The Robert E. Doherty Award for Sustained Contributions to Excellence in Education

The William H. and Frances S. Ryan Award for Meritorious Teaching

The Award for Outstanding Contributions to Academic Advising and Mentoring

The Barbara Lazarus Award for Graduate Student and Junior Faculty Mentoring

Mark Gelfand Service Award for Educational Outreach

Thursday, April 10

Friday, April 11

Saturday, April 12

University Archives a Treasure Chest

Deborah Stine joined Carnegie Mellon in the fall of 2012 as a professor of the practice in engineering and public policy (EPP) and associate director for policy outreach for the Wilton E. Scott Institute for Energy Innovation. The Piper recently caught up with Stine to discuss her dual role.

What is the Scott Institute?

What is your role with the Scott Institute?

Who is going to D.C. for these discussions?

What drew you to CMU?

You talked a little about your PCAST work. What did you learn that is applicable to your CMU role?

What are some of the classes that you teach?

When should faculty members reach out to you?

What changes do you expect with President Emeritus Jared L. Cohon becoming Scott Institute director July 1?

Carnegie Tech Radio Club is celebrating 100 years of fostering amateur radio enthusiasts on CMU's Pittsburgh campus and promoting the hobby in the surrounding community.

For some, amateur radio is an opportunity to tinker with electronics. Others have used it to talk with astronauts in space or to make friends in other parts of the world. Often, amateur radio operators - known as "hams" - help in disaster situations when other communications systems have failed, as in 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina.

Known by its current call sign, W3VC, the Carnegie Tech Radio Club on CMU's Pittsburgh campus has over 30 active members today. The club has been a longstanding part of Buggy at Spring Carnival, assisting with course safety by relaying important information around the course during practice rolls and on race days.

The club owns and operates two radio transmitters. It also provides visual and digital live weather information and hosts monthly licensing test sessions for students and community members who want to obtain or upgrade licenses.

A similar club for hams recently was formed on the West Coast, which is a hotbed of radio activity that includes new research into mobile technology, connected embedded systems and smart communities.

This Wireless Innovators Club, with the call sign W6CMU, supports Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley students, faculty and affiliates in their experiments with radio as they develop novel uses combining wireless technology with computers and sensors.

Ham radio operators, like members of the Carnegie Tech Radio Club and Wireless Innovators, have had impact extending far beyond the field. Alex Hills, a distinguished service professor in the departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Engineering and Public Policy, has said that what he learned as a ham radio operator led him to conceive and create CMU's Wireless Andrew network, the first Wi-Fi network anywhere.

In celebration of the club's 100th anniversary and its continued commitment to promoting amateur radio, the Carnegie Tech Radio Club in Pittsburgh will host a Centennial Celebration from 5-8 p.m., Thursday, April 10, in the Singleton Room, Roberts Engineering Hall.

All past and current members of the club are encouraged to attend.

The Carnegie Tech Radio Club is seen here in an early photo. Today's Radio Club members volunteer at Spring Carnival.

Carnegie Mellon recognized President Emeritus Jared L. Cohon’s many accomplishments and contributions to campus life by naming the University Center after him.

The honor follows the tradition of naming buildings after former presidents, and the Jared L. Cohon University Center serves as the prominent and popular meeting place for the diverse university community that Cohon, CMU’s eighth president, strengthened.

“During Jared L. Cohon’s tenure as university president, Carnegie Mellon has advanced on many fronts, including accelerating its long tradition of being a catalyst of regional economic prosperity,” said CMU President Subra Suresh. “We are very pleased to name the University Center in honor of Jerry Cohon.”

Speakers at the naming ceremony included President Suresh; Gina Casalegno, associate vice president and dean of student affairs; John Hannon, associate dean of student affairs; James Rohr, vice chair of the university’s Board of Trustees; Mark Kamlet, provost and executive vice president; Stanley Krowitz, University Center administrator; Dan Gilman, City of Pittsburgh councilman; and Millard McElwee, a junior in civil and environmental engineering.

Hannon drew laughs from the assembled crowd when he shared a memory of Cohon helping members of the Tartan football team trying to move a 1,500-lb. shuffleboard table several hundred feet through the University Center’s basement.

“He whipped off his jacket in a move that was half James Bond and half Don Draper and began assisting us,” Hannon said. “All I could think was ‘boys, for the love of God, do not drop this table on the president’s foot,’ because I simply cannot live down the embarrassment of a headline in the Chronicle of Higher Education reading ‘Carnegie Mellon President Critically Injured in Shuffleboard Accident.’"

Others drew parallels between the building and the man.

"Dr. Cohon’s mission when he was president was to engage students and put them first. The University Center is the heart of the university,” McElwee said. “Dr. Cohon has the biggest heart of anyone that I know, and it is truly evident that his heart is in his work.”

Krowitz recalled poignant University Center moments indelibly etched in the minds of the campus community, from Randy Pausch’s “Last Lecture” to 9/11 when students turned fear into courage, standing in lines for days to donate blood.

"Through it all, one man stood strong like a beacon of light in the 
darkness, providing hope,” Krowitz 
said of Cohon.

The naming ceremony kicked off with a student a capella group singing a rendition of Stevie Wonder’s “Signed, Sealed, Delivered.” Casalegno borrowed a line from the song at the ceremony’s closing as she announced to Cohon, “Signed, sealed, delivered, it’s yours.”

CMU President Subra Suresh and President Emeritus Jared Cohon (pictured above) look at a framed image of the University Center signed by all of its staff.
By: Kelly Solman, ksolman@andrew.cmu.edu

Danks To Lead Philosophy

David Danks has been 
selected to 
head Carnegie 
Mellon’s Department of Philosophy, effective July 1.

Danks, associate professor of philosophy and psychology, succeeds Richard Scheines, who is stepping down to become dean of the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

“David Danks is an outstanding researcher and instructor, whose work at the intersection of philosophy and psychology is unrivaled and novel,” 
said John Lehoczky, dean of the Dietrich College. “Carnegie Mellon’s Department of Philosophy is unlike any program of its kind in the U.S. because of its emphasis on research that directly impacts the real world in areas such as computer science, math, statistics, psychology, bioethics and human rights. The department further established its unique focus and strengthened its international reputation under Richard Scheines’ tenure, and I am certain that David will work to ensure that philosophy will be a premier department for many years to come.”

Danks has been on the CMU faculty since 2003. The majority of his research involves computational cognitive science and focuses on the nature of cognitive representations and the role that goals and challenges play in learning and reasoning.

In 2008, Danks received a coveted James S. McDonnell Foundation Scholar Award to pursue his work on integrated causal cognition, concepts and decision making. He began by working to develop a framework for understanding exactly what happens in these types of cognition. His findings will be released in a forthcoming book, “Unifying the Mind: Cognitive Representations as Graphical Models,” that MIT Press will publish later this year.

Another area of Danks’ research centers on learning causal structure from time series data, such as the data gathered in neuroimaging research. Last fall, he received a three-year NSF grant to expand the study with Sergey Plis from the Mind Research Network at the University of New Mexico.

Genovese Promoted in Statistics

Carnegie 
Mellon has 
selected 
Christopher R. Genovese to head its Department of Statistics, a global leader in applying statistics to many areas of science, technology, policy and education, effective July 1. Genovese, professor of statistics, succeeds Mark Schervish, who has served as department head for the past 10 years.

“The Department of Statistics is central to several of Carnegie Mellon’s major strategic initiatives — which also reflect many of the central problems facing the world today, such as data science, brain science, learning science, cybersecurity and privacy, computational biology, genetics and cosmology,” said John Lehoczky, dean of the Dietrich College. “Chris Genovese is a truly brilliant applied and theoretical statistician who is ideally suited to lead the department at a time when statistical science is rapidly evolving to meet the challenging demands of ‘big data’ and a wide 
array of scientific problems. Under 
his leadership, I am confident that the department will continue its international prominence.”

Genovese joined Carnegie Mellon 
in 1994. His research focuses on solving 
complex and high-dimensional problems in the sciences. His work has produced new methods and results in neuroscience, evolutionary biology, learning science and cosmology/astrophysics.

Genovese is a fellow of the American Statistical Association and the Institute of Mathematical Statistics. He has been awarded funding from numerous agencies, including the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, NASA and the Department of Energy. He is a recipient of a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation and a Shannon Award from the National Institutes of Health.

Genovese also has been active as an educator, both at the graduate and undergraduate levels. He has created several new courses and has consistently innovated in instructional design.
By: Shilo Rea, shilo@cmu.edu

Gindroz Prize Winners Reunite To Share Experiences

Marilyn (A’73) and Ray Gindroz (A’65) have shared a lifelong love of travel.

The couple met in Rome and after a whirlwind 11-month romance, they married. They will celebrate 47 years together on May 27.

“Our lives were changed by travel,” Marilyn said. “We believe student travel is a very important part of an artist’s development.”

The Marilyn and Ray Gindroz Foundation Board of Directors celebrated 10 years of Gindroz Travel/Study Prize Winners with a celebration and reunion in April at Urban Design Associates, the firm for which Ray Gindroz served as a founding partner.

Eight of the 10 winners were on hand to share their memories of how the Gindroz Prize helped to further their education and, ultimately, their careers.

The prize supports and encourages study abroad opportunities to enhance the student experience in the schools of Music and Architecture. Marilyn Gindroz 
earned her master’s degree from the 
School of Music in 1973. Ray earned 
his master’s degree from the School of 
Architecture in 1965. He was a Fulbright scholar visiting Rome in June 1966, 
when he met Marilyn through a friend 
as she was traveling abroad.

Grindroz/Travel Study Prize Winners: 


2014    Allyson Edington (A’14), music
2013    Peter Salim (A’15), architecture
2012    Talia Perry (A’13), architecture
2011    Weronika Balewski (A’12), music
2010    James Harvestus Locus III (A’11), 
music
2009    Kaitlin Miciunas (A’11), architecture
2008    Christian Kriegeskotte (A’03, ’09), 
music
2007    Michael O’Gieblyn (A’07), music
2006    Joshua Cummings (A’08), 
architecture
2005    Emma Hancock (A’06), music

Eight of the Gindroz Prize winners (pictured above) gathered in April. They were: 
(back row, left to right) Peter Salim, Christian Kriegeskotte, Kaitlin 
Miciunas, Joshua Cumming, Allyson Edington; (front row) Talia Perry, Emma Hancock and Weronika Balewski.
By: Pam Wigley, pwigley@andrew.cmu.edu

Events Showcase CMU’s Work in Innovation, Humanities and Social Sciences

The yearlong celebration of the inauguration of President Subra Suresh as Carnegie Mellon’s ninth president included two symposia in April.

“The Research University 
and U.S. Economic Growth: 
Is a New Model Emerging?”

Carnegie Mellon is one of the primary reasons why Pittsburgh is a model for economic prosperity, not only in the United States, but around the world.

At a D.C. event, academic experts and government officials shared the message that innovation-fueled job growth happens when research universities collaborate with government and the private sector to accelerate discoveries from the lab to the marketplace.

“We’re grateful that CMU has impact on the common welfare of our country,” said Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr. “And one of the reasons you have that impact is because you have not allowed southwest Pennsylvania to wait for the future, you have helped to invent it.”

President Subra Suresh (fourth from left) joined local Pittsburgh 
officials for the groundbreaking of the next phase of the Bakery Square development, home to Google Pittsburgh, on April 17. The development hopes to attract new businesses and create new jobs.

Bruce Katz, vice president and director of the Metropolitan Policy Program for The Brookings Institution, said what the U.S. needs is an economy fueled by innovation.

“What that requires us to do is to shift our growth model in the U.S. from an economy that was really characterized as consumption and debt and financial mischief to an economy that you’ve built in Pittsburgh,” he said.

“You have essentially invented 
the model, not just for regional transformation but for national transformation… You’ve created in Pittsburgh a new spatial geography of innovation. Because talented workers want to be in places where they can live, work, play; and firms want to be close to other firms and anchor institutions where ideas can be shared and commercialized for the marketplace.”

Honorary co-hosts were Sen. Casey, Sen. Pat Toomey and Rep. Mike Doyle.

Doyle said that the biggest lesson to draw from Pittsburgh’s renaissance is that economic growth is driven by technological change.

He added, “The best way to promote more rapid economic growth in the country is for the federal government to invest more in research so that we can maintain America’s leadership in innovation.”

President Suresh, himself a new arrival in Pittsburgh, found the role that research universities like Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh play in the economic transformation of the region very appealing. “What happened with Pittsburgh as a model can potentially be used in other parts of the country, perhaps other parts of the world,” he said.

Several entrepreneurs from some of Carnegie Mellon’s spinout companies were part of the conversation, noting Carnegie Mellon has created more companies per federal research dollar than any other university in the United States.

Andrew Moore, vice president of Google’s Pittsburgh engineering office who will be returning to CMU as the dean of the School of Computer Science 
in August, said Google understands that to be the best it has to attract the best people. That’s the reason, he said, it chose to open an engineering office in Pittsburgh in 2006.

“Mapping the Future of the 
Humanities and Social Sciences”

At the request of Congress, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences commissioned the “Heart of the Matter,” a comprehensive report on the current state of the humanities and social sciences that stresses their importance in creating a vibrant, competitive and secure nation.

Carnegie Mellon — which has a long history of the humanities and social sciences collaborating with other fields to solve problems — and the American Academy held the first Pittsburgh-area discussion of the report and its implications for improving education and creating a sustainable global society.

“The humanities and social sciences are absolutely essential,” said President 
Suresh in his opening remarks. He recalled that when he was director of the National Science Foundation millions of dollars were invested in systems to predict when tornadoes would strike. However, despite the investment 24 people died in Oklahoma last year as a result of tornadoes. “When I asked how this could happen, the answer was ‘we predicted the tornadoes, but we could not predict how people would react.’”

Two members of the commission that produced the “Heart of the Matter,” Norman Augustine, retired chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin, and Hunter Rawlings III, president of the Association of American Universities (AAU), participated. Rawlings is a member of the Global Learning Council, which is committed to the use of science and technology to enhance learning.

“It’s more difficult, but no less important, to study the humanities and social sciences,” Augustine said. “I do believe that while history doesn’t repeat itself, it does tend to rhyme.”

Norman Augustine discusses the work of Lindsay Elliott-Foose (DC’14) 
at a poster presentation where Dietrich College students showcased 
research projects.

Rawlings called CMU a “remarkable institution that is different from the other research universities within the AAU because it is an incredibly interdisciplinary place with highly stimulated faculty that have their own approach to research and teaching.”

Augustine and Rawlings joined CMU faculty members — Baruch Fischhoff, Susan Polansky, David Shumway and Kiron Skinner — for a panel discussion moderated by John Lehoczky, dean of the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

“When I first read the ‘Heart of the Matter,’ I thought, ‘that’s what we try to do,’” said Fischhoff, the Howard Heinz University Professor of Social and Decision Sciences and Engineering and Public Policy.

Polansky, head of the Department of Modern Languages, shared the promising trend that students are taking more and more advanced language and culture courses, making them more attractive job candidates.

“It’s a common concern that majoring in the humanities and social sciences does not directly link to a career path,” she said. “But, more than 90 percent of employers agree that a candidate’s demonstrated capacity to think clearly, communicate clearly and solve complex problems is more important than their undergraduate major.”

Skinner, associate professor of social and decision sciences and director of CMU’s Center for International 
Relations and Politics, highlighted the ways that the humanities and social 
sciences are poised to make war the 
option of last resort.

“History, culture, languages, decision sciences, psychology and anthropology are centrally important to blocking war,” said Skinner, who organized the discussion. “Arguments win at the end of the day — bullies do not.”

Shumway, professor of English and director of the Humanities Center, spoke about how the value of the humanities stems from how they deal with problems that cannot be solved or do not have a single solution.

“Humanities provide a framework to work with interpretation, analysis and judgment — all problems of intellectual value that students encounter in school but also in life,” he said.

Intelligent Workplace Serves as Backdrop for Launch of Energy Loan Program

An intelligent space to announce an 
innovative program.

That’s why the School of Architecture’s Robert L. Preger Intelligent Workplace served as the space where Rob McCord, Pennsylvania’s state treasurer, announced a new program to help homeowners find lower-cost loans for home energy-efficiency improvements. The program — Warehouse for Energy Efficiency Loans (WHEEL) — is an innovative financing platform that creates a national secondary market for low-cost residential energy-upgrade loan funding.

The Intelligent Workplace, perched atop Margaret Morrison Carnegie Hall and flooded with natural light, is a field laboratory for energy-efficiency technologies — a building McCord called “inspiring.”

McCord likened WHEEL’s goals to those of the School of Architecture, which he said “has built a brand as the best R&D institution in the country — possibly the world — for sustainable buildings.”

WHEEL is the product of a collaboration between national leaders in finance and energy, the Pennsylvania Treasury Department, Citigroup, Renewable Funding, the Energy Programs Consortium, the National Association 
of State Energy Officials and the 
U.S. Department of Energy. The Energy, Ford, Rockefeller, Surdna and William Penn foundations provided key financial support. The Commonwealth of Kentucky has signed on as a WHEEL charter member.

Steve Lee, head of CMU’s School of Architecture, called the Intelligent Workplace a “living and lived-in laboratory” and described its four decades of groundbreaking energy research. It is home to the Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics (CBPD), which has made advances in user comfort and satisfaction, organizational flexibility, technological adaptability, and energy and environmental effectiveness.

The CBPD finds, tests and 
integrates the world’s best energy-saving products, developing conservation guidelines and demonstrating them through a range of commercial and residential projects. Many of the faculty members are among the more than 100 CMU professors and researchers who are part of the Wilton E. Scott Institute for Energy Innovation.

Invoking the Intelligent Workplace’s inventiveness and commitment, McCord urged other state governments to follow WHEEL’s lead and “embrace financial innovation in a way that actually serves people, much in the way that this building does.”

By: Michelle Bard, mbard@andrew.cmu.edu

The latter will be the focus of his speech — the first speech he’s ever written and delivered — at commencement as this year’s student speaker. He said his speech doesn’t have an official title, but he calls it “kind of like a ‘Chicken Soup for the Soul.’”

“By extending your hand and bringing someone along, helping them get to where they need to be, you can find a greater purpose in yourself,” said Lewis, who will be receiving his master’s degree in energy science, technology and policy after earning his bachelor’s degree in civil and environmental engineering and engineering and public policy a year ago.

“At the end of the day, the people who really are going to be remembered in this lifetime are the people who make those connections, the people who help to bring someone along. That leaves a legacy,” he said.

Lewis wants to encourage his fellow graduates to apply his message and pay it forward.

“When I saw the student speaker ad on a table tent, I thought ‘I should do this.’ I knew it was going to be hard, but 
I have the passion, the will and the 
purpose to give this message.

“That greater purpose is what I want people to leave with. I want people to question, ‘what have I done?’ ‘What can I do?’ ‘And how can I go about 
doing it?’”

Lewis and his friends in the High Council, a group of all male, black 2013 graduates, have walked his talk at CMU. Their unofficial organization had meetings to discuss their legacy and what they could leave behind “to fulfill a greater purpose.”

“We brought in our younger friends, freshmen and sophomores and gave them advice. We gave them the ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts.’ We mentored them. We shared our own experiences to try 
to influence theirs.

“I think it created a spark and they’ll take that and go back and do the same when they’re seniors,” Lewis said.

Lewis, who has been a member of the National Society of Black Engineers, a member of the Engineering and Public Policy Student Curriculum Committee and the College of Engineering’s First-Year Advisory Board, also leaves CMU with an academic legacy.

As a junior he committed himself to the energy industry, specifically renewable energy, after hearing about Solyndra, the now-defunct solar panel manufacturing company. In addition to focusing his classwork on energy issues, he secured a solar energy internship with the U.S. Department of Energy and an internship at the Center for American Progress, where he wrote blogs and white papers on renewable energy finance.

“My voice was being heard. That was a stepping-stone to what I’m doing now,” he said.

Professionally, Lewis sees his greater purpose in helping to provide energy-efficient and sustainable energy to the poor and disadvantaged.

“I want to start a venture to figure out financing methods and policy schemes to get clean energy, renewable energy and energy-efficient supplies to lower-income communities. We need innovative third-party leasing agreements, in which people can lease supplies rather than buy them,” he said.

Lewis points to several staff and faculty who have helped him along the way, particularly Deanna Matthews, assistant teaching professor of Engineering and Public Policy and associate department head, and her husband, Scott Matthews, professor of civil and environmental engineering and EPP.

“They have always believed in me and given me the confidence to achieve, even in the face of adversity,” he said. “Also, the Civil Engineering Department staff are all amazing people — 
Andrea Francioni Rooney, Mireille 
Mobley and company — the best staff 
on campus.”

Lewis said it was the people at CMU, the university environment and the accepting community that reeled him in five years ago during his recruiting visit. He remembers playing a pick-up basketball game in Wiegand Gym and recalls winning the game in which he amazed his teammates and competitors by dunking the ball.

He hopes to end his CMU career 
the same way — with a slam-dunk of 
a speech on commencement day.
By: Bruce Gerson, bgerson@cmu.edu

CMU Partners with the Tony Awards; 
Six Alumni Snag Tony Nominations

This three-act play drew rave reviews on Broadway.

Act 1: It is announced that Carnegie Mellon becomes the first exclusive higher education partner of the Tony Awards®.

Act 2: As part of the partnership, Carnegie Mellon and the Tonys will jointly create and launch the “Tony Honor for Excellence in Theatre 
Education,” the first national recognition program to honor K-12 theatre educators.

Act. 3: A day after the partnership 
is formally announced, six alumni from Carnegie Mellon’s School of Drama are nominated for 2014 Tony Awards, Broadway’s highest honor.

And the nominees are:

•    Jamie DeRoy (A’67), (producer) Best Musical, “A Gentleman’s 
Guide To Love and Murder”;
•    Sutton Foster, Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical, “Violet”;
•    Peter Hylenski (A’97), Best Sound Design of a Musical, “After Midnight”;
•    Cherry Jones (A’78), Best Performance by an Actress 
in a Leading Role in a Play,

        “The Glass Menagerie”;
•    Leigh Silverman (A’96), Best Direction of a Musical, “Violet”; and
•    Paula Wagner, (producer) Best Play, “Mothers and Sons.”

A day after Carnegie Mellon became the first exclusive higher education partner of the Tony Awards, six CMU alumni were nominated for 2014 Tonys. They are: (clockwise from top left): Jamie DeRoy, Cherry Jones, Leigh Silverman, Paula Wagner, Peter Hylenski and Sutton Foster.

In addition, shows nominated for Best Musical include CMU alumni. Catherine Walker (A’01) is an ensemble cast member of “A Gentleman’s Guide To Love and Murder,” and Daisy Hobbs (A’10) is an ensemble cast member of “Aladdin.”

“The Glass Menagerie” received seven nominations. CMU cast members along with Jones were Zachary Quinto (A’99) and Nicholas Rehberger (A’13).

“Act One” received five nominations. CMU cast members include Bob Ari (A’71, ’95) and Will Brill (A’09).

“With the centennial celebration of the School of Drama, this year’s Tony Award nominations are particularly gratifying. It’s wonderful to see how alumni have helped shape this year’s season on Broadway,” said Peter Cooke, head of the School of Drama.

As the oldest drama degree-granting program in the United States, CMU has produced hundreds of Tony nominees and 31 Tony winners — eight in 2013 alone.

The 2014 Tony Awards, hosted by Hugh Jackman, will be broadcast live from Radio City Music Hall in New York City on Sunday, June 8, on CBS.

The broadcast will feature an on-air tribute to CMU’s century of producing top theatre talent, from actors and musicians, producers to technicians, backstage to front office and everywhere 
in between.

Tony Awards, CMU Will 
Recognize Theatre Educators 
in 2015

Nominations for the “Tony Honor for Excellence in Theatre Education” will 
be open to the public and accepted 
starting in September 2014 at tonyawards.com and cmu.edu. A panel of judges comprised of leaders from the American Theatre Wing, The Broadway League, CMU and others from the 
theatre industry will select the finalists and winner based on criteria set forth 
by the committee. Demonstrating a positive impact on the lives of students, advancing the theatre profession and a commitment to excellence will be among the qualifications.

“Throughout its history, Carnegie Mellon has been home to many talented and inspirational faculty, so we understand the important role teachers play in transforming lives,” said CMU President Subra Suresh. “Behind every Tony winner is a teacher who inspired and nurtured a young talent to grow, to pursue big dreams and accomplish great things. We are excited to bring those heroes into the Tony spotlight.”

The winning teacher will receive the award on stage at the 2015 Tony Awards. The trip to New York City will be included, plus a financial contribution will be made to the theatre arts program at the winner’s school.

Online: Watch the 
nominations at www.cmu.edu/tony-awards.

Jonathan Groff, Hugh Jackman and Lucy Liu co-hosted the Tony nominations broadcast.

by Piper Staff

From Carnegie Mellon’s partnership with the Tony Awards and its first prime-time TV commercial to alumni presenters, nominees and Tony recipient, CMU had a leading role in the star-studded spectacular that was the 68th Annual Tony Awards®, presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League.

Alumna Jamie DeRoy (A’67) took home her second consecutive Tony Award as a producer for the winner of the Best Musical, “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder.”

“Congratulations to Jamie on winning a 2014 Tony Award,” said CMU President Subra Suresh. “It’s always exciting to see Carnegie Mellon alumni be recognized for their outstanding contributions to Broadway and the American theatre. This is another example of how, for 100 years, CMU’s School of Drama has prepared and supported talented individuals, both on stage and off, to reach the highest levels of their profession. The entire CMU community is very proud to celebrate with Jamie.”

Previous theatre producing credits for DeRoy include dozens of shows, among them Tony Award winners 
“Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike” in 2013 and the revival of 
“The Norman Conquests” in 2009.

Carnegie Mellon also took center stage as the first, education partner of the Tony Awards. Alumni Matt Bomer (A’00) and Zachary Quinto (A’99) announced the partnership during the broadcast before millions of viewers 
on CBS.

As part of the exclusive higher education partnership, CMU and the Tonys will present The Tony Honor for Excellence in Theatre Education Presented by Carnegie Mellon University during next year’s telecast.

Carnegie Mellon premiered its first prime-time television commercial during the show. The 30-second 
animated spot, which highlights CMU’s success in the arts, business, sciences and technology, aired twice during the Tony broadcast. Tony Award winner Billy Porter (A’91) recorded the voiceover.

Hosted by Tony Award winner, Academy Award®-nominated and Golden Globe®-winning actor Hugh Jackman, the Tony Awards also featured appearances by Patrick Wilson (A’95) and Judith Light (A’70).

Recognized for excellence in acting, producing, sound and lighting, this year’s Tony Award nominees reflect the breadth of drama education at CMU, and the range of impact alumni are having on the Broadway stage.

The other 2014 Tony Award 
nominees were:

• Peter Hylenski (A’97), Best Sound Design of a Musical, “After 
Midnight”
• Leigh Silverman (A’96), Best 
Direction of a Musical, “Violet”
• Cherry Jones (A’78), Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play, “The Glass Menagerie”
• Paula Wagner (producer), Best Play, “Mothers and Sons”
• Sutton Foster, Best Performance by
 an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical, “Violet”

The awards ceremony was highlighted by selections from various productions that included CMU alumni. Performing were Daisy Hobbs (A’10) in a selection from “Aladdin,” Andrew Kober (A’06) in an act from “Les Miserables” and Kaleigh Cronin (A’11) in “Cabaret.”

Nominations for the Education Honor will be open to the public and accepted starting this fall at tonyawards.com and cmu.edu. For more information visit https://www.facebook.com/tonyeduhonor.

Top Photo: Students, alumni, friends and staff of the university met outside Radio City Music Hall Sunday, June 8, 
to see the morning dress rehearsal of the Tony Awards.

Middle Photo: Matt Bomer (A’00) and Zachary Quinto (A’99) rehearse their 
presentation about CMU’s partnership.

Bottom Photo: College of Fine Arts Dean Dan Martin and his wife, Cheryl Pinto, pose on the red carpet.

Dick Block, associate head of the School of Drama, has worked on Broadway stages for such productions as “Evita,” “42nd Street,” “Barnum” and “Cats.” He’s been active with projects designed at the Pittsburgh Playhouse, Opera Theater of Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh Public Theater and he’s been a familiar face at the School of Drama for 22 years.

It’s seldom that Block speaks of 
his other passion, painting.

In 1989, he took his first painting class focusing on watercolors at Carnegie Museum. Block, along with three colleagues, Linda Kauffman, distinguished service professor of biological sciences; Suzanne Colvin, former project director for the Psychology Department’s Pittsburgh Mind-Body Center; and Pat Kelly, retired Pittsburgh Public School music teacher and member of Associated Artists of Pittsburgh, have 
been painting together for more than 
20 years.

Block calls his painting a stress reliever, because it’s the painting that lets him immerse himself in the details of the brush alone.

His inspiration comes from a 
number of sources, but he says it’s 
impossible to pinpoint his muse.

“One of the joys of being an artist is that one never knows when an idea will strike or when an image will be the genesis of an idea,” Block said. “I think the real trick is keeping your eyes open to anything and everything and observe what is around you.”

He often works on two paintings at a time and varies his subject matter between landscape, portrait and abstract styles.

“I suspect it’s the theatre training that encourages me to jump around — it keeps me from getting bored and doing the same thing over and over again,” Block said.

Block is fascinated by the different ways in which people see the same things.

“I am just as taken with the ways in which other painters make their marks on the paper,” he said.

“I have enjoyed painting with the same group of people for more than two decades because we are all so different in our approach. We constantly learn from one another and encourage each other to try what will inevitably be more challenging,” Block said. “Since we paint in the studio of a local artist, Robert Robinson, he has served as guide and mentor to all of us.”

The group met Robinson when they registered for one of his painting classes taught at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts more than 10 years ago.

The quartet meets weekly to paint at Robinson’s studio. Their most recent show was in April.

By: Dan Mohler, dmohler@andrew.cmu.edu

This past spring, students in the two-
semester Biomedical Engineering 
Design course presented innovative solutions to pressing medical problems.

The course brought together students from diverse backgrounds to develop solutions from concept all the way to prototype.

“Engineering, design and humanities students have pedagogies and skill sets that are significantly different from each other,” said Conrad Zapanta, associate head of CMU’s Department of Biomedical Engineering.

Graduates of biomedical engineering pursue careers in many biological and medical fields, including biotechnology, medical device, pharmaceuticals and health care policy.

“Some go to graduate school and medical school to pursue advanced degrees,” Zapanta said.

Fifteen teams developed projects, ranging from developing sterilizers for low-resource areas to a brace for rehabilitating Achilles tendon injuries. Some past projects from the course have been developed further and are currently being used clinically.

Some of this year’s projects were:

Grip It Good

Millions of Americans suffer from disability due to diseases such as diabetic neuropathy, arthritis or stroke. The goal of the Grip It Good project team was 
to help occupational therapists more accurately assess their patients and improve treatments.

“Currently a hand dynamometer is used for these purposes, but it doesn’t incorporate a very natural, gripping-type motion,” said Ethan Ungchusri (E’14), who joined forces with Luke Auyeung (E’14), Cheryl Deng (E’14), Nathan Hahn (DC’14), Tomas Dardet (E’14) and Ting Xu (E’14).

“We believed that by using something familiar like a soda can and putting four sensors inside, patients could interact with the measuring device in a more natural way,” Ungchusri said.

Here’s how it works: The patient is first asked to grab the can, hold it for 10 seconds and release it. Then, the patient is asked to grab the can as hard as he or she can for 10 seconds. A two-week treatment follows.

“At the end of the two-week treatment, the patients are asked to grab the can again, hold it for 10 seconds, release and then grab the can hard, just as they had prior to treatment,” Dardet said. 
“A doctor can then compare the results from the two sessions to see if the patient’s grip strength actually improved.”

PeopleProp

Chava Angell (E’14), Felix Chiu (E’14), Keith Joseph (A’15), Liana Kong (A’15) and Victoria Patino (E’14) developed the PeopleProp brace to support patients with neuromuscular disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease.

“We designed the brace to alleviate some of the symptoms of postural instability associated with the disease,” Angell said.

“Parkinson’s patients tend to slump over, and that can cause difficulties in breathing,” Angell added. “As you can see, our brace pulls back the shoulders, providing a lot more support. It’s very lightweight and comfortable.”

Many braces on the market are rigid and limit the range of motion. This team’s solution is made of spandex, Velcro and a cotton blend.

“Also, our brace is unobtrusive. 
A patient can wear this under clothing, taking away the stigma associated with wearing this kind of corrective piece in public,” Angell said.

Football Informatic 
Technology (FIT)

Concussions are a major concern 
in contact sports today, particularly American football.

“Although the symptoms of 
sports-related concussions are generally considered minor and transient, recent research has suggested that an extensive history of sport-related head injury may result in the enhanced onset of neurodegeneration,” said Roma Luthra (E’14), a fifth-year senior whose team took on the challenge of helmet safety. “With the potential for such significant negative consequences associated with head trauma, the sport of football has recently come under great scrutiny.”

Luthra and her teammates — Robert Winkelman (E’14), Catherine Rudnick (E’14) and Tejank Shah (E’14) — designed a pressure sensor cap that could potentially prevent concussions.

“There are air bladders inside the helmet that can be adjusted using a pump,” said Winkelman, who played on CMU’s Tartan football team. “But how they’re fitted today is that a coach will come up to a player typically at the beginning of the season, have the player don the helmet, and as the player is wearing it, the coach will ask ‘How does it feel?’ And they’ll just add air to adjust the player’s comfort level.”

The air pressure in the helmet is subject to change as the season progresses — affected by seasonal temperatures, for example — and follow-up fittings are not required. The cap uses a software interface to collect quantitative data using four sensing resistors inside the helmet to record the initial fit.

“That fit can be saved and used in follow-up fittings later in the season to make sure every time the player takes the field, the helmet is fitting as good as it was on day one,” Winkelman said.

“Our cap was pretty inexpensive to build, too,” he added. “One cap would suffice for an entire team of football players. And it would only cost the team about $100.”

By: Kelly Solman, ksolman@andrew.cmu.edu

Top Photo: From left, Nathan Hahn (DC’14), Cheryl Deng (E’14), Tomas Dardet (E’14) Ethan Ungchusri (E’14), Ting Xu (E’14) and Luke Auyeung (E’14) use sensors in soda cans to help occupational therapists assess patients’ grips.

Middle Photo: Felix Chiu (E’14), Liana Kong (A’15), Victoria Patino (E’14), Chava Angell (E’14) and Keith Joseph (A’15) 
developed the PeopleProp brace to support patients 
with neuromuscular disorders.

Bottom Photo: Catherine Rudnick (E’14), Robert Winkelman (E’14), Roma Luthra (E’14) and Tejank Shah (E’14) designed a pressure sensor cap to help coaches keep football helmets properly fitted throughout the season.

The Hallinen Family

Kelsey Hallinen (S’14), a physics major who earned Phi Beta Kappa honors, joined four other CMU grads in her family. From left are her father, Ken Hallinen (TPR’82, DC’85), director of resource planning and management for Computing Services; brother-in-law Ross Kukulinski (E’09); sister Nicole Hallinen (DC’09); Peggy Hallinen; and mother Judy Hallinen (DC’83), assistant vice president of educational outreach and director of the Gelfand Center for Service Learning and Outreach. 
The day before CMU’s commencement, Judy received her doctor of education in higher education management from the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania. Judy and Ken Hallinen have each been employed by the university for more than 30 years.

The Bartel Family

Chuck Bartel (HNZ’95), a 35-year staff member at CMU who is currently director of Global IT Services in Computing Services, and his wife, Donna (third from right), had their third daughter, Chelsea (DC’14), graduate with a bachelor’s degree in creative writing and minors in art and drama. Other CMU grads in the Bartel family pictured (l-r) include Lindsey Bartel (DC’11), Melissa Bartel Kotterman (E’08) and her husband, Will Kotterman (E’07).

Merab Twahirwa (E’14) and three of her classmates from the inaugural class at Carnegie Mellon in Rwanda were given the opportunity to complete the coursework for their master’s degree in information technology in Pittsburgh.

While they were in the city, they paid homage to the first-of-its-kind program in Africa via one of CMU’s most popular traditions — painting the Fence.

“We wanted to paint Carnegie 
Mellon in Rwanda and the link to our website on the Fence so that more people can learn about CMU’s presence in Rwanda,” Twahirwa said. “Rwanda is an exciting place to know, and Africa is growing fast. IBM, Phillips and GE are already setting up offices there. I think people should know what opportunities there are at CMU in Rwanda.”

Twahirwa and 21 others will graduate from CMU in Rwanda’s Master of Science in Information Technology program on July 24.

Accustomed to serving the Rwandan community, Twahirwa was thrilled to participate in CMU’s 1000Plus day of community service by helping to plant trees on Pittsburgh’s riverfront.

“Back home in Rwanda, on the last Saturday of every month, people do community work just like this. So it was exciting to do something similar in Pittsburgh,” she said.

She said she felt the same CMU spirit of innovation and work ethic in Pittsburgh that she had come to know 
in Rwanda. It made her feel at home.

“I worked just as hard at CMU in Rwanda, so I didn’t think classes in Pittsburgh were too much work and I didn’t feel lost or out of place,” Twahirwa said. “I think it was a really good idea for CMU to come to Rwanda because they are developing the 
capacity of people in Africa to solve their own problems.”

Bruce Krogh, director of CMU in Rwanda and professor of electrical and computer engineering, said, “We are very happy that four of our first graduates were able to complete their program in Pittsburgh. They got to take advantage of the wealth of courses offered there, and they helped promote awareness of the unique opportunities our students have 
in Rwanda to be educated in the context of the explosion of technology and 
innovation happening in Africa today.”

Michel Bézy, associate director of CMU in Rwanda and a distinguished 
service professor of engineering and 
public policy, said the kind of interaction that the students have at CMU in Rwanda is special.

“We feel very good about the quality of the education we deliver at CMU in Rwanda,” Bézy said. “Our students get the opportunity to apply what they learn inside local companies, analyzing their markets and providing advice on strategic use of digital information in enterprises. Then, they do an internship at a local company in Africa. And finally, they work together in teams of three or four and solve a practicum submitted by the industry. We keep the bar very high. We push them to their limits to show them what they can do.”

Twahirwa agreed, noting that faculty members are helpful in many ways.

“Our faculty members understand that Rwandan students have different challenges as a result of their background, and they show you that you can achieve much more than you might think,” Twahirwa said.

Twahirwa arrived in Pittsburgh for her final semester of the two-year program with classmates Alain Shema (E’14), Esther Kunda (E’14) and Andrew Kinai (E’14).

“Enrolling in the program was a risk, but it has paid off. It has been worth it. It was something new, so you didn’t know if it would work out, but the opportunity came at the right time for me,” said Kinai, who is now interviewing for jobs.

“I always tell people, if you can come to CMU in Rwanda, it’s a big opportunity. The way the courses are structured, it’s relevant in terms of where we are in Africa today,” Kinai said.

From her CMU education, Twahirwa said she gained a solid understanding of technology, business, innovation and the sustainability of those innovations, and how to scale them and create jobs for Africans.

“I love the culture of Africa. It might be a challenge for some people because there are many languages there, but it’s exciting to me. People are very welcoming, and when you bring innovation that matters to them, they are willing to 
accept it,” she said.

By: Kelly Solman, ksolman@andrew.cmu.edu

Students Esther Kunda, Andrew Kinai, Alain Shema and Merab Twahirwa (l-r) are among the first 22 graduates of CMU in Rwanda. While completing their master’s degrees on the Pittsburgh campus they demonstrated their shcool pride with a university tradition — painting the Fence.

While the number of women majoring in computer science at Carnegie Mellon has long exceeded national averages, this year’s incoming class has set a new benchmark for the university’s School 
of Computer Science (SCS).

About 41 percent, 56 of the 138 incoming SCS undergraduates, are women, surpassing the previous high-water mark of nearly 40 percent 14 years ago.

Incoming first-year student Rachel Gu brings with her a fascination with artificial intelligence that grew from watching Japanese anime series and reading manga, which are Japanese comics.

“I chose CMU after taking the pre-college program last summer because I loved not only the computer science program but also the faculty and current students,” Gu said. “The CMU students quickly offered to help me whenever I struggled, and the staff and teacher’s assistants were eager to answer questions and help solve technical issues.”

A project for incoming student Maitreyee Joshi’s local science fair in high school piqued her interest in the field. Joshi’s idea involved analyzing DNA mutations in cancer patients and she amazed herself — as well as the judges — with the computer program she created using just a laptop and the potential of that program to impact people’s lives.

“Computer science has the potential to create amazingly diverse applications that can impact every area of our lives,” Joshi said. “I would really like to use my computer science education from CMU to build assistive technologies that improve how the disabled live and interact with the world.”

According to the most recent Taulbee Survey compiled by the Computer Research Association, just 14 percent of bachelor’s degrees in computer science in 2012-13 nationwide were conferred on women. That compares to 22 percent that academic year at Carnegie Mellon, consistent with the percentage of women — 21 percent — who entered the program in 2008.

The last time that a class of first-year computer science majors came close to including 40 percent women was in 2000 during the first dot-com boom, after CMU had expanded its admissions criteria and launched an outreach program to high schools to encourage more female applicants. But that increase was short-lived, in part because the dot-com bust caused all 
applications to computer science programs to drop nationwide.

Lenore Blum, professor of computer science who joined the faculty in 1999, launched the Women@SCS program, instilling a new SCS philosophy based on providing women with the same opportunities for professional advancement as men, rather than catering to supposed differences in the interests of men and women.

“Women need the same things that have always been available to men — mentors, networks and role models, as well as friends who are also computer science majors,” said Blum, whose research and work to increase the participation of girls and women in computer science and other science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields began in the early 1970s.

“What we have shown is that making these opportunities explicit for the minority in a population ends up working to the advantage of everybody,” Blum added. “We see that women and men exhibit similar spectra of interests, ranging from coding to designing computer systems to developing applications of computer science.”

SCS has developed this inclusive culture while maintaining rigorous admission standards for all students.

Jacobo Carrasquel, freshman adviser since 2005, noted that enrollment of women has been steadily increasing, representing 29 percent and 34 percent of the 2012 and 2013 first-year classes, respectively.

One reason for the increase in women enrollees may relate to the increased popularity of computer science — a discipline in high demand by employers and that is now inextricable with most fields including science, economics, engineering and the arts.

“I think the message for undergraduates coming in is clear, that SCS and CMU value diversity,” said Tom Cortina, assistant dean for undergraduate education.

“Students and teachers now understand that if I’m interested in any subject today, say I want to be a biologist, I need to understand something about computing,” he added.

CMU received nearly 6,200 applicants for its undergraduate computer science program — a record number.

The School of Computer Science, now celebrating its 25th year, once again has received the highest possible score in U.S. News & World Report’s ranking of Ph.D. programs in computer science.

By: Byron Spice, bspice@cmu.edu

Computer Science Professor Lenore Blum (back row, third from right) poses with first-year students at the 
Women@SCS meeting in late August. Students in the back row are (l-r) Anisha Padwekar, Christine Lee, Jie Li, Maunika Atmakuri, Abhy Vytheeswaran, Summer Kitahara and Asra Mahmood. In the front row are (l-r) Jennifer Chou and Maitreyee Joshi. Women@SCS is an organization that supports opportunities for women in computer science.