Campus News in Brief

Onorato establishes student program in government

A new graduate scholars program sponsored by Allegheny County will offer graduate students a one-year position in the county’s Department of Human Services leading high-profile government-related projects, Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato announced on February 2. The program is another initiative that may lead to more students staying in Pittsburgh after graduation — at the end of the one-year term, qualified scholars may be offered permanent employment by the department.

The Department of Human Services is responsible for providing publicly funded human services to Allegheny County residents, including elder care, mental health, drug, and alcohol counseling, child protective services, emergency shelters, housing for the homeless, job training and placement, and services for the mentally retarded and developmentally disabled.

The program hopes to serve a similar purpose as Carnegie Mellon’s Stephen M. Lauble Community Fellowship, which offers policy students at the Heinz School fellowships at local organizations. Both programs aim to foster an interest in serving the public and a commitment to the Allegheny County region.

Applicants must be scheduled to earn their graduate degrees by spring 2008. Applications will be available at (www.county.allegheny.pa.us/dhs). Applications are due in November 2007.

Senator Logan elected PHEAA vice chairman

State Senator Sean Logan (D–Allegheny/Westmoreland) was elected vice chairman of the board of directors for the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency (PHEAA) on Thursday. The organization provides financial aid for millions of students nationwide. One of the largest full-service financial aid organizations in the United States, PHEAA manages more than $56.5 billion in total assets.

Logan has been a member of the PHEAA board for the past two years.

“I am honored by my election as vice chairman of the PHEAA board,” Logan stated in a press release. “I will do all I can to optimize and provide additional aid for Pennsylvania students.”

CMU establishes Katayanagi Prizes in computer science

Carnegie Mellon has established the annual Katayanagi Prizes in Computer Science and announced the first two recipients, according to a February 14 university press release.

Launched in cooperation with the Tokyo University of Technology (TUT) in Tokyo, Japan, the prizes were made possible by a donation from Koh Katayanagi, Japanese entrepreneur and founder of TUT.

The Katayanagi Prize for Research Excellence was awarded to David A. Patterson, the E. H. and M. E. Pardee chair of computer science at the University of California at Berkeley.

The Katayanagi Emerging Leadership Prize was awarded to Takeo Igarashi, associate professor in the Department of Computer Science in the Graduate School of Information Science and Technology at the University of Tokyo.

Patterson will deliver a lecture at Carnegie Mellon on March 20; Igarashi will speak on March 22.