26 September 2008

Kennywood Fright Nights

Hi everyone,

Just fyi, you may or may not know that our great and local amusement park Kennywood has "Fright Nights" in October. The park is open Fri and Sat nights from 7pm to 1am; it's a really fantastic time to go because the park isn't very crowded and it's a lot of fun (and a lot more scary!) to ride the rollercoasters in complete darkness. Here's the link for more info: http://www.phantomfrightnights.com/

Political fair for grad students

Carnegie Mellon University's Graduate Student Assembly (GSA) will hold a political resource fair and reception at 7 p.m., Friday, Oct. 3 in Rangos Hall in the University Center. The event is for graduate students (with free tickets) and invited guests only.

Several members of Pittsburgh City Council, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and State Senate have been invited to attend. Carnegie Mellon Students for Barack Obama, the Carnegie Mellon Republican Club, the Pittsburgh Urban Magnet Project and The Pennsylvania League of Young Voters will also participate.

The evening will begin with the reception and an information fair for graduate students and guests. Later in the evening, The Pennsylvania League of Young Voters and members of Pittsburgh City Council will sponsor a game of political trivia. In addition to voter registration, the event will engage Carnegie Mellon students with regional elected officials and open up a dialogue as the November election approaches.

This is a great opportunity for U.S. and non-U.S. citizens to learn more about the election and process. For details, click to http://www.cmu.edu/news/archive/2008/September/sept26_gsapoliticalfair.shtml.

25 September 2008

HCII Seminar Series, Wednesday, October 1st, 4:00pm-5:00pm, Newell Simon Hall 1305: Gregory Abowd, Distinguished Professor in the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech. "HCI Research: Does it really matter?" Brief: We must work on problems that children, grandparents, and politicians understand and believe are important. When we connect what we do to the challenges of everyday life, two things happen. First, people pay attention. Second, we see just how complicated real life is to explore and impact as a researcher. http://calendar.cs.cmu.edu/hcii/events

23 September 2008

Writing grant proposals panel (with snacks), Oct 7

GPO professional development seminar especially for science, engineering, and computer science students: "Writing Grant Proposals II: Research Grant Awardees: How They Did It." Desserts and coffee will be served. This Graduate Programs Office seminar will feature major grant winners explaining how they wrote successful proposals:

-Birku Akinci, Assistant Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering and NSF Career Grant Awardee
-James Antaki, Professor, Biomedical Engineering, Collaborative Project with Pitt, CMU, and UPMC
-Greg Lowry, Associate Professor, CEE
-Robert Tilton, Professor,Chemical Engineering, Collaborative Interdisciplinary Project, CMU

Date: Tuesday, October 7
Time: 1:00 - 2:30
Place: Rangos 2, UC

If you would like to attend this seminar, please sign up at http://education.andrew.cmu.edu/graduateprograms/graduate_program_registration.php.

Registration for this event will close on October 3. 

19 September 2008

Graduate support programs

FYI for students in Pittsburgh: Carnegie Mellon has a graduate programs office (GPO) that does a lot for grad students including conference and research funding, lunch-n-learn sessions, professional development, doctoral career paths, support for women and students of color, and more. This is a friendly and helpful organization, plus their activities (including lunches and networking receptions) are free! 

Speaking of international...

Speaking of international festivals, Carnegie Mellon hosts its own international festival each year with events, speakers, food, crafts and more. This year's event is coming up October 10 with many of the activities in the campus university center. View the OIE website for details.

World food festivals in Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh is home to many ethnic groups, many of which are hosting food festivals in the coming weeks. There are also a lot of farms that are doing special fall events (hay rides, corn mazes, etc.). These are great options for getting out for a couple of hours! View the PG article for more details.

18 September 2008

EPP joint kick-off event Friday at IST and Carnegie Mellon

Come find out more about the new PhD in Engineering and Public Policy. This is a joint kick-off event with a location at Instituto Superior Técnico (IST) in Lisboa and at Carnegie Mellon. To find out more: http://www.cmu.edu/portugal/calendar/

Welcome to the Carnegie Mellon|Portugal blog

Friends, welcome and  bem-vindo to our blog! We are an international education and research partnership between Carnegie Mellon and several top-ranked research universities Portugal. Members of our community (students, faculty, alumni, staff) are strongly encouraged to join our blog and add your comments about your experiences in the program. To join, please email us at icti-info@andrew.cmu.edu.

To find out more about our program, including our academic programs, our campuses, our research grants, and news items, please visit our website at www.cmu.edu.portugal. You can also visit our YouTube site to see videos of our students, programs, and faculty members, or subscribe to our Twitter account.

Sign one of the steel beams in the new Gates Center

Campus news: Sign one of the steel beams in the new Gates Center

Be part of Carnegie Mellon history by leaving your personal message on a steel beam that will be used in the construction of the School of Computer Science Complex, the future home of the Gates and Hillman centers. The beam is available for all students, faculty and staff to sign from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sept. 25-26.

The beam will be located in a corner of the construction site, just behind the Purnell loading dock and Cyert Hall. The best way to get to the beam from The Cut is to go through the Warner Hall parking lot.

Once signed, the beam will be hoisted into place during a Topping-Off Ceremony for the SCS Complex, from 3 to 5 p.m. on Sept. 29. A topping-off ceremony is a construction-industry tradition marking the moment when the crew puts in place the highest structural point of a building. In addition to signing the beam, it is also customary to put an evergreen tree on one of them as a good luck charm for the workers and future occupants of the building.

Technical Opportunities Conference

Students, the TOC is a great opportunity for you to meet and network with US and international companies who have all come to Carnegie Mellon specifically to recruit students. For more information, view the TOC's website. This is an annual event. It's usually held in conjunction with the BOC, the Business Opportunities Conference.

Pausch memorial, simulcast tickets (CMU ID required)

Campus news: 

The memorial service for Randy Pausch, "Remembering Randy: A Celebration of the Life and Legacy of Randy Pausch," will be simulcast at 4:30 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 22 in McConomy Auditorium. A limited number of tickets to this simulcast are available at the University Center Information Desk. A Carnegie Mellon ID card is required to receive a ticket. Tickets will be
distributed one per person.

In addition to the simulcast in McConomy, the service can be seen at the following campus locations: 7500 Wean Hall; Giant Eagle Auditorium, Baker Hall; and Philip Chosky Theatre, Purnell Center for the Arts.

Links to the live webcast hosted by ABCNews.com will be available at http://www.cmu.edu/randyslecture, and video of the memorial service will be posted soon afterward on the Carnegie Mellon channels of YouTube and iTunesU, as well as http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/LastLecture.

The service will include recollections and tributes from a number of Pausch's friends and colleagues, including Jared L. Cohon, Carnegie Mellon president; Randal E. Bryant, dean, Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science; Andy van Dam, Brown University computer science professor; Dennis Proffitt, University of Virginia psychology professor; Dan Siewiorek, head of Carnegie Mellon's Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII); and Don Marinelli, co-founder and executive producer of Carnegie Mellon's Entertainment Technology Center. Questions about the memorial celebration can be directed to randy-memorial@andrew.cmu.edu.