Stony Brook University SUNY Korea

Stony Brook University Interim President Richard McCormick delivered his first Stony Brook State of the University address on September 25, sharing how the university will meet the challenges it faces while continuing to excel as the flagship university of New York.  McCormick — who previously served as president at Rutgers University and the University of Washington — officially joined Stony Brook on August 1 and formally introduced himself to the university community with the address, sharing his extensive experience and life-long commitment working in higher education. McCormick, who holds a PhD in history, provided “a brief history lesson” on the importance of higher education, highlighting how Stony Brook represents the most important developments in American higher education, including:   Click here to read the original article.

Department of Computer Science Professor Steven Skiena, along with his former students Rami al-Rfou and Bryan Perozzi, received the 2024 KDD Test of Time Award for their work on graph representation learning. The KDD Test of Time Award highlights the long-term value of pioneering research, acknowledging that some papers gain prominence and influence over time. Presented by the Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (ACM SIGKDD), it recognizes a paper that has made a lasting and influential impact on data mining and knowledge discovery.   Click here to read the original article.

Stony Brook University recently announced the launch of its new AI Innovation Institute (AI3), expanding the Institute for AI-Driven Discovery and Innovation established in 2018 from a department-level institute within the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences to a university-wide endeavor. AI3 Interim Director Steve Skiena, a distinguished professor in the Department of Computer Science, led a virtual Town Hall on September 11 to discuss Stony Brook’s AI initiative in more detail. Skiena began by noting the impact that AI is not limited only to high-tech disciplines, but is pervasive technology that affects everybody.    Click here to read the original article.

As a child who suffered from severe childhood asthma, Burton Rocks ’94 got an early lesson in dealing with adversity. Spending much of his school years in hospitals, including Stony Brook, Rocks had to find ways to pass the lonely, solitary hours. One of those ways not only carved a path that enabled him to interact with his heroes but put him on a road that would lead to producing an award-winning documentary almost 40 years later. The 30-minute film, Burton Rocks Calling, includes snippets of interviews with subjects from sports legends like Charles Barkley and Nolan Ryan to Hollywood heavyweights like Buddy Hackett and Mickey Rooney. Rocks even got rare interviews with Negro League legends Buck Leonard and Buck O’Neil, as well as a first-hand account of one of baseball’s most enduring tales of folklore, Babe Ruth’s alleged “called shot,” from Ruth’s teammate, former Yankees player and coach Frank Crosetti. Click here to read the original article.

Transfer Student Convocation is one of the many events and activities that make up New Seawolves Welcome Week.   College life is full of milestone moments. Picking your major. Your first college class. Your last final exam. Interviewing for and perhaps even landing your first full-time job. Walking across the graduation stage. However, the moments no one talks about are those first moments as a college freshman. Emotions are high; some people have never been away from home before. Some miss their siblings. Some cannot get comfortable in a dorm bed. And, it can be lonely.  While we often put emphasis on milestone moments, it is this first touchpoint with the college experience that sets the stage for the entire experience. That’s why Stony Brook University’s New Seawolves Welcome Week has become a critical part of welcoming the newest incoming class to our campus community.  Click here to read the original article.  

Stony Brook University hosted a Technology Innovations Expo on July 23, part of a two-week summer program that ran from July 14-27. Photos by John Griffin.   Spinal cord injuries affect a person’s life in unfathomable ways, with no bodily system left untouched. Each year, 17,000 people in the United States have to confront this life-altering condition, which carries significant physiological and emotional challenges. Stony Brook University hosted a Technology Innovations Expo on July 23, aimed at bettering the lives of individuals with spinal cord injuries. The Expo was part of a two-week summer program that ran from July 14-27, following a well-received program that took place in 2023. Click here to read the original article.  

High school students and instructors in the STEP program visited Canine Companions in July. Photos by John Griffin.   This is the second summer that Professor Mei Lin (Ete) Chan from the Department of Biomedical Engineering and her group have participated in the STEP program, a New York State Education Department effort that encourages and prepares more underrepresented minority and low-income secondary school students for entry into scientific, technical, health and health-related professions, including many areas where licensure is required.  Chan is the academic advisor for 3D PATH, a newly formed student club at Stony Brook University. It is a continuation of a student group called Hands in Hands, which focused on 3D printing prosthetics. Under the leadership of club president Ciara Woellhof, 3D PATH has expanded to include all kinds of 3D-printed assistive technology. The group works with community centers, nursing homes and various high school and elementary students to carry out its initiative.  Click here to read the original article.  

India Pagan practicing with the Puerto Rico women’s basketball team.   Stony Brook University women’s basketball alumna India Pagan is representing Puerto Rico at the 2024 Paris Olympics, the second Olympic appearance of her career. Pagan made her Olympic debut at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, becoming the first Seawolves women’s basketball player, and third Stony Brook student-athlete ever, to compete in the Olympic Games. She also made Connecticut history as the first New London native to compete in the games, and was a member of the first-ever Puerto Rican women’s basketball team to qualify and compete at the Summer Olympics. Click here to read the original article.  

  Two Stony Brook students have been selected as recipients of the Barry Goldwater Scholarship, an award recognizing outstanding undergraduate, PhD-bound students in the natural sciences, mathematics and engineering (STEM). This year’s winners are Gabriella Vaccaro, biochemistry, and Zain Zaidi, chemistry.  For the 2023-2024 academic year, 1,353 students were nominated by 446 academic institutions from a pool of more than 5,000 students nationally. A total of only 508 were selected as scholarship recipients. Each Goldwater Scholar is awarded up to $7,500 towards tuition cost, mandatory fees, books, and room and board for their remaining years of undergraduate study.  “These undergraduates do not dream small; Zain hopes his research will impact climate change through renewable energy and Gabriella is dedicated to getting better results faster using bioinformatics,” said Ashley Staples, director for external fellowships. “Supporting the Goldwater applicants is always an inspirational endeavor, and this year was no exception.” Click here to read the original article.  

Members of the award-winning Office of Marketing and Communications (left to right): Susan Tito, Margot Bennett, Karen Leibowitz, John Griffin, Allison Schwartz, Allie Seal and Jaime Woll. Stony Brook University was honored with 11 awards at the 2024 State University of New York Council for University Advancement (SUNYCUAD) Awards for Excellence, presented at the annual SUNYCUAD Educational Conference in June. The SUNYCUAD Awards for Excellence program rewards the best efforts of talented and creative professionals throughout the SUNY system. Juries with professional experience in the specific categories determine the winners, and judging is hosted and coordinated by colleagues from SUNY institutions. Click here to read the original article.  

  As Stony Brook University’s Student Health Services continues to add new services for students, it is also not resting on its laurels. The department recently received accreditation through the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Services (AAAHS) after a challenging and thorough review of its facilities and offerings.  “[This is] not required but we do this to raise the bar,” said Marisa Bisiani, associate vice president of Health, Wellness and Prevention Services in the Division of Student Affairs. Bisiani explained that this rigorous accreditation surveys a multitude of things, including quality metrics and student satisfaction, and looks at services offered to students. “They survey every single facet of our operation from a medical perspective, our policies, how we practice, how well we practice,” she said. “They also look at our environment of care — is the environment safe and clean. Everything.” Click here to read the original article.

Photo by Jez Coulson, used with permission   Nine students and alumni from the School of Communication and Journalism (SoCJ) were part of a team that won one national and one regional award for a series of stories that aired on WSHU Public Radio earlier this year. The students were part of a 13-person team at WSHU to create a multi-part story, Trash Talkin’, about waste and environmental justice on Long Island.  The awards were a Folio Award, given by the Fair Media Council, and a Continuing Coverage Award, from the Public Media Journalists Association. Click here to read the original article.  

  It is said that the most important quality of a good game is its “replayability.” The same might be said about Stony Brook’s annual Game Programming Competition, presented by the Department of Computer Science in the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Not only did the event recently celebrate its 20th anniversary, but it has maintained relationships that go all the way back to the very first one in 2004.  On May 10, the SAC Auditorium hosted the 2024 event before a live crowd and was broadcast with the help of Stony Brook TV live on Twitch. Richard McKenna, lecturer in the Department of Computer Science and founder and coordinator of the competition, said the event grew out of the game programming course he first taught in 2004.  Click here to read the original article.

EDP 404 students present their capstone project.   During the Spring 2024 semester, students in the Environmental Design Project class (EDP 404) worked with the Faculty Student Association (FSA) as their client to apply the skills they learned into a real-world context of reimagining an outdoor patio space for West Side Dining and the Shore Club at the Student Activities Center (SAC). The project presented a thrilling blend of simplicity and complexity. The challenge: transform the West Side Dining patio into a vibrant, welcoming haven for students to spend their time while ensuring the space is easy to maintain. Meanwhile, for the Shore Club patio, the task was to envision a dynamic space next to the food trucks that serves as a cheerful entry point for students arriving by bus and to craft concepts for extending the Shore Club’s ambiance outdoors for special events and socializing. The SBU Eats dining program is eager to expand these outdoor dining areas and plans to use the innovative ideas from the EDP 404 students to shape future construction projects. Students met with FSA Executive Director Diana Kubik to obtain context about these sites, why these spaces are not functioning up to their full potential, possible constraints, and the plans for the future. As the project progressed, students were provided feedback to develop their ideas further. Click here to read the original article.  

Stony Brook University’s 64th annual Main Commencement Ceremony took place Friday, May 17, attended by the largest number of graduates ever. Photo by Isabel Epstein.   More than 7,700 Degrees and Certificates Conferred Stony Brook University’s Class of 2024 celebrated in front of an enthusiastic crowd full of family and friends at the 64th annual Commencement Ceremony May 17 at Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium. Four years ago, many of the undergraduate students had their high school graduation exercises minimized or canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which also affected the start of their college years. So for many of the students receiving their degrees, this was the first time they could be recognized for their academic achievements in front of the people who helped and supported them along the way. And support them they did — the largest-ever main commencement ceremony crowd filled the seats at LaValle Stadium surrounding the candidates gathered on the field. An overflow area in Frey Hall was provided to allow guests the option to watch the festivities via livestream. Click here to read the original article.