NEW HONORS...Raul Valdes-Perez has been appointed to the advisory committee for the Natioal Science Foundation Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences Directorate.
IN DEFENSE...
**GEORGE VIKRAM PAUL addresses the "Kinematics of Objects in Contact Using
Dual Vectors and Its Applicatins" at his robotics thesis oral on Monday,
November 3 at 2:00 in Wean 4623. His committee includes: Katsushi Ikeuchi
(Chair), Martial Hebert, Yangsheng Xu, Michael Erdmann, and Sing Bing Kang
(Digital Equipment Corporation).
**SVEN KOENIG attempts "Goal-Directed Acting with Incomplete Information" at
his CS defense on Monday, November 3 at 10:00 am in Wean 4623. His complete
committee includes: Reid Simmons (Chair), Tom Mitchell, Andrew Moore,
and Richard Korf (UCLA).
EVOLUTION OF NETWORK INFRASTRUCTURES...is the topic at a special SCS Seminar by Robert Sansom, Vice President of Architecture and a founder of FORE Systems, on Tuesday, October 28 at 4:30 pm in Wean 7500. This technical presentation will be followed later in the evening with a FORE Information Session for students interested in finding out more about the company and possible career opportunities. his session takes place at 6:30 pm in Wean 5409 and includes demonstrations of their current systems, discussion and a large supply of pizza :-)
TELEPRESENTATIONS...and Scalable Reliable Multicast" will be discussed by Jim Gemmell of Microsoft's Telepresence Research Group, a part of the Bay Area Recenter Center, at a special seminar on Tuesday, October 28 at 12:00 in Wean 4623.
WHERE HAVE ALL THE PDL PEOPLE GONE?...Why on retreat! The Parallel Data Laboratory Retreat is taking place October 27-29 at Nemacolin Woods.
THE ATACAMA DESERT TREK...will be the subject of discussion at a special Robotics Seminar on Friday, November 1. Members of the team will recap and review their experiences during Nomad's 220 kilometer (137 miles) journey across Chile's rugged Atacama Desert this past summer. The project, a field experiment in preparation for future missions to Antarctica, the Moon and Mars, set new standards for robotic exploration and will be the springboard for exciting new programs in the years ahead. Take this opportunity to sample what transpired via videos, slides and general discussion and to get some sneak previews of things to come.
COMING SOON...Ray Lane, President and CEO of Oracle Corporation will present a special lunchtime seminar on Monday, November 10 from 12:00-1:00 pm for all CS (and CS-related) undergraduates (and graduates) interested in the new computing paradigms and how Oracle is impacting this transition. Discussion is welcome. Watch for details on location!
DINNER WITH ORACLE...On Wednesday, October 29, Oracle is hosting an Information Session and dinner in the Schatz Dining Room at 6:00 pm for all students interested in learning more about their research and career opportunities. The evening includes good food and registration for a Cancun giveaway raffle. All levels of students are welcome.
FACULTY MEETINGS...
**HCII Faculty Meeting: Wednesday, October 29, 12:00 noon, Wean 4623.
**CS Faculty Meeting: Thursday, October 30, 4:00 pm, Wean 4623.
AV TRAINING IN WEAN 4623/4625...Still not sure how to use the new AV equipment in Wean 4623 or 4625? Come by 4623 at noon on Tuesday, November 4 for a quick 10-minute training session! All SCS grad students/faculty are welcome. No registration necessary :-)
SCS SHOWBIZ UPDATE...
**Nils Hammer will appear in The Pittsburgh Savoyards production of Gilbert
& Sullivan's "Ruddigore: or, 'The Witch's Curse'" at the Brashear High
School Theater on Oct 31 - Nov 2, Nov 7-9, and Nov 14-16. Performances are
Saturdays and Sundays at 8:00 pm, with an additional 2:00 pm matinee on
Sundays. Ticketing information is available at 734-8476.
**Stephanie Riso was "observed and heard" on stage at the Pittsburgh Opera's
performance of Norma, during the recent two week run at the Benedum Theater.
HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN SOMETHING?...This is the week to get those official SCS mug orders in. Send mail to copetas@cs with your request.
WORDS FOR THOUGHT...
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 28
**POP SEMINAR: Renaud Marlet, IRISA/INRIA (Rennes, France), "Mapping Software
Architectures to Efficient Implementations via Partial Evaluations",
3:30 pm, Wean 8220 (Continues October 27-31, 1997, same time/place).
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 29
**HCI SEMINAR: Shelley Evenson, Professor of Design and seeSpace 11c,
"Innovating Web Interfaces", 3:30 pm, Wean 5409.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 31
**COMPUTER SYSTEMS SEMINAR: Jacobo Bielak, Civil and Environmental Engineering,
CMU, "Earthquake Motion Modeling on Parallel Computers", 4:00 pm, Mellon
Institute, 3rd Floor Conference Room.
Week of OCTOBER 21,1997
**BELINDA THOM explores "Interactive, Customized Generation of Jazz
Improvisation: Believable Music Companions" at her CS thesis proposal
on Wednesday, October 22 at 10:00 am in Wean 4623. Her committee includes:
Manuela Veloso (Chair), Roger Dannenberg, Tom Mitchell, Andrew Moore, and
David Wessel (UC Berkeley).
**CRAIG DAMON tries out "Selective Enumeration" at his CS proposal on Monday,
October 27 at 10:00 am in Wean 4623. His committee includes: Daniel
Jackson (Co-Chair), Jeannette Wing (Co-Chair), Gary Miller and Rance
Cleaveland (North Carolina State).
PDL JOB FAIR...The Parallel Data Lab "would like to introduce you to your data's managers." On Sunday, October 26, interested students are welcome to meet with representatives from CLARiion Array Development, Compaq, HP, Quantum, Seagate Technology, Storage Technology, Symbios Logic and Wind River to discuss career opportunities in information storage systems. The program is scheduled from 1:00-2:30 pm in the Singleton Room, Roberts Hall and includes a presentation by Garth Gibson on "Intelligent Storage", discussion, and beaucoup food. Serious applicants should submit their resumes to pdl-iss@cs by Thursday, October 23.
ROBERT SANSOM RETURNS...on Tuesday, October 28 for a Special SCS Seminar on the "Evolution of Network Infrastructures" at 4:30 pm in Wean 7500. Robert, Vice President of Architecture and a founder of FORE Systems, will also be present at a FORE Information Session at 6:30 pm tnat night in Wean 5409. Demonstrations of their current tools/systems, discussions, and pizza are all part of the offering.
SCS INVITED TALKS...Andrew Moore gave an invited talk, "Towards Commercial Reinforcement Learning", at the 3rd European Workshop on Reinforcement Learning last week in Rennes. He also presented "Locally Weighted Learning for Control" at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
ORACLE WANTS TO SEND YOU TO CANCUN...On Wednesday, October 29, Oracle is hosting an Information Session in the Schatz Dining Room at 6:00 pm. In addition to an overview of current research and career opportunities, be prepared for great food and registration for a Cancun raffle giveaway. Students in CS or related technical degrees (all levels) are welcome. Watch for details on the newsboards.
STUDENT IMAGES ON DISPLAY...Have your noticed the glorious 22-foot long color poster in the Wean 4600 hallway? These frames of animation of "generalized cylinders" were produced by the undergrads in 15-462, Computer Graphics 1, taught by Paul Heckbert. This is a small step toward beautifying Wean Hall and a giant reflection of our students' growing talents.
INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL '97: AFRICA...This year's international festival begins October 22 and runs through Sunday, October 26. The featured locale is Africa and the week promises a wide array for lectures, special events and related programs. Be sure to get a schedule!
YOUR PARENTS ARE COMING...so start cleaning up those dorm rooms and apartments! Family Weekend is scheduled for October 24-26, conveniently coinciding with the International Festival. The weekend includes presentations from faculty and staff from across campus, including a talk by Herbert Simon, Manuela Veloso, and Jim Tomayko. A complete schedule can be retrieved from the SCS Calendar of Events. The snows promise to hold off... :-)
IN THE NEWS...
**"CMU Teacher Wins Schock Prize in Math" was featured in the Sun Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette, honoring Dana Scott's receipt of the Schock Prize in Logic and
Philosophy. The wonderful and illuminating article comes in anticipation of
the award ceremony on Thursday, October 23 at the Royal Swedish Academy of
Sciences in Stockholm. Dana will personally receive his award from Sweden's
Princess Christina and will be joined by his fellow award winners in the
areas of mathematics, visual arts and music. Join us in congratulating Dana
on this remarkable accomplishment.
**"'RoboCup' Soccer Match is a Challenge for Silicon Rookies" notes a special
news report in the September 26 Science magazine. A quick recap of the
championship and evaluations of the action make for a good summary. Copies
are available from scstoday@cs.
WORDS FOR THOUGHT... WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22 **HCI SEMINAR: Chris Conners, CMU HCII Masters Student, "Locket: A Computing Applicance for the Storage, Manipulation, and Display of Digital Images", 3:30 pm, Wean 5409.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23
**SDI SEMINAR: Fred Douglis, AT&T, "Potential Benefits of Delta-encoding and
Data Compression for HTTP", Noon, Wean 8220.
**COMPUTER SYSTEMS SEMINAR: Ron Brender, DEC, "Three Decades of BLISS: A
Socio-Technical History", 4:00 pm, Wean 5409.
**PURE AND APPLIED LOGIC COLLOQUIUM: Tim Fernando, Department of Philosophy
Visiting Faculty, "In Conjunction with Qualitative Probability", 4:00 pm,
Wean 5409.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 24
**ROBOTICS SEMINAR: Alonzo Kelly, "Mobile Robot Subsystems for Structured and
Unstructured Environments", 4:00 pm, Adamson Wing.
Week of OCTOBER 13,1997
BARES AND STENTZ TO HEAD NREC...Takeo Kanade has announced the appointment of John Bares and Anthony Stentz as Director and Associate Director, respectively, of the National Robotics Engineering Consortium. John succeeds David Pahnos, who "was instrumental in conceiving and implementing the original vision of the consortium, but has resigned from the university to pursue other interests," and will be sharing duties with Anthony. Both bring many years of experience with mobile robots and us (!) to an exciting research center. Established in 1994 with a $2.5M grant from NASA's Office of Advanced Concepts and Technology, NREC focuses on the commercialization of mobile robotic technologies that NASA has developed over the years. This is accomplished through close cooperative interactions with American industry. Current partners include New Holland North America, Caterpillar, Ford Motor and Joy Manufacturing. The NREC is also a participant in the U.S. team developing a robot to assist in the clean-up of the Chernobyl reactor in the Ukraine. Congratulations on another new challenge!
CRA OUTSTANDING UNDERGRADUATE...The Computing Research Association has selected Andrew Ng (CS '97) as one of two overall winners of the 1996-1997 Computing Research Association Outstanding Undergraduate Award, sponsored this year by Microsoft -- a distinction that includes a $1,000 cash prize. Andrew will be formally acknowledged in the November issue of Computing Research News in the category of Outstanding Male Undergraduate and presented with the actual award at an upcoming conference. He graduated in May with a triple major in Math/CS, Economics, and Statistics and is now pursuing his PhD at MIT. While at CMU, he earned an Andrew Carnegie Society Scholarship, the Microsoft Technical Award (1995 and 1996) and the Bell Atlantic Network Services Scholarship. He also won the silver medal at the 1993 International Mathematical Olympiad. Andrew further distinguished himself with a 4.0 GPA and many more accomplishments too numerous to list. Let it suffice to say, we are mighty proud. Congratulations Andrew!
AND MORE HONORS...Congratulations to Bob Monroe for receiving this year's Kodak Fellowship. As David Garlan notes, "it was a photo finish." :-)
JONES RETURNS FOR SCS DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI LECTURE...Anita Jones, University Professor and Professor of Computer Science, Department of Computer Science, University of Virginia, assesses "Innovation -- The American Way: Unspoken Compacts and Unsealed Covenants" at this week's SCS Distinguished Alumni Lecture on Thursday, October 16 at 4:00 pm in Wean 7500. Distinguished treats will be served at 3:45. Dr. Jones recently returned to the university, having served since 1993 as the Director of Defense Research and Engineering at the Department of Defense. Join us in welcoming her back to CMU!
THE WAY WE(AN) WERE...The first Wean Hall Homecoming Celebration: "The Way
We(an) Were", is scheduled for Friday, October 17 from 4:00-6:00 pm. Hosted by
the Departments of Mathematical Sciences and Physics, SCS, and E&S Library,
the program includes:
**4:00 pm Herbert A. Simon, Richard King Mellon Professor of CS and Psych,
"Computers in the Basement", Wean 7500; followed at
**4:30 pm by Richard E. Griffiths, Professor of Physics, CMU, "The Early
Universe Seen Through the Eyes of the Hubble Space Telescope", Wean 7500;
and then at
**4:45 pm, Mike Molloy (Math'94) looking at "Graph Colouring with the
Probabilistic Method at the Mathematical Sciences Colloquium.
Also scheduled is a continuous slide show, "Images from Space", in Wean 7316
from 4:30-6:00 pm and demos from 4:00-6:00 pm. Stop by Wean 7500 for a
complete schedule, beginning at 3:45 pm. Faculty, students and staff are
welcome to join our alumni for these informal presentations, refreshments and
conversation!
AND WHAT ABOUT BRUCE NELSON...What better way to end the week than with the Bi-Annual Bruce Nelson Lecture! Bruce, now Chief Science Officer at Cisco, joins us for a special homecoming weekend Emigration Course on Friday, October 17 at 1:00-3:00 pm in Wean 5409. He will answer the perennial question, "What They Never Teach You in CS Graduate School", a lecture you won't want to miss. His insights and enthusiasm will linger....
WEARABLE COMPUTERS...Baltzer Science Publishers, in cooperation with ACM, has announced a Special Issue of the Journal on Special Topics in Mobile Networking and Applications (MONET), which will "concentrate on the problems associated with constructing, using and evaluating wearable computers." Dan Siewiorek and Len Bass are serving as guest editors. Contact them for particulars.
CAREER NEWS...Ram Chillaragee from the IBM TJ Watson Research Center, will visit Monday and Tuesday, October 20-21. In addition to his presentation on "A New Dimension to Measurement in Software and Our 10 Year Experience at IBM" at a special programming systems seminar on Monday at 12:30 pm, Wean 4623, he will host a pizza luncheon for graduate students interested in exploring career options at IBM on Tuesday, October 21 at noon in Wean 4623.
MUGS! MUGS!...So, tired of loosing your coffee cup? Thinking about clever gifts for friends and family? Wondering why you have been using the same drab drinking paraphernalia for years and years? "Customized" SCS mugs are now available for all and any of the reasons above. Your choice of a 15-ounce mug in black, midnight blue or green with an elegant golden dragon, or a more modest 11 ounce mug in cheer-y yellow with our traditional red dragon. Either can be inscribed on the back with your personal email address, motto, or astrally inspired thoughts -- up to 30 characters long. If interested, send mail to copetas@cs or stop by to see samples in Wean 4101. Prices are very reasonable :-) (Between $5 to $7.50 w/inscription) Watch the bboards.
IN THE NEWS..."CMU Ph.D. Student Gains Fame as Offbeat Web Site Creator," is featured in the October 14 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "Wouldn't it be great to ask any question you wish, however personal, of one of the world's great thinkers?. - Freud, Einstein, Confucius, Limbaugh, Beavis, ButtHead, Barbie?" Perhaps you should check out Forum 2000, the "brainchild" of Corey Kosak. Intended for amusement only, the site demonstrates how a student can elevate "goofing off to an interactive, automated art form ideally suited to the Internet." Curious? Visit www/forum2000.org
PREVIEW OF GOOD THINGS TO COME...
**Special Seminar with Robert Sansom, FORE Systems, "Evolution of Network
Infrastructures", October 28, 4:30 pm, Wean 7500
**International Festival '97: Africa, October 22-26
**Carnegie Mellon Parents' Weekend, October 24-26
**Parallel Data Laboratory Career Day, October 26
WORDS FOR THOUGHT...
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 15
**SDI SEMINAR: Angel Demke, "Automatic Compiler-Inserted I/O Prefetching for
Out-of-Core Applications", noon, Wean 8220.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17
**COMPUTER SYSTEMS SEMINAR: Josep Torrellas, University of Illinois,
Champaign-Urbana, "The Illinois Aggressive COMA Multiprocessor: Next
Generation Scalable Multiprocessing", 4:00 pm, Wean 5409.
**ROBOTICS SEMINAR: Tomomasa Sato, The Intelligent Cooperative Systems Lab,
University of Tokyo, "Robots for Teask Humans are Unable to Perform:
Micromanipulation and 24 Hour Human Care", 4:00 pm, Adamson Wing.
Week of SEPTEMBER 29, 1997
PROPOSALS...John Pane provides "A Programming System for Children that is Designed for Usability" at his CS thesis proposal on Tuesday, September 30 at 3:00 pm in Wean 4615A. His HANDS-on committee includes: David Garlan (Co-Chair), Brad Myers (Co-Chair), Albert Corbett, and Clayton Lewis (University of Colorado at Boulder).
ROBO-SOCCER PLAYERS IN ACTION...One Wednesday, October 1, the CMUnited Robotic Soccer Team will kick-off demonstrations of the robotic team in their 2300A Doherty Hall Laboratory. The demos run from 12:00-2:00 pm and will include videos clips from the games at RoboCup-97 (and pizza while it lasts). Take this opportunity to meet the team and to learn about their winning strategies.
@PGH.CAFE...is scheduled for Tuesday, October 7 from 3:30-7:00 pm in the Rangos Ballroom, University. Hosted by the Pittsburgh High Technology Council, this interactive event provides an opportunity for students, faculty and staff to meet with project engineers, researchers and executives of regional software and information technology companies, as well as other high-tech corporations. Over 50 groups are expect to attend the event. Attire is casual and conversation encouraged. Refreshments will be served throughout the day. For additional details, visit http://www.tc-p.com/atpgh.
SLEEPING BAGGERS COMING...The first Sleeping Bag Weekend of the fall term is scheduled for Sunday/Monday, October 5-6. Prospective students (and their families) will visit campus, attend information sessions, and spend the weekend in the company of current CMU students, in their efforts to learn more about our university, academic programs and campus life.
NOW THAT WE'VE CROSSED THE CHILEAN DESERT, WE'RE HEADING TO DISNEYWORLD...Nomad is taking a well deserved vacation and heading off this week to the fairer, gentler, more mouse-abundant surroundings of Epcot Center in Disneyworld. It will be a part of their "Space Celebration" on October 3-7, a week long celebration of space related activities including exhibitions of planetary rovers, space shuttle, space stations and much more.
SCS MUG ORDERS!...SCS mug orders will begin next week. Personalized mugs, with your name, email path, empowering thoughts...will be on one side. The other side will bear the SCS Dragon. Multiple colors and sizes available in a reasonable price range. Watch for details next week.
HOMECOMING WEEKEND...is scheduled for October 17-18. Mark your calendar!
WORDS FOR THOUGHT:
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30
**AI SEMINAR: Manuela Veloso, "Towards Continuous Planning, Execution, and
Learning in Multi-Agent Systems: A Team of Robotic Soccer Agents", 3:30 pm,
Wean 5409.
**ART LECTURE: "Ryszard Kluszczynski, "A Theoretical Look at Electronic Media
and Art", 6:30 pm, CFA Room 303 (hosted by Studio for Creative Inquiry).
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 1
**HCI SEMINAR: Robert Kraut, "Communication versus Information: Alternative
Uses of the Internet at Home", 3:30 pm, Wean 5409.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 2
**SYSTEM DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION SEMINAR: Todd Mowry, "Compiler-Directed
Page Coloring for Multiprocessors", 12:00 noon, Wean 8220.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3
**THEORY SEMINAR: Stephen Guattery, ICASE, "Graph Embedding Techniques for
Bounding Condition Numbers of Incomplete Factor Preconditioners", 3:30 pm
Wean 7220.
**ROBOTICS SEMINAR: David Baraff, 4:00 pm, Adamson Wing.
MONDAY, OCTOBER 6
**PROGRAMMING SYSTEMS SEMINAR: Martin Richards, University of Cambridge,
"Compact Portable Target Codes", 3:30 pm, Wean 5409.
Week of SEPTEMBER 22, 1997
NEW FUNDING...Raul Valdes-Perez has received a 1-year, $100K exploratory grant from the National Science Foundation in computational biology to develop methods for "Detection of subtle spatio-temporal patterns in biological imaging using permutation methods".
SCS CAREER SEMINAR...Jim Buonocore, Manager, Solutions through Technology, Coopers & Lybrand Consulting, Inc. offers a look into "Why Corporate Systems are a Mess and How We Make Sense of Them: Data Warehousing and Decision Support" on Thursday, September 25 at 6:30 pm, Wean 5409. Refreshments will be served.
EMIGRATION CONTINUES...Glean new insights on "Technical Writing" at the next Emigration seminar on Friday, September 26 from 12:00-3:00 pm in Wean 5409. Roy Taylor, SCS Technical Writer, gently navigates you through the intricacies of successful technical prose :-)
TAKE TIME FOR TOC...The Carnegie Mellon Technical Opportunities Conference (TOC) is scheduled for Thursday, September 25 from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm in the Gymnasium and Rangos Hall, University Center. Approximately 160 technical recruitors will be on hand to answer questions, to provide overviews of opportunities within their companies, and to accept resumes. This is a great chance to see what awaits you! A valid CMU ID is required for admission. In preparation for this program, all day resume critiques are scheduled in the Career Center on Tuesday, September 23 in Warner Hall 19.
TOC FOLLOWED BY BOC...On Friday, September 26, the university is holding the Business Opportunities Conference at the University Center. Check with the Career Center for details.
FACULTY MEETINGS:
CS Faculty meet Wednesday, September 24 at 4:00 pm, Wean 4623/4615A.
HCII Faculty meet Wednesday, September 24 at noon in Wean 4623.
IN DEFENSE...
**MARCO ZAGHA has returned (!) for "Efficient Irregular Computation on
High-Bandwidth Pipelined-Memory Multiprocessors." His CS thesis defense takes
place Tuesday, September 23 at 1:30 pm in Wean 4615A, with a committee
including: Guy Blelloch (Chair), Allan Fisher, David O'Hallaron, and
Phillip Gibbons (Bell Labs).
**RICH CARUANA attempts "Multitask Learning" at his CS thesis oral on Tuesday,
September 23 at 3:30 pm, Wean 5409. His committee includes: Tom Mitchell
(Chair), Herbert Simon (Co-advisor), Dean Pomerleau, and Tom Dietterich
(Oregon State).
**CHENG-HUA WANG pursues "Manufacturability-Driven Decomposition of Sheet
Metal Products at his robotics oral on Thursday, September 25 at 3:30 pm in
FRC 100. His committee includes: David Bourne (Chair), Michael Erdmann,
Susan Finger, Robert Sturges, and Mark Cutkosky (Stanford).
WORDS FOR THOUGHT...
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23
*SPECIAL SEMINAR: Phillip B. Gibbons, Bell Laboratories, "Synopsis Data
Structures for Massive Data Sets, 4;30 pm, Wean 8220.
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24
*REINFORCEMENT LEARNING SEMINAR: Tom Dietterich, Oregon State University,
"Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning", 12:00 noon, Wean 7220.
Week of SEPTEMBER 15, 1997
CHESS MALE EXTRAORDINAIRE..."A Legend in his Lifetime", the cover story in the October 1997 issue of Chess Mail, highlights the many career achievements of Hans Berliner in an "animated, tour de force interview covering every conceivable subject related to his life and chess." The article includes his reflections on the OTB years, Bobby Fischer, his early experiences with Chess, the World Chapionship Final, the Estrin game, Hitech, and much, much more in his many faceted life. The 30-page article is a treat! Copies are available from scstoday@cs.
APPOINTMENTS...Roni Rosenfeld has been appointed Assistant Professor in the Center for Automated Learning and Discovery, with joint appointments in GSIA and the LTI. He is the first faculty member with a CALD home appointment.
NEW FACES...Welcome to Diane Stidle, who has joined the Center for Automated Learning and Discovery as their administrative associate. She will help to manage the day-to-day operations of CALD and their relationships with corporate members. Diane joins SCS by way of Maya Design.
ANDY AWARD NOMINEES ARE ANNOUNCED...Congratulations to Sharon Burks in CS, who has been nominated for this year's CMU Andy Award for Excellence in University Citizenship. Also nominated are Sandy Rocoo and Deborah Harvard of Robotics, who are members of the SPEX Development Team, a group nominated for an Andy for Excellence in Team Productivity. We tip our shammies to you :-)
IN DEFENSE...ANDREW TOMKINS finds "Practical and Theoretical Issues in Prefetching and Caching" at his CS thesis oral on Wednesday, September 17 at 3:30 pm in Wean 5409. Serving on his committee are: Merrick Furst (Chair), Avrim Blum, Garth Gibson, Danny Sleator, and Richard Lipton (Princeton).
PROPOSALS...SEBASTIAN GRASSIA creates "Kinematic Motion Models for Character Animation" at his CS thesis proposal on Friday, September 19 at 2:00 pm in Wean 4615A. His committee includes: Andy Witkin (Chair), Joseph Bates, Randy Pausch, and Ed Catmull (Pixar). NSF FUNDING...Tom Mitchell reports that the CALD has received a 3-year, $825,000 NSF grant to support fundamental research on learning and analysis of multiple-media data, noting these funds will be used primarily to support CALD-affiliated graduate students who are conducting research in this area. PI's for this effort are Steve Fienberg (Statistics) and Tom Mitchell.
METAHUMANS BEGIN THEIR TREK...The Center for Metahuman Exploration is heading off to the International Symposium of Electronic Art in Chicago next week, September 23-27, to exhibit the interactive robotic art works "Inverse Human" and "Petting Zoo". Inverse Human, a robotic exoskeleton for a human's right arm, is controlled with the fingers of their left hand. "The central computer soon learns the user's movements and controls the arm directly, relieving the user of that burdon," notes Martin Martin. In Petting Zoo, "a viewer uses a touch tone phone and a video monitor to remotely operate a human hand, with the objective of petting a bunny." The Center for Metahuman Exploration is an interdisciplinary effort affiliated with both Robotics and the College of Fine Arts (CFA). Background can be found at http://www.ri.cmu.edu/metahuman.
THE TOC IS COMING...The Technical Opportunities Conference is scheduled for Thursday, September 25 from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm in the Rangos Ballroom, University Center. This is an ideal opportunity to touch base with over 160 technical employers, to drop off resumes and to learn what career paths are open to you. BOC, the Business Opportunities Conference, follows the next day, Friday, September 26, same locale. Don't miss out!
SPEAKING OF RESUMES...Undergraduate seniors wishing to have their resumes included in the 1997/1998 resume book should submit by Monday, September 15. However, ifyou forgot (yeah, yeah), we will show leniency until Tuesday morning :-) Don't delay!
IN THE NEWS..."CMU Robot to Clean Up in Chernobyl" was featured in the September 13 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "Eleven years after the world's worst nuclear accident in Chernobyl, Ukraine, the next level of expensive and potentially dangerous cleanup acitivity will ride on the miniature bulldozer- like treads of a robot built in Pittsburgh." As noted by Jim Osborn, "the challenge is great, the technology is great, the partnership is great and the development team is an all-star cast." The robot will be developed over the next 6-months, by the NREC and RedZone Robotics. Also involved are the U.S. Dept. of Energy's International Nuclear Safety program, NASA, Westinghouse Electric Corporation, and Ukrainian nuclear officials. A promising and hopefully life-saving new adventure...
WORDS FOR THOUGHT:
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17
**HCI SEMINAR: Gerhard Weber, University of Trier, Germany, "User Modeling
and Adaptive Navigation Support in WWW-based Tutoring Systems", 4:00 pm
in Wean 4615A (note special time and date).
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19
**GRAPHICS AND VISION SEMINAR: Seth Teller, MIT Computer Graphics Group,
"City Scanning: Automatic Acquisiton of Textured 3D Geometric Models of
Urban Environments", 10:30 am, Wean 4623.
**ROBOTICS SEMINAR: Bill Stone, National Institute for Standards and
Technology, "NIST Construction Automation Program", 4:15 pm, Adamson Wing.
Week of SEPTEMBER 2, 1997
ROBOCUP COMES HOME!..."Five teams of clicking, whirring soccer machines from the U.S., Spain, France, Australia and Japan went at each other on the first day of World RobotCup 97", noted the August 25 AP article. Held August 25-28 in conjunction with the 15th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI '97), the competition in Nagoya, Japan, drew accolades for the CMU team, which won First Place honors and trophy in the small robot league. The team, consisting of Manuela Veloso, Peter Stone, Kwun Han, Sorin Achim and their mini-players, #1-#2-#3-#4-#5 and #6, amazed the crowds with their stellar performance. Referred to as our "spunky little dune buggies which whirred circles around their opponents" by one writer, our radio-controlled robots were 7.5 cm cubes on wheels, built from scratch with erector sets and similar types of apparatus. The field of play, a ping-pong table-sized field laid flat on the floor -- surrounded by a wall to prevent robo-players and ball from leaving the area -- was designed to showcase the robots' abilities to behave intelligently as a team. The soccer robots integrate many technologies, including multi-agent collaboration, strategy acquisition, real-time reasoning, sensor-fusion, annd design of autonomous agents...to mention but a few. The team returns at the end of the week and will provide all the exciting details. Congratulations!
IN DEFENSE...
**CAROLYN PENSTEIN ROSE addresses "Robust Interactive Dialogue Interpretation"
at her LTI defense (Program in Language and Information Technologies) on
Thursday, September 4 at 3:30 pm in Cyert 279 (LTI Blue Room). Her
dissertation committee includes: Lori Levin (Advisor), Barbara Di Eugenio,
Jaimes Carbonell, Alon Lavie, Johanna Moore (University of Pittsburgh), and
Sandra Carberry (Unversity of Delaware).
MARY SHAW WORKING ON INNOVATION...The Center for Innovation in Learning (CIL), adhering to its mission to improve undergraduate education at CMU, has awarded Mary Shaw a CIL Faculty Fellowship for the 97/98 academic year. She will be "applying her research on developing software from components to the problem of combining diverse educational materials into coherent course support systems." CIL faculty fellowships are awarded to CMU faculty who are interested in working on a significant project relevant to undergraduate education. Recipients spend a part of the academic year working at the CIL.
ROBO-PICNIC DRAWS NEAR...The 3rd Annual Robotics Picnic, for all folks affiliated with the RI and their families, is scheduled for Saturday, September 6 at the Upper St. Clair Municipal Park. The festivities begin at 1:00 pm, followed by dinner at 4:00 pm and a 6:30 pm Bonfire. In between, revelers will partake of softball, volleyball, pingpong, pool and more. The day will also include the "exciting final rounds of the annual RI croquet tournament" and the "Battle for the Golden Wicket"! Travel directions can be found at: www.ri.cmu.edu/picnic/
CSD LOGIN BALL...also known as the Computer Science Department IC Reception for all CS folks, will take place Sunday, September 7 from 7:00-11:00 pm at The Frick Art & Historical Center in Point Breeze, including The Frick Art Museum, Clayton (the historic Henry Clay Frick Home), and Car and Carriage Museum. You will relax to live music and dine well at the buffet dinner.
SCS DISTINGUISHED LECTURE...Richard Karp, Professor of Computer Science & Engineering, and Adjunct Professor of Molecular Biotechnology, University of Washington, explores "Combinatorial Optimization as a Tool for Molecular Biology" at this year's first SCS Distinguished Lecture, in Wean 7500 at 4:00 pm on Thursday, September 11. Distinguished donuts will preceed the program at 3:45 pm. Future speakers in the series will include Anita Jones (October 16), Butler Lampson (November 13), Andreas Bechtolsheim (March 12) and Alan Kay (April 23). See the SCS Calendar or contact copetas@cs for details.
ABOUT YOUR THUMB...Mellon Bank implemented a new check cashing procedure on August 25. A fingerprint will be required from anyone cashing a check who does "not" maintain an account with their bank. PNC has been doing this for several months and it is anticipated other banks may follow PNC and Mellon's lead. All staff and students should anticipate how this will affect their normal routines.
SCS HELP CENTER OPENS...Having a a computer-related problem? You can now call the new SCS Help Center at x8-4231, or drop by Wean 3612, notes Clauss Strauch. The Center is open 9:00-5:00 weekdays and during these hours, "SCS Facilities staff on duty will be able to answer questions and provide direct help for many problems." SCS Operations can still be reached at x8-2607, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Problem reports or questions can still be directed to help@cs.
PLEASE MAKE A NOTE OF IT...The SCS V.34 huntgroup numbers 683-0111 and 621-3528 have been replaced with one new number: 268-9300. If you used either of these huntgroups, please begin using 268-9300. Recent postings to cmu.cs.scs and cmu.cs.facilities provide more detailed information. Stay tuned for information on a new number for the 621-3546 huntgroup!
NOT QUITE MANDATORY, BUT STRONGLY ENCOURAGED...The first in a series of SCS Senior Programs, the "Not Quite Mandatory, but Strongly Encouraged" seminar, "Taking Charge of Your Career" will be offered Thursday, September 4 and repeated on Wednesday, September 10, at 4:30 pm in Wean 4625. Discussions will focus on career services, resume preparation, calendar alerts for recruiting, and how to prepare for your future....Sponsored by the Career Center and SCS, this is an excellent opportunity for seniors to take stock of their lives :-)
RANDOM NUMBERS...or are they? Steven Rudich has received a high (4.93) rating on his FCE during the spring term...a big, semi-rquired course. Considering "he does not grade easily" notes Jim Morris, this is even more of an accomplishment. How did you do? The Spring FCEs are availble.
START PRACTICING YOUR "CHEESES"...The Annual SCS Group Photograph is coming up on Thursday, September 11 at 12:00 noon (sharp). No excuses! All members of SCS should assemble on the 5th floor Wean Hall patio and you will be guided into one magnificent, collective mass suitable for photographing. Be prepared to say "cheese", "geez", "funding approved" :-) or whatever gets you to smile.
ON THE NEWS...CNN broadcast a feature story on Nomad--the autonomous lunar rover built by researchers in Robotics--and its successful trek through the Atacama Desert on its Science Program on Saturday and Sunday, August 30-31. The program will be repeated Wednesday, September 3 at 7:00 am (for all you early birds). It's a great segment!
DEMETER KEEPS ON CUTTING...Demeter, robotics' autonomous harvester, achieved its 100 acre performance milestone in El Centro, CA in August. The goal was realized when it cut 15 acres autonomously one day and over 90 acres the following day. The site was a 100 acre alfalfa field ready for its last cut -- in farm talk, this means its 3-4 year cycle of alfalfa planting was complete and after this cutting, it would be rotated to a new crop. As noted by Kerien Fitzpatrick, "A side effect of an old field like this is that the surface is quite rough." Demeter's longest continuous run was over 14 hours (interrupted only by a fueling pause) and operated at 3.5 mph on the "land" cuts (between the irrigation borders) and at 3.0 mph on the border cuts. Numerous farmers and interested bystanders stopped by during the day/night/day ...to watch the job and were"stunned by the accuracy and quality of the cutting." Many people noticed that the cab of the harvester was driverless and stopped to see what was happening! "The entire operation was so smooth that boredom was the most significant obstacle - we were functioning as guards at the ends of the field where Demeter would perform spin turns," adds Kerien. "Given another field and more energy for us, Demeter would have been able to continue cutting....here is the situation of an autonomous machine, performing a real-life task in a true production setting - exceeding the typical manually-operated performance and quality."
EXEGESIS...is coming to SCS on Friday, September 12 at 4:00 pm at the Alumni Room in the University Center. You won't want to miss it! What is it you ask? What does it all mean? Watch for details....:-)
IN PRINT...Phoebe Senger's article, "Fabrikation der Subjekte: Verdinglichung, Schizophrenie, und Kuenstliche Intelligenz" (aka "Fabricated Subjects: Reification, Schizophrenia, and Artificial Intelligence") appears in a new publication, "Netzkritik: Materialien zur Internet-Debatte." (aka "Net Criticism: Material for the Internet Debate"). The book consists of a series of articles by technology-critics and internet-activitists, including detailed analysis of new media and what should or should not be done about them.
WORDS FOR THOUGHT:
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 4
**SPECIAL LECTURE: Chris Hansen, "Freedom of Speech on the Internet",
5:30 pm, McConomy Auditorium, University Center.
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 5
**LTI SEMINAR: Sandra Carberry, Department of Computer and Information
Sciences, University of Delaware, "Recognizing Intentions and Generating
Responses In Collaborative Task-Oriented Dialogue" at 11:00 am, Cyert
279 (LTI Blue Room).
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8
**PROGRAMMING SYSTEMS/POP SEMINAR...Paolo Traverso, "A Provably Correct
Embedded Verifier for the Certification of Safety Critical Software",
9:30 am, Wean 8220.
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