Centralight

37 centralight winter '10 Alumni News 37 centralight spring '14 Driving technology development at GM If you drive a vehicle that uses OnStar, you can thank alumnus Darren Smith, '90, for his work. He worked on a team that helped develop the technology from the ground up. "A voice calls you in your vehicle to ask if you're OK? How cool is it to be part of that?" says Smith, director of information technology for General Motors Co. "We had to completely figure it all out. It had never been done." GM is in the middle of one of the largest transformations in corporate history, one in which thousands of new employees are being hired in new software development centers in the U.S. Graduates with a knowledge of SAP, a global enterprise software system which is emphasized at CMU, are being snapped up. "Four out of five students GM hires for SAP-related jobs are from CMU," says Smith. • Jeff Daniels, who attended CMU from 1973 to 1976, visited campus in January for a night of homespun storytelling and guitar plucking, courtesy of the Max and Emily's Concert Series. Daniels talked of his first major audition in New York City, with actors from The Juilliard School, Yale University and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. When Daniels revealed that he had gone to CMU, "they all just kind of looked away," he said. Daniels – and his Emmy – pay a visit to CMU PHOTO BY PEGGY BRISBANE "No matter where you go to school, you can take the stuff you learn there and kick someone else's a--. That audition was 'Terms of Endearment.'" Daniels trotted out his Emmy statuette, which he won last year for best drama actor in HBO's "The Newsroom." He said it was fitting to bring that award back to CMU, where it all began. •

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