Carnegie Mellon University: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

Geography and Location

Aerial map

Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was formed in 1967 by the union of the Carnegie Institute of Technology (which was "Carnegie Technical Schools" until 1912), founded in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie, and the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research, founded in 1917 by Richard Beatty Mellon. It has about 7,500 students and 3,000 faculty, research and administrative staff. The school is often referred to as CMU (not to be confused with Central Michigan University).

Campus

Carnegie Mellon's 103-acre main campus is five miles from downtown Pittsburgh, in the Squirrel Hill/Oakland part of the city. A large grassy area known as the Cut forms the backbone of the campus, with a separate grassy area known as the Mall running perpendicular to it.

The institution was founded in 1900 in Pittsburgh by industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, who wrote the time-honored words, "My heart is in the work," when he donated the funds to create Carnegie Technical Schools. Carnegie's vision was to open a vocational training school for the sons and daughters of working-class Pittsburghers. The name was changed to the Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1912. In 1967 it merged with the Mellon Institute to become Carnegie Mellon University.

The university today consists of seven colleges and schools:

• School of Computer Science (among the four best Computer Science programs in the world)
• Carnegie Institute of Technology (a world-leader in engineering)
• College of Fine Arts (famous for its Drama and design departments)
• College of Humanities and Social Sciences
• Mellon College of Science
• David A. Tepper School of Business (among the nation's premier schools of business)
• H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management

The university has two smaller additional campuses, offering business and technology-related degrees, one in Bay Area California, another in Education City Qatar.

The university houses famous research centers such as the Robotics Institute, which is the first of its kind in the world and currently considered a leader in the field of robotics, and the Software Engineering Institute which undertakes projects relating to software security, code re-use, and development models and is largely funded by the United States Department of Defense. Its Capability Maturity Model is used widely.

The university has 5200 undergraduate students, 3200 graduate students, 1048 full-time faculty, and 206 part-time faculty. The male-to-female ratio is 3:2. The student body is comprised of students from 48 different states and 91 countries.

Carnegie Mellon's sports teams are called the Tartans. They participate in the University Athletic Association in NCAA Division III. Carnegie Mellon's marching and concert band is the Kiltie Band.

There are many clubs on-campus. One of the largest is the Activities Board, which organizes a number of student activities on campus. The Films Committee of the Activities Board is notable for showing films (often recent) in the on-campus McConomy Auditorium four nights a week, with 2-4 showings per night. Another notable organization on campus is the KGB (not related to the Russian KGB), which holds bizarre weekly meetings and hosts events such as the Underground Tour, Build a Giant Robot, and Capture the Flag with Stuff. Despite a widely-held belief that the school is largely apathetic, Carnegie Mellon Activism has spanned decades and there continues to be a small yet visible progressive activist presence today.

The Fence

In the middle of The Cut lies The Fence, the most painted object on campus. It frequently displays witty and/or poignant messages, but is just as often used to advertise upcoming events or recent accomplishments. Because of its highly-visible location on campus, it is an ideal place to proclaim one's message to as much of the student body as possible. Once made of wood, it was replaced in the early 1990s by a much more stable concrete structure after it threatened to collapse under the weight of layers upon layers of accumulated paint.

Tradition dictates that the Fence only be painted at night, and only in its entirety. A group wishing to paint the Fence may station a representative within a small area surrounding it; so long as a guard remains within the boundary, no other group may "take" the Fence. This sometimes leads to fraternities or other groups setting up a tent or campsite just inside the boundary so that they may keep control of the Fence for extended periods of time.

Spring Carnival

The Spring Carnival is the biggest event of the CMU school year. Usually held in April, many students work hard all year to make this event a success. The Pittsburgh community comes for this event, too. Alumni generally return for the festivities, and Reunion coincides with this weekend. Spring Carnival features "Midway", with all the standard carnival attractions, and a Buggy race which is run over the course of the weekend. Many organizations across campus construct both a booth for Midway and a buggy for Sweepstakes. Judges decide on winners in several different categories.

See Also: Official Carnival Site

Buggy races

Buggy, officially called Sweepstakes, is a race around Schenley Park. Entrants submit a small, usually torpedo-shaped, vehicle that is pushed uphill and then driven downhill. The driver (who must be a CMU student) sits inside the vehicle with the steering and brake controls. Brakes are used only as a last resort (to prevent a crash, for instance), but drivers who are forced to use them are allowed to roll in another heat with no penalty. The second-to-last corner of the race, a sharp 90-degree right turn, is affectionately called "The Chute" and is lined with hay bales to prevent spectator injury.

See Also: Official Buggy Site

Mobot

"Mobot," short for mobile robot, is a robot that tries to pass through gates, in order, and reach the finish line. There is a white line on the pavement connecting the gates, and the line is normally used to find the gates. Towards the end of the course, the lines split and merge randomly, and knowledge of which line leads to the next gate is needed to consistently finish the course. The current undergraduate mobot course record is held by Alok Ladsariya and Anthony Rowe, whose mobot used the CMUCam for capturing images of the racetrack. Their second robot, "Barney," is the only finishing mobot on record to call into question whether each gate must be passed in the forward direction in order to count.

See Also: Official Mobot Site

Midway

For Carnival Weekend, the Morewood parking lot is turned into "Midway." Booths are constructed by campus organizations, featuring (usually) free games and cheap giveaway prizes. Some of the booths are intricate, multi-level affairs, showing off the creativity and energy of the students who construct them. Portable carnival rides are brought in and set up, along with standard carnival concession food (including funnel cake). Various musical acts, improv comedy troupes, and other performances are staged in a nearby tent, running throughout the weekend and providing a backdrop to the entire spectacle.

Fiesta de Primavera

End of the year event is the Fiesta de Primavera, held on the last day of classes. The Student Dormitory Council (SDC) gets a bunch of inflatable bounce equipment and other soft fun toys and sets it up outside (weather permitting). Equipment varies from year to year, but typically includes: bouncy volleyball, jousting, sumo outfits, slides, flypaper, big punching gloves, etc...

Bagpipers

The sound of bagpipes is a common presence at Carnegie Mellon. The university is the only one in the United States to offer bagpiping as a major. Carnegie Mellon's Pipe Band plays at major university events, such as convocation and commencement.

cmu.misc.market

"misc.market" is a campus community newsgroup for students to buy and sell items on. However, since it is widely read by those in the university it is notorious for turning into a general advertisement and discussion forum, often plagued by flame wars. It is similar in many ways to Craigslist.

• Paul Allaire, Xerox CEO
• Rene Auberjonois, actor
• Andy Bechtolsheim (M.S.), co-founder of Sun Microsystems
• Stephen Bochco, writer and producer for television shows, including NYPD Blue
• Ted Danson, actor, best known as "Sam", the Cheers bartender
• Iris Dart, author of Beaches
• Edward Feigenbaum, artificial intelligence researcher, co-recipient of the Turing Award in 1993
• Charles Geschke (PhD), co-founder of Adobe Systems
• James Gosling (PhD), creator of Java programming language
• Josh Groban, left after freshman year, pop star
• Mariette Hartley
• Holly Hunter, Academy Award winning actress
• David Kelley, founder of IDEO
• Vinod Khosla(M.S.), co-founder of Sun Microsystems
• Jack Klugman, Emmy award winning actor
• E. L. Konigsburg, author of children's books
• David Lander, actor, best known for his portrayal of Squiggy on the sitcom Laverne and Shirley
• Judith Light, Emmy Award winning actress
• Keith Lockhart, conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra
• Ming-Na, television and movie actress, winner of the Annie Award as the voice of "Mulan" in Mulan
• Edgar Mitchell, astronaut (6th man to walk on the moon)
• John F. Nash, 1994 Nobel Prize for economics, the subject of A Beautiful Mind
• John Ousterhout (Ph.D), inventor of the Tcl scripting language
• George Peppard, actor
• Alan Perlis, computer scientist, first recipient of the Turing Award in 1966
• Billy Price, MaPW, blues singer
• Judith Resnik, astronaut who died in the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion during the launch of the mission STS-51-L.
• George A. Romero, film director, best known for Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead (1978)
• Ann Roth, Academy Award-winning costumer designer
• Laura San Giacomo, actress
• Stephen Schwartz, broadway composer of shows including Wicked, Godspell and Pippin. Pippin, in fact, was originally a CMU production, presented by the Scotch'n'Soda theatrical club on campus under the title "Pippin Pippin".
• Ivan Sutherland, computer graphics pioneer, creator of the seminal Sketchpad interactive computer program, recipient of the Turing Award in 1988
• Jack Smith, Emmy Award-winning correspondent with ABC News (deceased)
• Avie Tevanian (Ph.D), Apple CTO
• Blair Underwood, actor
• Andy Warhol, American painter and major figure in the pop art movement.
• Philip Pearlstein, American figure painter.
• Mel Bochner, a pioneer of Post-Minimal and Conceptual art.
• John Currin, contemporary figure and portrait painter.