Award-winning filmmaker Spike Lee will attend the screening of his latest film, “Chi-Raq,” at Carnegie Mellon University, at 6 p.m., Saturday, March 19 in McConomy Auditorium. Lee also will interact with audience members at a “Face to Face with Spike Lee” event prior to the screening.

Part of the 2016 CMU International Film Festival “Faces of Conflict” lineup, “Chi-Raq” is a modern-day adaptation of the ancient Greek play “Lysistrata,” set against the backdrop of gang violence in Chicago. The title combines the city’s name with Iraq, equating Chicago to a war zone.

The satirical, musical drama begins when a stray bullet from a drive-by shooting kills a young girl. Despite pleas from her mother and the offer of a monetary reward for leads, witnesses remain silent for fear of the rival gangs involved. The main character Lysistrata, eager to prevent more bloodshed, persuades the girlfriends of both gangs to not have sex with their men until the violence ceases.

Lee, who has been nominated for two Academy Awards and won an Emmy, is known for using film to express his political beliefs and to examine race relations, the role of media in contemporary life and urban crime.

“Many people associate ‘conflict’ with war, but fortunately for most Americans, war remains an abstraction. Spike Lee has never been one to shy away from conflict here, on American soil,” said Jolanta Lion, director of the film festival and assistant director of the Humanities Center in the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

“‘Chiraq’ and several of our other films point to the conflicts on our own turf. Having Spike address these issues in person is sure to empower our audience to be vehicles of change,” she said.

“Chi-Raq’s” star-studded cast includes Nick Cannon, Teyonah Paris, Wesley Snipes, Angela Basset, Samuel L. Jackson, John Cusack and Jennifer Hudson. It won the 2015 African-American Film Critics Association’s Best Independent Film Award.

The film’s release sparked controversy for trivializing Chicago’s gang and violence problems, but Lee has continued to defend his message.

“Throughout his career, Spike Lee has continually heightened our awareness of the racial fault lines that exist in our society and forced his audience to confront their own beliefs. As a social critic and an artist, he has made a highly significant contribution to American dialogue and culture. This is a great opportunity for our students and community to engage with him on these issues," said Timothy J. Haggerty, director of the Humanities Scholars Program.

“Faces of Conflict” — the 10th anniversary of CMU’s International Film Festival — runs March 17 - April 3 at various locations throughout Pittsburgh.

Ticket Prices:

Full Access Festival Pass (includes Chi-Raq screening)
$25 seniors and students* | $50 regular

An Exclusive Engagement with Director Spike Lee (March 19)
“Face to Face” with Spike Lee**
$10 seniors and students* | $15 regular

Chi-Raq Screening + Spike Lee Q&A
$20 seniors and students* | $40 regular

*Present a valid student/OSHER ID when picking up tickets for student pricing
**NOT included with the Festival Pass

Purchase tickets and view the entire film festival schedule.

Media:

Credentialed members of the media may only attend the Q&A with Spike Lee and/or the screening of “Chi-Raq” by pre-registering with Shilo Rea at 412-268-6094 by noon, March 18.

Sponsors:

Lee’s visit is supported by CMU’s Humanities Scholars Program, Sylvia and David Steiner Speaker Series, Center for the Arts in Society, Dietrich College Dean's Office, AB Lectures, School of Art, Entertainment Technology Center, Department of English and Center for Africanamerican Urban Studies & the Economy (CAUSE).

The CMU International Film Festival is organized by The Humanities Center at Carnegie Mellon, and is dedicated to and inspired by the life and work of the late Paul Goodman, a world-renowned filmmaker, psychologist and Carnegie Mellon professor.

The 2016 festival is funded in part by a generous sponsorship from TeleTracking Technologies, Inc., and is sponsored by a diverse group of institutions, organizations, media outlets and local establishments.

Learn more about Faces of Conflict.

Karel Janeček was upset.

The latest political scandal in his native Czech Republic had reached an all-time low. The mayor of Prague was allegedly colluding with a Czech businessman to use the city's budget to influence sales of city and state property, fix office appointments and give expensive gifts to officials.

"I was so disappointed in the Prague mayor and these people in the Prague council," recalled Janeček, who has always felt a need to do something about the things he doesn't like. As the founder of RSJ, a top market maker of derivative exchanges, he was in a position to affect change in Prague and around the country. In 2011 he created the Anti-Corruption Endowment to provide financial and moral support for whistleblowers who expose corruption in government.

While the Anti-Corruption Endowment was successful in bringing cases of corruption to light, Janeček, who earned a Ph.D. in Computational Finance from Carnegie Mellon University in 2004, started to realize something.

"The core of the problem is not corruption — corruption is a consequence," he said. "The problem is the people in power."

True to his nature, he started thinking about to how change things for the better. He focused on the Czech Republic's voting system, which, like many other European countries, enables the parties to hide corrupted and other wicked individuals behind closed party lists. This system also very often forces voters to vote for the "lesser evil" option.

But what if voters had more options? Using some simple math and basic logic, Janeček created an innovative voting system that gives voters that and more. Called Democracy 2.1, voters get multiple votes — and sometimes a minus vote.

Let's say voters were at the ballot boxes to elect two members of the city council. Twelve candidates are vying for two seats. Using Democracy 2.1 (D21), each voter would have four votes, allowing a Democrat, for example, to vote for her party's two candidates while also giving her the freedom to cast her remaining votes for other candidates whose ideas she also likes. She also may have the opportunity to cast a minus vote for a candidate that she absolutely does not want to sit on the city council. The effect of multiple votes supports consensual and democratic candidates, and makes the selection of leaders more just.

"The most important ingredient, dare I say the revolutionary idea of D21, is the effect of multiple votes," Janeček said.

According to D21's website, offering multiple votes almost doubles voters' satisfaction with the final choice because there is a higher probability that one of the options someone voted for will be chosen as one of the winners.

Although Janeček's initial motivation for developing D21 was to revamp the political election process, he's found that D21 has widespread appeal.

"I have been so surprised at the universal applicability of D21 not just for politics but for any situation where people make decisions out of many options."

Program in Action

One of the most exciting uses of D21 so far has been in participatory budgeting, where community members directly decide how to spend part of a public budget.

Earlier this year, residents of several New York City districts voted to decide how they wanted the city to spend over $31 million of the budget. They were offered a number of choices in each district, which ranged from buying an air conditioner for a school cafeteria to making specific streets greener.

D21 consulted in cooperation with Stanford University on developing a digital ballot for the vote and implemented it in five districts. The D21 voting algorithm was tested in two of them. The voters' results revealed which projects had the most consensus and which were the most divisive. The D21 team is continuing its collaboration with New York City for next year's vote.

"The amazing thing is that it's not just about voting — it's also about feedback," said Janeček, who was present for the community vote in New York City. "The city council can learn so much more from people. This is an amazing thing, this information flow. That I didn't expect."

D21 is also being implemented in elementary schools and companies to query student and employee opinions, respectively. On the political front, Janeček and his D21 team are currently working as consultants to the electoral parliamentary commission of the Tunisian parliament, which will soon (in a few years time) have its first regional elections.

While D21 keeps Janeček busy — he recently received a research fellowship from Cambridge University to work on D21 — he's still involved with RSJ, serving as chairman of its supervisory board. He also is engaged with his many philanthropic endeavors, including the Anti-Corruption Endowment, the Karel Janeček Foundation, the Foundation Aid Fund and Neuron, which supports scientific research in the Czech Republic.

Janeček points to his education as a mathematician — and his experience at Carnegie Mellon — as the root of his success.

"Mathematical thinking is extremely valuable. Mathematics teaches one to think logically, to argue, to be able to understand others and the logic of their arguments so as not to be manipulated," Janeček said. "Of course, on top of that, the education I got at CMU has influenced my life in a major way. It combined deep mathematics with practical applications — finance and modeling of derivatives — that can be very nicely applied in practice in finance and investment. I am certain that, if it wasn't for CMU, RSJ wouldn't have been as successful."

Related:

• Mellon College of Science
• Tepper School of Business

Researchers, energy industry and business leaders, policymakers, students and the general public will gather March 14–18 at Carnegie Mellon University's Cohon University Center for its inaugural Energy Week, hosted by CMU’s Wilton E. Scott Institute for Energy Innovation. Each day has a theme: Research, Policy, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Workforce and Education, and Field Trips.

Participants can hear from top CMU researchers on the latest news and research, and also participate in discussions on critical topics, such as from what energy sources should Southwestern Pennsylvania get its electricity now and in the future? In addition, there will be roundtables on small- and medium-business energy entrepreneurship and innovation, industry energy efficiency, CMU education and research, and the region’s energy workforce.

Keynote speakers include the deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy; the director of the National Energy Technology Laboratory; the premier of South Australia; Pittsburgh’s mayor; leadership from Barefoot College, which works with women in disadvantaged communities in India and Africa to build and maintain solar collectors; a top energy storage expert from the Electric Power Research Institute; and Congressman Tim Murphy.

Monday, March 14: Research Day

The work of CMU researchers and students will be featured in short “Andy” talks on topics such as “Renewables: Are They the Answer?” and “Remaking Cities,” and three-minute student thesis presentations and poster sessions.

Featured event: Remarks by Grace Bochenek, director, National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), 1:30 – 2 p.m., McConomy Auditorium.

Tuesday, March 15: Policy Day

International, national, state and local energy polices will be discussed and reflected on by industry, foundation and non-governmental leaders. A deliberative democracy event will allow participants to provide their perspectives on the question, “What should be Pennsylvania's electricity mix now and in the future?”

Featured events: Talk by the Honorable Jay Weatherill, premier of South Australia, 9:15 – 9:45 a.m., McConomy Auditorium; Remarks by William Peduto, mayor, City of Pittsburgh, 12 – 1:30 p.m., Rangos Ballroom.

Wednesday, March 16: Innovation Day

Innovation Day highlights breakthroughs in energy science and technology happening regionally, and a roundtable discussion on energy innovation and entrepreneurship. In the afternoon, participants may visit CMU’s energy research labs and centers, and the Allegheny Region CleanTech University Prize Collegiate Competition. During this competition, sponsored by the Department of Energy’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Office, student teams from universities in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia will compete for a $50,000 prize.

Featured event: Keynote by Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, deputy secretary, U.S. Department of Energy, 12 - 1 p.m.; the Cleantech competition final rounds are 3:30 - 5:45 p.m., Rangos Ballroom.

Thursday, March 17: Education Day

An energy technology expo and an industry energy efficiency roundtable are the highlights of education day. An expert from the Electric Power Research Institute will present on renewable energy storage.

Featured event: Keynote by Bunker Roy, founder and director, Barefoot College, a service learning center in India and Africa, 4:45 - 5:45 p.m., Rangos Ballroom.

Friday, March 18: Field Trip Day

Energy Week participants can attend one of 12 field trips to see shale, solar, wind and geothermal energy production facilities, as well as energy efficiency, energy education, electric and power company operations, and natural gas and electric utility operations.

Featured event: Congressman Tim Murphy will give opening remarks at Tri-State Energy Workforce Roundtable, 1:30 - 3:30 p.m., Scott Hall.

Registration is required to attend Energy Week and can be completed online.

Find out more.

See the full schedule. 

Cost: $200 for an all-event pass; daily passes range from $25 - $50 per day. Students from all institutions may attend for free (lunch not included) but still must register.

Profiler (above) is a robot for mapping mines developed by NREC for Anglo American, one of the world’s largest mining companies.

Carnegie Mellon University's National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC) has been selected as a prime contractor or subcontractor on four major new federal research projects totaling more than $11 million over the next three years. The projects range from research on a wheel that can transform into a track to automated stress testing for critical software.

Herman Herman, NREC director, said the center has hired 10 new technical staff members in the past six months and anticipates hiring another five-to-10 staff members in the coming months to augment its existing staff of about 100.

"For the past 20 years, NREC has been an important national resource, combining unique technical skills and testing capabilities to solve problems that other groups can't," said Martial Hebert, director of CMU’s Robotics Institute, which includes the NREC. "These new projects are a reminder that NREC continues to advance the art and science of robotics and that it remains a vital part of Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute."

The new research initiatives include:

• a $4 million project for the Defense Department's Test Resource Management Center (TRMC) to develop automated testing that will ensure the reliability and performance of critical software;
• a $4.2 million Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) project that seeks to develop technology that would enable a wheel to transform into a track so vehicles could tackle a variety of terrains;
• a $1 million U.S. Department of Energy project with Texas A&M University’s AgriLife Center that will use robotic vehicles to monitor sorghum plants being bred to enhance their use as energy feedstocks; and
• a $2.4 million DARPA project with Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company, to create automation that would enable existing aircraft to operate safely with smaller crews.

The NREC performs advanced research and early prototype development under contract to a variety of industrial and governmental clients. Its numerous successes have included unmanned ground vehicles and a robotic system for removing aircraft coatings, as well as automated mining, petroleum production and agricultural equipment.

The latest expansion of the NREC's research program comes a year after 40 of its staff members left to establish the Uber Advanced Technologies Center in Pittsburgh. Since then, the NREC has had several notable accomplishments. Among them is the NREC-designed and -built CHIMP robot that was among the top finishers last June at the DARPA Robotics Challenge, an international competition in which robots needed to drive vehicles, use power tools, open doors, clear debris and do other tasks in response to natural or manmade disasters. Almost every legged robot in the competition fell, but CHIMP was the only one to get back up on its own and complete the course.

Last fall, a joint effort by the NREC and Sikorsky for the U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center successfully demonstrated that an autonomous helicopter working together with a self-driving ground vehicle can autonomously survey a remote contaminated site.

It's not surprising that the NREC continues to build momentum, said Andrew Moore, dean of the School of Computer Science.

"As the leading academic robotics research center in the world, we’re accustomed to a natural flow of technical and research talent back and forth between academia and industry. Top tech firms want the skills Carnegie Mellon faculty, students and staff bring," Moore said. "While four faculty members are now on leave working at Uber ATC, and a number of technicians also joined ATC, we have hired four new faculty in robotics and another 13 in related areas of machine learning, systems and algorithms."

In response to the growing demand for roboticists, the Robotics Institute last fall had more graduate and undergraduate students — 410 — than at any time in its history. It increased the size of its master’s degree programs by more than a third.

In addition, the Robotics Institute includes more than 500 faculty, technical staff members and post-doctoral and visiting researchers, giving it the enormous technical breadth and depth of expertise needed for large, real-world-based research work. The institute will be recruiting five additional faculty members this spring.

"Uber is a great addition to Pittsburgh, which already is home to such tech companies as IBM, Google, Apple and Disney," Moore added. "Additionally, the Robotics Institute has been partnering on R&D with dozens of advanced technology companies, auto companies and aero companies. Although we do not now have any R&D partnership with Uber, we are excited to see another significant technology presence in Pittsburgh."

Herman said the NREC's combination of developing cutting-edge technology and performing rigorous field-testing produces uniquely trained professionals.

"I’ve always said, if you work at NREC for three or four years, you can get a job anywhere," Herman said. He added that staff turnover is anticipated and is part of the long-term story of Pittsburgh as a worldwide center for robotics.

The new research efforts are examples of the swell in demand for collaborations that capitalize on the NREC's strengths and promise to yield valuable new technologies. These technologies include:         

• Robustness Inside-Out Testing: This TRMC project will dramatically increase the power of robustness testing used to find defects in complex unmanned autonomous system software. Michael Wagner, NREC senior commercialization specialist, and Philip Koopman, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, are applying active-learning algorithms to develop a capability called "backward chaining" that will better identify inputs that can cause failures deep within a software system.
• Reconfigurable Wheel-Track for All-Terrain Mobility: Part of DARPA's Ground X‑Vehicle Technology (GXV-T) program, this research seeks to develop an innovative mobility technology that would allow for on-the-fly transformation of a wheel into a track and vice versa at very high travel speeds. The technology would allow for an increase in versatility and access across a variety of terrains for both manned and unmanned ground vehicles. Dimi Apostolopoulos, senior systems scientist, heads the project.
• Automated Phenotyping System for Genetic Improvement of Energy Crops: Texas A&M is working with NREC and the Robotics Institute's Field Robotics Center on a project to develop sorghum varieties that are well-suited for use as biomass in producing transportation fuels. A mechanical arm will capture images and make measurements of the crops; machine vision and learning algorithms will predict plant growth. David Wettergreen, research professor of robotics, is the principal investigator for the CMU portion of the project, with Apostolopoulos,and Herman serving as co-investigators at the NREC.
• Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System (ALIAS): This DARPA program seeks to develop automation technology that could be added to existing aircraft to enable operation with a reduced onboard crew. Sikorsky is leading the research, with a team that includes the NREC, United Technologies Research Center and Veloxiti Inc.

Carnegie Mellon Assistant Professor of Physics Di Xiao has been named a 2016 Cottrell Scholar. Twenty-four of the nation's top early career scientists received the designation from the Research Corporation for Science Advancement (RSCA). Each will receive $100,000 to fund their research and teaching.

Di Xiao

"The Cottrell Scholar program champions the very best early career teacher-scholars in chemistry, physics and astronomy by providing these significant discretionary awards," said RCSA President and CEO Robert N. Shelton.

Xiao will use the support from the scholar program to further his theoretical physics research on the topological excitonic effects in gapped Dirac materials. Dirac materials have a unique band structure sets them apart from other semiconductors, and makes them a promising candidate for the next generation of quantum optoelectronics. Xiao plans to study the how the arrangement of the material’s band impacts the formation and dynamics of excitons.

As a Cottrell Scholar, he will also create an easy to use simulation toolbox to help teach solid state physics to undergraduate students. The toolbox will promote hypothesis-driven learning through computer simulation and introduce students to advanced research topics.

Xiao joined the Carnegie Mellon faculty in 2012. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Austin, and completed post-doctoral research at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. The Cottrell Scholar program is designed to foster synergy among faculty at major American research universities and primarily undergraduate institutions. Scholars share insights and expertise during the Cottrell Scholar Collaborative, an annual meeting of some to the nation’s top educators.

Throughout the month of March, Carnegie Mellon University is commemorating Women's History Month by highlighting women and programs that are making a difference.
 
Follow #CMUwomen on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
 

This month we celebrate #CMUWomen! At 1 p.m. ET, join alumna @kaytsukel for a Q&A about her book, "The Art of Risk." https://t.co/Yw9RnU8enc

— Carnegie Mellon (@CarnegieMellon) March 1, 2016

Our #CMUwomen have long resumes. Check out who we highlighted today: Lisa Murphy, a junior psychology major with a 3.78 GPA, tied an NCAA Division III record when she made 18 consecutive shots in November 2015. She is also currently third in the nation in points per game for the entire season. In the 2014-2015 season, she led the nation in field goal percentage and is on pace to repeat the accomplishment this season. Last week, she was named the National Player of the Week for Division III basketball for the second time, which is the first time a female has earned the award twice in the same year. When not playing basketball, Murphy spends her time as a member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Council and secretary of Psi Chi, the International Psychology Honor Society. She has interned with the Children's School at Carnegie Mellon, spent time as a summer camp aide at Life Changing Fitness Kids in Falls Church, Virginia, and volunteered for Special Olympics.

A photo posted by carnegiemellon (@carnegiemellon) on Mar 2, 2016 at 8:06am PST

#TBT Polymer scientist and alumna Stephanie Kwolek made a discovery in 1965 that led to the Kevlar fiber, which is used today in protective clothing for firefighters and bulletproof vests for soldiers and police officers. #CMUwomen

A photo posted by carnegiemellon (@carnegiemellon) on Mar 3, 2016 at 11:00am PST

At Carnegie Mellon, the cosmology department has one of the highest female-to-male ratios of any university setting, illustrating the changing nature of the field. Read more about the department’s work at cmtoday.cmu.edu. #CMUwomen

A photo posted by carnegiemellon (@carnegiemellon) on Mar 4, 2016 at 12:05pm PST

Work! Renée Elise Goldsberry is among a star-studded group of alumnae making history in the performing arts. Renée credits her fifth-grade music teacher with recognizing her theatrical skills. Did a theater teacher encourage you? Today’s the last day to nominate them for the Excellence in Theatre Education Award! #CMUwomen #ApplaudMyTeacher http://cmu.li/Zacbq

A photo posted by carnegiemellon (@carnegiemellon) on Mar 7, 2016 at 9:01am PST

On #Internationalwomensday, Carnegie Mellon Today discusses the gender pay gap & how #CMUwomen will bridge it. https://t.co/XI7kB8lckJ

— Carnegie Mellon (@CarnegieMellon) March 8, 2016

By Leigh Kish / 412-268-2902 / lkish@andrew.cmu.edu

With great power comes great responsibility.

No one knows that better than the 100+ renowned experts in Carnegie Mellon University's Wilton E. Scott Institute for Energy Innovation who are working to tackle one of the biggest challenges of the 21st century: making more efficient, affordable and sustainable energy.

To that end, they research and develop new products in energy storage and distribution, nuclear and shale gas development, smart buildings and cities, electric energy systems, and systems design optimization and technology and policy assessment.

"Energy is such a big problem, and really a problem for the century, both because we're dependent on it, and because energy is inseparable from climate change," said Jared L. Cohon, president emeritus and director of the Scott Institute, during an appearance on WPXI-TV's "Our Region's Business."

Perhaps, then, it is better said: "With great power — to heat our homes, fuel our cars, and charge our smart phones — comes great responsibility."

The Scott Institute was launched in 2012 as a university-wide research initiative, pulling together faculty and their projects across technology, policy, integrated systems and behavioral science. The institute works with faculty and through departments and the colleges to identify new opportunities for collaborative research that build on the university's current strengths.

The Scott Institute's holistic approach to research and development, along with connections and resources from external partners, facilitates real-world solutions for energy problems.

One such solution is the non-toxic saltwater battery. Engineering Professor Jay Whitacre founded Aquion, a Pittsburgh area startup that manufactures his invention, the Aqueous Hybrid Ion (AHITM). The AHI is an environmentally friendly, sustainable and inexpensive battery that stores solar and wind energy. Residential customers and utility companies can use this non-toxic energy storage system to store wind and solar power for future use. Whitacre received the prestigious Lemelson-MIT prize for this invention.

"That's the whole idea of the Scott Institute. We support deep research that leads to new products and new ways of doing things to improve energy and help Pittsburgh and the nation," said Andy Gellman, professor of Chemical Engineering and co-director of the Scott Institute. Gellman created and leads the institute's seed grant program, now in its fourth year of providing some $500,000 per year to collaborative faculty groups to produce preliminary results before seeking major external support.

Location, Location, Location

A reality facing the Scott researchers is that energy issues tend to be complex without a simple solution that can be generally applied in all contexts.

For example: An electric car is not always better for the environment than a hybrid.

Ines Azevedo, an associate professor of Engineering and Public Policy, Jeremy Michalek, professor of Engineering and Public Policy and Mechanical Engineering, and Chris Hendrickson, University Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, together with Mili-Ann Tamayao, who earned her Ph.D. in engineering at CMU, looked critically at the carbon footprints of electric and hybrid vehicles, specifically the Leaf and Prius, across the U.S.

The study showed that these cars, though more emissions-friendly than their gasoline counterparts, can still result in significant emissions.

"Electricity is produced from different sources in different regions of the U.S. and at different times of day," Michalek said. "Different emissions are produced depending on where and when an electric vehicle is charged."

In some areas like the Midwest, coal-fired power plants, heavy on emissions, supply most of the power. In other parts of the country, the grid could be supplied by wind, solar, natural gas or coal-fired power depending on supply and demand.

As a result, a Midwestern hybrid can be a better choice than an electric car, and the reverse can be true in California.

For those not ready to move to a hybrid just yet, Stefan Bernhard, a professor of Chemistry and another Scott faculty member, might suggest a different type of solar power, this time using sunlight and a catalyst that speeds chemical processes to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen can then be used to fuel a vehicle, and it has less of an environmental impact than gasoline.

Location is not only important when charging an electric car; it also is important when considering where to put solar plants and wind farms. The greatest environmental benefits can be realized when this infrastructure is built in unexpected places.

"If our goal is to save the environment by reducing air pollution and carbon emissions, where you build those plants makes a difference," explains Azevedo in a Scott educational video. "While investing in wind farms and solar plants in California is helpful, the environmental benefits are substantially greater if you invest in those same plants in Western Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia. That is because electricity used in these regions is based on coal, while in California it is based on energy sources with less air pollution emissions, like natural gas."

This research is a start for informing consumers, policymakers and manufacturers in the U.S., but carbon emissions do not acknowledge borders. That is why it is essential to work toward global solutions, and Scott Institute faculty members are plugged into what's happening.

Climate on the World's Stage

This past December delegates from the world's 196 countries met in France for the United Nations Conference on Climate Change where they negotiated a pact limiting the increase in global temperature to two degrees Celsius from now until 2100.

Azevedo was one of the whopping 45,000 attendees who had the privilege of observing the open presentations and discussions.

"I thought it was very positive to see the resulting agreement include language that set a limit at 2 degrees Celsius," Azevedo said. "It is no small achievement to get all those parties together and for them to develop common language."

While the climate agreement sets the global limit of two degrees by 2100 - which is about 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit — the plan for doing so isn't specific. In fact, one of the focus areas for the Scott Institute is the development of methods to help policy makers identify specific pathways to a low-carbon energy future. Those pathways are likely to include the use of fossil fuels, especially natural gas, for many decades to come. The decisions we made today are likely to have long-lasting consequences.

"The infrastructure for natural gas that we are building today is the stuff that will be on the ground for the next 45 or 50 years. We're locked into that infrastructure," Azevedo said. "I would like to develop new frameworks that consider different circumstances, and that better track the consequences of today's decisions. We can make tools to help decision makers make wiser decisions before we're stuck."

What decision makers choose do is important for the climate and the economy. But what to do can be a moving target.

"In the 2000s, the U.S. was talking about installing natural gas import terminals. That's a multibillion dollar investment," Azevedo said. "Now, just 10 years later, we're talking about building export terminals, which is an equally large investment."

Power Play at Energy Week

With all that's going on in energy at CMU and in the world, the Scott Institute decided that the time is right to hold Carnegie Mellon's first Energy Week, March 14-18, open to everyone.

Each day has a theme: Monday's focus is research, Tuesday's focus is policy, Wednesday's focus is innovation, Thursday's focus is on education and Friday's is on field trip and energy workforce.

Participants can not only hear from top CMU researchers on the latest topics, but also participate in discussion on critical topics such as from what sources should Southwestern Pennsylvania get its electricity now and in the future? In addition, there will be roundtables on small- and medium-business energy entrepreneurship and innovation, industry energy efficiency, CMU education and research, and the region's energy workforce.

Keynote speakers include the deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy, the director of the National Energy Technology Laboratory, the premier of South Australia, Pittsburgh's mayor, leadership from Barefoot College, which works with women in disadvantaged communities in India and Africa to build and maintain solar collectors, and a top energy storage expert from the Electric Power Research Institute.

Participants also will be able to visit CMU labs and research centers that focus on a wide variety of topics such as CMU's self-driving car, solar fuels and surface science to get a more in-depth look at what CMU's researchers are doing in energy. Other Energy Week activities focus on what CMU's students are doing in energy.

"We are hosting student competitions in research, technical innovation, policy, and even the arts for what we hope will be a lively event," said Deborah Stine, associate director of the Scott Institute and organizer of Energy Week.

Energy Week activities are not limited to those at CMU, but include the region as a whole.

"In the Pittsburgh area, energy is often assumed by outsiders to be limited to coal and shale gas. In reality, there are all sorts of exciting things going on in energy regionally," Stine said.

In addition, students from universities and colleges in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and Maryland will compete in the Allegheny CleanTech Competition for a $50,000 prize. CMU is the host for one of eight regional competitions. The three winners from the Allegheny competition will compete for an additional $50,000 prize at the national level. Last year's national winner, Hyliion, was from CMU.

More information on Energy Week is at http://www.cmuenergyweek.org. Registration for the entire slate events or daily passes are available.

By Friday of Energy Week, participants will have learned something new; students might have ideas for new career paths; and investors may have new technology to fund.

And CMU students and the Scott Institute experts? They'll be ready, and inspired, to continue their work on the next big thing.

Related links:
Energy Week
Scott Institute Video Series
Jay Whitacre awarded the $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize
The Energy Bite Radio Program

Landon Fraser (E 2007) joined the ranks of the federal government's cyberwarriors through a program at Carnegie Mellon University that offers a full-tuition scholarship, funding for professional development, books and a generous stipend for living expenses in exchange for government service upon graduation.

Landon Fraser

"My job is ultimately to protect the U.S. military and support efforts overseas,” Fraser said of the CyberCorps® Scholarship for Service (SFS). "There are not too many other places where one can have the impact that I feel every day."

A longstanding participant in the program, Carnegie Mellon currently has 21 SFS students. Since 2001, the university has received more than $21.6 million in grants and graduated 178 SFS students who have gone on to work for the CIA, FBI, NSA, Federally Funded Research and Development Centers, and other federal agencies. 

After Fraser's two-year service commitment ended, she remained as a team lead in the Department of Defense. She credits the SFS program with enabling her to graduate debt-free from a prestigious institution — she earned her Master of Science in Information Security (MSIS) through the Information Networking Institute (INI) in 2007 — and secure a job that she loves going to every morning.

Answering the Call

With the recently announced Cybersecurity National Action Plan, President Barack Obama seeks to strengthen the federal corps of cybersecurity personnel by expanding the SFS program and offering additional scholarships in exchange for service.

Amidst stiff competition from Silicon Valley and Wall Street employers, this recruitment strategy aims to position government employment as an attractive option for outstanding candidates like Fraser.  

In doing so, the White House takes a vital first step in solving the 'people problem' that has long plagued the cybersecurity field: a lack of skilled professionals. 

"Right now cyber workforce needs are planned to grow at 2.5 times that of other occupations, and 50 percent faster than computer science," said David Brumley, director of Carnegie Mellon CyLab, the university-wide cybersecurity research institute. "We need people, and SFS is a key component for addressing that demand within the government sector."

Closing this cyber-skills gap is an issue that Carnegie Mellon tackled early on. The INI invested in hiring cybersecurity faculty within the College of Engineering prior to 9/11 and later contributed to the launch of CyLab in 2003.

Today, the INI offers three information security graduate degree programs in Pittsburgh, Silicon Valley and Japan. These programs offer a rigorous technical curriculum while incorporating business and policy perspectives, preparing graduates to pioneer solutions, advance technologies and protect our nation's critical information infrastructure.

In order to be eligible for the SFS program, students must be enrolled in the INI's Pittsburgh-based MSIS program or the H. John Heinz III College's Master of Science in Information Security Policy and Management (MSIS-PM) program.

"Carnegie Mellon's programs develop cybersecurity experts well-positioned to tackle the challenges faced by government, as proven by the success of our alumni," said INI Director Dena Haritos Tsamitis, who leads the SFS program at Carnegie Mellon as principal investigator. "SFS graduates from the INI and Heinz College are sought after by government agencies and receive multiple offers when job hunting."

Carnegie Mellon is one of 10 universities to receive three federal designations as a National Center for Academic Excellence in Information Assurance/Cyber Defense Education, Information Assurance/Cyber Defense Research and Cyber Operations. These designations certify the strength of CMU's cybersecurity curriculum and research, enabling the university to participate in the SFS program.

In 2015, Tsamitis secured the largest award to date for the SFS program, $5.6 million, and led the program in attaining 100 percent job placement of its graduates.

Tsamitis said one of the primary strengths of the SFS program is the CyLab faculty conducting important research — often with SFS students involved — and integrating the latest developments into the core courses they teach.

Michael Cook (HNZ 2014), now a cybersecurity engineer in the Software Engineering Institute's CERT Division, cites the SFS alumni network as another major strength. 

"My career goal was to be able to utilize my experience and education in a position that would help to advance the security of the federal government," Cook said. "The awesome alumni network, which not only helped mentor me through a difficult certification [Offensive Security Certified Professional] (OSCP), was the ultimate avenue through which I received my ideal job offer."

After completing her spring internship with CERT's Secure Coding Initiative, current SFS student Jennifer Burns (E 2017) is headed to MITRE Corporation for a summer technical internship. She connected with the company at an SFS information session in the fall. These are held weekly and feature representatives from federal agencies and centers, many of whom are SFS alumni. 

Jennifer Burns

"It's been about nine months since I received the Scholarship for Service and joined the INI, and I'm already able to utilize specific security-related skills learned in my courses at my current internship with CERT," Burns said.  

Like Fraser, Burns' longterm goal is a leadership position in the federal government where she can use her skills to positively impact and protect others. 

"President Obama has identified a great need for cybersecurity professionals, and this opportunity allows me to serve my country and community using what I have available to contribute, my technical skills and passion for knowledge," she said. 

"I am quite grateful to receive funding from the U.S. government for such a fantastic education so that I can pay it forward in my current and future positions."

Related Links:

• Scholarship for Service
• White House CNAP Fact Sheet
• Carnegie Mellon CyLab
• SEI
• HNZ M.S. in Information Security Policy and Management (MSISPM)
• INI M.S. in Information Security

Darlene Clark Hine, a leading historian of the African-American experience who helped found the field of black women’s history, will speak at Carnegie Mellon University’s 10^th annual Margaret Morrison Distinguished Lecture in Women’s History. The talk, which is free and open to the public, is scheduled for 4:30 p.m., Friday, March 18 in Baker Hall’s Giant Eagle Auditorium (A51), following a 4 p.m. welcoming reception.

Darlene Clark Hine

Hine, the Board of Trustees Professor of African-American Studies and History at Northwestern University, will discuss the role of black women in health professions in fighting for progress before the Modern Black Freedom Movement.

Hine’s work documents the ways that white medical and legal professionals excluded their black counterparts using legislative, licensing and regulatory agencies. Her scholarship also highlights the ways that black women health professionals spearheaded movements that fueled the African-American freedom struggle of the 1950s and ’60s.

“Unlike their white counterparts, black female medical professionals were called into being to serve a people ‘perceived to be marginal and peripheral’ to the life of the nation,” said Carnegie Mellon’s Giant Eagle Professor of History and Social Justice Joe W. Trotter, Jr.

As the director of CAUSE (Center for Africanamerican Urban Studies & the Economy), which is co-sponsoring the lecture, Trotter views the talk as an excellent opportunity to highlight Hine’s work at the intersection of race, class and gender.

“No one has had a more profound impact on the transformation of our understanding of the complicated interplay of class, race and gender dynamics in African-American and U.S. social and political history than Hine,” he said. 

A 2015 National Women’s History Month honoree and recipient of the 2013 National Humanities Medal for her contributions to black women’s history, Hine is a prolific scholar whose publications include “Black Women in White: Racial Conflict and Cooperation in the Nursing Profession, 1890-1950” and “Hine Sight: Black Women and the Re-Construction of American History.”

“Each year, for 10 years, we’ve been welcoming distinguished scholars of women to campus for Women’s History Month, and we’re delighted to partner with CAUSE on our anniversary to welcome Hine, a towering figure in the field,” said Lisa Tetrault, associate professor of history and lead organizer of the Margaret Morrison Distinguished Lecture Series. 

“Her scholarship and career embodies the cutting-edge contributions this series is meant to highlight, and her work on black women health workers reminds us to think expansively about women’s work for freedom and well-being,” added Tetrault.

The Margaret Morrison Distinguished Lecture in Women’s History is also sponsored by CMU’s Department of History in the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

The lecture series is named for Margaret Morrison Carnegie, the mother of Andrew Carnegie, who founded Carnegie Mellon under the name Carnegie Institute of Technology. The institute was home to four schools, including Margaret Morrison Carnegie College, a women’s college that closed in 1973, and which was the original home of CMU’s history department.

Related Articles:

Carnegie Mellon Presents “The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks”

Joe Trotter and the Effects of CAUSE

Carnegie Mellon University's School of Drama will conclude its 2015-2016 season with "The Plague in Venice," opening on 8 p.m., April 8 in the Philip Chosky Theater and running through April 23. The production is based on a scenario by Flaminio Scala and adapted and directed by movement mime and mask specialist Sasha Iliev, a guest of the School of Drama.

"'The Plague in Venice' brings to the Chosky stage the fantastical storytelling of Commedia dell'arte, including a cast of beloved characters who have informed the theatrical zeitgeist for 400 years," said Peter Cooke, head of the School of Drama.

Based on a scenario by Scala, "The Plague in Venice" transports us to 16th century Venice, where corruption flows in and around the city like the water it was built on. Using Commedia dell’arte movement techniques along with music, puppets and projections, the actors will put a comedic twist on a true-life tragedy in the Italian tradition.

"This piece is very, very contemporary and on the pulse of our time," said Iliev. "But it's not a tragedy, it's a comedy. Flaminio Scala wrote this outline 30 years after the events of the story; he was a survivor of the plague. Italian people are a little different than others, they can laugh about themselves."

Few people read privacy policies. Studies have projected that it would take an average user over 600 hours to read every privacy policy associated with every website they have visited in one year. However, a study conducted over the past two years by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, Fordham University and Stanford University, is paving the way for technology to provide users with short summaries of privacy policies.

Norman Sadeh

As part of an effort to share early results of the study, the Usable Privacy Policy project just released a website that enables visitors to navigate over 23,000 privacy policy annotations covering 193 websites. The project leverages crowdsourcing, machine learning and natural language processing to semi-automatically annotate privacy policies, extracting relevant statements from the often long and rather convoluted policies found on many websites and mobile apps today.

"This is the first site to provide analysis of privacy policies at this scale," said School of Computer Science Professor Norman Sadeh, lead principal investigator of the study and a researcher in CyLab, Carnegie Mellon’s security and privacy institute. "Our objective is to produce succinct yet informative summaries that can be included in browser plug-ins or interactively conveyed to users by privacy assistants that inform users about salient privacy practices."

In its current form, the Usable Privacy Policy website features interactive functionality that allows users to explore the content of a number of privacy policies. Color codes help users select from a menu of privacy practices that might interest them.

For instance, a user interested in learning more about the data collected by a given site can select "first-party collection practices," and all statements in the policy about data collection will be highlighted. Similarly, users can click the "third-party sharing practices" option and see a display of statements made by the site about the different entities with which it shares user data.

The interactive tool covers a comprehensive number of different practices, including whether the site provides opt-out or opt-in choices to users, whether it discloses its retention policy and whether it includes statements about "Do Not Track," as mandated by California law (CalOPPA) and much more.

"While navigating our site, people will notice how complex and fragmented many privacy policies are," Sadeh said. "The vast majority of statements are about first-party collection and third-party sharing and contain significant levels of ambiguity when it comes to determining exactly what is being collected and with whom it is shared."

The tool also gives each privacy policy a grade on reading level based on its language. Google's privacy policy, for example, is written on a grade 13 (college) reading level. The privacy policy for Playstation.com, a site with a presumably large population of children and teen visitors, is written for grade 17 (college graduate), according to the tool.

"Color codes also make it clear that privacy policies tend to mix a variety of different statements in the same paragraph, often requiring the reader to read large portions of the policy, if not the entire policy, before hoping to be able to answer simple questions," added Professor Joel Reidenberg, the Fordham principal investigator on the project and director of Fordham Center on Law and Information Policy.

"Many sites hardly provide users with any real choices. Most policies that mention 'Do Not Track' do so by simply indicating that they do not handle Do Not Track requests – the bare minimum required under CalOPPA," he said.

While the annotations on the website were crowdsourced from law students at Fordham, the researchers say they're working toward automation.

"We are now using machine learning and natural language processing to semi-automate, and hopefully one day fully automate, the analysis of privacy policies," Sadeh said.

The Usable Privacy Project is supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation. The website design team also included Institute for Software Research post-doctoral fellows Mads Schaarup Andersen, Florian Schaub, Shomir Wilson, Language Technologies Institute graduate student Aswarth Dara and computer science freshman Sushain Cherivirala.

Pavement riddled with cracks, graffiti on stop signs, icy surfaces that need rock salt: Municipalities must respond to road infrastructure problems that are changing constantly. Christoph Mertz, principal project scientist at Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute, is researching how a smartphone could be a solution for all these issues, and more.

"It is essential to get eyes on every road, every year to stay ahead of what could become costly repairs," said Jason A. Dailey, director of public works for Cranberry Township, about 20 miles north of CMU's Pittsburgh campus. "Expensive services are available that have on-board tools and sensors, but these are typically out of the price range of the average community."

Mertz's smartphone-based road infrastructure inspection project examines ways a device as common as a smartphone can give municipalities a fast and inexpensive method for inspecting their roadways. In two basic steps, the technology collects images and then examines the data to identify areas that need care.

"Data collection and analysis could take a matter of days, where it would otherwise take months or even years," Mertz said.

Using computer vision algorithms, the system analyzes high-resolution images of the road and categorizes them. When looking for road damage, for example, it can quickly discover where the ratio of cracked to uncracked surfaces is high and flag the locations for repair. In other instances, it can find signage that is missing or damaged, or detect snow or slush on the road. Software displays the data using easy-to-read maps and visuals.

"Mertz had demonstrated a viable advancement that may bring inspection technology into the everyday operations, making it not only affordable, but practical," Dailey said.

A big appeal to Mertz's system is the simplicity of integrating it with existing procedures. For example, Mertz suggested mounting garbage trucks with smartphones in order to routinely assess the roadways. Similarly, snow plows with smartphones could provide real-time road conditions in winter, which Mertz has already pilot-tested with the Pennsylvania Department of Transporation.

Carnegie Mellon's Traffic21 helps fund projects like this one and others in smart transportation. Its goal is to design, test, deploy and evaluate information and communications technology-based solutions to address the problems facing transportation systems. The institute fuels multidisciplinary collaboration in the area of transportation.

Nine students currently participate in the research and specialize in different aspects, from localization to optics. The data the team collects through the project may be useful for other transportation projects, such as research for autonomous vehicles.

"The work of Mertz is an ideal example of Traffic21's vision of research, development and deployment," said Stan Caldwell, executive director of Traffic21 and Technologies for Safe and Efficient Transportation (T-SET), a National University Transportation Center funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation. Both organizations have supported Mertz's research.

The Hillman Foundation helped launch Traffic21 in 2009, and the institute's focus has been to match the real-world problems of transportation practitioners with faculty and student doing innovative research.

"The exciting stage is deploying the technology in the field, making our region a smart transportation living lab," Caldwell said.

Mertz's technology has been deployed with the City of Pittsburgh, Marshall Township, Cranberry Township and with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.

Although potholes will be a sign of spring this year, drivers can imagine a future with fewer bumps in the road thanks to emerging technologies for a safer, more efficient transportation.

Related:

• Traffic21
• T-SET
• School of Computer Science
• H. John Heinz III College
• College of Engineering

Pi Day is celebrated around the world, and the White House is no different. This year Chief Data Scientist and resident mathematician DJ Patil is inviting the winning U.S. International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) team, including its coach, Carnegie Mellon University's Po-Shen Loh, to the White House to honor their achievement.

“This Pi Day we want to recognize the mathematical capabilities of our nation’s young people, who will be the next leaders in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The U.S. IMO team represents the phenomenal depth of mathematical talent we have in the United States and we want more to follow in their footsteps,” Patil said.

Six American high schoolers competed at the 2015 IMO for the first-place trophy against peers from more than 100 countries in the “hardest exam in the history of the IMO,” said Loh, mathematical sciences professor at Carnegie Mellon and a member of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA).

Loh and team members Allen Liu, David Stoner, Ryan Alweiss, Yang Liu, Shyam Narayanan and Michael Kural will meet with Patil today (March 14).

The road to the IMO is a long one. It begins at the MAA American Mathematics Competitions (AMC) program, which provides young math enthusiasts opportunities to build their skills through challenging mathematics competitions. More than 340,000 students participate in these school-based competitions annually, culminating at the USA Mathematical Olympiad (USAMO).

Students who score well on the USAMO are then invited to a three-week problem-solving immersion program at the MAA’s Mathematical Olympiad Summer Program, hosted at Carnegie Mellon, where IMO hopefuls train.

“We have been running the national Olympiad training program with a focus on the long-term development of our country’s talent,” Loh said.

The Obama administration’s recognition of this talent will continue as a new U.S. IMO team competes in the 2016 competition in Hong Kong later this summer.

Related Link:
Good as Gold: Math Professor’s Olympiad Team Takes Home Top Medals

Media Contact:
Alexandra Branscombe / 202-319-8482 / abranscombe@maa.org

In celebration of Pi Day, CMU Alumna Quelcy Kogel (A 2007) created a Scottish-inspired savory pie. Read more about the experience on her blog.

About this Recipe: This pie is a labor of love, which is why it is fitting for Pi(e) Day celebrations! It consists of a savory, whole grain pie crust, filled with a slowcooked Scottish stew and a variation on traditional Scottish mushy peas. Make the Scottish Beef Stew first, and while the stew is slow cooking, prepare the crust, then Mushy Peas & Potatoes while the crusts chill. The stew and mushy peas recipes yield more than necessary for one pie, but I like to make the larger quantities and freeze the excess to make future weeknight meals a lot easier. Alternately, you could halve the stew recipe, or better yet, double the crust recipe and make two savory pies! - Quelcy Kogel

Scottish Beef Stew

Recipe adapted from Food & Wine

Ingredients
2 Tablespoons organic avocado oil
All-purpose flour, for dredging
2 1/2 pounds well-marbled boneless beef chuck, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
Salt and freshly ground pepper
2 Tablespoons unsalted, Irish butter
4 red potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch chunks
2 medium onions, cut into 1/2-inch dice
2 carrots, cut into 1/2-inch dice
2 celery ribs, cut into 1/2-inch dice
2 parsnips, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch dice
2 strips of organic bacon, chopped in 1-inch pieces
2 Tablespoons red currant jelly
4 cups organic beef stock
2-3 thyme sprigs
1 garlic clove, smashed
1 bay leaf

For the Stew
In a large enameled cast-iron casserole, heat 1 tablespoon of the avocado oil until shimmering.

Spread the flour in a shallow bowl. Season the beef with salt and pepper and dredge in the flour, shake off any excess flour. Add half of the meat to the casserole and cook over moderately high heat until browned on the bottom, about 3 minutes.

Reduce the heat to moderate and cook until browned on the other side, about 2 minutes longer. With a slotted spoon, transfer the meat to a bowl. Repeat with the remaining 1 Tablespoon of oil and floured meat, browning the meat over moderate heat.

Melt the butter in the casserole. Add the onions, carrots, celery, parsnip and bacon pieces. Cook over moderately low heat, stirring occasionally, until the onion is softened, about 7 minutes.

Add the jelly and the beef stock, and bring to a boil over high heat, stirring to scrape up any browned bits on the bottom of the casserole.

Add the browned meat and any accumulated juices along with the thyme, garlic and bay leaf and bring to a simmer. Cover and simmer over low heat until the meat is tender, about 1 1/2 hours.

With a slotted spoon, transfer the meat to a bowl. Boil the sauce over high heat until reduced to 2 cups, about 10 minutes. Return the meat to the casserole and season with salt and pepper. Discard the thyme sprig and bay leaf.

Savory Whole Grain Pie Crust

Crust Ingredients
4 cups white whole wheat flour (such as King Arthur flour)
2 teaspoons herbs de provence
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
1 cup plus 1 Tablespoon organic, unsalted butter
7 Tablespoons water & 4 Tablespoons Apple Cider Vinegar, combined & chilled

For Garnish
1 egg (organic/cage-free)
Black lava sea salt

For the Crust
Whisk together the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Use your fingers to rub the butter and flour mixture together until the texture resembles coarse meal.

Gently add the ice water & vinegar mixture, a tablespoon at a time, stirring gently to incorporate. After 4-5 Tablespoons, squeeze the mixture in your hand. If it generally sticks together when you let go, it is fine. If it completely crumbles apart, it needs a bit more liquid.

Once the dough comes together, separate it into two equal discs.

On a well-floured surface, roll each disc into a circular shape, about 1 cm thick. Carefully transfer the dough to a lightly greased and floured pie dish. Mold the dough into the sides of the pan, letting the extra crust hang off the edge. Trim excess crust. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator to chill.

Roll out the remaining crust. Transfer to a parchment lined plate or tray, cover with plastic wrap and chill. Use any leftover dough to create your pie garnish such as a Scotty dog.

Chill the pie crusts for at least 30 minutes.

In the meantime, prepare the Mushy Peas Potatoes.

Mushy Peas & Potatoes

Ingredients
6 medium red potatoes
2 sprigs of thyme
1 bay leaf
10 oz frozen organic sweet peas, thawed
2 garlic cloves, crushed or finely chopped

2 Tablespoons Irish butter
1/2 teaspoon smoked sea salt
1/2-1 teaspoons crushed black pepper, to taste

Directions
Put the potatoes into a large pot, add the bay leaf, thyme, and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Add the crushed garlic, and cook until the potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes.

Drain them well and remove the bay leaf.

Return to heat, add the butter and peas, stirring to incorporate.

Use an immersion blender (or transfer to a food processor or blender) to puree the mixture, leaving some chunks. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Allow to cool before assembling the pie.

Assembly
Preheat the oven to 375°F.

Whisk the egg and water in a small bowl until combined.

Remove the pie shell and the rolled-out pie top from the refrigerator.

Create a base layer of Mushy Peas & Potato Filling in the pie shell, and then top with stew, cutting any larger chunks of meat into more manageable bites. Top with the remaining dough, and use your thumbs to press the edges of the crust together. Cut off any excess crust. Brush the top of the pie with the egg mixture and sprinkle with black lava sea salt. Set the egg mixture aside.

Place the pie on the second-lowest rack of the oven, and bake for 25-30 minutes, until golden brown. Lightly brush the surface with more egg at the 20 minute mark. If you notice the edges of the crust browning too quickly, cover them with tin foil.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly before serving.

Related:

• The Most Beautiful Equation in Math (Video)
• U.S. IMO Team Celebrates Pi Day at the White House
• More than 250 High School Students Compete in First Round of Pi-Day contest at CMU-Q
• WiththeGrains.com

Mayor William Peduto and Raj Rajkumar, director of Carnegie Mellon University's Metro 21 and Technologies for Safe and Efficient Transportation Center, will hold a press conference this morning (March 15) to discuss the city’s “Smart City Challenge” bid, which will award the winning city $50 million to build technology-based systems to address mounting transportation and transit challenges facing cities nationwide.

Nearly 80 cities applied for the challenge in February. This weekend in Austin, Texas, the U.S. Department of Transportation named Pittsburgh as a finalist, along with Austin, Columbus, Denver, Kansas City, Portland and San Francisco.

The Pittsburgh team was awarded $100,000 to finalize its application, which is due in April. The cities will further develop their concepts and the winner will be announced in June.

A live stream provided by Carnegie Mellon will be available here.

What: Press conference on Smart City Challenge

Where: Rangos 1, Cohon University Center, Carnegie Mellon University

When: 11:15 a.m., Tuesday, March 15

Note: The Cohon Center is next to the CMU commons off Forbes Avenue. It is building 13 on this campus mapPDF File.

Media Contact:
Ken Walters / 412-268-1151 / walters1@andrew.cmu.edu

Learning about the quality of the air you breathe should be as easy and inexpensive as borrowing a book from a library, and that’s why Carnegie Mellon University researchers plan to provide free Speck air quality monitors to 100 public libraries nationwide.

The Speck sensors, which detect particulate air pollution in the home, already have been used by hundreds of patrons of Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. CMU’s CREATE Lab, which developed Speck, and spinoff company Airviz, which makes and markets the device, are now offering three free Specks, informational materials and training to public libraries that agree to make them available to their patrons.

“We have too many communities where the air is hazardous from time to time, yet people can’t readily find out what they are breathing in their own homes,” said Illah Nourbakhsh, professor of robotics and head of the CREATE Lab, which develops innovative robotic technologies for the public good. “This is the air quality you can actually do something about – if you know that a hazard even exists. That’s why it is so important that people of all income levels have access to a sensor such as Speck.”

Interested libraries can apply for the National Speck Library Program at specksensor.com/libraries/apply. In addition to three free Specks, participating libraries also receive a 15 percent discount on purchases of additional Specks. Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, which loans Specks through 16 of its 19 branches, is providing advice and support for the national campaign.

“Libraries are creating a culture of learning that extends far beyond books,” said Toby Greenwalt, the library's director of digital strategy and technology integration. “By making Specks available in the library we are helping to start a conversation around how to use data to make better decisions and be informed about home environmental health. Since introducing them to the public last year, we have seen an increasing demand for Speck technology.”

“We also want to build a community of local experts who can work with their neighbors and the libraries to use Speck,” said Bea Dias, project director for the CREATE Lab. People selected for the Speck Air Quality Advocate Program will receive a free Speck and training in return for providing 10-20 hours of service annually. Individuals can apply at specksensor.com/advocates/apply.

The CREATE Lab and Airviz introduced the Speck personal air quality monitor a year ago at the SXSW Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas. To keep the monitors affordable — they retail at $149 — Speck uses a low-cost infrared sensor to detect pollutants. Though such sensors tend to be imprecise, the CREATE Lab developers employed machine learning algorithms that learn to recognize and compensate for spurious “noise” in each detector, boosting accuracy.

Speck is designed for use indoors, helping users realize when polluted outside air is coming into the house, or to recognize pollution sources within the home. It also is Wi-Fi-connected, so air quality data can be uploaded for analysis and shared, if desired, via the Internet.

Speck was placed in the Pittsburgh library branches with support from the Heinz Endowments, Fine Foundation and Pittsburgh Foundation. The national library campaign thus far is being supported by CREATE Lab and Airviz in a bid to “pay it forward,” Dias said.

“Providing equitable access to monitoring technology is too important for us not to do this,” Nourbakhsh said.

Mid-terms, spring break, Greek Sing.

For many in Greek life at Carnegie Mellon, this trio has become a tradition.

"Greek life at CMU is a really special experience because people can take the drive and passion they usually have for their school work and gear it towards events like Greek Sing," said this year's co-chair, Amanda Branson (CMU 2017). "Greek Sing is one of the ways that we can do something for the greater good in a way that's fun for us and culminates in a show that the entire CMU community can engage with at the end."

The greater good Branson mentions is the signature of Greek Sing; each year, a non-profit chosen by the students benefits from the event, with this year's proceeds benefiting Our Clubhouse.

"Our Clubhouse is a home away from home for people who maybe have it a bit tougher because someone in their family has been touched by cancer," said Branson's co-chair, Erin Persson (E 2016).

Two years ago, Greek Sing pledged to raise $160,000 for Our Clubhouse, based in Pittsburgh.

"Last year we raised $86,000, so this year we need to raise $74,000," Branson said. "Hopefully more."

Funds raised are not through ticket sales alone. From restaurant fundraisers to candygrams, the chapters involved have been raising money toward the goal throughout the school year.

Fundraising isn't the only part of Greek Sing that lasts the whole year; sororities and fraternities pair up in the fall semester to pick a show and adopt the plot, script and music. Once spring semester hits, groups start rehearsing multiple times a week while building their own sets and creating costumes.

So, with such rigorous academic schedules — Branson is pursuing a Bachelor of Humanities and Arts in Vocal Performance & Decision Science, and Persson is slated to graduate this spring with degrees in Civil & Environment Engineering and Engineering & Public Policy — why does Greek Sing happen?

"People who come to CMU, and those who join Greek life here, are looking for a holistic experience that provides them the opportunity to have some impact on the world," Branson said. "I think it actually provides a fun departure for students to focus on something special for charity that doesn't necessarily relate to their goals post-college."

Plus, it's a lot of fun, especially when you win. Persson was a part of last year's winning "Seussical the Musical."

"Sharing that experience with my sisters and then a whole different fraternity — I think it was one of the best feelings I've ever had. After putting in all that work and all the hours we did it and it was really awesome."

This year's show promises to be just as amazing. Greek Sing 2016 begins at 5:30 p.m. Saturday, March 19 at Soldiers & Sailors Hall.

Related:

• College of Fine Arts
• Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Science
• College of Engineering

Everyone on stage is a suspect in the annual Murder Mystery Dinner hosted by Carnegie Mellon University's Department of Chemistry.

Created by the department's Student Advisory Committee (ChemSAC) more than 10 years ago, science majors come together to present all-original scripts with acting, singing, dancing and audience participation.

"It's a chance for students to be goofy and outrageous in front of their professors. No prior acting experience is needed, and anyone who wants a part, gets a part. I used to say: 'The less acting or singing experience, the better,'" said Lukas Ronner (S 2014), who wrote several scripts for the Murder Mystery and is a medical student at Mount Sinai in New York.

One year, there was a character reminiscent of Walter White from "Breaking Bad," and another year featured a spin-off of Dr. Pangloss from "Candide." Songs from "The Book of Mormon" have been reconfigured with lyrics about the Chemistry Department.

By 2009, the tradition had caught fire; chemistry majors wrote original scripts while weaving in plenty of interdepartmental asides. A few years later, singing and dancing was added. Callie Jerman (S 2015), who is now a Ph.D. candidate in bioengineering at the University of California-Berkeley, used her classical dance training to create original choreography.

Though the plays are about creating fun and community, students have found that the experience helps them in other ways.

"Having some experience with acting has been useful to me as I learn how to behave in a clinical setting — acting teaches you to have an awareness of your body and face and the messages you convey with the way you hold yourself," Ronner said. "In medical school, it's okay to be a bit goofy, and it's okay to try something even when you know you're going to be bad at it. And that's kind of what the ethos of Murder Mystery was."

Karen Stump, director of Undergraduate Studies and Director of Laboratories for CMU's Department of Chemistry, has acted as an unofficial ringleader for the project.

Stump sees the extracurricular activity helpful for a variety of reasons, including enhancing students' public speaking skills and distinguishing them from other job applicants.

"I think one of the biggest benefits is in being able to take a risk, to step outside of what others, or they themselves, see as their persona and try something that might be very different for them," Stump said. "Sometimes students become too comfortable in doing the things they that they are good at so they don't appear or feel inexpert at something new." 

Sophie Zucker (S 2016), also a creative writing major, is the head writer of this year's script. Her experience with the annual Murder Mystery helped inform her direction of a recent production of "The Vagina Monologues." The play, which was presented by the student organization Mobilization of Resolute Feminists was performed in February with a cast of over 20 women. It served as a fundraiser for New Voices Pittsburgh, a human rights organization for women of color.

"Managing a cast is one of the bigger things you learn in the chemistry Murder Mystery. Rehearsals strike a good balance between actual scene rehearsals and team-building activities. Going into 'The Vagina Monologues,' I knew that it was very important to do ice breakers and get the cast to know each other," Zucker said.

Zucker sees the Murder Mystery helping chemistry majors explore a new side to expressing themselves.

"Chemistry majors rarely have to tap into a skill that asks them to be an exaggerated personality," she said. "So much of science is being restrained and sensible."

Zucker said she mentions the Murder Mystery to potential chemistry majors, and that in one case it was a tipping point for a student to come to CMU.

"It's just become a classic CMU thing. When I look back on my experience, it's exemplary of CMU aesthetics," Zucker said.

Related:

• Mellon College of Science
• ChemSAC
• Department of Chemistry