Heinz College: 2024 Year in Review
Dear Heinz College Community,
When I became the Dean of Heinz College in 2009, we were still two years away from IBM’s Watson AI defeating Jeopardy champions. The genesis block of the blockchain that became Bitcoin was laid in 2009, the same year Google initiated its autonomous-vehicle program. The Great Recession resulted in severe tech layoffs, and Google and Adobe found themselves the target of cyberattacks. With the rapid development of AI, geopolitical shifts, and potential changes in policy at home and abroad, we find ourselves again in the middle of some transformative changes for technology and society.
I am proud to say that Heinz College is now, as then, well positioned through its faculty and graduates to solve problems at the crucial nexus where humanity, society and technology intersect.
While our programs have grown and evolved in the past 15 years, our mission has stayed constant. From the launch of a master’s degree in AI Management, to new certificate programs, to the important discussion of the role AI plays in arts and entertainment, to the projects our public policy students undertake with state governments, we continue to imbue our students with critical thinking skills and the capacity to harness analytics responsibly to solve important societal problems. We continue to educate “men and women of intelligent action.”
Our faculty engagement in public policy is broad and deep. Our colleagues—including Jonathan Caulkins, Avinash Collis, Martin Gaynor, Rayid Ghani and Michael Smith—have joined me in testifying before Congress, engaging policy makers, and taking on important roles in organizations or committees that advise those policy makers. Our alumni make a significant impact, from gaining elected office to leading unicorn startups.
But we will not rest on our laurels. AI went from answering questions to generating text and images, cryptocurrency turned into a trillion-dollar industry, and rapid changes in the technological, policy, and political landscapes will require focus on what makes us truly distinctive.
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Policy Impact
Faculty Accomplishments
Student, Alumni and Staff Accomplishments
Hosting Extraordinary Events
Academic Matters
Carnegie Mellon University and Heinz College continued to shape the conversation, at state, national and global levels, on consequential societal topics.
Jonathan Caulkins continues to be a leading voice in the research surrounding drug policy. He published papers about drug prohibitions and policy as well as fentanyl sales on the dark web, both written in conjunction with students. Caulkins is also joining the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s Advisory Board in the Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences.
Several of our faculty members made important contributions to energy policy scholarship. Karen Clay and Edson Severnini received funding for a research project investigating what past shifts in home heating methods can teach us about the push for net-zero carbon emissions. Akshaya Jha lent his expertise on power plants, competitive energy markets, and domestic energy usage to media outlets across the country, and served as a panelist for a National Science Foundation workshop on sustainable computing. He also won the 2024 Hicks-Tinbergen Award, given to the author of the best article in the Journal of the European Economic Association, for his paper, “The Private and External Costs of Germany’s Nuclear Phase-Out.”
Our contributions to the health care field continued to break new ground. Rema Padman's Digital Vaccine project won the Health IT in Action award at the Conference on Health IT and Analytics, and she also received the INFORMS Health Applications Section Distinguished Speaker Award. Lowell Taylor won the National Institute for Health Care Management Foundation Research Award for the second time for his paper, "Is There a VA Advantage? Evidence from Dually Eligible Veterans," published in the American Economic Review. Taylor is also the incoming chair of the CMU Faculty Senate. Martin Gaynor served as Special Advisor to the Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division at the U.S. Department of Justice, working on a whole-government approach to competition policy with a particular focus on the health sector.
In the area of AI, we have played an important role both contributing to and convening work at the university on a range of AI policy issues through the Block Center for Technology and Society. The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) granted CMU $6 million to create the AI Measurement Science & Engineering Cooperative Research Center (AIMSEC), a joint CMU/NIST initiative that will be housed in Heinz College. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro helped launch the first-ever NVIDIA AI Tech Community—a new partnership between NVIDIA, Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh—to foster innovation in robotics, autonomy and AI in the city of Pittsburgh.
I, along with three Heinz College faculty members—Brett Ashley Crawford, Dan Green and Karen Lightman—were honored to join CMU’s AI podcast, WHERE WHAT IF BECOMES WHAT’S NEXT, to discuss deepfakes, AI in music, and AI in infrastructure. I had the pleasure of serving on a panel at AI House Davos; at the AI Expo for National Competitiveness; at the Brookings Institution’s Global Conference on Frontier AI; and at the Council on Foreign Relations. I remain humbled to be a member of the White House National AI Advisory Committee, which recently met in San Diego to consider draft recommendations to the incoming administration on balancing innovation and trustworthiness in AI.
A critical presidential election year in the age of generative AI allowed the Block Center to truly shine. The Block Center faculty created a Responsible Voter’s Guide to GenAI and Political Campaigning, as well as a voter’s video guide on AI. As part of Governor Shapiro’s partnership with OpenAI to give state employees access to OpenAI tools with enhanced security and privacy features, state leaders will work with Block Center experts to guide the implementation. Finally, the Center’s faculty hosted a convening with global experts on labor markets and AI, and the Block Center’s Chief Technologist, Tom Mitchell, co-chaired a much-awaited National Academies report on AI and the future of work.
Our students also took advantage of an opportunity to shape policy. Members of our Master of Arts Management program traveled to Washington, D.C., to meet with Congressional staffers and officials from the National Endowment for the Arts to advocate for arts and cultural policies.
Our faculty continued to produce groundbreaking work this year, and they received well-deserved recognition for it. Michael D. Smith received the Phillip E. Frandson Award for Literature for his book, “The Abundant University: Remaking Higher Education for a Digital World.” He and Rahul Telang shared the 2024 INFORMS ISS Practical Impacts Award, which honors distinguished information systems academics who have demonstrated outstanding leadership and sustained impact on the industry, and Smith received the ISS Distinguished Fellow Award.
I once again want to congratulate members of our faculty who were appointed to chaired professorships this year:
- Lee Branstetter, as the James M. Walton Professor of Economics
- Karen Clay, as the Teresa and H. John Heinz III Professor of Economics and Public Policy
- Amelia Haviland, as the Eugene Barone Professor of Health Systems Management
- Anna Mayo, as the Anna Loomis McCandless Career Development Professor in Organizational Behavior
- Ananya Sen, as the Alfred Blumstein Career Development Professor. Sen was also named to the 2024 class of Andrew Carnegie Fellows.
David Krackhardt received a Distinguished Scholar award from the Organization and Management Theory Division of the Academy of Management, and gave the keynote address at the Academy’s conference this year. He also received the Social Network Society's Distinguished Scholar Award, the second such award SNS has ever granted. Denise Rousseau was granted a Distinguished Scholar Award from the Academy of Management’s Organization Development and Change Division.
Edson Severnini received the award for Outstanding Publication from the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists for his paper on the role of non-climate regulations. Amelia Haviland and Dan Nagin received Editor’s Choice recognition for their paper, “Changes in Crime Rates during the COVID-19 Pandemic,” in the journal Statistics and Public Policy.
Two members of our Master of Entertainment Industry Management faculty won top awards in their fields. Michele Smith earned a Grammy Award for Best Historical Album at the 66th Grammy Awards in February. Tommy Oliver won an Emmy Award for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking for “Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project.”
Our faculty continued to contribute to the important conversations in their fields by appearing on panels and speaking at key events. Avinash Collis, Anand Rao, Brian Kovak, Holly Wiberg, Rahul Telang, Laura Synnott and others all volunteered their expertise. Discourse like this ensures that Heinz College remains at the fore of important conversations, and for their efforts I am proud and grateful.
The National Science Foundation invited Alessandro Acquisti to co-chair the 2024 Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace Principal Investigators meetings. Brett Ashley Crawford gave the keynote address on “The Art of Engagement: How AI and Technology are Transforming Audience Experiences” at the Arts, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation Lab, part of the Center for Cultural Affairs at the University of Indiana. Crawford and Dan Green presented on “Integrating Artificial Intelligence Into Arts and Entertainment Management Education” at the Association of Arts Administration Educators' conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico, this summer. Crawford also published a book, “Raising the Curtain: Technology Success Stories from Performing Arts Leaders and Artists,” and Green participated in two talks for the European Network on Cultural Management and Policy.
Kristen Kurland received a grant from the Richard King Mellon Foundation to study the quality of life in Downtown Pittsburgh, and she will also co-chair a committee for the National Academies. The National Science Foundation awarded a grant to Woody Zhu to use machine learning to study seismic activity, and he was also selected as a GenAI Fellow at the Center for Intelligent Business at CMU’s Tepper School of Business. Speaking of generative AI, Raja Sooriamurthi and Peter Zhang were awarded a Generative AI Teaching as Research fellowship from CMU’s Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence and Educational Innovation. The Eberly Center also selected Jillian Stephenson as a 2024-25 Provost’s Inclusive Teaching Fellow.
If the art of teaching is indeed the art of assisting discovery, our students could not be in better hands. Congratulations to all of our faculty.
Student, Alumni and Staff Accomplishments
Four Heinz alumni were honored as part of CMU’s 2024 Tartans on the Rise. Congratulations to Tomas Aftalion, Nick Cotter, Torrell Jackson and Camille Moore. CMU also honored Malia Cohen, the first African American to be elected as California’s State Controller, with an Alumni Achievement Award. Katelin Avenir, a 2024 Health Care Analytics graduate, received a 2024 Carnegie Mellon Women's Association Award. Public Policy and Management student Phidor Kong received a prestigious Quad Fellowship, an international program designed to create a community of scientists and technologists.
In keeping with our mission of addressing complex public affairs problems in U.S. cities since our founding in 1968, each of the top four teams in Allegheny County’s Local Government Case Competition included Heinz students. Undergraduate Information Systems major Adrian Poznanski was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa Society in January; IS major Karissa Dunkerley was selected for early initiation in December; and Jocelyn Morningstar was selected as an Andrew Carnegie Society Scholar.
For years, our students have tested their skills with capstone projects and immersive-learning courses, and this year was no different. A group of students in Chris Goranson’s Policy Innovation Lab created a program called GovScan, a generative AI tool that can summarize information from troves of government documents. Another student project used AI and machine learning to detect drug interactions in patient health records.
Two of our Information Security Policy and Management students presented at the SecureWorld Conference in Boston this year, and another, Prasiddha Sudhakar, received the 2024 Critical Language Scholarship. Several Entertainment Industry Management students participated in CMU’s International Film Festival, including Ritika Gokhale, who worked as a producer on a collaboration between the IFF and NBCUniversal.
Ph.D. alumna Yiye Zhang was part of a team that won the American Medical Informatics Association’s Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources application competition, using AI to calculate the risk of postpartum depression.
I am as proud of our students’ desire to improve life inside the walls of Hamburg Hall as I am of their efforts elsewhere. This year, several students founded a CMU chapter of the Association of Latino Professionals for America to provide a platform for professional connections and networking with the University of Pittsburgh, City of Pittsburgh, and ALPFA chapters across the country. That same pride extends to our office of Diversity, Inclusion, Climate and Equity, which works so hard, through cultural events, outreach, and feedback, to ensure that everyone in Heinz College feels heard, safe and supported.
By taking an active role in policy discussions at the local, state and federal level, we not only reaffirm our position as a thought leader in the AI, cybersecurity, health care, and public affairs spaces, but we create opportunities for our students to engage with policymakers. There is no better example than State and Local Government Week, which featured talks with former Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto and Akbar Hossain, the Secretary of Policy and Planning for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter and Rob Shriver, the Acting Director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, visited Heinz. Our students interacted with Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg during his visit to CMU, and Heinz hosted a debate between candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives at the Barbara Daly Danko Political Forum in January.
In an attempt to foster informed and respectful dialogue on the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, Heinz College—under the leadership of Associate Dean Dareen Basma—collaborated with the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences to create “Deeper Conversations,” a series of events designed to illuminate the historical, political, cultural, and narrative background of the war. These events included book discussions, an examination of the role misinformation plays in the perception of the war, and the history of the conflict in the region. We created a follow-up series of events under this umbrella discussing the U.S. presidential election. It is incumbent upon universities to lend scholarship and nuance to important issues, and I am proud of our work on this series.
It is also incumbent upon universities to ensure their graduates are positioned to make an impact, and we took another step in that direction through our new partnership with the NobleReach Foundation to create an open-source curriculum for AI in public service. NobleReach’s CEO, Arun Gupta, visited Hamburg Hall for a talk, and Quentin Auster, a recent graduate, was selected to be a part of the new NobleReach Scholars program while working as a data scientist for the Food and Drug Administration. A visit from arts administrator and executive Aubrey Bergauer, who discussed her book “Run it Like a Business" with MAM students, also contributed to our students' readiness for the workforce.
I am grateful for another year of collaboration with the Center for Africanamerican Urban Studies and the Economy (CAUSE) for our joint speaker series, which this year featured discussions on incarceration, civil rights, and class. This year, Heinz College hosted Michele Tomasic, the Deputy Director of Women in CyberSecurity (WiCyS) for a discussion about women in leadership in the security field. Dr. Nadia E. Brown, a professor and chair of the Women's and Gender Studies Program at Georgetown University, joined us for a discussion on the role that race and gender play in the U.S. election. And Chelsea Jones, a voting rights researcher at NYU Law School’s Brennan Center for Justice and a Heinz alumna, visited for a talk discussing race and voting access.
We also hosted events featuring leaders and changemakers. Dominique Shelton Leipzig, a partner at the international law firm Mayer Brown who specializes in cybersecurity and data privacy, fintech, and technology, gave a talk about AI governance and risk mitigation. The PwC Digital Transformation and Innovation Center hosted The University Exchange in April. Discussing “AI Horizons: Trust, Policy, and the Innovations of Tomorrow,” the event featured Heinz and CMU AI minds, the former U.S. Chief Data Scientist, and more than 30 C-suite executives.
These days, there are plenty of great institutions in which to learn how to create and train AI models; indeed, the proliferation of open-source software has further lowered the barrier for doing so. But to implement that model, to take a systems point of view, to ensure that the AI system is safe and trustworthy, and to make sure it can generate business value, requires a different skillset altogether. No one is better positioned than Heinz College to offer that skillset, and so this year we launched our new Master of Science in AI Systems Management (AIM) degree.
The new program combines Heinz College’s management science and operations research background with its expertise not only in AI, but in ensuring that AI serves its purpose and serves it fairly. The first students in the program will enroll in Fall 2025. We also collaborated with CMU’s Online Education Unit to create the Managing AI Systems certificate, a 12-month, online program that will teach students to deploy, scale and sustain the right AI solution, regardless of their technical background. To ensure our Executive Education programs continue to provide the latest in methods and technologies to our students, we reimagined our Chief Data Officer program as a Chief Data and AI Officer certificate. In this way, we will leverage the great AI researchers and practitioners at Heinz College while deepening our relationships with industry partners.
I am proud to represent one of the schools working with the Volcker Alliance on its Deliberative Discourse initiative. Through an academic concentration, speaker series, open discussions, and a fellowship, Deliberative Discourse aims to integrate respectful communication skills into multiple parts of the student experience. At a university, where inclusion and respect must coexist with the freedoms of speech and expression, this is some of the most important work we can do.
Our faculty has been strengthened through the addition of Karl Maschino, a Heinz College alum and previously the Chief Administrative Officer, Chief Financial Officer, and the Co-Chief Risk Officer of the U.S. Government Accountability Office. His years of experience in the federal public sector will add considerable capacity to our curriculum and experiential learning projects both in Pittsburgh and Washington.
Finally, I am so honored by the creation of an endowment fund in my name, which will support students across Heinz College with a preference for those with financial need. We are committed to reducing barriers at Heinz, and this endowment will help us do just that.
This year added another layer to our foundation of intelligent action, and I am so proud of what we have done. May you have a wonderful holiday season, and let us look forward to another excellent year.
Sincerely,
Ramayya Krishnan
Dean, Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy