Engineering Magazine: Spring 2019

Carnegie Mellon Engineering SPRING 2019 MAGAZINE | CARNEGIE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

CMU-AFRICA IS MOVING INTO INNOVATION CITY

BIOINSPIRED ROBOTICS RESEARCH

ENGINEERING WELCOMES NEW CHEMICAL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT HEAD INSIDE THE COLLEGE

BUILD18 HITS MILESTONE STUDENT STORIES

College of Engineering

CONTENTS

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04

RESEARCH 04 Bioinspired Robotics 07 Mapping Brain Traffic 08 Built to Last?

10 Ready for Takeoff 11 When Power Goes Out, Pollution Rises 12 Exposing Lies About VPN Locations 14 Optimizing Computing Systems 16 Engineering Breast Milk To Treat Sick Infants 18 Transcending the Transistor

34

INSIDE THE COLLEGE 34 Engineering Welcomes New Department Head 36 New Chapter for Scaife Hall 38 Celebrating NASA With a History of Collaboration 40 Secure and Private IoT Initiative 42 Podcasts - Listen To Our Views 44 New CyLab Director Named

major and date of graduation.

Please include your name and, if applicable,

Send email to stokes@cmu.edu

We want to hear from you!

19 A Memory That Won’t Fade

22

FEATURE 22 CMU-Africa is Moving and Growing 26 Roads to Success: Making an Impact 28 Bridging the Gap Between Pittsburgh and Rwanda 30 Mastercard Foundation Brings Pan-African Experience to CMU-Africa

32 EDITOR SHERRY STOKES (DC’07) COPY EDITOR EMILY FORNEY (DC’12)

DEPARTMENT NEWS

46

STUDENT NEWS 46 Build18 Hits Milestone 48 The Next Generation of Materials 50 Zipper Inventor’s Legacy

DESIGNER TIM KELLY (A’05, HNZ’14) WRITERS •KRISTA BURNS •DANIEL CARROLL •HANNAH DIORIO-TOTH (DC’17) •ADAM DOVE •EMILY DURHAM •ALEXANDRA GEORGE (DC’17) •LISA KULICK •JESSICA SHIRLEY •DANIEL TKACIK (E’13)

52

ALUMNI 52 Innovator Creates AI System That Interprets Medical Images

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•MARIKA YANG

Latest News Be Informed | Be Connected engineering.cmu.edu College of Engineering

CONNECT WITH ME ON TWITTER!

@JONCAGAN

I am pleased to tell you that James Garrett, our dean, has

formerly served as Chair of Tulane University’s Department

stepped into the provost’s role, full steam ahead, seeking to

of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, where she raised

work with Carnegie Mellon President Jahanian to accelerate

their U.S. News & World Report ranking 25 points. Carnegie

the university’s growth and advancement in this critical time

Mellon welcomes Robinson’s valuable insight as both an

for technology, education, and human kind.

administrator and researcher. Her research program will

As advancement is inextricably linked to change, I

explore the disease mechanisms behind neurodegenerative

want to inform you of developments taking place in the

diseases such as Alzheimer’s and how to improve the

College of Engineering. A big change has come to Carnegie

production of biopharmaceuticals on an industrial scale.

Mellon University Africa: the program will soon be in its

On March 1, Larry Pileggi became the head of the

permanent home in Kigali Innovation City. Hundreds

Electrical and Computer Engineering Department (ECE). A

of millions of dollars are being invested in Rwanda to

leader in his field with 40 U.S. patents and an advocate for

establish a knowledge-based economy, and Innovation City

more maker initiatives throughout ECE’s curriculum and

is being built to house high-tech companies and world-class

research, he was appointed to the position for his vision for

universities as a pan-African hub. Rwanda is unwavering

the next phase of the department’s growth.

in its drive to create jobs and attract investments. Our

CyLab, the university’s security and privacy institute, has a

students will be located in the heart of this dynamic eco-

new director: Lorrie Faith Cranor. Committed to making our

system, where they’ll have opportunities and the physical

digital world safe and trustworthy, she brings considerable

space to innovate, engage in entrepreneurship, and lead a

leadership experience to the position. She directs the CyLab

workforce that’s intended to transform the region. You can

Usable Privacy and Security (CUPS) Laboratory and co-directs

read more about this in our cover story.

CMU’s Privacy Engineering master’s program. Further,

The need for state-of-the-art labs and collaborative spaces underpin another major change slated for the Pittsburgh campus: a new home is in the works for the

she served as Chief Technologist at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in 2016.

All of the changes that I’ve shared with you are strategic in

Mechanical Engineering Department. With a lead grant

that they have been conceived to enhance some aspect of the

from the Allegheny Foundation, the university will rebuild

College, whether it is the value of our education programs,

Scaife Hall. The new building, along with Hamerschlag and

our research enterprise, or our contributions to society.

ANSYS Halls will form a maker ecosystem that will benefit

Together we can watch how these decisions we’ve made will

all CMU students and address the demand for engineers

drive impact in the world around us as the future unfolds.

who can solve problems through advanced collaboration.

Sincerely, Jonathan Cagan

of the Chemical Engineering Department late last year. She

Interim Dean, College of Engineering

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Other exciting changes in the College focus on new people in new roles. Anne Skaja Robinson became the head

RESEARCH

BIOINSPIRED ROBOTICS Natural organisms have amazing abilities that inspire robotics. How should ant-sized robots move and work together with thousands of microsensors? How can we create robots and biohybrid robotic systems that are

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as robust and adaptable as animals?

SOFT AND WEARABLE ROBOTICS We are developing technologies for safe, minimally restrictive human interaction like sensitized artificial skin, stretchable electronics, and prosthetic devices for assisted rehabilitation.

ROBOTS THAT WALK, RUN, JUMP, CREEP, ROLL, AND FLY Researchers design better controllers for stability, energy efficiency, fast locomotion, and flight. These robots can be used for inspecting infrastructure, aerial

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load transportation, and agricultural monitoring.

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MICRO- AND NANO-ROBOTICS To fabricate magnetic microswimming robots assembled from DNA, bioinspired bots that walk on water, and microsurgical tools requires a multidisciplinary, collaborative approach to problem-solving.

MEDICAL ROBOTICS Microrobots to navigate capillaries for drug delivery, non-invasive electronic tattoos for medical monitoring, and surgical training tools demonstrate ways to improve human health by blending biomedical and mechanical engineering with robotics.

MAPPING BRAIN TRAFFIC RESEARCH

Our brains are integral to every aspect of our lives, but there is much we don’t know about them. How do neurons interact? How do they communicate with each other? How do they function properly?

These are some of the questions Jessica Zhang, professor of mechanical engineering, and Ge Yang, associate professor of biomedical engineering and computational biology, and are trying to answer. Using novel engineering models, methods, and software, they are studying how essential materials, such as chemical signals and cell parts made in “We’re using a very advanced method called isogeometric

of neurons, and they are creating simulations that represent

analysis,” said Zhang. “The neurite tree of a neuron is very

this transport system. In June 2018, they were awarded a

complex—we use more than 1,000 processors for the

National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to continue their

simulations.”

research for three years.

Neurons come in many shapes and sizes, but each has

Isogeometric analysis (IGA) is a recently-developed computational method that allows numerous models to be

the same foundational structure. The axon is a thin, long

designed and tested from a data set all at once. Using IGA,

wire-like structure that transports information, signals,

the researchers simulate the flow of materials inside the

and materials from the cell body to communicate with

geometry of a neuron.

other neurons. Like an urban center that both distributes

Zhang’s lab is using the supercomputer in the Pittsburgh

materials and collects garbage throughout metropolitan

Supercomputing Center because the calculations are very

areas, a neuron sends out and collects materials and signals.

complex. If the computer simulation is successful, it will

This transport system is critical for brain function and

have a very large impact on our understanding of neuron

ultimately human survival—and it’s at the center of Zhang

geometry.”

and Yang’s research.

If this process shuts down, neurons die. For example, with

In 2016, Zhang and Yang received seed support from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, which allowed them

Alzheimer’s disease, the brain is smaller size-wise, but it also

to take on a Ph.D. student, Angran Li, who has worked on

has many holes. These holes are made by the massive death

developing software and simulations for this project.

of neurons. There are different kinds of theories about

Overall, the researchers have two main goals. First,

Alzheimer’s, and one theory which has received fairly strong

they want to better understand the transport process

experimental data support is that there’s a traffic problem.

of neurons, which can provide new insight on the

To better understand the complex geometry of different

development of neurodegenerative diseases. Second, when

neurons that affect how cargo is transported and distributed,

it comes to neurodegenerative disease, they hope to learn

the researchers are developing computer simulations of how

more about how drug delivery can be effectively distributed

materials are transported in the neuron geometry.

in the complex structure of neurons.

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the nucleus, are transported within the complex geometry

BUILT TO LAST? RESEARCH

On average, bridges are designed to last for 50 years. But of

the structural properties of the bridge. Because of this, the

the country’s 614,387 bridges, nearly 40% have already hit

repercussions of these standards persist even after they’ve

this mark and gone past it. That’s nearly 240,000 bridges that

been changed.”

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are 50 years old or more, many of which were built under

One of the major deficiencies in these out-of-date bridge

now outdated standards. This is a serious safety hazard,

designs is the vertical clearance height. From 1951 to 1988,

and yet technologically, it’s not a difficult problem to fix.

14% of bridge failures in the US were due to collisions with

Engineers have already identified how to bring the majority

low-clearance bridges. But why haven’t these bridges been

of these bridges up to modern standards. So then the

corrected to federal clearance standards? The average

question becomes: why haven’t we done it yet?

construction year of these bridges is 1933, so they were

In a paper in the Journal of Infrastructure Systems, titled

built to the standard and vehicles of that time. As of 2012,

“What Cannot Be Cured Must Be Endured: Understanding

there were still more than 52 million trips a day either over

Bridge Systems as Institutional Relics,” recent Ph.D. alumnus

or under a bridge with a clearance of less than 14 feet—

Jaison Desai, now at US Army Cyber Command, and Assistant

high enough for a car, but not a truck.

Professor Daniel Armanios in the Department of Engineering

In many ways, the long life of our infrastructure systems

and Public Policy (EPP) argue that the problem isn’t just

is an asset. We want our bridges to last. Yet, as Desai and

technological or financial—it’s also institutional.

Armanios write, when a bridge becomes an institutional

“We propose reconceptualizing outdated bridges in the United States as institutional relics,” Desai and Armanios say. “‘Institutional’ because they are designed according to the

relic, this longevity can actually become a liability. Because bringing older bridges up to new standards can be very costly, bridge engineers are more constrained in updating

standards formulated from the authoritative bodies of their

existing bridges than in building new bridges that reflect

time, and ‘relics’ in that the standards are built right into

the new standards.

managers understand the social costs of a bridge system.

This understanding can help them target limited funds

safe and up to date. Between budgets, the constraints of an

toward certain bridges, while avoiding those more difficult

urban space, and conflicting governmental interests—at local,

to salvage. This study may also translate to understanding

state, and federal levels—it’s difficult to find a solution that

other infrastructure system challenges such as scour

works for bridge users and the managers who care for them.

remediation and local differences in load postings.

“Identifying outdated bridges and their associated

Bridges are large-scale marvels of human engineering, but

user costs helps diagnose and treat the symptoms,” they

that isn’t all they are. They’re conduits for the complex social

write in the paper, “but understanding the institutional

system that is modern society, and as such are subject to

constraints that prevent managers from systematically

not just engineering but also institutional problems as well.

addressing these issues can help explain why we still

From an engineering perspective, the myriad issues facing

cannot fully arrive at a cure.”

our country’s bridges are an easy fix. We already have the

This study has important implications for bridge owners.

answers. But from a sociological perspective, these issues

Large-scale infrastructure projects require management of

are much more complex. According to Desai and Armanios,

not just their structural elements, but their social elements

the only way we will find those answers is if we stop looking

as well—especially when considering future remediation as

at the issue as simply an engineering issue. By incorporating

standards evolve.

sociological perspectives into engineering research,

Moreover, to better understand the costs of addressing

researchers and bridge managers can work together to

bridge infrastructure, policymakers need to think about

ensure that the bridges of America’s future are as safe and

them in the context of the time period in which they were

modern as possible—and have the institutional capacity to

built. The study identifies measurable factors to help bridge

keep it that way.

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Cost is just one of a number of prohibitive factors that keep bridge managers from ensuring their structures are

READY FOR TAKEOFF RESEARCH

CMU-SV RESEARCHERS ARE USING SIMULATION AND AI TECHNOLOGIES TO OPTIMIZE FLIGHT DEPARTURE AND ARRIVAL SCHEDULES FOR SAFETY AND EFFICIENCY.

SO U R CE : HTTPS : / / G ITHUB . CO M /HERONYANG/AI RPORT - SI M UL AT I ON V I S U A L I Z A T IO N CO MPO NENT OF T HE SI M UL AT I ON T OOL

Last year’s practicum team began by creating a simulator

at the airport, watching the minutes tick by as flights keep

that captures and visualizes real-world data to describe

getting delayed later and later. It’s an issue that happens

where planes may be at any given point in time in one

quite frequently—changing factors such as weather and

terminal. Using data from the San Francisco International

delays at other airports affect flight arrivals and departures.

Airport (SFO) and from Google maps, they wrote algorithms

Additionally, almost all of the scheduling decisions are made

that describe the planes’ movement in real time. Then,

by human operators and there is no overarching automated

a scheduling algorithm uses data from the simulation to

tool that schedulers use to make these decisions.

suggest a schedule that avoids conflicts while still allowing

A team of researchers at Carnegie Mellon University Silicon Valley is creating a scheduling system using

the planes to take off as soon as possible.

The current team, including INI master’s students

simulation and artificial intelligence technologies to increase

Zhongyi Tong, Mimi Gong, Weizi Liu, Leo Yi, and Zi Liang, is

safety by avoiding conflicts, accounting for uncertainty,

expanding the simulation to account for both arrivals and

reducing delays, and taking the load off of the human

departures for the entire SFO airport. They also hope to

operator. The tool will optimize flight schedules from the

generalize it for use in any large airport.

gate to the runway.

CMU-SV/CyLab Professor Corina Pasareanu and NASA

The system is a tool for human schedulers to use to inform scheduling decisions. Say the human operator

researcher Bob Morris have been collaborating with teams

updates the schedule every 15 minutes. During that 15

of Information Networking Institute (INI) students on this

minutes, the simulation runs a visual representation of the

project as part of the students’ practicum. The question

surface of the airport and all of the planes. The scheduler

they’re asking—how can we use techniques like artificial

algorithm uses that info to suggest times and gates for

intelligence to automate scheduling that will increase safety

each aircraft. The human scheduler will still assign the

and reduce delays?

plane to the gate and the runway, but the simulation and scheduling system can reduce the manual work done by the human and optimize the flight schedule by taking changes and uncertainties into account.

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Anyone who has flown knows what it’s like to sit for hours

WHEN POWER GOES OUT, POLLUTION RISES RESEARCH

Ph.D student DeVynne Farquharson (EPP) and professors Paulina Jaramillo (EPP) and Constantine Samaras of Civil and Environmental Engineering recently published their results in Nature Sustainability.

“While there are many sources of air pollutants that affect air quality,” says Farquharson, “we found that reliance on backup diesel generators can lead to increased air emissions. Our results suggest that, in some countries, air emissions resulting from reliance on backup generators can be even larger than annual emissions from centralized power plants.”

In many developed countries, access to electricity is seen

Without reliable access to electricity, residents of these

as almost a given. It’s essential for most functions of daily

countries are forced to take matters into their own hands—

life: hospitals, office buildings, transportation, and much

often in the form of on-site, diesel back-up generators.

more. And yet, throughout the world, more than one

The use of these generators, the team found, increases

billion people still do not have regular access to electricity.

fossil fuel energy consumption by a factor of 1.5 – 1,000,

In some developing countries, electrification rates can be

compared with current grid levels throughout the region,

as low as 10%.

and cost customers millions of US dollars per year. But most significantly, the emissions from these generators have a

those with access to electricity experience challenges

substantial negative impact on the health of their users in

getting it to work when they need it. In Nigeria, for

both homes and businesses.

example, insufficient generating capacity, poor conditions

“Air pollution is a silent killer in sub-Saharan Africa,” says

in existing power plants, and problems in electricity

Farquharson. “Recent estimates suggest that poor air quality

distribution networks can often leave Nigerian consumers

leads to an additional 450,000 infant deaths in the region.”

without power for more than half the time, annually. In

The United Nations has declared access to electricity

other words, when they go to switch on the lights, there’s

as one of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. But

only about a 50% chance they will actually come on.

as the team’s research has shown, unreliable delivery of

While this unfortunate reality can lead to a lot of

electricity can lead to additional consumer costs, limited

obvious health dangers, such as a lack of reliable power

economic benefits, and increased environmental impacts.

for doctor’s offices, hospitals, and emergency services,

The team’s research highlights how important it is to ensure

Engineering and Public Policy (EPP) researchers show that

that, moving forward in the goal to electrify sub-Saharan

there is another resulting health danger that is far more

Africa, governments invest in reliable access to electricity, in

insidious: air pollution.

order to save the lives of all those currently affected by the significant contribution of diesel generators to air pollution.

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In sub-Saharan African countries in particular, even

“It’s a similar principle to GPS,” Weinberg says. “You ping a server from Pittsburgh, and you learn that it took 20 milliseconds. You do this from a whole bunch of servers with known locations all over the world, draw some circles

EXPOSING LIES ABOUT VPN CONNECTIONS RESEARCH

A couple of years ago, Zack Weinberg, a Ph.D. student in Electrical and Computer Engineering and CyLab researcher, noticed something a little odd.

Weinberg was conducting a study about web censorship, using Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to route web requests from his computer in Pittsburgh through servers located in various countries of interest in order to see what internet users in those countries were able to see online.

“If you’re in Saudi Arabia and you try to visit a gambling website, you’re supposed to get a screen that says gambling is prohibited in Saudi Arabia,” Weinberg says. “But that didn’t happen for me, even though the VPN I was using claimed to be in Saudi Arabia.”

It turns out the VPN was lying; its servers were actually located in a datacenter in Germany.

This led Weinberg to pursue a whole new study, “How to Catch when Proxies Lie: Verifying the Physical Locations of Network Proxies with Active Geolocation.” Weinberg, who is a Ph.D. student in Electrical and Computer Engineering, presented his findings at the 2018 ACM Internet Measurement Conference in Boston.

Beyond research purposes, many people use VPNs to circumvent eavesdropping on their internet activity that may occur in their country or to bypass restrictions on content in EN GI NE E RI N G.C M U . ED U

their country, such as a sporting event that may be “blacked out” in their location.

Weinberg and his co-authors figured out a way to approximate actual locations of VPNs based on the amount of time it took for a server in the unknown location to send a packet of data to a server in a known location—generally referred to as “ping time.”

on a map, and you can see where they all intersect.”

Weinberg and his co-authors estimated the location of 2,269 proxy servers and found that one-third of the servers were “definitely not located in the advertised countries, and another third might not be.”

One VPN service in particular claimed to have servers in almost every country in the entire world, including North Korea, and “a bunch of Pacific islands that probably don’t even have cables,” Weinberg says.

But, why would a VPN service lie about where its servers are? Weinberg says it probably has to do with costs.

“It’s definitely cheaper to have many servers in one location than one server in many locations,” Weinberg says.

“A secondary benefit may be that these VPN providers don’t have to do business with a country that is difficult to do business with.”

Weinberg says that people using VPNs should be wary about the countries they claim to have servers in.

“If people expect their data is actually going to go through this country and it’s not going to go through this other country—if they’re genuinely trying to control which jurisdictions their traffic is subject to, which is something that comes up a lot in surveillance—then this is a big concern,” he says.

Other authors on the study included Ph.D. student Shinyoung Cho from Stony Brook University, Associate Professor Phillipa Gill from the University of Massachusetts, and CyLab faculty Nicolas Christin and Vyas Sekar.

CYLAB RESEARCHERS FIGURED OUT A WAY TO APPROXIMATE ACTUAL LOCATIONS OF VPN SERVERS BASED ON THE AMOUNT OF TIME IT TOOK FOR A SERVER IN THE UNKNOWN LOCATION TO SEND A PACKET OF DATA TO A SERVER IN A KNOWN LOCATION—GENERALLY REFERRED TO AS “PING TIME.”

REGION

WHERE VPN

SERVER

ACTUALLY IS

PING TIME

SERVER OF KNOWN LOCATION SOURCE: ZACH WEINBERG BASE D ON PING TIMES, WEINBERG AND HIS CO-AUTHORS WERE ABLE TO TRIANGULATE WHERE A VPN’S SERVER MAY

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ACTUALLY BE LOCATED.

OPTIMIZING COMPUTING SYSTEMS

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RESEARCH

Machine learning has grown dramatically in engineering and computer science in recent years, with the explosion of interest in artificial intelligence. In machine learning, engineers and computer scientists feed large data sets into a neural network model to train the model to learn from data and eventually identify and analyze patterns and make decisions.

Gauri Joshi, assistant professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), has been named a recipient of a 2018 IBM Faculty Award for her research in distributed machine learning. Faculty Award recipients are nominated by IBM employees in recognition of a specific project that is of significant interest to the company and recipients receive a cash award in support of the selected project.

Joshi’s research is about distributing deep learning training algorithms. The data sets used to train neural network models are massive in size, so a single machine is not sufficient to handle the amount of data and the computing required to analyze the data. Therefore, data sets and computations are typically divided across multiple computing nodes (i.e. computers, machines, or servers), with each node responsible for one part of the data set.

In a distributed machine learning system with data sets divided across nodes, researchers use an algorithm called stochastic gradient descent (SGD), which is at the center of Joshi’s research. The algorithm is distributed across the nodes and helps achieve the lowest possible error in the data. It requires exact synchronization, which can lead to delays.

“My work is about trying to strike the best balance between the error and the delay in distributed SGD algorithms,” Joshi said. “In particular, this framework fits well with the IBM Watson machine learning platform. I will be working with the IBM Watson Machine Learning vision; I will be working with the IBM Research AI team.”

In every iteration of the SGD, a central server is required to communicate with all of the nodes. If any of the nodes slow down, then the entire network slows down to wait for that node, which can significantly reduce the overall speed of the computation. Efficiency and speed of computation are the two main things Joshi aims to improve, both without risking the accuracy of the network.

Prior to joining Carnegie Mellon’s College of Engineering in the fall of 2017, Joshi was a research staff member at IBM’s Thomas J. Watson Research Center. Because of her past experience, she was aware of the specific research projects that are relevant to the company’s interests.

The funding from the award will be used to support Joshi’s students, who are working on the theoretical analysis for this project. In the future, she hopes to release an open source implementation of the new algorithm they have developed. Joshi plans to work with IBM to make this method available to anybody who wants to train their own machine learning

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algorithms using distributed SGD.

ENGINEERING BREAST MILK TO TREAT SICK INFANTS

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RESEARCH

Carnegie Mellon University’s Kathryn Whitehead is looking

to try to find answers, I realized that very few answers were

for ways to deliver drug therapies to infants by engineering

out there.”

breast milk. Whitehead, an assistant professor of chemical

Whitehead found there are many living human cells in

engineering at Carnegie Mellon, has been awarded a 2018

breast milk — on the order of a million human cells per

National Institutes of Health Director’s New Innovator

milliliter of breast milk. When infants drink breast milk,

Award for her project, titled “Fate, Function, and Genetic

they consume their mothers’ human cells with it. These

Engineering of Breast Milk Cells for Infant Therapy.”

cells have a remarkable property: they can get out of the

NIH Director’s Awards are prestigious awards given to

gastrointestinal tract and functionally integrate into the

exceptionally creative scientists proposing high-risk, high-

infant’s tissue. The mother’s cells might enter the liver, for

impact research.

example, attaching there and growing amongst the baby’s

With this award, Whitehead, who has a courtesy appointment in biomedical engineering, will genetically engineer the human cells in breast milk for infant disease therapy — something no one has ever done before.

“This idea came about after I gave birth to my daughter,”

own liver cells. These cells can live in the baby long into adulthood.

“This is an absolutely amazing phenomenon,” Whitehead said. “As drug delivery scientists, we spend a lot of time in my research group trying to think about how to transport

Whitehead said. “I had a lot of time while breastfeeding her

proteins and other therapeutic molecules out of the

to think about what I was doing, and I realized that I didn’t

gastrointestinal tract. Living human cells are an order

really know very much about breast milk or why it was so

of magnitude bigger than that, and yet, they have the

good for my baby. When I turned to the scientific literature

remarkable ability to get out of the GI tract and into the

ABOVE: KATHRYN WHITEHEAD RIGHT: DENTRITIC CELL

W HEN INF ANTS D R INK BREA ST M I L K, T HEY CO NS UME THEIR MO TH ER’S HUM A N CEL L S W I T H IT. THES E CELLS CA N GET OUT OF T HE G A S TR O INTES TINAL TRA CT A N D I N T EGRA T E I N T O THE INF ANT’S TISSUE.

infant’s body. This is amazing — and nobody understands

a mother’s pumped milk and genetically engineer them

how or why it’s happening.”

in a dish. From there, the lab would put the genetically engineered cells back into the milk for the baby to consume. By taking the cells in the mother’s milk and

she believes that, if her lab can figure out how these cells

isolating them, Whitehead’s lab could genetically engineer

are achieving this transport through the body, they might

the cells to perform non-invasive therapeutic functions to

be able to use the cells as drug delivery vehicles for some

treat sick babies.

therapeutic purpose that has never been seen before.

Whitehead’s long-term vision is to isolate the cells from

For example, Whitehead’s lab might be able to task immune cells to help deliver oral vaccinations for babies, instead of taking the babies for shots every few months.

Other examples may include tolerizing infants to allergens, such as peanuts, or treating babies with spina bifida, enterocolitis, or other types of genetic disorders.

“This idea is an example of why diversity in science and engineering is important. It was only having gone through the specific experience of childbirth and breastfeeding that allowed me to identify this underdeveloped area,” Whitehead said. “Our approach will be non-invasive both for the mother and the baby, and with this project we might be able to treat babies in ways we’ve only really dreamed of before.”

The NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, established in 2007, supports unusually innovative research from early career investigators who are within 10 years of their final degree or clinical residency and have not yet received a research project grant or equivalent NIH grant.

Whitehead’s award was possible, in part, because she had some preliminary data to support her grant proposal.

It can be difficult to find funding sources to produce preliminary data in the lab for new ideas, and without initial funding, new ideas have nowhere to go. Whitehead’s preliminary research was funded by Chemical Engineering alumni donor Jon Saxe and his wife Myrna Marshall.

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In addition to oral drug delivery, Whitehead’s lab also works on RNA delivery and gene therapy. Whitehead said

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Source

Drain L EF T : T R I P L E-B EA M P I EZ OEL EC T R I C N EMS R EL A Y

Gate

B EL OW: P U L S ED A C T I V A T ED P I EZ OEL EC T R I C S WI TC H ( P A P S)

TRANSCENDING THE TRANSISTOR RESEARCH

At present, a number of compounding factors are

Piazza and his group have already begun working with

converging to limit the future viability of traditional

fellow researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, including

transistor technology. As Moore’s Law fades, the difficulty

Maarten de Boer of the Department of Mechanical

in dissipating thermal energy created by densely packed

Engineering. They’re investigating how to make this

electronics has the tech industry scraping the upper limit of

technology scalable and reliable and how to integrate

its ability to maintain advances in transistors. Perhaps more

these relays into computing architectures across various

importantly, our visions for a connected world proliferated

functions. The most pressing demand, sensors, is also the

with sensor networks serving a vast host of functions has

most promising. The relays’ low-energy demands mean

generated a need for low-energy electronics that traditional

that embedded sensors and implants may not necessarily

transistors simply cannot meet alone.

require a battery and could instead harvest the small

Gianluca Piazza, professor of electrical and computer engineering, has developed a new form of switch called the piezoelectric nanoelectromechanical relay. This device,

amount of energy they require from the environment around them or from the body, respectively.

With the last half a century of computing architecture

the subject of a recent patent award, could be the key to

design having been built around the traditional

replacing semiconductor transistors in many applications.

semiconductor transistor, the long-term effects of Piazza’s

His relays utilize mechanical energy—rather than changes in electronic characteristics, like transistors—to initiate a change in state. They also exhibit lower current leakage, cutting both energy usage and excess heat. These two combined characteristics mean that devices utilizing Piazza’s relays could potentially consume less energy than traditional electronics by multiple orders of magnitude.

development could reach much farther than sensors.

“We strongly believe that this new technology is poised to revolutionize the field of computing,” says Piazza.

A MEMORY THAT WON’T FADE RESEARCH

In our data-laden and increasingly connected world, the demand for long-term, low-power, high-capacity memory storage continues to grow. Various types of memory enable the function of everything from IoT devices and cell phones to embedded sensor networks, however a truly “universal” form of memory device has continued to elude scientists. While the most current technology under development, known as racetrack memory, may meet these requirements, its propensity for creating errors in stored data makes it unreliable.

Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Professor Jimmy Zhu and ECE Department Head Larry Pileggi were recently awarded a patent for a cutting-edge memory device which they’ve termed “magnetic shift register.”

The technology is non-volatile, meaning information can be stored for long periods of time without having to maintain power to the memory unit; this also helps minimize the power requirement, making it perfect for large embedded sensor networks. And, unlike its “racetrack” competitor, the technology exhibits a high degree of robustness in performance, meaning the data is stored consistently and reliably with fidelity.

With this development, Pileggi and Zhu believe that they may have found the long-sought-after universal memory, having created a storage device with a combination of speed, reliability, and density to forever change the world of computing.

Their creation has major implications for not only high-focus technologies like sensor networks but could potentially change the architecture and path of computing itself. A true universal memory could be used in a computer to replace both the DRAM, which holds most of the information but requires power and takes longer to access, and SRAM, which is faster and does not require power, but is costly and less-storage dense.

With storage a constant and ever-increasing concern, their new design will undoubtedly attract much attention

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from broad industries, both established and emerging.

Our world is changing faster and its problems are more complex and bigger than ever. Knowledge once proceeded in a linear fashion from insight to insight. Today its movement is startling and unpredictable. The once steady expansion of knowledge has turned exponential. The constant intersections of emerging voices and data at play in our everyday lives cause new, complex issues to emerge, challenging the conventional modes of working and demanding a new model for collaboration. Now more than ever we must work together to survive and innovate. engineering.cmu.edu/advanced-collaboration

The world’s greatest problems are made of many small parts.

Through decades of working together, we’ve learned how to assemble the most diverse experts and solve problems, piece by piece.

The most complex problems.

The most diverse experts.

CMU-AFRICA ON THE RISE

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CMU-Africa is ready for the next big step — it is moving to its new home,

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giving both students and the program room to grow.

For the last seven years, Carnegie Mellon University has

starting from scratch in a completely new place, and

been operating its Africa site in Kigali, Rwanda, and during

learning a new culture. And kudos to the whole team that

this time, much has changed about the program and the

brought us to the position we are currently in. But now—

school’s site itself. Originally, it was named for its location—

we are ready for the next step.”

Carnegie Mellon University Rwanda. However, it became

That next step is a 6,000-square-meter facility,

clear with the program’s rapid growth that it could no longer

designed to accommodate about 300 students. Right now,

just be named for Rwanda. That’s why, in the spring of 2017,

CMU-Africa has 130. That number can more than double

the site’s name was officially changed to Carnegie Mellon

in the new building. The facility will also contain twice as

University Africa (CMU-Africa), to reflect the overwhelmingly

many labs, more classroom space, and modern distance

pan-African nature of the campus.

education facilities. With so much additional space, the

In the future, however, even bigger changes will be

program will be able to offer a number of new things,

coming to CMU-Africa. Since its inception, the program has

including additional master’s programs, or maybe even

been housed in a temporary building called the Telecom

Ph.D. programs.

House. In the next few months, however, the program will be moving into its permanent home in Kigali Innovation City.

“For the last seven years, I would say that the campus has

“We do know that some of this additional space will be used for an incubator to help entrepreneurs, particularly CMU-Africa students and alumni, start their own

been in startup mode,” says current CMU-Africa Director

businesses,” Bhagavatula says, “We’re seeing increasing

Vijayakumar Bhagavatula. “We were a brand new campus,

expressions of interest from the campus community in

U.S. CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION VISITED CMU-AFRICA’S NEW CAMPUS. LEFT TO RIGHT : HENRY CUELLAR (D-TX), LAMAR SMITH (R-TX), CHAIRMAN BOB GOODLATTE (R-VA), CMU-AFRICA DIRECTOR VIJAYAKUMAR BHAGAVATULA, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO RWANDA PETER VROOMAN, ELIZABETH ESTY (D-CT), TODD ROKITA (R-IN), JASON SMITH (R-MO), HANK JOHNSON (D-GA), JOHN CURTIS (R-UT)

entrepreneurship, but without the proper facilities, it’s easy for these future entrepreneurs to struggle and give up.”

In fact, this move to a new campus underscores CMUAfrica’s commitment to developing African entrepreneurs.

Not only will it provide the necessary facilities to support them, but, the building sits in the heart of Kigali Innovation City—the future hub of Rwanda’s growing knowledgebased economy.

“We teach a lot about IT entrepreneurship in our courses,” says Bhagavatula. “We have several courses, and in fact, one of the six concentration areas for our MSIT program is IT Entrepreneurship, where we prepare students to start their own companies, and to think like entrepreneurs. What does it mean to start a company in a developing environment like Rwanda or Kenya or other parts of Africa? These questions are very different, and our program equips them with the right ways to approach them.”

THE PRIDE AND PASSION OF CMU-AFRICA

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FOR THE PAST TWO YEARS, ALMOST 100% OF STUDENTS HAVE GIVEN BACK FINANCIALLY TO CMU-AFRICA.

ROADS TO SUCCESS: MAKING AN IMPACT IN AFRICA FEATURE

Sylvia Makario

Paul Buchana

For alumna Sylvia Makario, graduation was just like any

Upon enrolling into the CMU-Africa program, alumnus Paul

other day. After spending two years pursuing a Master

Buchana could see that it was unlike any other program

of Science in Information Technology at one of the most

on the continent. Yes, it gave him the tools he needed to

prestigious technology universities on the African continent,

succeed as a data scientist—but it was much more than that.

Makario took the weekend after graduation to relax. But by

was part of the global CMU community, and that what I

company.

was studying here in Rwanda was the same as what my

“I currently run a company, Hepta Analytics, which I co-

classmates were studying over in Pittsburgh and Silicon

founded with six other CMU-Africa graduates, and two other

Valley. Looking at the curriculum and the list of options

members from Rwanda and Tanzania respectively,” Makario

from which I could choose, I knew this was an education

says. “The experience has been nothing short of fulfilling,

for the future and that it was going to be applicable for

filled with many lessons that serve as a backdrop for many

decades to come.”

of my everyday decisions.”

Hepta Analytics is a big data and cloud computing

Upon graduating, Buchana went to work for a private equity firm, eventually establishing and leading their data

company, whose main focus is to develop Africa-

science division. But thanks to his CMU-Africa education,

centric products with the goal of solving the continent’s

the entrepreneurial bug eventually took hold, and he

inefficiencies in the data and infrastructure space. This

left the firm to start his own company, Datum Labs,

desire to contribute to the economic growth of Africa, and to

which focuses on innovating in the field of data science

leave a mark on the next generation, was one of the primary

and machine learning to help their clients improve their

values that the CMU-Africa program instilled in her and the

business processes.

other members of her cohort.

“The program was intense and yet so eye-opening,” she

“The program gave me the tools I needed to succeed as a data scientist,” he says, “and I work every day hoping that

says. “My time was underpinned with several experiences,

what I do in trying to solve a plethora of problems leaves

the most important of which being my time spent around

lasting, significant impact.”

a group of young Africans from different countries across the continent. There was always a story to learn from, and lessons to carry forward. The camaraderie and the need to E NG IN EE R IN G. CM U . ED U

“It quickly became apparent to me,” he says, “that I

the following Monday, she had already launched her own

improve the lives of those around us was a major highlight to me.”

Josephine Nyiranzeyimana Josephine Nyiranzeyimana is contributing to the digital transformation of Rwanda one step at a time—but it wasn’t an easy path for her to get there. Nyiranzeyimana started as a student in the Information Technology master’s program at CMU-Africa, and it was the intensity of that program, she says, that really set her up for success.

“The program was like nothing I could have imagined,” she says. “It was rigorous and constantly challenging, but really the best. I’m so thankful to the Government of Rwanda and Carnegie Mellon for making it possible.”

Immediately after completing her master’s program, she began her wide-sweeping immersion into one of the most thriving and forward-looking industries in the country— Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). Since then, she has made her mark working in academia, the private sector (Intel Corporation), and non-government organizations, before finally settling into her current position as the Government Chief Information Officer with the Rwanda Information Society Authority (RISA).

Established in 2017, RISA is a government institution aimed at increasing usage of ICT in the country to accelerate the development of the economy and other sectors.

“My time at CMU helped me discover my personal potential and how much I could do with the 24 hours in every day,” Nyiranzeyimana says. “It taught me not to be comfortable with the status quo, but to always challenge myself for the

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better—there is always room for improvement.”

BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN PITTSBURGH AND RWANDA FEATURE

Separated by a distance of over 7,000 miles, it would be

of getting into Ph.D. programs at prestigious institutions in

Mellon to feel isolated from each other. But thanks to the

my area of interest were slim to none, coming from a lesser-

spirit of advanced collaboration that persists across all

known university in Ethiopia. But since getting into CMU, I’ve

CMU campuses worldwide, the connection between the

had the chance to work on research projects with world-

two remains strong. So strong, in fact, that every single

class professors, and take challenging courses that I believe

semester, a number of students from CMU-Africa travel

have prepared me to pursue any Ph.D. program anywhere

those 7,000 miles to spend a few months in Pittsburgh,

in the world.”

trading ideas with the students here, and bringing their own

“This is a world-class education based in Africa,” adds

unique perspectives to the research on Pittsburgh’s campus.

Niwomugizi, “and so it is greatly geared towards solving

This past fall, those students were Electrical and

problems on the continent. The interaction between the

Computer Engineering master’s students (MSECE) Felistus

different students from so many African countries builds a

Ayera Misiko, Agatha Niwomugizi, and Daniel Fekadu

foundation for them to work together on different projects

Marew, and Information Technology master’s student (MSIT)

across the continent.”

Mary Amuti.

“The opportunity to travel to Pittsburgh is great for

For the students currently at the Pittsburgh campus, this global perspective, along with Africa-specific training,

the students,” says CMU-Africa Director Vijayakumar

is setting them each on their journey toward their

Bhagavatula. “They have access to a much broader set of

individual career goals: developing algorithms to help

courses and projects than they do at our campus. But it

robots interact with humans in more natural and

also gives us a great chance to assess the quality of both of

effective ways, managing products for growing

our programs. The fact that our visiting students perform

startups, and making major decisions to change

just as well academically as our Pittsburgh-resident

the energy sector in Africa. With their experience

students is a clear sign to us that our program in Africa is

at CMU, these students are on the front lines of

just as rigorous as any of our other programs.”

changing the continent for the better.

These are students from across the disciplines offered at

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“Before coming to CMU-Africa,” says Marew, “my chances

easy for the Pittsburgh and Kigali campuses of Carnegie

“You can’t go wrong with an education

CMU-Africa: robotics, computer vision, software engineering

from CMU-Africa,” says Misiko. “It challenges,

and entrepreneurship, and more. Each is seeking their

transforms, and empowers you to be a

master’s degree in hopes of pursuing their own means of

leader in your career and an agent of

furthering the technological advancement of Africa.

change in engineering and technology.”

LEFT TO RIGHT: DANIEL FEKADU MAREW, FELISTUS AYERA MISIKO, AGATHA NIWOMUGIZI, MARY AMUTI

KIGALI, RWANDA

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PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA

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MASTERCARD FOUNDATION BRINGS PAN-AFRICAN EXPERIENCE TO CMU-AFRICA FEATURE

When the partnership first formed between the Mastercard Foundation and Carnegie Mellon University Africa, it was with the aim of training the next generation of African citizens in the technological development of the continent.

But in the two years since it began, it has become much more than that.

Since its inception, the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program has provided funding for 40 CMU-Africa students to pursue their dreams. In the past year alone, 35 out of 130 CMU-Africa students are attending fully funded through the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program. This year, the number of students in the program is expected to grow to 45—not just from Rwanda, but from all over the continent of Africa.

“Prior to the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program, we had mostly students from Rwanda,” says Vijayakumar Bhagavatula, director of CMU-Africa. “But we didn’t have as much funding to support students from other parts of Africa. Now, in addition to supporting Rwandan students, Mastercard Foundation has enabled us to have students from 15 African countries. Not only have we become panAfrican, but our Rwandan students are now exposed to a more diverse environment.”

As one student put it: “I had to come to CMU-Africa to learn about Africa.”

The Mastercard Foundation scholarships not only sponsor a good portion of the CMU-Africa master’s students, but the Foundation’s financial support has enabled the campus to hire more staff members as part of the Scholars’

Program. The additional programming this funding has created for the Scholars, such as leadership training, are also made available to the rest of the campus.

Through the program, CMU-Africa students have the opportunity to meet students from other universities in the area who are also supported financially by the Mastercard Foundation, through regular gatherings of scholarship recipients. And according to Bhagavatula, this pan-African experience, both on campus and beyond, is one of the unique benefits that CMU-Africa provides for the local academic community.

“Now, when you come to CMU-Africa,” says Bhagavatula, “in the small group of 130 students, you

ABOVE: MASTERCARD FOUNDATION SCHOLAR BENJAMIN NABAANA (FAR RIGHT) TRAINING PARTICIPANTS FOR SNV’S OPPORTUNITIES FOR YOUTH EMPLOYMENT.

have people from Ghana, from Tanzania, Kenya, Nigeria, even Lesotho. All of these countries that many students wouldn’t normally know anything about, because when they’re in their own country or their own local college, they’re mostly surrounded by the local population.”

BELOW: MASTERCARD FOUNDATION SCHOLARS WORKING IN THE COMMUNITY ON A PROJECT PROVIDING CLEAN AND RENEWABLE FUEL.

Thanks in large part to the Mastercard Foundation, CMU-Africa is well equipped to prepare students to

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contribute to the entire continent of Africa.

DEPARTMENT NEWS

BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING

Almost 300 people from CMU, the University of Pittsburgh, and 21 other institutions attended the inaugural Carnegie Mellon Forum on Biomedical Engineering last fall. Serving as a platform for exploring the grand challenges and frontiers in the field, the next Forum is scheduled for September 20, 2019.

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

ChemE researchers Cristiana Lara and Ignacio Grossmann, in collaboration with ExxonMobil and NETL, have developed a new optimization model for predicting and planning for where our power will come from over the course of the

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next 20 to 30 years.

CIVIL & ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING

A new instrument in CEE Professor Greg Lowry’s lab “fingerprints” nanoparticles by identifying their exact elemental makeup. This will allow experts in water, soil, and air quality to study both engineered and naturally occurring nanoparticles to better understand how they behave and change in the environment.

CYLAB

INFORMATION NETWORKING INSTITUTE

Over 27,000 students participated

This May, PNC Business CTO

in the 2018 picoCTF cybersecurity

Roseanne Silva (INI, ’91) will

competition, shattering records

receive a CMU Alumni Service

from previous years. Of the 14,000

Award for her advocacy and

U.S.-based players eligible for prizes,

support. Silva established

two-thirds of them claimed that

an Andrew Carnegie Society

they’re “more interested in pursuing

Legacy Scholarship and chaired

a career in cybersecurity” as a result

the INI Alumni Leadership

of playing picoCTF, according to a

Council. She mentors students,

post-competition survey.

engages deeply in the alumni community and inspires others as a leader in service.

ELECTRICAL & COMPUTER ENGINEERING

MATERIALS SCIENCE & ENGINEERING

ECE researchers in Silicon Valley

Keyholes, or vapor-filled

Bob Iannucci and Ervin Teng use

depressions, can cause cracks

machine learning and a simulation-

and failures during additive

training tool to teach drones how to

manufacturing. MSE’s Anthony

learn in real-time in what they call

Rollett, co-director of the

“autonomous curiosity.” This leaves more time for human analysts to inspect findings instead of sorting through captured images and data.

KEYHOLE FORMING UNDER POWDER DURING METAL 3-D PRINTING

NextManufacturing Center, and researchers from Argonne National Laboratory used highspeed x-ray imaging to learn how and when keyholes form, knowledge which will improve the manufacturing process.

ENGINEERING & PUBLIC POLICY

MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

EPP professors Haibo Zhai and Ed

A new MechE faculty

Rubin together with colleagues from

member—Eni Halilaj—studies

Singapore Management University,

musculoskeletal biomechanics

have researched how power plants

with the goal of designing

affect water supplies, especially

personalized interventions.

during drought. They concluded that

Halilaj works with patients

governmental mandates to decrease

to develop wearable sensors

CO2 emissions could also reduce

that can determine what kinds

water use in the power industry.

of movement add to disease

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progression.

INSIDE THE COLLEGE

INSIDE THE COLLEGE

ENGINEERING WELCOMES NEW DEPARTMENT HEAD Anne Skaja Robinson became the department head of chemical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University in November 2018. Prior to her appointment at Carnegie Mellon, Robinson was the chair of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Tulane University. She succeeds Lorenz Biegler, who served as the department head for five years.

Robinson’s lab has two main goals: to understand the disease mechanisms behind neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, and to improve the

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production of biopharmaceuticals on an industrial scale.

When it comes to pharmaceuticals, half of today’s top selling biopharmaceutical drugs are antibody drugs, like Humira, used in immunotherapy to stimulate a patient’s immune system to attack invasive cells.

However, industry faces challenges in producing these “In a similar way to scrambling an egg,” says Robinson,

small molecules like aspirin). Many finished batches of

“in the human body, the tau protein also undergoes this

biopharmaceuticals are thrown out, at a very high cost,

‘scrambling’ reaction. When tau proteins change structure,

due to complications that ruin the batch somewhere along

the brain’s cells can no longer function as they are meant

the process, but can’t be detected until the final failed drug

to. Unfortunately, you can’t unscramble the egg—or the

is produced.

tau protein.”

Robinson’s lab is developing methods of making the

Robinson’s lab looks at how and when the tau

industrial manufacturing of biopharmaceuticals more

proteins go awry, to try to understand the turning point.

robust. In addition to biopharmaceuticals, Robinson’s lab

By identifying what causes the brain’s tau proteins to

studies neurodegenerative diseases.

malfunction, Robinson hopes to develop preventative

Alzheimer’s disease, for example, accounts for the majority of patients diagnosed with neurodegeneration. There are two hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease that show up in the

measures and future treatments for those afflicted with neurodegenerative diseases.

In joining Carnegie Mellon, Robinson looks forward to

brain: aggregates, or plaques of a peptide called A-beta, and

collaborating across the College of Engineering and the

those of a protein called tau. Robinson’s lab is looking at tau

university at large to solve these problems.

proteins, which become aggregated or “scrambled” when the brain becomes afflicted with Alzheimer’s.

From a very basic standpoint, to cook an egg, one would

“One of the strengths of Carnegie Mellon is its focus on innovation, and the technology it develops from interdisciplinary collaborations,” says Robinson. “There are

apply heat in order to change the structure of the proteins

so many strengths around the university that my lab and

in the egg. The albumen, or the clear part of an egg,

the department as a whole can leverage, and the collegiality

changes from clear to white, distinctly changing its flavor

among all of our faculty has me excited to get started.”

and texture to serve a new function.

Robinson received her Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and received her B.S. and M.S. at Johns Hopkins University. She has received national accolades, including the NSF Presidential Early Career Award for Science and Engineering (PECASE) Award, the ACS BIOT Perlman Award, the AIChE SBE Biotechnology Progress Award for Excellence in Biological Engineering Publication, and election as an AIChE Fellow.

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biopharmaceuticals, which are made by cells (rather than

NEW CHAPTER FOR SCAIFE HALL INSIDE THE COLLEGE

EN G I N EER I N G . C MU . ED U

1962 was the year of John Glenn’s Earth orbit, the Beatles’ first hit, Spider-Man’s creation, and Silent Spring’s warning. It was also the year that the Alan M. Scaife Hall of Engineering opened on Carnegie Tech’s campus. The building’s state-ofthe-art computer, occupying the entire fourth floor, had less processing power than today’s handheld smart phones (and required a helicopter to carry it into position). At the time, no one could have envisioned how far and how fast technology would change during the next five decades.

Over the years, technology transformed and enrollment grew. Today, the Department of Mechanical Engineering boasts one of the largest academic majors at Carnegie Mellon University with more than 440 undergraduate students. Master’s and Ph.D. students number nearly 400, with more doctoral students enrolling in the fall of 2018 than in the department’s history. Until now, the amount of space had remained about the same.

With a generous lead grant from the Allegheny Foundation, the university has announced plans to build a new Scaife Hall. The building will feature expanded, technology-rich labs; modern, flexible classrooms; and spaces that facilitate formal and informal collaborations.

The new building will more than double the size of the existing one, expanding the footprint on Frew Street and forming an engineering and maker quad with Hamerschlag and ANSYS Halls.

like biohybrid robotics and nanoengineered materials, it is essential to connect researchers with different expertise to inspire multidisciplinary collaboration.”

The new Scaife Hall will offer another important improvement: the opportunity to develop a stronger sense of community between the students, faculty, researchers, and staff. As mechanical engineering students outgrew the existing building’s smaller classrooms, they spent less time in the building where their professors had offices. Robinson saw this as an obstacle. “We want to encourage the kind of interactions that sometimes only happen when you bump into your professor in the hall and start up a conversation.”

The lead grant from the Allegheny Foundation was announced by President Farnam Jahanian during his Inauguration on October 26. A new chapter for Scaife Hall begins.

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“The demand for mechanical engineers—and for Carnegie Mellon’s innovative approach to real world problem solving through advanced collaboration—is stronger than ever,” said Allen Robinson, professor and department head of mechanical engineering.

“High quality, state-of-the-art labs and classrooms are critical for educating the next generations of world-class engineers,” he said. “With reconfigurable classrooms and modern learning areas, we can accommodate both the growing number of mechanical engineering students and the need for flexible work spaces for hands-on courses.”

While the future of engineering education requires a different type of classroom, the future of research requires a very different type of laboratory. “Collaborative interactions between researchers just don’t occur when you have small, fragmented labs organized around traditional disciplines,” said Robinson. “For emerging fields

CELEBRATING NASA WITH A HISTORY OF COLLABORATION INSIDE THE COLLEGE

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2018. This milestone achievement prompted the College of Engineering to reflect on its own history with the space agency. Since 1999, Carnegie Mellon has been collaborating with NASA and companies in the Bay area to establish educational programs, provide special work opportunities to students, and develop ties with the numerous alumni who live in the area.

The Carnegie Mellon University Silicon Valley campus opened for classes in September of 2002 at NASA’s Ames Research Park with an agreement between NASA and the University. Since then, faculty and students have been hard at work engaging with NASA to advance research initiatives and

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make an impact in Silicon Valley’s technical community.

THE COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING CELEBRATES ITS HISTORY OF PARTNERSHIPS WITH NASA: FROM FACULTY RESEARCH, TO STUDENT COMPETITIONS, TO THE CMU-SV CAMPUS LOCATED AT NASA’S AMES RESEARCH PARK.

From the beginning, Carnegie Mellon has worked with

• The Tartan Ice Drilling System team competed in NASA’s

NASA to provide students hands-on, project-oriented,

Mars ice drilling competition as one of ten finalist teams. The

apprenticeship-based and individually mentored activities

team designed and constructed a prototype robot that can

that emphasize teamwork and collaboration. That vision

extract ice from a simulated Martian landscape. At the final

remains alive today as the campus and research park

competition in Hampton, Virginia, they successfully extracted

continually work together on the next generation of space

a chunk of ice during the competition, navigating through the

and software engineering research. Following are a few

thick dirt that stalled other teams.

examples of our collaboration with NASA. • Mario Berges, Burcu Akinci, and Steven Rosenberg are • Corina Pasareanu, associate research professor with CyLab

designing self-diagnosing and self-healing smart habitats on

and CMU-SV, works with NASA Ames in the Robust Software

earth and space through a collaboration with NASA. They

Engineering group. She is developing and extending

are testing fault detection, prediction, and diagnosis using

Symbolic PathFinder, a symbolic execution tool for Java

sensing and artificial intelligence technologies at the NASA

bytecode.

Sustainability Base at the Ames Research Center.

• Ritchie Lee, a research scientist at CMU-SV, is conducting

• A team of INI students worked on a practicum project

research on decision-making systems, machine learning, and

sponsored by NASA to optimize flight departure and arrival

controls as part of the Robust Software Engineering group

schedules using simulation and artificial intelligence. With

in Ames’ Intelligent Systems Division. In particular, he is

Professor Corina Pasareanu and NASA researcher Bob

developing advanced algorithms for the design and analysis

Morris, the team of five students developed a simulation tool

of intelligent aerospace systems including aircraft collision

that will help human operators make scheduling decisions

avoidance systems, air traffic automation, planetary rovers,

that increase safety and reduce delays.

and unmanned aerial systems.

• Carnegie Mellon Rocket Command flew away from a NASA competition with a top-10 finish and an altitude award for coming closest to hitting a one-mile target launch altitude.

The team was one of 45 U.S. colleges and universities accepted to compete in NASA’s Student Launch competition, which challenges participants to design, build, test, and fly a

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high-powered, reusable rocket while carrying a payload.

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SECURE AND PRIVATE IoT INITIATIVE INSIDE THE COLLEGE

Carnegie Mellon University CyLab, the university-wide

pleased to help CMU bring greater attention to IoT security

security and privacy institute, launched the Secure and

best practices, and we look forward to their insights and

Private Internet-of-Things (IoT) Initiative. The IoT@CyLab

innovations benefiting AWS customers.”

One area of focus within the initiative will target large city-

across the university and leading corporations with a

scale IoT ecosystems made up of heterogeneous, long-lived

common vision of making IoT more secure and privacy-

devices intertwined with old infrastructure. The university

respecting. CyLab is delighted to work with Amazon Web

campus as well as the surrounding city of Pittsburgh will

Services (AWS), Infineon Technologies, and Nokia Bell Labs

serve as a living testbed.

on the initiative. CyLab’s Vyas Sekar and Anthony Rowe,

“Securing electronic devices and infrastructures has

faculty in the Department of Electrical and Computer

been a top priority for Infineon for over 30 years,” says

Engineering, will co-direct the initiative.

Robert LeFort, President of Infineon Americas. “As the

“Our mission in this initiative is to create the knowledge

U.S. leads the world in IoT innovation, it is important that

and capabilities to build secure and privacy-respecting IoT

we support American-driven efforts both with our own

systems,” says Sekar. “We believe this kind of collaborative

regional R&D activities and with partners who share similar

effort is crucial to tackle this massive, large-scale issue.”

commitments.”

Through the initiative, CyLab, AWS, Infineon, and Nokia Bell

To enable open, repeatable science and rapid prototyping

Labs aim to develop a suite of innovative hardware and

of new ideas, the work created through the initiative will be

software solutions that address five key challenges facing

intended for release under permissive open-source licenses.

IoT today: scalability, speed and cost, safety and security, uptime and reliability, and privacy and compliance.

“AWS continues to deliver security capabilities for IoT

“We sit on the cusp of a new industrial revolution fueled by widespread automation and enabled by the secure and trusted interconnection of hundreds of billions of simple

developers and customers, such as our AWS IoT Device

IoT devices,” says Chris White, head of Nokia Bell Labs

Defender, and we also recognize there will be security

Algorithms, Analytics & Augmented Intelligence Lab. “The

challenges in diverse IoT environments,” says Stephen

massive scale and complexity of this problem transcends

Schmidt, Chief Information Security Officer at Amazon

any single perspective and requires a free exchange of ideas

Web Services. “The CyLab IoT security initiative is a great

between such diverse organizations to fully harness the

opportunity to both share and learn in this space. We are

benefits of IoT and to avoid potential pitfalls.”

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initiative will bring together faculty and student researchers

INSIDE THE COLLEGE

PODCASTS– LISTEN TO OUR VIEW Check out the compelling stories behind our research.

SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/cmu-engineering The College has its own podcast channel on SoundCloud called Make It Real, where we discuss topics like: • Why are our streets leaking so much methane • Can you teach a computer to hack... all by itself • What goes into a good, secure password • How swallowing electronics can help treat human disease • How a simple switch in fuel can clean up steelmaking

You can search for Carnegie Mellon experts at other places, too.

Future Tech Podcasts https://www.futuretechpodcast.com People Behind the Science Podcasts http://www.peoplebehindthescience.com

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LORRIE CRANOR NAMED DIRECTOR OF CYLAB

EN G I N EER I N G . C MU . ED U

INSIDE THE COLLEGE

“I LOOK FORWARD TO SUPPORTING CYLAB’S ONGOING SUCCESS AND BOLSTERING RESEARCH AIMED AT MAKING OUR INCREASINGLY DIGITAL WORLD SAFE AND TRUSTWORTHY.” –LORRIE CRANOR

Lorrie Faith Cranor is the new director of CyLab, Carnegie

Security (SOUPS). She is a co-founder of Wombat Security

Mellon University’s security and privacy institute. As

Technologies, Inc., a security awareness training company.

Cranor has authored more than 150 research papers

Professor in Security and Privacy Technologies chair.

on online privacy, usable privacy and security, and other

CyLab, founded in 2003, brings together security and

topics. Her current research projects include password

privacy experts from all schools across the university

usability and security, privacy for the Internet of Things, and

with the vision of creating a world in which technology

development of meaningful and usable privacy notices and

can be trusted.

consent experiences.

Cranor is the FORE Systems Professor of Computer

Before joining CMU in 2003, Cranor received her

Science and of Engineering and Public Policy, and directs

doctorate degree from Washington University in St. Louis

the CyLab Usable Privacy and Security (CUPS) Laboratory.

and was a member of the secure systems research group at

She is a co-director of CMU’s Privacy Engineering master’s

AT&T Labs-Research. She is a Fellow of both the Association

program, and served as Chief Technologist at the Federal

for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the Institute of

Trade Commission (FTC) in 2016.

Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and she is a

“Lorrie’s extensive leadership experience and background, as well as her recent government experience

member of the ACM CHI Academy.

Cranor’s appointment follows that of Douglas Sicker,

as the FTC’s Chief Technologist, make her an exceptional

head of the Engineering and Public Policy Department,

choice as CyLab’s new director,” said Jon Cagan, interim

who has served as CyLab’s interim director. Sicker stepped

dean of CMU’s College of Engineering.

in after the previous director, Electrical and Computer

Cranor co-edited the seminal book Security and Usability and founded the Symposium On Usable Privacy and

Engineering Professor David Brumley, took a leave of absence to grow his startup company, ForAllSecure.

PA GE 4 5

director, Cranor has assumed the Bosch Distinguished

THROUGHOUT THE PAST DECADE, BUILD18 HAS BECOME A PLAYGROUND FOR THOSE WHO LOVE THE ART OF ENGINEERING AND THE FUN OF BUILDING.

STUDENT NEWS

BUILD18 HITS MILESTONE Whether it’s a class project or a device they invent in their dorm room, electrical and computer engineering students like to build for the sake of building. At least, that is how Boris Lipchin (ECE ’09), pitched his idea for the now beloved annual hardware hackathon ten years ago.

Lipchin’s initial idea, not yet named Build18, was for students to come back to campus a week before spring classes and build for fun. After hearing his idea, the ECE Student Advisory Committee decided the first week of classes would be a good time to hold a hardware hackathon where students could build without limits.

The event name was adopted after the ECE course prefix 18, and has come to signify the start of the spring semester.

“Students really look forward to Build18,” said Ilan Biala, 2019 Build18 chair. “It allows students to build a completely self-guided passion project while learning new technologies, taking creative risks, and collaborating with

E NGI N E ER I NG. C MU . E DU

new people.”

This year’s event also celebrated the inaugural crowdfunding effort where alumni and friends of ECE could contribute to Build18.

“We set an initial goal of raising $3,000,” said Margaret Noel, associate director of alumni relations and annual giving. “But we quickly surpassed that with generous support from 44 alumni and friends across 11 states and three countries. The campaign finished at 125% of our goal for a total of $3,755, which fully supported twelve teams.

On behalf of the student leaders, I extend our thanks to all who spread the word and made contributions.”

To further support the sustainability of Build18, an anonymous donor pledged to match all crowdfunding gifts up to $3,000.

“We are incredibly grateful for the anonymous donor who matched these crowdfunding gifts up to $3,000,” said Noel.

“The matching gift was directed to the recently endowed fund which will support Build18 for years to come.”

OPPOSITE PAGE: A PIEZOELECTRIC DANCE FLOOR LIGHTS UP BASED ON THE KINETIC ENERGY FROM DANCING.

THIS PAGE, TOP: YOUNG VISITORS CHECK OUT FOUNTAIN THAT MOVES TO BEAT OF MUSIC.

MIDDLE: A GIANT MIDI FIGHTER THAT FEATURES A CONDUCTIVE WALL.

LEFT: USING AN ELECTRODE IN THE SOIL, A PLANT CAN RECOGNIZE WHERE YOU TOUCH

PA GE 4 7

IT, RENDERING THE PLANT INTERACTIVE.

THE NEXT GENERATION OF MATERIALS STUDENT NEWS

to develop materials, provided the support for students to use machine learning from day one, beginning with a weeklong boot camp held in the Bay Area. While most of the CMU participants had prior computational experience, only one had previously worked with machine learning.

We all know how powerful images are as a tool for

machine learning and computer vision, in materials

information in a unique way. In materials science

research and industry is becoming increasingly important.

and engineering, images that capture a material’s

It could mean accelerating discovery processes,

microstructure are important for understanding the

automating tedious tasks that scientists currently do by

properties of materials. But we need better methods for

hand, and allowing materials scientists and engineers to

quickly and effectively extracting that information from

make sense of enormous amounts of data. For example,

these images—a need which state-of-the-art breakthroughs

knowing the grain size of a material, or the volume of the

in technology like artificial intelligence could meet.

material that has the same crystal structure, can reveal a

As part of the Citrine Research NextGen Fellowship summer research program, five Carnegie Mellon

EN G I N EER I N G . C MU . ED U

Applying artificial intelligence technologies, such as

communication, evoking responses and capturing

lot about its properties.

Looking at images of the microstructure is the best way

undergraduate students developed approaches to predict

to study the grain size and grain boundaries, or where

the average grain size of metal microstructures using

the crystal structure changes. Current methods include

machine learning and computer vision. Materials science

tracing the boundaries between the grains by hand then

students Thomas Matson, Jingxi Cai, and Keith Kozlosky,

feeding it back into the computer, or drawing lines across

math and statistics student Eric Li, and recent alumnus

an image and approximating how many times it crosses

Toby Francis (MSE’18), were advised by Materials Science

the boundary to estimate grain size. By training a neural

and Engineering (MSE) Professor Liz Holm, whose own work

network to solve the problem automatically, scientists could

uses computer vision to analyze the microstructures of

save a lot of time.

materials. Ph.D. student Andrew Kitahara and recent MSE alumna Ankita Mangal also helped advise the group.

The NextGen Fellowship program is sponsored by Citrine

The Carnegie Mellon research team set out to tackle this important research question by first creating simulated micrographs—images taken from a microscope—to

Informatics through an award from Schmidt Futures.

approximate what real images of grain size would look

Citrine, a materials company that uses artificial intelligence

like, even accounting for instances where the boundary between two grains isn’t clear. The students divided into three teams, each taking different approaches to solving the problem.

Matson and Cai built a neural network and trained it on 16,000 images to predict the average grain size. Li used a neural network that is normally used to classify objects in images, such as birds, trees, etc. He used it to extract features from the microstructure images, and then put the output into a regression model to predict the average grain size. Kozlosky took a more creative approach. Instead of adapting a neural network to analyze and classify the micrographs, he put the images through an untrained neural network, which acted as a data extractor. With the output, he performed a normal regression to predict the average grain size.

The first approach had the highest correlation between real and predicted grain size, with the already existing neural network next, and the untrained system was the least correlated, though for each approach the error was within 10% and could be good enough for use in industry.

SOURCE: JINGXI CAI MSE STUDENT JINGXI CAI PRESENTS HIS MACHINE LEARNING APPROACH TO PREDICTING GRAIN BOUNDARY SIZE AT THE NEXTGEN FELLOWS FINAL RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM IN COLORADO.

At the end of the program, the students presented their findings at a research symposium in Colorado.

“We got to see what it was like to do real work in computational materials science,” said Kozlosky, “and beyond that, I had my first real experience using machine learning and seeing how it works. I realized that I really enjoyed that kind of work and want to pursue it.”

Each student had a different experience and takeaway from the program, but they all agreed that it was extremely beneficial, from getting to work with a company on a real-life problem where there is no clear answer, to experience working on a research team, to learning how machine learning can help answer questions in engineering first-hand.

“When I advise students about research over the summers, you don’t know if you’re going to succeed or fail,

SIMULATED SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPY IMAGES OF MICROSTRUCTURES

you don’t know what the answers are, and that’s part of what research is,” said Holm. “You may find out you love it

PA GE 4 9

or hate it, but either way that’s a good outcome.”

ZIPPER INVENTOR’S LEGACY FELLOWSHIP NEWS

Gideon Sundback, credited as the inventor of the modern-

SOURCE: THE SUNDBACK FAMILY

day zipper, developed the “Hookless No. 2” in 1914. Over

THE FAMILY OF GIDEON SUNDBACK ESTABLISHED THE G. SUNDBACK GRA DUATE

a century later, the legacy of this clever and determined

FELLOWSHIP IN MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

engineer endures around the globe through the ubiquitous

IN HIS HONOR.

fastening device. Gideon’s memory has a special place at Carnegie Mellon University, where his work continues

Gideon spent years developing what we now know as

to inspire young creators through a generous fund

the zipper. Like all engineers, he was looking to solve a

established by his family – the G. Sundback Graduate

problem: make fastening clothing and other items simpler

Fellowship in Mechanical Engineering.

and more secure. As head engineer for Hookless Eye

Since 2006, eleven MechE graduate students have

(which eventually became Talon Inc.) he made numerous,

received the G. Sundback Fellowship. With research ranging

incremental advances towards perfecting both the zipper

from engineering design to hydrogen fuel cells, these

and the machinery used to produce the product.

students exemplify the same tireless problem-solving skills

His zipper manufacturing machine was known for

as the fellowship’s namesake. With fellowship support,

its efficiency. The “scrapless” machine produced large

the students can focus on tackling real-world challenges

amounts of product a day with no waste. It took decades

in the lab, exploring new ideas in the classroom, and even

for the zipper to be widely adopted by the clothing

collaborating with leading professionals in industry.

industry, but after World War II the device was embraced.

For some students, like 2009-2010 recipient Frank L.

“My father was totally interested in quality; this was his

Hammond III, the G. Sundback Fellowship means even

hallmark. He didn’t quit when he had something partially

more. For Hammond, it provided enough funding to

done,” says Eric. “Perfecting [the zipper] was what kept

complete several experiments critical to his doctoral

him going for a long time.”

research at Carnegie Mellon. With the support he received, he finished his Ph.D. thesis focused on the design of cutting-edge medical and industrial robots and was able to line up the next step in his career. Hammond now teaches at Georgia Tech and continues to foster the success of other promising young students.

The fellowship, and the determination that the award encourages, is a fitting celebration of Gideon. His family fondly remembers him for his strength and resolve.

“Gideon was not the hard driving guy that you might expect from a CEO today. He was an engineer that kept things going,” says Gideon’s son Eric. “This fellowship is a way for

E NG I NE ER I NG. C MU .E DU

us to honor his hardworking nature.”

—AISHWARYA PAWAR, PH.D. STUDENT

SOUR C E: U N I T ED S T A T ES P A T EN T A N D T R A D EMA R K OF F I C E GI DEON S U N D B A C K D EV EL OP ED T H E “H OOK L ES S N O. 2 ” I N 1 9 1 4 .

T ODA Y , WE K N OW I T A S T H E Z I P P ER .

Gideon’s family is motivated to support MechE because of Carnegie Mellon’s dedication to innovation and the students’ drive for success. The family also has ties to the Pittsburgh area, beginning with Gideon. After emigrating to the United States in 1905, Gideon worked at Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company in Pittsburgh. The G. Sundback Graduate Fellowship, and the memory of Gideon that it holds, motivates discovery in MechE – perhaps for the next device as universally useful as the zipper.

PA GE 5 1

“I AM HONORED TO BE ONE OF THE RECIPIENTS OF THE G. SUNDBACK GRADUATE FELLOWSHIP. THE FELLOWSHIP WILL ENABLE ME TO CONTINUE MY RESEARCH, WHICH IS USING THE POWERFUL TECHNIQUE OF ISOGEOMETRIC ANALYSIS IN ADVANCED IMAGE ANALYSIS PROBLEMS, SUCH AS IMAGE REGISTRATION, GEOMETRIC MODELING AND IMAGE-BASED ANALYSIS. I AM INTERESTED IN APPLYING FOR FACULTY POSITIONS AFTER MY GRADUATION, AND THIS GENEROUS SUPPORT WILL BE CRUCIAL TOWARDS ATTAINING MY CAREER GOALS. THANK YOU FOR ENABLING THIS WONDERFUL OPPORTUNITY!”

YOUNG INNOVATOR CREATES AI SYSTEM THAT INTERPRETS MEDICAL IMAGES ALUMNI

Some people are born for the fast track. At 16, alumna Shinjini Kundu graduated from high school. At 19, she completed a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University, and at 20, a master’s degree. By the time she was 27, she earned Ph.D. and M.D. degrees, respectively, as part of the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) at Carnegie Mellon University (Biomedical Engineering) and the University of Pittsburgh.

At 27, Kundu has been named one of the Massachusetts EN G I N EER I N G . C MU . ED U

Institute of Technology Review’s 35 Innovators Under 35 for her work on an artificial intelligence (AI) system that

“I didn’t necessarily think that I would be working on a

can interpret medical images in ways humans cannot. Her

machine learning project when I first started,” she said.

program, called 3D Transport-Based Morphometry, or 3D

“I just thought that this is a really cool idea, an important

TBM for short, could significantly impact how we diagnose

problem, and one that I could solve by applying the

and treat diseases.

engineering skills that I’d learned. It was an opportunity to

“Some statistics say that up to 80 percent of all medical

grow as an engineer and also solve an important problem

diagnoses are made or confirmed through imaging studies.

in medical diagnosis. Now, having built this, I see that

As imaging machines have only gotten better, I wondered

machine learning is a big component of it.”

whether there could be subtle information important for

When Kundu was deciding where she wanted to

disease recognition that was eluding human detection,” said

continue her education after graduating from Stanford,

Kundu. “I thought that if we could find hidden patterns, they

Carnegie Mellon’s College of Engineering stood out due to

may indicate emergence of disease in a way we hadn’t been

its front-of-the-line research and technology, as well as its

thinking about. That was the motivation behind 3D TBM.”

interdisciplinary values.

Kundu found that 3D TBM can indeed find evidence

“I wanted to be a part of the cutting edge work going on

of disease from medical images that humans can’t see,

at CMU,” she said. “There are so many interesting projects

and that evidence can help predict diseases even before

and ideas that there isn’t enough time in the world to take

visible or physical symptoms develop. One of the diseases

part in all of them. It’s a privilege. I had the opportunity

Kundu studied was osteoarthritis. Using 3D TBM, she was

to learn from so many bright people who are there. As I

able to see very subtle changes in the medical images of

progress in my career, what I learned at CMU—how to think

knee cartilage of otherwise healthy people. These changes

like an engineer and how to approach problems like an

identified by 3D TBM could predict whether someone will

engineer—is going to stay with me.”

develop osteoarthritis three years in the future with up to 86 percent accuracy.

Kundu’s 3D TBM program lives at the intersection of two

Today, Kundu works as a research scientist and holds a resident physician position at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), continuing to pursue both of her

of her interests, engineering and medicine, and aims to find

passions. She is also working on further developing 3D

the synergism between innovative technologies and pushing

TBM, studying different diseases and physical conditions

the limits of medical diagnosis, detection, and treatment.

with the program.

When she was initially designing the program, which she

“Right now, I’m still working towards getting 3D TBM into

developed as a Ph.D. candidate in biomedical engineering

the clinic, into the hands of doctors, and ultimately enabling

at Carnegie Mellon, Kundu had not originally planned to

better patient care.”

incorporate the machine-learning component.

Sam Craig

“CMU TAUGHT ME TO THINK, TO REMEMBER THE BASICS, AND TO SOLVE MANY COMPLEX PROBLEMS.” — SAM CRAIG

SAM CRAIG 1957

Give strategically, Support generously.

SAM CRAIG (EE ’57, ’58, ’61) used his engineering background to build a diverse career. He has made an impact on a number of fields through his research in industry, projects in noise reduction, and work in product design in the healthcare industry. He joined the engineering faculty at Bucknell University where he continues to teach at Bucknell’s Institute of Lifelong Learning.

For Sam and his wife Nancy Owen Craig, Carnegie Mellon University has always been an important part of their philanthropic life because of the pride they feel for the continued

Learn how easy it is to achieve your philanthropic vision through a planned gift by visiting giftplanning.cmu.edu.

Contact the Office of Gift Planning today at 412.268.5346 or askjoebull@andrew.cmu.edu.

success of the Department of Electrical Engineering (ECE).

Sam and Nancy have created a lasting legacy at Carnegie Mellon by establishing a life income plan and an annuity that will both provide scholarship support for undergraduate students in ECE. The scholarships were created in honor of Sam's parents.

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