Events and Exhibits

From Divine Design to Darwin: Hunt Institute Exhibition Traces Centuries-Long Journey to Understanding Pollination

CMU’s Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation explores this evolution of human understanding in "To Make a Prairie: Pollination and Human Understanding," running March 17 through June 30. Drawing its title from Emily Dickinson's observation that "To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee," the exhibition reveals how centuries of curiosity, observation, and debate transformed isolated discoveries into scientific consensus.

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Student Advisory Council Celebrates CMU Experiences Through Mapped Memories

As the 2026 spring semester comes to a close, the 2025-2026 Libraries Student Advisory Council (LSAC) is putting the finishing touches on their year-long mapping project to explore how space, memory, and identity shape their journeys at Carnegie Mellon. On Wednesday, April 22, join LSAC from 4:30–6:30 p.m. in Hunt Library’s Sustainability Studio as they showcase unique maps shaped by campus experiences in “Journey to this Spot: Mapping Everyday Life at CMU.”

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Innovative Research Meets Concise Storytelling at CMU’s 3MT Finals

Ten doctoral students lit up the stage as they raced the clock to explain research from fighting cancer to training robot teams to giving AI a sense of touch — all in just three minutes. The Carnegie Mellon University Libraries’ Three Minute Thesis (3MT) Championship, held March 25 in McConomy Auditorium, brought together finalists from across campus and challenged them to make their cutting‑edge work clear and compelling for a general audience.

“Careers for a Changing Climate” Photo Gallery

On Feb. 22, 2026, the Sustainability Initiative teamed up with the Phipps Youth Climate Advocacy Committee (YCAC) to host a career event at Phipps Conservatory. “Careers for a Changing Climate” welcomed almost 100 high school, undergraduate, and graduate students to explore sustainability career paths and network with professionals across the field.

Libraries Celebrates Robotics History at New Robotics Innovation Center

Visitors entering Carnegie Mellon University’s new Robotics Innovation Center (RIC) at Hazelwood Green are greeted by a striking sight. Robots hang overhead in the atrium. Displays trace Pittsburgh and the area’s transformation from a steelmaking powerhouse to a global hub for robotics.

Big Ideas in Three Minutes: CMU Doctoral Students Share Research Shaping the Future

Carnegie Mellon University’s Three Minute Thesis (3MT) pits doctoral students against the clock and each other to explain complex research and captivate their audience in just three minutes. Ten finalists will compete in the 2026 3MT Championship at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, March 25, in the Cohon University Center’s McConomy Auditorium. A livestream will also be available.

Love Data Week Photo Gallery

Each February, the Libraries celebrates Love Data Week as a way to recognize all of the ways the CMU community interacts with data in their research and beyond. This year’s Love Data Week, held Feb. 9–13, explored the theme “Where's the Data?” It encouraged participants to think about the journey of their data from collection to access to preservation.

Hands-On: Lunar New Year Celebration Photo Gallery

On Tuesday, Feb. 17, more than 70 members of the CMU community gathered at Hunt Library to celebrate the first day of the Lunar New Year. Attendees kicked off the Year of the Horse with fortune telling, origami, paper lantern crafts, traditional Lunar New Year eats like dumplings and mandarin oranges, and more at this Hands-On event.

Where Industry Meets Experimentation

For many biomedical researchers, the biggest challenges don’t begin with a lack of ideas — they begin with a lack of access. Health data is powerful but deeply sensitive, and collaborating across institutions, countries, or health systems often raises legal, ethical, and technical concerns. Yet solving today’s most urgent biomedical questions increasingly depends on working across those boundaries. To address this challenge, the University Libraries and NVIDIA brought students, researchers, and industry experts together for a three-day bioinformatics hackathon the first week of January. The goal was to explore how researchers can work together while keeping sensitive health data secure and decentralized — meaning the data stays where it is, rather than being copied into one central place.

“Hands-On: Cocoa and Canvases” Photo Gallery

On Jan. 29, the Libraries celebrated the snowy season and the start of the spring semester with a cozy afternoon painting winter landscapes. More than 60 attendees gathered in Hunt Library to showcase their artistic skills and enjoy some hot chocolate.