A research group from the CERN Cloud experiment, including scientists from Carnegie Mellon University’s College of Engineering and Mellon College of Science, have uncovered the processes behind the formation and evolution of small atmospheric particles free from the influence of pollution. Their findings are key to creating accurate models to understand and predict global climate change. The findings are published in the May 26 issue of Nature.

Clouds and aerosols — small airborne particles that can become the seeds upon which clouds form — are essential to climate predictions because they reflect sunlight back into space. Reflecting light away from Earth can have a cooling effect, masking some of the warming caused by greenhouse gases.

“The best estimate is that about one-third of the warming by greenhouse gas emissions is masked by this aerosol cooling, but the fraction could be as large as half and as little as almost nothing,” said Neil Donahue, professor of chemistry, chemical engineering, engineering and public policy, and director of CMU’s Steinbrenner Institute for Environmental Education and Research.

In order to have complete climate prediction models, scientists need to incorporate clouds and aerosols into their calculations, but understanding how new aerosol particles form and grow in the atmosphere, and how they affect clouds and climate, has been challenging.

Scientists involved with CERN’s CLOUD experiment study use a large chamber to simulate the atmosphere and track the formation and growth of aerosol particles and the clouds they seed. The latest research shows that new particles can form exclusively from the oxidation of molecules emitted by trees without the presence of sulfuric acid. Sulfuric acid largely arises from fossil fuels, so the new findings provide a mechanism by which nature produces particles without pollution.

“This softens the idea that there may be many more particles in the atmosphere today due to pollution than there were in 1750, and suggests that the pristine pre-industrial climate may have had whiter clouds than presently thought,” Donahue said.  

The team’s research has lasting climate implications.

“Earth is already more than 0.8°C than it was in the pre-industrial epoch, and this is with some masking by aerosol particles. As the pollution subsides, up to another 0.8°C of hidden warming could emerge,” Donahue said.

Pam Wigley / 412-268-1047 / pwigley@andrew.cmu.edu

Marilyn G. McCormick was surrounded by students after learning she was the recipient of the second Excellence in Theatre Education Award.

All the world's a stage for Marilyn G. McCormick. For the past 39 years she has instilled in students the idea that both in life and theatre: "Good, better, best; never let it rest, until your good gets better and your better is best."

McCormick is the winner of the second Excellence in Theatre Education Award, sponsored by Carnegie Mellon University, The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing. The award will be presented at the 70th Annual Tony Awards on Sunday, June 12.

Renee Elise Goldsberry, a Tony Nominee for her role in "Hamilton" and CMU alumna, added a bit of drama to McCormick's day on May 23 by surprising the Cass Technical High School teacher in her Detroit classroom and shared the good news.

"On behalf of the Tony Awards, and on behalf of Carnegie Mellon University," Goldsberry said, "I would like to invite you to join me in New York at the 70th Annual Tony Awards."

McCormick, known as "MC" to her students, was stunned by the announcement and promised to see her there. McCormick will receive two tickets to the Tony Awards and Plaza Hotel Gala, travel to New York for her and a guest, and hotel accommodations.

As Goldsberry was departing, McCormick learned that, as part of her award, her theatre program would receive $10,000. She was overcome with emotion and was quickly surrounded by students.

Past and present students nominated McCormick for the recognition. They have gone on to attend colleges and conservatories before performing in regional theatres, Off-Broadway, Broadway, television and film.

Among the thousands of students McCormick has taught, she has trained actors, playwrights, poets, producers, directors and theatre educators.

"To think that my students recommended me for this award ... that's an honor," said McCormick, who is retiring in June.

McCormick holds a bachelor's degree of Education in Secondary Education and a master's degree of Education in Education Administration from Detroit's Wayne State University. A 1972 graduate of Cass, she has been teaching English and speech classes there since 1977 and began supervising drama shortly after. She has directed close to 50 productions including musicals, contemporary and classical plays and original works.

"I don't think she realizes the extent to which she has affected generations of students and changed their lives," said Crystal Williams, a 1998 graduate of Cass. A successful poet, Williams is associate vice president and chief diversity officer and a member of the English faculty at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. "It is amazing to watch her interactions with students and witness the love that's exchanged."

"She helps us with life situations," said Chelsie Sutherland, a graduating senior. "She always teaches us to give love and to live now. She is my drive, my reason to get up every morning and go to school."

McCormick is the recipient of numerous awards including Cass Technical High School's Distinguished Alumnus, Outstanding Arts Educator from Wayne State University, Trailblazer Award from the Alfredine Wiley Scholarship Fund, Sankofa Award from Plowshares Theatre, nine Spirit of Detroit Awards for teaching from the Detroit City Council, and two Teacher of the Year Awards. In 1999, McCormick's production of "Sarafina" in the American High School Theater Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, received a four-star review from Edinburgh's newspaper, The Scotsman.

"She instills so much into each of us, not only about school but about life. It all focuses on growing up, and she has helped us to realize that hearing "no" in this industry is OK," said Coda Boyce, a graduating senior. "She has taught us that experiencing failure is a learning experience — a way for us to grow."

"The biggest benefit of being her student is her availability to us," said graduating senior Michael Bishop. "I can call her any time about anything, and she will be there. She shows she genuinely cares for each one of us."

McCormick is a native of Pittsburgh, where she lived until she was 15, when her family moved to Detroit. She married Michael McCormick, now deceased, and is the mother of two: Michael of Los Angeles and Melanie of Maryland. 

The annual honor recognizes a K-12 theatre educator in the U.S. who has demonstrated monumental impact on the lives of students and who embodies the highest standards of the profession. A panel of judges, including Goldsberry, comprised of the American Theatre Wing, The Broadway League, Carnegie Mellon University and other leaders from the theatre industry selected McCormick from among finalists across the nation.

Carnegie Mellon University and the Tony Awards also named two runners-up for the Excellence in Theatre Education Award: Kevin G. Coleman, director of education at Shakespeare & Company, Lenox, Mass., and Sarah Crowell, artistic director, Destiny Arts Center, Oakland, Calif.

Related:

• CMU & the Tony Awards
• CBS This Morning Report

Five teams of Carnegie Mellon University graduate students competed in a hackathon designed to engage computer and data scientists to crack one of the most complex systems: the structure of neural data in the brain.

Team “Coin Toss” was named the winner of the Qualcomm Neurohackathon for its approach to identify the trajectories of nerve fiber connections in the brain. MRI fiber tracking has been widely used to map these trajectories, but identifying or classifying them is difficult due to the high complexity of neuroanatomy. Their findings could accelerate the pace of brain-mapping projects.

Team "Coin Toss" (pictured) won the Qualcomm Neurohackathon for its approach to identify the trajectories of nerve fiber connections in the brain.

Members of "Coin Toss," all Ph.D. students, were: Mariya Toneva, neural computation and machine learning; Avinava Dubey, machine learning; Ahmed Hefny, machine learning; Jay Yoon Lee, computer science; Dan Schwartz, language technology; and Ying Yang, neural computation and machine learning.

As the first place winners, one member of team "Coin Toss" will receive one semester of graduate tuition, and the others will share a $5,000 travel award. Alison Barth, interim director of CMU’s BrainHub and professor of biological sciences, was thrilled with the Neurohackathon because of the energy the students brought to the problems and how hard they worked over the two-day event.

"It’s remarkable to give people a problem and have them drop everything to care about it and work on it," Barth said. "We were able to bring so many different kinds of expertise together, and they all did a super job."

The teams were judged on the elegance and portability of their solutions, rigor of analytical methods, their appropriateness to the scientific question and the potential for impact in machine learning, computer science and/or neuroscience. Judges were Geoff Gordon, associate professor of machine learning; Jordan Rodu, visiting assistant professor of statistics; and Aryn Gittis, assistant professor of biological sciences.

Second place went to the "Reckless Arrogance" team of doctoral students: Ben Cowley, machine learning; Akash Umakantha, neural computation; and Jay Hennig, neural computation. They worked on a data set from Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences Sandra Kuhlman to determine how running is represented in the mouse motor cortex.

"Reckless Arrogance" team members will share $3,000 in travel awards.

"Qualcomm was very pleased to support the first ever CMU Neurohackathon and be a part of the event," said Rajesh Kumar, senior director of engineering at Qualcomm. “The faculty came up with a challenging collection of data sets for the students, and I was very impressed by the quality of the results produced by the five student teams in such a short period.  Equally impressive was the engagement of both faculty and students throughout the two-day event. I look forward to future editions of this event.”

Additional participating students included Xiaoqi Chai, Ligong Han, Jiaming Cao, Xiongtao Ruan, Waleed Ammar, Santosh Chandrasekaran, Volkan Cirik, Prassanna Kumar Muthukumar, Jayanth Koushik, Y. J. Choe, Maruan Al-Shedivat and David Isenberg.

The Neurohackathon, hosted by BrainHub, was also sponsored by Google, Baidu, Microsoft, CMU Provost’s Office and the Department of Machine Learning.

Related Links:

Video of the teams beginning to work
Final presentations, part one
Final presentations, part two
More about the event

“Willful Wondering” is a solo exhibition of more than 30 large-scale mixed media drawings and prints. The exhibition includes a new installation by the artist drawn directly on the gallery wall and flowing out across the floor into the space. Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Art Susanne Slavick has written an essay on the exhibition. This essay, as well as a poem by Ellen McGrath Smith, is featured in a catalog of the exhibition. It will be available in the gallery and downloadable online.

“Pat Bellan-Gillan creates a world that magically merges the natural with the supernatural,” said John Carson, head of the School of Art. “In this latest series of drawings, meticulous realism morphs into mystical abstracted dreamlike scenarios, both wondrous and disquieting. Mysterious, unresolved narratives are played out by ethereal characters and creatures, within a lush surround of exquisitely rendered graphic textures. The scale and scope of the work on show in the Miller Gallery is impressive and immersive, as the viewer is drawn in closer by the intrigue and delicacy of the detail.”

Bellan-Gillen recently retired from Carnegie Mellon after 29 years as a professor in the School of Art. Her paintings, prints and drawings have been the focus of more than 45 solo exhibitions across the U.S., including venues in Washington, D.C., Nashville, Tenn., Las Cruces, N.M., Albany, N.Y., Bloomington, Ill., Portland, Ore., Grand Rapids, Mich., and Wimbledon/London, U.K. Her work has been included in numerous group shows in museums, commercial galleries, university galleries and alternative spaces.

Born in Beaver Falls, Pa., Bellan-Gillen received her master’s degree from Carnegie Mellon in 1979. She lives and works in rural Burgettstown, Pa., adjacent to the West Virginia border.

Learn more about the exhibit.  See details on the June 10 reception.

Chuck Finder / 412-268-3486 / cfinder@andrew.cmu.edu

Women who move from Mobile, Ala., to New York City are likely to switch to higher heels.

That's a small part of the findings of a recent study by Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business Associate Professor of Marketing Jeff Galak and his co-authors. Their paper, "Trickle-down preferences: Preferential conformity to high status peers in fashion choices," was published in PLOS ONE.

In the first large-scale demonstration of what researchers describe as the tension between psychological conformity and consistency for women, Galak and his co-authors reveal in research that Americans on the move generally adopt higher-status fashion trends to a far greater extent than lower status.

"Studying heel height may seem like an unusual way to understand social influence, but it's actually a perfect setting," said Galak, whose fellow researchers included: Kurt Gray, Ph.D., assistant professor in psychology at the University of North Carolina; Nina Strohminger, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow at the Yale School of Management; and independent researcher Igor Elbert. "Fashion choices are highly visible decisions that are influenced by social norms and pressures. Shoes, and de facto heel height, are one such purchase where the decision and motivations are both highly visible and easily quantifiable.

"It's difficult to systematically assess preferences for say, clothing color, because there are just so many different colors women can choose from. Heel height, however is a single dimension that we as researchers can look to - and understand the nuanced decision that women make when trying to both be themselves and also fit in with a new environment."

The researchers studied 16,236 shoe purchases by 2,007 women across 180-plus U.S. cities throughout a five-year period. They found that women's heel height changed in accordance with the subjects' relocation, whether they moved to a city whose median income was marginally or significantly higher than earnings in their original hometown.

However, the study showed that if women moved to a location with a median income lower than the subjects' previous residence, the women generally kept the preferences of their previous location, choosing not to alter their heels.

"There is, of course, still more work to be done to understand how people, in general, balance the complexity of maintaining their own sense of individuality while trying to be part of a larger group," Galak said, noting that Census figures reveal that 7 million-plus Americans relocate across state lines annually. "For instance, do people conform to social norms for more private purchases like furniture, movies and even art? Maybe we will learn that when their purchases are not on public display, people are willing to keep true to their own identities and are less willing to conform to the group."

Pam Wigley / 412-268-1047 / pwigley@andrew.cmu.edu

They are the men and women who put the biz into show biz.

They are executives at companies like Sony Music Entertainment, DreamWorks, Twitter, Viacom and Starz.

They are among more than 160 alumni of Carnegie Mellon University's Master in Entertainment Industry Management (MEIM) program, offered by the H. John Heinz III College and the College of Fine Arts.

The two-year course of study, in which students spend the first year in Pittsburgh to learn the basics of management and the second year in Los Angeles immersed in the entertainment industry, has yielded big results.

"The MEIM program builds confidence and expertise, whether students choose to work with representing talent, developing content, or marketing that content," said John Tarnoff, head of Industry Relations for the MEIM program and a former media/entertainment executive.

"The second year in Los Angeles provides an unparalleled grounding in the ways the entertainment business really works. This is why our students make strong impressions at their internships and transition to sought-after entry-level positions sometimes even before they graduate," Tarnoff said.

The MEIM program celebrated its 10th graduating class this past April with a celebration for alumni, students, faculty and staff at The Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills, Calif. The evening featured speakers who were instrumental to the program, including Tarnoff; Heinz College Dean Ramayya Krishnan; MEIM Program Director Dan Green; and Carnegie Mellon Lifetime Trustee, MEIM faculty member, Hollywood executive and CMU alumna Paula Wagner.

The program boasted mayoral kudos from two coasts: Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto sent his congratulations in a video presentation and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti sent an official proclamation from the city recognizing MEIM's contributions to Hollywood.

The anniversary was an especially memorable milestone for Dan Martin, dean of Carnegie Mellon's College of Fine Arts, who started the program after receiving a boxed set of "The Godfather" films from his sons in 2002.

"It prompted me to wonder about the economics of, and decision-making within, the film and television industry," Martin said.

After gathering a group of Los Angeles-based Carnegie Mellon alumni who worked in various divisions of the film and TV industry, he wondered whether there was a place at Carnegie Mellon for a professional education program that would provide highly creative storytellers with a strong set of management skills.

"I had been inspired by CMU alumni who did this quite successfully, including Stephen Bochco, John Wells, Paula Wagner, Gregory Maday, Lee Miller and Bud Yorkin, among others," Martin said. "All of these visionaries and many others in all divisions of the industry had that balanced approach and are responsible for some of the most iconic films and television series of the last half century."

His biggest stumbling block, as the ad-hoc focus group participants would tell him, was clear: How do you teach film and TV management — and other vital parts of the entertainment industry — from Pittsburgh? To Martin, the answer was evident: Create a combined program incorporating one year in Pittsburgh and one year in Los Angeles.

"Ten years later, we have a strong, rigorous and meaningful education program that serves the management efforts of screen-based entertainment production in Los Angeles and many other industry centers around the continent," he said.

Martin credits much of the success to Green, Tarnoff and the late Bud Yorkin, "who was a regular sounding board, a shoulder to lean on and very wise counsel as we launched and grew the program."

Green gives credit to alumni who are paving the way for others.

"With the culmination of our tenth class graduating this May, we consistently see alumni hiring students for internships and jobs. The alumni value the idea of giving back," Green said.

Recent graduate Anna Lewgood is grateful for those who took the chance to create the program.

"It is the perfect balance of business and creative preparation for this industry," said Lewgood, who hopes to become a studio executive or a network/research executive.

"Going through the MEIM program has prepared me to start on this career path with the knowledge of the complex film and television business models," she said. "I wouldn't have the already vast network that I do without this program."

Olivia Barton, a 2014 MEIM graduate, works at Sony Music Entertainment. She said she gained a strong understanding of the economics of film and television and that internships helped land her first job.

Barton is one of the 92 percent of MEIM graduates who found employment in the industry after graduating. That placement rate is one reason Melissa Larosa was drawn to the program.

"The faculty encourage entrepreneurship and lead by example through establishing relationships across the film, TV and music industries," said Larosa, who noted the many opportunities that arise in New York, Los Angeles, and at film festivals like South by Southwest, Sundance and Cannes in the south of France. 

"I think we've been a bit surprised by how quickly the industry has embraced the program. We now have companies calling us with internship and job opportunities, which has been a nice confirmation of what we've been doing," Green said.

When patients participate in a clinical trial, they are required — for legal and ethical reasons — to complete consent forms that are typically long, complicated and filled with technical language. Some experts fear these forms can lead some patients to enroll in studies without fully understanding them and others to miss valuable opportunities.

To improve patient comprehension, Carnegie Mellon University researchers Tamar Krishnamurti and Nichole Argo have developed approaches to simplify the process by focusing on the information that patients need most when deciding whether to enroll in a trial. They let potential trial participants determine what information is most relevant and then created written and video versions of a shortened consent form focused on that information.

Published in the journal Medical Decision Making, Krishnamurti and Argo found that despite being 86 percent shorter the new consent forms were equally effective at securing patient understanding and more engaging for the patients.

“This tells us that redesigning the approach to written informed consent to make it more patient-centered and patient-designed would be in the best interest of both clinical trial patients and administrators,” said Krishnamurti, assistant research professor of engineering and public policy.

In the study, Krishnamurti and Argo randomly assigned 118 severe asthma patients to review different sections of a 17-page consent form for a trial testing an experimental injectable asthma treatment. Then, they selected and ranked the information they deemed critical to their decision-making. Next, 83 asthma patients were randomly assigned to review a full informed consent document, a shortened document based on patient preferences from the first study or an animated video of the shortened consent information.

The results showed that participants who received the shorter paper form and the video reported absorbing as much information as participants receiving the long form. They also reported feeling more engaged in the consenting process than those who read the long consent form.

“There is a broad consensus in the world of clinical trials that a more patient-centered informed consent process is needed. Our challenge was to create informed consent content and formatting that would be engaging and understandable to patients, but would at the same time not hinder or bias patient judgment and decision-making. We are now proposing a patient-centered informed consent process that seems to accomplish this goal,” said Argo, a research scientist in engineering and public policy and social and decision sciences.

Financial support and the development of multi-media videos for the study were provided by ICON plc, a global provider of drug development solutions and services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries, to conduct two research studies. The company has already begun implementing the findings in the ICON Firecrest Patient Portal.

Bruce Gerson / bgerson@cmu.edu / 412-268-1613

The storied, elegant and luring Oakmont Country Club, the site of this year's U.S. Open, is one of golf's greatest treasures. No one knows that better than Carnegie Mellon University History Professor Steve Schlossman.

Schlossman is a renowned golf historian and scholar of the Oakmont, Pa., course, which has hosted one of golf's most prestigious championships, the U. S. Open, more times than any other golf club. The only course in the United States to have hosted more major professional golf championships than Oakmont is the Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Ga., site of the annual Masters.

This year's U.S. Open will be the ninth at Oakmont since 1927. Its champions include the greatest names in the game, including Ben Hogan, Tommy Armour, Jack Nicklaus, Johnny Miller and Ernie Els. The legendary Gene Sarazen won the 1922 PGA Championship, Bobby Jones claimed victory in the 1925 U.S. Amateur and Sam Snead took the 1951 PGA Championship, all at Oakmont.

Schlossman's work is perhaps best known by the 2010 book he co-authored with his former student Adam Lazarus. "Chasing Greatness: Johnny Miller, Arnold Palmer and the Miracle at Oakmont" is an in-depth look at Miller's 1973 U.S. Open comeback victory and his spectacular, record-setting, final-round score of 63, 8-under par. Miller, six strokes back at the start of the final 18, won by one stroke.

"When I decided to write a book about Oakmont, I assumed I wanted to write about 1962, but the more I looked into it, it was a two-man battle between [Arnold] Palmer and Nicklaus and that didn't give me many dramatic possibilities," Schlossman said at a recent panel discussion at Oakmont.

"Then I looked at 1973. Of course, Johnny Miller shot the 63 to win and at that time it was said 10,000 times that it was the greatest round in history. But what fascinated me more was the ensemble cast. The tremendous number of people who were in this championship to the very end," said Schlossman, who teaches golf history at CMU, the only college-level course of its kind in the U.S., according to the United States Golf Association.

That 1973 drama included Palmer, the hometown favorite, Nicklaus, Gary Player, Tom Weiskopf, Julius Boros, Gene Littler, Bob Charles and John Schlee, an "interloper" who came within 3 inches of tying Miller on the final hole.

The Front Nine

Schlossman got interested in the game of golf as a pre-teen in New York during Palmer's ascent as a pro. He got hooked on the history of the game in the early '60s by watching the television show "Shell's Wonderful World of Golf" with host Gene Sarazen, which aired from courses all over the world.

"A match on the show featured Sarazen playing Henry Cotton at the Old Course at St. Andrews [in the U.K.]. There was the game that was played in the 1920s and '30s by people in the '60s. Gradually, the history of golf and the living memories of the game through people like Sarazen got my attention," Schlossman said.

Schlossman, who became a championship golfer in high school and college, attended his first championship event at the Westchester Country Club, north of New York City.

"My goal was to get close to Palmer and Nicklaus, but I also got close to Sam Snead who was in his 50s. I never in my life - I was 15 - saw someone hit the ball so far," he recalled.

Schlossman moved to Pittsburgh in the late 1980s and attended the 1994 U.S. Open at Oakmont.

"I was enthralled by Oakmont," he said. "I thought it was even tougher than Bethpage Black — a public course and site of the 2002 and 2009 U. S. Opens — the course I grew up around in New York."

When he became head of CMU's History Department, Oakmont sought his advice for a 100th anniversary book it was planning. He had the opportunity to meet many members and people associated with the club, and "began to live the history of Oakmont."

And the Rest ... Is History

Bob Ford, the longtime pro at Oakmont whom Schlossman credits for allowing him to learn about the course firsthand, is impressed with Schlossman's knowledge of the game and Oakmont.

"Steve is a walking encyclopedia of golf and particularly Oakmont golf. It's fascinating how much research he's done and the work that he's done to capture the history of Oakmont like nobody else, quite frankly.
"We've talked a lot and I probably led him down some of the right paths, but he did a marvelous job with that book," Ford said of "Chasing Greatness."

Gerry Dulac, an award-winning golf writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, said Schlossman is a go-to person for golf history.

"His knowledge, whether from being a fan or through his research, is not only detailed, but it's accurate. Steve either refutes theories or myths, or he further explains something that has been proven as fact and helps explain it better," Dulac said.

One such myth is that a sprinkler malfunction and rain storm the night before the U.S. Open final round in 1973, slowed the greens significantly allowing Miller to shoot his amazing 63.

"The sprinkler issue happened early Friday morning, not Saturday night. The greens were softer Friday, but they quickly returned closer to Oakmont fast. And the thunderstorm happened Sunday night [after the tournament concluded]," Schlossman explained. 

"Steve knows more about golf than anyone I've ever met. His knowledge of the technical side — the swing, the types of shots, the nuances of courses — is exceptional and matched only by his appreciation and understanding of the game's history, from the PGA Tour to the women's tour to the amateur game," said Lazarus, co-author of "Chasing Greatness."

Lazarus, who earned his master's degree in English at CMU in 2006, credits Schlossman for having an enormous influence on his literary career.

"I learned how to do this kind of stuff from Steve," said Lazarus, author of "Super Bowl Monday," "Hail to the Redskins" and "Best of Rivals." "He taught me how to do full-scale, in-depth, book-length type of research - the tricks of the trade that I use today."

Tee Time

As the 9th U.S. Open at Oakmont (June 13-19) nears, Schlossman recently has visited the course a number of times and has been an invited speaker at various Open-related events.

His golf history class of 28 students walked the 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th holes with club pro Devin Gee this spring, allowing the students to get a firsthand, up-close look at the "velvety fairways," the white manicured bunkers and the large, lightning-quick "compulsively undulating" greens that help to make Oakmont special.

When play begins, Schlossman, a member of the United States Golf Association (USGA) Museum Committee, will be there documenting the activities and lending his expertise in the Media Tent as a member of the USGA research team to assist on-site journalists.

After the tournament, he'll be back.

A book on the 1919 U.S. Amateur Championship is in the works.

The history ... continues.

Related Links:

• Steve Schlossman
• Adam Lazarus
• Oakmont Country Club
• "Chasing Greatness: Johnny Miller, Arnold Palmer and the Miracle at Oakmont"
• Fact, Fancy and Johnny Miller's 63 at the 1973 U.S. Open

Math Professor John Mackey meets participants from the Mathematical Olympiad Summer Program at Pittsburgh International Airport on June 7.

Olympic hopefuls from around the world have arrived at Carnegie Mellon University, dedicated, driven and focused to begin their final training for this summer's games. But these competitors aren't preparing for Rio.  Instead they're flexing their mental muscles in anticipation of the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) this July in Hong Kong. 

Seventy of the best high school mathematicians from around the world, including the six-member U.S. IMO team, arrived at Carnegie Mellon's Pittsburgh campus on Tuesday (June 7) to embark on a three-week program that will push them to become better problem-solvers.

This summer marks the second year the Mathematical Association of America's (MAA's) Mathematical Olympiad Summer Program (MOSP) is being held at CMU under the guidance of Associate Professor of Mathematical Sciences Po-Shen Loh, head coach of the U.S. IMO team. Loh is joined by more than 20 assistant coaches.

Last year, Loh led USA to its first IMO victory in 20 years. While he is hoping for a repeat performance, it's not his ultimate goal. His focus for the team and other students who attend the MOSP is to teach them creative problem-solving techniques and critical-thinking skills that will help them to be successful in high school and beyond.

"The goal is to teach them how to think about a problem and come up with innovative ways to solve it," said Loh, who was a silver medalist in the 1999 IMO. "If we teach students the tools they need to become problem-solvers, success will follow."

Sixty of the students attending the MOSP represent some of the best young math talent in the United States. They were selected from the more than 340,000 students who participated in the school-based mathematics contests that are part of the MAA's American Mathematics Competitions program. An additional 10 students  come from around the world - some as far as Australia and Singapore. This year marks the first time international students have been invited to the MOSP on such a large scale, an endeavor that has been funded by CMU.

CMU alumna Renée Elise Goldsberry, center, garnered one of 16 Tony Award nominations for the smash musical "Hamilton."

Carnegie Mellon University's Renée Elise Goldsberry is not going to miss her shot.

Goldsberry, a 1993 graduate, was nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role for the musical "Hamilton." She is one of seven CMU alumni who have been nominated for eight Tony Awards this year.

The 70th Annual Tony Awards, hosted by James Corden, will be broadcast live on CBS at 8 p.m. EDT, Sunday, June 12, from the Beacon Theatre in New York City.

Along with Goldsberry, this year's CMU alumni nominees are:

Jamie deRoy, a 1967 graduate, has been nominated as a producer for Best Musical for "Bright Star" and as a producer for Best Revival of a Musical for "Fiddler on the Roof."

Peggy Eisenhauer, a 1983 graduate, and Jules Fisher, a 1960 graduate, have been nominated for Best Lighting Design for the musical "Shuffle Along."

Megan Hilty, a 2004 graduate, has been nominated for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in the play "Noises Off."

Leslie Odom Jr., a 2003 graduate, has been nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role for his performance in the musical "Hamilton."

Ann Roth, a 1953 graduate, has been nominated for Best Costume Design for "Shuffle Along." Roth recently won the Drama Desk Award for the same category.

In 2013, CMU alumni took home eight Tony Awards, and hundreds of CMU alumni have been nominated for the honor. Alumni have won 41 awards to date.

A number of CMU alumni will be featured in this year's awards show broadcast. CMU alumni Patina Miller and Blair Underwood are among the presenters.

In addition, CMU will present the second Excellence in Theatre Education Award to Marilyn McCormick. Created by CMU and the Tonys, the award recognizes a K-12 theatre educator who embodies the highest standards of the profession, demonstrating a positive impact on students and advancing the theatre industry. More than 1,200 teachers were nominated for the award.

A panel of judges comprising representatives of the American Theatre Wing, The Broadway League, Carnegie Mellon and other leaders from the theatre industry selected the finalists and winner. "Hamilton" actress and CMU alumna Renée Elise Goldsberry and CMU School of Drama Head Peter Cooke, OAM, Ph.D., served as judges.

CMU's 30-second commercial will again air during the broadcast. This year's ad is narrated by alumna Judith Light, who graduated in 1970.

By Shilo Rea / 412-268-6094 / shilo@cmu.edu

What's happening in the brain of a person who wins a Tony Award — or loses out?

Carnegie Mellon University scientists know exactly what their brain activation patterns look like. Back in 2013, a Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences-led team was the first to identify the emotions that a person experiences — such as happy and sad — based on brain activity.

"We might wonder what is going through the mind of a Tony winner or loser, because we imagine that each person's reaction is unique to them. But what our study showed was how remarkably similar we are to each other in terms of the pattern of brain activity that is the signature of an emotion," said Marcel Just, the D.O. Hebb University Professor of Psychology.

Just continued, "A Tony award winner's elation is accompanied by a very similar brain activity pattern as someone winning a golf tournament trophy or a teaching award. We are more similar to each other under our skulls than one would have thought."

Leslie Odom, Jr. and Renée Elise Goldsberry each received Tony Awards for their roles in "Hamilton."

Carnegie Mellon University congratulates CMU alumni Renée Elise Goldsberry and Leslie Odom, Jr., who received Tony Awards on Sunday night at the Beacon Theatre in New York City. These two winners increase the number of Tonys received by Carnegie Mellon alumni to 43.

Goldsberry and Odom, Jr., received two of the 11 Tony Awards bestowed on the musical "Hamilton," which was nominated for a record 16 Tonys.

Goldsberry, a 1993 graduate, earned her first Tony Award for best performance by an actress in a featured role in the musical "Hamilton," where she played Angelica Schuyler. Goldsberry boasts a multitude of film and stage credits and most recently held a recurring role on CBS' "The Good Wife." She starred in the 2001 film "All About You" and has been frequently recognized for her outstanding roles in daytime television. Her Broadway credits include "The Lion King," "The Color Purple" and "Rent."

Odom, Jr. took home his first Tony Award for best performance by an actor in a leading role for his portrayal of Aaron Burr in "Hamilton." After making his Broadway debut at the age of 17 in "Rent," he graduated from CMU in 2003 and held recurring roles in numerous television series. In 2015, he was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for "Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical" for his role in the then off-Broadway production of "Hamilton."

"We are very proud of Renée and Leslie for the great work they've done on Broadway and throughout their careers," said Dan J. Martin, dean of CMU's College of Fine Arts. "Thanks to a firm foundation in K-12 arts education and the benefits of Carnegie Mellon's conservatory training, our graduates continue to achieve great things and the Tony Awards are one example of that success."

In addition to the wins by Goldsberry and Odom, Jr., CMU alumni Jamie DeRoy, Peggy Eisenhauer, Jules Fisher, Megan Hilty and Ann Roth were nominated for Tony Awards this year.

CMU, Tony Awards Honor Theatre Educator Marilyn McCormick

During the Tony Awards broadcast on CBS, Carnegie Mellon and the Tony Awards announced that Marilyn G. McCormick, a teacher at Cass Technical High School in Detroit, won the Excellence in Theatre Education Award. She was recognized during the show by another CMU alumnus, Blair Underwood, who introduced McCormick from the audience. The award is the first, national recognition program to honor kindergarten through high-school (K-12) theatre educators who demonstrate a monumental impact on the lives of students and who embody the highest standards of the profession. Nearly 1,200 nominations were received from across the United States for the award.

A 1972 graduate of Cass, McCormick has been teaching English and speech classes there since 1977 and began supervising drama shortly after. She has directed close to 50 productions including musicals, contemporary and classical plays and original works.

McCormick is the recipient of numerous awards including Cass Technical High School's Distinguished Alumnus, Outstanding Arts Educator from Wayne State University, Trailblazer Award from the Alfredine Wiley Scholarship Fund, Sankofa Award from Plowshares Theatre, nine Spirit of Detroit Awards for teaching from the Detroit City Council, and two Teacher of the Year Awards.

In 1999, McCormick's production of "Sarafina" in the American High School Theater Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, received a four-star review from Edinburgh's newspaper, The Scotsman. She holds a bachelor's degree of Education in Secondary Education and a master's degree of Education in Education Administration from Detroit's Wayne State University.

A panel of judges comprising representatives of the American Theatre Wing, The Broadway League, Carnegie Mellon and other leaders from the theatre industry selected McCormick for the award. Goldsberry and CMU School of Drama Head Peter Cooke were two of the seven people serving on the judging panel, with Goldsberry personally traveling to Detroit to deliver the good news to McCormick and her students.

CMU is the first, exclusive higher education partner of the Tony Awards. Carnegie Mellon's School of Drama is the oldest drama degree-granting program in the United States and celebrated its centennial in 2014. Recognized as an international leader in the arts and technology, CMU's Drama School consistently ranks as one of the world's best and has produced hundreds of Tony nominees.

Tennis team captain Yuvraj Kumar is one of 80 CMU student-athletes who earned 4.0 GPAs this spring.

A dynamic doubles team and a determined, sharpshooting 1,000-point scorer were among the exceptional student-athletes this spring who brought distinction to Carnegie Mellon University athletics on the court and in the classroom.

Eighty of them recorded a 4.0 grade-point average (GPA) for the semester, while 33 of them earned a 4.0 for the academic year. Nine upperclassmen maintained cumulative 4.0 GPAs.

CMU's 441 student-athletes posted a 3.39 GPA for the spring semester and a 3.37 for the entire school year.

Men's tennis team captain Yuvraj Kumar and his doubles partner, Abhishek Alla, were CMU's No. 3 tandem and led the Tartans to a No. 7 national ranking.

Kumar, who earned a 4.0 GPA for the spring semester and graduated with a degree in social and decision sciences, said he entered college with a goal of finding a balance between academics and sports.

He had no regrets.

"I believe that the coaches and professors both helped me stay on track but also made sure that I went out of my comfort zone and tested myself both on the court and in the classroom," he said. "Being able to seek their advice and sometimes their criticism helped me stay focused to achieve my own goals."

Alla, who posted a 3.8 GPA for the semester, earned his bachelor's degree in civil and environmental engineering. He was the 2013 USTA/ITA singles champion, was named an All-American in singles three times and ended his career with an appearance in the semifinals of the NCAA championships in May.

He credits his athletic and academic success to a "tight knit athletic community," time management and discipline.

Lindsay Poss was a starting guard on the women's basketball team that helped the Tartans reach the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Championships for the first time in history.

"It was unbelievable that I was part of that experience, and I'm still in shock that it happened," said Poss, who graduated with a degree in social and decision sciences. "That is absolutely above and beyond any expectation I ever had for my college career."

Poss, who endured a personal tragedy when her mother died in February, is the 12th player to score more than 1,000 career points for the Tartans. She did it along with teammate and friend, Liza Otto.

Overall, the 18 varsity athletic programs achieved a 3.2 or better while football led the way with 17 perfect GPAs. The women's swimming and women's tennis teams earned GPAs above 3.6, while the women's soccer team was just behind with a 3.53.The men's tennis team, which advanced to the third round of the NCAA championships, earned a 3.59 GPA, and three athletes finished with 4.0s.

The success was widespread among the colleges, as 33 students with perfect GPAs were enrolled in the College of Engineering, 15 in the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences, 14 in the Mellon College of Science, 13 in the Tepper School of Business, three in the School of Computer Science, and one in the College of Fine Arts and in the Science and Humanities Scholars program.

"It has been quite a year for our athletics program. Our student-athletes continue to demonstrate that they can compete at the highest level academically and athletically," said Director of Athletics Josh Centor. "I am grateful for the way our student-athletes represent the university, both on and off the playing fields."

At a moment when many feel violated and vulnerable, Carnegie Mellon continues to stand for inclusion, compassion, respect, and the bedrock value of bringing together people of all backgrounds and identities to live and work together to enrich the human condition. As we join the nation in grief and shock, it is important that each of us in the Carnegie Mellon family continues to live out these values and provide an example of how we can work together as a respectful and inclusive global community.

CMU support services are available throughout the summer. Members of the university community should feel free to reach out to Counseling and Psychological Services (412-268-2922) for support of any kind.

Jocelyn Duffy, jhduffy@andrew.cmu.edu, 412-268-9982

View of the SuperKEKB collision point in late 2015. The accelerator beam line is now covered with a concrete shield. The Belle II detector can be seen in the background.

The hunt to solve an anti-matter mystery may have new clues, thanks to an upgrade of the SuperKEKB, an electron-positron colliding accelerator at the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK) in Japan.

Test operations started earlier this year, and Carnegie Mellon University Physics Professor Roy Briere has been a member of KEK's Belle II collaboration since 2013.

When fully operational, the rate of collisions produced by SuperKEKB will be several tens of times larger than that of its predecessor, KEKB.

"By producing collisions with much higher intensity, we hope to accumulate 50 times more data. And that means our measurements are going to be very precise," Briere said.

Scientists will use the collision data to pursue the mystery of the disappearance of anti-matter during the early, developmental processes of the universe, and to discover and clarify new physical laws that go beyond the Standard Model of particle physics.

"When you have 50 times the data, you can test things much more accurately and try to find the little chink in the Standard Model's armor, so to speak," Briere said.

The Belle II collaboration, named after the collider's detector, is an international research organization hosted by KEK's Institute of Particle and Nuclear Studies. The group is assembling the Belle II detector, which will gather data at the point where the beams of electrons and positrons smash into each other. Briere and postdoctoral researcher Jake Bennett are working on the software infrastructure needed to calibrate one portion of the massive detector.

While SuperKEKB and Belle II physicists continue to optimize the collider and the detector, Briere also is working with members of the collaboration to anticipate what they may see when the collider records its first collisions and how to plan their analyses accordingly. Briere assisted Professor Vladimir Savinov and colleagues at the University of Pittsburgh in organizing a conference in May, which brought together theorists and experimentalists for workshops on this topic.

Briere also is a member of the BESIII experiment at the BEPCII collider in Beijing, and was a member and former co-spokesperson for the CLEO detector collaboration at Cornell University.

Related:

• First turns and successful storage of beams in the SuperKEKB electron and positron rings

A lightsaber-wielding robot challenges John Choi to a duel. The rising Carnegie Mellon University senior is preparing for the National Maker Faire, one of the flagship programs of the White House’s National Week of Making.

Choi and his robot, along with CMU leaders, will be recognized for their contributions to the Maker Movement June 17–23.

Choi’s open-source, human-sized helper robot, the Multipurpose Mobile Manipulator Mk 1-001, also waters plants, plays the piano and assists with household tasks. It’s designed to teach and inspire students, as well as engage hobbyists and artists in accelerating robot development.

The Pittsburgh Technology Council’s CREATE Pittsburgh initiative recently named the robot among its Top 10 Design and Maker Projects of the Year.

A CMU Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship Undergraduate Innovation Scholar, Choi plans to bring an easy-to-build robot kit to market following graduation through his startup, Choitek.

He credits CMU’s Bachelor of Science and Arts (BCSA) program with giving him the opportunity to pursue courses in computer science, game design, engineering and the arts.

“The BCSA program gives me the flexibility to learn everything I need at a pace that is personalized for me,” Choi said.

The White House today recognized CMU for its leadership of the MakeSchools Alliance, launched in fall 2014 with support from Bucknell, Case Western Reserve and Cornell universities. Forty-eight member institutions share best practices for deploying maker-based education or “makerspaces” on their campuses.

“This collaboration holds the potential to reshape the way we think and collaborate in maker-based education," said Daragh Byrne, a MakeSchools Alliance leader and Intel Special Faculty for Physical Computing, Responsive Environments and Emerging Media at CMU. “We're building bridges across campuses, sharing ideas and exploring new models of education and innovation that we think will be exciting, productive and inspire creativity for a new generation. When minds and hands come together to build something new, great things can happen,” Byrne said.

Alliance members will discuss overcoming barriers to access and inclusion in making, and developing new pipelines for making across K-12 and higher education during a June 21 workshop in the nation’s capital.

CMU Provost Farnam Jahanian was among higher education leaders who submitted a letter to President Obama in honor of the Week of Making.

“Andrew Carnegie understood the power of making when he founded Carnegie Mellon University more than a century ago; it was his conviction that, while book learning was important, the ‘education of the hand’ was fundamental to progress and growth, for individuals, communities and nations,” Jahanian wrote.

The provost highlighted CMU’s new commitments to making, including the development of the College of Engineering’s new MakerWing and the future ANSYS Building, a 30,000 square-foot facility that will feature a simulation and collaboration lab and a large open bay facility for students to build full-scale projects.

He also shared the success of existing programs, including the Integrative Design, Arts and Technology (IDeATe) Network. About 800 undergraduate students from all majors annually participate in 30 interdisciplinary studio-based courses in areas like physical computing, intelligent spaces and game design.

The Inamori Foundation has named Takeo Kanade, the U.A. and Helen Whitaker University Professor of Robotics and Computer Science, as the winner of the prestigious 2016 Kyoto Prize for Advanced Technology, citing his pioneering contributions to computer vision and robotics.

The international award is presented to individuals who have contributed significantly to the scientific, cultural and spiritual betterment of humankind.

“I am most honored,” Kanade said following the announcement. “Since I came to CMU in 1980, soon after the Robotics Institute was founded, I have participated in and led many exciting projects. My students, colleagues and the environment at CMU made them happen. In fact, it may sound funny, but, honestly speaking, all I had was fun.”

Kanade will receive a gold medal and a cash award of 50 million yen (about $480,000) at a Nov. 10 ceremony in Kyoto, Japan.

“Dr. Kanade has made fundamental contributions to the basic theory of computer vision and introduced a series of innovative applied technologies in robotics, including pioneering achievements in the field of automated driving,” the foundation said in its announcement. “He has established the foundation of this academic field and been advancing its frontiers consistently for many years.”

Kanade joined the Robotics Institute and the Computer Science Department in 1980 and was director of the Robotics Institute from 1992-2001.

He made fundamental discoveries in face detection technology, automated driving, three-dimensional image reconstruction, self-flying helicopters and the use of video images to estimate the direction and speed of moving objects.

But his research breakthroughs began much earlier. While he was a student at Kyoto University in the early 1970s, he developed the first complete system for face recognition by computers for his doctoral thesis. Since then, he has continued to explore the science of computer vision, including the physical, geometrical, optical and statistical processes involved in vision.

In the early 1980s at CMU, he founded and led NavLab, a pioneering project that developed techniques for a vision-based autonomous car, including lane keeping, automatic parallel parking and object detection. NavLab produced a series of self-driving vehicles, including NavLab 5, a minivan that steered itself on a cross-country tour called “No Hands Across America” in 1995.

He co-developed the world’s first direct-drive robot arm, which is used by several robot manufacturers and is recognized as one of the most advanced robot arm technologies. Applications of his algorithmic insights, mathematical and physical principles, and rigorous implementation include medical robots for surgical assistance, “virtualized reality” systems for capturing and visualizing three-dimensional scenes and modern graphics effects in video. CBS used a version of his virtualized reality to provide 360-degree replays during its 2001 telecast of the Super Bowl.

He is the recipient of many awards for his work, including the Franklin Institute’s Bower Award and Prize for Achievement in Science in 2008, the ACM/AAAI Allen Newell Award and the Okawa Prize in 2007.

Born in Tamba, Hyogo, Japan, Kanade earned a Ph.D. in electrical engineering at Kyoto University in 1974. He served on the Kyoto faculty until he joined Carnegie Mellon.

Kanade has appointments at the Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research at Osaka University and at the Nara Institute of Science and Technology, Japanese national university in Kansai Science City. He also is a senior adviser at the Center for Advanced Integrated Intelligence Research at RIKEN, Japan’s largest comprehensive research institute.

In addition to Kanade’s prize, the foundation announced that Tasuko Honjo, a medical scientist at Kyoto University, and Martha Craven Nussbaum, a philosopher at the University of Chicago, will receive this year’s Kyoto Prizes, respectively, for basic sciences and for thought and ethics.

Previous Kyoto Prize winners with CMU connections include Ivan Sutherland, who won in 2012 and received a bachelor’s degree in science at Carnegie Tech in 1959; and Robert Heath Dennard, who won in 2013 and received his Ph.D. in electrical engineering in 1958.

Members of the Class of 2015 celebrate their graduation last year from Carnegie Mellon in Rwanda.

Carnegie Mellon University’s commitment to educating Africa’s next generation of technology leaders and entrepreneurs received a boost today with a $10.8 million commitment from The MasterCard Foundation. This new partnership, which will be established at Carnegie Mellon’s College of Engineering program in Kigali, Rwanda, will benefit 125 academically talented but economically disadvantaged students from Sub-Saharan Africa as part of The MasterCard Foundation Scholars Program.

Carnegie Mellon will join a global network of 23 scholars program partners, comprising educational institutions that are committed to developing Africa’s young leaders. These scholars will go on to use their knowledge and skills to lead change in their communities and contribute to meaningful transformation across the continent.

Since 2011, Carnegie Mellon University in Rwanda has contributed to enhancing the quality of the engineering workforce in Africa. This effort has addressed the critical shortage of information and communication technology (ICT) skills required for Africa to compete in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, in which physical, cyber and biological systems converge through information, computing and communication technologies to transform the lives and livelihoods of citizens around the world in unprecedented ways.

The talented graduates of Carnegie Mellon in Rwanda play a strategic role in Africa’s trajectory, leveraging ICT to digitally leapfrog socio-economic development across the continent. With transformative support from The MasterCard Foundation, Carnegie Mellon will be able to multiply its impact on higher education and the ICT sector in Africa, as part of the Rwanda Government’s vision to create a Regional Center of Excellence in ICT and to serve as a technological hub for the region.

“We are excited to partner with Carnegie Mellon University in Rwanda, an exceptional institution committed to training the next generation of African engineers, innovators and entrepreneurs to meet pressing global challenges,” said Reeta Roy, president and CEO of The MasterCard Foundation. “Investment in STEM education is pivotal to Africa’s future and will ensure that African nations have the opportunity to identify, develop and deploy their wealth of talent.”

By offering globally recognized degree programs in ICT to 125 students from lower-income families in Africa, Carnegie Mellon will have impact in three ways: first, this program will dramatically expand future career options for each of the scholars; second, it will be an essential educational and research resource underpinning growth and development of the technology sector in Africa; and third, alumni and faculty will benefit from Carnegie Mellon’s resources for supporting entrepreneurship and innovation. The MasterCard Foundation Scholars Program at Carnegie Mellon in Rwanda will attract a diverse mix of scholars from Rwanda and the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa, with a priority on increasing the enrollment of women.

“With this generous support from The MasterCard Foundation, we can multiply the impact of our program in Rwanda and educate a new cohort of exceptional engineers who will become catalysts for Africa’s digital transformation,” said CMU President Subra Suresh. “CMU shares the foundation’s commitment to elevating intellectual and economic vitality around the globe, especially in developing regions. Students attending Carnegie Mellon in Rwanda receive a world-class education that enables them to become leaders in Africa’s growing innovation ecosystem.”

The MasterCard Foundation Scholars Program will provide holistic student support, including comprehensive scholarships, leadership development, volunteerism and industry-driven career services — developing highly skilled, transformative leaders to catalyze Africa’s digital transformation. The program will start in fall 2016 and conclude in 2023, underscoring the importance of establishing long-term education programs in Africa.

Research underway at Carnegie Mellon in Rwanda also takes a long-term approach. The faculty understand that to address Africa’s technology needs, students require time to analyze and solve problems in the context in which they occur. Research at Carnegie Mellon explores critical topics relevant to Africa: wireless networking, mobile applications, energy systems, cyber security, agriculture, financial services and telecommunications.

The partnership announcement was made on June 20 during Carnegie Mellon’s graduation ceremony, when 24 students received master’s degrees in information technology and electrical and computer engineering. CMU President Suresh, and Jendayi Frazer, a member of the Board of Directors of The MasterCard Foundation, attended the graduation ceremony. To date, the program has graduated 70 students hailing from Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda and the United States. The vast majority of these graduates are working in their home countries, making an impact in the private sector, government and academia, and the rest are pursuing the creation of startup companies as well as doctoral programs.

Menu labels have become a favorite tool for policymakers to fight obesity, despite a lack of evidence that the format encourages people to make healthier food choices.

However, new research from Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pennsylvania shows that “traffic light” color-coded labels, numeric labels and a combination of the two reduce the number of calories ordered in online food orders by about 10 percent. Published in the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, the results from the study — the first online food ordering field experiment — suggest that consumers benefit from easier to understand information about what is, and isn’t, a healthy food choice.

“We are looking for more and better ways to help people make decisions about the food that they eat, to help them better understand the nutritional content so that they can use that information when they make choices,” said Julie Downs, associate professor of social and decision sciences at CMU.

For the study, 249 employees at a large corporation ordered lunches through a website designed by the research team. The menus each had numeric calorie labels, traffic light labels, both kinds of labels or no nutritional information.

The researchers compared the calorie content of the ordered lunches and found that each label reduced the calories ordered by 10 percent.

“Calorie labeling appears to be effective in an online environment where consumers have fewer distractions, and the simpler traffic-light labeling seems as effective as standard calorie numbers,” said Eric M. Van Epps, a 2015 CMU alumnus who is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine. Epps worked on the research while pursuing his Ph.D. in behavioral decision research at CMU.

The results also indicated that traffic light labels were effective without standard calorie number information, and there was no benefit from combining the two types of labels.

“The jury is still out on whether calorie labeling is an effective policy for reducing calorie intake,” said George Loewenstein, the Herbert A. Simon University Professor of Economics and Psychology in the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences. “We still don’t know whether it will be more or less effective when the information has become ubiquitous and expected. And, we also don’t know whether people who cut back on calories in a meal will compensate in ways that offset the benefit, for example by being more likely to snack or less likely to exercise, later in the day."

Related Articles:
In Obesity Fight, UK’s Heavy-Handed Soda Tax Beats US' Watered-Down Warning

Recommended Calorie Information on Menus Does Not Improve Consumer Choices, Carnegie Mellon Study Shows

Under growing pressure to report accurate findings as they interpret increasingly larger amounts of data, researchers are finding it more important than ever to follow sound statistical practices.

For that reason, a team of statisticians including Carnegie Mellon University’s Robert E. Kass wrote “Ten Simple Rules for Effective Statistical Practice.” Published in PLOS Computational Biology for the journal’s popular “Ten Simple Rules” series, the guidelines are designed to help the research community — particularly scientists who aren’t statistical experts or without a dedicated statistician as part of their team — understand how to avoid the pitfalls of well-intended, but inaccurate statistical reasoning.

“A central and common task for us as research investigators is to decipher what data are able to say about the problems we are trying to solve,” wrote Kass, professor of statistics and machine learning and interim co-director of the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, and his co-authors. “Statistics is a language constructed to assist this process, with probability as its grammar.”

They continued, “While rudimentary conversations are possible without good command of the language (and are conducted routinely), principled statistical analysis is critical in grappling with many subtle phenomena to ensure that nothing serious will be lost in translation and to increase the likelihood that your research findings will stand the test of time.”

The rules, which were made available online June 9, have received an extraordinary amount of attention so far with more than 38,000 page views, already making it one of the top 20 most viewed papers in the series, which includes about 60 total papers.. Their popularity doesn’t surprise Michael J. Tarr, head of CMU’s Department of Psychology.

“The sciences, and, particular the fields of psychology and neuroscience, have come under increasing scrutiny in recent years for sometimes poor statistical practices,” Tarr said. “Straightforward and understandable guidelines as articulated by Kass and colleagues will help tremendously in reminding both students and faculty as to the importance of statistically well-grounded research. Their paper is an instant ‘must-read’ for anyone who cares about good and reproducible science.”

A summary of the 10 rules:

#1 – Statistical Methods Should Enable Data to Answer Scientific Questions
Collaborating with statisticians is often most helpful early in an investigation because inexperienced users of statistics often focus on which technique to use to analyze data, rather than considering all of the ways the data may answer the underlying scientific question.

#2 – Signals Always Come With Noise
Variability comes in many forms, but it is crucial to understand when it is good and when it is noise in order to express uncertainty. It also helps to identify likely sources of systematic error.

#3 – Plan Ahead, Really Ahead
Asking questions at the design stage can save headaches at the analysis stage. Careful data collection also can greatly simplify analysis and make it more rigorous.

#4 – Worry About Data Quality
When it comes to data analysis, “garbage in produces garbage out.” The complexity of modern data collection requires many assumptions about the function of technology, often including data pre-processing technology, which can have profound effects that can easily go unnoticed.

#5 – Statistical Analysis Is More Than a Set of Computations
Statistical software provides tools to assist analysis, not define them. The scientific context is critical, and the key to principled statistical analysis is to bring analytical methods into close correspondence with scientific questions.

#6 – Keep it Simple
Simplicity trumps complexity. Large numbers of measurements, interactions among explanatory variables, nonlinear mechanisms of action, missing data, confounding, sampling biases and other factors can require an increase in model complexity. But, keep in mind that a good design, implemented well, can often allow simple methods of analysis to produce strong results.

#7 – Provide Assessments of Variability
A basic purpose of statistical analysis is to help assess uncertainty, often in the form of a standard error or confidence interval, and one of the great successes of statistical modeling and inference is that it can provide estimates of standard errors from the same data that produce estimates of the quantity of interest. When reporting results, it is essential to supply some notion of statistical uncertainty.

#8 – Check Your Assumptions
Widely available statistical software makes it easy to perform analyses without careful attention to inherent assumptions, and this risks inaccurate, or even misleading, results. It is therefore important to understand the assumptions embodied in the methods and to do whatever possible to understand and assess those assumptions.

#9 – When Possible, Replicate!
Ideally, replication is performed by an independent investigator. The scientific results that stand the test of time are those that get confirmed across a variety of different, but closely related, situations. In many contexts, complete replication is very difficult or impossible, as in large-scale experiments such as multi-center clinical trials. In those cases, a minimum standard would be to follow Rule 10.

#10 – Make Your Analysis Reproducible
Given the same set of data, together with a complete description of the analysis, it should be possible to reproduce the tables, figures and statistical inferences. Dramatically improve the ability to reproduce findings by being very systematic about the steps in the analysis, by sharing the data and code used to produce the results and by following accepted statistics best practices.

In addition to Kass, the co-authors are Johns Hopkins University’s Brian S. Caffo, North Caroline State University’s Marie Davidian, Harvard University’s Xiao-Li Meng, Bin Yu of the University of California Berkeley, and Nancy Reid of the University of Toronto.

“I am a big believer in the value of identifying major ideas in statistics, and stating them clearly and concisely,” Kass said. “The 10 simple rules series is terrific, having proven its worth as a format for high-level scientific concepts. This article was pretty hard work, but we had a great team and I was extremely happy with the result.”