8.5x11 News

Oct. 23-June 30: Hunt Institute Exhibition. "Botanicals: Environmental Expressions in Art, the Alisa and Isaac M. Sutton Collection" represents one of the finest private collections of contemporary botanical art in America. The exhibition will be on display from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday, and 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday on the 5th floor of the Hunt Library. Read more about the free exhibit at http://huntbot.andrew.cmu.edu/HIBD/Exhibitions/Exhibitions.shtml.

Thursday, Oct. 22: University Lecture Series. 4:30 p.m., Porter Hall 100 (Gregg Hall). Columbia University's Dickson D. Despommier will discuss "The Vertical Farm: Agriculture for the 21st Century and Beyond." For more information on the lecture, visit http://www.cmu.edu/uls/october/despommier.html.

Thursday, Oct. 22: Friedman Summer Internship Information Session. 5-6:30 p.m., Carnegie East Conference Room, Warner Hall. Government Relations staff will be on hand to discuss the application process and placement assistance for the program. For more: http://www.cmu.edu/govrel/friedman/index.html

Friday, Oct. 23: Language Technologies Institute (LTI) Seminar. 2:30 p.m., Rangos Ballroom, University Center (UC). Alex Waibel, professor of computer science at the LTI, will discuss "From Research Lab to Jungle Ops: Computer Speech Translation for Humanitarian Relief." For seminar details, visit http://www.cmu.edu/uls/october/waibel.html.

Oct. 23-25: "Pittsburgh Eco-Drama Festival." The Center for the Arts in Society and School of Drama present staged readings of four new award-winning plays about the environment and ecology. For details and showtimes, visit http://www.cmu.edu/news/archive/2009/October/oct16_ecodrama.shtml, or read the news item below.

Saturday, Oct. 24: "TreeVitalize Pittsburgh." 9 a.m.-1 p.m., rain or shine. This community tree-planting event is part of the Higher Education Climate Consortium's 350 Day of Action. To volunteer, RSVP today to cmu-service@andrew.cmu.edu for project details and transportation plans.

Monday, Oct. 26: University Lecture Series. 4:30 p.m., Porter Hall 100 (Gregg Hall). The Tepper School's Paul Goodman will discuss "Escola de Samba," his one-hour documentary on the 4,000 Brazilians who work to create the country's annual carnival. For more: http://www.cmu.edu/uls/october/goodman.html

Tuesday, Oct. 27: Benefits Forum. Noon-1:30 p.m., Connan Room, UC. Staff Council sponsors the open dialogue on health care benefits and open enrollment for the upcoming year with Barbara Smith, associate vice president and chief human resources officer, and Lori Bell, benefits specialist. For more information about Staff Council, visit http://www.cmu.edu/staff-council.

Tuesday, Oct. 27: Heinz Talks! 4:30 p.m., Russell Caucus Room (SR-325), Russell Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. The Heinz Family Philanthropies and the H. John Heinz III College present the second annual Heinz Talks! event, "Profitable Solutions to Climate, Oil and Proliferation." Energy expert and Heinz Award recipient Amory Lovins will discuss his strategy for achieving energy efficiency that addresses climate change, oil dependence and national security. Heinz College students Zhimin Mao (MSPPM '09) and Michael Spotts (MSPPM '10) will participate and Andrè Heinz will moderate. RSVP required at http://www.heinzawards.net/pub/documents/heinz_talks/.

Thursday, Oct. 29: TechBridgeWorld Interactive 2009. 5-7 p.m., Newell-Simon Hall Perlis Atrium. The event will focus on student experience and highlight recent work done by TechBridgeWorld, which celebrates its fifth anniversary. For more: http://www.techbridgeworld.org/index.html

Thursday, Oct. 29: David Lewis Lecture Series. 6 p.m., Carnegie Museum of Art Theater. The School of Architecture presents world-renowned practitioner and urban theorist Peter Bosselmann of the University of California, Berkeley. Bosselmann will discuss "Urban Transformation: Understanding City Design and Form." Read more at http://www.cmu.edu/news/archive/2009/October/oct16_lewislecture.shtml.

HOMECOMING CELEBRATION SET FOR NEXT WEEKEND; PAUSCH FOOTBRIDGE TO BE DEDICATED

Carnegie Mellon's Homecoming and Reunion Weekend 2009 is scheduled for Oct. 30-31 with activities for the entire campus community. To kick off the schedule of events, the Alumni Association invites the more than 800 faculty and staff who are alumni of Carnegie Mellon to attend the Alumni Faculty & Staff Reception at 2 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 29 in the Alumni Lounge of the University Center. RSVP to events-alumni@andrew.cmu.edu by Friday, Oct. 23.

Robotics Professor William "Red" Whittaker will present a lecture on "Robots at Work" as the 2009 Alumni Distinguished Achievement Award Honoree at 4:30 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 29 in the Gates Center's Rashid Auditorium. The ceremony honoring all 2009 Alumni Award winners will take place at 5:30 p.m., Friday, Oct. 30 in Rangos Ballroom, UC.

The all campus tailgate from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Wiegand Gymnasium precedes the 1 p.m. football game as the Tartans kickoff against the Washington University Bears in Gesling Stadium. Other events include Scotch 'n' Soda's production of "The Mystery of Edwin Drood," a KidZone Haunted Activity Fair and college-specific receptions. For more details and to register for events, visit http://www.cmu.edu/homecoming.

Homecoming weekend also will mark the first lighting of the newly completed Randy Pausch Memorial Bridge. The pedestrian bridge provides a connection between the Gates Center and the Purnell Center, symbolizing Pausch's interdisciplinary work that combined computer science and the arts. The bridge's design commemorates Pausch's "First Penguin Award," which was given to honor the student who took the greatest risk but failed to achieve their goal. Programmable LED lights have been installed to highlight the design, with a plan to allow students to program their designs remotely. Specific details on the dedication will be announced soon.

CENTER FOR ARTS IN SOCIETY, SCHOOL OF DRAMA PRESENT "ECO-DRAMA FESTIVAL"

The Center for the Arts in Society (CAS) and School of Drama present "The Pittsburgh Eco-Drama Festival," featuring staged readings of four new award-winning plays about the environment and ecology. The festival runs Oct. 23-25 in the auditorium of the Environmental Charter School at Frick Park in Regent Square.

The four plays are "Song of Extinction," 8 p.m., Friday, Oct. 23; "Girl Science," 2 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 24; "Odin's Horse," 8 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 24; and "Atomic Farmgirl," 2 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 25. All performances are free and open to the public.

The event is part of the performance and ecology initiative sponsored by the CAS, with additional support from the School of Drama, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. Read more about the initiative at http://www.cmu.edu/news/archive/2009/October/oct16_ecodrama.shtml.

CARNEGIE MELLON EXPANDS MOBILE LEARNING PROJECT IN INDIA WITH SUPPORT FROM NOKIA

Matthew Kam, assistant professor in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute, has spent six years designing educational games for teaching English lessons to students in developing countries as part of the Mobile & Immersive Learning for Literacy in Emerging Economies (MILLEE) project. The research, supported in part by a grant from Nokia Research Center in Palo Alto, Calif., will expand to gauge the effectiveness of the mobile phone-based games in rural India.

"With Nokia's assistance, we will be able to conduct field research that is more extensive and more rigorous than we could previously," Kam said. "Our previous, smaller studies have shown that students have significant gains in learning when they use these games. By aiming to replicate these results in a much larger study, we anticipate that we can understand how to design and develop phone-based games to improve educational prospects for billions of people throughout the developing world."

The MILLEE project currently focuses on lessons that improve English skills because English is a power language in India and much of the developing world. If the educational benefits of mobile phones can be demonstrated convincingly, Kam added, consumers will have additional motivation for investing in mobile phone service, which will further spur mobile phone adoption.

Read more about the project and the students involved at http://www.cmu.edu/news/archive/2009/October/oct21_millee.shtml.

NEW WALKING TO THE SKY IS BIGGER AND STRONGER

If the recently installed Walking to the Sky sculpture looks a bit heavier than it did before, you're absolutely right. While the total length of the pole (103 feet) and the angle (75 degrees) remain the same as the original sculpture, its overall gross weight has more than tripled, increasing from 13,000 to 40,000 pounds.

The sculpture, created by Jonathan Borofsky (A'64), has a new stainless steel pole design that includes interior steel pipe reinforcements that minimize movement and maximize stability, and a stronger foundation. An additional 7,000 pounds of reinforcing steel and 30 cubic yards of concrete were added to the existing concrete foundation, which has been covered with a waterproof membrane. In addition, 90 steel dowel pins were drilled into the existing foundation and the pole base plate bolts were increased from 3⁄4 inches in diameter to 11⁄4 inches in diameter. The base plate of the pole also increased in depth by approximately 20 inches.

The bottom of the new pole is nearly double the width of the original sculpture. The diameter at the base increased from 20 to 39 inches, while it decreased at the top, from 20 to 17 inches. The interior steel pipe reinforcements gradually decrease in thickness, going from 3⁄4 inch thick at the bottom to 1⁄2 inch thick at the top.

NEWS BRIEFS

The Information Security Office (ISO) is celebrating and promoting National Cyber Security Month by hosting several events and programs about safeguarding computing assets and online information. The ISO's Web site has information on events and classes at http://www.cmu.edu/iso/aware/ncsam/index.html. Mary Ann Blair, ISO director, offers a few cybersecurity tips on video (http://www.cmu.edu/news/news-notes/multimedia/iso.mov) and in an audio podcast (http://www.cmu.edu/news/news-notes/multimedia/iso.mp3).

Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh are co-sponsoring a course on "Brazil Today: Ethnicity, Economy and Environment," Oct. 30-Nov. 1 in Porter Hall 100 (Gregg Hall). The course will provide an introduction to Brazil, its diversity, economic development, and environmental issues and challenges. The full course, or any single lecture, is free and open to the public. For more information, visit http://www.cmu.edu/brazil-today/ or contact Renee Camerlengo at 412-268-2075.

Carnegie Mellon University Press has published a new edition of Chuck Kinder's "Honeymooners: A Cautionary Tale." Gerald Costanzo, director of Carnegie Mellon University Press, approached Kinder about printing a second edition and adding it to the Press' Classic Contemporaries Series. The new edition features seven never before printed chapters from the manuscript, lost love letters and a candid introduction that explores the blurred distinction between novel and memoir. Read more about the book at http://www.cmu.edu/news/archive/2009/October/oct16_honeymooners.shtml.

The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust is offering discounted tickets for all students, faculty and staff. To order tickets, go to http://www.pgharts.org/events/tickets and enter the Carnegie Mellon promo code CMU or 12229. The site includes updated offers from The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, Pittsburgh Dance Council, Pittsburgh International Children's Theater, Pittsburgh Musical Theater and - new this season - The August Wilson Center for African American Culture.

The CIT Staff Awards Committee is accepting nominations through Nov. 13 for the 15th annual CIT Staff Awards. Awards include: the Staff Recognition Award, open to all full- or part-time CIT staff members; the Burritt Education Award, open to any CIT staff member who is enrolled as a continuing education student at any degree level; and the Rookie Award, open to all full- or part-time CIT staff members who have been a part of CIT for six months to two years at the time of nomination. The Awards Ceremony will be held at noon on Jan. 6 in the Singleton Room, Roberts Hall. For more: http://www.cit.cmu.edu/faculty_staff/staff_awards/index.html

Carnegie Mellon's 16th annual food drive, sponsored by Staff Council, is scheduled to run Nov. 2-13. Drop boxes will be placed at strategic locations around campus with all proceeds benefiting the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank. Special events related to the drive include Tartan Spirit Days, Oct. 31 and Nov. 7; "One Day, One Can," Nov. 4; and "Cans Across the Cut," Nov. 11. Look for more information in next week's 8.5 x 11 News.