Campus news in brief

Professor presents at 2015 Seattle IDSA

Assistant Professor of Design at Carnegie Mellon Peter Scupelli recently attended a conference in Seattle to present the work of his students who envision the future in Scupelli’s course “Dexign the Future.” At the 2015 International Conference for the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA), one of the largest organizations for design professionals, Scupelli and Arnold Wasserman (CFA ‘56) talked about visions for the future that include solutions for some of the major problems facing the world today, like global warming.

“This is perhaps the most important conference in our history,” wrote IDSA Board of Directors Chair Emeritus Charles Austen Angell to Carnegie Mellon Today, as designs play an increasingly important role in consulting with top businesses to find creative and innovative solutions.

In Scupelli’s studio, students are challenged to create a vision of the world they wanted to see. Using Pittsburgh as a focus, the designers worked with the local initiative Plan Pittsburgh to outline the city in 2050. To successfully “dexign the future,” students have to take into account trends and problems facing Pittsburgh today, from transportation to communication strategy to climate change.

Scupelli’s studio did so well that he also created an introductory course and is working with the Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence’s Judy Brooks to pilot the course through the Open Learning Initiative.

CMU families celebrate Cèilidh weekend

Although Carnegie Mellon’s football team lost its homecoming game to the Bethany College Bisons, students and alumni alike have taken Cèilidh weekend as an opportunity to revel in all that Pittsburgh has to offer in the fall.

Part of the festivities was the reveal of this year’s Spring Carnival theme — “Game Night” — on Thursday at The Fence. The annual Chili Cookoff, now under the auspices of the Activities Board, was held on Saturday.

Cèilidh weekend also brought several prominent speakers to Carnegie Mellon, including Rick Atkinson, a Pulitzer-prize winning writer, on Thursday, and Olympia Snowe, a former U.S. Senator, on Friday.

The Department of Psychology also celebrated its centennial, while Scotch’n’Soda held its eighth annual Charity Cabaret. Alumni also had the chance to see the School of Drama’s first main stage production of the semester, a retelling of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing set in 1960s Italy.