Campus News in Brief
New associate dean for research in engineering
Carnegie Mellon recently announced Gary Fedder, the Howard M. Wilkoff professor of electrical and computer engineering, as the new associate dean for research in engineering.
Fedder earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical and computer engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1982 and his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1994.
Fedder will also continue as director of the Insitute for Complex Engineered Systems with support from associate director Burak Ozdoganlar, professor of mechanical engineering.
Fedder came to Carnegie Mellon in 1994, working in both the department of electrical and computer engineering and the Robotics Institute. His research interests focus on the field of microelectromechanical systems.
“This is a wonderful opportunity to continue our ongoing goal of developing novel technologies for the future and for promoting the growth of knowledge workers as we seek to create enduring innovation for the region and the global marketplace,” Fedder said in a university press release.
Fedder played an important role in research that allowed Carnegie Mellon to become part of the U.S. Department of Defense’s new National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute (NAMII).
The Youngstown, Ohio-based institute is helping to develop additive manufacturing technology, commonly known as 3–D printing.
James H. Garret Jr., dean of the College of Engineering, and Thomas Lord professor of civil and environmental engineering, are pleased with Fedder’s appointment.
“I am extremely pleased that Gary has agreed to be the first CIT associate dean for research,” Garrett said in the press release. “His stellar research reputation, his interdisciplinary perspective, and his experience in leading many college-wide research proposals, such as NAMII, make Gary ideally suited for this new position.”
CMU students named Siebel Scholars
The Siebel Scholars Foundation has named five Carnegie Mellon University graduate students to the 2014 class of Siebel Scholars.
The students are Jason Richard Koenig, a master’s student in computer science; Anuj Kumar, a Ph.D. candidate in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII); Gabriela Marcu, also a Ph.D. candidate in the HCII; Ishan Misra, a master’s student in the Robotics Institute; and Mrinmaya Sachan, a master’s student in the Language Technologies Institute.
Koenig’s research interests include formal verification, static analysis techniques, and formal methods. In spring 2013, he interned at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, where he developed a tool for analyzing embedded flight software.
Kumar has collaborated with industry groups at Microsoft and IBM, as well as university groups at the University of California, Berkeley. Two of Kumar’s papers were nominated for best paper awards at the ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.
The Siebel Scholars program recognizes the most talented graduate students in the fields of business, bioengineering, and computer science. Siebel Scholars are chosen based on outstanding academic achievement — on average, Siebel Scholars are in the top 5 percent of their class — and demonstrated leadership. Each Siebel Scholar will receive a $35,000 grant for his or her final year of study.