Grove Students Win Robotics Vehicle Design Competition
A five-member team of students in CCNY’s Grove School of Engineering took first place in the design category in the 18th annual Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition (IGVC).  "We’re very proud of this achievement, especially since robotics is one of our key research areas," said Dean Joseph Barba in congratulating the team. "By supporting our students so they can participate in competitions like IGVC, they receive invaluable real-world training and open their eyes to the exciting research opportunities they can look forward to in academia and industry." IGVC participants work in teams to conceptualize, design and build the prototype for an autonomous vehicle that can avoid obstacles and navigate to GPS way points, explained CCNY team captain Igor Labutov.  The team, which also includes Erez Gati, Carlos Jaramillo, Ricardo Chincha and Fernando Guevara, earned a $3,000 prize for their entry, the City Alien.  It came in seventh in the autonomous challenge (obstacle course) category and competed, but did not place, in the navigation competition. Team members were all members of CCNY’s Autonomous Ground Vehicle Club, and used the project to meet the requirements for the senior capstone design class. More on this story.  Competition video.

CCNY Student Project Inspires New Open Space in Harlem
A CCNY graduate student’s capstone project has led to the creation of new community space for residents of two buildings in central Harlem.  Two adjacent empty lots on W. 140th Street between Adam Clayton Powell Jr. and Malcolm X Boulevards are being transformed into a garden and play area thanks to the initiative of Dawn Mikkelson, who earned her Master of Public Administration degree in May, and her mentor, Dr. Jean Krasno. "This began as a theoretical idea," said Ms. Mikkelson.  "I never anticipated we would produce a real garden." Ms. Mikkelson, a native of Minnesota with an interest in community-driven policy-making, last fall surveyed central Harlem to identify all open spaces in the neighborhood.  For her spring 2010 semester capstone project, she and two classmates did further investigation to learn whether development was planned for the properties and what agencies and nonprofits have oversight for an involvement with open space and creating gardens. Their investigation led to Kenneth Morrison, a property manager with Maxwell Properties.  A mid-rise apartment building under his management on W. 140th Street had an 18-foot-wide strip of vacant land next to a similar-size strip that was part of the next property. More on this story.

New CCNY Program Helps Students Navigate Workplace
Ten CCNY students participated this summer in a new program that combined work experience with workshops to develop the skills employers value in entry-level employees.  "The Development of Young Professionals Summer Program (DYPP) aims to ensure CCNY students are armed with the tools needed to successfully navigate any work environment," said Ian Matthews, a human resources generalist and program co-founder. The program is run by the College’s On-Campus Student Employment Office (OSCE).  That office was created in 2009 to create a sense of community and centralize the way students apply for and gain on-campus employment.  Erica Torres, an on-campus student employment specialist, and Shamaya Green, a college assistant coordinator, co-founded DYPP along with Mr. Matthews. The ten students who participated in the summer program, which ran for ten weeks, were: Abimbola Adeusi, Muhammad Ahmad, Asraful Azim, Jacqueline Bagley, Gilana Gelman, Katherine Guenther, Yasir Haque, Kennedy Kaunga, Giovanni Sanchez and Brian Shi.  They were each assigned to different offices across the campus, where they receive first-hand work experience, and they participated in four biweekly workshops led by OCSE staff. More on this story.

CCNY Alumnus Stephen Cook Receives Fulbright Scholarship
Stephen Cook, an ’09 MS graduate of The City College of New York (CCNY), has received a 2010-2011 Fulbright U.S. program scholarship to travel to Vietnam.  There he will teach English to university students at Hai Duong Teacher Training College. "I wanted a challenge and viewed the Fulbright as a great way to get university-level teaching experience." he said to explain why he applied for the Fulbright. "I really like that the Fulbright has a strong cultural component as part of the four-week orientation in Hanoi, in addition to Vietnamese language training." Mr. Cook chose the location of Vietnam because of his father. "My father was a Vietnam veteran.  I have always wanted to explore Vietnam for myself.  Growing up, I often heard my Dad recount stories of his service here." He feels privileged to be able to experience modern Vietnam through the scholarship program. Currently residing in Washington Heights, Mr. Cook has taught English as a Second Language at PS 153 in Manhattan for the past three years. He plans to return to New York to teach at some point, but is keeping an open mind for the future. More on this story.  

Spitzer School Presents Sciame Fall Lecture Series
"New York, New York: Place, Culture and Urbanity" will be the theme for the Fall 2010 Sciame Lecture Series at the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture. The eight-part series, which is free and open to the public, presents authors and prominent architects discussing some of New York’s most iconic buildings and public works, including the Empire State Building, Pennsylvania Station and Rockefeller Center. The series is sponsored by F.J. Sciame Construction Co.  Lectures begin at 6:30 p.m. and are held in Sciame Auditorium in the Spitzer School of Architecture building, 141 Convent Avenue, New York, NY 10031, located at West 135th Street and Convent Avenue.  For information about continuing education credits for New York State licensed architects, call 212-650-7118. More on this story.

Langston Hughes Exhibit Celebrates African-American Writers
Since 1978, CCNY’s Langston Hughes Festival has honored eminent African-American writers including Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, Amiri Baraka, Octavia Butler, Toni Morrison and Alice Walker with the Langston Hughes Medal. This fall, CCNY offers a retrospective of Hughes medalists in a new exhibit, "The Langston Hughes Festival: A Celebration of African-American Writers." It runs August 30 through December 31 in the Cohen Library Archives Gallery, located on the fifth floor of the North Academic Center building. The Langston Hughes Medal recognizes exceptional writers of poetry, fiction, drama, autobiography and critical essays that celebrate the memory and tradition of Mr. Hughes, an acclaimed African-American writer, poet and scholar. The next festival is scheduled for November 2011. "The exhibit pays homage to these superb writers of the African Diaspora and the event which has contributed to making CCNY an intellectual and social hub of this great city," said Dr. Gordon Thompson, the exhibit co-curator, Langston Hughes Festival director and an assistant professor of English at CCNY. "It also signals to our students that sharing stories is an honorable and worthy pursuit, particularly for African-Americans thirsting for closer contact with and greater awareness of model writers as they undertake the fine art of literary composition themselves." More on this story.

Center for Worker Education Announces Fall Lecture Series
CCNY’s Center for Worker Education (CWE) has quickly built a reputation for bringing distinguished intellectuals to its Bowling Green campus.  This fall is no exception.  Eight notable speakers will take part in the Center’s free bi-annual Book Talk Lecture Series, to run September 13 - December 13.  "All of our lecture series have been extremely successful," said Dr. Juan Carlos Mercado, Dean of CCNY’s Division of Interdisciplinary Studies based at the CWE.   "Each one has provided a forum for a rich exchange of ideas.   Students and lecture attendees are given the opportunity to meet prominent authors and engage in lively discussions.  Feedback from the program has been tremendous."  Over the past two years, CWE has presented close to 50 guest lecturers.  They include professors from CCNY and other CUNY colleges as well as well-known authors who publish with W.W. Norton. More on this story.

From the President

It’s a good time to give you some preliminary figures about our Fall 2010 enrollment. In spite of a slightly different last-minute registration rhythm, we came very close to meeting our projected numbers this year. As of today we have a total enrollment of 15,649 against a projection of 16,000 students. I recognize that a lot of hard work and coordinated effort went into ensuring that our students were ready to start on August 26, and I would like to thank everyone in the offices of admissions, the registrar, the bursar and financial aid, as well as advisors and faculty across the College, for your hard work to make this happen.

I also want to congratulate our Office of Veterans Affairs. These numbers include 176 student veterans continuing from last fall, and 28 new student veterans. We will have official numbers on diversity to report in the coming weeks, but you only have to walk across quad to see that we remain a wonderful reflection of the city and the world.

Lisa Staiano-Coico
President

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