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Dietrich College News
Marianna Brown Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Carnegie Mellon University

December 2015
  
The Ethics of Cyberconflict
A philosopher by training, David Danks analyzes how we think about the world around us. As the head of the Philosophy Department, Danks is probing an emerging field of the ethics of cyberwarfare.
 
Danks has approached these issues from an interdisciplinary perspective, drawing on philosophy, psychology and technology.
 
"I became very interested in the interaction between the humans-the limited, bounded humans that we are-and these new rapidly changing technologies. I was curious as to how we ought to behave," he said.

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Art + the Brain
This semester, students enrolled in Art + the Brain have been interpreting concepts like memory and perception through photography, artists' books, sculpture and computer games.
 
The students-whose majors include architecture, art, computer science and psychology-created art in response to the dissection of a sheep's brain and class discussion of neurological conditions including dyslexia, sleep paralysis and memory bias.

And, they led an interactive class about the brain and the senses at the Children's School.

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Simple Ways To Increase Tax Credit Participation
It is estimated that roughly seven million Americans each year fail to claim the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), the primary channel through which the government supports the working poor.
 
CMU's Saurabh Bhargava teamed up with the IRS and found redesigned and less complex forms, coupled with a reminder, led to a 22 percent greater participation rate.
 
"This study suggests that complexity and small administrative burdens or 'hassles' can deter regular people from acting in their own interest, even when the stakes are large," said Bhargava, an assistant professor of economics in the Department of Social and Decision Sciences.

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Toy Story Turns 20
When Pixar's "Toy Story" premiered 20 years ago, it revolutionized an industry as the first computer-animated feature film.

"It still looks fresh, which is very gratifying," said Ralph Guggenheim a lead producer on the film and a two-time CMU alumnus. "Visually, we knew other feature films would surpass what we'd done. But we wanted to make it look as good as it could possibly look and set the bar high for anyone who followed us."

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Carving Unique Paths in Decision Science
If your career goals as a student include dentistry, a decision science major is probably not for you.
 
For virtually anyone else, though, studying decision science provides enormous flexibility in pursuing different careers and acquiring resources for responding to life's opportunities and challenges.
 
"You are able to make Decision Science what you want," said Nadia Tuma-Weldon (DC'04), the director of Truth Central, McCann Worldgroup's global thought leadership unit. "As a transfer student from piano performance, I did not have a clear idea of what I wanted to do. In speaking with Baruch Fischhoff, however, I found my path in the program and still reference the research I did at CMU in my career today."

Read more.
More Dietrich College News 
First Dietrich College Dean's Innovation Scholar Announced

Statistics Professor Uses Science and Data To Make a Difference

Undergrads Show Off Their Research at Dietrich Undergraduate Colloquium

Psychology Professor Receives $3 Million NIH Grant To Study Healthy Aging

Honors Fellows Enter Program's Home Stretch

John Lehoczky To Receive Prestigious IEEE Medal

Philosophy Grad Student Wins Big at Startup Weekend Civic Pittsburgh

How To Reap the Benefits of Undergraduate Research

Logic & Proofs: Computer-Supported Learning and the Philosophy of Mathematics

Self-Rated Health Predicts Immune Response to the Common Cold

Dietrich Senior Named Academic All-American

Center for Human Rights Science Secures Over $1M

Brains With Autism Adapt Differently During Implicit Learning

Children Perform Folktales at "Cuéntamelo" Showcase

Effects of Behavioral Nudges Persist Despite Disclosure

Jim Daniels' "The End of Blessings" Takes Second Place in Short Film Competition

Vegetarian and "Healthy" Diets Could Be More Harmful to the Environment

Alum Now Ph.D. Student By Day, Salon Writer By Night

Commanding Presence: Alumna Alysa Ambrose

Student Team Wins Grand Prize at Facebook Global Hackathon

Student-Faculty Team Competing for Global Learning XPRIZE

The First Simon Lunch

First-Year Writing Program to Recognize Outstanding Students
Multimedia 
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Class Notes

 

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