Campus News in Brief
Committee holds open house for Carnival weekend Mobot races
On Wednesday, Carnegie Mellon’s Mobot Committee will host a fall open house in preparation for the 14th-annual Mobot races, to take place during Carnival weekend 2008. Students, faculty, staff, and alumni from all departments are invited to form teams to design and construct a Mobot (derived from “mobile robot”) for the competition.
During the competition, the Mobots will follow a white line along a specific path on an outdoor course, which presents various technical difficulties for teams in terms of enabling the robot to navigate outdoors and on uneven terrain. Participants gain hands-on research experience in the course of determining the perception, action, and reasoning capabilities of the robot.
The first-place team will receive $1000. In addition to second and third places, for which participants receive $500 and $250, respectively, there are also monetary awards for Open Class ($250), Judges’ Choice ($100), and Course Record ($250). In addition, all the winners’ names will be inscribed on a plaque permanently displayed in the Engineering & Science Library in Wean Hall.
The open house will start at 6:30 p.m. in Wean Hall 5409. Pizza will be served. Former participants will be present to answer questions.
For more information, visit (www.cs.cmu.edu/~mobot) or e-mail (mobot@cs.cmu.edu).
Heinz School introduces program in biotechnology and management
The Heinz School will hold an information session this Wednesday to introduce a new accelerated master’s program in biotechnology and management. The program’s goal is to train students in the aspects of science, health, and environmental studies that underlie the business of biotechnology.
The director of the program is Heinz School professor James Jordan.
According to a Nov. 1 announcement from the university, the goal of the program is “to train managers who can simultaneously balance regulatory, scientific and business issues as they provide advice and facilitate communication between the company’s chief executive officer and chief scientist.”
The program is a collaborative effort between the Mellon College of Science, the Heinz School, and the Tepper School of Business.
The information session will be held from noon to 1 p.m. in the Wright Room, on the second floor of the University Center. Attendees will learn about the program’s curriculum, degree requirements, and career opportunities.
Students who are interested should RSVP no later than Nov. 5 to Holly Wilson in the Heinz School’s Office of Admissions at (hawilson@andrew.cmu.edu).