Nucleus Quarterly

Volume 3 - Issue 4 June 2012

Nucleus A Faculty Commons Quarterly

Nucleus: A Faculty Commons Quarterly Volume 3 – Issue 42 June 2012

Russell K. HotzlerPresident

Bonne August Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs

Miguel CairolVice President for Administration and Finance

Marcela Katz ArmozaVice President for Enrollment and Student Affairs

Gilen ChanSpecial Counsel/Legal Designee and Affirmative Action Officer

Stephen M. SoifferSpecial Assistant to the President/

Institutional Advancement

Karl BotchwayInterim Dean, School of Arts and Sciences

Barbara GrumetDean, School of Professional Studies

Kevin HomInterim Dean, School of Technology and Design

Sonja JacksonDean, Curriculum and Instruction

Carol SonnenblickDean, Division of Continuing Education

Faculty Commons A Center for Teaching, Learning, Scholarship and Service

Julia Jordan, Acting DirectorAvril Miller, College Assistant

Kevin Rajaram, College Assistant

Assessment and Institutional ResearchTammie Cumming, Director

Raymond Moncada, Institutional AnalystRachel Tsang, Assessment Analyst

Olga Batyr, Research AideAlbert Li, College Assistant

Office of Sponsored ProgramsBarbara Burke, Director

Patty Barba Gorkhover, Associate DirectorEleanor Bergonzo, Grants Specialist

Grants Outreach Coordinator 2011-2012Professor Pa Her

Design TeamProfessor Anita Giraldo, Artistic Director Professor Reneta Lansiquot, Web Master

Angelica Corrao, Keiko Nakayama, Dmitrii Sinitzkii, Designers

CuratorProfessor Lei Cai

EditorsBarbara Burke and Julia Jordan

Designer and PhotographerCrystal Huang

N E W Y O R K C I T Y C O L L E G E O F T E C H N O L O G Y of the City University of New York

Professional Development Advisory Council (PDAC)Norbert AnekeIsaac BarjisSidi BerriKaren BonsignoreJuanita ButSanjoy ChakrabortyLynda DiasJoycelyn Dillon

Mary Sue DonskyMaria GiulianiNien-Tzu GonzalezKaren GoodladJoel GreensteinGeorge GuidaLaina KarthikeyanNeil Katz

Roman KezerashviliMohammed KouarZongmin LiKaren LundstremDjafar MynbaevMark NoonanSusan PhillipCharles Porter

Marcia PowellEstela RojasWalied SamarraiDavid SmithSigurd StegmaierShauna VeyDebbie WaksbaumDenise Whethers

Gail WilliamsDarrow WoodAdrianne WortzelFarrukh Zia

Sonja Jackson, Chair

Nucleus: A Faculty Commons Quarterly Volume 3 – Issue 4 June 2012 3

Honoring Dean J 4Bonne August

Art ∩ Math 5David Smith

The Creative Mind Poet George Guida 6

Artist Phyllis Rosenblatt 7

Poet Monique Ferrell 8

Artist Elizabeth Schaible 9

Poet Nina Bannett 10

Artist Ryoya Terao 11

CityTech Celebrates 12Official Launch of the OpenLab The OpenLab Team

Assessment For Learning 13 Tammie Cumming

FUSE LAB: Tomorrow’s Technology Today for 14City Tech and City Poly High School Students Patty Barba Gorkhover

C O N T E N T S

Cover art: SPIRAL 1Back cover art: MEETINGDavid Smith, Department of Entertainment Technology

PrintingDigital Imaging Center at City Tech

“ The OpenLab is a portal to a community of

thought— a community

that’s local and global. ”

Jim GroomUniversity of Mary Washington

As Dean Sonja Jackson, our “Dean J,” prepares to retire,

it is f itting that Nucleus, the journal of the Faculty Commons,

should honor her, for Sonja’s vision and persistence inspired

the creation of the Faculty Commons.

Sonja Jackson has played many roles at City Tech—a student, a faculty member, a program director, a department chair, a dean. She has carried out each of these with intelligence, humor, commitment, and compassion. Her list of accomplishments is long. As much as what she has done, however, Sonja has contributed even more to

City Tech by who she is. Her vision of education is both rich and multifaceted. As a graduate, and later professor and department chair of City Tech’s Radiologic Technology program, she understands the impetus that draws students to the College’s career programs. But her vision of education also embraces the liberal and creative arts. She wants City Tech students to have an education comparable in both rigor and in delight to that offered at any college in the country.

Dean Jackson’s deep interest in students is sincere and unwavering. She has mentored and advised innumerable students, enabling them to f ind and develop their best selves. While she is always supportive, however, her support does not always consist of uncritical encouragement. She offers practical advice and down-to-earth counsel. When the situation calls for it, she can be candid, forceful, and direct. At the same time, Sonja has been a greatly respected and much appreciated mentor to dozens of faculty members. There is a well-trodden path in the carpet between the front door of the Office of the Provost and Sonja’s off ice.

It has been a privilege to work with Sonja these past seven years. She is a principled person who truly lives according to her principles. I think, though, that what I respect most about Sonja is her determination—and her incredible ability—to engage people in what she might term “diff icult conversations.” For years she brought together a diverse group of faculty and staff regularly to share challenging readings and probe—candidly but collegially—questions that people often shy away from, questions of race, gender, identity, and conflict. The participants in those conversations have maintained a bond with Sonja and with one another. They have walked miles in one another’s shoes. They have become colleagues in much more than superficial ways, and they form a crucial center for so much that has happened at the college in the past decade.

We wish Sonja many years f illed not only with the many projects and interests that are close to her heart, but also with new adventures and joys. Sonja Jackson has created many things during her time at City Tech, but for her it is always about the people. She leaves us, therefore, not with a gap but with a legacy. We at City Tech are committed to nurturing that legacy as our best tribute to a much-loved colleague.


Bonne August, Provost

Honoring Dean J

Sonja Jackson

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I have always lived in the world between science and art. My father was a physicist and early environmentalist, while my mother was a concert pianist. From my very earliest rememberings, I can recall my father working in his studio on one form of art or other: he moved with regularity from oil painting, to stained glass, to kite design, and on and on. Although I chose early my eventual profession of music composition, I have, just like my father, always been involved in other forms of artistic expression as well.

In fact, I may have the artistic equivalent of Restless Legs Syndrome: I seem unable to feel at ease unless I am involved in the development or creation of something or other. My drawings began as doodlings (and in fact still fall under that sobriquet): when I was very young my brother and I would fill reams of paper with drawings, stories, and games. As I moved through school, I would often (or always!) be doodling in my notes during class lectures: fortunately it seems that I am able to draw, using the one half of my brain that deals with shape, form and visual imagery while my other half focuses on the linguistic and quantitative topics that are being covered. The ability of my hand to float over the page is similar to automatic writing: I require very little in the way of conscious control as I execute a design.

On another level these drawings also demonstrate my compositional techniques in some sort of

conceptually negative space. Particular tropes occur again and again at both the micro and macro level. Compositionally, I rely on a rigorous and formal approach to pre-design, the manipulation of rule sets to generate material during the production phase, and a final, subjective “polishing” that provides the finished product. My drawings, however, rely on formal motives that are improvisationally replicated in a direction that evolves towards a single, larger meta-shape. These images are fractal in nature: smaller shapes are replicated at higher levels so that they are impervious to scale. I am very much influenced by the juxtaposition of inspiration and formal structure that can also be seen in the works of Escher and Dali. Thematically, my drawings evolve

ART ∩ MATH David Smith, Department of Entertainment Technology

from the same world as musical composition. Music is an abstract art form, complete unto itself, and meaning is derived by each audience member based on their context. Likewise, my drawings are usually abstract, yet able to evoke imagery in the same way that a cloud formation can present itself as a distinct shape. I enjoy very much the ability of the human being to derive meaning from pattern, and pattern from meaning. I hope that my art in some small way evokes the ambiguity that is a constant companion in the extremely complex world within which we live.


George GuidaDepartment of English

Lunch LadyLunch lady, lunch lady, hair net in trenches,us on benches with sneaker marks, youwere remarkable, mother, so mother in yearbook, smock lady, white lady, sometimes a black lady, thick body,thick hands on fries, BLTs,cheese pizza (Was there some other kind?).You were kind, below market, over counter,handling quarters, counting pennieswe handed you, back turned to grill,shout lady, get-the-kids-chow lady, backside big from mortgage, divorce andno health care, all wrinkles in blouse, pleather handbag in cloak room, rag-handed, broom-handle, wet wipes and mops, brown-toothed laughter with other lunch ladies, no dental plan, no stomping shoes muddy across tiles ammonia-blessedwe not asking when you left racks of chips and cheese puffswhat happened after lunch in your car still driven old, left-over spaghetti and meatballs on the seat, plastic fork see-through in your raw, red hand.

Published in The Long Islander

TremorWe will walk side by side down the stairs to the street,repeating, Can you believe it? At lunch time? Here?

The open-secret couple will stroke each other. No one will ask why the world is groaning in pain. The Christians among us will call it prophecyand cite the Book that proclaims it shall happen in a sinful skylined city without major faults.Some of us will think at first to call our loved ones, only to realize we love no one but ourselves.

The street will be filled with callers spinning, eyes cloudward, in languorous ellipses.Panic lives somewhere else. Panic only lives in the lines of pop songs that are allwe conjure by way of profundity. Some of us will wish for a different timewhen this would signal the Creator’s will. Others will drink more coffee and surf the Webfor the date of the last insipid quake.

A few will remember those fatefulseconds of sway when they feared that their final dinner out had beenspent in the company of fools. A few of those fools will messagetheir conclusions that this event was not a terrorist attack.Some will wish to meet the unaware, and share their taste of tragedy.

If I had to pick a single theme that draws me, I ’d say it has to be loss,

which is the essential condition

of human life.


Phyllis RosenblattDepartment of Advertising Design and Graphic Arts

These paintings are part of a 14 work effort that started with looking at the earlier set of 120 colors of Color Aid paper. This is a color system that is silk screened onto paper which has many uses among which is to help teach powers of color.

These works, painted in oils, demanded a very different approach to painting than I thought of. All oils were mixed before painting to match as closely as possible 120 colors in the Color Aid package and stuffed into tubes. In the planning stages I gave the colors numbers instead of written names because these were shorter to write.

Questions of arranging the perceived order started it all. Turning corners,

Five of fourteen paintingshaving four or two or one dominant color per unit and covering one square with one color or up to 4 and so on.

Beginning by working arrangements with cut paper and deciding to work with paint offered more. An awkwardness and physicality to the system - like setting a new material in the world. Suddenly, for many works before and after this group, making invisible things visible was the pleasure, the discovery and the challenge.

It was necessary to keep the color sequence stable or every visual aspect would be active and understanding would be overwhelmed.

Suddenly, for many works before and after this group,

making invisible things visible was the pleasure, the discovery

and the challenge.

4 on 1- version 3

2 on 1b - version 5


Monique FerrellDepartment of English

the beastCourtesy of Token Entry: New York City Subway PoemsSmalls Press, 2012

I am seeking a respite for my inner child here but I guess we all are who are we kidding the huddled masses yearningto be free take up refuge on the underbelly of an undergrounduptown/downtown anything headed anywhere but where we are going and just where are we going anyway set adrift like loose change from a pocket uncomfortably close and well-meaning waiting to be useful to make sense

I am thinking these things all while colliding into my neighbors’memories and recollections group therapy for two dollars and

twenty-five cents a swipe of a thinly veiled piece of plastic I readthese people as if they were my own and I guess they are like me a too heady mixture of dread inspiration and the faintest scent of hope

a dangerous combination to mix with musk and metal it’s too easyand combustible and yet they keep coming telling lies and keeping secrets

excuse me ladies and gentlemen… and it’s what? what now?

what socio-economical-ethnically-disenfranchised-politically-embattledgroup needs me to stand in the gap for them today I am my own embattled group a mess of ideas longings

and you are interrupting the even exchange a fast and freeflowingbody of ideas between me and my fellow citizens can’t you see the gentleman seated next to me has not bathed in days not latelynot at all in his recent understanding of time and spacethe very nature of the world as he knows it tucked gently around himprotruding from the holes of each trash bag it is not safe to be this disconnected he from us we from him I breathe inhale him deeply with intent

I want to be responsible

I am inspired by life. I want my poetry and my f iction to fearlessly address social issues--such as race, gender, sex,

politics, class, history, and culture without apology.

across from me an unforgiving woman is in her feelings needing

waiting for a moment to lash out into the void of this confined spacelooking at the mid-town women about her giant designer bags andtoohighheeled shoes a blackberryfull of necessaryideas to pass the time her contempt for them has no boundaries

she assumes at their joy

look at us threadbare lined up seated leaning loose notes escapingfrom colored earbuds each of us searching through and around each other

we long for magic

god help us if we ever find it catch a whiff of it bouncing up off ofthe stained station walls or playing tag with the florescent lightsthere might just be a riot and all of us just might

will pry open these pretendclosed doors while still in transit waddle through the dark sewage baptizing ourselves along the waytake the stairs maybe two three at a time up out into the promisedsunshine and we all might just keep walking keep right on walking

until the earth changes its trajectory spins us off into a new a differenthorizon one where we are everyone’s keeper not a victim of theirsilence set to music in a confined space

but until then I sit silently inserting myself into the lives of each of my neighborswondering at their machinations searching yet again for another dollarthat I barely have

and thank god it’s catchy we are all doing the same

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Elizabeth SchaibleDepartment of Hospitality Management

We live in an age of heightened consumer awareness and desire to know where the foods we consume everyday originate. Newspaper journalists, food writers and scientists flood the marketplace with literature regarding food production practices, processing and food safety. Today, there is a resurgence of locally produced foods and a call by food activists to eat locally. Consumers are being asked to “know their farmer” and develop a personal relationship with those who produce our foods.

Beginning in the summer of 2009 I returned to my home state of Indiana to begin visiting farmers and documenting their lives. I wanted to discover that food production in the state was more than just corn, soybean, and hog production.

The photographs in this exhibit represent a diverse array of farm

Down On the FarmA Photo Essay of the Indiana Farmer

Farmers farm for a variety of reasons, many passionately despite the

hardships of their work.

stories. Farmers farm for a variety of reasons, many passionately despite the hardships of their work. They are creative and entrepreneurial finding new ways to develop and market their food products. I discovered an Indiana of abundant, interesting, delicious and healthy local products that can adorn our tables.

This project was made possible by the generous support of New York City College of Technology, CUNY; New York City College of Technology Foundation; John and Mary Ann Lee, Little Potato Creek Farm; Alex Gueron, CUNY BA photography student; and the farm families of Indiana.

Kieran

Steve and Anita


Nina BannettDepartment of English

Nina Bannett’s chapbook, Lithium Witness, is a small volume of poetry dedicated to the memory of her mother, artist Rochelle Bannett. The autobiographical series of poems opens with a depiction of a child’s smallness; she sees her mother’s body as a tall pink tree. Slowly and inexorably, the reader grasps the profound vulnerability and bravery of this child whose journey toward adulthood parallels her mother’s descent into mental illness. Bannett conveys the fierce love between them that survived the journey. Ordinary settings of life in suburban Queens in the 1970s—a dentist’s office, a playground, the school gymnasium—provide the backdrop for an extraordinary personal odyssey that concludes on a note of reconciliation and redemption. In the final poem, “Dream of the Forsythia Tree,” the poet returns like Persephone, the Greek goddess of Spring, to the folds of her mother, Demeter, the goddess of the harvest and the cycle of life and death.

Barbara Burke

Dream of the Forsythia TreeI walk our paseo,a circular botanical,patterning myself after the concrete,invisible cracks, the slate pebbles.This is no longer my homebut a mythical interlude,threshold to threshold.

In my morning’s silence,yellow eyelets,uniform and holy,claim me.

Out of my ancient chaos,sixty feet of yellow stars surface and strive,and like Persephone,I return again to Demeter’s folds.

Bannett, Nina. Lithium Witness. Georgetown, Kentucky: Finishing Line Press, 2011

Out of my ancient chaos,sixty feet of yellow stars surface and strive,

and like Persephone,I return again to Demeter’s folds.


Ryoya TeraoDepartment of Entertainment Technology

I started experimenting

with new technology to express a notion that

is rather conventional,

yet eternal.

In this digital age, film is gradually replaced by video. As a visual storyteller, I still prefer certain qualities in film, yet at the same time, appreciate the possibilities that video and digital graphics have to offer.

In 1993, my first film professor in Athens, GA just completed a music video entitled “Low” for a ‘local’ band, R.E.M.—the original college band that obtained worldwide fame. The piece was entirely shot and re-

photographed in 16mm film and was edited on a flatbed, a traditional film editing device. I was mesmerized by the beauty of the film, which centers around a 19th century oil painting. In this film, viewers experience being inside the painting. Romanticism and a sense of nostalgia are eminent.

In the same year, I learned digital video editing and Photoshop. I took advantage of the software to create a short film. For nearly two years, I had accumulated super 8 film footage

from Athens, GA and Franconia, Germany. In the process, the film footage was transferred onto video, and I then captured some still images for image manipulation. One of the images, with a painting-like quality, featuring a medieval candelabra, was then overlaid with the original moving film footage of the candelabra and used in the romantic film. This was when I started experimenting with new technology to express the eternal notion of romantic longing and nostalgia.

a scene from ‘Lumifera’ (5 min. experimental film)

Visual Storytelling

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City Tech Celebrates Official Launch of the OpenLabOn April 19, 2012, City Tech held a special celebration to mark the official launch of the OpenLab, the college’s brand-new digital platform for teaching, learning, and collaboration. The site, which went live in beta mode in August 2011, is already being used by almost 2500 members of the City Tech community—students, faculty, and staff.

Provost August emphasized the importance of the OpenLab to the college’s future direction and the exciting opportunities it offers our students to work in new and creative ways.

Professor Maria Bilello (Dental Hygiene) was an OpenLab “pioneer” in the Fall 2011 semester, along with her colleagues in the Title V General Education Seminar. She described her transition from novice to experienced user: “I wasn’t technically savvy but, with the advice of the OpenLab team, had no problems creating my course—and my students have taken to it just as easily.” She highlighted an assignment in which her students posted thoughtful responses to a video, “Smile Pinki,” about cleft lip and palate, and one student’s piece was accepted to City Tech Writer. Professor Marie Montes-Matias (Biology) used the OpenLab for group work with the Gen Ed Seminar’s Second Year cohort of Faculty Fellows: “It really helped us work together,” she said. “We edited documents together online, gave one another feedback, and shared ideas and resources.”

Student Matthew Lawson spoke movingly about how the OpenLab has helped him feel connected to his professors and peers. Because students can use the OpenLab for both coursework and extracurricular activities, it gives them access to the college community on a 24/7 basis—something that’s especially valuable at a commuter campus and for students who are balancing family and work commitments with college life. Matthew said that for him: “The OpenLab bridges that gap—we don’t live here, but with the OpenLab we can have conversations with our fellow students or professors any time.”

The guest speaker was Jim Groom, director of the Division of Teaching and Learning Technologies at the University of Mary Washington, who was recently named by the Chronicle of Higher Education as one of “12 educational technology innovators who are transforming campuses.” He talked passionately about the powerful learning experiences that become possible when we work in public on open education platforms. On the OpenLab, he told the audience: “you are building, writing, and creating both for your immediate community and for the world.” The OpenLab Team

Jim Groom

Matthew Lawson

Want to learn more about the OpenLab? Workshops are offered year-round (see openlab.citytech.cuny.edu for details). Questions? Suggestions? Contact the OpenLab team at [email protected].

(left to right) Scott Henkle, Maura Smale, Bree Zuckerman, Charlie Edwards, Jody Rosen, Jenna Spevack, Elizabeth Alsop, Jim Groom


Assessment for Learning The Title V grant, “A Living Laboratory: Redesigning General Education for a 21st Century College of Technology”, provided a vibrant college-wide forum on assessment for learning. Tammie Cumming, Director of Assessment and Institutional Research (AIR), interviews guest expert, Ashley Ater Kranov, Managing Director, Professional Services, ABET. An excerpt follows.

Tammie Cumming: City Tech has been striving to adopt “assessment for learning” as a key tool for understanding the effectiveness of instruction across all schools and programs. Please comment on our approach.

Ashley Ater Kranov: I applaud City Tech for including “assessment for learning” as one of its primary goals in providing a meaningful framework for both teaching and learning. To me “assessment FOR learning” at the school or program level focuses on collecting evidence continuously and strategically to provide useful information that can be used for decision making purposes – either to keep doing what one is doing well or to determine areas for improvement and effective approaches to addressing them. At the course level, it manifests itself in student and instructor self-assessment for continuous improvement and fosters agency in learning and fostering learning. In contrast, “assessment OF

learning” focuses on collecting data to determine the extent to which a given set of competencies or skills have been attained at the end of an instructional module or curricular cycle. This evidence is frequently used to report out to various constituencies, such as regional or professional accrediting bodies, for accountability purposes. It is useful in that when collected over a period of time with attention to specific cohorts, the evidence can be aggregated to show trends or patterns that can inform programmatic or institutional decision making. Assessment OF Learning can be used for formative (or assessment for learning) purposes as well.

TC: What is the importance of defining Student Learning Outcomes for each course and at the program level? How difficult is this for faculty?

AK: Defining student learning outcomes at the course level is important because it provides a framework for learning. Once learning outcomes have been defined through performance indicators, faculty can develop assignments and choose educational strategies that will best develop the outcomes, as well as assessments and evaluations that can determine the extent to which the outcomes have been attained at any given point in the course. At

the program level, defining student outcomes allows for programs to determine core disciplinary curricular priorities and whether or not the curricula adequately develop the outcomes that their students need to succeed upon graduation.

All faculty have an implicit understanding of what students should learn to gain disciplinary expertise. The act of articulating student learning outcomes and performance indicators can be difficult, particularly for complex outcomes. Outcomes related to life-long learning, professional and ethical responsibility, civic engagement, can be particularly challenging because they are so dependent on the context and culture within which they are taught and assessed.

TC: How can we evaluate the success of the assessment process that we have in place at the college?

AK: Do the data, after having been analyzed, answer your program’s meaningful questions satisfactorily? Do the data (after analysis) provide actionable information? Then, the process and tools are most likely gathering good data. Do the data (after analysis) prompt you to ask more questions than they answer? Then the process and tools probably aren’t successful. City Tech defines its own success at the program and college levels in relation to its vision.

Ashley Ater Kranov


FUSE LAB: Tomorrow’s Technology Today for City Tech and City Poly High School Students NSF Advanced Technological Education Grant

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded City Tech its second Advanced Technological Education (ATE) award for a project entitled “Fuse Lab: Collaborative Education for Tomorrow’s Technology in Architecture, Engineering and Construction.” The $877,322 three-year grant is led by Architectural Technology chair, Shelley Smith. Team members include Anne Leonhardt, Paul King, and Alexandra Emma Moll of Architectural Technology; Gerarda Shields, Paul Pellicani, and department chair Anthony Cioffi of Construction Management and Civil Engineering Technology; Huseyin Yuce of Mathematics; and Marie Segares, City Poly High School liaison.

The Fuse Lab project fits perfectly into the NSF’s program definition, “The Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program focuses on the education of technicians for the high-technology fields that drive our nation’s economy. The program involves partnerships between

academic institutions and employers to promote improvement in the education of science and engineering technicians at the undergraduate and secondary school levels.” Fuse Lab partners the departments of Architectural Technology (ARCH) and Construction Management and Civil Engineering (CMCE) with City Poly High School to 1) develop and implement an articulated career pathway (3+2+2) that leads to baccalaureate degrees in multiple areas and is integrated with industry certifications, 2) create curriculum units with solid STEM foundations and provide interdisciplinary faculty development opportunities based on industry practice, and 3) create a sustainable mechanism for feedback between industry and academia.

City Tech has the opportunity to develop this pathway as a national model with the involvement of City Poly High School. Marie Segares, the City Tech/City Poly liaison commented that City Poly High School

“is unique since it is open to any NYC student who may apply regardless of grades or academic background. City Poly is the only early college high school based on a 3 + 2 model where students receive high school and associate degrees in five years. There are no admission barriers to City Tech, the registration process is easier and students receive thorough advisement. Fuse Lab enhances the City Poly summer bridge program led by City Tech professors. Students are introduced to college level choices before they begin high school.” Students are focused on earning their degrees in a shorter time period yet they are provided with a strong foundation in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and offered a substantial overview of career options.

Gerarda Shields of CMCE remarked that “the NSF ATE grant has been an excellent opportunity for CMCE and ARCH faculty to sit down together to develop interdisciplinary coursework. The idea of creating courses in which CMCE and ARCH students interact with each other during the semester is also being discussed. At City Tech, we have always had an excellent relationship


between the two departments, and the grant has only strengthened this relationship.” The internal partnership of CMCE and ARCH may seem natural but undergraduate architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) programs have always been distinctly separate programs of study. Technology is now bridging the gap and City Tech is embracing the opportunity to change and develop with the technology. Starting within the college and keeping faculty current with industry to adapt the curriculum is the first step in having a lasting effect on students.

Professor Shelley Smith reports that the project is progressing well. A full-time fabrication technical coordinator and a part-time project coordinator have been hired, and the advisory board met in December. A new course in Architectural Technology, Building and Performance Workshop (ARCH 3550) was launched and another course, Computational Fabrication, is being piloted. Content for the Fuse Lab website is being produced. Video and media will provide concrete examples to mirror the curriculum units for students in

high school and the summer bridge program. Professor Smith noted, “it is a constant struggle to integrate emerging technology, and we are always looking at digital tools to change within courses. We are looking at all of our courses, and it is a challenge for faculty not just to teach but prepare to teach new technology. It is most important that students have adaptation skills, and to teach them these soft skills early.”

In assessing the curriculum in the scope of 3+2+2, faculty recognize the core STEM skills and can

better prepare students for the workforce. Fuse Lab demonstrates City Tech’s continuing efforts to strengthen our STEM initiatives. Creating a mechanism that provides continuous feedback from industry has the potential to expand to other programs. Industry connections have always been important to City Tech programs and they will remain so as our faculty and programs progress in the 21st century.

Patty Barba Gorkhover

(left to right) Marie Segares, Gerarda Shields, Huseyin Yuce, Shelley E Smith, Sanjive Vaidya, Claudia Hernandez, Anne Leonhardt, Brian Timothy Ringley


Documents

Nucleus Quarterly