• First place ($1,500) was awarded to Celes Buffard ’27 (School of Information Studies), founder of Return 2 Reality, an entertainment company focusing on a podcast for entrepreneurs around navigating and getting past the hurdles and challenges throughout the entrepreneurial journey.
• Second place ($1,000) was awarded to Olutosin (Tosin) Alabi ��’25 (Whitman School of Management), founder of Diabetech, a med-tech venture for a diabetic foot ulcer wearable.
• Two third-place prizes ($500 each) were awarded to Alie Savane ’25 (College of Arts and Sciences), founder of Bete Kola, a health and wellness venture focusing on kola nut food and beverage products; and Mian Hamid ’26 (School of Information Studies), founder of Chai YEAH, a beverage venture offering authentic Indian chai tea to the U.S. market.

The Executive Board for ���ϲ�����’s Student Veterans of America are all military veterans, and they’re all full-time students at the University. In addition to their academic responsibilities, many also hold jobs, have families and take on additional responsibilities on and off campus. It is because of their desire to be of service to something bigger than themselves that fuels the time and effort they give back to the campus community.

Get to know these impactful��student veterans.

Leonel “Leo” Aviles ’26 – U.S. Marine Corps Veteran
School of Information Studies

Leonel “Leo” Aviles

Leo, as he is affectionately known among friends and the military-connected community, is president of the Student Veterans Organization (SVO) at ���ϲ�����. Originally from Florida, Aviles found ���ϲ����� through the Warrior-Scholar Project and credits the University’s admissions staff, along with OVMA’s staff with why he ultimately decided to enroll at ���ϲ�����.

“The staff at this university has open arms for veterans out there wanting to pursue higher education. The amount of people wanting to help veterans with school is incredible,” says Aviles. “I would highly encourage any military-connected student to reach out to the SVO to find out more about what opportunities are available on and off campus.”

Derick Ramos G’26 – U.S. Marine Corps Veteran
College of Arts and Sciences

Derick Ramos

Ramos served as a tank crewman in the Marines for four years and is currently the SVO’s vice president. A graduate student, Ramos is pursuing a Ph.D. in physics. One of the biggest reasons why Ramos chose ���ϲ����� was because of the competitive academic programs available, particularly for doctoral studies.

“When transitioning from the service we may believe that we are behind in some instances compared to other students attending college after high school,” says Ramos, “Keep your head down and work hard, your dreams and goals will come true. Always remember the words of Winnie the Pooh, ‘You’re braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.’”

Jurgen Baeza ’26 – U.S. Navy Veteran
College of Engineering and Computer Science

Jurgen Baeza

Baeza discovered ���ϲ����� while still in high school in San Diego, California. His journey to Central New York required a brief stint in the U.S. Navy, serving as an aviation structural mechanic specializing in the F/A-18 Super Hornet’s safety equipment.

With an interest in computers starting at an early age, Baeza began teaching himself to code and is pursuing that interest as a computer science major. While trying to adapt to life as a non-traditional college student, Baeza came in contact with other student veterans on campus and quickly got involved with the SVO.

“As I started going to more events and talking to more of the student veterans, I would talk to them about our similar life experiences and I was able to relate to them a lot easier than those students who are a lot younger than me,” Baeza says.

Savion Pollard ’26 – U.S. Navy Veteran
College of Engineering and Computer Science

Savion Pollard

Pollard served in the Navy for eight years working on board nuclear submarines as a nuclear electronics technician. His time at ���ϲ����� has been marked by significant accomplishments, including being the first local hire for Micron and being an honored guest of U.S. Sen. Charles E. Schumer during the 2023 State of the Union Address��from President Joseph R. Biden L’68.

“I chose to come to ���ϲ����� because it brought me closer to family, and because of its proclamation as the ‘Best Place for Vets,’” says Pollard, who is currently studying electrical engineering with a minor in computer science. “I’ve grown to love the campus community, the ���ϲ����� city community and the deep connection between the two.”

Pollard has been a member of the SVO’s executive board for a few years and says his biggest advice for new military-connected students is to “buy into the campus culture and to try new things along the way. All of my greatest achievements as a student have been due to being involved and making myself uncomfortable,” Pollard says.

Tojyea “TJ” Matally ’27 – U.S. Marine Corps Veteran
College of Visual and Performing Arts

Tojyea “TJ” Matally

Matally is a sophomore pursuing a degree in communications design, and he served as a combat photographer in the Marine Corps until 2023, when he opted to pursue higher education and found ���ϲ����� because of its reputation for providing educational opportunities for veterans and military families.

“I chose to attend ���ϲ����� because I had heard it was an ideal place for veterans to assimilate into higher education; plus, I wanted to remain in the New York area after being stationed on Long Island for five years,” Matally says.

His advice to other student veterans is to “be honest with your limitations and strengths, and enjoy your new transition. It’s a privilege to pause and invest in yourself for four or more years. Be grateful and lean on your community to support you throughout the journey,” Matally says.

To learn more about the military-connected students at ���ϲ����� and the programs and services available for student veterans, please visit the .

Dwayne Murray, deputy director of the Office of Veteran and Military Affairs (OVMA), discusses its impact on campus and around the world, explores what sets ���ϲ����� apart as a best place for veterans and shares his love for working with veterans and military-connected students.

���ϲ����� has a long, proud history of serving our veterans and military-connected students that dates back to World War I and the post-World War II era when thousands of veterans embarked on their journey to a college degree through the G.I. Bill.

One of the central organizations on campus that helps the University accomplish this mission is the (OVMA), which, for the last 10 years has played a critical role in helping veterans, military-connected students and their family members pursue their higher education dreams.

Dwayne Murray ’97 is living out his dream job as the OVMA’s deputy director, and he’s proud of the work the organization does through its programs and initiatives while serving as the University’s central hub for veteran and military-connected students.

Dwayne Murray

“The OVMA sets our veteran and military-connected students with an opportunity to go through the entire life cycle of being connected to ���ϲ�����, from being recruited to when they graduate with their degrees,” Murray says. “We provide student success opportunities, immersion trips, job readiness activities and an outstanding 100% job placement rate thanks to our career services office.”

Murray was a track and field student-athlete on campus and earned degrees in sociology ( and ) and information management and technology () before enlisting in the U.S. Army immediately after graduating.

Following a decorated 25-year active-duty career in the Army, both as an enlisted soldier and an officer, Murray returned to his alma mater in June 2022 to take on this latest career challenge, which blends his passion for his country with his drive to help veteran and military-connected students achieve their goals.

“To be at the intersection of where I’ve had some of the most formidable experiences of my life as a student, and then to combine that with the purpose, direction and motivation that comes from being in the Army, I had to take advantage of this opportunity,” Murray says. “It’s the only calling for me that was bigger than continuing to serve in the military because I could pay back my institution, I could pay back the students that walk these halls and I could share those lessons I’ve learned and experiences I’ve had with our campus community.”

On this “’Cuse Conversation,” Murray discusses the impact the OVMA has had on campus and around the world, explores what sets ���ϲ����� apart as a best place for veterans and shares his love for working with veterans and military-connected students.

Check out . A transcript [PDF] is also available.

Global Impact as a Best Place for Veterans

Murray says the commitment to our veterans and military-connected students is “baked into our DNA as a University,” including the advent of the Student Army Training Corps, which was the forerunner to the Army ROTC. ���ϲ����� was also home to one of the first Air Force ROTC programs on a college campus in the nation.

Dwayne Murray (second from left) poses with attendees at the OVMA’s Stars & Stripes tailgate.

Among the many ways the OVMA and the University help facilitate the transition from active duty to student, Murray points to:

• a simplified, streamlined admissions process, including waiving application fees, which has led to a 300% increase in enrollment over the last 10 years;
• customized support services;
• innovative and creative programming under the leadership of Director of Veteran Career Services Jennifer Pluta G’15 that has yielded a 100% job placement rate for student veterans;
• a welcoming and inclusive environment, featuring various affinity groups;
• strong cross-campus relationships that lead to expanded opportunities for students; and
• significant scholarship opportunities that eliminate financial barriers to a degree.

Dwayne Murray enjoyed a decorated 25-year active-duty career in the U.S. Army, both as an enlisted soldier and an officer, before returning to ���ϲ����� in June 2022.

Add it all up and Murray says it’s easy to see why Military Times consistently ranks ���ϲ����� among the “best place for veterans” among private universities.

“We are fully committed to enhancing the opportunities for our students, and these efforts have led to a global impact,” Murray says. “We have close to 60 veterans enrolled in the fully interactive hybrid online juris doctorate program [known as JDinteractive], which gives our veterans and military-connected students the opportunity to earn their law degree completely online. We have students in the Defense Comptrollership program, that earn an MBA from the and a master’s degree in public administration through the Maxwell School. They go on to serve as leaders in their civilian agencies or their military branch of service.”

National Veterans and Military Families Month

While Murray has always seen ���ϲ����� as part of his identity—when he was 7 years old, his grandmother bought him a ���ϲ����� sweatshirt from the Salvation Army that became a cherished possession—the University is also ingrained in his family.

Dwayne’s wife, Alison Murray ’01, currently serves as the assistant dean for student assistance with Hendricks Chapel, where she is responsible for religious and spiritual outreach programs and services that assist students seeking holistic support. Alison, who earned a nursing degree on campus, served in the Army for more than 20 years.

With November being National Veterans and Military Families Month, the Murrays are an outstanding example of service to country and passion for giving back to students.

“Alison is a nurse by trade, and Hendricks Chapel is like a hospital in that she can diagnose folks and provide them with the type of support and assistance they need to grow, thrive and be successful,” Dwayne says. “It’s an amazing feeling knowing we share this strong connection with our alma mater.”

Alison and Dwayne Murray.

“I joined in 2017, right after high school. Two weeks after I graduated, I headed to boot camp,” says Aviles, an undergraduate student studying at .

Aviles served as a warehouse specialist in the Marines, spending his first two years of service at the Marine Corps Air and Ground Training Center in 29 Palms, California, one of the Marine Corps’ most remote bases in the continental United States. There, he supported the Marine Corps Communication-Electronics School, which trains Marines in various ground electronic maintenance roles, tactical communications and anti-air warfare operations.

For the second half of his career, Aviles supported a tank battalion, providing all the supply needs for the unit and its personnel, handing out everything from goggles, gloves, and replacement parts of vehicles and equipment.

When it came time to transition out of the military, Aviles sought out opportunities for higher education through the Warrior Scholar Project (WSP). The WSP program prepares transitioning service members to pursue their academic goals after service. While participating with the organization, Aviles says he learned about ���ϲ����� and its initiatives to support veterans and military-connected students.

Aviles during his time serving in the U.S. Marine Corps.

“I was originally planning to go back to my home state of Florida and do community college when I got out, but during my time with WSP, I learned about ���ϲ�����. I had not been to New York before then, and it seemed like a great opportunity,” Aviles says.

When he first arrived on campus, Aviles says he felt he struggled to fit in as a non-traditional student. It’s a common experience shared by many student veterans, particularly first-generation college students. For Aviles, one thing that helped was finding the military-connected community on campus and meeting people who had similar experiences and understood where he was coming from.

“For me, it was a struggle because you’re older and you don’t really fit in. After a while, everyone’s kind of pushing you and telling you it’s okay. But I’ve opened many doors for myself and had some great opportunities,” says Aviles.

One of those opportunities came through the�� (SVO), ���ϲ�����’s local chapter of the National Student Veterans of America.��Through the SVO, military-connected students can find an easier transition to academic life and connect with other students who have experienced the rigors of higher education, as well as providing a community for camaraderie and support.

“I feel like it’s a great organization due to the fact that, coming in as a first-year student, I was very closed-minded and just stuck to myself. The SVO actually opened me up to be more open-minded and feel more comfortable. I met great buddies who served in different branches, so I got a bunch of different learning perspectives from different people,” Aviles says.

According to Aviles, that support has been a significant source of his success while pursuing an information management technology degree from the School, learning about various topics from cybersecurity to data analytics. For Aviles, he sees a future in cyber security, hopefully contracting with the U.S. government or working with military-affiliated companies like Booz Allen.

Now, as a junior, Aviles has stepped forward to help welcome other student veterans to campus. Earlier this semester, Aviles was elected as the President of the SVO, a position that he feels passionate about succeeding in.

“It’s a great opportunity for other veterans or even military-affiliated students. They can come in, partake in some of our events, and get together with other like-minded students. It’s just a great organization for us to get together and get more comfortable on campus,” Aviles says.

For those interested in learning more about the SVO or other programs available to military-connected students, please visit the . The SVO holds meetings at least one Friday a month in the student veteran lounge at the National Veterans Resource Center, and those students interested in learning more about military service or supporting veterans on campus are welcome to attend.

Aviles (second from right), along with other members of the Student Veterans Organization, at the annual Stars and Stripes Tailgate before the military appreciation football game. (Photo by Charlie Poag)

The Salzberg Program is made possible by the support of the Whitman School’s H.H. Franklin Center for Supply Chain Management, co-directed by Assistant Professor of Supply Chain Practice Gary La Point and Associate Professor of Supply Chain Management Julie Niederhoff.

“We are honored to have some of the best industry leaders join us for the Salzberg Memorial Lecture Program to speak to our students and faculty about topics that are a timely intersection of supply chain management, continuous improvement, globalization, sustainability and well-being,” says Whitman School Interim Dean Alex McKelvie. “In addition, we are privileged to present the Salzberg Medallion, which has come to be one of the most esteemed awards in the field of supply chain management since 1949. It is with great pride that the Whitman School, which has the oldest supply chain program in the country, dating back to 1919, showcases some of our top industry leaders, innovative scholars and talented students, who will surely help to inspire the next generation of supply chain leaders—many of whom I’m certain will be products of our own Whitman program.”

Award Recipients

This year’s recipients of the Salzberg Industry Medallion was Toyota Motor Corporation. From left are Whitman School Interim Dean Alex McKelvie; Steve Brown, vice president of parts and logistics and operations at Toyota Motor North America; and J. Michael Haynie, vice chancellor for strategic initiatives and innovation and executive dean of the Whitman School.

This year’s recipients of the Salzberg Industry Medallion was Toyota Motor Corporation, which has built a reputation as a global pioneer for the Toyota Production System (TPS), its manufacturing practices that set the standard for optimizing processes, reducing waste and creating a culture of continuous improvement that has essentially redefined manufacturing standards globally across multiple industries. Steve Brown, vice president of parts and logistics and operations at Toyota Motor North America, accepted the award on behalf of the company.

The Salzberg Academic Medallion was presented to Charles Corbett, Ph.D. Corbett is the IBM Chair in Management and professor of operation and management and sustainability at UCLA. He also holds a joint appointment at the UCLA Institute of Environment and Sustainability. His current research focuses on sustainable operations, time management and well-being, and his work has been featured in the media and through keynote lectures around the world.

The Salzberg Medallion award winners were selected from nominations received from past recipients and other highly regarded practitioners in the transportation and supply chain fields.

Five awards were also given to Whitman undergraduate students. Those students pursuing a supply chain management major were given the opportunity to submit a paper and video about their ideas for consideration by the members of the H.H. Franklin Supply Chain Advisory Board. This year’s recipients were the following:

• Taylor Nicole Feiden ’25, marketing management, real estate and supply chain management, who received the $10,000 Brethen Scholarship.
• Gabrielle Goldman ’25 (Whitman/School of Information Studies) ’25, supply chain management and information management and technology, who received the $10,000 Brethen Scholarship.
• Amelia K. Thorn ’25 (Whitman/Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs), finance and supply chain management, who received the $1,000 Zinsmeister Award.
• Connor McHugh ’25, business analytics and supply chain management, who received a $5,000 Recognition Award.
• Odette A. Sherk ’26 (Whitman/Maxwell School), supply chain management, marketing and environmental and sustainability policy, who received the Empowering Women in Supply Chain Award, presented on behalf of the Didier Family, who received a $1,000 award.

Industry Presentations

A number of speakers rounded out the event, sharing their perspectives on topics relevant to supply chain management.

Toyota’s Brown and Jeff Cawyer, group manager, Toyota Motor North America, outlined the history and methods of TPS, which has become the standard for the auto manufacturing industry through an organizational culture of highly engaged people solving problems or innovating to merge with the latest technology. TPS is focused on the idea that the customer comes first and that people are the company’s most important resource. The company follows the Japanese philosophy of Kaizen, where problems are solved by going right to the shop floor or at the individual dealerships, and the role of managers is to motivate and develop people by building a greater organizational culture where employees feel empowered, supported and recognized.

Toyota is also strongly committed to one of today’s top supply chain challenges: carbon neutrality, which the company is aggressively targeting to reach by 2050. Cawyer also explained how his division handles planning and parts logistics with the Just in Time mindset of “building what people need right now only in the right quantity,” while also making sure that estimated delivery times are met at the dealership level.

The Salzberg Academic Medallion was presented to Charles Corbett, Ph.D. Corbett is the IBM Chair in Management and professor of operation and management and sustainability at UCLA. From left are Whitman School Interim Dean Alex McKelvie; Mike Haynie, vice chancellor for strategic initiatives and innovation and executive dean of the Whitman School; Corbett; and Julie Neiderhoff, associate professor of supply chain management.

Corbett presented “The Operations of Well-Being,” which outlined his research on how processes interact with happiness, equity and sustainability. He talked about “stimulating the best effort of all” and “helping individuals make the most of themselves,” while also addressing how individuals can waste valuable time or make “lazy decisions” that can impact safety and operations, as well as seemingly trivial decisions that can collectively impact whether a person is happy or unhappy.

Corbett emphasized that those who truly use lean manufacturing practices well and give their employees the tools they need to thrive, while those who don’t implement lean well often wind up in chaos. Corbett also addressed the impact of the “new” supply chain created by gig work, as well as the growing impact of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) on operations.

Adam B. Cunha, head of global key client sales-North America, for A.P. Moller-Maersk, addressed global logistic challenges due to political conflicts and environmental activities surrounding key shipping areas, such as safety concerns in the Suez Canal due to tensions in the Red Sea, fluctuating water levels in the Panama Canal, recent hurricanes in the southeastern U.S. and accidents like the bridge collapse blocking much of the Port of Baltimore. Not only limited to shipping, the company moves almost 20% of the world’s food, materials and goods every day to reach people across the globe. Today, it is creating “the network of the future” to find alternate ways to overcome delays and work around unexpected obstacles. He expressed his hope that Whitman students will remember Maersk not only for shipping “but as a company that is connecting and simplifying global supply chains.”

Sarah Day Kalloch, co-founder and executive director for the Good Jobs Institute, presented “Help Companies Thrive by Creating Good Jobs” based on 20 years of research from “The Good Job Strategy.”�� One topic she spoke about was how critical pay is for low-income, frontline workers—like those working in call centers, warehouses, retail or service.

The Good Jobs Institute has worked successfully with companies, like Costco and Trader Joe’s, to invest in their workers by offering wages greater than their competitors and creating great teams with stable schedules, pay that can support a family, benefits, clear career paths, security and safety. This, in turn, has minimized stress on employees and typically results in much lower turnover, which in itself is a huge cost saver. In addition to improving employee turnover, these employees offer better customer service, better store experiences, and overall higher performance with sales and other metrics, therefore giving a strong return on the investment.

On this “’Cuse Conversation,” Jason Davis and Jenny Stromer-Galley offer up tips and tools you can use to help spot misinformation, share advice to help us be better-informed consumers of information and social media, and analyze the latest research on misinformation trends in the upcoming presidential election.

With the increase of misinformation and disinformation on the internet and social media, our brains struggle to process what we’re seeing and whether an image, a video clip or a story is real or not.

Faculty members and have studied the trends and created tools to help discern what’s real and what is synthetic when it comes to content posted online and on social media.

Stromer-Galley is an expert in political campaigns and misinformation and is a professor in the ; Davis is an expert on misinformation and disinformation detection. He is a research professor with the Office of Research and Creative Activity in the , and is also co-director of the .

“Depending on where people are getting their information, the quality and credibility of that information could be quite low,” Stromer-Galley says. “It leaves the public more vulnerable to state actors who are trying to engage in disinformation campaigns or U.S.-based malignant actors who are trying to manipulate the public for their own ends.”

“Our brains have not evolved as fast as the technology, and so we are still as vulnerable as we ever were to the same sorts of approaches at being deceived, intentionally or unintentionally,” Davis says. “With this new digital landscape and digital speed and scale, we need digital tools to help us protect ourselves from ourselves sometimes, and sometimes from that malicious information ecosystem.”

On this “’Cuse Conversation,” Stromer-Galley and Davis offer up tips and tools you can use to help spot misinformation, share advice to help us be better-informed consumers of information and social media, and analyze the latest research on misinformation trends in the upcoming presidential election.

Check out featuring Davis and Stromer-Galley. A transcript [PDF]��is also available.

Semantic Forensics Helping Detect What’s Real and What’s Fake

Davis is involved with the Semantic Forensics program, whose work is funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Through his efforts with DARPA, Davis is helping to advance research into the detection of disinformation and misinformation in the media.

Jason Davis

Semantic forensics is the understanding of not just whether something is real or fake, Davis says, but also delves into the why. What was the intent? Who was the target?

In its fourth year of concentrating on this research area, Davis has been developing digital tools that identify synthetic, manipulated media. The program evaluates the detectors being used, striving to understand what they can and can’t do when it comes to identifying synthetic media, as well as how effective they are at spotting real or synthetic content.

“We can say with confidence that this detector works for detecting these kinds of fake, synthetic images at a 98% accuracy, and it is capable of doing this but not being able to do that. They’re not a panacea, but here’s what they can do, so we learn how to use these detection devices properly and use them appropriately,” Davis says. “Then there’s the development of the tools and the modeling of the threat landscape. How do we create controlled versions of what we know is going on out there in the wild so that we can study, train and better understand our capabilities.”

Investigating Social Media Spending Trends and Messaging Behind Political Ads

Stromer-Galley, who leads the University’s ��team, has studied misinformation trends in this presidential race and other top 2024 contests.

Jenny Stromer-Galley

After the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, over the summer, the ElectionGraph team explored the money being spent by the candidates, political action committees, political parties and unknown actors that mentioned presidential candidates in advertisements on both Facebook and Instagram.

The aim was to “visualize the firehose of information and misinformation coming at voters from groups with a jumble of motives, ties and trustworthiness ahead of the 2024 elections,” Stromer-Galley says.

The findings showed that:

• negative social media advertising in the presidential race increased after the assassination attempt;
• nearly 3,500 Facebook pages from outside organizations spent $55 million over the past year in an effort to influence the public this election season; and
• there was a pattern of “coordinated inauthentic behavior” among some outside organizations, including a large network of Facebook pages running ads (costing an estimated $5 million) aimed at scamming the public under the guise of supporting a presidential candidate’s campaign that garnered roughly 234 million impressions.

“To our surprise, there was a large network of individuals and organizations that we didn’t know who was behind this that were running scam ads targeted to people who are activated and excited about the presidential election. They were capitalizing on their enthusiasm by turning over their credit cards and then they’re getting scammed,” Stromer-Galley says. “While Facebook is trying to take down those pages, the scammers continue to stay a step ahead.”

Tips to Ward Off Misinformation

When you find yourself aimlessly scrolling through social media without thinking about the validity of what you just saw, that act makes you fully engaged in the platform and susceptible to misinformation or disinformation.

Users are encouraged to embrace cognitive friction when scrolling, because, according to both Davis and Stromer-Galley, the social media apps are designed for you to absorb content at face value, without applying deeper thought to who was behind the post or what their intent might be. By increasing friction, you take the proactive step of slowing down and contemplating the legitimacy of a post.

Both Davis and Stromer-Galley say that the best defense to misinformation and disinformation campaigns is knowledge, urging people to get their news from a wide-range of diverse, traditional media outlets, and to not solely rely on social media as a reliable news source.

Researchers also found continued patterns of “coordinated inauthentic behavior” among some outside organizations, including a large network of Facebook pages running ads aimed at scamming the public. The analysis found an estimated $5 million spent on ads that are potential scams, or roughly 4% of the overall ad spending by outside organizations. This translates into about 234 million impressions.

The ElectionGraph project seeks to identify misinformation trends in the U.S. presidential election and other top 2024 contests.

These are among the findings in the third quarterly report from the at the University’s����(IDJC). The report examines ads on Meta platforms, which include Facebook and Instagram, mentioning primary and general election presidential candidates between Sept. 1, 2023, and Aug. 31, 2024.

The latest report found the Democratic ticket (Biden-Harris, then Harris-Walz) outspending the Trump campaign 10-to-1—or roughly $50 million to $5 million—on Facebook and Instagram between September 2023 and August 2024. That gap expanded to 12-to-1 in the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania. But Trump outpaced Biden’s and Harris’ campaigns combined by about 5-to-1 in ads categorized as “uncivil.”

The data shows a 4-to-1 difference in impressions on the social media platforms, or about 1 billion impressions for the Democratic ticket compared with 250 million impressions for the GOP. This gap doesn’t take into account Trump-related spending on messaging on social platform X, Trump’s Truth Social network or other media platforms.

In addition to campaigns’ spending, nearly 3,500 Facebook pages from outside organizations have spent $55 million over the past year in an effort to influence the public this election season.

ElectionGraph seeks to identify misinformation trends in the U.S. presidential election and other top 2024 contests. The project is supported by a grant and use of analytics software from , the world’s leading graph database and analytics company.

The ElectionGraph team’s efforts include pinpointing origins of messages and tracing misinformation by collecting and algorithmically classifying ads run on Facebook and Instagram. ElectionGraph also has developed a publicly accessible dashboard to explore its findings.

While Meta allows approved organizations to access ad data, such data is not required to be made available—and is not similarly trackable—on TikTok, Google, YouTube or Snapchat. The findings nevertheless provide a framework to visualize the fire hose of information and misinformation targeting voters from groups with a jumble of motives, ties and trustworthiness ahead of the 2024 elections.

The Institute for Democracy, Journalism and Citizenship is a joint University initiative of the and the .

“My concern with the ongoing scams running on Facebook and Instagram is that they look like legitimate advertisements, but they are full of falsehoods and even deepfakes, further polluting the information environment and deceiving voters,”��says , a professor in the School of Information Studies and ElectionGraph’s lead researcher.

Social media scams that exploit heightened sentiments during important moments like elections have become widespread, says Jim Webber, chief scientist at Neo4j.

“This important research, enabled by Neo4j, can help voters and policymakers to distinguish legitimate actors from malicious ones hidden within complex networks,” Webber says. “Without this technology, achieving such insights would be almost impossible.”

Adds IDJC Kramer Director : “Real, bipartisan concerns about election-related violence—accentuated by assassination attempts against former President Trump—have proved no match for the magnetic pull of negative, uncivil and attack-ad campaigning that Trump himself and his rivals consider too useful to set aside.” Talev is a journalist and professor of practice in the Newhouse School.

Edward C. Magee Sr.

“My dad was serious about work, community, country and ���ϲ����� athletics,” says Magee. The senior Magee died in 1989 at the age of 78. In recognition of his son’s gift to the John A. Lally Athletics Complex and the Athletics Opportunity Fund, the dining hall will be commonly referred to as Magee One Team Dining.

“My father was a low-key guy, but I know he would have wanted to help student-athletes and the athletics program in meaningful ways,” says Magee. Both father and son shared an appreciation for the power of sports to enhance the visibility and reputation of the entire University. “He turned me into an avid ���ϲ����� sports fan at a young age,” says Magee. “We had football season tickets forever!”

When his father became too ill with congestive heart failure to attend games, he would watch from his recliner chair at home. “This was before the internet, and he would create his own score sheets,” says Magee. On the day he died, Magee Sr. was watching the ���ϲ����� basketball team play Missouri. “Five to ten minutes into the game, he took his last breath. My brother Tom, who graduated from ���ϲ����� College of Law in 1973, still has that score sheet.” Now, Magee Sr.’s dedication to the Orange is memorialized in a place that honors the dedication of more than 600 student-athletes across 20 sports.

“Since we launched a dedicated campaign in 2021 to raise $150 million to enhance the student-athlete experience, we’ve been amazed and gratified by the support of donors like Ed,” says John Wildhack, director of athletics. “They truly appreciate the value of student-athlete focused facilities and services in attracting the most talented student-athletes and staff and ensuring competitive excellence in the athletics program.”

Edward “Ed” C. Magee

The athletics fundraising goal is part of the $1.5 billion for ���ϲ�����. “Philanthropy has always been critical to creating an environment where all our students can thrive, in the classroom and beyond, and in their chosen careers,” says Chancellor Kent Syverud. “I am grateful to Ed for recognizing that his gift can elevate the entire student experience, along with the reputation of the entire University.”

Magee graduated from the in 1970 with a bachelor of science in aerospace engineering, and earned an MBA in management data systems from the in 1972. He says he wasn’t a great athlete or an outstanding student, but he learned from his father and mother, a teacher, the value of hard work and dedication to family, community and country. He signed up for Air Force ROTC while in college, earning a scholarship that “would help out my parents.”

His father, Magee Sr., graduated from the in 1933 and completed a law degree in 1936. He joined the U.S. Army, served with the 84th Infantry Division in the South Pacific and Asiatic theaters, and trained soldiers for combat. He was a reservist for 20 years and retired as a major. He was equally devoted in his professional life, spending 40 years at the Utica Mutual Insurance Company.

Similarly, his son Ed was loyal in service to both country and a corporation that gave him the means to build wealth that could be used in service of others. Magee served four years at Eglin Air Force Base as an officer in the Air Defense Command and, as an air force captain, he designed real-time software to drive the world’s first phased-array Space Track Radar. Following the Air Force, he devoted himself to PepsiCo, first developing information systems and ultimately rising to the level of Pepsi-Cola International chief information officer. He retired at the young age of 48 and has spent his time since consulting and investing in promising ventures, giving back to community through various charities, and supporting his beloved alma mater.

Rendering of dining hall at the One Team Olympic Sports Center

In 2018, Magee established the Edward C. Magee Endowed Scholarship to provide financial assistance to undergraduate students in the and “help students who need a helping hand.” Believing students and student-athletes across all disciplines and sports can contribute to a thriving university and a culture of competitive excellence, Magee targeted his latest gift for the benefit of student athletes who will “fuel their bodies” at Magee One Team Dining.

About ���ϲ�����

���ϲ����� is a private research university that advances knowledge across disciplines to drive breakthrough discoveries and breakout leadership. Our collection of 13 schools and colleges with over 200 customizable majors closes the gap between education and action, so students can take on the world. In and beyond the classroom, we connect people, perspectives and practices to solve interconnected challenges with interdisciplinary approaches. Together, we’re a powerful community that moves ideas, individuals and impact beyond what’s possible.

About Forever Orange: The Campaign for ���ϲ�����

Orange isn’t just our color. It’s our promise to leave the world better than we found it. Forever Orange: The Campaign for ���ϲ����� is poised to do just that. Fueled by more than 150 years of fearless firsts, together we can enhance academic excellence, transform the student experience and expand unique opportunities for learning and growth. Forever Orange endeavors to raise $1.5 billion in philanthropic support, inspire 125,000 individual donors to participate in the campaign, and actively engage one in five alumni in the life of the University. Now is the time to show the world what Orange can do. Visit����to learn more.

Carlos Caicedo

��is an associate professor at the iSchool and director of the Center for Emerging Network Technologies (CENT). He is serving as the principal investigator on the research grant, “.”

Caicedo Bastidas is collaborating with colleagues at Rutgers University to research new RF spectrum management methods that can impact or enable spectrum sharing between cellular operators, coexistence of different wireless devices, and interference management for passive wireless devices, such as those used for weather forecasting and radio astronomy.

“I’m very happy to have received this grant,” says Caicedo Bastidas. “For several years, my collaborators from Rutgers and I have been discussing and maturing ideas for how distributed spectrum management should be implemented.”

As part of their research, the team will complete a multi-stage evaluation methodology that starts with architectural design of D3SM (distributed data-driven spectrum management). Their studies are expected to lead to an experimentally validated set of protocols and algorithms for distributed and partially centralized RF spectrum management methods.

Wireless communication services and associated applications rely on the use of radio frequency spectrum resources for their operation. Due to the rapid growth in the use of these services, spectrum management agencies and wireless service providers need to migrate from current spectrum use practices to more dynamic spectrum assignment and sharing mechanisms.

“This grant gives us the opportunity to finally develop the protocols and algorithms that realize our vision under a data and information-centric approach for distributed and hierarchical spectrum management,” says Caicedo Bastidas. “It’s applicable in a wide range of scenarios where devices with heterogeneous radio frequency operation characteristics need to co-exist and/or share RF spectrum resources. Such scenarios will become more common as 5G evolves into 6G and beyond.”

Students (from left) Janese Fayson ’26, Astrid Melendez ’25 and Adalys Sanchez ’26 share what their Latine heritage means to them, how they’ve discovered a cultural home on campus and why they wanted to get involved in planning Latine Heritage Month celebrations on campus.

What does it mean to be a descendant of Latine/x/o/a and Hispanic heritage and trace your cultural roots to one of the more than 20 Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America, Central America, South America or the Caribbean?

It’s impossible to come up with a singular defining trait, characteristic or value that represents Latine culture, but beginning this week and running through Oct. 26, the University community is coming together to learn more about the rich cultural history of various identities within the Latine community during Latine Heritage Month (LHM).

Three current students—Astrid Melendez ’25, Adalys Sanchez ’26 and Janese Fayson ’26—share what their Latine heritage means to them, how they’ve discovered a cultural home on campus and why they wanted to get involved in planning LHM celebrations.

The theme of this year’s celebration is “Fronteras Sin Limites: Embracing our Borderless Cultures,” exploring the experiences of Latine communities who live along and across borders, both physical and cultural, and highlighting the resilience and adaptability of the Latine community who navigate multiple identities and spaces.

Learn the stories of how these three student leaders celebrate their cultures, then check out the complete schedule of��.

Astrid Melendez ’25

Academic major: Information management and technology ()

What is your cultural heritage? “My entire family is from Lima, Peru.”

Astrid Melendez

What role does your cultural heritage play in your life?��“It plays a very important role. Growing up in Germany and moving to the United States when I was in elementary school, I knew that my cultural background made me different. My parents left Peru when they were in their 30s, and growing up, my parents were still learning English. Spanish was my first language and no matter where I lived, our Peruvian culture was always prevalent in my day-to-day life. Especially when it came to language, food and our customs. When I am at ���ϲ�����, I like to cook Peruvian meals and treats like Lomo Saltado and Alfajores. Back home, my family and I often go to Peruvian cultural events and restaurants.”

How have you found a cultural home on campus? “Joining SALSA [the South American and Latine Student Association] is the place I have been able to find a cultural home at ���ϲ�����. Before SALSA, I had never met any other Peruvian my age that wasn’t related to me. It made me happy to not only get to meet other Peruvian college students, but also other students with South American heritage. SALSA and its members have turned into a family for me here.”

How has SALSA helped? “SALSA’s mission is to have a student organization focused on South American culture and we thrive creating events while educating and building a community for students belonging to or interested in South American cultures. I’m currently president, and this club is special and exciting! I’ve learned more about other South American countries and cultures and it’s been amazing working with the proud and passionate executive board members.”

Adalys Sanchez ’26

Academic major: Earth science with a minor in women and gender studies ()

What is your cultural heritage? “I am a first-generation college student who was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and I also have family roots in the Dominican Republic.”

Adalys Sanchez

What role does your cultural heritage play in your life?��“My Puerto Rican heritage shapes my perspective on resilience and community, influencing my drive to succeed as a first-generation student. It deeply influences my passion for environmental justice, as I’ve witnessed firsthand the effects of environmental inequality on marginalized communities. Part of why I wish to study environmental law is because I want to go back home and create sustainable policies that allow everyone to live in a safe and clean environment. My heritage is also important because it means that if I succeed in my career goals, I will be bringing a new and diverse perspective to the legal field.

“Whenever I’m home, I try to visit the different parts of the island to learn about our rich history. I also participate in local festivals such as Fiestas Patronales, where the streets come alive with music, dancing and traditional foods. And during the holidays, our culture really comes alive. At Nochebuena (Christmas Eve), we gather for large feasts of traditional food, including some of my favorite food like arroz con gandules (rice with peas), lechon (pork) and coquito (a coconut-flavored drink similar to eggnog). We also tell stories and do parrandas (similar to caroling).”

How have you found a cultural home on campus? “Through the student organizations I belong to, like the Puerto Rican Student Association, which allows me to connect with other people who celebrate Puerto Rican culture, discussing current events on the island and getting to organize events where we participate in our traditions. It really makes me feel like I have a little piece of home here with me at ���ϲ�����. I’m also a member of the Raíces Dance Troupe since I’ve always loved dancing and I can enjoy my culture through music and movement.”

Why did you want to get involved in organizing the LHM celebrations? “Latinx culture is deeply rooted in community, joy and resilience, which are often expressed through vibrant celebrations, music and gatherings. My main role was organizing the (Oct. 10), where students can have fun roller-skating while enjoying one of the most prominent music genres in current Latinx culture. I want everyone, especially first-year students, to embrace their roots and do so in ways that educate the community while having fun and empowering ourselves. I want to show how important claiming your heritage can be to finding your place on campus and in society.”

Janese Fayson ’26

Academic majors: Marketing and finance ()

What is your cultural heritage? “I am a first-generation college student from Miami, Florida. I am Black and Puerto Rican.”

Janese Fayson

What role does your cultural heritage play in your life?��“My heritage influences so many things, from my style to my way of expressing myself, it is so inherently engrained in me. Good music, great food and amazing company is my go-to way to celebrate. I love my heritage.”

How have you found a cultural home on campus? “I belong to so many different organizations [including the Caribbean Student Association, the Black Student Union, Student Living and Student Association], not only because I enjoy being involved, but because I love being able to meet new people, some of whom share similar identities with me, and others who do not. I feel so immersed in culture when I am with them.”

How has the Caribbean Student Association helped? “I joined my freshmen year at the Welcome Fête and have been involved ever since, now holding the title of president. Our mission is to uplift, inspire and bring Caribbean people and the ���ϲ����� community together. It has helped me find some of my favorite people and I learn something from them every day, whether about their culture, heritage or as individuals. Being president of such a vast organization is so fulling for so many different reasons and I have learned more about myself through it all.”

Nomar Diaz ��’25 combined a months-long internship as a systems analyst for ML Systems Integrator Pte Ltd. in Singapore with ���ϲ����� Abroad’s 18-day program. In addition to his time in Singapore, he visited tech innovation firms in seven countries and business and cultural centers in 10 cities.

Diaz, who is pursuing concurrent master’s degree programs in information systems and applied data science at the , is open to a career in another country. He’d like to do sales engineering or be a solutions engineer at a computing solutions or information consulting firm in the United Kingdom, Singapore or Spain. As a former global ambassador for ���ϲ����� Abroad, Diaz tells students not to second-guess their interest in studying abroad. “If you feel the hunch, just go for it,” he says. “You won’t regret it.”

While studying abroad, Nomar Diaz (front left, in the black shirt) and a group of fellow graduate students visited a landmark on the waterfront at Palau Uben, a small island in Singapore. (Photo courtesy of Nomar Diaz)

Bennie Guzman ��’25 is a master’s student studying art therapy in the , and he works full-time at La Casita Cultural Center. His goal is to be a licensed creative arts therapist. “My dream would be to connect what I’m doing here with international places that do similar work and expand our outreach beyond ���ϲ�����,” Guzman says.

Guzman says the short-term Mexico’s History, Culture and Security program was exactly the right program for him. “Mexico is the place for Latin American art and indigenous studies. I wanted to see how international communities think about art, culture and community health and tie those things together,” says Guzman, whose experience helped him formulate his thesis on how Latino/Latin American communities use art and culture for community well-being.

M.B.A. student Jude Azai ��’25 used a summer abroad program to fine-tune his leadership capabilities in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries. That interest developed during his bachelor’s degree program in pharmacy at the University of Jos in Nigeria and has continued throughout his work in business and healthcare.

The Business in East Asia program, which is offered by the Whitman School of Management, helped Azai with valuable insights into healthcare and broader leadership structure in countries such as Singapore. He wanted to understand how such nations become global powerhouses and learn how innovation and effective governance can drive economic growth. He also discovered that leadership is not overly complex. “Leadership is about creating the right vision, following through with openness and honesty and bringing people along. When leaders do this, miracles in nation-building can happen,” Azai says.

Whitman School of Management Students, including Jude Azai (far left), pose at the waterfall garden at Changi Airport in Singapore. (Photo courtesy of Jude Azai)

Krister Samuelson ��’25 is pursuing a master’s degree in information systems in the iSchool and sees a future as an analyst or security engineer in information security. His EuroTech experience provided quality time with like-minded people, he says. He attended the short-term program along with recent iSchool graduate Emmy Naw G’24. She says the program allowed her to engage with professionals in the field while seeing firsthand how business operations integrate technology. “I learned in real-world settings, broadened my understanding of global business strategies and enhanced my ability to think critically about how to apply technological solutions to complex business challenges,” Naw says.

This group of students, which includes graduate students Krister Samuelson and Emmy Naw, began the three-credit EuroTech course in Norway. They visited a number of tech companies located in 10 cities across seven countries in the two-and-a-half-week tour. (Photo at the Royal Palace in Oslo courtesy of Krister Samuelson)

public administration graduate student Troy Patrick ��’25 interned with the Council of Europe in Strasbourg and participated in the Religion, Law and Human Rights in a Comparative Perspective program. He has studied peacebuilding and human rights and wants to work in the humanitarian field, perhaps one day at the United Nations secretariat, he says.

Patrick used the summer term to maximize his work experience. For his Council of Europe internship in the Department of Political Affairs and External Relations, he was assigned high-level tasks such as running meetings with international leaders and creating talking points for leader visits. The work provided real-world training and helped him better understand how religion, religiously affiliated states and religious groups impact how advocacy actions are formulated to deal with human rights and legal issues.

Learn More

Students can learn more about the University’s wide range of study abroad programs during ���ϲ����� Abroad Week, which started Monday and runs through Sept. 20. They can also visit the ���ϲ����� Abroad website at suabroad.syr.edu.

Shikha Nangia

is professor and interim chair of biomedical and chemical engineering in the (ECS). is a distinguished professor of physics in the (A&S). They succeed outgoing co-directors and .

Nangia joined the University in 2012 as a tenure-track professor. Her work involves the creation of computational models to examine the body’s blood-brain barrier at the molecular level. Those findings help develop drugs that can penetrate the barrier to advance medicinal treatments for neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.

Marina Artuso

Artuso is an experimental physicist who works in experimental particle physics. Her research focuses on interesting properties of beauty and charm quarks and on the novel instrumentation needed to study their decay properties. She came to the University as a research assistant professor of physics in 1993, was appointed a professor of physics in 2005 and recently was named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

WiSE faculty co-directors serve as advocates, engaging with university leadership, the campus community and external audiences. They also develop strategic vision for the organization, offer budget input, and actively participate in programming. WiSE was created by and is led by faculty. Its goals are to increase the representation and retention of women faculty members in STEM fields, to highlight women scholars and to develop advising and mentoring programs.

WiSE serves members across 18 departments in six colleges and schools: A&S, ECS, , , and the .��It presents social, academic and professional development programming for undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral scholars and faculty in tenure, tenure-track and non-tenure-track positions.

One of the programs WiSE hosts is the career-focused Future Professionals Program (top).

Faculty present workshops, act as mentors, offer portfolio reviews and serve in many capacities to support learning and teaching, says WiSE director Sharon Alestalo.

“Their active involvement helps direct how we can support faculty success. We do that through programming for them and by providing activities and events that support the students and scholars they work with,” Alestalo says.

WiSE also supports the recruitment of women faculty in STEM. When the program was founded, there were 18 women faculty members teaching in 10 A&S and ECS departments. Today, there are 174 tenure, tenure-track and non-tenure women faculty members working in 18 areas, Alestalo says. STEM women faculty in WiSE have also attracted more than $104 million in research funding during the last five years, she says.

WiSE also supports programming for Women of Color in STEM.

The organization is open to all. Undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral scholars and faculty women and their allies of any gender, race, ability and identity who work, study or are interested in the STEM fields are welcome.

“We decided to launch this new AI program to meet the growing demand from industry, where many companies, across diverse industries, need professionals capable of leveraging Generative AI. Furthermore, our students have shown significant interest in gaining expertise in AI, driven by the industry’s evolving requirements and opportunities,” says Jeffrey Saltz, iSchool associate professor and program director of the school’s master’s in applied human centered artificial intelligence.

Artificial intelligence is the third fastest-growing field in the U.S., and those with expertise in AI command an average salary of $162,000, according to Glassdoor.com. Popular jobs include GenAI Developer, Data Scientist, AI Product Manager and Human-AI Interaction Designer.

The iSchool’s new program will include a strong emphasis on hands-on projects to showcase students’ practical expertise and knowledge in the field of AI. Examples of projects include:

• Create a customer service chatbot using large language models (LLMs) that integrate with a company’s existing customer service system.
• Build a sentiment analysis agent that analyzes social media data for brand monitoring.
• Develop a virtual assistant that schedules meetings and performs other tasks using public Gen AI application programming interface (API)
• Examine the effectiveness and user experience of various human-AI interaction agents.
• Develop a medical diagnostic tool that assists doctors by analyzing medical images and patient data.

“The iSchool has been a pioneer in A���� and data science education, and we were one of the first universities to offer an Applied Data Science program,” says Saltz. “Recognizing the evolving landscape of technology and the increasing importance of AI, the iSchool saw a critical need to expand its offerings to include advanced AI education.”

For the past five years, the iSchool has developed numerous courses to support the new AI program. Students can expect a comprehensive curriculum covering foundational AI concepts, as well as how to apply those concepts within practical applications. The program will include courses such as:

• Deep Learning in Practice
• Natural Language Processing
• Building Human-Centered AI Applications
• Responsible AI
• Dynamics of Human-AI Interaction

The continuing enhancement of courses helps to ensure that the iSchool’s program is robust and comprehensive and can evolve as the field evolves.

Furthermore, the iSchool’s faculty will diligently continue to research key questions around human-AI interactions and how to incorporate human and AI knowledge into organizations and society in general. From studying the future of work to information integrity, the iSchool’s professors are poised to teach students how to critically evaluate this emerging field of study.

Sinead Feeney O’Connor performing in her class’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

When enrolling in an English class about Shakespeare, you might imagine that the course will involve reading, writing and discussing the famous playwright and his plays. In professor of English�� class, ENG 411: Doing Shakespeare, which was offered in Spring 2024, this was just the beginning. Shirilan wanted students to explore for themselves how theatrical practice and production generate different modes of inquiry than text study alone. By engaging in hands-on and active learning, the experience aimed to enhance students’ problem-solving abilities, boost their confidence and encourage their creativity—soft skills which are crucial for success after graduation.

“The idea of the course, simply, is that students learn Shakespeare by ‘doing Shakespeare,’” says Shirilan. “I issued an invitation to make of this course what they willed, and what they willed was a full production of a play chosen, as we strove to do with every decision, collectively.”

Learning by Doing

Shirilan’s inspiration for this course draws from the educational technique of “learning by doing,” a teaching methodology where students retain information through active learning and hands-on experience. In “Doing Shakespeare,” students were presented with a full range of options for the scale and scope of production to pursue.

“They chose to mount a full show, or aim towards it, understanding that we would be working collaboratively and distributing the labors across as many hands as were able and willing,” says Shirilan. “Everyone was involved in multiple areas of production. Everyone acted, most students took responsibility for a production element, including props, costume and sound design.”

Together the students conceived of, organized and performed a full theatrical production of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” The crew, many of whom had little to no prior theater experience, included Tate Abrahmason, Maurissa DEmello, Sinead Feeney O’Connor, Anderson Fuentes, Valerie Goldstein, Eva Greene, Victoria Lafarge, Jenny Lee, Ailis McVearry, Blair Seaman, Alexandra Steward and Cricket Withall.

Before moving into production, students spent the first half of the semester largely devoted to text study, table work, vision work and research. During the second half of the semester, the team went into production mode, blocking, rehearsing and producing the play. The semester concluded with a full theatrical performance at ���ϲ����� Stage.

Professor Stephanie Shirilan reviewing the script during a rehearsal.

Wearing Many Hats

“Doing Shakespeare” offered students a unique opportunity to have a hand in every aspect of the performance, from design to direction.

Valerie Goldstein ’24, who majored in policy studies in the College of Arts and Sciences | Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and minored in applied data analytics in the School of Information Studies, went into the experience thinking it would mostly involve acting, but was delighted to discover the wide range of skills she would ultimately utilize.

“I played Bottom and Oberon and was an assistant director, producer, projections designer and did other odd jobs like creating the daily rehearsal schedule, carpool system and tech to-do lists,” says Goldstein. “There were so many lessons in problem-solving and actually following through and creating something that I never would have learned in a traditional classroom.”

After graduation, Goldstein accepted a position with��. As she embarks on a career in teaching and education policy, she says taking part in a course involving performance-based learning—where students apply their knowledge and skills to execute a task—will inform her own instructional techniques.

Valerie Goldstein (right) playing the role of Bottom during the class’s performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

“I think there are better ways to engage students than having them study something abstractly all the time,” says Goldstein. “This class gave me an opportunity to explore a new pedagogy that I may be able to implement in my own profession.”

Blair Seaman ’24, who majored in broadcast and digital journalism in the Newhouse School of Public Communications, was an assistant director and played Titania and Hippolyta in the production. Rounding out her time at ���ϲ����� with an acting role in a Shakespeare play marked a full circle moment for her as she had previously participated in a children’s Shakespeare troupe in her hometown.

“The theater had a huge impact on me deciding to come to ���ϲ����� to study journalism, as I wanted to fuse my love for storytelling with a passion for helping others,” says Seaman. “As much as I loved my degree, I had truly missed performing, and so, I eagerly jumped at the chance to take a class called ‘Doing Shakespeare.’”

She notes that the class was the perfect way to end her four years at ���ϲ�����, and on a more personal level, provided an opportunity to memorialize her mother, who passed away when Seaman was a sophomore at ���ϲ�����.

“[My mother] always sat front row in every production I had previously been a part of, and in a way, it felt like a gift to her to perform in one last show,” Seaman says. “As I said goodbye to my college experience, I was able to return to a passion of mine that was built up through her love.”

Honoring a Classmate

While the performance marked a time to celebrate the culmination of the team’s hard work, it also presented a moment to honor a classmate who gave so much to the production but was unable to participate in the finale due to health reasons. Ailis McVearry ’24 assumed various duties during the semester, from working as an assistant director to head of costuming to starring as Oberon and Theseus.

In support of their classmate, students collected contributions and donated proceeds from the final performance to defray transportation and other costs related to her care.

“Our final production honored her and the beautiful work she poured into this class both on and off the stage,” says Shirilan. “We hope that the money we raised can be used to provide comfort to her during this difficult time, assisting with medical bills and other essentials.”

A Performance for the Ages

According to Shirilan, the culminating performance marked a milestone for the English department and the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S), as it was likely the first full theatrical performance put on by an A&S class at ���ϲ����� Stage. A testament to their hard work, shows were nearly sold out before opening night.

“The final performance was truly a triumph,” recalls Shirilan. “I was consistently amazed by the insights and discoveries made through this process, a success that reflects the astonishing commitment, capability and courage of this team.”

With the high level of interest shown by students for this class, Shirilan is exploring possibilities for expanding the course as a 6-credit offering to facilitate running it as another full production experience. She is scheduled to teach it in Spring 2025 as a 3-credit course, for which students will collectively decide the scope and scale of production.

Watch the class’s performance of “.”

Traci Geisler

, director of (LaunchPad), presented a keynote address and served as an entrepreneurship competition judge at the first-ever Kenya-USA Global Launchpad Initiative (KUGLi) Innovation Summit, held at Kibabii University in Bungoma, Kenya, Aug. 15-16. The KUGLi Summit was the culmination of a technology innovation and entrepreneurship program focused on fostering multi-national ventures among science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM) students to address global issues through entrepreneurship and creative opportunities.

The program was started in Winter 2023 by Churchill Saoke with support from the U.S. Embassy to promote entrepreneurialism and facilitate partnerships between Kenyan universities and ���ϲ�����. Throughout the Winter and Spring 2024, 131 students from Kenya and the United States participated in virtual and hybrid training sessions to identify unexploited areas for micro-multinational ventures using STEAM-focused solutions. ���ϲ����� student entrepreneurs in the LaunchPad partnered with Kenyan student entrepreneurs to advance several Kenyan student ventures. The Kenyan entrepreneurs were also invited to participate in virtual support and services from ���ϲ�����’s LaunchPad, including one-on-one advisory sessions with Traci Geisler, participation in LaunchPad workshops and presentations, and entrepreneurship ideation classes offered by , professor of entrepreneurship in the School of Information Studies.

The culmination of that budding partnership resulted in the invitation to Geisler to deliver a keynote speech, at the Summit in Kenya, to student entrepreneurs from five Kenyan universities. The Summit was also attended by Drew Giblin, the USA cultural attaché in Nairobi; Bungoma County Deputy Governor Jannipher Mbatiany; university officials and faculty from Kabibii University, JKUAT University and Great Lakes University of Kisumu; and other business leaders. Geisler spoke to the entrepreneurs about how to avoid and address cash flow problems, market misalignment, and team communication challenges during the initial growth phase of a startup. Geisler and other Kenyan subject matter experts also participated in the judging panel for the 14 student teams’ business pitches.

“The project is an intensive experience training of U.S. and Kenyan university students to develop micro-multinational ventures that employ entrepreneurial solutions to address and resolve global issues,” said Saoke.

The students’ business venture ideas addressed social impact initiatives and “wicked” problems, such as infant malnutrition, financial illiteracy, plastic pollution, water scarcity, inadequate markets for local produce, teen pregnancy, food insecurity and crime, among others.

Group photo of KUGLi Innovation Summit participants, including Traci Geisler, at Kibabii University in Bungoma, Kenya on Aug. 16.

Members of the Kehr/Hirsh family (from left to right): Steven Hirsh, Samantha Hirsh, Michael Kehr, Alice Hirsh, Ryan Kehr, Jonathan Hirsh and Rebecca Hirsh.

On an overcast Mother’s Day in 2018, a photo was taken outside of the Hall of Languages depicting a proud ���ϲ����� graduate, Ryan Kehr ’18, surrounded by happy family members.

It’s the kind of photo that gets taken repeatedly during Commencement weekend. This particular photo tells the story of the Kehr/Hirsh family—a proud collection of alumni whose connections to ���ϲ����� date back to the fall of 1966. That’s when Alice (Musikar) Hirsh ’70 began her pursuit of a nursing degree from the College of Nursing.

Hirsh is the matriarch of an Orange legacy family that currently boasts seven alumni members:

• Alice and her husband, Steven ’70 (philosophy, );
• Alice’s children, Jonathan ’99 (marketing management, ) and Samantha Hirsh ’10 (inclusive elementary and special education, ); along with Jonathan’s wife, Rebecca (Rosenstein) Hirsh ’99 (child development in what is now the );
• Hirsh’s nephew, Michael Kehr ’86 (political science, and the College of Arts and Sciences), and his son, Ryan (information management and technology, )

The family will add another branch to the tree when Julia Kehr ’26, Michael’s daughter, graduates in May of 2026 with dual degrees in international relations (Maxwell School) and information management and technology (iSchool).

Alice, Ryan and Julia sat down with SU News to discuss their love of the University, the Orange bonds that connect them and the impact ���ϲ����� has had on their lives.

Alice Hirsh ’70

Alice Hirsh

What drew you to ���ϲ�����? “The College of Nursing had a stellar reputation. It was hard to get into, and it was exactly what I wanted academically. When it came to choosing ���ϲ�����, I wanted a big school, one with great sports teams and Greek life. It was everything I wanted and more, and the College of Nursing really did a great job of teaching and preparing us.”

Involvement on campus: A member of the Alpha Epsilon Phi sorority, Alice met her husband, Steven, during the fall semester of her sophomore year. They married a few months after graduation.

How strong is your affinity for ���ϲ�����? “I had such a positive experience at ���ϲ�����. It was an important part of my life. I’m still very close friends with a group of 15 women who graduated from the College of Nursing with me. We still communicate and we get together every couple of years for Orange gatherings that we plan ourselves. Now, seeing so many members of my family go on to study and earn degrees from ���ϲ����� really warms my heart. Everyone has had their own, great experiences. My family knows that everything I own is orange, and they know how important ���ϲ����� is to me.”

What makes ���ϲ����� special? “Each one of us found something different to focus our attention on. For me, it was Greek life. For Jonathan, he was passionate about . Samantha was on the . We each discovered our passions and interests because of our time on campus, and as a family we all believe ���ϲ����� is a great place.”

Ryan Kehr ’18

Ryan Kehr

What drew you to ���ϲ�����? “It wasn’t instilled in me that I had to attend ���ϲ�����, but ���ϲ����� was my number one choice. Plus, anyone I ever talked to about ���ϲ����� always mentioned how great their experiences were and how strong the alumni network was. I didn’t know what I wanted to study at first, so I applied to the iSchool and completely fell in love with the tight-knit community.”

Involvement on campus: An iSchool peer advisor, Ryan also worked for SIDEARM Sports, eventually running the student team of workers. “Working under SIDEARM Sports’ founder Jeff Rubin ’95, G’98 was invaluable. I owe so much of my career success to the lessons I learned from Jeff and from my classes. The first class I took from Jeff made me fall in love with technology as a career.”

Current job: Ryan is in his third year as a product manager for the NFL. He helps the league build up its electronic medical records platform for athletic trainers, team physicians and the players.

How did ���ϲ����� set you up for career success? “The iSchool gives students so many opportunities to learn, grow and pick their own career path. I learned how to be a good communicator, a good problem-solver and a good team player. Another key lesson I learned is to take advantage of every opportunity to meet with alumni. We did these iSchool road trips where we would go to Silicon Valley, New York City and Boston and meet with different companies that had ���ϲ����� alumni. We’d hear about their career journeys, and that helped me know what I wanted to do when I graduated. I’m thankful for all those opportunities; they shaped me into the person I am today.”

Julia Kehr ’26

Julia Kehr

What drew you to ���ϲ�����? “When we were all on campus for Ryan’s graduation and I saw all of my family members together, that was really cool to see everyone who shared that Orange connection. I knew right then that I was meant to be at ���ϲ�����. I applied early decision my senior year of high school and didn’t visit any other colleges.”

Involvement on campus: A member of the Delta Gamma sorority, Julia became involved with Slice Consulting, a student-run consulting firm that provides pro bono services to clients and nonprofits in ���ϲ�����. She currently serves as a project manager.

Career ambitions: “I interned at the Community FoodBank of New Jersey this summer and really enjoyed that experience. That solidified my interest in working for a nonprofit, which Maxwell definitely instilled in me and has been enhanced through my work for Slice Consulting. I feel like working in the public sector consulting or working as a project manager for a nonprofit would be a great fit.”

What makes ���ϲ����� special? “I always saw how closely tied to ���ϲ����� my family was, but I never realized what that meant until I enrolled. The second I came back to campus from winter break my freshman year, I understood how special it was that we all shared the same values because we were all at the same place for college and learned such valuable life lessons.”

Anthony J. Thomas and Fatim Cisse

Thomas’ entrepreneurial endeavors include building websites/web design, information security systems and home security systems. He has experience working in retail as a technology associate on both hardware and software.

Cisse’s entrepreneurial experience includes owning Womb’s Yoga, an organization that provides mindfulness workshops and support groups for Women of Color. Cisse is passionate about maternal health care and women’s wellness. She also previously served as a researcher in Health and Wellness Services through the office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

The Todd B. Rubin Diversity and Innovation Scholars is funded by a multi-year gift from Todd B. Rubin ’04 (School of Architecture) to directly support employment of entrepreneurial students focused on innovation, diversity and inclusion at the LaunchPad. Rubin was the recipient of the University’s 2014 Generation Orange Award for philanthropy and is a member of the ���ϲ����� Libraries Advisory Board. Todd serves as the minister of evolution (president) for The Republic of Tea, founded in 1992 as a premium tea company dedicated to enriching people’s lives through great-tasting premium teas and herbs, education, and innovation.

Aidan Turner

Turner is a fifth-year architecture student minoring in real estate (Martin J. Whitman School of Management). A member of the Blackstone LaunchPad since 2021, Turner’s entrepreneurial endeavor includes a premium garment design and supply company called Grater Things Threads, which supports his two clothing brands. He was awarded Whitman’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2022 and 2024.

The LaunchPad Watson Scholar is a paid position for students passionate about innovation, entrepreneurship and venture development. Funded through a gift from the Hunter Brooks Watson Memorial Fund, the Watson Scholar honors the life, passion and entrepreneurial spirit of Hunter Brooks Watson, who passed away in 2016 after a car accident.

On this episode of the “‘Cuse Conversations” podcast, El-Baz Abdallah and Budoor Alsaadi discuss their experiences as international Fulbright students participating in the pre-academic program, how they adjusted to life as students in the United States and how they plan on using their research to make a difference.

Each summer, the hosts a prestigious preparatory program that helps dozens of international Fulbright Scholars begin their journeys to graduate degrees and research opportunities.

It’s called the , and ���ϲ����� has served as a proud host site for the last 10 years, celebrating the power of both an international education and a cultural exchange.

This year, 44 master’s and Ph.D. students��from 20 countries around the world are spending four weeks on campus discovering American culture, learning about life as a graduate student in the U.S. and developing necessary research skills.

The program is operated on campus by the (ELI), sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and administered by the Institute of International Education.

Each morning, the ELI offers English courses and lessons, including how to write a research paper as a graduate student. In the afternoons, cultural presentations and workshops are offered by ���ϲ����� faculty and staff.

These international scholars are connected to a facilitator, a graduate of the pre-academic program who offers advice, guidance and friendship while mentoring these aspiring researchers. On the weekends, participants can take advantage of social field trips to cultural destinations like Niagara Falls and Green Lakes State Park.

El-Baz Abdallah

Before departing for their graduate schools, the students give poster presentations on their research as a potential springboard to the research they will conduct for their capstone project.

“Through my research, I want to see how we can use technology and data information to better people’s lives,” says El-Baz Abdallah, a facilitator from the Comoro Islands who is entering his second year studying data analytics in the . “When I heard about the pre-academic program, I had been working for some time and hadn’t really thought about going back to school for my master’s degree, but the prestigiousness of the Fulbright program really stood out. There’s such a great impact, not just from the curriculum or the academics but the networking with your fellow scholars. This program was very rigorous, but it was really worth it.”

Budoor Alsaadi

“From how we should be writing up our research and our bibliographies to what it means to do research as a graduate student in the United States, I’ve been really happy with all of the information I’ve learned that helps us adapt to the educational system here,” says Budoor Alsaadi, a native of Iraq who is pursuing a master’s degree in civil engineering with a focus in environmental engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

In this “’Cuse Conversation,” Abdallah and Alsaadi discuss their beneficial experiences as international Fulbright students participating in the pre-academic program, how they acclimated to life as students in the United States and how they plan on using their research to make a difference.

Check out podcast featuring Abdallah and Alsaadi. A transcript [PDF]��is also available.

How has this program helped with your academic transition to graduate school and your cultural adjustment?

El-Baz Abdallah: This program helped me tremendously. It was a big adjustment in terms of the food, the people, the culture and the language. Before I came here, I spoke English every day but had to think about what I wanted to say in French first and then express myself in English. But the College of Professional Studies made our transitions so easy. They set me up with a host family, which is a proud tradition here, and that host family became like a second family for me.

Academically, the program taught me how to directly interact with the professor if we have a question about a lecture or a topic. Back home, you would go to class and take notes, but here, we learned you can actually ask questions of your professor. We learned about office hours where you can go and discuss the topic if there’s something you didn’t understand. These are things I wouldn’t have known about being a master’s student in America were it not for the pre-academic program.

Budoor Alsaadi: There was a lot of new information to learn. There was so much harmony in the program because we’re all international students trying to figure things out while supporting each other. Everyone has been so kind, sweet and caring and willing to help each other out. We’re learning but we’re also having fun.

Another great thing is how many different cultures are in this program. There are students from more than 20 countries here, so we get to learn about their cultures, music, foods and languages. It’s great that Fulbright brings together these people from different backgrounds and experiences to learn from each other.

How do you plan on using your degree to make a difference in the world?

Alsaadi: I want to study water treatment and water pollution, which is a rising problem in my country and all over the world. It’s a problem that needs much more attention, because one day, we’re going to have very limited resources for water. Water technology is a broad field with a lot of opportunities, and I wanted to accelerate my knowledge on this topic at an early age so I can be well-equipped to make a difference in my career.

Most people in Iraq drink groundwater because the water in the rivers has high levels of total dissolved solids (TDS), which is expensive to treat and turn into drinking water. I hope that, through my research, I can go back to Iraq and find new technologies and new chemicals that can help with treating TDS. I want to discover a solution that can improve the water quality in my country and help deal with this ongoing and increasing water shortage.

Abdallah: My studies combine data science and artificial intelligence (AI), how to actually build AI models to harness information or data. I’ve been involved with two projects I’m passionate about. One was analyzing the energy consumption trends of New Yorkers to study how low-income people can improve their energy consumption through incentives from the government. Another project was working with my mother, who is a gynecologist back home on Comoros Island, to enhance maternal health care and address the big problem of women losing their baby without knowing it. For my capstone research project, I’m building an AI model to analyze the mother’s and the baby’s heart rates, analyzing the existing data and looking at gaps in the data to ensure that when this happens, we can act so mothers don’t have to move from their rural home to the capital city, or from one island to another, to get medical attention.

Note: This conversation was edited for brevity and clarity.

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To get in touch and learn more about ���ϲ����� faculty members available for interviews, please contact��media@syr.edu.

The work is the result of comprehensive research through the ElectionGraph project from the University’s ��(IDJC). In conjunction with the , IDJC ElectionGraph researchers released a report that found about 2,200 webpages have run ads on Facebook and Instagram between Sept. 1, 2023, and April 30, 2024.

The ads, which mentioned President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump or other presidential primary candidates, have collectively exceeded 1 billion impressions.

Jennifer Stromer-Galley

Though a majority of the pages analyzed appear tied to legitimate groups, a portion of the pages appear to be “inauthentic influencers” who are secretly coordinating and running identical videos or messages. Several of these groups include false or misleading information in their ads, the report found.

The research also captured evidence of a deepfake featuring manipulated audio of figures, including Trump and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson. And the findings detailed different political issues on which conservative and progressive-leaning pages are focusing their ad spends.

For conservative pages, immigration has been the top issue, surpassing the economy, while the economy was the top issue for progressive pages. Accounting for all pages regardless of leaning, ads related to the economy received the most ad dollars.

This is the second , which seeks to identify misinformation trends in the U.S. presidential election and other top 2024 contests.��The project is supported by a grant and use of analytics software from , the world’s leading graph database and analytics company.

The Institute for Democracy, Journalism and Citizenship is a joint University initiative of the Newhouse School of Public Communications and Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.

The IDJC ElectionGraph team’s efforts included pinpointing origins of messages and tracing misinformation by collecting and algorithmically classifying ads run on Facebook and Instagram, as well as social media posts on Facebook and X, formerly known as Twitter.

Johanna Dunaway

The network of authentic and inauthentic actors identified in the research represents just a fraction of all coordinated pages related to elections. Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, is the only social media group that grants approved organizations access to ad data. This data is not required to be disclosed and is not similarly trackable on TikTok, Google, YouTube or Snapchat, according to the report.

“What this research reveals is the surprising number of actors we know very little about who are spending money targeting voters with messaging on social media where there is little transparency,” says Jennifer Stromer-Galley, professor in the School of Information Studies and lead researcher for the project.

“It underscores that tech platforms need to do more to allow academics and journalists access to platform data so that political actors can be held to account with the American public,” Stromer-Galley says.

Johanna Dunaway, IDJC research director and a professor of political science in the Maxwell School, says that what stands out from the analysis is the reminder that the election information environment is more confusing than ever.

“Even as some things stay the same—like emphasis on the economy and more focus on advocacy and attacks than issues—opaque messaging from��random one-off groups or complex hidden networks with��questionable motives��makes it��increasingly difficult to identify credible messages and sources in��the��cacophony��of campaign-related��information,” Dunaway says.

Margaret Talev

The prevalence of inauthentic groups, scams and deepfake voices just within the parameters of the search shows a massive amount of manipulation and misinformation targeting Americans through the political information consumed online, says Margaret Talev, Kramer Director of the IDJC, professor of practice in the Newhouse School and a journalist.

“This is a situation of ‘voter beware’ but also ‘consumer beware’ because sometimes what looks like a bid for your vote may actually be a bid for your identity or your credit card information,” Talev says.

Jim Webber, Neo4j’s chief scientist, says that covert operations by coordinated networks in digital civic spaces is a dangerous modern reality—while the company’s graph technology is enabling IDJC’s researchers “to uncover the hidden patterns and actions of those covert actors” and identify misinformation and misleading content.

“Jeff is a well-respected member of the iSchool community, engaged in committee work that impacts course development and academic excellence, and a trusted leader, mentor and teacher,” says Agnew. “Jeff can provide the strong and steady leadership to help the iSchool advance its strategic priorities during this transition period.”

Jeff Hemsley

Hemsley succeeds Dean Andrew Sears, who earlier this month announced his plan to depart the University for another academic leadership opportunity.

“I came to academia from industry because I saw the potential for creating opportunities for the next generation of thought leaders and doers in digital and interdisciplinary fields,” says Hemsley. “I am excited by this opportunity to support our faculty in their leading-edge research and our students in pursuit of knowledge and experiences that shape communities and industries. I look forward to working with my faculty colleagues to advance our vision and mission and deliver a best-in-class education to our students.”

Hemsley’s research mirrors the iSchool’s mission to explore the intersection of technology and humanity. He focuses on understanding how information flows on social media, the ways in which some people have more influence over those flows than others, and the ways that information flows manifest differently on different kinds of social media sites. Hemsley draws on theories and concepts such as information gatekeeping, personal influence and viral events, and uses exploratory data analysis (data visualization techniques), inferential statistics, social network analysis and content analysis to answer his questions. He teaches courses in information visualization and information organization.

Hemsley earned a Ph.D. from the University of Washington’s Information School, where he was a founding member of the university’s Social Media Lab. The lab received RAPID and INSPIRE awards from the National Science Foundation, an Amazon Web Services in Education research grant award, and a gift from Microsoft Research. His research has appeared in several journals, including Policy & Internet, American Behavioral Scientist and the Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce. He is co-author of the book “Going Viral” (Polity Press, 2013), which explains what virality is, how it works technologically and socially, and draws out the implications of this process for social change. The book received the ASIS&T Best Science Books of 2014 Information Award and was selected by Choice magazine as an Outstanding Academic Title for 2014.

Before entering academia, Hemsley spent 15 years in the software industry as a software test engineer and quality assurance manager for major companies, including Autodesk and Symantec.

Meetings were conducted with representatives of the University of Seoul, Ewha Women’s University, Korea University and Sungkyunkwan University. The discussions were part of an exploration to consider locating a ���ϲ����� center in South Korea, according to Pamela Young, director of academic strategic plan implementation in the Office of Academic Affairs.

University delegates participated in discussions with Korea University officials about potential faculty research collaborations and study abroad opportunities.

Young says a center there could provide ���ϲ����� and Korean universities with new opportunities for collaborative research, including projects focused on the semiconductor industry and gravitational wave research. It could also facilitate joint faculty and student participation in seminars and workshops, faculty and graduate student exchanges and the development of new partners that support study abroad for ���ϲ����� students in Korea.

The expansion of collaborative efforts in East Asia is an important part of the University’s strategic vision, says Young.��“There is great interest among many ���ϲ����� schools and colleges in partnering with Korean universities to enhance creative activities and the research enterprise, including through faculty and graduate student exchanges. There is also significant space to expand opportunities for ���ϲ����� students to study abroad and engage in experiential learning outside of Western Europe. Each year many students come from Korea to study and earn degrees at ���ϲ�����. Our strong Korean alumni base has many business and industry connections that can provide students with opportunities for experiential learning, too,” she says.

The Korea Center Initiative group visited with officials at Ehwa Women’s University, one of several universities they visited in South Korea.

During the trip, the delegation enjoyed dinner with several members of ���ϲ�����’s Korean Alumni Association. It also caught up with two School of Architecture students who are studying at Ewha Women’s University and a group of ���ϲ����� students who were in Seoul as part of a new Maymester design course led by Seyeon Lee, associate professor in the College of Visual and Performing Arts.

Among highlights of the trip was a dinner gathering for ���ϲ����� students studying abroad at Ewha Woman’s University along with a group of students participating in a Maymester program focused on South Korean design and culture led by College of Visual and Performing Arts Associate Professor Seyeon Lee.

At Sunkyunkwan University, the delegation heard a presentation from Youngseek Kim G’08, G’13, an associate professor who earned master’s and doctoral degrees at the School of Information Studies. In addition, the trip allowed Architecture Dean Michael Speaks and Daekwon Park, undergraduate program chair, to meet with high school students and their parents regarding program opportunities.

The ���ϲ����� delegation was also welcomed to Sunkyunkwan University. Among the presenters was alumnus Youngseek Kim G’08, G’13, who is now an associate professor there.

College of Arts and Sciences Dean says he appreciates the opportunity to pursue new partnerships in Korea and strengthen alumni ties.

“I am confident in the potential of these connections and I am eager to work with my fellow deans at the University to develop new opportunities for student exchange, internships and university and industry partnerships in Korea,” he says.

“We all look forward to continuing our efforts to develop new opportunities for student exchange, internships and industry collaborations in Korea with the goal of establishing in Seoul a new Asia center for the University,” says Speaks.

���ϲ����� is a national leader in international education, with a highly ranked study abroad program. The University’s Academic Strategic Plan, “Leading With Distinction,” calls for the expansion of study abroad and study away venues and programs and the removal of barriers to make it possible for every undergraduate to participate. In addition to Mortazavi, Speaks, Young and Park, the delegation included Andrew Sears, then-dean of the School of Information Studies; Nicole Collins, director of strategic partnerships and outreach for ���ϲ����� Abroad; and Brian Kim L’19, international engagement specialist, who served as liaison between ���ϲ����� and the Korean Alumni Association.

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Why are government agencies more at risk when it comes to cyberattacks and operational vulnerabilities?

Lee McKnight

is an associate professor in the ���ϲ����� School of Information Studies (iSchool) whose research specialty includes cybersecurity. He provides written comments that can be quoted directly. He is available for interviews on future topics related to cybersecurity practices in the public and private sectors.

McKnight says:

“With state-sponsored actors taking advantage more frequently of outdated to non-existent��water supply security practices, it is refreshing -like a glass of (clean) water – that the EPA and CISA have begun to raise the alarm. The fact that 70% of water systems upon inspection failed to demonstrate their ability to maintain basic cyberhygiene is regrettable, but far from shocking.

“It is overdue for the public and private sector organizations supplying and supporting water systems to take these threats seriously. Even if the nightmare worst case scenarios have not happened at scale, the entire sector has to prioritize cybersecurity, just as oil pipelines belatedly did after the successful ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline several years ago precipitated.

“In the case of water supplies, the risks are more local but can be no less devastating if their operational technology is breached.

“Sending the sector’s IT workforce back to school – or at least scaling up online sector-specific training programs –��is��long overdue. Beyond ‘IT’ workers, the wider workforce must have more opportunities for training in basic cyberhygiene as well.

“Since now that it is widely known that cyber-attackers have a 70% probability of finding a soft target when going after a water system – unfortunately, we know the most recent successful cyberattacks on water systems will not be the last.”

To request interviews or get more information:

Daryl Lovell
���ϲ����� Media Relations

M��315.380.0206
dalovell@syr.edu |

���ϲ�����

The Retention and Student Success team receives the “Best Use of Results” award from Lois Agnew, associate provost for academic programs. From left: Hope Smalling, Radell Roberts, Lois Agnew, Kal Srinivas, Samantha Trumble, ShawnMarie Parry, Priyasha Sinha Roy ’24 and Prabin Raj Shrestha ’24

Academic Affairs and Institutional Effectiveness (IE) presented awards to several faculty and staff members, students, offices and programs during the One University Assessment Celebration on April 26, in the School of Education, Education Commons.

In her opening remarks, Lois Agnew, associate provost for Academic Programs, highlighted the importance of celebrating the various ways faculty, staff and students have engaged in assessment practices, illuminating our strengths but also reinforcing a commitment to continuous improvement. Awards were given in five categories:

• Assessment Champion: Recognizing campus community members who advocate for meaningful assessment to enrich the student experience and who have made outstanding contributions to the University’s culture of improvement.
• Outstanding Assessment: Recognizing a distinguished academic, co-curricular and functional area for overall robust assessment.
• Best Engagement Strategies: Recognizing programs/units for engaging faculty, staff and students to participate and contribute to the assessment process.
• Best Use of Results: Recognizing an academic, co-curricular and functional area for how assessment results are used in making decisions.
• Collaborative Inquiry and Action: A new award recognizing a unit that collaborates with others outside of their primary school, college or division to use assessment methods and data, resulting in actions to improve student learning and campus operations.

This year’s recipients included:

• Assessment Champion | Academic: Blythe Bennett, program manager, School of Information Studies
• Assessment Champion | Co-Curricular/Functional: Jessica Newsom, assistant director, Living Learning Communities
• Assessment Champion | Shared Competencies: Maureen Thompson, undergraduate director and associate professor, Department of Public Health, Falk College
• Outstanding Assessment | Academic Programs: Forensic Science Undergraduate and Graduate Programs, Forensic and National Security Sciences Institute, College of Arts and Sciences (A&S)
• Outstanding Assessment | Co-Curricular: Student Outreach and Support, Student Experience
• Outstanding Assessment | Functional: Future Professoriate Program, Graduate School
• Best Faculty Engagement Strategies: Human Development and Family Science program, Department of Human Development and Family Science, Falk College
• Best Staff Engagement Strategies: College of Professional Studies Dean’s Office
• Best Student Engagement Strategies: Living Learning Communities, Student Experience
• Best Use of Results | Academic: Film program, Department of Film and Media Arts, College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA)
• Best Use of Results | Co-Curricular: ���ϲ����� Office of Undergraduate Research and Creative Engagement (The SOURCE)
• Best Use of Results | Functional: Retention and Student Success
• Collaborative Inquiry and Action: Barnes Center at The Arch

After the awards, 2023 Assessment Leadership Institute participants were recognized for their poster presentations detailing assessment activities over the past year:

• Keonte Coleman, director of assessment and program review and assistant professor, Newhouse School of Public Communications
• Nadeem Ghani, assistant teaching professor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, College of Engineering and Computer Science (ECS)
• Dimitar Gueorguiev, Chinese studies program director and associate professor, Political Science, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs
• Jody Nyboer, associate professor, School of Design, VPA
• Kathleen Roland-Silverstein, associate professor, presenting with Isabel Hampton ’24 and Katie Weber ’24, Sentor School of Music, VPA
• Darwin Tsen, Chinese language minor coordinator and assistant teaching professor, Languages, Literatures and Linguistics, A&S
• Andrea Willis, director of academic programs, College of Professional Studies

Recipients of the inaugural “Student Engagement in Assessment” grant were also acknowledged for their poster presentations showcasing the collaborative experiences of students, faculty and staff:

• Biomedical and Chemical Engineering: Tessa DeCicco ’25, Kerrin O’Grady ’25, Jade Carter ’24, Carly Ward ’24, Natalie Petryk ’21, Bridget Sides ’25, Mia Paynton ’25 and Doug Yung, associate teaching professor, Biomedical Engineering undergraduate program director, ECS
• Center for Learning and Student Success (CLASS): Student Success Advisory Council, which includes Eadin Block ’26; Margot MacKechnie ’26; Gary Shteyman ’26; Karen Toole, coordinator of academic support, Center for Disability Resources; Tasha Terzini, advisor, A&S; Kate Bussell, assistant director of academic expectations CLASS; and George Athanas, associate director, CLASS
• New Student Programs: Winnie Naggar ’24 and Butch Hallmark, interim director, New Student Programs
• Retention and Student Success: Prabin Raj Shrestha ’24 and Hope Smalling, functional business analyst, Retention and Student Success

Jerry Edmonds, senior assistant provost, shared final remarks. He noted that ���ϲ����� achieved “two important milestones this year. It is the fifth annual celebration highlighting the dedicated efforts of faculty, staff and students to assess and improve, as well as 10 years since the University embarked on a campus-wide initiative of systematically collecting evidence to inform decision-making across our campus.” He concluded with thanks and appreciation for everyone’s continued efforts.

Visit the�� for event photos, presentation materials highlighting recipients’ achievements and posters.

Story by Laura Harrington, associate director, Institutional Effectiveness��

Natasha Brao (left), Emeka Ossai (center) and Xheneta Sopjani are among the recipients of the Spring 2024 Orange Innovation Fund grant.

Nine student teams will each receive $5,000 through the , a grant program administered through designed to help students commercialize their research ideas.

This semester’s recipients, who will be honored during a Zoom event on May 23, are:

• Emeka Ossai ��’25 (), founder of Campus Labs, a pilot program launching this summer for ten startup labs in the CampusLabs Nigeria incubator for young entrepreneurs in Nigeria.
• Xheneta Sopjani G’24 (Whitman School), Fulbright Scholar, founder of Revive by Deinde, to fabricate five units for testing a device that helps with cell rejuvenation and scientifically proven skincare.
• Waqar Hussain ��’25 (Whitman School), Fulbright Scholar, founder of Iconnic.Cloud, a managed cloud service platform providing digital products, web applications and software for small businesses.
• Brielle Young ’27 ( and Whitman School), Leadership Scholar and Renee Crown Honors Program, founder of Aggregate, an agritech company connecting communities of producers and consumers via a digital platform and e-commerce search engine.
• Natasha Brao ’22 () G’23 and G’24 (Whitman School), founder of Root & Seed Brands and Shooka Sauce, for production of a second flavor of her successful Mediterranean spiced tomato sauce gaining popularity among US restaurants and food bloggers.
• Max Sulik G’24 (), ���ϲ����� Ambulance emergency medical technician, founder of Vital Air Quality Sensor, a portable sensor that delivers real-time data regarding current temperature, humidity, particulate matter and CO levels to users.
• Ashtha Singh G’24 (), Chancellor’s Citation of Excellence recipient, Downey Scholar and vice president of Phi Sigma Pi National Honor Fraternity, founder of Step Ahead Tech, a nonprofit organization that bridges the gap in STEM education, including robotic workshops, for underserved and underrepresented students in four locations in her home community.
• Angelo Niforatos G’20 (Engineering and Computer Science), G’24 (Whitman School), founder of Niffy Drone Solutions, a drone developer and fabricator specializing in military and defense and smart home/building repair detection and analysis.
• Cory Mitchell G’24 (Whitman School), veteran, co-founder of EntreVita, a food tech startup focused on evidence-based human-centered technology for precision health using artificial intelligence.

Funding for the Orange Innovation Award program comes from a gift from Raj-Ann Rekhi Gill ’98, a member of the ���ϲ����� Board of Trustees who is an operating partner of Silicon Valley Quad, an angel investing syndicate.

“The list of this year’s recipients of the award is truly inspiring and a testament to the burgeoning entrepreneurial ecosystem, which is nurtured by SU Libraries, Blackstone LaunchPad and campus partners,” Rekhi Gill says.

“I am honored to have won an Orange Innovation award,” says Sopjani.” This will certainly be a pivotal moment for Revive by Deinde, enabling us to establish a strong foundation and turn this vision into reality.”

“I am thrilled to pursue the opportunities that the Orange Innovation Fund will allow us. Step Ahead Tech is dedicated to bridging the educational and digital divide, and the robotics program we will be launching brings us one step closer,” says Singh.

“Aggregate empowers producers to share their goods, whether they are artisanal crafts or farm-fresh produce. Funding will support the development of a viable product, working with farmers and small businesses to meet their needs. I am grateful for the support of the Orange Innovation Fund award which will continue to advance our goal of fostering vibrant agriculture communities,” says Young.

“The Orange Innovation Fund takes a major restraint off the development of Vital Air Quality Sensor, while providing an opportunity to expand in new directions,” says Sulik. “The award is immensely valued and appreciated.”

Demonstrating a wide range of student diversity and backgrounds, four of the ventures are led by women founders, five are led by founders of color and one is led by a combat veteran.

The Orange Innovation Fund supports student research initiatives emerging from campus innovation programs. It is intended to help move graduate and undergraduate student research or scholarly projects from ideation to proof of concept and commercialization, supporting the University’s goals of excellence in research, scholarship, student experiential learning and innovation.

“The call for spring proposals received an unprecedented high number of proposals,” says Linda Dickerson-Hartsock, advisor for strategic initiatives at ���ϲ����� Libraries. “The proposals from across campus spanned many sectors, from agriculture and food to biology and life sciences, cleantech, medtech, edtech, fintech, hardware, digital platforms and nonprofit impact ventures. A multidisciplinary team of faculty and alumni founders reviewed applications, with recipients selected on the merit of the applications, along with research rigor and the clarity of the proposed project.”

. If you have questions or want to receive information about upcoming workshops and the upcoming funding cycle,��please email��orangeinnovation@syr.edu.

Jamie Banks

School of Information Studies (iSchool) has been selected as this year’s Katchmar Wilhelm Endowed Professor.

The professorship lasts for a three-year period and is designed to support an associate professor in achieving their career goals, enhancing their own and the school’s reputation, and ultimately achieving promotion to full professor.

The position was established in 2016 and made possible from a portion of the bequest of Estelle Wilhelm ’38, ’39 that the iSchool received in 2013.

“I’m so appreciative for this recognition, and I’m excited about the work I’ll be pursuing in the next three years, especially as generative AI and robotics stand to reconfigure how we work, live, socialize and play,” says Banks.

During the professorship, Banks will be researching human experiences of social AI. She’ll focus on people’s interactions with AI companions, including the risks and benefits. She will also focus on cognitive biases in human-robot interaction, especially those that create trust and fear, and how representations of AI and robots in popular media play a role in people’s understanding of those complex technologies.

“In reading about Estelle Wilhelm, the iSchool alum who established the supporting endowment, I learned she was a children’s librarian and a military-base librarian,” Banks added. “I grew up in a military family. The base and local libraries were important places for our family—to learn, to connect and to access the early internet that made our world so much bigger. The work of librarians (like Estelle and other iSchool graduates) touches the lives of so many people, and I don’t think I’d be doing the work I am today without their influence.”

The symposium included a networking breakfast and panel discussion with young startup founders who have successfully raised funds: Sean Lattimore ’23, founder of Suptho; Aidan Meany, founder of Found Surface; Ben Haber, founder of Monark Markets; and Matt Schneider, founder of e-States.

The panel was followed by an open session where student entrepreneurs learned about the various types of early-stage investors, including a distinguished panel from across the country, including Libraries Advisory Board member and angel investor, Yvonne Hyland; Andrew Schwartz ’20, Zenyatta Capital co-founder; Andy Reed, ESD–NY Ventures director; Sashi Tripathi, Nurture VC managing director; Dustin Doucette, director of Upstate Venture Connect; and David Tsung, co-founder of Oculus VC, a local venture capital firm. The symposium wrapped up with a lightning round of elevator pitches by current LaunchPad student founders to the panelist judges.

Student startups competed for the People’s Choice Awards during the Blackstone LaunchPad’s first Investor-Ready Symposium.

The following student startups were the People’s Choice awardees for the event:

• First place: Sam Hogan, founder of HireBird, from SUNY Albany’s Blackstone LaunchPad
• Second place: Natasha Brao ’22 (College of Visual and Performing Arts), G’23, G’24 (Martin J. Whitman School of Management), founder of Shooka Sauce
• Third place (tie): Frank Marin ’24 (College of Engineering and Computer Science), founder of Marhold Space Systems; and Yaneeka Nichols ’26 (School of Information Studies), founder of SNDER
• Honorable mentions: Motolani Oladitan ’24 (College of Arts and Sciences), founder of Tá Beautie; Neil Adams ’25 (S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications), founder of Band Launch Media; and Chris Cherniakov, founder of Telemetree, from Colgate University.

Funds for the awards were generously donated by Andrew Schwartz ’20.

Prior to the symposium, the LaunchPad hosted a series of workshops designed to prepare students to meet potential investors on the topics of contract negotiation; due diligence-data room preparation; term sheet overview; and financial instruments review.

Faculty members Beth Myers (left) and Don Carr. (Photo by Angela Ryan)

Seven student-designed products, services and technologies meant to assist people with intellectual and developmental disabilities won recognition and seed funding at the Showcase on April 25.

Fashion design major Shelstie Dastinot showed adaptive clothing having Haitian-inspired designs. (Photo by Angela Ryan)

The showcase is the culmination of the two-semester course taught by , professor and program coordinator for industrial and interaction design in the , and , Lawrence B. Taishoff assistant professor of inclusive education and executive director of the in the .�� They and the students are also supported by co-instructor , founder of entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises adjunct faculty member in the ��and strategic initiatives advisor, .

The interdisciplinary course and the open-call design competition is open to undergraduate and graduate students from across the University, including students studying in the program, and it is sponsored by ���ϲ����� Libraries. “It’s a unique program,” says Carr. “To my knowledge, Intelligence ++ is the only integrated design and innovation incubator in which students from a program such as InclusiveU work as part of a team to develop a wide range of product ideas.”

As part of the course, students learn about steps taken at the University to help address accessibility and neurodiversity across campus. Myers says the fact that students come from a range of majors and programs helps widen the understanding of access, disability and inclusion needs and abilities.

Policy studies major Ryan Brouchard emphasizes the planned journey for his team’s innovation, AdaptEd, created with computer science student Adya Parida. (Photo by Angela Ryan)

“We’re thinking about disability, accessibility and disability language and content, as well as the possibilities [for] disability and neurodiversity. We’re designing not for disabled people, but with disabled people, so it’s really meaningful,” says Myers.

Shelstie Dastinot ’24, a fashion design major in VPA, says her perspective on disability is formed by personal experience. “I realized that we all separate ourselves from the disabled community, but we can all become disabled at any point. We are all temporarily able, is what I like to say.”

Ryan Brouchoud ’25, a policy studies major in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, says the class taught him how to think in practical and functional ways about disability needs. “I’m learning about the best way to go about making products and programs that are accessible to all but that are also feasible to create. I’m interested in creating something that fixes problems that need addressing.”

Xiaochao Yu ’25, an interior design major in VPA, spoke to both disabled and non-disabled individuals as he worked on his project, and found the groups had similar concerns regarding public study spaces. “They expressed that the environment was distracting both visually and acoustically. I decided to create a product that would provide the privacy students were looking for.”

His project, Portable Sensory Enclosure, uses low-budget structural elements and materials to create temporary, movable barriers that offer more privacy and acoustic and visual improvements for use in public study areas.

The other winning projects were:

Four members of the team of UpliftU present how their website makes reporting incidents of bias and accessibility barriers easier, with a built-in feedback and assessment system. (Photo by Angela Ryan)

Uplift U,�� a website that allows reporting on barriers to accessibility, such as the lack of an access ramp at a building, and issues and incidents related to diversity and inclusion, such as a bias situation.

It was created by InclusiveU students Tanner Knox Belge ’27 an undeclared major; Devin Braun ’27, a food studies major; Sean Bleaking ’24, a food studies major and Arturo Tomas Cruz Avellan ’27, an undeclared major; along with Jasmine Rood, ’27, a design studies major in VPA, Caitlin Kennedy Espiritu ’25, a public communications major in the Newhouse School of Public Communications, and Megan Gajewski ’27, a fashion design major in VPA.

Cuse Up, an app to help InclusiveU students more easily discover social groups and campus activities, created by students Tojyea Matally ’27, a communication design major and Faith Mahoney ’26, an industrial and interaction design major, both studying in VPA.

Shelstie, a line of sustainable, adaptive clothing featuring bright colors and Haitian-inspired looks, designed by Dastinot.

AdaptEd, an educational tech platform that uses AI-powered software to support varied learning styles, created by Brouchoud and Adya Parida ’25, a computer science major in the College of Engineering and Computer Science.

Echo Classroom, a platform that provides resources to aid in lesson interpretation, developed by Alexandra Gustave ’24 and Charlotte Chu ’26, fashion design majors in VPA.

VocaLink, a concept by graduate data science students Dhruv Shah and Sampada Regmi, offers computer-based vocational training. (Photo by Angela Ryan)

VocaLink, a computer-based vocational training and interactive learning tool, developed by graduate students Dhruv Shah ’25 and Sampada Regmi ’24, who are both students in the applied data science program at the School of Information Studies.

Judges were Matthew Van Ryn, a ���ϲ����� attorney; Hanah Ehrenreich, a development associate at Jowonio School who also advises entrepreneurs; Brianna Howard ’20, G’21, founder of Faithful Works virtual assistant and grant writing services;�� and Gianfranco Zaccai ’70, H’09, co-founder and chief designer of Continuum Innovation, who helped establish the program through a gift to ���ϲ����� Libraries from the .

Team members, faculty and judges gathered to celebrate the innovations presented at the 2024 Intelligence++ Showcase. (Photo by Marilyn Hesler)

Research from the project found that the millions paid for more than 24,000 ad buys and about 5,500 unique ads on Facebook and Instagram between Sept. 1, 2023, and Feb. 29, 2024. This amounts to an estimated 869 million impressions in the months leading up to, and during, the presidential primaries. The majority of ads involved Biden or Trump, the report found.����

The Biden and Trump campaigns spent another roughly $10 million on paid social media content, drawing 303 million impressions, though the incumbent outspent Trump about 7-to-1 on these platforms.����

This is the produced via by a $250,000 grant from , the world’s leading graph database and analytics company. The grant allows ElectionGraph researchers to use Neo4j’s graph database and analytics software to identify misinformation trends in the U.S. presidential election and other top 2024 contests.��

The research team’s efforts focus on dissecting misinformation themes—pinpointing origins of messages and tracing misinformation by collecting and algorithmically classifying ads run on Facebook and Instagram, as well as social media posts on Facebook and X, formerly known as Twitter. The project will also gather input from journalists and the public about the 2024 presidential election, and races for U.S. Senate and key congressional districts.��

The first set of findings released today demonstrate the importance of requiring social media platforms to disclose details about election advertising and messaging, says Jennifer Stromer-Galley, senior associate dean and professor at the School of Information Studies. An expert in political campaigns and misinformation, Stromer-Galley leads the IDJC ElectionGraph research team. ��

“Revealing details about ads and messaging on social media platforms is vital to provide the public with transparency and context,” Stromer-Galley says. “Failure to do so can make voters more vulnerable to manipulation without any sort of accountability.”��

Organizations that ran ads ranged from well-known political action committees, political party groups or other candidates, to obscure players with harder-to-trace ties and agendas, the report found. The analysis identifies the top 30 spenders that each mention Biden and Trump, and examines patterns in how groups apply the honorific of “President” when referring to either candidate.��

The report captures a fraction of overall U.S. election-related content across all social media platforms. While Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, currently allows approved organizations to access ad data, it is not required to be made available—and not similarly trackable—on TikTok, Google, YouTube or Snapchat.��

“These findings give us a glimpse at the firehose of information and misinformation coming at voters from groups with a jumble of motives, ties and trustworthiness ahead of the 2024 elections,” says Margaret Talev, Kramer Director of the IDJC, professor of practice at the Newhouse School of Public Communications and a journalist.

The challenge faced by digital researchers and computational journalists in unearthing the consequences of AI-driven misinformation on democracy is enormous, says Jim Webber, chief scientist at Neo4j. ��

“Graph technology is an essential enabler to those seeking to uncover hidden patterns and networks of those looking to manipulate democratic populations,” Webber says.

“We at Neo4j are proud to support ���ϲ�����’s mission to help journalists and citizens separate fact from fake news so that the voting public can make informed decisions as they go to the polls.”��

Traci Geisler, director of Blackstone LaunchPad at ���ϲ����� Libraries, and Bruce Kingma, professor of entrepreneurship in the School of Information Studies and Whitman School of Management, co-organizers of the 2024 RvD iPrize and Spirt of Entrepreneurship Award.

Winners of the Raymond von Dran (RvD) iPrize for Student Entrepreneurship competition and the Hunter Brooks Watson Spirit of Entrepreneurship Award were announced at the student entrepreneurship competition held April 12 at Bird Library. The competition was coordinated by the Blackstone LaunchPad at ���ϲ����� Libraries (LaunchPad) and Bruce Kingma, professor of entrepreneurship at the School of Information Studies (iSchool) and Martin J. Whitman School of Management.

The following 10 student startup teams each won $2,000 in RvD funding:

• Brielle Young ’26 (iSchool), founder of Aggregate, an online platform that enables small-scale farmers to sell directly to customers via the Internet.
• Olutosin “Tosin” Alabi G’24 (Whitman School), founder of DiabeTech, a healthcare startup developing an innovative smart bandage solution for managing diabetic foot ulcers.
• Mariah Brown ’25 (Whitman School) and Fernanda Kligerman, founders of Dormbank, a used goods store which specializes in supplying college students with reduced cost dorm goods, appliances and home electronics.
• Jonah Wassersug ’26 (S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications), Alexa Shoiock ’25 (College of Visual and Performing Arts) and Tomoyoshi Takita ’26 (iSchool), founders of GEN, an AI-powered personal stylist and shopper.
• Waqar Hussain G’24 (Whitman School), founder of Iconic.cloud, offering small to medium enterprises a streamlined cloud server management solution, enabling them to easily deploy and scale their digital products on dedicated cloud platforms.
• Motolani Oladitan ’24 (College of Arts and Sciences), founder of Latita Wellness (Tà), a virtual marketplace connecting African beauty and wellness brands with the diaspora by making it easier for consumers to discover and purchase high-quality, authentic African products.
• Elizabeth Paulin ’25 (Arts and Sciences), founder of Paulin Ventures, a venture capital firm uniquely focused on investing in early-stage startups founded by diverse and disabled entrepreneurs—an underserved market with immense untapped potential.
• Xheneta Sopjani G’24 (Whitman School), founder of Revive, a powerful skincare device that combines advanced technologies to stimulate collagen, tighten facial muscles and reduce wrinkles.
• Natasha Brao G’24 (Whitman School), founder of Root & Seed Brands, which launched its first product, Shooka Sauce, a commercially packaged good brand that celebrates the mixing and melding of cultural cuisines to promote creative, adaptable cooking and bringing new experiences to the modern table.
• John Bol Ajak Deng ��’25 (Newhouse School), founder of The HumBol Fund, which aims to give academically gifted South Sudanese students from Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya a sense of hope through scholarships and a network of private school partners to pursue their education in the U.S.

The Hunter Brooks Watson Spirit of Entrepreneurship Award is awarded to students who best exemplify the spirit of entrepreneurship. Prizes honor the memory of Hunter Brooks Watson, an SU student who died tragically in a distracted driving accident. The winners of $2,000 each are:

• Adya Parida ’25 (College of Engineering and Computer Science) and Ryan Brouchoud ’25 (Maxwell School), founders of AdaptEd, a technology company that offers AI-powered adaptive learning software designed to support students with different learning styles.
• Bintou Manneh ’24 (iSchool), Maram Ahmed ’24 (iSchool), Marangelis Uben ’24 (iSchool) and Ashley Romero ’24 (Arts and Sciences), founders of BearBot, a stuffed toy that acts as a reading tool for children, fostering a safe and comforting learning environment.
• Mariah Brown ’25 (Whitman School) and Fernanda Kligerman, founders of Dormbank, a used goods store which specializes in supplying college students with reduced cost dorm goods, appliances and home electronics.
• Za’Tozia Duffie ��’25 (Newhouse School), founder of MirrorZ60, an innovative mirror designed to revolutionize personal hair care, providing users with visibility to the back of their heads.
• Jordan Pierre ��’25 (Whitman School), founder of VOICE, fostering a community that empowers and uplifts marginalized students, enabling them to unearth their voices, recognize their collective agency in effecting change, and harness their platforms to cultivate community solidarity—all through the medium of storytelling.

��The award competition highlights the University’s entrepreneurial focus. Raymond von Dran, who served as dean of the School of Information Studies from 1995 until his passing in 2007, was a longtime academic entrepreneur and staunch supporter of student innovation. Gisela von Dran, Raymond’s wife and the former director of the School of Information Studies’ library and information science master’s program, served as one of this year’s judges.

The Spirit of Entrepreneurship Award began in 2018 through the Hunter Brooks Watson Memorial Fund. Speaking on behalf of Hunter’s memory was John “Jack” Rose ’24 (Whitman School) of Management), this year’s Hunter Brooks Watson Remembrance Scholar, along with Hunter’s parents, Jerry Watson and Judith Fister, who joined from McLean, Virginia.

Members of ���ϲ�����’s military-connected community pose for a group photo with Otto before the 2024 SVO Ball & Awards Banquet.

���ϲ�����’s military-connected community came together for an evening of celebration during the annual Ball & Awards Banquet. The formal event, held each year during the Spring semester, acknowledges the accomplishments within the veteran community at ���ϲ����� and serves as an evening of camaraderie before the academic calendar is overtaken by final exams.

SVO President John Nipper ’23, G’24, speaking to guests at the 2024 SVO Ball & Awards Banquet.

SVO President and U.S. Navy Veteran John Nipper ’23, a graduate student in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, opened the formal portion of the evening by acknowledging those military-connected students who will graduate this year, even if they were unable to attend the festivities. “Congratulations on all your successes here at ���ϲ�����, you should be proud of all your accomplishments and to now be recognized as an alumni of these hallowed halls. We know that you will do great things in your future endeavors,” Nipper said.

This year’s event featured a Gatsby-themed evening that welcomed the largest crowd in attendance since the SVO Ball first found a home at the National Veterans Resource Center since its opening. The evening features a formal dinner, guest speaker, awards presentation, announcement of the next year’s SVO executive board, music and dancing, as well as a raffle drawing to help raise money for next year’s SVO functions.

Theodore “Ted” Walker

Theodore “Ted” Walker, a U.S. Army veteran and guest speaker of this year’s event, is an assistant professor with the Department of Biomedical and Chemical Engineering in the College of Engineering and Computer Science. Walker shared some of his own experience in the military as a U.S. Army ranger with multiple deployments in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. Walker also spoke about the importance of having an engaged community for veterans, highlighting the unique camaraderie that exists among those who have served and the underlying purpose of the SVO’s existence.

Each year, both the SVO and Office of Veteran and Military Affairs (OVMA) use the event to present their annual awards of recognition. Both organizations present awards to acknowledge the contributions and impact of key individuals, some more light-hearted than others. Among the more impactful awards presented, the following members of the University’s military-connected community were acknowledged:

The SVO Community Service Award is presented to an SVO member who goes beyond expectations in supporting not just our veteran community but extends their generosity and kindness to all those in need around them. This year, the award was presented to Jose A. Baeza-Ruiz ’25, a business analytics student in the Whitman School of Management.

The SVO Best for Vets award is presented to the student veteran who has done the most to help student veterans succeed both on and off campus. This year, the Best for Vets award was presented to SVO Secretary Raul “Rudy” Rosique ’23.

The SVO acknowledged OVMA Executive Director Ron Novack, a retired U.S. Army Colonel, with the SVO’s Staff Appreciation Award, and the SVO Faculty Appreciation Award was presented to retired Army Lieutenant Colonel Elizabeth Kubala, executive director of the Betty and Michael D. Wohl Veterans Legal Clinic and a teaching professor at ���ϲ�����’s College of Law.

Retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Elizabeth Kubala (left), executive director of the Betty and Michael D. Wohl Veterans Legal Clinic and a teaching professor at ���ϲ�����’s College of Law, receives the SVO Faculty Appreciation Award from SVO President John Nipper.

“I’m truly humbled and honored to be recognized by the SVO for this award. Here at ���ϲ�����, we pride ourselves on cultivating a strong sense of community on campus and in the classroom for our veteran and military-connected students, and I’m really proud to be part of that collective effort,” said Kubala. “I’ve seen first-hand how our programs, like the Betty and Michael D. Wohl Veterans Legal Clinic, make a tremendous impact by exposing our campus community to veterans, showing others what it means to serve, and fostering a more supportive and welcoming environment for veterans here at ���ϲ�����.”

The OVMA also presents awards at the event each year to several military-connected students who have gone above and beyond in their dedication to supporting the University’s military initiatives.

The Danny Facto Student Veteran Work Study Award, presented by the Office of Veteran Success (OVS), is presented in the name of Danny Facto, a decorated U.S. Army combat veteran and Purple Heart recipient. Facto attended the David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics with the goal of obtaining a bachelor’s degree in Social Work and was the first VA work-study student at ���ϲ�����. Facto died tragically in a motorcycle accident in 2009, his death was felt throughout the military-connected community at the University and each year the OVS presents an award in his name to a current VA work-study student they feel is deserving of the recognition.

Retired U.S. Army Colonel Ron Novack (left), executive director of the Office of Veteran and Military Affairs (left), presents the OVMA Student Veteran of the Year Award to Raul “Rudy” Rosique.

This year, the Danny Facto Student Veteran Work Study Award was presented to Andrew Patterson, a 3L law student in the College of Law.

The OVMA Student Veteran of the Year Award was also presented at the banquet, awarded to a student veteran who makes the most standout commitment to the military-connected community at ���ϲ�����. This year, the award was presented to Raul Rosique ’24.

To close out the event each year, the SVO announces the results of the SVO’s Executive Board election. Those elected will go on to serve in the next academic year to help support veteran and military-connected students as well as welcome all students who wish to learn more about service members, veterans and the military community at large.

SVO Executive Board Results:

President: Raphael Grollmus, a graduate student in the College of Arts and Sciences

Vice President: Marriler Wilson, a graduate student in the Maxwell School of Public Affairs and Citizenship

Secretary: Jurgen Baeza ’26, a computer science major in the College of Engineering and Computer Science

Treasurer: Savion Pollard ’25, an electrical engineering major in the College of Engineering and Computer Science

Public Affairs Officer: Tojyea “TJ” Matally ’27, a communications design major in the College of Visual and Performing Arts

Community Outreach Officer: Leonel Aviles ’26, an information management and technology major in the School of Information Studies

“I first started attending in the Fall of 2021 and have seen a night and day difference within the SVO. The lounge seemed more like a doctor’s office than a place to eat and gather, and socials were nonexistent due to COVID. Every year since there have been new faces, a significant increase in events and overall, it’s been more welcoming. It’s like seeing something being built from the ground up,” said Grollmus, who served for nine years in the U.S. Marine Corps prior to enrolling at the University. “If there is something the veteran community as a whole could benefit from or an event that would be excited to do, let us know so we can put it into action.”

The SVO Executive Board for the 2024-25 Academic Year (from left to right):
Public Affairs Officer, Toyyea “TJ” Matally; Secretary, Jurgen Baeza; Vice President Marriler Wilson; President Raphael Grollmus; Treasurer, Savion Pollard; and Community Outreach Officer, Leonel Aviles.

Photos by Sophia Simmons, student in the Advanced Military Visual Journalism

Hilton Als, writer at The New Yorker; Jim Boeheim ’66, G’73, former ���ϲ����� men’s basketball coach and special assistant to the director of athletics; husband and wife, William “Bill” Brodsky ’65, L’68, chairman of a specialized investment firm and an investment management firm, and Joan Breier Brodsky ’67, G’68, a National Museum and Library Services Board member; and Lynn Conway, inventor of methods for designing Very Large Scale Integrated silicon chips, will be honored for their outstanding achievements in their professional careers and the difference they have made in the lives of others.

Hilton Als
Doctor of Letters

Hilton Als (Photo credit: Ali Smith)

Als is an award-winning journalist, critic and curator. He has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1994. Prior to The New Yorker, Als was a staff writer for the Village Voice and an editor-at-large at Vibe. He has received numerous awards for his work, including the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism (2017), Yale’s Windham-Campbell Literature Prize (2016), the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism (2002-03) and a Guggenheim Fellowship (2000).

His first book, “The Women,” was published in 1996. His next book, “White Girls,” was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the winner of the Lambda Literary Award in 2014. His most recent book, “My Pinup,” a meditation on love and of loss, of Prince and of desire, was published in November 2022.

In 2017, he curated the critically lauded exhibition “Alice Neel, Uptown,” which traveled from David Zwirner, New York, to Victoria Miro, London and Venice. In 2019, Als presented “God Made My Face: A Collective Portrait of James Baldwin” at David Zwirner, New York, followed by Frank Moore at, David Zwirner, New York (2021) and Toni Morrison’s “Black Book,” at David Zwirner, New York (2022). He curated a series of three successive exhibitions for the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, of the work of Celia Paul (2018), Lynette Yiadom-Boakye (2019) and Njideka Akunyili Crosby (2022). In 2022, he curated “Joan Didion: What She Means” at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, which traveled to the Perez Art Museum Miami in 2023. He curated Jared Buckhiester “No heaven, no how,” which opened March 2024 at the David Kordansky Gallery in Los Angeles.

Als is currently a teaching professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and has also taught at Columbia University’s School of the Arts, Princeton University, Wesleyan University and the Yale School of Drama.

Jim Boeheim ’66, G’73
Doctor of Humane Letters

Jim Boeheim

Hall of Fame member Jim Boeheim had a remarkable run as head coach at his alma mater, ���ϲ�����. Boeheim guided the Orange to winning records in 46 of 47 campaigns. ���ϲ����� made 35 trips into the NCAA Tournament, including Final Four appearances in 1987, 1996, 2003, 2013 and 2016. The Orange won the national championship in 2003. Boeheim retired from coaching after the 2023 season but continues to work for the University.

Boeheim was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2005. He was also honored with the John R. Wooden “Legends of Coaching” Award.

Boeheim enrolled at ���ϲ����� in 1962 and was a walk-on with the basketball team. The Orange were 22-6 overall his senior year and earned the program’s second-ever NCAA Tournament berth. He earned a bachelor’s from the College of Arts and Sciences and the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and a master’s from the Maxwell School. In 1969 he turned to a career in coaching and was hired as a graduate assistant at ���ϲ�����. In 1976, he was named head coach.

A four-time BIG EAST Coach of the Year, Boeheim has been honored as NABC District II Coach of the Year 10 times and USBWA District II Coach of the Year on four occasions. In the fall of 2000, he received ���ϲ�����’s Arents Award, the school’s highest alumni honor.

Boeheim was named 2001 USA Basketball National Coach of the Year. He has served as an assistant coach for the U.S. Olympic teams that won gold medals in 2008, 2012 and 2016, and the World Cup in 2010 and 2014.

A champion of many charitable causes, Boeheim and his wife started the Jim and Juli Boeheim Foundation with the goal of enriching the lives of kids in need.

Joan Breier Brodsky ’67, G’68
Doctor of Humane Letters

Joan Breier Brodsky (Photo credit: Richard Shay)

Joan Brodsky graduated from the College of Arts and Sciences in 1967 with a bachelor’s in Latin language and literature and went on to graduate from the School of Information Studies (formerly the School of Library Science) in 1968 with a master of science degree.

Joan is passionate and knowledgeable about rare book and cultural heritage conservation and has been active nationally for many years, including sitting on the board of the Newberry Library in Chicago, as a Trustee for the Abraham Lincoln Museum and Library, as well as the library advisory board of the Jewish Theological Seminary. She also served on the Advisory Board for the School of Information Studies and has been a member of the ���ϲ����� Libraries Advisory Board since its founding.

In 2022, Joan was appointed by President Joe Biden to the National Museum and Library Services Board, which advises the Institute for Museum and Library Services, the largest federal funder of America’s museums, libraries and related organizations through grantmaking, research and policy development.

At ���ϲ�����, she is the founder and sponsor of the Brodsky Series for Advancement of Library Conservation. This sponsored program promotes and advances knowledge of library conservation theory, practice and application among wide audiences, both on campus, in the region and now online. This is an annual lecture series and workshop on book and paper conservation now in its 19th year.

In 2022, she and her husband Bill, a ���ϲ����� life trustee, funded the Conservation Lab in the Bird library and the Joan Breier Brodsky Media Preservation Vault in honor of Joan’s commitment to the preservation and conservation at the Bird Library.

Joan and Bill have been married for 57 years and reside in Chicago.

William “Bill” Brodsky ’65, L’68
Doctor of Laws

William “Bill” Brodsky (Photo credit: Richard Shay)

Bill is chairman of Cedar Street Asset Management, LLC, an investment management firm devoted to investing in equity securities in international markets, and chairman of Bosun Asset Management, a specialized investment firm.

During his combined 35-year career at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), he was recognized as a global leader in the development of the future and options markets. His contributions to Chicago’s futures and options markets were a major factor in Chicago’s becoming the world’s preeminent city for the futures and options markets.

Bill served as chairman of the CBOE Holdings Inc. now known as CBOE Global Markets and its predecessor firms between 1997 and 2017. He also served as the chief executive officer of the CBOE from 1997 to 2013. During his CBOE tenure, he served as the chairman of the World Federation of Exchanges and the International Options Market Association. From 1985 to 1997, he was president and CEO at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

Bill, who earned a bachelor’s degree from the College of Arts and Sciences and the Maxwell School and a law degree from the College of Law, began his career in 1968 at the Wall Street-based investment banking and securities brokerage firm of Model, Roland and Co. Inc. In 1974, he joined the American Stock Exchange and ultimately was executive vice president for operations.

In 1982, he became executive vice president and chief operating officer of the CME. In 1985, he was appointed president and CEO of the CME.

In 2019, Governor J.B. Pritzker named him to co-chair the newly formed State’s Pension Consolidation Feasibility Task Force. In 2022, he was inducted into “The Order of Lincoln,” the state’s highest honor for professional achievement and public service.

Brodsky is chair emeritus of the board of directors of Navy Pier Inc., one of Chicago’s most iconic cultural destinations, and past chair of the board of directors of Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Brodsky was nominated by President Biden and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2022 to the Board of Directors of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation, which maintains a special reserve fund authorized by Congress to help investors at failed brokerage firms.

Lynn Conway
Doctor of Science

Lynn Conway

Conway is a renowned computer scientist who revolutionized global information technology by inventing methods for designing Very Large Scale Integrated (VLSI) silicon chips. Her work paved the way for the powerful microchips that animate modern high-technology systems.

As a young engineer at IBM Research in the 1960s, Conway made pioneering innovations in computer architecture. Sadly, IBM fired her in 1968 upon learning she was undergoing gender transition. She restarted her career in a new identity in “stealth-mode” after completing her transition.

While working at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center in the 1970s, Conway innovated breakthrough methods that enabled engineers to design very powerful, complex chips. In 1980, Conway’s seminal textbook “Introduction to VLSI Systems,” co-authored by Caltech Professor Carver Mead, became an instant classic, forever transforming computing and information technology. Professor John V. Oldfield brought the new VLSI methods into ���ϲ����� right at the beginning of that revolution.

In the early 1980s, Conway became assistant director for strategic computing at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. In 1985 she joined the University of Michigan as professor of electrical engineering and computer science and associate dean of engineering.

When nearing retirement in 1999 she began quietly coming out as a trans woman, using her new to share her story with friends and colleagues. Conway became active in transgender advocacy.

In 2012 Conway published a that revealed how—closeted and hidden behind the scenes—she conceived the ideas and orchestrated the events that disruptively changed global industries.

Conway is a life fellow of the IEEE, fellow of the AAAS, winner of Computer Pioneer Award of the IEEE Computer Society, member of the Hall of Fellows of the Computer History Museum, a member of the National Academy of Engineering and holds five honorary degrees. In 2023 she was inducted into the for the invention of VLSI. She was awarded the by the and the .

In 2020, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna on behalf of the company for back in 1968. the IBM Lifetime Achievement Award.

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Thirty-five students have been chosen as the 2024-25 ���ϲ����� Remembrance Scholars.

The scholarships, now in their 35th year, were founded as a tribute to—and means of remembering—the students studying in London and Florence through ���ϲ����� who were killed in the Dec. 21, 1988, bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. Those students were among the 270 people who perished in the bombing. The scholarships are funded through an endowment supported by gifts from alumni, friends, parents and corporations.

Significant support for the Remembrance Scholarships has been provided by Jean Thompson ’66 and ���ϲ����� Life Trustee Richard L. Thompson G’67 in memory of Jean Taylor Phelan Terry ’43 and John F. Phelan, Jean Thompson’s parents; by Board of Trustees Chairman Emeritus Steven Barnes ’82 and Deborah Barnes; by The ���ϲ����� Association of Zeta Psi in memory of Alexander Lowenstein; and by the Fred L. Emerson Foundation.

Selection Process

Remembrance Scholars are chosen in their junior year through a competitive selection process. Applicants submitted an essay and a reflective response in multimedia, artistic, musical or written format as part of a comprehensive application. The application evaluation committee is composed of University faculty and staff and current Remembrance Scholars. The $5,000 scholarships are awarded on the basis of scholarship, leadership and service to the community.

Additionally, two students from Lockerbie come to ���ϲ����� each year for one year of study through the ���ϲ�����-Lockerbie Scholarships, also in their 35th year. The scholarships are jointly funded by ���ϲ����� and the Lockerbie Trust. Cameron Colville and Anna Newbould were recently selected as the 2024-25 Lockerbie Scholars.

“Remembrance Scholars represent ���ϲ����� at its best through their academic achievements, their leadership skills and their contributions to the University,” says Vice Chancellor, Provost and Chief Academic Officer Gretchen Ritter. “They reflect the talent and promise of those students whose memories they honor. We are very proud to call them members of our University community.”

The Remembrance and Lockerbie Scholars plan the Remembrance activities held at the University each year. The scholars will be recognized during a convocation in the fall.

The 2024-25 Remembrance Scholars, their hometowns, majors and schools and colleges are the following:

• Alba Aljiboury of ���ϲ�����, New York, a policy studies major in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and College of Arts and Sciences (A&S), an information management and technology major in the School of Information Studies and a member of the Renée Crown University Honors Program;
• Linda Baguma of Iowa City, Iowa, a double major in international relations and political science in the Maxwell School and A&S and member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Adam Baltaxe of Arlington, Virginia, an international relations major in the Maxwell School and A&S, a Spanish major in A&S and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Tanner Boshart of Jackson, New Jersey, an economics major and history major in the Maxwell School and A&S, a finance major in the Whitman School of Management and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Danis Cammett of Washington, D.C., an international relations major in the Maxwell School and A&S, applied data analytics major in the School of Information Studies, a member of the Crown Honors Program and a member of the University’s Army Reserve Officer Training Program;
• Natalie Dolenga of Lincolnshire, Illinois, an international relations major in the Maxwell School and A&S and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Charlotte Ebel of Urbana, Illinois, a public relations major in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, a women’s and gender studies and German major in A&S and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Luke Elliott of Leesburg, Virginia, a citizenship and civic engagement major in the Maxwell School, a public relations major in the Newhouse School and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Mason Garbus of Hannibal, New York, a music education major in the College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) and the School of Education;
• Joshua Garvin of Houston, Texas, a music industry major in VPA;
• Tabitha Hulme of Saratoga, California, a public health major in the Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics and health humanities major in A&S;
• Abigail Jones of Mashpee, Massachusetts, a public relations major in the Newhouse School, a policy studies major in the Maxwell School and A&S and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Rajan Joshi of Dallas, Texas, an economics major in the Maxwell School and A&S and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Sierra Kaplan of New York, New York, a health humanities major in A&S; a political science major in the Maxwell School and A&S and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Kelsey Leary of Mahopac, New York, an art photography major in VPA;
• Nadia Lyngdoh-Sommer of Singapore, a sociology major in the Maxwell School and A&S, a law, society and policy major in the Maxwell School and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Sophia Moore of Burbank, California, a television, radio and film major in the Newhouse School, a sociology major in the Maxwell School and A&S and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Zachary Murray of Kingston, Jamaica, a political science and policy studies major in the Maxwell School and A&S, a modern foreign languages major in A&S and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Ryan Myers of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, a public relations major in the Newhouse School, a psychology major in A&S and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Mark Nzasi of Scranton, Pennsylvania, a neuroscience and psychology major in A&S and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Cheryl Olanga of Nairobi, Kenya, a computer science major in the College of Engineering and Computer Science (ECS);
• Adya Parida of Odisha, India, a computer science major in ECS and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Jenna Poma of Queens, New York, a policy studies major in the Maxwell School and A&S, a citizenship and civic engagement major in the Maxwell School and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Tia Poquette of Brooklyn, New York, a policy studies major in the Maxwell School and A&S:
• Alekhya Rajasekaran of Visalia, California, a biotechnology major in A&S and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Olivia Reid of Richmond, California, a policy studies major in the Maxwell School and A&S and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Mason Romero of Olathe, Kansas, a music education major in VPA and the School of Education, a music history and cultures major in A&S and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Alie Savane of Bronx, New York, a biology major in A&S;
• Abigael Scott of Plattsburgh, New York, a neuroscience and biology major in A&S and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Yifan “Ivan” Shen of Shanghai, China, a student in the School of Architecture, a music history and cultures major in A&S, and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Justine Smith of Somerville, New Jersey, a political science and policy studies major in the Maxwell School and A&S and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Joshua Spodek of Wayne, New Jersey, a history major in the Maxwell School and A&S, a social studies education major in the Maxwell School and the School of Education and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Alyssa Sutherland of St. Louis, Missouri, a public health major in the Falk College; a women’s and gender studies major in A&S and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Evelina Torres of Houston, Texas, a political science major in the Maxwell School and A&S, a citizenship and civic engagement major in the Maxwell School and a member of the Crown Honors Program; and
• Leondra Tyler of Cicero, New York, a neuroscience and psychology major in A&S.

Nine faculty members received the student-driven award, which acknowledges faculty who have had a significant impact and positive influence on graduate education because of their superior graduate-level teaching, dedication to departmental and community presence and excellence in research and creative activities.

Each year, the honors outstanding professors with the Excellence in Graduate Education Faculty Recognition Award. The student-driven award acknowledges faculty who have had a significant impact and positive influence on graduate education because of their superior graduate-level teaching, dedication to departmental and community presence and excellence in research and creative activities.��

Nine faculty members, whose nominations were reviewed by an interdisciplinary committee of graduate students, are this year’s honorees. They are:������

• , professor of philosophy and political science, College of Arts and Sciences (A&S);
• , associate professor of rhetoric and writing, A&S;
• , associate professor of linguistics, A&S;
• , associate teaching professor, Newhouse School of Public Communications;
• , assistant professor of human development and family science, David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics;
• , professor of information studies, School of Information Studies;
• , associate professor of English, A&S;
• , professor of mathematics, A&S; and��
• , associate professor of public administration and international affairs, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.��

Baynes, who is also an associate in the Campbell Public Affairs Institute at the Maxwell School, studies social and political philosophy, critical theory and modern and contemporary German philosophy. He is currently examining the characteristics of rules and practices, the grounding of moral principles within practical reason and the relationship between democracy and basic rights.����

Browne’s interests intersect in the visual arts, vernacular philosophy and the rhetoric and literature of the Caribbean. His research and creative activities encompass digital projects, poetry and essay publications, original fine art, documentary photography, contemporary art and local and international exhibitions. He also researches the theory and practice of rhetoric and poetics that shape the African diaspora. ��

Green’s��linguistics research focuses on African languages, including those in the Mande, Cushitic, Dogon, Jarawan and Bantu families. He recently completed a Somali reference grammar. He has published articles on syllable theory, word structure and the use of tone and rhythm in speech.

Hong serves as the Newhouse School’s public relations graduate program director and teaches introductory courses in graphic design, social media, visual communications theory and multimedia storytelling for undergraduate, graduate and military visual journalism students. She has worked as a marketer, graphic designer for national magazines and editorial assistant for a communications research journal.������

Merrin teaches courses in child and adolescent development and advanced statistical methods. Trained in developmental psychology and applied methodology, he researches developmental processes that contribute to problem behaviors in adolescents. He looks at how experiences with families, peers, teachers and communities, particularly those involving identity-based harassment, may influence behavior.����

Qin teaches and researches the topics of metadata, knowledge and data modeling, scientific communication, research collaboration networks and research data management. She directs a lab using big metadata analytics and metadata modeling and linking, plus manages a team that studies biomedical collaboration networks framed by the theory of collaboration capacity.��

Roylance’s work examines early American literature and culture; nationalism, transnationalism and comparative colonialisms; geography; the organization and perception of time and history; and print culture and the history of the book. She is the author of “Eclipse of Empires: World History in Nineteenth-Century U.S. Literature and Culture,” and is now writing a book that tracks the shifting meanings of cultural literary artifacts.����

Shen’s work focuses on the applied and computational aspects of harmonic analysis, a branch of mathematics that investigates connections between a function and its representation frequency. He also studies how to optimize those applications in imaging science and information processing, including in wavelet analysis and image and signal processing. He holds a patent for a wavelet-enhanced automated fingerprint identification system with four other researchers.��

Siddiki is the Chapple Family Professor of Citizenship and Democracy and director of the Master of Public Administration (MPA) program in the Maxwell School. She also directs the Center for Policy Design and Governance and is a senior research associate for the Center for Policy Research, Center for Environmental Policy and Administration, Program for the Advancement of Research on Conflict and Collaboration and Autonomous Systems Policy Institute. She focuses on policy design, collaborative policymaking, institutional theory and analysis and regulatory implementation and compliance.

Recruiters often use those sites to find and screen job candidates; the first thing they see is a person’s photo. Slattery wanted to help people look more polished and professional, so he and a co-worker purchased , an artificial intelligence tool that generates better-looking headshots from casual photos. For $29, users can get up to 120 headshots in various locations and styles within three hours.

Keegan Slattery

“A crappy photo doesn’t convey trust or professionalism, and it’s important to project those qualities in every interaction when trying to get a job,” says Slattery, who earned bachelor’s degrees in information management and technology from the , and entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises from the .

“We want everyone to have strong photos that they love, and hiring a photographer is difficult, expensive, and time-consuming,” adds Slattery. “I adore getting feedback from users that they love the images we create and seeing the images in the wild on LinkedIn profiles.”

After spending his career in digital marketing at LinkedIn and 2U, Slattery wanted something of his own. Bettershot.ai marks his first time forging out on his own to start something from scratch. Although he left the security of a 9-to-5 job and the benefits associated with that, he gained a newfound sense of freedom and motivation.

“There’s a very different energy to working on something that, if successful, directly benefits you instead of a company’s shareholders,” Slattery says. “I love working with my co-founder, Rachelle Brempong, and seeing the fruits of our collective efforts.”

Ideally, Slattery would like to scale Bettershot.ai into a $30,000 monthly recurring revenue business in the next 18 months. That would allow him to put processes in place to manage the day-to-day so he can buy other interesting technologies and apply the same go-to-market strategies.

“I’d love to have a portfolio of small, cash-flowing businesses that I get to spend my time working on, with lots of flexibility to ski, bike ride, and spend time raising a family,” says Slattery, who lives in Denver, Colorado with his wife and two dogs.

Running startups requires a blend of varied skills in marketing, technology, product development, design, project management and business operations—much of which Slattery learned at ���ϲ�����.

“My dual degree gave me an excellent balance of technological know-how and business acumen,” Slattery says. “I loved being surrounded by other students who loved technology, social media, and throwing around startup ideas. My education in computer networking, coding, social media platforms, business planning, and entrepreneurship have helped me be a very well-rounded professional who can bridge the gap between technical and strategic.”

If he could give advice to current ���ϲ����� students, Slattery would encourage them to treat class projects like they are the real thing and solicit feedback from people who work in the industry.

“Don’t be afraid to reach out to alumni or friends who are working in the fields you want to explore. You’ll be surprised how much people want to help and talk about their experiences,” Slattery says. “After all, the worst thing they can do is say no. But if you don’t ask, you don’t get. This applies to the corporate world as well. The squeaky wheel gets the oil, so don’t be afraid to speak up and ask for what you need.”

The One University Awards Ceremony, an annual event to honor members of the ���ϲ����� community who are making a difference through academics, scholarship, creative work and dedicated service, will be held Friday, April 19, from 4 to 5:30 p.m. in Hendricks Chapel.

“Every year, we come together to celebrate the outstanding contributions and tremendous success of our students, faculty, staff and broader community,” says Chancellor Kent Syverud. “The accomplishments of this year’s recipients reinforce what it means to be Orange. This ceremony also shines a bright spotlight on the work being done around campus, much of which happens behind the scenes. I thank the many members of our community who organized this event and look forward to recognizing this year’s winners.”

Two major awards—the Chancellor’s Medal and the Chancellor’s Citation for Excellence—will be bestowed. The ceremony will also include the presentation of the Student-Athlete Award, Judith Seinfeld Scholarship, Meredith Professorship for Teaching Excellence, Teaching Recognition Award, Diversity and Inclusion Award, William Pearson Tolley Medal for Distinguished Leadership in Lifelong Learning and Chancellor’s Forever Orange Award.

and�� will also be recognized. This year’s��University Scholars,��, and Remembrance and Lockerbie Scholars will also be honored.

All members of the University community are invited and encouraged to attend. A reception will follow in the lobby of the Heroy Geology Laboratory.

American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation and Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) will be provided at the ceremony. For questions about accessibility or to request accommodations, contact Gabe Coleman at gbcolma@syr.edu.

Award Recipients��

The��Chancellor’s Medal��is the University’s highest honor and is awarded to individuals in honor of their trailblazing and extraordinary contributions to the University, to an academic body of knowledge or to society. This year’s recipient is��, Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professor for Teaching Excellence and professor of electrical engineering and computer science in the College of Engineering and Computer Science.

The��Chancellor’s Citation for Excellence��recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions in four overarching categories:

• The award for��Excellence in Student Research recognizes students who have engaged in collaborative research that has the potential to make a deep and lasting impact on greater society. This year’s recipients are Jingjing Ji, a doctoral candidate in chemical engineering in the Department of Biomedical and Chemical Engineering in the College of Engineering and Computer Science (graduate), and Ashtha Singh, an international relations major in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and citizenship and civic engagement major in the Maxwell School (undergraduate).
• The award for��Outstanding Contributions to the Student Experience and University Initiatives acknowledges faculty and staff who, through their work, enhance the undergraduate experience for students or make invaluable contributions to supporting and advancing the University’s mission and goals. The recipients are��, associate professor of communications in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications (faculty); , chief operating officer for the D’Aniello Institute for Veterans and Military Families (professional staff); , program coordinator of citizenship and civic engagement in the Maxwell School (professional staff) and , events coordinator at Lubin House (support staff).
• The��Faculty Excellence and Scholarly Distinction award is intended for faculty members who are collaborators in work of intellectual richness that has the potential for future impact. The work of these nominees offers possibilities for collaboration within the University and outside in partnership with others. This year’s honorees are��, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Art and Music Histories in the College of Arts and Sciences, and , associate dean of research and professor of Public Health in the Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics.
• Chancellor’s Citation for Excellence, Lifetime Achievement Award. This award honors those who have made extraordinary contributions toward advancing all four pillars of excellence over the arc of their careers while at ���ϲ����� and beyond. This year’s recipient is��, Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professor for Teaching Excellence and professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering in the College of Engineering and Computer Science.

The other awards to be presented are:

• The��Student-Athlete Award recognizes the top female and top male student athletes and are presented to the senior student-athletes with the highest cumulative grade point average over the course of their academic and athletic careers. This year’s recipients are Izabela Krakic, an international relations major in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and College of Arts and Sciences and member of the women’s rowing team, and Julius Rauch, an entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises major in the Whitman School of Management and a member of the men’s soccer team.
• Seinfeld Scholarship: Each year ���ϲ����� honors the talents of outstanding faculty or students through an��, a distinguished alumna and member of the University Board of Trustees. Awards are made to those who have been determined by their peers to have made outstanding contributions to the beauty of the world, to have added to human values and to ending human abuse anywhere in the world, and to have demonstrated passion for excellence, creativity and originality in academic or artistic fields. This year, the designation is bestowed upon a faculty member,��, associate professor of advertising in the Newhouse School.
• The��Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professorships for Teaching Excellence were created in 1995 to recognize and reward outstanding teaching among faculty. The 2024-27 Meredith Professors are��, professor in the School of Information Studies, and , Bond, Schoeneck and King Distinguished Professor in the College of Law.
• In 2001, the Meredith Professorship Program was expanded to recognize teaching excellence by non-tenured faculty and adjunct and part-time instructors. Awards are given in two categories:��Early Performance and��Continuing Excellence. This year’s honorees in the Early Performance category are��, assistant professor of television, radio and film in the Newhouse School; , associate teaching professor of electrical engineering and computer science in the College of Engineering and Computer Science; , assistant professor of visual communications in the Newhouse School; , assistant teaching professor of Chinese and Chinese language in the College of Arts and Sciences; and , assistant professor in the School of Architecture. The two honorees in the Continuing Excellence category are��, assistant dean of online and distance education and associate teaching professor of social work in the Falk College, and , teaching professor and graduate director of nutrition and food studies in the Falk College.
• The��Diversity and Inclusion Award��recognizes an individual who is integral in helping us achieve academic excellence at a university that is welcoming to all through our investments in a diverse, inclusive, accessible and equitable community. This year’s recipient is��, teaching professor in the College of Law and faculty fellow for the Office of Strategic Initiatives and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion.
• The��William Pearson Tolley Medal for Distinguished Leadership in Lifelong Learning is based in the School of Education and honors national or international leadership in support of lifelong learning. This year’s recipient is ’77, executive director of MidPenn Legal Services, adjunct professor of law at PennState’s Dickinson Law and an alumna of the School of Education.
• The��Chancellor’s Forever Orange Award recognizes individual students, faculty or staff who—by virtue of extraordinary hard work, good values and commitment to excellence—have come to embody the best of ���ϲ�����. This year’s recipients are , associate vice president of parent engagement and student experience, and , head coach of the men’s soccer team.

McKnight writes: “The Northeast, fresh from experiencing a snowy April Nor’easter pummeling especially New Hampshire and Maine, and causing close to half a million to lose power, had a next shock with the 4.8 earthquake earlier today. Centered in New Jersey, but reportedly felt from Baltimore to Massachusetts, today’s minor rumble was far from the deadly threat Taiwan’s 7.2 quake a few days ago was. The impressive thing in the Taiwan quake was actually how well-built Taiwanese buildings are. Since while more than a thousand people were injured and there were deaths, without Taiwan’s now-strict building codes, the effects would have been far worse.

Which brings us back to the Tewksbury (N.J.) quake. Thankfully New York City, 45 miles away, reported no injuries.

What was noticeable, and alarming from an emergency communications perspective, was how slow authorities were to sound an alarm or send an alert. New York City’s ‘automated’ alert did not come out for more than 30 minutes after the quake, while New York State’s was even slower.

If the situation had been a tornado, or a more extreme quake, the slow official response could have had fatal consequences. Just a few days ago, for example, the Midwest experienced tornadoes and storms – while the National Weather Service itself was knocked off-line; not by the storm but by a hardware failure. The NWS ‘promptly’ restored operations 4 hours later; and announced they hoped to move to the cloud, Congress permitting, in coming years.

There is 1 common lesson: whether it is earthquakes shaking unexpected – or expected- places, Nor’easters, tornadoes.. the list goes on: resilient emergency communication matters. Not just for formal public safety authorities, but for all of us.

If we lost power while feet of snow fell (New Hampshire and Maine, today): how long could we maintain communication? (Never mind staying warm; ok that matters too).

If the Jersey quake was 7.3 and not 4.8…how bad would that have been? For buildings, and for emergency communication? (I shudder to imagine)

Whether we are worrying about emergency communication in a live emergency, or preparing for the future, considering our own vulnerabilities to disruptions, and the digital public infrastructure that we rely on today, whether National Weather Service, or state or city emergency services, or for our own daily digital needs: of you are not concerned, you are not paying attention.

We at ���ϲ����� have been paying attention.

We developed and evolved the Internet Backpack, which sustainably maintains connectivity anywhere on the planet, indefinitely; one way or another.

That matters to the 2.6 billion still off the Internet, even on a good day; and�� to all of us, who might experience a need to receive or send emergency communications and obtain emergency connectivity, at any time; anywhere.”

Attendees will have the opportunity to hear from several student organizations who will be , enjoy a spirited awards ceremony hosted by student Nicole Aponte ’24 and mingle with honorees and each other during a reception following the ceremony.

Get to know the outstanding alumni across generations who will be honored April 12 during the ���ϲ����� Alumni Awards.

Traditionally held in the fall during Orange Central, the 2024 awards ceremony was shifted to the spring to facilitate greater interactions between award recipients and the ���ϲ����� student body. The honorees, selected by the awards committee of the Board of Directors, were selected for their achievements and success, truly highlighting what it means to be Forever Orange.

The George Arents Award is ���ϲ�����’s highest alumni honor and recognizes individuals who have excelled in their fields. In 2024, three alumni will receive the Arents Award: former NFL quarterback turned philanthropist Donovan McNabb ’98; president and chairman of Wilmorite Thomas Wilmot ’70; and former litigation attorney turned civic leader Melanie Gray L’81.

Marc Malfitano ’74, L’78 will receive the Melvin A. Eggers Senior Alumni Award for his loyalty and service to ���ϲ����� over the past 50 years. Malfitano is a member of the 50th reunion class, and both the Classes of 1964 and 1974 will celebrate milestone reunions during the weekend.

Amanda Quick ’14, G’16 will be awarded the Generation Orange Award, which recognizes graduates from the past decade for career success and community engagement, along with their overall commitment to ���ϲ�����.

Major General Peggy Combs ’85, H’21 will receive the Military/Veteran Award for exceptional meritorious service while serving in the United States Military.

New in 2024, Tracy Barash ’89 will receive the Volunteer of the Year Award in recognition of her consistent volunteerism to ���ϲ�����.

Also new in 2024, the Outstanding Future Alumni Award will highlight student Leondra Tyler ’24 for her commitment, involvement and leadership outside of the classroom.

, then make plans to .

Story by Laura Verzegnassi ’25, student intern in the Office of Alumni Engagement and Annual Giving

The iSchool coursework will enable Murphy to learn how to extract, organize, analyze and visualize large volumes of archival data that has previously been examined through primarily quantitative and demographic lenses. The material includes registries of enslaved people in the 19th-century British Caribbean.

Tessa Murphy

Between Great Britain’s abolition of the transatlantic slave trade in 1807 and the 1833 Slavery Abolition Act, colonial officials oversaw the registration of every individual who was enslaved in the Empire, including more than 700,000 people in the Caribbean. Registers for Crown Colonies—British territories acquired in the late-18th and early-19th centuries and ruled through metropolitan Orders in Council, such as St. Lucia, Trinidad and the colonies that became British Guiana—are particularly detailed.

“Obtaining training to analyze these registries through the lens of social history will allow me to transform seemingly static lists of chattel into rare windows on the experiences of people who lived and labored on Great Britain’s plantation frontiers,” says Murphy, who discussed her research on a recent episode of the��.

The fellowship is one of 10 awarded nationally by the Mellon Foundation this year. It is intended for humanities scholars whose research calls for formal training in a discipline other than the one in which they are expert.

Murphy’s current research grew out of her first book “The Creole Archipelago: Race and Borders in the Colonial Caribbean” (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2021), which traced how Indigenous Kalinagos, free and enslaved Africans, and European settlers forged creolized societies that frustrated the colonial plans of the English and French Crowns. The book was awarded prizes from the Association of Caribbean Historians, the Forum on Early-Modern Empires and Global Interactions, and the French Colonial Historical Society. Additionally, it received the James A. Rawley Prize in Atlantic History from the American Historical Association.

Murphy’s areas of expertise include the Atlantic world, comparative history of the early Americas, slavery and race, the colonial Caribbean and the age of revolutions. She offers courses on Atlantic history, slavery and freedom in the Americas, and borderlands and empires from the margins.

Her previous research has been supported by numerous organizations, including the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and France’s Institut National d’Études Démographiques.

This story was written by Michael Kelly

“This reaccreditation is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our faculty and staff, who have created a high-quality program for our students,” said iSchool Dean Andrew Sears. “We are proud of the iSchool’s enduring success, which is evident in the impressive work our students and alumni do each day.”

The iSchool has been accredited by the ALA since the late 1920s. The process ensures that the iSchool’s graduates have the appropriate degree and training for their field. It also forms the basis of many national rankings for the iSchool.

“��is an affirmation that the library and information science program is engaging in continuous strategic planning and improvement, has a strong and relevant curriculum, dedicated full-time and adjunct faculty, and students who are supported throughout their educational journeys,” said LIS Program Director and Professor Megan Oakleaf. “The LIS program will continue to pursue excellence in the years to come.”

“We would like to thank the Committee on Accreditation at the American Library Association for their efforts to ensure all LIS programs serve students and the larger profession,” Oakleaf added.

“This provides a smooth pathway for SUNY Morrisville students to enter the exciting fields of data science, librarianship and information sciences,” says Zachary Schuster, the iSchool’s director of admissions and recruitment. Schuster previously worked for SUNY Morrisville as an admissions counselor from 2008 to 2012.��“I am really excited to offer this opportunity to their graduates,” says Schuster. “���ϲ����� is in close proximity to SUNY Morrisville, making our programs attractive and convenient. Students will enter in-demand career areas with outstanding placement and salary outcomes.”

As an added incentive, the iSchool will waive application fees for students applying from SUNY Morrisville. Students who are selected will receive a guaranteed scholarship ranging from 25% to 50% of tuition charges, with the possibility of further consideration for additional scholarships on a case-by-case basis.

Tony Contento, dean for the School of Agriculture, Business and Technology at SUNY Morrisville, says the partnership “is a testament to our shared vision of nurturing excellence in Information Science.”

“We’re both driven by a passion for cutting-edge education and equipping students with the skills they need to thrive in the digital age,” Contento says. “We’re delighted to offer SUNY Morrisville’s Computer and Information Science students a seamless path to graduate studies in these spectacular programs at ���ϲ�����, and we anticipate fruitful collaborations as we work together to shape the future of technology education.”

SUNY Morrisville is a public college with two locations in New York, one in Morrisville and one in Norwich. It is part of the State University of New York system.

More information about the graduate application process can be found on the��. If you are considering applying to the iSchool, contact the����for advising and assistance.

The awards are funded by a 2022 grant that supports research and community programming over three years to examine the racial wealth gap’s root causes and ideas that may resolve its economic and social inequalities, says , Lender Center interim director. The awards are part of the Lender Center for Social Justice initiative led by the

The racial wealth gap is an ongoing issue that undermines potential economic and social progress and opportunities for members of underserved and underrepresented communities, according to , Lender Center senior research associate and associate professor in the Whitman School of Management.

“These research projects are noteworthy because of their unique courses of inquiry, their highly inter-disciplinary and inter-institutional nature and their close engagements with ���ϲ����� community members and organizations,” says Phillips.

Projects receiving the one-year grants and involved faculty are:

“Addressing the Racial Wealth Gap Through Increasing Decennial Census Self-Response Rates in Marginalized Communities”

Leonard Lopoo

This project will test mechanisms to try to increase self-response rates for the 2030 federal census in undercounted communities in New York State. Successful efforts could offset census undercounts that might otherwise reduce federal funding for education, health care, housing, infrastructure and other vital services.

• , , principal investigator
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Brice Nordquist

“���ϲ����� Futures”

This study looks at ���ϲ�����’s arts and humanities infrastructure and how universities and community organizations can partner in offering arts and humanities programming and college and career support to historically marginalized communities.�� Led by the ’ , the effort involves multiple South Side organizations.

• , College of Arts and Sciences, principal investigator.
• ,
• ,

“Does Military Service Mitigate the U.S. Racial Wealth Gap? Overlooked Pathways for��Underrepresented Minorities in Public Service”

Arielle Newman

Corri Zoli

This project explores how military service intersects with racial wealth disparities. Researchers will look at military service as a means of economic advancement and a way to overcome social barriers that may hinder underrepresented minorities who are pursuing post-service career advancement and entrepreneurship.

• , , and , Whitman School, principal investigators
• , (IVMF)
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• , Maxwell School
• , IVMF
• , Lender Center for Social Justice
• , University of Pittsburgh

“From Highways to High-Speed Internet: Leveraging Equitable Infrastructure for the Data Economy”��

LaVerne Gray

Researchers are determining whether access to first-class digital information, services, assets and increased technology training can reduce the racial wealth gap by lessening barriers to digital networks, critical information and data literacy skills. Skills-training workshops are planned with community members.����

• and , (iSchool), principal investigators
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  Beth Patin

• iSchool
• , College of Arts and Sciences/
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“Opportunity Design: Engaging Public Health in Low-Income Communities”

Hannibal Newsom

This study leverages interest in ongoing energy retrofit work at 418 Fabius Street in the James Geddes Housing development in ���ϲ����� to generate a more comprehensive examination of social determinants of health through the process of opportunity mapping.

• , , principal investigator
• , College of Visual and Performing Arts, co-principal investigator
• , School of Architecture, co-investigator

“Nourishing Families: Parents as Partners in the Alignment of a Mindful Eating Intervention to Meet the Needs of Low-Income and Marginalized Families With Young Children”

Lynn Brann

Parent and teacher workshops that include mindful yoga and mindful eating lessons for children are planned to address the nutrition needs of low-income, underrepresented families in ���ϲ�����. Research will explore if better nutrition for vulnerable populations can mean better health for families and more opportunities for their gainful employment, lessening the racial wealth gap.

• , , principal investigator
• , Falk College
• , Falk College

“Addressing Obesity and Hypertension in Refugees through Culturally Relevant Meal Interventions”��

Miriam Mutambudzi

This project looks at obesity and hypertension in diaspora populations and works with African immigrants on post-immigration diets to introduce healthy adaptations while preserving culinary heritage. The goal is to assess whether healthier eating can reduce health issues and boost labor force participation, generating improved socioeconomic status.

• , Falk College, principal investigator
• , Falk College

“Disability as a Critical Element in Exploring the Racial Wealth Gap”

Nannette Goodman

Researchers will identify challenges faced by Black, Indigenous and People of Color individuals with��disabilities and will examine the role of disability in the racial wealth gap. They plan to develop recommendations regarding policies and practices that limit economic inclusion and trap people with disabilities into poverty.

• , College of Law, principal investigator
• , College of Law

“Optimizing Corporate Supplier Diversity Programs and Corporate-Facing Regulations for Addressing the Racial Wealth Gap”��

Karca Aral

This initiative examines diversity interactions and legislative interventions in business-to-business aspects of wealth distribution and corporate supplier diversity programs. Researchers will develop guidance on diversity programs and diversity initiatives while enhancing those programs’ potential to level the racial wealth gap.

• , Whitman School, faculty lead
• , Whitman School
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���ϲ����� professors�� and both research information security.

Prof. Park calls the executive order a pivotal move to enhance the protection of Americans’ sensitive data at a national security level:

Joon S. Park

“Unlike previous effort, such as the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) in the European Union, which centers on individual privacy rights and consent, this order strategically addresses the large-scale transfer of Americans’ personal data to foreign countries of concerns. Therefore, I believe the effective implementation of this order is crucial for mitigating the potential threats on Americans’ privacy and data protection against international risks, thereby reinforcing national security.”

Prof. Lemos adds that the ramifications of the issue go beyond individual privacy:

Filipe Augusto da Luz Lemos

“The President’s Executive Order marks a significant step in safeguarding citizens’ data and National Security, though its scope remains narrower than Brazil’s LGPD and the EU’s GDPR. It is easy to see how personal data has become a valuable asset for corporations, facilitating targeted advertisements that often prove intrusive. However, beyond commercial concerns, the misuse of such data for criminal purposes, including fraud and password breaches, underscores the critical need for protection. Moreover, the ramifications extend beyond individual privacy; the 2018 revelation of sensitive American military bases through geolocation data from the fitness app Strava underscores the national security implications. As AI capabilities advance, other nations’ exploitation of such data for identifying classified information poses a tangible threat, underscoring the importance of this kind of data protection measures.”

To request interviews or get more information:

Chris Munoz
Media Relations Specialist
cjmunoz@syr.edu

2023 RvD iPrize competition: Scott Warren, ���ϲ����� Libraries (left) and Bruce Kingma, School of Information Studies (right) presented check to Ben Ford ’23 (Martin J. Whitman School of Management), founder of Fundwurx.

Last year’s RvD iPrize winners included Ben Ford ’23, founder of Fundwurx; Adya Parida ’25 and Oliver Raycroft ’25, co-Founders of Scale Sense; Motolani Oladitan ’24, founder of Ta; Jeremy Shinder ’24, founder of Jere Bear Films, LLC; Travis Ghirdharie G’22, founder of Many Hands; Sai Krishna Bolla G’23, founder of Cognition X; Aidan Mickleburgh ’23 G’23, founder of Intervea; Kai Patricio, founder of Farm Loop; and Rob Goldblatt ’23, Paul Sausville and Nicole Byrnes, co-founders of Tree-Spun.

The 2023 Hunter Brooks Watson Spirit of Entrepreneurship Award was given to four student teams who best exemplified “The Spirit of Entrepreneurship.” Prizes honor the memory of Hunter Brooks Watson, a ���ϲ����� student who died tragically in a distracted driving accident. Last year’s winners were: Rabia Razzaq G’23, Kai Patricio G’23, Priscilla Cruz ’24, and Peyton Sefick, members of Re-mend team; Motolani Oladitan ’24; Jeremy Shinder ’24; and Ethan Tyo ’17 G’22, AlterNative Project and cookbook author.

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To get in touch and learn more about ���ϲ����� faculty members available for interviews, please contact��media@syr.edu.

is an associate professor in the iSchool at ���ϲ�����, faculty advisor to the Worldwide Innovation Technology and Entrepreneurship Club (WiTec), and an affiliate of the Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism (INSTC).��Regarding today’s cellular outage, he writes:

“The dirty secret of telecom networks these days is they are just a bunch of wires & towers connected to the cloud like everything else in modern life, whether Netflix or your grocery store.��

With little information released on the cause of ATT’s cross-country outages, the most likely cause is a cloud misconfiguration. Which is a fancy word for saying human error. I was reviewing this exact issue in class yesterday. (IST 615 Cloud Management) which is all too common.��

A possible but far less likely outcome is an intentional malicious hack of ATT’s network, but the diffuse pattern of outages across the country suggests something more fundamental.”��

The daylong event was organized and guided by the Veteran Career Services staff and included an evening interactive learning opportunity about dinner etiquette for meals during a professional setting.

While military service is often seen as an advantage in the hiring process, hiring managers may struggle to fully comprehend the valuable experience that veteran applicants bring to the table. Similarly, veterans may be uncertain about leveraging their military experience as a bargaining chip during compensation negotiations.

Participants mingle at the inaugural Veteran Career-Ready Bootcamp.

Michelle Johnson, a retired U.S. Army sergeant major and current doctoral candidate in the , emphasizes the challenge for corporate hiring managers and recruiters.

“It is sometimes difficult for them to fathom the scale and scope of the responsibilities placed in the hands of service members because that paradigm doesn’t work in the corporate world, where experience and leadership come with time,” Johnson says.��“In the military, experience comes swiftly, and leadership starts on day one. It’s not unusual for a 19-year-old to lead a nine-person team in a foreign nation, or for a 22-year-old recent college graduate to help a war-torn community build a local government from the ground up.”

This marked the first time such a daylong event was held for military-connected students at ���ϲ�����. Although the OVMA provides various programs and services to better prepare student veterans for the job market, scheduling a full day of programming during the academic year poses challenges. The success of the event was partially attributed to the support of OVMA’s recent corporate sponsor, Visions Federal Credit Union.

“Visions was thrilled to support the Veteran Career-Ready Bootcamp. Programs like this are exactly why we saw a partnership with the OVMA as a perfect fit,” says Timothy Strong, director of branding and public relations for Visions Federal Credit Union. “The continued emphasis on providing the military-connected community with skills to benefit them in and out of the classroom fits perfectly with our mission.”

A presenter from Visions Federal Credit Union shares expertise with participants.

Participants began the day gaining valuable insights from veteran alumni who recently graduated. The panel shared their experiences in leveraging resources and strategies to secure jobs after graduation, along with insights into new changes in the labor market.

Afterward, Lauren Meyer, an administrative specialist with the , led the participants through the exercise to personalize the day’s lessons. Throughout the day, participants received instruction on resume writing, optimizing LinkedIn profiles, building a personal brand and even obtained free professional headshots.

“I particularly enjoyed the LinkedIn session because I learned about keywords to use, how to make my profile more engaging for employers, and how to use the built-in artificial intelligence features to my advantage,” says Priscilla Cruz ’24, a senior in the enrolled through the U.S. Army’s Early Commissioning Program. “During the lecture, I updated my experience section based on the advice I was given and added media to showcase my work.”

In the evening, participants were treated to a formal dinner in the Bisignano Grand Hall. However, instead of celebrating, the participants focused on learning the intricacies and history of formal dinner etiquette, taught by Robert Shutt, a professional etiquette educator and author. The students discovered that many present-day rules of dinner etiquette have origins in military customs and courtesies. Afterward, members of the military-connected community on campus joined the participants for an evening of networking and camaraderie.

Robert Shutt, professional etiquette educator and author, (standing) instructs participants at a formal dinner.

The seminar occurred just days before the OVMA hosted a career networking reception for military-connected students at the University. This biannual event attracts hiring managers and employers from various industries seeking to hire veterans and military family members, providing student veterans valuable one-on-one time to showcase their talents and inquire about potential job placements after graduation.

“We realize that most of our military-connected students are pursuing higher education for a specific career choice in their post-service lives,” says retired U.S. Army colonel Ron Novack, executive director of the OVMA. “We are always searching for new and engaging ways to support our military-connected students, including developing innovative programing like this and offering services aimed at helping them take advantage of any opportunity to better prepare themselves for the next chapter in their lives.”

Veteran Career Services plans to host the career boot camp every other year, ensuring undergraduate student veterans have ample opportunities to participate. Those interested in the programs and services offered to military-connected students are encouraged to .

Katy Arons

Katy Arons ’24, founder of Continual Consent and a student in the School of Information Studies, won first place at the 2024 campus qualifier competition for the on Feb. 1 held at ���ϲ����� Libraries’ Blackstone LaunchPad. She and her team will now advance to the national competition being held March 26-27 at Florida State University and televised on PBS.

Continual Consent is a health and safety mobile application designed to revolutionize conversations about consent and intimacy. As the winner of the ���ϲ����� competition, Arons will receive an expense paid trip to compete in the ACC InVenture Prize finals from March 26-28 in Tallahassee, Florida. The televised finals feature one team from each of the 15 colleges and universities in the ACC Academic Consortium who compete for ��$30,000 in prizes.

ACC InVenture campus qualifier runners up included Justin Diaz ’24, founder of EcoBamboo and a student in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management, and Brendan Murty ’24, Ryan Mussaw ’24 and Ian Storrs ’24, founders of Concurrent and students in the College of Engineering and Computer Science.

The ���ϲ����� ACC InVenture Prize is supported by the Provost’s Office and is hosted by ���ϲ����� Libraries and the .

The final round—a pitch competition—occurred Feb. 9 in the Whitman School of Management and was led by Don Carr, professor in the VPA School of Design, and Kai Alexander Patricio G’23, a design consultant at Matchstix in Brooklyn, New York.

.

The students behind “Dialog,” an application to increase a sense of belonging on campus for student with disabilities, won the fast-paced, seven-day No Code Design Sprint competition.

A multidisciplinary team, Dialog consists of Fasika Melese G’18, G’19, a doctoral student in SOE’s instructional design, development and evaluation program; Viha Mashruwala, G’24, a master’s degree student in the School of Information Studies’ applied data science program; Lang Delapa ’24, a senior in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications’ advertising program; and Sawyer Tardie ’27, a first-year student in the Whitman School of Management.

The Dialog team consulted with students from SOE’s to identify a challenge neurodiverse students face—loneliness. To increase their sense of belonging, the team designed and developed a mobile app to help develop communication skills, including journaling prompts, discussion boards, daily challenges and more.

Honorable mention went to LearSona, a team that developed a working prototype of an app that offers academic content to users in a medium that fits their learning preference, such as visual, textual or kinesthetic.

Other teams pitching their ideas—and developing —w�����:

• Optimal Assessment, an artificial intelligence-powered teaching and assessment “co-pilot” for professors, to tailor course content for different learning preferences;
• Equilearn, a learning platform to address the “pain points” of accessible education; and
• BookTalk, a platform that encourages neurodiverse students to better understand material by sharing learnings with each other.

The Design Sprint began on Feb. 2, with an intensive workshop on no code and inclusive design led by Patricio. The author of “,” Patricio is an expert in regenerative design, inclusive design, interaction design and the development of new digital interfaces.

After the initial workshop, teams assembled to create a minimum viable product for an inclusive product or service that could vie for the pitch competition prize of $500, plus $5,000 in Amazon Web Services credits.

Coaches for the week of intensive idea development were: Samantha Calamari, senior learning experience designer, Microsoft; Quinton Fletchall, senior design researcher, Conifer Research; Max Mirho, content creator, Make with Max; and Andrew Tsao, founder, Codeless Coach.

The competition judges were: Samantha Calamari; Seth Gitner and Adam Peruta ’00, G’04, associate professors in the Newhouse School’s magazine, news and digital journalism program; Aimara Rodriguez, co-founder of Function Wellness; Brenton Strine, co-founder and CTO of Kicky Art; and Gianfranco Zaccai ’70, H’09, co-founder of the innovative design firm EPAM Continuum and Founder of . Joining the hosts as competition sponsors were the and .

serves as the University’s entrepreneurship and innovation hub, partnering with academic programs and entrepreneurial centers across campus and beyond to connect students to local, regional and national networks of alumni entrepreneurs, company founders, subject matter experts and venture partners.

Administered by ���ϲ����� Libraries and located in Bird Library, the LaunchPad hosts classes, speaking events and workshops and offers a mentoring program. In addition, LaunchPad hosts each year.

Winning Startups

Three businesses developed by graduate students recently claimed the top prizes in the ’Cuse Tank competition, one of the University’s premier business plan competitions. Here, the winners offer advice for other graduate-level students who have an entrepreneurial spirit.

Natasha Brao

developed , inspired by the Mediterranean dish Shakshuka. The MBA student says she plans to run the business full time after she graduates this spring. Brao recently began production runs and is forming relationships with small local retailers. She will expand the business by hiring staff and ramping up marketing and sales and hopes it will soon be investor ready.

“Creating a food product and brand has been something I have dreamed of doing since I was a kid, and now I owe it to myself to give it all I’ve got,” she says. She encourages others to pursue their startups while still in school. “If you have an idea you want to explore or that is ready and has a place in the market, this is the best time for that. Starting a business while being in grad school has made me more passionate and driven me to absorb as much as I can from my classes. They provide invaluable tools to learn as I go and I can immediately apply those lessons to the real world.”

Waqar Hussain

founded , a cloud-hosting platform engineered with proprietary software that offers streamlined cloud server management solutions. He is on track to earn an MBA with a concentration in entrepreneurship and marketing next year. Now, he’ll use his ’Cuse Tank prize to fund product development, improved technology, automation, marketing and the infrastructure and operations teams, he says. He encourages graduate students to take on startup ventures.

“[The experience] allows grad students to start building while they’re studying. These programs help you think more holistically when you’re competing—from writing to pitching to financing. You find there’s a whole world of things you can put into practice to build your real-world skills.”

heads , which uses engineering analysis software to design systems for active space debris removal, on-orbit satellite servicing and in-space manufacturing missions. He is in his final year of the H. John Riley dual engineering/MBA program.

Marin’s interest in creating a space company began in high school after a military representative at a science fair thought his passion could become something more. He credits a first-year entrepreneurship course with helping him better understand how to solve problems and seek opportunities. “Explore the connection between your passion and problem-solving while there’s time for it,” he suggests. “If you find something worth doing, do it.” He says he will enter his company in additional competitions this semester, then look for longer-term sources of funding.

Additional Resources

Students can also find entrepreneurship opportunities in their home school or college.

: The (New Explorations in Information and Science) Lab is a research lab where student innovators initiate IT projects, work with peers and explore emerging technologies. Students work on independent projects that advance the fields of information science, engineering and technology. The school also hosts workshops and hackathons.

: The ��provides information about patents, trademarks and copyrights. Student entrepreneurs can meet with law student experts regarding questions on intellectual property, regulatory compliance and commercialization resources as well as the technical, legal and business aspects of bringing new technologies to market. The center also hires graduate students from a wide range of disciplines to assess and analyze proposals submitted by real-world clients.

: The is an entrepreneurial workspace that partners with new media startups and offers tailored services to help students’ companies grow and succeed. The coordinates co-op internships that allow students to work with some of the world’s fastest-growing media startups.

: The graduate degree program in offers specialized tracks in four areas: new venture, social, corporate and family entrepreneurship. The school presents several competitions each year, including , the and . Whitman is also home to the , a student-centered co-working space and mentorship program, and the

: Veteran or military-connected students will find many at IVMF. help students get their ideas off the ground. The annual focuses on the opportunities and challenges faced by growth-stage businesses that are actively scaling or ready to scale. is a one-day entrepreneurship training event, offered in cities across the U.S., for veterans, active-duty military and military spouses or life partners who are just beginning to explore the opportunity of small business ownership as a post-service career path.

Jennifer Stromer-Galley

The (IDJC) has been awarded a $250,000 research grant from and use of the company’s graph database technology as part of an initiative to identify misinformation trends in the U.S. presidential election and other top 2024 contests.

, senior associate dean and professor at the and a nationally recognized expert in political campaigns and misinformation, will lead a team of researchers across the University and work with the Washington-based IDJC to illuminate hidden trends and actors spreading and influencing inaccurate information targeting U.S. voters through social media.

“Millions of Americans’ voting decisions are shaped by what they see on social media or hear from friends basing their own information on non-news sources,” says Kramer Director of the IDJC and a professor of practice in the Newhouse School of Public Communications.

“These areas are ripe for misinformation and disinformation campaigns from domestic and foreign actors,” Talev says. “Neo4j’s technology can allow us to see commonalities and hidden connections in a way that can shed light on these practices and help the public make fact-based decisions.”

Margaret Talev

The Neo4j award represents the first competitive grant for IDJC, a joint University initiative of the and .

The research team’s efforts focus on dissecting misinformation themes, pinpointing origins of messages and tracing misinformation by collecting and algorithmically classifying ads run on Facebook and Instagram as well as social media posts on Facebook and X, formerly known as Twitter. The project will also gather input from journalists and the public about the 2024 presidential election, and races for U.S. Senate and key congressional districts.

“One of the things we want to know is how the information environment and misinformation might be making people doubt the electoral process and whether it’s working properly,” says , research director for IDJC and a political science professor in the Maxwell School.

“Misinformation could not just affect whether voters turn out in the current election, but whether they turn out in future elections,” Dunaway said.

Johanna Dunaway

Stromer-Galley’s previous work on the project cataloged social media ad campaigns during the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections. The Neo4j award is intended to collect similar data and to enhance the visual display for user interactions.

“I don’t think these kinds of opportunities would be possible without the institute to coalesce and bring together a set of scholars from across the university who all share a common passion and concern about the health and state of our democracy and journalism,” Stromer-Galley says.

Story by Emma Hudson

���ϲ����� moved up eight spots in the rankings from 2023.

In the rankings for Best Online Graduate Information Technology Programs for Veterans, ���ϲ����� was ranked 14th, an increase of one spot from 2023.

The full rankings, released earlier today, are available on the��

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The iSchool offers����in��,����and����online.

Professor Jeff Stanton has been selected for the prestigious role of program director at the National Science Foundation (NSF). After completing his one-year role, which began in September, he will return to ���ϲ����� to continue teaching as a professor of information studies.

“I applied to NSF and got an opportunity to work in the foundation’s new����(TIP) directorate, which was established by Congress as part of the Chips and Technology Act,” says Stanton. “TIP is the only new directorate established at NSF in about 30 years.”

Stanton is serving as program director for a program called��, POSE, which “aims to harness the power of open-source development for the creation of new technology solutions to problems of national and societal importance.”

“My position is known as a ‘rotator’ position, which means that I will return to my academic role at ���ϲ����� after my NSF experience is complete,” Stanton says. “NSF makes extensive use of rotators as a way of bringing the experience and knowledge of outside experts into the agency.”

The POSE program has an anticipated funding amount of $27.8 million, and Stanton will be working with a team of program officers from across the foundation to conduct the merit review process that leads to awards in the program. Program officers create merit review panels with external peer reviewers from higher education and industry, and the panels make recommendations on which proposals NSF should fund.

Stanton is no stranger to the NSF. He originally came to ���ϲ����� with an NSF CAREER award and he and his iSchool colleagues have applied for and received several other NSF awards over the years.

“I have served as an NSF principal investigator or co-principal investigator on many occasions,” Stanton says. “The most recent of these is the three-year award that is supporting our Research Experiences for Undergraduates site. I’ve also previously served as an NSF merit review panelist and, in that role, had the opportunity to see some of the details of the merit review process.”

“Additionally, I have had a few different administrative roles at the iSchool and the University that have given me a close-up look at research administration,” Stanton added. “All of these experiences have been helpful in preparing me to serve as a program director. I appreciate the support of the University and the iSchool in providing the opportunity for me to participate in this valuable career experience.”

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To get in touch and learn more about ���ϲ����� faculty members available for interviews, please contact��media@syr.edu.

Their three-year research project, , offers new insights, recommendations and data supporting the practice of “retrofitting” older buildings. The team has demonstrated how updating interior and exterior building systems for increased energy efficiency and improved air quality can achieve “” energy use—where the energy a building harnesses is equal to or greater than the energy the building consumes. Retrofitting is an integral part of energy-use and carbon footprint reductions as well as lowering demolition waste and the building sector’s overall carbon impact, says , assistant professor at the and the project’s principal investigator.

Nina Wilson

“We expect to see wide application of our findings as the state and nation move forward in their efforts to fight climate change. Given the energy and carbon impact exerted by many thousands of retrofit-ready buildings just in New York state, it is important to keep delivering physical demonstration projects and data that enable the industry to better model and predict performance outcomes of retrofit approaches,” Wilson says.

New York State has set to combat climate change, committing $6.8 billion for projects to cut on-site energy consumption by 185 trillion BTUs by 2025, reach 70% renewably sourced electricity by 2030 and achieve a zero-emission electric grid by 2040.

The Net Zero project received a from the (NYSERDA), with an additional $200,000 from ���ϲ����� as part of a commitment to its Climate Action Plan.

Two-Building Approach

Two identical residential apartment buildings built in 1972 on�� Winding Ridge Road on the University’s South Campus were used for the study. One was chosen for retrofitting and the other served as a “control” to provide near-identical, non-retrofitted building data throughout the project.

Research began in 2021 with a building assessment to diagnose conditions like poor insulation, building envelope leakage and a lack of active ventilation and cooling systems. At the same time, sensor data, digital modeling, cost criteria and performance goals drove the design process. Construction of the retrofit was completed in the summer of 2022, followed by a year of post-occupancy energy and environmental data collection. That analysis compared the retrofitted building’s energy use to the non-retrofitted building to gauge the impact of the adjustments.

More Systems, Less Energy

The retrofit plan was initially modified due to cost issues during COVID-19, but because indoor thermal comfort and improved air quality remained as priorities, high-efficiency heat pumps and heat recovery ventilation systems were installed.

So far, Wilson says, the construction modifications have exceeded expectations, producing up to 80% reduction in energy use for heating and cooling, even with the addition of fresh air and cooling systems in place of the original electric baseboard heating. Data also shows significant improvements in indoor air quality through reductions in volatile organic compounds (VOCs), chemicals commonly found in indoor environments that can have long-lasting health effects.

Using holistic and interdisciplinary approaches have been important, given the research team’s expectation that this type of work will continue for decades, Wilson says. “We pushed beyond the simple energy-use reduction goal to include occupant well-being and environmental quality considerations. That we were able to do that and still meet the energy target was an outcome that provided valuable lessons.”

Interdisciplinary, Academic-Industrial Alliance

Faculty, staff and students from three University schools and colleges, the and the Office of Campus Planning, Design and Construction, plus industry experts and community business partners, participated in the project.

Bing Dong

, associate professor at the and a co-principal investigator, designed and managed building data-collection systems to measure indoor air quality, energy efficiency of the spaces and various ways occupant behavior (such as opening windows) affected energy use and indoor comfort levels. He used behavior models, building energy simulation and machine learning approaches in taking those measurements.

Bess Krietemeyer

associate professor and project co-principal investigator, led the design of an interactive, 3D exhibit showing how the ���ϲ����� community would benefit from the energy savings and improved environmental quality, health and well-being advantages that deep-energy retrofits can provide. The exhibit demonstrates how retrofitting can improve thermal comfort for occupants while realizing cost savings on monthly energy bills and provide fresher air to breathe inside and out. Through interactive, dynamic features, the exhibit also locates residential buildings of all types—from multifamily to single-family homes—to show where and how retrofits can support the health and vibrancy of all ���ϲ����� neighborhoods.

Jason Dedrick

faculty members and , also co-principal��investigators, created a website that broadcasts live project data and summarizes research methods, plus an app that streams energy performance data directly to building occupants’ personal devices.

Jeff Hemsley

Students have been involved in hands-on learning opportunities during all project phases. They have evaluated data, created modeling, analyzed innovative technologies and materials, reviewed life cycle analysis tools that measure carbon impact, assessed energy-saving technologies and documented all aspects of the work.

Website, MOST Exhibit

The website illustrates all phases of the project’s three-year path, from the start of building identification in 2021 through data collection, design origination and development and construction phases.

Bess Krietemeyer, center, project co-principal investigator, discusses aspects of the 3-D exhibit she developed showing how retrofitted buildings throughout ���ϲ����� could provide energy benefits. (Photo by Shengxuan Hector Yu.)

Through the interactive exhibit designed by Krietemeyer and Wilson, visitors can explore the impacts of deep-energy retrofits across residential communities in the ���ϲ����� area. The exhibit was developed in collaboration with interactive artists and students in the School of Architecture.

The display uses 3D depth-sensing technologies, tracking and gesture-directed software and projection mapping onto a 3D-printed model of the to display the environmental, health and economic benefits that retrofits offer. It will be on display at the in ���ϲ����� through the end of January.

Sara Jones

Sara Jones says she sometimes feels like she’s fighting an inferno with a spray bottle. As the Washington State Librarian, she is determined to stop censorship in libraries and says she plans to continue battling book suppression when she retires in a few years.

“I don’t want to be hyperbolic, but I think it’s a real existential threat to libraries,” says Jones, who graduated from the in 1999 with a master’s degree in library and information science. “I am putting as much energy into it as I possibly can. I don’t think it’s something that’s just going to go away. I think it’s got a stronghold in all parts of our country.”

Jones has worked in various libraries for more than 30 years and previously served as the Nevada State Librarian from 2000-07. She says her work as the Washington State Librarian will be her last, but she plans to be a consultant for libraries nationwide in retirement.

“I think there’s some real work ahead of us to make sure that libraries aren’t erased because people don’t want people to read certain materials,” Jones says. “I think it’s not only a threat to libraries, but I think it’s a huge threat to our democracy. We need to really activate a voter group to stand up and support their library.”

From Law to Libraries

Jones always loved libraries growing up but never imagined she would work in one. Her plan in college was to be a lawyer, but after getting married and moving to a small town, it wasn’t in the cards.��So, she decided to give teaching a try, a career her sisters and other family members loved. But after teaching for one year, she saw an ad for a part-time children’s library assistant, and she made the leap. “I fell in love with library work,” says Jones. “It was way better than teaching because I didn’t have papers to grade or difficult parents. Everything was good about it. I could’ve happily been a children’s librarian my entire career.”

Library management job opportunities eventually came along, and Jones decided to go for it. One job in particular, a library director position in Nevada, required a master’s degree in library science–something Jones didn’t have. She accepted the job with the promise that she would get her degree. To do that, she turned to ���ϲ����� for help.

A Top-Tier School

���ϲ�����’s reputation as a top-tier school led Jones to enroll. She also loved the University’s hybrid in-person and online program that offered flexibility for a working professional’s life, a perk not all colleges offered in the 90s.��“I was already working full-time as a library director, so I wanted the best education possible to enhance my experience and opportunities. ���ϲ����� provided that to me,” says Jones. “The quality of education I got at ���ϲ����� gave me a lot of confidence.”

Jones hopes other ���ϲ����� students and graduates feel that same sense of confidence. If she could offer any advice, she would tell students to feel proud of themselves and always be willing and ready to accept new challenges.��“Being accepted into the iSchool is a big deal. You are there because you are smart, talented and ambitious. Embrace it,” she says. “The best advice I received from mentors was: ‘Go for it! You can do it!’”

In the photo (from left): Representative from FBI, Joon Park, representative from NSA and representative from CISA. (Photo courtesy of the Center of Academic Excellence)

���ϲ����� has been designated once again as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity (NCAE-C) through the academic year 2028. The program is administered by the National Security Agency (NSA) with a goal of promoting and supporting quality academic programs of higher education that help produce the nation’s cyber workforce.

The combination of required elements for the designation assures the institution meets the desired characteristics of a Center of Academic Excellence (CAE) institution and that the academic delivery to students is producing a qualified workforce needed by the nation.

Students attending CAE institutions are eligible to apply for scholarships and grants that require the CAE designation status.

As one of the 18 elite academic institutions that received the original CAE designation in 2001, ���ϲ����� has continuously maintained its CAE status through re-designations. Meanwhile, the CAE criteria has been updated with more rigorous requirements and multiple review rounds. The new criteria includes the new NSA PoS (Program of Study) Validation, evidence of sound cybersecurity posture/plan, sustainability, professional development, outreach activities as well as others.

According to the new criteria, the University received the NSA PoS Validation in 2022 with the bachelor of professional studies program in cybersecurity administration at the College of Professional Studies. This CAE re-designation reaffirms the University’s commitment to high-quality education and related activities in cybersecurity.

, a professor at the School of Information Studies, served as the point of contact ��and led the efforts for the NSA PoS Validation and CAE designations with other faculty, staff members, program directors and students in the cybersecurity area across the following schools and colleges in addition to the iSchool:

• College of Arts and Sciences
• College of Engineering and Computer Science
• College of Law
• College of Professional Studies
• Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs

Park attended the CAE designation ceremony at the National Cybersecurity Education Colloquium in Chicago in September.��“Despite the rigorous demands, serving as the point of contact brought about gratifying experiences as I collaborated with our dedicated colleagues and students with honors and privileges, guided by the support and directives from the CAE program officers,” says Park.��“The designation signifies that the University has the ability to meet the increasing demand for the protection of the National Information Infrastructure with our top-tier achievements in cybersecurity education through the courseware quality, faculty engagement, students’ learning outcomes and administration. Moving forward, we will continuously contribute to the national cyber strategy with our cybersecurity education!”

Ford was part of an inaugural cohort of twelve innovative startups selected from a pool of more than 1,000 global applicants and will begin the program later this month.

Ben Ford

Ford began the program at in San Francisco in early October and then transitioned into the hybrid accelerator program based in Oakland, California. During the three-month accelerator program, founders are supported through a global network to prepare for a Demo Day with top Silicon Valley investors on January 11, 2024.

The program connects founders to successful entrepreneurs, other founders, mentors, universities and potential investors to foster connections. It focuses on transformative technologies at the intersection of artificial intelligence, financial technology, health technology, education technology, climate technology and social impact.

Ford is the sixth ���ϲ����� alumni founder to bridge into Techstars, considered the most prestigious accelerator program in the world. He joins Josh Aviv ’15 G’17, founder of SparkCharge (Techstars Boston); AJ Damiano ’18, co-founder of Dropyacht and Michael Paris ’20, product leader at Everyrealm, both former co-founders of PowerSpike before it was acquired by Live Current Media Inc. (Techstars Atlanta); Kelsey Davis ’19 G’20, founder of CLLCTVE (Techstars LA); and Shawn Gaetano ’20, founder of Solace Vision (Techstars LA). Both Aviv and Davis were recently named inaugural , recognizing the top 50 fastest growing ���ϲ����� alumni companies.

“Selection into the Techstars program is a very high bar,” said , Vice Chancellor for Strategic Initiatives and Executive Dean of the Whitman School. “That said, I know firsthand that Ben Ford is someone who understands that successful entrepreneurs seek out and embrace opportunities to have their ideas challenged and tested by others who have navigated the entrepreneurial journey, and this is exactly what the Techstars initiative is all about. I couldn’t be prouder of Ben for his selection into this prestigious program and more excited for what’s ahead for Fundwurx.”

“I am grateful for the support we received through ���ϲ�����. We are appreciative of our advisors, mentors and close supporters who have been with us on this journey from the beginning and who have played a role in helping us reach this milestone. We’re so excited to become part of the Techstars family,” Ford says. “Being accepted into Techstars has been a goal of ours for quite some time. We are most excited to learn new frameworks and ways to think about the business when it comes to customers, product and financials, as well as to collaborate with a cohort of other great founders from around the world.”

Ford’s company Fundwurx is a business-to-business software platform that empowers human resources and social impact teams within companies to create and manage their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives more efficiently, as well as engage employees with nonprofits to donate and volunteer. Fundwurx enables businesses to streamline and automate outdated, decentralized and time-consuming CSR processes, such as conducting nonprofit due diligence, approving corporate gift match requests, and tracking and reporting on key social impact data. The platform provides a robust product suite that includes a real-time analytics dashboard as well as a tool to make it easier for company administrators to approve gift match requests in one click through their innovative backend payment infrastructure.

“At Fundwurx, we believe that every company can and should be a positive force for good in the world. That is why we are on a mission to empower companies with the tools and technology to drive positive impact easier than ever before. We fundamentally believe that CSR can be accessible for every business to implement and are excited to begin integrating the solution with real businesses,” Ford says.

Ford launched Fundwurx as a ���ϲ����� student studying marketing and data analytics, while working closely with the Blackstone LaunchPad at ���ϲ����� Libraries and LaunchPad founder Linda Dickerson-Hartsock. He also worked in the LaunchPad as Rubin Family Innovation Mentor, providing insight and support for other University startups throughout his college career. Ford is a member of the LaunchPad’s Founders Circle, an alumni group of ���ϲ����� students who started ventures as students and give back as alumni mentors.

Ford’s entrepreneurial journey started when he was eighteen with his first company, Jersey Boy Apparel. Jersey Boy Apparel was a clothing brand that sold sports jerseys to male and female college students across the country. The products infused the traditional sports jersey aesthetic with a new modern approach. As a solopreneur, Ford designed a product with foreign and domestic manufacturing and supply chains, managed a brand ambassador program of over 150 college students throughout the country, and collaborated with small celebrity influencers.

After embracing his enthusiasm for startups, Ford transitioned to working for an advertising technology startup based in San Fransisco called Omneky. While still in college, he worked with the sales and marketing team, helping source and close customers and lead various corporate strategy projects with other team members.

After these two enriching experiences, Ford then worked as a summer analyst for the Blackstone Charitable Foundation. This provided him with a firsthand view of the significant impact that a for-profit company can have in effecting positive change at a large scale.

While at ���ϲ�����, Ford won over $35,000 in non-dilutive funding for Fundwurx from business pitch competitions, including first place in the 2023 Whitman Panasci Business Plan Competition and top wins in ‘Cuse Tank, Impact Prize, Raymond vonDran iPrize, Intelligence ++ and the statewide finals of the Global Student Entrepreneurship Awards. He also secured two LaunchPad Innovation Fund awards to help incorporate his venture and build his platform to test.

“Ben Ford is an outstanding example of what the Blackstone LaunchPad at ���ϲ����� Libraries was designed to do, namely provide an opportunity for students to launch into the world as engaged citizens and leaders,” says , Dean of the Libraries and University Librarian. “Ben is the sixth student and LaunchPad alumni accepted into the competitive Techstars program. We’re thrilled to see his success and delighted we had a part in his and his company’s development.”

As he developed his venture, Ford grew by raising angel investment to develop his prototype, which officially launched in September 2023, and onboarded several pilot companies including , one of the nation’s leading providers of mission-driven capital. He currently has a waitlist of more than 550 nonprofit organizations and has officially signed up over 100 nonprofits on the platform.

“I had the privilege to meet Ben about two years ago and become his advisor. His passion, creativity, work ethic and intelligence has created the foundation for an amazing company. I’m so proud to support and be an investor in this company. I can’t wait for the next chapter,” says Marc Synderman, one of Ford’s external advisors, a Philadelphia-based attorney, investor and entrepreneur.

Techstars Silicon Valley programs are led by Neal Sáles-Griffin, an entrepreneur, investor and educator who is managing director of Techstars San Francisco (), Oakland ( and Techstars . Over the past four years, he has made 100+ investments in early-stage technology startups. Ford will be working closely with Sáles-Griffin on the next stages of Fundwurx.