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September 5, Vol. 24, No. 9
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Listening Tour Stops for Staff Friday
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 Carnegie Mellon President Subra Suresh's Listening Tour to seek input, comments and ideas about CMU from the university community will continue tomorrow, Friday, Sept. 6, when he meets with staff from noon - 1 p.m. in the Posner Center. Earlier this week he met with graduate students and faculty, and at 5 p.m. today he will be meeting with undergraduate students in Rashid Auditorium in the Hillman Center. Additional sessions are being scheduled. In addition to the forums, you can send your ideas and comments to President Suresh through his Listening Tour Website. Send your thoughts to President Suresh.
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CMU Among Global Leaders at Summer Davos
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 Carnegie Mellon will once again have a seat at the table among the premier thought leaders around the globe at the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting of the New Champions in China (Summer Davos), Sept. 11-13. This year's summer meetings in Dalian, China, focus on "Meeting the Innovation Imperative." President Subra Suresh and faculty members Justine Cassell, the Charles M. Geschke Director of the Human Computer Interaction Institute, and Erica Fuchs, associate professor of engineering and public policy, have been invited by the WEF to participate in various meetings and panel discussions. Nine alumni, including three trustees and several parents of past and current students are also scheduled to attend. Cassell is head of the WEF's Global Agenda Council (GAC) on Robotics and Smart Devices. GACs are global communities of experts in the fields of academia, business, government, international organizations and society. Fuchs was selected to the forum's Community of Young Scientists, a group of 40-50 scientists under the age of 40 chosen to participate alongside business and political leaders in Summer Davos. Trustee Eric Giler (TPR'77) is CEO of WiTricity Corporation, which is being honored as a "Technology Pioneer" by the WEF. WiTricity is developing wireless electricity technology. Also being honored as a Technology Pioneer is Nest Labs, a startup founded by alumnus Matt Rogers (E'04,'05) that designed the Next Learning Thermostat, an energy-saving, programmable device that can be controlled remotely. Read more about CMU's involvement in Summer Davos.
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Not Your Father's Cadillac; This Drives Itself
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 U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Pa), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and Barry Schoch, secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, took a ride in CMU's self-driving Cadillac SRX yesterday as it negotiated congestion, changed lanes and merged in and out of highway traffic during a 33-mile drive from Cranberry, Pa., to the Pittsburgh International Airport.
Unlike some previous self-driving vehicles developed at CMU, the SRX doesn't bristle with exotic and expensive sensors. The conventional-looking vehicle uses only automotive-grade radars and lidars, which are unobtrusively embedded around the car. Its computers are hidden under the cargo floor.
In addition to controlling the steering, speed and braking, the autonomous systems also detect and avoid obstacles in the road, including traffic cones and barrels, as well as pedestrians and bicyclists, pausing until they are safely out of the way.
Raj Rajkumar, co-director of the CMU-General Motors Autonomous Driving Collaborative Research Lab, says the main goal of the driverless car is to reduce accidents and fatalities.
"The car's electronics are simply more reliable than people and will protect drivers from their own bad behavior as well as those of others, such as drinking or texting," Rajkumar said.
Read the full story.
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Website Shortens Wait for Kidney Transplants
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 Tepper School Professor Sridhar Tayur has created an online resource that helps people identify kidney transplant centers and associated waiting times, and offers reduced fee or free "angel flights" to move patients and organs around the country as part of the GuardianWings program, a not-for-profit entity affiliated with OrganJet Corporation, also founded by Tayur. As many as 2,500 kidneys are wasted each year, many because the people who need these lifesaving transplants are either not registered in more than a handful of transplant centers or they can't afford to get there. Tayur, the Ford Distinguished Research Chair and professor of operations management at the Tepper School, argues that if patients knew about regions with shorter waiting times, they could take the time to invest in registering at these locations. Unlike heart and lung waiting lists, entering a kidney transplant waiting list is done on a regional basis. Tayur's website, OrganJet/Services, lets users enter their zip code to determine other transplant centers with shorter waiting times that are in closest proximity to them. It also provides private jet service to help get customers to their surgeries when kidneys become available. Read the full story in MEDCITY News. |
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