Curt Stone, a Carnegie Mellon University executive-in-residence and the founder and former director of the QoLT Foundry, died suddenly April 26. A memorial service was on April 30 at Fox Chapel Presbyterian Church.

NavPal, an Android smartphone app, was developed through the Robotics Institute's TechBridgeWorld program to provide audio and tactile cues to help guide the visually impaired. The technology and Project Scientist Balajee Kannan were featured in a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article.

Humans and robots will share the stage of the North Side’s New Hazlett Theater at 8 p.m., Friday, April 27 for the Cyborg Cabaret, a variety show designed to make the audience laugh hard and think harder about how technology is changing society.

Men’s Health magazine is sending a team of drivers across the country in an all-electric Ford Focus and will be stopping at Carnegie Mellon’s Electric Garage Thursday afternoon to recharge. The 2012 Electric Car Challenge began April 11 at the New York International Auto Show and, if they arrive as planned in Los Angeles n April 22, will establish a record for the fastest coast-to-coast drive in an electric car.

Carnegie Mellon University will celebrate the third annual National Robotics Week on April 20 with project demonstrations, lab tours of the Robotics Institute, the annual Mobot (mobile robot) Races and a special lecture by Robotics Professor Howie Choset.

The Robotics Institute’s snake robots and orchard automation projects will be on display in Washington, D.C., April 17 as part of AUVSI Day on Capitol Hill, a National Robotics Week event that will highlight robotic and unmanned systems technology.

Robotics Institute spin-off Astrobotic Technology has unveiled a new design and name – Polaris – for its lunar rover, which will prospect for potentially rich deposits of water ice, methane and other resources at the moon's north pole.

NPR’s Marketplace, which airs on 90.5 FM, WESA, at 6:30 p.m., is featuring a week-long series called Robots Ate My Job. Anca Dragan, a PhD student in robotics, is in Wednesday’s report and David Bourne, principal systems scientist in the Robotics Institute, is included in Friday’s installment.

Engineers and managers responsible for research and new product development can learn how and where robotic technology can be applied successfully in the Robotics Professional Education Course, May 22-24 at Carnegie Mellon University’s National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC).

The Girls of Steel, a robotics team composed of high-school-age girls, and the team's robot, Watson, participated in the 10th Pittsburgh Regional FIRST Robotics Competition, March 8-10, at the University of Pittsburgh’s Petersen Events Center, winning two awards, for Website and for Engineering Inspiration. The latter award qualified the team to compete at the FIRST Championship, April 25-28 in St. Louis.