The TechBridgeWorld Seminar Series will present the Fall 2005 V-Unit Presentation on Friday, December 9, 2005, from 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon in Wean Hall 4615A. This semester, a team of students from Carnegie Mellon’s H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management conducted a group V-Unit project to help TechBridgeWorld launch a new public health initiative. This will be the team’s final presentation to examine the possibility of a virtual community that would provide unique opportunities to share best practices among peers in the public health field. As a case study, the students have focused on reproductive health professionals in Peru as potential participants in a virtual community.

The TechBridgeWorld Seminar Series presented a Panel Discussion on “Cultural Intelligence: A Key Factor for an Effective International Development Career” on Friday, October 28, 2005. The panel of distinguished Heinz alumni was moderated by Joe Mertz, Jr., Ph.D., Associate Director of TechBridgeWorld and Associate Teaching Professor at Carnegie Mellon. This was just one of several exciting programs available during the 2005 Alumni Reunion of the H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management entitled: “A Wider Lens: Solutions at the Intersection of Policy-Management-Technology,” October 28-30, 2005, organized by the Heinz School’s Alumni Relations Office. More information is available at www.heinz.cmu.edu/alumni/reunion.

The TechBridgeWorld Seminar Series presented the Summer 2005 V-Unit presentations on Wednesday October 26, 2005. Our recent V-Unit participants shared their experiences to a large and diverse crowd of interested students and faculty. The presentations included:

• Introduction to the V-Unit by Faculty Coordinators Manuela Veloso and Bernardine Dias, and Spring V-Unit Participant Juan Pablo Gonzale
• Ayorkor Mills-Tettey, RI, Title: Investigating the Impact of an Automated Reading Tutor in Ghana, Faculty Advisor: Jack Mostow
• Aditya Chand, HCII, Title: Physical Interfaces for Semiliterate Users, Faculty Advisor: Anind Dey
• Fei Huang, LTI, Title: Detecting Bilingual Medical Term Translations via Web Mining, Faculty Advisor: Stephan Vogel
• Ariadna Font Llitjós, LTI, Title: Developing a Quechua to Spanish Translation System, Faculty Advisor: Jaime Carbonell

The Gulf Times, a daily newspaper based in Doha, Qatar, recently featured an interview with TechBridgeWorld's Founding Director Bernardine Dias. In the interview, Dr. Dias, who is a robotics faculty member at the Carnegie Mellon University campus in Qatar this fall noted: "My biggest excitement about coming here with TBW is that this is our first real foray into the Middle East and the Arab world, which I felt was something really missing from the programme". Read the interview

TechBridgeWorld was recently highlighted at Carnegie Mellon University's 2005 commencement ceremony. In his commencement address President Cohon cited TechBridgeWorld as an important initiative that prepares Carnegie Mellon University students to be global citizens. Dean of SCS, Randy Bryant, added that TechBridgeWorld is one way in which Carnegie Mellon University students are impacting society.

The TechBridgeWorld Seminar Series presented the Spring 2005 V-Unit presentations on Friday, May 6, 2005. Our inaugural V-Unit participants shared their experiences. The two presentations were:

• Obaidullah Khawaja, INI, Title: Ad-hoc Sensor Network for Tsunami Early Warning System. Faculty Advisor: Peter Steenkiste
• Juan Pablo Gonzalez, RI, Title: Statistical Soil Modeling for the Tropics. Faculty Advisor: Drew Bagnell

"Typically, bridges are used to connect people to places. But what about a bridge that connects people to technology?" Thus begins a recent article featuring TechBridgeWorld in the Carnegie Mellon University alumni magazine "Carnegie Mellon Today". The article was written by LeeAnn Baronett, and titled "Building a Bridge to the World's Poorest".