for students who are located with the state of Pennsylvania. For out-of-state students, CaPS offers Thriving Campus as a search tool to find providers or can help you individually to find a provider in your area.

University Health Services (UHS) is offering telehealth services. Call 412-268-2157, option 2, to discuss your needs. Please do not walk into the health center.

Who’s New at CMU? 

Carnegie Mellon welcomes the following new staff members.

• Eugene Hastings, DevSecOps Specialist, The Simon Initiative;
• Samuel Lemley, Librarian, University Libraries;
• Annika Horgan, Associate Software Developer, SEI ETC Leadership;
• Christopher Russo, Laborer I, FMS Operations;
• Daniel Gongaware, Financial Coordinator, Language Technologies Institute;
• Eleni Andrulonis, Accounting Assistant I, FMS Operations; and
• Brendan Hart, Senior Accountant, Investment Office.

Vanguard Participants: Important Update Regarding Transition to TIAA

As communicated in February, Carnegie Mellon University will be consolidating administration of the retirement plans to one recordkeeper relationship with TIAA. Due to market volatility concerns stemming from the coronavirus, CMU has decided to postpone the transfer of balances from Vanguard to TIAA and therefore there will be no blackout period at this time.

For those with balances in Vanguard, your balance will remain with Vanguard for the near-term. Until we set a new date to transfer balances, you should direct any questions about your current Vanguard account or requests for assistance to the existing Vanguard phone number and/or website. 

Other parts of the transition are proceeding according to the original timeline and as previously communicated in the Transition Guide [pdf]:

• New Retirement Choice/Retirement Choice Plus accounts with TIAA will be set up on March 23 for participants who are currently contributing and/or hold a mutual fund balance. Once your account is set up, you may review your beneficiary designations and adjust your investment allocations.
• Vanguard investment options are being added to the TIAA platform as planned.
• All future contributions will be directed to your new accounts at TIAA starting March 26. Plan participants with balances in Vanguard will need to log into their accounts through both Vanguard and TIAA to view complete account information: Vanguard for current balances and TIAA for contributions after March 26.

Learn more about the Transition to Single Recordkeeper, including available support resources.

The Fence Goes Virtual

Students can now paint the Fence, CMU's unofficial university billboard, without staying up all night. Normally, the Fence is painted between midnight and sunrise by students who then stand guard as long as they want their message to stay. But today, you can paint it virtually at http://paint-the-fence.com/. Fun Fact: The original Fence was once the "most painted object in the world" until it collapsed and was replaced by a steel-concrete fence.

At this point, we know what we need to do to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). We need to practice good personal hygiene by washing our hands thoroughly with soap and hot water for at least 20 seconds. We need to cover our sneezes with tissues or the crooks of our arms. We need to replace in-person gatherings with remote gatherings and we need to remain six feet or more away from each other. 

Physical distancing is hard work. It goes against the core of who we are as close-knit university community. But, as we are innovators and leaders, we are finding alternative ways to connect and come together as a community. In addition to remote learning and advising, here’s some other ways to connect. 

• Take The Piper, for example. We are all reading this – students, faculty and staff – from a shared communication space. Keep looking for new information here each week.
• Every single Student Affairs department is working remotely with ways for students to connect and engage with us.
• Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) hosted its first virtual well-being workshop on Monday. There will be more of these opportunities soon.
• For students who are still living on campus, Dining Services is taking orders for pick-up.
• For any CMU student who needs it, the CMU Pantry is taking online orders for pick-up.

While we are practicing our physical distancing and engaging remotely, let’s make it a point to get the social out of social media! We want to see your faces and hear your stories. Tell us how you are physically distancing and why it’s important to you. Share some of the silver linings of taking a step back from the norm. Tell us what you think are the worst parts. We want to hear from you! Share with us by tagging @lifeatcmu on Instagram and by using #lifeatcmu and #cmusocial. You can also send us a note, story or idea to lifeatcmu@andrew.cmu.edu

We know the days of physical distancing will come to an end, but for now we can all make a difference in stopping the spread of the covid virus.  Stay tuned for more ways to engage with one another in these new virtual spaces.

Beth Kotarski is executive director of University Health Services.

Sevin Yeltekin, senior associate dean of education and leader of the Tepper Blockchain Initiative at the Tepper School of Business, has been awarded the Rohet Tolani Distinguished Chair. Yeltekin is a leading macroeconomist, whose research involves the design of sustainable monetary and fiscal policies in environments where policymakers and the public have informational asymmetry with a focus on macroeconomics, fiscal policy design, social insurance design, computational economics and asset pricing implications of macro policy. A respected educator and researcher, she was awarded the George Leland Bach Excellence in Teaching Award in 2014 and held the Frank A. and Helen E. Risch Faculty Development Professorship in Business from 2007-2010. Find out more.

Kristen Kurland, professor of architecture, information systems and public policy, was named one of six Women of Spirit Award winners by Carlow University, recognizing her exceptional professional and personal leadership and service to others. Kurland's research focuses on interdisciplinary collaborations in health, the built environment, spatial analysis and data visualization. She works closely with CMU colleagues and students on health, urban design, economic development, sustainability, big data, and “smart and healthy cities” issues. She actively collaborates with the City of Pittsburgh, Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health, and many nonprofit organizations in Pittsburgh and worldwide.

Rashmi Vinayak, an assistant professor in the Computer Science Department, has won a five-year, $650,000 Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award, the National Science Foundation's most prestigious award for young faculty members. The award will support Vinayak's work to improve the resource and energy efficiency of large-scale data centers, which together serve as the backbone for internet-based services, cloud services and data analytics platforms. Vinayak earned her Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science at the University of California at Berkeley, where she also worked as a postdoctoral researcher before joining the Computer Science Department in 2017.  Find out more.

Get More Zoom Backgrounds from Marketing & Communications

The Marketing & Communications Division has created a Box folder with campus images to be used as custom backgrounds for Zoom. Options include aerial views of campus, the Fence, the Hamerschlag Hall tower, the Tartan wave, the Kraus Campo, the Pausch Bridge at night, the Carnegie Mellon wordmark and other various campus scenes. Check them out.

Share Your Remote Activities, Suggestions

Staying connected while remote is important to preserving our sense of community. Fill out this form to share remote activities and opportunities you’d like to see offered.

PSC Resources Available for Urgent COVID-19 Research

The Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC), a joint effort between Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, has allotted computing time on its Bridges and Bridges-AI platforms for urgent COVID-19 computational research. These resources are available at no cost to scientists. 

PSC is part of the COVID-19 HPC Consortium, which encompasses computing capabilities from some of the most powerful and advanced computers in the world. By contributing to this combined effort, the PSC aims to empower researchers around the world to accelerate understanding of the COVID-19 virus and the development of treatments and vaccines that will help to address infections and limit the spread of the virus.

Scientists wishing to obtain computing time on Bridges and other resources in XSEDE, the National Science Foundation cyberinfrastructure in which PSC is a leading member, can find more information at https://www.xsede.org/covid19-hpc-consortium.

Provost Announces New Online Office Hours

Provost Jim Garrett has office hours on Thursday, April 2, from 4:30 - 6 p.m. via Zoom. He welcomes you to use this time as an opportunity to tell him what's on your mind, and share your experiences, ideas, and aspirations for Carnegie Mellon. Send email to provost@andrew.cmu.edu to get the meeting ID on Zoom. 

Career Center Offers Virtual Resources

The Career and Professional Development Center (CPDC) is available to you no matter where you are in the world. The CPDC website shares new CPDC practices, FAQs and virtual resources.

Partnership Launches Digital Transformation Institute

Carnegie Mellon is joining five other leading universities, C3.ai and Microsoft Corporation to form a research consortium dedicated to accelerating the application of artificial intelligence to speed the pace of digital transformation within business, government and society. The C3.ai Digital Transformation Institute (C3.ai DTI) will attract the world's leading scientists, innovators and industry experts to spark advanced research that will propel the new Science of Digital Transformation.

C3.ai DTI's first call for research proposals focuses on embracing the challenge of reducing the spread of COVID-19 and advancing the knowledge, science and technologies for mitigating the impact of future pandemics using AI. This is the first in what will be a series of biannual calls for Digital Transformation research proposals.

In addition to Carnegie Melllon, C3.ai DTI includes the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC); University of California, Berkeley; Princeton University; University of Chicago; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at UIUC.

Find out more.

FMCS Leads Energy Saving Campaign

The electric meter readings from the Cohon Center, Baker Hall and Warner Hall show a decline in electricity usage in March. 

With fewer people on campus, Facilities Management and Campus Services (FMCS) is leading a campaign to save energy. From turning off the lights to draining the swimming pools, FMCS is working with more than 80 facility coordinators to reduce energy waste during the pandemic.

“Sustainability is a university value and making a positive contribution during these challenging times is really motivating,” said Mike Frenak of FMCS. “We are making sure the waste reductions don’t negatively impact ongoing research, remote learning infrastructure, valuable books or art. Support and insight from the departments have been fantastic.”

Frenak said the sustainability efforts are paying off. He estimated that CMU will save more than $600,000 in campus utilities. Water consumption is 80% lower than normal in the residence halls and electricity usage across campus has declined. 

Lights in the Cohon Center will be on at night this week because custodial services is deep cleaning the athletic spaces. The spaces will go dark after the cleaning is done. 

Mark Your Calendar

The Student Affairs calendar is a great resource for virtual events and opportunities. While most events are student-focused, there are opportunities for staff and faculty as well.

Gelfand Center Seeks Students for Educational Outreach Awards

Each year the Gelfand Center recognizes three students who have made a commitment to sharing their knowledge, talents, skills and time to make a difference in the lives of children in the community. Awardees will each earn a $250 prize! This is a self-nomination process, with letters of support provided by on-campus or community partners. Click for self-nomination form or email GelfandCenter@andrew.cmu.edu for information.  All nomination materials are due by Friday, April 17.

Forgot Your Plants on Campus? FMCS Can Help

Since most of us are studying and working remotely, Facilities Management and Campus Services (FMCS) is offering to care for the plants in your campus workspaces and study areas.

If you have plants in your areas that need to be watered while you are away, send email to fixit@andrew.cmu.edu and a CMU gardener will be happy to help. Please include the following in your email:

• The location of your plant(s); and
• Detailed instructions for caring for your plant(s).

Please provide as much detail as possible. As an added bonus, FMCS can send you a picture of your plant(s) upon request!

If you have any questions regarding this service, please email our FMCS Service Response Center at fixit@andrew.cmu.edu.

Who’s New at CMU? 

Carnegie Mellon welcomes the following new staff members.

• Rajanie Prabha, Machine Learning Research Scientist, Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center;
• Rachelle Harvey, Shuttle Driver, Parking and Transportation Services;
• Jesse Holdaway, Technical Project Manager, Robotics Institute;
• June Jahn, Senior Administrative Coordinator, Biological Sciences Department;
• Joy Mann, Senior Administrative Assistant, Heinz College;
• Pingping Liang, Research Associate III, Molecular Biosensor and Imaging Center;
• Christopher Gongloff, Dispatcher, University Police; and
• Olga Inglis, Associate Director, MSCF Career Services, Tepper School of Business Masters Program.

Sharing Knowledge, Stories of Success from Down Under

CMU-Australia launched a new virtual event platform, "Red Ladders," to encourage alumni in different parts of the world to return to the campus virtually and share their success, knowledge and inspiration with students and each other.

"Red Ladders" events highlight how the master’s degrees at CMU-A have changed the careers of graduates and propelled them into new and interesting ventures. While all CMU-A alumni have their own "red ladder," all share the passion to solve difficult problems and seek to make the most of the skills gained at CMU-A. Their career ladders have been truly transformational.

Red Ladders first guest speaker was Marco Salinas from Mexico, where he worked with the local government. A desire to make a difference in the world brought him to CMU-A, where he completed the Master of Science in Information Technology (MSIT) program in 2013. Today, Salinas is the co-founder and CEO at Hubble, a startup that uses AI to design eco-friendly buildings.

Read more success stories from CMU-A alumni. 

Did You Know?

Carnegie Mellon junior Kermin Fleming, an electrical and computer engineering major, won the 2004 Jeopardy! College Championship to win the $100,000 first prize.

"There was some thought I'd buy my parents a car, but they're refusing,” Fleming told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “I'm gonna work on them a little bit, but if they tell me, 'No,' it's 'No,' I guess. They think I need to spend the money on myself."

Fleming, who was raised in Lexington, Kentucky, said he would enjoy a shot at the all-time Jeopardy! champion.

"I'd like to take a shot at Ken Jennings," Fleming told the P-G. "I don't think I can beat him, but it would be fun to play him. He's the master."

Fleming went on to complete his master’s degree at CMU before earning a Ph.D. at MIT.

Maureen Dasey-Morales is a firm believer in the potential for positive change.

As a licensed psychologist for many years, she has helped individuals cope effectively with life’s ups and downs. Now, as associate vice president for Community Health and Well-Being at Carnegie Mellon University, she applies her skillset on a systemic scale — enabling the campus community to find purpose, connect with each other and achieve well-being in all aspects of their lives.

“It sounds corny but I really do want to help others, and I see it as a vocation as much as a career,” she said. “It’s so rewarding to help people through some of the toughest times in their lives. Now, I get to use what I know about behavior, thinking and emotion to help systems change.”

Her primary responsibilities include providing leadership and strategic vision for the university’s health and well-being efforts. She works with campus units helping them collaborate to make quality services accessible to all students and to reduce as many barriers to services as possible.

Since the onset of the coronavirus outbreak, Dasey-Morales has been co-leading the university’s emergency response efforts with Melanie Lucht, associate vice president and chief risk officer and Beth Kotarski, executive director of University Health Services. Monitoring the coronavirus outbreak has overshadowed her other work in recent weeks, but in many ways it’s just a different manifestation of her work to fit the current situation, she said, and that’s okay and expected.

“Most people would say I’m pretty calm and grounded even in chaotic times, which certainly helps right now,” she said. "I also have a tendency to be able to see the long-range impact and consequences of even small, short-term decisions, which helps with our strategic visioning and planning. Our goal is also to help our community find ways to proactively become more resilient and thrive.”

The greatest challenge, she said, is triaging and prioritizing needs.

“All of them are important, but some are more time pressing or vital to health and safety than others,” she said. “The great opportunity here is finding new ways to reach our students and to work with each other in new, collaborative ways.”

Dasey-Morales came to CMU from Wichita State University, where for more than 16 years she held leadership roles in health and wellness programs, including serving as director of Counseling and Testing for 10 years. She received a Ph.D. in counseling psychology from the University at Albany, SUNY, and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Niagara University.

She loves working with the community health and well-being professionals at CMU who work so hard to serve students, no matter what it takes. Often their work is behind the scenes, she said, and she is amazed by their dedication to students, creativity and collaboration.

“The kindness, selflessness and willingness to do whatever it takes to make good things happen during this crisis has been amazing,” she said. “I’ve seen countless examples over the past two months of how the campus community takes initiative to innovate and pull together to help others.”

Like most of us, Dasey-Morales is now facing new challenges that come with working remotely, such as work-life balance and maintaining good mental health until the quarantine is lifted. Spending time with family keeps her grounded, she said, but she really hasn’t found free time just yet.

“I have tried to take at least one walk outside per day — while social distancing, of course!” she said. “My stress reliever was always watching sports, so I’ve resorted to watching recordings of old games.”

She also is inclined to bake cookies — one of her favorite pastimes — and watch a few episodes of British Baking Championship on Netflix.

“I grew up in Buffalo, New York, and then lived and worked in Kansas for almost 30 years," she said. "When I moved here two years ago and learned about Pittsburgh’s cookie tables, I knew I was in the right place!”

Emma Farrell, a senior majoring in civil and environmental engineering and history, will be appearing in the Jeopardy! College Championship this Monday, April 6. Farrell will face off in the first round against students from the University of Texas at Austin and Princeton University for a shot at the semifinals.

A native of Telford, Pa., Farrell bested over 18,000 applicants to earn one of the 15 competitor spots in the college championship. Along the way, she had to complete a 50-question online form and an in-person interview that took the prospective players from 250 down to the final 15. The competition was filmed in February in Los Angeles.

Farrell's hobbies include her radio show on WRCT, skiing and attending events around Pittsburgh. She’s also made her mark on campus as a Head Orientation Counselor for Oakland Rez on Fifth. She was featured in The Tartan this past February.

The Jeopardy! College Championship, presented by LendingTree®, is a 10-day special event featuring 15 of America’s sharpest students. The winner claims the $100,000 grand prize and a berth in the next Tournament of Champions. Check your local listings for Monday’s show.