Stony Brook University SUNY Korea

Stony Brook President Maurie McInnis announced sweeping investments in research at the Campus Conversation on Accelerating Research, held online on Friday, October 15.     “Today is a start of a new and exciting chapter in Stony Brook history, because we’re going to be talking about making investments, hiring, looking ahead, and planning what comes next for this great institution,” said McInnis. “When I first came here, one of the things I was committed to was expanding our research. Today we’re going to talk about some of the work that we’re doing to enhance our research portfolio. As I speak with people in the Stony Brook community, I sense a greater degree of optimism of hope and a sense that exciting things are coming.”     Joining McInnis in the webinar were Paul Goldbart, executive vice president for academic affairs and provost, Richard Reeder, vice president for research, and Alfredo Fontanini, professor of neurobiology and behavior, who was recently appointed as Stony Brook’s first vice provost for research and infrastructure.     McInnis began by clarifying the initiative, providing a bigger picture of what this investment means.     “We’re talking about all disciplines, including the humanities, the social sciences and the creative arts,” she said. “We’re talking about the English professor who’s writing a book on Indian captivity narratives; the historian who is writing about race and race relations between India and Africa; the soprano who is preparing for performance with one of the world’s great opera companies; and the economist who is working on the effects of COVID-19 through network simulation and big data.”     Goldbart echoed the importance of multidisciplinary collaboration.     “Having this full spectrum of research is one of the things that makes Stony Brook incredibly exciting,” he said. “We have ethicists and philosophers, microbiologists and ecologists, anthropologists, chemists, linguists, neuroscientists humanists and physician scientists all striving to understand the world more deeply and elevate the human spirit. It’s remarkable. We’ve had inspiring conversations with people in music and people in history and other disciplines, learning from each other about what draws them to their scholarship and research. It’s an example of our deep commitment to the full spectrum of research.”     Accelerating research title     Goldbart also announced that Stony Brook is moving ahead with faculty hiring, with a goal to hire more than 50 tenure and tenure track faculty this year and next year, hopefully by September 2022.     “As we engaged with faculty across the spectrum, we saw that there are critical roles to be played by people in the arts, people in the humanities, and people in social sciences as well as people in STEM fields,” Goldbart said. “This diversity is the heart of the Stony Brook future.”     Reeder discussed two important current pieces of legislation in Congress, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the reconciliation bill. “This legislation has provisions for tens of billions of dollars for new research and development,” he said, noting that agencies including the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, the Department of Energy, NASA, and the Department of Defense would all see significant budget increases. “Some of the priority topics that have been highlighted, like climate and clean energy, quantum information, and health-related topics, are very important to us.”     Reeder also said the U.S. Innovation in Competition Act (USICA) has broad bipartisan support, and identifies 10 focus areas that need to have additional funding. “These 10 focus areas are what we really use to define our focus teams,” he said. “There is a pilot project sponsored by both the Provost’s Office and my office with the goal of constructing teams of subject matter experts that would be nimble and able to respond to funding opportunities as early as possible.“     Fontanini discussed the work of the Strategic Research Council, a committee he created that advocates for researchers. “It expresses the needs of the faculty and the research active faculty,” he said. “One of these needs was for a standing committee on campus that would advocate for research and research support in administration and identify challenges and opportunities and provide actionable advice.”     To this end, Fontanini, Goldbart and Reeder meet on a monthly basis.     “The overarching goal is to support research here at Stony Brook,” Fontanini said. “The more practical goal and ambition of ours is to increase health and research investment. But we need to connect our researchers and administration. We need to facilitate communication and putting a clear governance in place via the Strategic Resource Council will make everyone’s life much easier. We’re working hard on these challenges.”     McInnis pointed to the interdisciplinary nature of Stony Brook’s research and the need to bring disciplines together to tackle immediate real-world challenges like climate science, healthcare disparity, and injustice.     “These are vitally important conversations for us to be having right now,” she said. “What we’re talking about when we say we’re accelerating research is supporting our faculty across all of our disciplines to work together in tackling these far-reaching challenges.”     — Robert Emproto

The impact of climate change on Long Island is visible almost anywhere you look. A new WSHU podcast, Higher Ground, produced with help from faculty and students at Stony Brook’s School of Communication and Journalism, was recently featured on the nationally syndicated National Public Radio show “Science Friday.”     Higher Ground graphicProduced by J.D. Allen, WSHU assistant news director and journalism instructor, the podcast takes an in-depth look at the effects of our changing climate on Long Island’s culture and history, economy, and power distribution systems. It also explores regional pollution and the social costs of climate change on low-income and other disadvantaged communities.      “We are so excited to share Higher Ground with the WSHU listening audience and the broader community around the country,” said Rima Dael, WSHU general manager. “When we surveyed our listeners recently about what kind of stories and news they wanted, 80 percent of them said they wanted environmental stories. We’re so happy to respond with this podcast. These episodes are not just stories; they share solutions to climate issues that are impacting our communities locally, and that are representative of national and international climate issues we all face.”     The podcast also featured researchers from the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS) and was created with help from Stony Brook students.      “We wanted not just to report on the effects of climate change, but to look at possible solutions,” said Terry Sheridan, WSHU news director and another journalism instructor at Stony Brook. “This is something that we have to deal with sooner rather than later.”     The eight-episode series encompasses almost all of Long Island’s Suffolk County, from North Shore’s Setauket to the Hamptons on the South Shore. It ventures into Nassau County as well, to explore endangered birds at Lido Beach and the historic bay homes of Hempstead.     “Climate change is inescapable on Long Island; many of us have seen sea levels rise, and we all bear memories of the increasingly frequent ‘storms of the century,’” said Laura Lindenfeld, dean of the School of Communication and Journalism and executive director of the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science. “Though we all live with climate change everyday, we will continue to struggle with how to adapt to it without help from in-depth conversations and stories like those featured on Higher Ground.”     Donovan Finn and Lesley Thorne, both assistant professors at SoMAS, were featured in episodes, along with Kimberly Lato, one of Thorne’s PhD students.     “Higher Ground tackles the complexities of climate change in a very personal way,” said Donovan, who also directs the environmental design, policy and planning program at SoMAS. “It’s an incredibly timely and important topic because climate change is going to fundamentally alter the lives of every Long Islander in the future, and Higher Ground confronts the implications of these hard choices in a really compassionate way by giving voice to the real people who will be most affected. It’s a moving and effective piece of journalism.”     Kelly Hills-Muckey, a genetics PhD student who is also earning an advanced graduate certificate in communicating science, and journalism major Sara Ruberg worked as associate producers of the podcast, helping with research and fact checking. Joshua Joseph, another journalism student, produced the graphics.     “I contributed research I’ve done in the past on these topics and then helped to coordinate each episode’s theme and sources and how different climate topics are impacting Long Island,” said Ruberg, a senior from Cincinnati. “Climate change reporting and environmental reporting is something I’m passionate about. I learned a lot about climate science, and I love going deep into ongoing issues and getting the context and the full story.”     The podcast was supported by the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science and the Kavli Foundation.      Subscribe to Higher Ground on Apple, Google, Spotify and Stitcher.

Bill Siemering, a pioneer in radio broadcasting, will deliver a virtual lecture on Wednesday, October 20, about his storied career and the ongoing power of public radio. Hosted by the Stony Brook University School of Communication and Journalism, the event is part of the School’s My Life As Speaker Series.      A central figure in the creation of National Public Radio (NPR), Siemering is the author of its original mission statement. He served as a member of the organization’s founding board of directors.      He was then hired as NPR’s first director of programming, and developed the popular program “All Things Considered,” as well as other NPR original programs including “Fresh Air” and “Soundprint.” While manager of WHYY in Philadelphia, he collaborated with station staff to develop “Fresh Air with Terry Gross” from a local to a national program.     “Bill Siemering is a trailblazer in radio,” said Laura Lindenfeld, dean of the School of Communication and Journalism. “Many of our students have developed passions for audio journalism through our partnership with NPR member station WSHU, and we are excited they’ll have the opportunity to hear and learn from such an influential figure in the world of radio.”      Siemering began his career in radio and worked his way through the University of Wisconsin at the university station and state-wide FM Network. There, he learned the basics of broadcasting, from engineering to on-air work. He went on to manage public radio stations WBFO, SUNY Buffalo, and KCCM in Moorhead, Minnesota.      In 2004, he started Developing Radio Partners to enrich the programming of community radio stations in Africa.      Siemering is currently a senior fellow at the Wyncote Foundation in Philadelphia.     The lecture and a question-and-answer session will stream live beginning at 7 pm to the School of Communication and Journalism’s YouTube, Facebook and Twitter accounts.

The closing reception for Stony Brook University Art Professor Nobuho Nagasawa’s installation, “Drawn to the Light,” will be held on Saturday, October 16, from 2 pm to 6 pm at the Westwood Gallery in New York City. Her solo exhibition has been on display since August 19, where visitors have been sharing their stories of the loss of loved ones due to COVID-19.     Nagasawa exhibit Throughout the exhibit, Nagasawa stenciled hundreds of luna moths on one of the gallery walls, marking a visual memory that connects to emotional memory. As part of the closing reception, starting at 2 pm, Nagasawa will begin to erase the moth drawings created together with the community as a symbolic act of release for all we have lost during COVID-19.      Then at 4 pm, Stony Brook University Theatre Arts Professor Izumi Ashizawa will perform, “And, Into Thin Air,” which is a movement performance of art in dialogue with Nagasawa’s installation. Through her concentrated movements, Ashizawa will guide the audience to release their memories of loved ones.

Zhenhua Liu, from the Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics in the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences (CEAS), has received the prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) Early CAREER Research Award. He will receive a total of $533,000 to develop his project, “An adaptive framework to accelerate real-time workloads in heterogeneous and reconfigurable environments.”     Artificial intelligence and machine learning are enabling real-time decisions based on live data for interactive scientific discovery and mission critical applications such as autonomous driving and smart grid. They are increasingly powered by heterogeneous and even reconfigurable accelerators. Today, managing heterogeneous and reconfigurable systems for diverse workloads with high resource utilization and performance guarantee is an extremely challenging task and can slow down scientific discovery and waste computing resources and energy.     Liu’s research aims to design an adaptive framework that automatically detects, profiles, and analyzes both workloads and accelerators on the fly. The developed framework will provide provable performance even with partial information in unknown environments, which is urgently needed due to the ever-increasing system complexity and volatility in workloads.     “This technology has the potential to improve the efficiency of costly computing systems, which saves energy, makes better use of existing investments, and leads to a net savings to taxpayers,” said Joe Mitchell, chair of the Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics. “Zhenhua’s research will have broader impacts too, bringing educational innovations, outreach, and opportunities for both academic and industrial participants to train the next generation of researchers and practitioners for society as a whole.”     “The NSF CAREER award is one of the most prestigious honors for junior faculty members,” said Jon Longtin, interim dean, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences. “Zhenhua’s well-deserved accomplishments fuel our research enterprise with scientific discoveries that address today’s biggest societal challenges while enhancing the opportunities we provide to our students. I wish to extend my heartfelt congratulations to Zhenhau and look forward to his future contributions to CEAS!”     Liu’s research interests include sustainable computing and networking systems, cloud platforms for big data applications and energy management, and renewable energy integration. He develops and applies techniques from distributed systems, nonlinear optimization, game theory, and online algorithms for these systems. In particular, his research combines rigorous analysis and system design, and goes from theory, to prototype, and eventually to industry to make real impacts. In addition to the CAREER award, Liu was recently awarded the IBM 2020 Global University Program Academic Award, ACM SIGMETRICS 2021 Rising Star Research Award, ACM SIGMETRICS 2021 Test-of-time Paper Award, and INFOCOM 2020 Best Paper Award.     The NSF’s Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award is a Foundation-wide program that offers the NSF’s most prestigious awards in support of early-career faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through research and education. The awards, presented once each year, include a federal grant for research and education activities for five consecutive years.

Susan Y. Lee, MD, associate professor of clinical medicine at Stony Brook’s Renaissance School of Medicine, is an inaugural winner of the INSPIRE Award from the American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA). She received the award — along with her colleague Dr. Ankita Sagar from the Zucker School of Medicine Hofstra/Northwell Health — for starting a Women in Medicine Series for the New York Chapter of the American College of Physicians (ACP). Dr. Lee is also governor of the ACP New York Chapter.     The AMWA Leadership Council established the INSPIRE Awards to recognize women physicians who personally and/or professionally provide inspiration to other physicians or students through expert and compassionate patient-oriented medical care, or through mentorship, or service to the community. INSPIRE recipients were nominated by their peers, or their students, and selected by AMWA leaders. A total of eight accomplished women physicians who exemplify the highest values in vision, integrity, service, and collaboration in medicine received the award.     Dr. Lee is an internist and medical director of Stony Brook Primary Care, an accredited Patient Centered Medical Home. She received her MD from New York University School of Medicine and completed post-doctoral training at New York Hospital Cornell Medical Center.

C.J. Yeh, assistant chair of Illustration and Interactive Media, has been named Featured Artist of the Week by Taiwan Contemporary Art Archives, a database established by the Association of the Visual Art in Taiwan.     Screenshot of a figure facing a screen with thumbs-up symbols     Yeh’s featured work, an installation titled “LikeMe777,” is a satire on the narcissistic practice of using social networks for the purpose of self-promotion. This interactive software program tracks and “likes” every movement the viewer makes within the view of the camera. Once a random “magic number” of likes has been accumulated, a kitschy visual celebration explodes onto the screen commemorating this achievement and showering the viewer with blatant, artificial praise. This visual love-fest concludes with a shameless self-promotion of the artist’s own Facebook page (facebook.com/cyeh777), urging the viewers to return the favor and become his fan on the platform.

Title : Blessing Blossoms X Jeong-nam Seong Hat Exhibition Duration : October 2021 – The end of the semester Content : About 10 hats and headpieces designed for costumes displayed at the Blessing Blossom exhibition. It consists of elaborate headpieces produced by Jeong-nam Seong, using traditional hat materials and techniques such as feather, hair horse mesh, wool felt, and harmony.

Prof. Bruce Jo received a contract of $100,000 worth project “Magnetic and Inertial Sensing Fusion for the Space Localization and Navigation”.     Read more ➡️ http://www.businesskorea.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=80349

Robert (Bob) Fisch, founder and former chairman and CEO of rue21, award-winning author of Fisch Tales: The Making of a Millennial Baby Boomer, and a member of the FIT Foundation board of directors, has launched the Bob Fisch Graduate Student Award Program.     The program, which includes a $300,000 gift and an intergenerational mentoring strategy, features an award for entrepreneurial excellence, thesis project grants, and graduate scholarships for students in FIT’s Fashion Design MFA and Global Fashion Management MPS programs. Fisch—widely recognized as a pioneering merchant for his bold and successful innovations in value-priced, fast fashion retailing—will mentor students for an extraordinary one-on-one experience.     “Thanks to Bob’s commitment to nurturing creativity in the next generation of industry leaders, FIT is the proud recipient of this $300,000 gift,” said FIT President Joyce F. Brown. “It will establish an unprecedented series of opportunities that will benefit students in our graduate Global Fashion Management and Fashion Design programs.”     “I am delighted to present this gift to FIT to help nurture the careers of future leaders in the retail space,” Fisch said. “As the leading college of its kind in America, FIT serves as a major talent pipeline, which I hope to help enrich through the establishment of this new program. I’m a firm believer in the benefits of intergenerational bonding and mutual mentoring as there is much I can learn from the students’ questions and curiosity, just as they can learn from my answers and experience. I teach them business—they teach me life.”     The program includes:     a $25,000 award for entrepreneurial excellence, given to one standout recipient for the best business plan and design presented during the graduate capstone ceremony 10 graduate scholarships for academic excellence, awarded to students in the Global Fashion Management and Fashion Design programs 33 thesis-project completion grants for students in the Global Fashion Management MPS and Fashion Design MFA programs In addition to establishing this awards program, Fisch is an active member of the FIT Foundation, guest lecturer, and mentor/advisor at FIT. Under Fisch’s leadership, rue21 was also the subject of FIT’s Fashion Merchandising Capstone Project in 2016.

Visitors to Bloomingdale’s 59th Street flagship have been enjoying a visual treat courtesy of FIT’s Illustration Department: chalk murals celebrating six Broadway shows playing now, including Dear Evan Hansen and The Lion King. FIT students and alumni conceived of and painted the murals (using a chalk suspension) to coincide with a September 9 shopping event promoting the reopening of Broadway.     Because the event took place two days before the 20th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, the artists included a mural recognizing that tragic event. In addition, they painted three panels depicting sushi-based flights of fancy to acknowledge a restaurant sponsor.     The project was similar to ChalkFIT, the college’s annual outdoor art display created by seniors studying Illustration. Dan Shefelman, chair of the Illustration and Interactive Media Department, chose these artists based on whose ChalkFIT murals had impressed him in recent years. Alumni mentored students to conceive of and execute each mural.     Mural of saxophone player, runner, and others     Bloomingdale’s not only paid the artists, they donated to the FIT Foundation. Shefelman hopes the project can be a model for future art installations, providing an income source for working artists.     “My goal is to offer murals as a business that produces projects all over and hires exclusively FIT students, alumni, and faculty,” he says.     Bloomingdale’s execs were thrilled with the results.     “We know they had a bump in sales that day,” Shefelman says. “A lot of credit goes to the Broadway stars at the store, but we were part of it, by engaging with the public and welcoming them inside.”

On Wednesday, September 22, the Couture Council of The Museum at FIT hosted its annual luncheon, honoring Wes Gordon, creative director of Carolina Herrera, with the 2021 Couture Council Award for Artistry of Fashion. This year’s celebration, sponsored by Nordstrom and held at Cipriani South Street,  was reimagined as a smaller, more intimate event and held in accordance with New York City vaccine guidelines. With approximately 240 people in attendance—nearly half the usual size—the event still raised nearly $700,000.     Wes Gordon and Carolina Herrera Carolina Herrera and Wes Gordon. Gordon eloquently shared his gratitude to Herrera, who was in attendance and won the prestigious award herself at the 2014 luncheon: “To the queen of New York, the empress of elegance, I dedicate this award to you. I have only been the caretaker of the magical house you have built.”     “I cannot think of anyone more suited for the occasion than Wes Gordon” said Dr. Joyce F. Brown, president of FIT, during her remarks. “Vibrant, bold and dramatic, the party dresses and dinner suits, the day dresses and red carpet gowns that make up his collections are themselves celebrations, filled with exuberance and joy.”     The award was presented to Wes Gordon by Shanina Shaik. Other attendees included Martha Stewart, Indre Rockefeller, Stacey Bendet Eisner, Nicole Miller, Julie Macklowe, Jean Shafiroff, Ramy Brook, Gillian Hearst, B. Michael, Alina Cho, Young Emperors, and Ramona Singer, Fern Mallis, and Dr. Valerie Steele, director and chief curator of The Museum at FIT.     FIT student John Paul Jang received The Museum at FIT Student Award, which recognizes outstanding initiative and great professional promise in the museum field. Jang is the second student to receive this notable recognition since the award was created in 2019.     Proceeds from the luncheon benefit The Museum at FIT, which is free and open to the public. The museum recently reopened with the exhibition Ravishing: The Rose in Fashion, which is on view through November 28.

FIT announced that model, actress, and activist Amber Valletta has been named the college’s first sustainability ambassador, further solidifying FIT’s commitment to expanding sustainability education and awareness to address the challenges facing the creative industries. One of the most celebrated supermodels of the modern era, Valletta has also found extraordinary success as an activist, lending her voice to the issues of sustainable fashion. Valletta’s ambassadorship is a natural extension of her ongoing contributions to FIT, all of which have focused on sustainability. In addition to serving on the FIT Foundation board, she delivered the keynote speech at the 2019 Sustainable Business and Design Conference and hosted the 2019 and 2021 awards galas, both of which were focused on sustainable solutions and innovation.     In her role as FIT’s sustainability ambassador, Valletta will work closely with the FIT community, alumni, and partners throughout the 2021–2022 academic year and beyond. During this year’s Sustainability Awareness Week, which will take place virtually October 4–8, she will moderate a student roundtable discussion among previous FIT Biodesign Challenge winners to discuss the significance of biotechnology in fashion, how brands can incorporate sustainable materials into their products, and the overall impact biotechnology will make on the future of fashion. Valletta will also collaborate with the current Biodesign Challenge—mentoring students, helping recruit industry mentors, and other support—as well as spearhead fundraising efforts for the FIT Sustainability Fund, and help with planning the 2022 Sustainable Business and Design Conference, among other partnerships and programming opportunities.     “Over the years, Amber has been deeply involved in FIT’s sustainability initiatives both on and off-campus, and has quickly become a close friend of the college,” said President Joyce F. Brown. “She is also a dedicated and respected advocate and activist, which makes naming her our first official sustainability ambassador a natural and easy decision. We are proud to have her represent our community and help us continue to make a lasting impact on the world around us.”     “I am thrilled to have the opportunity to collaborate and learn from the students, educators, and the entire FIT community,” said Valletta. “At FIT, they have made sustainability a focal point that directs both their fundraising efforts and curriculum, which will undoubtedly bring about positive changes for the future of creative industries.”     FIT holds sustainability as a pillar of its strategic plan and within its community. In addition to the creation of the sustainability ambassador role, the college offers many courses and programs that focus on sustainability, including Sustainability in Fashion Merchandising, a minor in Ethics and Sustainability, Sustainable Packaging, International Corporate Responsibility, and more. The college also offers various extracurricular activities for students to get involved in sustainability, such as the Ethics and Sustainability Club, Sustainability Council, and the Student Government Association. Current projects include a student-run program to install and maintain beehives on the college’s rooftop, developing sustainable textiles through participation in the annual Biodesign Challenge, promoting sustainable and eco-friendly dyeing practices, and the Loop for Good pop-up, among other initiatives.     To find out more about the sustainability initiative at FIT and the upcoming Sustainability Awareness Week, please visit fitnyc.edu/sustainability. 

How-to manual codifies successful textiles partnership between designers, engineers     When MIT and the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) joined forces to advance textile research and to develop and employ sustainable fabrics of the future, they found that their work was so synergistic that they were compelled to write an instruction manual about their multi-year partnership so that other organizations could replicate their process and benefit from their work.     Transdisciplinary Innovation Playbook: How to build a virtual workshop that collapses walls between design and engineering and kick-starts collaboration to solve real world problems codifies the partnership between MIT, FIT, and the Advanced Functional Fabrics of America (AFFOA), which supported the work, into something of a template that other institutions can follow in order to develop their own innovative programs.     The document was officially released August 23 and will be followed by a webinar on September 9 at 10:00 am introducing the manual.     The playbook – based around MIT and FIT’s design and engineering synergy – is a model for successfully embarking on innovative partnerships. The manual offers step-by-step considerations for how to build interdisciplinary workshops that prepare students to think beyond their specializations and to tackle real-world problems together. It covers how to find an industry partner and what matters in a successful partnership, how to build an effective challenge, how to recruit faculty, how to plan a budget, and how to create a curriculum. “Use our story to write your own,” the playbook encourages.     Multi-Year Partnership In 2017, after a meeting between FIT President Dr. Joyce F. Brown and MIT President Rafael Reif, Joanne Arbuckle of FIT and Gregory C. Rutledge of MIT created a plan to build a bridge between design and engineering—and to help boost the textile industry along the way. On the surface, the institutions seemed incompatible. How—and why – might their two missions merge? (Arbuckle is former deputy to the president for Industry Partnerships and Collaborative Programs at FIT, while Rutledge is the Lammot du Pont Professor in Chemical Engineering.)     MIT scientists are advancing textile research that could change the world, while FIT designers, long renowned for their creativity, are developing the sustainable fabrics of the future. The overlapping synergies seemed destined for collaboration. What unexpected discoveries might occur if these students worked together? FIT and MIT wanted to find out and approached AFFOA to help realize this vision.     The playbook is an outgrowth of the resulting multi-year partnership. Since 2018, students from each institution have participated in three workshops during which they gather in small teams to develop product concepts exploring the use of advanced fibers and fabric technology. The workshops—which have pivoted to a remote experience since the COVID-19 pandemic—have been held collaboratively with AFFOA. AFFOA is a Cambridge, Massachusetts–based non-profit public-private partnership whose mission is to rekindle the domestic textiles industry by leading a nationwide enterprise for advanced fiber and fabric technology development and manufacturing, enabling revolutionary system capabilities for national security and commercial markets. A key part of AFFOA’s mission is to inspire, prepare, and grow the next-generation workforce for the advanced fiber and fabric industry.     Part of the students’ work has been the opportunity to respond to a project challenge presented by footwear and apparel manufacturer New Balance, a member of the AFFOA network. Students spent their first week in Cambridge learning new technologies at MIT and the second at FIT, working on projects and prototypes.     “Collaboration and teamwork are DNA-level attributes of the New Balance workplace,” says Chris Wawrousek, senior creative design lead in the New Balance Innovation Studio. “We were very excited to participate in the program from a multitude of perspectives. The program allowed us to see some of the emerging research in the field of technical textiles. In some cases, these technologies are still very nascent but give us a window into future developments.”     Many Ideas Over the years, teams of students have developed innovative and forward-thinking projects that have moved the needle on design and technology. A few examples of the teams are:     TeamNatural Futurism, which presented a concept to develop a biodegradable lifestyle shoe using natural material alternatives, including bacterial cellulose and mycelium, and advanced fiber concepts to avoid use of chemical dyes. Team CoMIT to Safety Before ProFIT, which explored the various ways that runners get hurt, sometimes from acute injuries but more often from overuse. Team Peacock, which prototyped athletic apparel with color-changing material to highlight an athlete’s movement and quickly analyze motion through an app. Team Ecollab, which designed apparel and footwear using PE (polyethylene) and color changing material that is multi-faceted and environmentally conscious. Team Laboratory 56, which created footwear to enhance longevity of product and reduce waste using PE, while connecting with the community through a recycling app program. “We’re excited to see how the release of this playbook opens up the minds of students across the country to the possibility of working in an interdisciplinary environment, and in advanced textiles. We see a continuing need for a workforce that is agile, innovative, and able to apply higher order thinking to develop the future of the industry, and believe this playbook will play a part in that development,” says Sasha Stolyarov, CEO of AFFOA.     “These kinds of partnerships are so valuable for both teams—the design students get to work in a team environment engaging in the latest technologies while the engineering students use their creativity in a new way,” says Arbuckle. “So, if the MIT/FIT collaboration can be a model for other institutions to do something similar, then these kinds of interactions and the invention of products they create together can help define our future.”     “When designers and engineers come together and open their minds to creating new technologies that ultimately will impact the world, we can imagine exciting new multi-material fibers that reveal a new spectrum of applications,” said Yuly Fuentes Medel, PhD, MIT Materials Research Laboratory project manager for fiber technologies. “Being able to share what we’ve learned through this playbook brings this process to a different level and makes it possible that this kind of thinking will become more widespread.”

New York City may be a huge metropolis, but students at FIT are very safe, according to a recent ranking. FIT came in first in a 2021 survey of the Safest College Campuses in America by YourLocalSecurity.com. The site analyzed campus safety from the 395 U.S. undergraduate institutions that: (a) offer two- or four-year degrees, (b) have at least 5,000 students, and (c) submitted campus crime statistics to the FBI. Then they crunched data from the U.S. Department of Education’s Campus Safety and Security site and the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report, focusing on three categories of crimes that colleges must report: violent, property, and those that are classified as hate crimes or violence against women.     FIT’s top position was largely due to its very low number of crimes in that third category—just one per 10,000 people.     Tan bald man with goatee in button-down shirt Mario Cabrera, director of Public Safety. Mario Cabrera, FIT’s director of Public Safety, believes his team’s presence on campus is a major reason crime has remained low. Public safety officers patrol the streets, staff the Seventh Avenue gate that restricts vehicular access, and conduct “vertical patrols” of the academic buildings by walking every floor of every building. Key units—staff members who unlock doors for classes and events—add extra sets of eyes and ears.     “We’re checking all our corners 24 hours a day,” Cabrera says. “People from blocks away will come here to walk their dog because there is always a uniformed presence here.”     FIT takes these additional measures to ensure student safety:     Everyone who enters any building must present ID, which gives Public Safety important information if an incident does occur. Every visitor and incident is logged in a sophisticated database that disseminates important information to all officers seamlessly. Public Safety also works with the New York Police Department when appropriate. Officers are given a full week of orientation and training when they are hired, which is significantly more than most other colleges. They learn procedures in place for evacuations and shelter in place, and they gain CPR certification if they don’t have it already. Visitation rules in the residence halls put student safety first. Any visitor must receive prior approval 24 hours in advance of a visit, and the host student must accompany guests when they leave. The Department of Student Life includes an educational component called Safe and Sound in the orientation given to incoming students. Topics include bystander intervention and affirmative consent. Through the Title IX office, incoming students also take a comprehensive online training called SMART: Sexual Misconduct Awareness and Response Training, which goes into detail about prevention and reporting of sexual misconduct. When high school and middle school students are on campus for FIT’s Precollege Programs, officers step up their vigilance so that no student leaves the buildings unsupervised. Cabrera admires the rapport his staff has built with students—and as the father of a current FIT student, he feels good about the amount of care that goes into protecting them. “Our officers look out for the students like they would for their own kids.”