Released at the beginning of each month, Dietrich College News is your chance to stay up-to-date on the latest news, events and accomplishments of Dietrich alumni, students, staff and faculty.

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Inside the High-Stakes Decisions of the NFL Draft

On NFL draft day, every team has the chance to win — or lose — big. With millions of dollars on the line and just minutes to make a final decision on each pick, a single choice can shape a franchise for years. Carnegie Mellon University experts said those intense moments offer a window into how people make decisions when the stakes are highest.

“Most of what I study has to do with these moments in time when you're about to perform an action, and you know what the outcome might be if you're successful," said Steven M. Chase, a professor of biomedical engineering and the Neuroscience Institute. "So the draft is fun to watch because the stakes are so high for these teams."

Experience can also help bridge that uncertainty. “Under time pressure, seasoned experts are better able to identify which details matter most and retrieve relevant information quickly," said Cleotilde (Coty) Gonzalez, a professor in the Department of Social and Decision Sciences. "If you’re new to the decision-making team, you’re more likely to focus on the wrong signals or rely on instincts that don’t fit the situation."

Learn what else CMU experts had to say about the science of high-stakes decision-making.

Tatyana Gershkovich Receives NEH Fellowship for Book Project 'Tolstoy Red and White'

Carnegie Mellon University’s Tatyana Gershkovich has been awarded a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to support her book project, “Tolstoy Red and White.” A scholar of Leo Tolstoy and Russian literature, Gershkovich’s new work explores how Tolstoy’s writings shaped — and were reshaped by — the turbulent cultural and political landscapes of the 20th century.

The book examines “the way Soviet and émigré readers and cultural producers used Tolstoy’s literary and philosophical works to think through the big societal changes that had taken place — the Revolution, the Civil War, exile — and articulated their competing visions for the 20th century.” Rather than focusing solely on Tolstoy as an author, Gershkovich, an associate professor of Russian studies in the Department of Languages, Cultures & Applied Linguistics, turns to the readers who mobilized his work in different contexts.

“My argument is that for these rival societies it wasn’t just a matter of canonizing or rejecting Tolstoy; rather, his works became cultural resources that these two societies competed to define and draw on in articulating their visions of the future,” Gershkovich said.

Learn how Gershkovich believes the work speaks to the "broader stakes of interpretation."

Income of High-Skill Workers Growing in Rural Areas, Student Research on 'Brain Drain' Finds

In rural areas, the number of low-wage jobs, such as those in retail or warehousing, has increased, research by a Carnegie Mellon University junior found. At the same time, income in rural areas from high-wage jobs, such as those in health care and professional services, has also grown. Kausthub Satluri set out to study “brain drain,” or the movement of skilled and intelligent workers from rural to urban areas, and the way it affects businesses’ productivity. Satluri, a statistics and machine learning major, wanted to dig deeper using data and mathematical modeling.

“This research got me to jump from one idea until I hit a dead end. Then I got to go back, follow another lead, then to another dead end, over and over again,” said Satluri. “We spent the entire summer under one assumption because we saw a bunch of patterns. Then, once we actually dug into it, we came to the realization that maybe there’s a better assumption, so we had to go all the way back then start in another direction.”

Learn how the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship gave Satluri the time and funding he needed to pursue this research.

Faculty Spotlight: Connor Halloran Phillips

Connor Halloran Phillips is an assistant teaching professor in the Carnegie Mellon Institute for Strategy & Technology (CMIST). His research examines interest groups, parties, legislatures and elections in the United States, and he teaches classes on American political institutions. 

"The current partisan discord in federal politics has conspicuously spilled over into state and local government, a phenomenon that political scientists call nationalization," said Phillips. "At the same time, recent research has found that the roots of national polarization actually lie as much in the states as they do in Washington. My work contributes to this emerging literature by exploring the mechanisms through which partisanship in state government fosters polarization in Congress."

Read why Phillips believes computational research methods are redefining political science.

Upcoming Events

• Spring Carnival & Reunion Weekend (Pittsburgh): Coming up on April 9–11, experience a weekend packed full of CMU traditions, from Buggy and Booth to Midway. Support Special Olympics Pennsylvania and Dean Richard Scheines during the Douse-a-Dean Competition on April 10, and make sure to pre-register for Dietrich College Brunch and Buggy on April 11. Additionally, CMU alumni who graduated in years that end in 1 or 6 (i.e. 1976 and 2001) will be celebrating reunions. View the full schedule and plan your weekend today!
  
• President’s Lecture Series (Pittsburgh): "The Combahee River Raid: Finding the Voices Historians Have Not Heard" with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edda Fields-Black, professor of history and director of The Humanities Center. Register by April 10 for the in-person event, set for 4 to 5:30 p.m. on April 13 in Simmons Auditorium, Tepper Building.

• Human Behavior and Analytics in the Draft: Has the Loser’s Curse Been Broken? (Pittsburgh and virtual option for non-CMU students): The night before the 2026 NFL Draft kicks off in Pittsburgh, join the Statistics & Data Science and Social and Decision Sciences departments for the next installment of the Hilliard Family Speaker Series on Behavioral Economics. Cade Massey of the University of Pennsylvania will deliver a talk updating a 2013 paper he co-authored with Nobel Laureate Richard Thaler of the University of Chicago. The researchers found top draft picks are significantly overvalued in a manner that is inconsistent with rational expectations and efficient markets, and consistent with psychological research. A panel discussion will follow, led by Ron Yurko, Carnegie Mellon Sports Analytics Center director, which will include Massey and Karim Kassam, vice president of intelligence at Teamworks. Register for in-person and virtual options for the event, set for 5–6 p.m., April 22, in Giant Eagle Auditorium, Baker Hall A51.
  
• Planet Money Book Launch and Live Taping (Pittsburgh): Join the team behind the popular NPR podcast “Planet Money” as they celebrate the publication of their new book “PLANET MONEY: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life.” Kevin Zollman, Herbert A. Simon Professor of Philosophy and Social and Decision Sciences and director of CMU’s Institute for Complex Social Dynamics, will serve as the special guest interview during the event, set for 7 p.m., April 22, at Carnegie Library Lecture Hall (Oakland). For more information and tickets, visit the Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures website.

• Alumni Events: From cherished, in-person Carnegie Mellon traditions to virtual learning experiences with researchers at the cutting-edge of their fields, CMU offers a variety of events for alumni to connect with each other and the university, expand their knowledge and networking opportunities, and make memories together. Explore alumni events.

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