Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The institution was originally established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. In 1912, it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology and began granting four-year degrees. In 1967, it became the current-day Carnegie Mellon University through its merger with the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research, founded in 1913 by Andrew Mellon and Richard B. Mellon and formerly a part of the University of Pittsburgh.

The university consists of seven colleges and independent schools: The College of Engineering, the College of Fine Arts, the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences, the Mellon College of Science, the Tepper School of Business, the Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy, and the School of Computer Science. The university has its main campus located 5 miles (8 km) from Downtown Pittsburgh. It also has over a dozen degree-granting locations in six continents, including degree-granting campuses in Qatar, Silicon Valley, and Kigali, Rwanda (Carnegie Mellon University Africa) and partnerships with universities across the United States and in the United Kingdom, Portugal, Japan, China, Mexico, and Italy.

Carnegie Mellon is known for its advances in research and new fields of study, notably being home to many firsts in computer science (including the first computer science, machine learning, and robotics departments), pioneering the field of management science, and being home to the first drama program in the United States. CMU is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very High Research Activity". In 2020, the university had research and development expenditures of $386 million. Past and present faculty and alumni include 20 Nobel Prize laureates, 13 Turing Award winners, 26 members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 39 fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 91 members of the National Academies, 142 Emmy Award winners, 52 Tony Award laureates, and 12 Academy Award winners. Carnegie Mellon enrolls 15,818 students across its multiple campuses from 117 countries, employs more than 1,400 faculty members, and has an active alumni base of over 112,000.