National Science Foundation (NSF)

Recruiting and Retaining Nongeoscience Minority STEM Majors for Geoscience Service Learning and for the Geoscience Workforce II 
$491,069 
November 1, 2023–December 31, 2026 

Reginald Blake – Associate Provost and Dean of Curriculum and Research 
Hamidreza Norouzi – Construction Management/Civil Engineering Technology Department 
Masato Nakamura – Mechanical Engineering Technology Department 
Marzi Azarderakhsh – Construction Management/Civil Engineering Technology Department 
 
The program is designed to achieve the following two primary goals:  

1) to broaden the geoscience workforce pathway for non-geoscience minority STEM majors; and 2) to create a multi-sector geoscience workforce development infrastructure. The aims of the first goal are delineated in the following EPAE theme of the geoscience transitional workforce program:  

• EXPOSURE: Expose undergraduate seniors to the geosciences  

• PREPARATION: Provide undergraduate seniors with critical geoscience workforce skills and professional networks 

• APPRENTICESHIP: Engage undergraduate seniors in meaningful real-world, service and experiential learning via geoscience applications, and  

• EXPERIENCE: Culminate into/with a geoscience internship-workforce experience.  

The objectives of the second goal are associated with the Apprenticeship component above: a) Create a student-faculty-industry paradigm of mentoring for the geoscience workforce; b) Create a professional workforce development structure among participating organizations, c) Design peer-to-peer mentoring support structures, and d) Engage students in geoscience service-learning that provides participants with relevant, active-learning, neighborhood-scale geoscience activities that engage and empower the local community by raising awareness to the environment and by assisting in developing citizen scientists. 

Enhanced Noyce Explorer, Scholar, and Teacher Development for High-Need Schools in NYC
$1,444,398 
May 1, 2020–April 30, 2025 

Fangyang Shen – Computer Systems Technology Department 
Andrew Douglas – Mathematics Department 
Hon Jie Teo – Career and Technology Teacher Education Department  

Annie Han – Borough of Manhattan Community College 
Ahmet Mete Kok – Borough of Manhattan Community College 

This project aims to help address the shortage of qualified STEM teachers in New York City. These shortages often result in New York City schools filling STEM teacher vacancies with teachers who lack the relevant subject certification. The project’s main goal is to develop highly effective STEM teachers to teach in New York City high-need schools. To do so, the project will recruit undergraduate STEM majors to become teachers, starting by introducing STEM teaching careers to more than 300 first- and second-year undergraduates. The project will select upper division undergraduate STEM majors to become Noyce Scholars. It will support them as they earn their STEM degree and take courses in mathematics education or technology education so they can achieve initial teaching certification. Supports for Noyce Scholars include scholarships, internships, summer support programs, and mentoring by STEM and Education faculty and school district partners. 

Engaging, Empowering, and Retaining New Scholars in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics 
$999,625 
October 1, 2019–September 30, 2025 

Urmi Duttagupta – Mathematics Department 
Viviana Acquaviva – Physics Department 
Diana Samaroo – Chemistry Department 
Nadia Kennedy – Mathematics Department 

This project will contribute to the national need for well-educated scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with proven financial need at CUNY New York City College of Technology (City Tech), a Hispanic Serving Institution. Over its 5-year duration, this project will fund 40 scholarships per year to students pursuing bachelor’s degrees in Applied Chemistry, Applied Computational Physics, Applied Mathematics and Biomedical Informatics or associate’s degrees in Computer Science and Chemical Technology. Scholars are eligible for support for up to nine semesters for bachelor’s degrees and five semesters for associate’s degrees. With the goal of expanding the STEM degree pipeline, this project aims to improve retention and graduation in STEM fields by linking scholarships with effective mandatory support activities, including enhanced academic and professional advising, cohort meetings, undergraduate research experiences, graduate school preparation, and participation in discipline-specific conferences. Project personnel will encourage scholarship recipients to develop both learning cohorts with STEM peers and non-academic endeavors such as enrichment and extracurricular activities designed to foster a connection to the community at large. Because City Tech is a minority-serving institution, this project will affect underrepresented students, especially women, in STEM undergraduate and graduate programs as well as the New York City workforce. 

Beginnings: Introducing Molecular Modeling Experiences to Underrepresented Students 
$998,665 
October 1, 2023–September 30, 2026 

Mai Zahran – Biological Sciences Department 
Armando Solis – Biological Sciences Department 

Ian Alberts – Laguardia Community College 
Katherine Bay – Schrödinger 

Molecular modeling plays a pivotal role in biotechnology and drug discovery. To foster innovation in this field, it is crucial for biotechnology companies to have a diverse and well-trained workforce. One way to expand access to this field is by equipping undergraduate students from underrepresented backgrounds with industry-level knowledge. Experiential learning opportunities, in which students learn-by-doing, is a particularly effective way to broaden participation of these groups because it provides technical skills needed by industry. A partnership between local public academia and industry will promote the progress of science by providing better training to future scientists and advance national health by broadening the pool of well-qualified biotechnology workforce members. This project aims to empower underrepresented minority students to actively take part in the biotechnology field and bring their unique perspectives to the table. By diversifying the STEM workforce, the goals are to enhance innovation, foster creativity, and develop more inclusive solutions to global problems. 

REU Site: Research Experiences for Undergraduates in Satellite and Ground-Based Remote Sensing at NOAA-CESSRST–Enhanced Engagement 
$705,500 
July 1, 2022–June 30, 2025 

Reginald Blake – Associate Provost and Dean of Curriculum and Research 
Hamidreza Norouzi – Construction Management/Civil Engineering Technology Department 

This REU site will provide undergraduate students from both community colleges and four-year institutions an opportunity to conduct full-time, collaborative satellite and ground-based remote sensing research under the mentorship of experts in the field. Each year, ten (10) STEM students (five from community colleges and five from four-year institutions) will be recruited from the City University of New York’s (CUNY) 23 campus-wide institutions. For fifteen weeks, these students will become part of a community of research scholars who are actively engaged in state-of-the-art remote sensing research and applications. They will take part in research group meetings, seminars, oral and poster presentations at local, regional, national conferences, and in citizen science collaborations. Particularly, they will engage a local, environmentally active, but scientifically underserved community in fundamental and cutting-edge, neighborhood-scale, multi-platformed, urban heat island studies in the Bedford-Stuyvesant community of Brooklyn, New York. Engagement in these activities will afford promising undergraduates from two- and four-year institutions the opportunity to work with scientists and engineers and to conduct research at one of the nation’s premier scientific centers for Satellite and Ground-Based Remote Sensing. 

Developing an Ecosystem of STEM Success for Built Environment Majors 
$1,499,481 
February 1, 2022–January 31, 2028 

Melanie Villatoro – Construction Management/Civil Engineering Technology Department 
Muhammad Ummy – Electrical & Telecommunications Engineering Technology Department 
Hamidreza Norouzi – Construction Management/Civil Engineering Technology Department 
Daeho Kang – Environmental Control Technology Department 
Masato Nakamura – Mechanical Engineering Technology Department 

This project will contribute to the national need for well-educated scientists, mathematicians, engineers and technicians by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with proven financial need at New York City College of Technology (City Tech), an urban, public Hispanic-serving institution. Over its six-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to about 60 unique full-time students who are pursuing an associate or baccalaureate degree in one of the Built-Environment majors. The Built-Environment majors included in the project are Civil Engineering Technology, Construction Engineering Technology, Electrical Engineering Technology, Mechanical Engineering Technology, and Environmental Control Technology. Associate degree students will receive up to two-years of scholarship support and baccalaureate degree students will receive up to four-years of scholarship support. The project will use existing student and academic supports to develop an ecosystem of success. It will implement evidence-based effective practices and assess the impact of these practices, degree attainment and entry into the U.S. workforce or graduate programs in STEM. The project will develop a cohort of faculty and students in the built-environment majors, provide students with opportunities for internships and undergraduate research, and provide professional development for faculty and students. The project will increase the number of low-income STEM students achieving social and economic mobility through the pursuit and achievement of degrees in the Built-Environment. The project will produce a better understanding of the key factors that contribute to the successful transition of low-income academically talented students from their baccalaureate degree attainment to either graduate degree STEM programs or to STEM careers. 

Collaborative Research: CISE-MSI: DP: CNS: An Edge-Based Approach to Robust Multi-Robot Systems in Dynamic Environments 
$79,995 
September 1, 2022–August 31, 2025 

Lili Ma – Computer Engineering Technology Department 

Multi-robot systems consist of autonomous robots interacting in a shared environment to achieve common goals. They are widely used in real-world application domains such as transportation, disaster management, as well as warehousing and manufacturing. This project develops an efficient, robust, and secure multi-robot system, called EdgeRobot. EdgeRobot establishes an edge computing-based architecture and algorithmic framework to help multi-robot collaboration and coordination in dynamic environments. This work provides new model, architecture, and theory for coordinated multi-robot systems. In addition, this project builds research capacity, sustainable for training underrepresented students via the partnership of six geographically diverse minority-serving institutions in the United States: the University of Houston-Clear Lake (South), the University of Michigan Flint (North), CUNY-New York City College of Technology (Northeast), Morgan State University (East), San Francisco State University (West), and California State University Dominguez Hills (West). The cross-institutional collaboration not only boosts research capacity in all six participating institutions but also provides integrative research and education experience to their underrepresented minority students. Ultimately, this project shows and exemplifies an effective collaboration model for training and educating underrepresented students from geographically diverse minority-serving institutions. 

An Inclusive Model for a Bridge to Industry and Entrepreneurship in Advanced Materials and Manufacturing 
$569,635 
July 1, 2022–June 30, 2025 

Gaffar Gailani – Mechanical Engineering Technology Department 
Denise Sutton – Business Department 
Angran Xiao – Mechanical Engineering Technology Department 
Sidi Berri – Mechanical Engineering Technology Department 
Akm Rahman – Mechanical Engineering Technology Department 

Recent advances in advanced manufacturing technologies have led to new capabilities in manufacturing. Technicians who have a better understanding of these new technologies and the advanced engineering materials used in these processes will be able to implement them in manufacturing facilities. Traditional technical education for manufacturing technicians needs to keep pace with these technology trends in industry. To address this need, this project will introduce new content for existing design, manufacturing, and materials science courses including virtual and hands-on experiential learning exercises and tutorials on specific topics. A Business and Industry Leadership Team will provide feedback on course content so that the courses are aligned with the needs of industry. A summer training program will give an opportunity for students to learn professional skills that will help them be successful in the technician workforce. To complement the training program, students will have the choice to take part in an entrepreneurial student competition in which student teams address an industry problem or develop a new product. 

Collaborative Research: Research Infrastructure: CCRI: New: Data-Driven Cybersecurity Research Infrastructure for Smart Manufacturing 
$28,177 
April 15, 2023–March 31, 2026 

Sidi Berri – Mechanical Engineering Technology Department 
Gaffar Gailani – Mechanical Engineering Technology Department 

Recent advances in Internet of Things sensors, artificial intelligence, computing, and communications are enabling a more distributed manufacturing paradigm where custom products are made at the point and time of need using smart manufacturing (SM) technologies. While connectivity forms the backbone in realizing SM, it has opened new cybersecurity risks and challenges, requiring a fundamental rethink and foundational efforts to tackle these challenges. Recent National Science Foundation-sponsored workshops have underscored a compelling need for a research infrastructure that can bridge the traditional divide between manufacturing and cybersecurity professionals and foster a community of CISE experts in manufacturing cybersecurity. Creating such an infrastructure is essential to understand cybersecurity vulnerabilities and to develop solutions tailored to SM systems. This project envisions the creation of a vibrant CISE research community for data-driven cybersecurity for SM by launching a community research platform integrating three elements: (1) A web infrastructure that enables virtual “playgrounds” to share data, codes, resources, and tools, mostly contributed by the research community; (2) a data infrastructure for curating diverse cybersecurity datasets; and (3) a SM machine infrastructure that will leverage established national resources, including the Smart Manufacturing Innovation Platform from the Department of Energy. Taken together, this infrastructure will help CISE researchers to collaborate with the SM community—spanning academia, industry, and government—to create and share data for understanding the vulnerabilities of a network of SM machines and other components of a manufacturing enterprise, and help the development of AI-driven cybersecurity innovations for SM. 

PFI-TT: Prototyping a Quantum-powered AI Building Platform 
$299,588 
February 15, 2022–January 31, 2025 

German Kolmakov – Physics Department 

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation – Technology Translation (PFI-TT) project is in significant improvement of artificial intelligence (AI) systems by acceleration of the model creation, training, and operation using modern quantum computers. The project’s outcomes can stimulate advances in chemistry, create new materials and new drugs, improve manufacturing and retail, reduce risks in high-tech, exploration and mission planning, and improve decision-making in arenas such as the public sector, banking, and healthcare. The project will nurture a new generation of entrepreneurs and scientists who can move easily between disciplines as varied as engineering, physics, computer science, and high-performance simulations. 

RUI: Partial Lizard Genomes and New Analytical Tools Provide a Novel Conceptual Framework for Understanding Biogeographic Patterns Throughout the Deserts of Western North America  
$440,973 
September 1, 2019–August 31, 2025 

Christopher Blair – Biological Sciences Department 

The goal of many evolutionary biologists is to better understand the processes that lead to the formation of new species. In addition to providing valuable data on how Earth’s history has shaped diversity, results can directly inform conservation and help address biodiversity loss. This study uses genetic data from lizards distributed throughout the arid regions of western North America to better understand how and why new species arise. This study also investigates the prevalence of species unknown to science and provides formal descriptions of new species discovered. Results of this project directly inform conservation, while simultaneously providing a more thorough understanding of the historical processes that led to the evolution of desert species throughout North America. Importantly, this project introduces evolutionary thinking and data analysis to historically underrepresented students enrolled in an undergraduate bioinformatics curriculum. Undergraduates are involved in all aspects of the project, from study design and fieldwork to data analysis and writing. Added broader impacts include working with local institutions to teach genetic concepts to high school students and teachers, facilitation of an institution-wide bootcamp to enhance networking opportunities, graduate student supervision, and local research talks given to the public and to the greater academic community. 

LEAPS-MPS: Where galaxies keep their cool in the heat: A Pathfinder to detect cool cosmic gas filaments and their effects on galaxy properties in clusters 
$223,210 
September 1, 2023–August 31, 2025 

Charlotte Welker – Physics Department 

On the largest scales, galaxies are found to be arranged along vast networks of filamentary structures, commonly referred to as the cosmic web, that evolved from minute density fluctuations in the very early universe. Recent work by a team including the principal investigator (PI) concluded that cool, low-turbulence gas can flow along the cosmic web and penetrate deep into galaxy clusters and shield galaxies from the hot intra-cluster medium, effectively prolonging their ability to form stars. This research program will allow (1) a more precise characterization of the filamentary “shielding” mechanism on the dynamics and star formation activity of cluster galaxies, with the added potential to (2) indirectly trace the cool gas streams themselves. This program will provide unique research and professional experiences for at least six undergraduate students from groups underrepresented in STEM, with each student acting as a mentor and role model for another student at an earlier career stage.