Stony Brook University SUNY Korea

Seven SUNY Korea students (SBU and FIT) successfully finished an internship program with the Korea JoongAng Daily Newspaper from January 10 to 18. ​ This program was organized by the SUNY Korea Career Development Center (CDC) in collaboration with Korea JoongAng Daily in order to provide students a chance to explore careers in journalism, media and marketing. Korea JoongAng Daily Newspaper is the only global, local English newspaper in Korea that issues articles from both JoongAng Ilbo and International New York Times. ​ On January 18, 7 students presented their outcomes and learning points from the internship. This presentation was held at SUNY Korea and the Korea JoongAng Daily CEO, Mr. Chun-gun Cheong, and the SUNY Korea President, Dr. Arthur Lee, were in attendance. After the presentation, the internship completion certificates were delivered to students. Students’ articles will be published on the Korea JoongAng Daily website. ​ One student expressed that through the internship, she gained a lot of things such as patience and good communication skills. SUNY Korea and Korea JoongAng Daily will continue to collaborate to provide valuable opportunities to students.

AI and job interviews: Leveling the playing field   Written by Chihmao HSIEH   In the recent last few years, artificial intelligence has been implemented to handle some of the filtering processes involved in assessing job interviews. A growing number of companies is requiring job applicants to answer questions online via video camera, whereby computer programs then process the video clips and audio transcripts. Assessments of facial expressions, eye movements, voice intonation, and word choice are combined to come up with sets of scores for each applicant.  For now, it appears that most of the companies using this technology are using it only for the initial cut, thus capable of filtering applications easily from tens of thousands to mere dozens. Some AI interview software works by having current employees answer the questions on video, and then evaluating the candidates on how well they match those employees.   The criticism has been swift and wide-ranging. Besides the obvious criticisms related to tying voice intonation and facial expressions to personality or expected job performance, applicants also express unfairness about the unilateral nature of AI interviews, where applicants are unable to correct an AI’s perception in the same way that they can correct a human interviewer while face-to-face. Career development staff at universities lament that AI doesn’t know how to comprehend applicants’ value systems, or appreciate the work motivations stemming from their aspirations or passion. Researchers have found that AI systems are prone to making decisions that reflect racism or sexism, and have called to regulate AI to ensure transparency and accountability. AI also has severely limited ability to recognize humor, which is valuable within creative, entrepreneurial organizations. As a result, some companies such as Korea Airports Corp. have gotten rid of AI interviews because managers were unsure exactly how and what the AI were evaluating. Overall, policymakers have asked whether the cost savings offered by this technology are worth discounting this much of human value and dignity.   As with many technological advances, there are tradeoffs in using AI to assess job interviews.  At the surface, the cost savings are obvious and significant. As communication technology improves and more work goes remote, the physical boundaries of the workplace will open up. HR managers become less confined in recruiting from a local labor market, and companies can benefit from more candidates for each of their open positions. In processing all these extra applications, AI doesn’t suffer from fatigue or the broadest set of human biases. As many AI software chiefs have commented, AI’s purpose here is to complement human-led decisions, without substituting for them completely. Maybe we trust AI’s job placement ability in the future just as much as we trust Google’s search capability today.   But let’s take a step back: the ultimate goal here is to accurately match job seeker to open position. We can design the system with two strategies. In a first scenario, we facilitate the assessment of job applications. That’s what AI technology currently offers to us. In a second scenario, we help job seekers to foster taste in all the large and small companies hiring around the world. But how? I suggest that technology should scrutinize companies, as much as companies want to scrutinize job applicants. For example, a system could collect 24-hour real-time electronic data of employee behaviors at companies, and offer scores of each company’s ability to manage and support communication and collaboration. It might track the daily actual communication between employees, use that data to score the quality and challenge of all workgroups’ actual goals and projects, and offer weekly scores regarding the company’s level of creativity and bureaucracy. In this way, the burden then falls on companies to be more transparent about the quality of their daily internal work environment and the worklife of employees, besides simply relying on technology that robotically sifts through hundreds of thousands of resumes and video interviews.   These two strategies are not mutually exclusive. But the point is that we give some power back to job applicants and level the playing field. Although companies today have more applicants to choose from, applicants today also potentially have more companies to choose from. If a medium-sized company in the USA has opened up their boundaries to the world, then the world should also be able to identify and assess it. We need more employment policies and entrepreneurship acknowledging that job seekers deserve to identify the best companies that are fit for them, not just the other way around. Perhaps one day, job applicants can use AI to help them identify the thousands of companies around the world that are currently hiring, and then see a score that estimates the probability that they won’t like or are too talented for any given company.   Companies could simultaneously get the chance to send a strong signal regarding the quality of their philosophy towards humanity. Perhaps some companies would be willing to pay for the rights to be certified in this kind of applicant-friendly system. They could be proud that they not only welcome shortlisted finalists to interview face-to-face at their offices, but that they are also confident and humble enough to respect job applicants in helping them decide whether their company is good enough for them in the first place. On the other hand, if job applicants paid a nominal subscription fee to use such AI, it would have the added benefit of helping companies to identify those job seekers that signal seriousness about their job hunt (as we might observe with LinkedIn’s subscription service today). These kinds of business models bring some balance back to the equation. If companies use AI job interview software to assess candidates but aren’t willing to share daily or weekly AI data regarding their own internal environment or their own company culture, then they are largely hypocritical.   These kinds of issues regarding the direction of innovation weren’t matters of concern in the past. However, times are changing. As AI advances further and further, part of the system should still ensure that job candidates are valued with some basic standard of dignity, from a human perspective. But at the very least, candidates deserve to be on a similar playing field as companies. If that requires giving job applicants the power to leverage their own AI in assessing the desirability or fit of companies to work for, so be it.      Note: News story regarding Korea Airports Corp dropping AI interviews: http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20211004000214     Click here to read the article

January 6, 2022     In her first State of the State Address on Jan. 5, Governor Kathy Hochul announced the formal designation of Stony Brook University and The University at Buffalo as New York State’s flagship universities as part of her plan for “A New Era for New York.”     A joint statement from the two universities said, “The official recognition of these premier centers of higher education as joint flagships of the State University of New York (SUNY) system reflects the preeminent role that The University at Buffalo and Stony Brook University play statewide, nationally and internationally as models of research and academic excellence. This designation acknowledges the excellence and reputations of our universities and it will further enhance our ability to continue to recruit the world’s most accomplished faculty and attract outstanding students — regardless of their income or socio-economic background — and attract even more highly competitive federal research funding.”     “We are nationally recognized for our ability to produce cutting-edge research at the same time as we offer a world-class education to students from all socio-economic backgrounds, which in turn provides them unmatched social and economic mobility,” said Stony Brook President Maurie McInnis. “Our ambition, as leading public research universities, is to grow our combined annual research expenditures to bring jobs, innovation and renown to New York State. This recognition by the State of New York will strengthen our mission to deliver the benefits of our research, clinical care and education locally, regionally, nationally and globally. We thank Governor Hochul for her decision to designate our campus as one of two SUNY flagships.”     Hochul’s plan includes a number of proposals aimed at higher education in general and Stony Brook specifically, including:     Additional funding to construct a multidisciplinary engineering building on campus Supporting the Stony Brook/Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory partnership to launch NeuroAI, an initiative that combines neuroscience and artificial intelligence Expansion of the Stony Brook Center for Clean Water Technology research to include wastewater treatment technology and creation of the Suffolk County Wastewater Management District, both with the goal of protecting Long Island’s aquifer system Funding for the modernization and repair of scientific labs Funding for “Grand Challenges” that will encourage cross-disciplinary research Increased funding to attract world-class faculty and researchers The joint statement noted that across the country, flagship universities are those that provide vital leadership in advancing their home state’s public higher education mission, provide a comprehensive array of professional schools and degree programs, and are proven economic catalysts. “Flagships attract the world’s best and brightest faculty and students and are nationally and internationally recognized for the quality and impact of their research and academic innovation and rigor.”     Stony Brook and Buffalo are both members of the prestigious Association of American Universities, have built reputations as research-intensive institutions with preeminent academic programs, and their combined economic impact on the state exceeds $8.9 billion annually. They enroll nearly 59,000 students, have hundreds of thousands of alumni, have annual research expenditures of over $660 million, and offer more than 700 degree programs across academic disciplines.     Hochul also outlined a healthcare plan aimed at rebuilding and growing the state’s healthcare workforce by 20% over the next five years, with a $10 billion commitment that includes $4 billion to support higher wages and bonuses, and $2 billion for healthcare capital infrastructure and improved lab capacity. The plan also calls for increased training, attracting students by providing financial support for the education of healthcare professionals who work in New York State, supporting career flexibility for direct care workers, investing in digital innovation, making affordable healthcare coverage available to everyone, expanding and improving access to prenatal and postnatal care, establishing a state master plan for aging, and strengthening addiction, suicide, mental health and domestic violence services.     Hochul’s agenda includes nine key components: rebuilding our healthcare economy; protecting public safety and taking strong action against gun violence; investing in New York’s people; investing in New York’s communities; making New York’s housing system more affordable, equitable, and stable; making New York a national leader in climate action and green jobs; rebuilding New York’s teacher workforce and reimagining higher education; advancing New York’s place as a national equity model; and making critical reforms to restore New Yorkers’ faith in their government.     Click here to read the original article

The Fourth Industrial Revolution and the Future of Engineering Education Written by Hamid Hefazi, PhD Professor & Chair, Mechanical Engineering Department     Convergence and recent advances in numerous emerging technologies are referred to as the era of the “Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR).  The term was first proposed in 2016 by Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum (WEF).  4IR has major social, cultural, political, and global implications. American writer Alvin Toffler, in his book “Future Shock” published in 1970, was among the first to predict and discuss many of these issues.  Engineering is one of the most crucial professions for achieving the potentials of 4IR. In turn, it is also markedly impacted by it.     Faced with tremendous opportunities and challenges that the 4IR presents, engineering educators must take a critical look at the current state of engineering education and answer a number of hard questions such as: What skill sets are required for future engineers? Do current engineering curricula adequately provide these skills? What is the appropriate balance between theory and practice in engineering education? Is a four-year curriculum adequate to educate engineers of the future? Who should become an engineer?  These are difficult questions, for some of which there are no consensus answers.        Several studies by prominent engineering organizations such as the US National Academy of Engineering and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers have addressed this topic.  While some of their conclusions are different, they all strongly agree on the need for the development of certain attributes beyond the technical training of engineers.  These skills which are referred to as “soft skills”, are considered as essential as technical skills.       4IR presents substantial growth in the scope and scale of problems that engineers need to address. For example, engineering knowledge is now applied to improving the quality of healthcare, the safety of food products, and the operation of financial systems. Many of these problems are multidisciplinary and require teams of experts to address them. The complexity of the problems also requires a “tool-based” approach, integrating advanced technologies such as Computational Methods, Machine learning, and Artificial Intelligence with traditional engineering disciplines.        As former US secretary of education, Richard Riley noted: “We are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist, using technologies that haven’t been invented, in order to solve problems, we don’t even know are problems yet.” These challenges demand that engineering curricula go beyond traditional technical training. While it is safe to assume that future development in engineering will still be rooted in Mathematics and Physics, many other disciplines will be integrated with engineering. The intersection of biological sciences and engineering is already well established. However, the multidisciplinary nature of future problems is not limited to these areas. For example, understanding Cognitive Sciences play an important role in the engineering design process as well as the development of autonomous robots of the future. Understanding human psychology and human factors is an essential consideration in the development of space travel and space colonization.         It is only by aligning teaching and learning methods with the skills such as lifelong learning, complex problem solving, critical thinking, and cognitive flexibility, we can ensure that today’s students will be able to advance in the future dynamic environment.  Educating future engineers also needs integrating advanced tools in curricula and assigning complex problems that would require the synthesis of concepts from multiple disciplines, applying logical boundary conditions, and examining outcomes.       Engineering work is also the link between social needs and commercial applications. Along with solving technical issues, engineers must also analyze the impact of the products they develop or the systems they design on the environment and on the people using them. In the 4IR era economy, the allure of employment in “big businesses” will be replaced by the success of new industries that start as home businesses.  To thrive in such an economy, innovation, entrepreneurship, a global perspective, communication, and leadership skills are essential.       Finally, attracting the right talent to engineering programs is essential for the future of the profession. The current approach requires that young students join an educational pathway that ultimately results in an engineering degree. If a student enrolled in the wrong math class in 7th grade, she will find it difficult to become an engineer. This approach deprives the profession of many potential talents. A more holistic approach is needed to identify those candidates who have the ability to acquire knowledge rather than those who have certain pre-requisites.        In short, engineering education should focus on strong fundamentals in a wide range of sciences, the ability to acquire and use advanced technology, various softs skills, and most importantly the ability to acquire and apply new knowledge. It could be argued that it is extremely difficult to adequately include all of these elements in four-year engineering curricula. Therefore, the need for education beyond the Bachelor’s degree and technical specialization at the graduate level becomes inevitable.  The American education system is perhaps the first to recognize these challenging requirements and attempt to address them to some level of success.         Click here to read the article

December 13, 2021 Stony Brook University’s School of Communication and Journalism (SoCJ) is launching a Master of Science in Journalism program. Students are now able to apply for the program and begin working toward their degrees in the 2022-2023 academic year.     An updated version of a previous program, the new master’s in journalism will offer students a firm grounding in multimedia journalism and ethics, while helping them develop skills that are increasingly important in our divided society: inclusive communication and community engagement, data journalism and visualization, and solutions-based journalism.      “Journalism is vital to democracy, but to fill that role, people need to trust journalism,” said Laura Lindenfeld, dean of the SoCJ and executive director of the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science. “With this program, the School and its future graduates will help to re-establish trust in journalism by looking critically at data and working alongside communities to find and tell the stories that need to be told. Our graduates, in partnership with the communities they cover, will be able to reflect the reality of individuals’ lived experiences in ways that traditional journalism hasn’t.”     The program is designed for individuals who are new to journalism and early-career media professionals seeking to advance in their careers.     Click here to read the original article

December 14, 2021 Lonnie Wollmuth, professor in the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, was named a recipient of the 2021 Lupus Innovation Award by the Lupus Research Alliance.     Wollmuth’s project, “Diversity of anti-NMDA receptor autoantibodies in lupus patients” is among 11 projects selected, representing a wide range of areas of discovery from probing the development and progression of lupus to pointing to potential personalized therapies. Studying the disease from different vantage points can maximize the overall understanding of the disease, which can lead to more viable treatment options. The award offers up to $150,000 per year total costs for up to two years.      Lupus is an autoimmune disorder where individuals produce antibodies against their own body leading to a wide range of symptoms. Prominent symptoms include brain disorders ranging from memory loss to more severe problems such as epilepsy and psychosis. These symptoms negatively impact quality of life, and treatments are limited.     Wollmuth’s lab will develop strategies targeting the NMDA receptor, a molecule that controls communication between nerve cells to prevent or reduce brain disorders in lupus patients. NMDA receptors are involved in numerous brain functions including higher order processes like learning and memory. In some lupus patients, antibodies are produced that target the NMDA receptor, which alters the functioning of the receptor and may be linked to brain disorders.     Using mouse models, Wollmuth’s research team will first look at the damage caused by individual antibodies targeting the NMDA receptor obtained from different lupus patients, and then see if the damage can be blocked by various agents. His study will lay the foundation for personalized medicine for lupus patients experiencing brain disorders by showing how the NMDA receptor is affected, and by identifying potential therapeutic agents.     “We are proud to support fundamental lupus research through these grants in order to encourage the development of novel and/or improved therapeutic options for the lupus patient community,” said Teodora Staeva, chief scientific officer, Lupus Research Alliance.       Wollmuth received his PhD in physiology and biophysics from the University of Washington, Seattle. Before joining the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior in the College of Arts and Sciences in 1998, he was a senior fellow in the Division of Cell Physiology at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research from 1993 to 1998. He is a co-director of the Center for Nervous System Disorders at Stony Brook University and is a member of the Society for Neuroscience and the Biophysical Society.     The Lupus Innovation Award provides support for highly innovative approaches to major challenges in lupus research with a special emphasis on exploring fundamental mechanisms, novel targets for drug development, novel technologies and interdisciplinary approaches.     Click here to read the original article

Decemeber 21, 2021 Northwell Health LIJ Forest Hills, in Forest Hills, Queens, saw its first COVID-19 patient on March 11, 2020, and would go on to see more than 2,000 COVID-19 patients in the facility over the next year.     Now, two FIT Illustration MFA students—Jensine Eckwall, from Newtown, CT, now living in Ridgewood, Queens, and set to graduate this coming summer, and Nikki Scioscia, from Lexington, SC, now living in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, and in her third year—have designed and installed two murals in a site-specific outdoor staff rest area at the hospital that will serve as a memorial garden honoring those lost to the pandemic.     The design of the murals, which were formally unveiled on December 14, is heavily influenced by American Folk Art, Eckwall explained. In one of the images, the sun is rising because the community hospital used to play The Beatles’ “Here Comes the Sun” when someone was released from the COVID ward. In the other image is a tree displaying the message “New York Will Heal Because of You.” The tree’s roots signify the roots at the hospital, which are closely connected to the borough of Queens.     Merav Deguzman, director of Patient and Customer Experience Education at LIJ, has a daughter who went to FIT, and has seen ChalkFIT—the college’s annual outdoor mural project. She thought of FIT students to paint the hospital’s mural in memory of those lost to COVID, and approached Brendan Leach, chair of FIT’s MFA in Illustration, about it.     Click here to read the original article

December 14, 2021 FIT alum Aniyah Smith, Cosmetics and Fragrance Marketing BS ’20, has created Push Beauty, an inclusive and accessible cosmetics company for diverse populations. Smith, inspired by the Husky Startup Challenge after beginning her Northeastern MBA program, received an inaugural $2,500 Innovator Award from the university’s Women Who Empower initiative to support her efforts. Her line will include products for disabled people that can be opened and used with one hand. “I realized that diversity goes past color, wealth, and background,” Smith says. ”It’s really about environments and experiences that people have, and a lot of the time they are very different from your own. And so my goals have changed. My career choice to be a founder of a brand has stayed the same, but what that brand is and what it means to people has definitely evolved.” Click here to read the original article

Come join us for an online live webinar co-hosted by SUNY Korea and ETS, TOEFL and GRE test makers! SUNY Korea Undergrad Admissions Representative and a Graduate Admissions Representative with Two professional representatives from ETS will provide prospective applicants with useful information on how your TOEFL and GRE scores can be utilized for college admission.     Information on learning opportunities, academic programs, scholarships, admissions processes, and preparation for the TOEFL and GRE tests will be discussed.     *Register Link: https://apply.sunykorea.ac.kr/portal/admissions_events *Date and Time: January 24-27, 2022 at 3:30 - 4:30 PM (KST) *Program Schedule: January 24: TOEFL + Undergrad Programs (Korean) January 25: TOEFL + Undergrad Programs (English) January 26: GRE + Grad Programs (Korean) January 27: GRE + Grad Programs (English)     For any inquiries, please contact +82-32-626-1030, admission@sunykorea.ac.kr     TOEFL과 GRE 성적을 활용하여 학부/대학원 합격률을 높일 수 있는 방법이 궁금하신가요? ETS Korea와 함께하는 한국뉴욕주립대학교 온라인 설명회에 여러분을 초대합니다!     한국뉴욕주립대학교 입학 안내, TOEFL/GRE 고득점 및 입시 활용 전략과 사례에 대하여 진행될 예정입니다.     사전신청 링크: https://apply.sunykorea.ac.kr/portal/admissions_events 일시: January 24-27, 2022 at 3:30 - 4:30 PM (KST) 프로그램 일정: 1월 24일: TOEFL + 학부 과정 (한글) 1월 25일: TOEFL + 학부 과정 (영어) 1월 26일: GRE + 대학원 과정 (한글) 1월 27일: GRE + 대학원 과정 (영어)     문의: 032-626-1030, admission@sunykorea.ac.kr

SUNY Korea welcomes you to join us for the [SUNY Korea Online Preview Week]!     Come talk to the professors, current students, and department counselors to learn more about the campus life and the academic department of your interest! Each session will be hosted by the department chairs and other distinguished faculty.     You can also sign up for more than one session if you are interested in more than one major.     Registration link: https://apply.sunykorea.ac.kr/portal/admissions_events     한국뉴욕주립대학교에 관심이 있는 학생과 학부모님들을 에 초대합니다!     교수님, 학과 카운슬러 선생님, 재학생들과의 만남을 통하여 각 학과 특장점 및 캠퍼스 생활에 대하여 알아갈 수 있는 시간이 마련되어 있으니 많은 관심과 참여 부탁드립니다.     각 세션은 학과장님과 교수님들께서 직접 진행하실 예정이며, 한개 이상의 세션 등록도 가능합니다.     신청링크: https://apply.sunykorea.ac.kr/portal/admissions_events

SUNY Korea’s Application Support Center was successfully held on December 16-18 at COEX to help students with their Spring-Fall 2022 Applications.     Around 250 visitors had the opportunity to consult with the Admissions Counselors before the Spring 2022 Application Final Deadline on January 31, 2022. Selected participants were selected to receive the new SUNY Korea gifts!     If you were unable to attend, or still have questions about your application, you can always contact the Admissions Office at admission@sunykorea.ac.kr or +82-32-626-1030.     For more information on each department, check out the upcoming 2022 Online Preview Week. To register, visit: https://apply.sunykorea.ac.kr/portal/admissions_events.

   

  Dear SUNY Korea Community, We will come together to celebrate the commencement of the Class of Fall 2021 and confer the hard-earned degrees on Saturday, December 18 at 11:00 a.m. KST.  This special tribute to the graduating class includes remarks from Dr. Wonki Min (President of SUNY Korea), Dr. Maurie McInnis (President of Stony Brook University), and Dr. Hyun-Soon Lee (Former Vice Chairman of Doosan Group).  This year, SUNY Korea is holding the ceremony in person only for RSVP'd graduation candidates under strict COVID prevention measures. The ceremony will also be live-streamed via SUNY Korea's YouTube channel. RSVP'd students may accompany guests to the event, where guests will be able to watch the live-streamed ceremony in separate rooms. You can access the Live-streaming on SUNY Korea’s official YouTube channel. ※ Please subscribe to our channel to receive an alarm for the commencement. ■ Date & Time: Saturday, December 18 at 11:00 a.m. (KST) Please join us in celebrating the achievements of our graduating students

On Dec. 8, FIT launched an unprecedented initiative to transform the lives and careers of people of color in the creative industries. Through a multifaceted, comprehensive approach, the Social Justice Center at FIT (SJC) is designed to increase opportunity and accelerate social equity for those whom the industry might otherwise leave behind.     People of color make up only about one in five workers in the creative industries. Because the problem of underrepresentation is deeply rooted, the solution cannot be one-dimensional. BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, people of color) individuals in these industries face systemic barriers at every stage of their lives, beginning in childhood and lasting through retirement. That is why the SJC is building a seamless and sustained support network that addresses early education, college mentorship and training, and professional career support.     “The focus for the Social Justice Center at FIT is on the whole individual,” says FIT President Joyce F. Brown, who spearheaded this first-of-its-kind initiative in higher education. “We will intervene early with BIPOC youth so they can make informed decisions about their future and the careers they might choose to pursue. While they are in college, we will provide exposure to the inner workings of industry as well as concentrated support and training. Our partners in industry will then mentor, guide, and provide opportunities to accelerate their career potential.”     The SJC aims to nurture a racially and ethnically diverse talent pipeline, from the middle school classroom to the executive level. If successful, it will break down systemic barriers and ensure that BIPOC professionals achieve their full potential. It will provide scholarships for middle school, high school, and college students, and offer a pathway to advancement through internships, mentorships, and apprenticeships with SJC partners.     This approach is supported by four pillars:     collaboration among leading corporate and nonprofit CEOs who are committed to this vision, the talent, creativity, and expertise of FIT faculty, staff, and students, a sustained commitment to funding scholarships and programs, and ongoing accountability that will identify and measure the advancement of BIPOC professionals. Dr. Joyce Brown and Jeff Tweedy in the Pomerantz Center lobby at FIT     The SJC has received substantial industry support, including $1 million pledges from the foundations of PVH Corp., owner of iconic brands including Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger; Capri Holdings Limited, whose luxury portfolio includes Michael Kors, Jimmy Choo, and Versace; and Tapestry, Inc., which owns Coach, Kate Spade, and Stuart Weitzman. G-III Apparel Group made the establishing gift to the SJC Scholarship Fund, which already has reached more than $1.5 million in contributions.     Stefan Larsson, chief executive officer of PVH Corp., hopes that his company’s early involvement will encourage further investment by industry: “It is only by coming together that we can make a real and lasting, positive change.”     Numerous scholarships are already available: the Social Justice Center Endowed Scholarship, the Amsale Aspire Initiative, the Art Smith Memorial Endowed Scholarship, the Black Student Illustrators Graduation Award, and the Prada Scholarship at FIT, among others.      Jeffrey Tweedy, former president and chief executive officer of Sean John and a Menswear Design and Marketing alumnus, will be a special advisor to President Brown to help build and expand the center. A search for an executive director is underway. Additionally, an industry advisory council of 16 executives has been established to counsel, collaborate, and help measure progress toward equity.     “After George Floyd’s murder, it occurred to me that we were in a very different place than a lot of the people and companies who simply wanted to do something,” President Brown says. “We were really very privileged to be in a position to make a difference. I wanted to create a different kind of pathway for people of color, so that we could see a different kind of outcome.”

Brookhaven National Laboratory has received funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for “Battery500 Phase 2,” which involves research aimed at understanding and improving materials for electric vehicle (EV) batteries. Stony Brook is a partner in Brookhaven Science Associates LLC, managing the Laboratory for the DOE.     Enyuan Hu (front) and Peter Khalifah, two of the principal investigators for battery research projects that just received DOE funding, at Brookhaven Lab’s NSLS-II X-ray Powder Diffraction beamline.     “President Biden’s administration wants to make it easier for millions of American families and businesses to make the switch to electric vehicles,” said Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm in a DOE statement announcing the funding. “By developing smarter vehicle batteries, we can make these technologies cheaper and more accessible, while positioning America to be become a global leader of EV infrastructure production and clean energy jobs.”     As partners in Battery500 Phase 2, which is led by DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, a team of scientists — including Peter Khalifah, a professor in the Department of Chemistry at Stony Brook University who holds a joint appointment at Brookhaven Lab — will conduct studies to identify battery electrode materials with increased energy density. Such materials could reduce the size and weight of batteries used in electric vehicles and/or extend the vehicle’s driving distance for a given battery weight with better safety characteristics. Identifying lower-cost materials is another primary goal.     The total budget of Battery500 Phase 2 is $75 million for the next five years. It is a renewal of funding for the original Battery500 Consortium, which was established in 2016.     Under the new funding arrangement, Brookhaven Lab will receive $1.3 million per year for the next five years. Khalifah, along with Brookhaven associate chemist Enyuan Hu, will serve as the two leaders of a cross-cutting thrust on materials characterization within the consortium.      In the next five years, the Brookhaven team will continue their efforts to develop and deploy sensitive characterization techniques that can illuminate the changes that occur in lithium metal anodes, metal oxide and sulfur cathodes, and new electrolytes during their use in rechargeable batteries. These efforts will help understand and overcome the factors limiting the performance of this exceptionally high-energy density class of batteries and will accelerate the rate at which this technology can become commercially viable.