Carnegie Mellon University is celebrating the expansion of its West Coast Campus at Moffett Field, Calif., with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and tour of its new headquarters in Building 23 on the historic Shenandoah Plaza in NASA Research Park at Moffett Field.
The Shenandoah Plaza is adjacent to NASA Ames Research Center and is part of the 213-acre NASA Research Park the agency is developing.
“We are delighted to celebrate this ribbon cutting ceremony today with Carnegie Mellon University that signals a strengthening of our collaborative relationship with this prestigious academic institution,” said G. Scott Hubbard, director of NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. “We congratulate our colleagues on the opening of this new Carnegie Mellon West Coast Campus at historic Shenandoa Plaza and look forward to working closely with them in the future,” Hubbard added.
“This celebration marks another milestone in our initiative to establish a presence in the Silicon Valley,” said Carnegie Mellon President Jared Cohon. “We have been working since 1999 to develop research programs with NASA and Valley companies, establish educational programs, offer special internship and work opportunities to our students at the Pittsburgh campus and create stronger ties with our nearly 3,000 alumni who live and work in the Valley.”
Since Carnegie Mellon signed a memorandum of understanding with NASA in January 2000, it has established a campus and received a $23.3 million grant from NASA to develop and lead a High Dependability Computing Program (HDCP) in concert with five other universities.
The West Coast Campus opened for classes in September 2002, with 56 students enrolled in three programs leading to a master of science degree in information technology. The first graduation ceremony was held on Aug. 29, 2003. Coursework in the programs is built around the concept of ‘learning by doing.’ Classes feature hands-on, project-oriented, apprenticeship-based and individually mentored activities that emphasize teamwork and collaboration. They mirror situations likely to be encountered on the job.
This past summer, in conjunction with NASA, the campus hosted its second season of RoboCamp, a seven-week summer program for Bay Area high school seniors who built and programmed their own autonomous mobile robots. The program will be offered again in 2004.
The West Coast Campus research agenda is based on high dependability computing, which is critical to NASA missions, as well as industry and computer users everywhere. Under the HDCP, more than 50 scientists are developing testbeds to ensure that mission-critical software has been analyzed and tested in the same deliberate, thorough way that is the hallmark of other engineering disciplines.
“We’re focusing on the needs of Silicon Valley companies through our educational programs in software engineering, e-business and learning sciences, and bringing our expertise in research through the HDCP,” said Carnegie Mellon Vice Provost for Research Duane Adams.
“Today, our research focuses on studying different problems in high dependability computing. Over the long term, we plan to initiate other research programs – i.e. in robotics and cybersecurity,” he added.
“We would like to be a positive force in the economy of Silicon Valley by adding our culture of interdisciplinary problem solving to an already strong educational mix,” said Raj Reddy, Simon University professor and director of the West Coast Campus. “We look forward to working with NASA on the further development of their research park.”
For more information about Carnegie Mellon and its West Coast Campus, see:
www.cmu.edu and http://west.cmu.edu/
For more information about the NASA Research Park, see:
