KHMER Intellectuals: Carnegie Mellon University

Carnegie Mellon University (also known as CMU or simply Carnegie Mellon) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Since its inception, Carnegie Mellon has grown into a world-renowned institution, with numerous programs that are frequently ranked among the best in the world. In the most recent release of the Top 200 World Universities by Times Higher Education, Carnegie Mellon was ranked 21st overall and 6th in technology. In the 2009 edition, U.S. News & World Report ranked Carnegie Mellon's undergraduate program 22nd in the nation amongst national research universities, and in the 2010 edition its graduate programs in Computer Science 4th, Engineering 6th, Business 15th, Public Affairs 10th, Fine Arts 7th, and Psychology 17th.

www.cmu.edu

The university attracts students from all 50 U.S. states and 93 countries and was named one of the "New Ivies" by Newsweek in 2006. Peer institutions of Carnegie Mellon include Caltech, Case Western, Cornell, Duke, Emory, Georgia Tech, MIT, Northwestern, Princeton, Rice, RPI, and Washington University. Carnegie Mellon is affiliated with at least 15 Nobel laureates.

History

The university began as the Carnegie Technical Schools, founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1900. In 1912, the school became Carnegie Institute of Technology and began granting four-year degrees. In 1967, the Carnegie Institute of Technology merged with the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research to form Carnegie Mellon University. The University’s 140-acre (0.57 km2) main campus is 3 miles (4.8 km) from Downtown Pittsburgh and abuts the campus of the University of Pittsburgh in the city's Oakland neighborhood.

Carnegie Mellon has seven colleges and schools: the Carnegie Institute of Technology (engineering), the College of Fine Arts, the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, the Mellon College of Science, the Tepper School of Business, the School of Computer Science, and the H. John Heinz III College.

In the 1990s and into the 2000s, Carnegie Mellon solidified its status among elite American universities, consistently ranking in the top 25 in US News and World Report rankings. Carnegie Mellon is distinct in its interdisciplinary approach to research and education and through the establishment of programs and centers that are outside the limitations of departments or colleges has established leadership in fields such as computational finance, information systems management, arts management, product design, behavioral economics, human-computer interaction, entertainment technology, and decision science.

Within the past two decades, the university has built a new University Center, theater and drama building (Purnell Center), business school building (Posner Hall), and several dormitories. Baker Hall was renovated in the early 2000s, and new chemistry labs were established in Doherty Hall soon after. Several computer science buildings, such as Newell Simon Hall, also were established, renovated, or renamed in the early 2000s. The university is in the process of building the Gates Hillman Complex and renovating historic academic and residence halls.

Campus

Carnegie Mellon's 140-acre (0.57 km2) main campus is three miles (5 km) from downtown Pittsburgh, between Schenley Park and the Squirrel Hill, Shadyside, and Oakland neighborhoods. Carnegie Mellon is bordered to the west by the campus of the University of Pittsburgh. Carnegie Mellon owns 81 buildings in the Oakland and Squirrel Hill neighborhoods of Pittsburgh.

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. The Cut was formed by filling in a ravine (hence the name) with soil from a nearby hill that was leveled to build the College of Fine Arts building.
The northwestern part of the campus (home to Hamburg Hall, Newell-Simon Hall, Smith Hall, and the site of the future Gates Hillman Complex) was acquired from the United States Bureau of Mines in the 1980s.

In 2006, Carnegie Mellon Trustee Jill Gansman Kraus donated the 80-foot-tall sculpture Walking to the Sky, which was placed the lawn facing Forbes Ave between the University Center and Warner Hall. The sculpture was controversial for its placement, the general lack of input that the campus community had, and its aesthetic appeal.

Research

For the 2006 fiscal year, the University spent $315 million on research. The primary recipients of this funding were the School of Computer Science ($100.3 million), the Software Engineering Institute ($71.7 million), the Carnegie Institute of Technology ($48.5 million), and the Mellon College of Science ($47.7 million). The research money comes largely from federal sources, with federal investment of $277.6 million. The federal agencies that invest the most money are the National Science Foundation and the Department of Defense, which contribute 26% and 23.4% of the total university research budget respectively.

The Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC)

The Robotics Institute (RI)

The Software Engineering Institute (SEI)

The Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII)

The Language Technologies Institute (LTI)

Reputation

Carnegie Mellon's offerings in computer science, engineering, business and economics, public policy and information systems, psychology, and the arts are considered among the best in their fields. Carnegie Mellon is ranked 22nd amongst "national universities" in the most recent US News and World Report national rankings, the 21st in the world and 17th in the US News and World Report High School Counselor Rankings of National Universities. In the Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) ranking of world universities, Carnegie Mellon ranks 12th overall in the United States (20th in the world), fifth in the United States (7th in the world) in the Technology category and 15th in the United States (28th in the world) in the social sciences category. In 2007, Webometrics ranks Carnegie Mellon 12th/13th in the World. Academic Analytics ranked Carnegie Mellon 4th overall in faculty productivity. The university is one of 60 elected members of the Association of American Universities and its academic reputation has led it to be included in Newsweek’s list of “New Ivies”.

Carnegie Mellon is ranked 4th for graduate studies in computer science in 2008, in rankings released by the US News and World Report. Carnegie Mellon is also ranked #15 in the social sciences and #7 in Engineering/Technology and Computer Sciences among Shanghai Jiao Tong University's world's top 100 universities. Detailed information on the rankings of undergraduate and graduate programs at Carnegie Mellon is available on the University website.