Fox Chapel teen puts design background to good use

This is amazing. Connor, a senior at Winchester-Thurston, put his design skills to good use in the service of Pittsburgh’s homeless community. Our local students are so talented!

When Connor Uretsky followed his brother, Logan, on his rounds assisting homeless people in Pittsburgh, he saw people sleeping under bridges and underpasses in wintry weather and knew he wanted to help.

“I had to create something that was warm and transportable and definitely more mobile than a sleeping bag,” said Connor, 17, of Fox Chapel.

“They have to sleep outside because of overcrowded shelters.”

Connor, a senior at Winchester-Thurston School, is creating a poncho that a homeless person could wear to keep warm during the day and while sleeping.

“I have a strong design background. I’m interested in fashion design, textile design and industrial design. I wanted to combine elements of all these,” he said.

Connor did research to find a fabric that would create something that was transportable, durable, waterproof, breathable and tear-resistant.

For his design, Connor combined Tyvek, an insulating material used in homes, protective packaging, portable vehicle covers and clothing; and a material that reflects body heat back to a person.

Connor used both fabrics in a poncho that has a hood that snaps at the neckline. He designed a deep, front pocket that fastens with Velcro to hold valuables; and a drawstring at the bottom that can be cinched at the waist during the day or drawn down around the feet at night.

Reflecting trim on the pocket and hood makes the user visible in the dark.

Connor’s mother, Susan Uretsky, taught him to use a sewing machine to produce a prototype. He is tweaking the details, and plans to apply for a patent once his design is completed.

“I’m really proud of him,” said Logan Uretsky, 23, who was an outreach leader for Operation Safety Net during his service with the nonprofit AmeriCorps.

Operation Safety Net, part of Pittsburgh Mercy Health System, provides medical care and social services to the chronically street homeless.

“I like that he was inspired by something we did together,” Logan Uretsky said.

A former caseworker with Operation Safety Net says the poncho could be quite useful.

“I think that would assist a lot of homeless people,” says former caseworker Rachel Williams, a Carlow University graduate student in counseling. “They’re constantly struggling with finding clothing that is durable and would keep them warm” in the winter.

Connor intends to ask homeless people to use his product and plans to approach foundations to fund production.

Connor said he hopes to study industrial and product design after graduating from high school and produce “anything that improves human interactions.”

Read more at the Trib Live.

CMU's Women in Technology

Congrats to the CMU students who were selected to present their work at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, one of the largest international gatherings of women in technology! We love to see women pursuing STEM careers. 

The Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing offers a variety of educational and networking opportunities for women in high tech industries, U.S. government positions and academia.

This year, three alumnae from Carnegie Mellon University's Information Networking Institute (INI) were selected to present their unique academic experiences as a panel topic for the conference.

"In the past, the INI has attracted talented prospective students to our programs as a direct result of our participation in the Grace Hopper Celebration," said Dena Haritos Tsamitis, director of the INI. "This year, our efforts have come full circle. The INI is extremely proud to have had our alumnae represented among the conference panelists."

In their presentation titled, "Addressing Real-Life Problems through Academic Projects," Natalie Bennett (E'11), Luz Jaramillo (E'11) and Nandita Rao Narla (E'11) discussed the capstone project they completed for Carnegie Mellon's Disaster Management Initiative in which they created an app to help the emergency medical services community.

The three alumnae recently graduated from their bicoastal master's degree programs that were completed in part at Carnegie Mellon University in Silicon Valley.

"We had an amazing time working on a technology solution that would help people," said Bennett, who now works for Credit Suisse. "We thought telling the students about our project would give them new ideas for career possibilities. There are so many ways we can use technology to make a difference."

Credit Suisse was one of this year's conference participants. Amazon, Google, IBM, Goldman Sachs and Intel are just a few of the other major companies who also participated this year.

Bennett advised attendees to find something they're passionate about in their community and, if they need help on where to start with finding a solution, ask a professor for guidance.

"Find your voice and be confident in what you want to do, and if you're passionate about something, don't put yourself in a box of what society tells you should be or do," Bennett said. "You'll be surprised at the difference you can make."

Jaramillo, a Colombia native, joined an organized group of Latin women in computing whom she met through the conference. She strongly encourages women in computing to attend the event.

"It's a great place to meet people," Jaramillo said. "For me, the most valuable experience is having the chance to talk with senior executives at the conference and get their perspectives on how we can get better at doing our work."

Assistant Professor of the Practice Patricia Collins moderated the panel discussion. She is a member of the graduate studies faculty at Silicon Valley.

Read more at CMU.edu. 

Designer's classic Squirrel Hill garden named to Smithsonian archives

A private garden in Squirrel Hill has been included in the Smithsonian Institution's Archives of American Gardens in Washington, D.C.! The ever-popular Hartwood Acres was also included. Very exciting!

Even as a 13-year-old, Ron Kotcho had an eye for design. Walking to school in Squirrel Hill, he admired a house that looked a little like a French cottage but grander.


Nearly 40 years later, he returned to the same house to design an appropriate garden for its current owner. His design was recently selected for inclusion in the Smithsonian Institution's Archives of American Gardens in Washington, D.C., a collection of more than 7,000 plots and 70,000 images documenting a variety of public and private gardens.

Each year, more are added. In addition to this garden, called "Le Petite Maison," two others are included this year: Hartwood Acres in Hampton and Indiana Township and a Pittsburgh garden identified only as "Reverie." Many already on the list are in the Sewickley Valley, including Newington, a private garden on a little more than 10 acres that dates back to the early 1800s.

The Squirrel Hill project began in 1999 when Mr. Kotcho, 59, met with the owner, who prefers to remain anonymous. It took nearly six months of collaboration to make both owner and designer happy, but it took him only a few more weeks to complete the plans.

The most important thing for Mr. Kotcho is to pair the home with the garden.

"The relationship between the architecture and the garden, to me that's one of the most important things. The garden has to complement the architecture."

Noted Pittsburgh architect Brandon Smith built the house in the late 1940s in the style of a small cottage on the property of a larger chateau or castle.

"The house is designed on a very long axis. It's like looking down a gallery in an art museum. I wanted that to be repeated out here," he said, standing in the garden.

Each room in the home is mirrored in the garden. As visitors walk inside, they see through the windows a garden with a very French flavor. Mr. Kotcho calls the design semi-formal.

"It's not totally symmetrical, but it is very balanced."

'Nikko Blue' hydrangea line the edges of the beds, the blue mopheads perfectly complementing the pure white conical flowers of 'Tardiva' hydrangea. At the far end of the garden, a round mirror seemingly doubles the size of the garden; it's covered with sweet autumn clematis, whose tiny white blooms have recently faded. Under the mirror is a beautiful blue Lutyens bench flanked by planters filled with boxwood and sweet potato vine. It offers a spectacular look back at the garden.

Each outdoor room is carefully thought out, and although it's just 10 years old, the garden seems much more mature. Thick deep green arborvitae reach over 20 feet and act as the bones of the garden, looming over white phlox filled with fat bumblebees buzzing from flower to flower. Other ornamental trees and perennials, sculptures, planters and a fountain all serve their purposes beautifully.

When Sally Foster of O'Hara first saw the garden two years ago, she fell in love. She is co-chair of the Garden Club of Allegheny County's Garden history and design committee and was the person responsible for nominating the garden for the Smithsonian's archives.

"I was blown away by not only the beauty of it, but the care, the flowers and the color scheme. It spoke to me," she said.

She has helped several other Pittsburgh area gardens find their way into the archives and for a good reason. "Gardens are ephemeral. They come and they go. A garden that's important enough to get into the archives will be interesting to scholars down the road."

It took her two years to complete the paperwork and navigate the system to have this garden approved. The Archives of American Gardens began with a donation of glass lantern slides from the Garden Club of America in 1997. Since then, the club has continued to scout out and nominate gardens its members discover. Some are chronicled simply with an historic photo Others are recognized, like Le Petite Maison, with a plan, documentation and photos.

Mrs. Foster said she and her committee are always looking for gardens that might be deserving of a place in the archives. Discovering them is like finding Easter eggs as a child, she said.

"You get to see the most interesting, fabulous gardens, but they don't have to be estates. They don't have to be this big. It's the spirit of the artist who creates that's so interesting to find."

Mr. Kotcho had never heard of the archives before his work was nominated. He's thrilled to see his work alongside places like Mount Vernon and Monticello.

"It was quite an honor to be selected," he said, smiling. "Gardening is a long process. It's a growing art form."

Read more here.

Smart Traffic Signals by CMU Could Ease City Travel Time

Thanks to the talented folks at CMU, getting to our Squirrel Hill office may be a cinch in the future, whether by car or by bus. This new technology is only in East Liberty for now, but we're hoping it will eventually it will spread to the rest of the city as well!

A unique partnership has piloted a new adaptive traffic signal control technology — smart traffic signals — that promises to dramatically reduce harmful vehicle emissions and frustratingly long travel times through urban neighborhoods.

With funding support from three Pittsburgh foundations, Carnegie Mellon University has worked with the City of Pittsburgh and East Liberty Development Inc. to deploy the technology for a network of traffic lights serving the busy East Liberty area of the city.
    
"The reductions of 40 percent in vehicle wait time, nearly 26 percent in travel time and 21 percent in projected vehicle emissions realized in this pilot are remarkable," said CMU President Jared L. Cohon. "I'm proud of CMU's team, which developed this first-in-the-world technology, and am equally proud of the partnership approach typical of Pittsburgh that made this pilot possible."

Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl cheered the pilot's success as "a breakthrough in making our city's traffic system work far more efficiently without having to resort to expensive widening roads, eliminating street parking, or re-routing. It makes the city more attractive to employers and residents alike."

Stephen Smith, director of the Intelligent Coordination and Logistics Laboratory in CMU's Robotics Institute, tackled the difficult challenge of perennially congested road networks in urban centers.

Combining concepts from the fields of artificial intelligence and traffic theory, his team first developed technology to allow traffic signals to communicate with one another and collaboratively adapt to actual traffic conditions in real time. The second step was to establish proof of the concept using a simulation model of Pittsburgh city traffic.

The latest step has been the pilot project that has successfully demonstrated traffic signals have the ability to react to quickly changing conditions, reducing traffic congestion and the resulting extra vehicle emissions. The next step will be to expand the pilot to demonstrate the technology on a bigger scale.

Read the full article here. 

Girls urged to pursue careers involving computer software

New nonprofit organization Girl Develop It is working to encourage more women to become software developers in Pittsburgh. We love seeing organizations like this who help women and girls to pursue their full potential!

An organization that encourages women to consider careers in software development is off to a strong start in Pittsburgh, even though fewer female students and professionals nationwide have been showing interest in the field.


Membership in the nonprofit Girl Develop It chapter in Pittsburgh totaled 134 as of Tuesday. And 60 women have signed up so far to attend a kickoff social on Thursday at mobile commerce and applications developer Branding Brand’s headquarters in the South Side.

“When I went to Pitt, I was the only one, or one of two women in most of my classes as a computer engineering student,” said Julie Pagano, a software engineer at Vivisimo Inc. in Squirrel Hill and one of the chapter’s two founders.

Then, “You get into the field, and there are less people higher up in the field to help mentor women,” said Pagano, a 2007 Pitt graduate. “So there’s the issue that a lot of women drop out. They make it through college, they make it into the field and about mid-career” many leave.

Chapter co-founder Lindsey Bieda, a developer at Branding Brand and a 2009 Pitt computer science grad, said women’s representation in software development peaked in the mid-1980s when personal computers were new and their possibilities were a hot topic.

Since then, the field gradually has become more “masculinized” with a culture that can discourage women, as well as minorities, she said, although Girl Develop It and other organizations for computer professionals have been “pushing back.”

The National Center for Women & Information Technology reports that women accounted for 18 percent of computer and information-science bachelor’s degrees at colleges in 2010 — a 51 percent drop from 1985.

And Girls Develop It’s website says the “budding developer community” is up to 91 percent male.

The organization lists a half dozen established chapters — New York, Columbus, Austin and Philadelphia in the United States, plus Ottawa, Canada, and Sydney.

Classes in programming, socials and “code and coffee” events are held to fan interest in the growing, and typically high-paying profession.

Starting computer science grads can make $56,000 a year, with median salaries for experienced workers of $97,400, the organization said.

Nearly 1.4 million computing-related jobs will be added in the United States by 2018, a 22 percent increase from 2008, the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects.

The University of Pittsburgh has about 230 men and 28 women undergraduates majoring in computer science. For computer engineering, it’s about 172 male and 25 female majors.

Pitt hired Tasha Isenberg in April as outreach coordinator for the computer science department, a new position designed to help balance those gender numbers, as well as encourage more minorities to study computer fields.

“It’s all about breaking down the stereotypes,” Isenberg said, adding the university is sponsoring several programs and awards this academic year aimed at middle and high school girls. The Tech Divas program, for example, brings middle school girls to the Oakland campus for web design, programming and robotics activities.

This fall’s freshman class of computer science majors at Carnegie Mellon University was 28 percent female, down slightly from 32 percent last year. CMU’s School of Computer Science enrolls about 130 freshmen each fall, and this year’s 4,250 applicants set a record.

The university’s Women at SCS program was started in 1999 to connect female students in the freshman through senior classes, plus graduate women across the school’s seven departments, to make sure they don’t miss out on mentoring and other opportunities, said Carol Frieze, the director.

The number of women graduating with degrees in computer science has been declining since 1984,” Frieze said. “We are one of the top schools that has started paying attention to what is going on — we know that in the local community girls are not getting the opportunity to explore technology and increase their skills.”

Read more here.