| Overall Rating | Gold |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 66.99 |
| Liaison | Sarah Gilly |
| Submission Date | Aug. 31, 2023 |
Stevens Institute of Technology
AC-10: Support for Sustainability Research
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
4.00 / 4.00 |
Luke
Hansen Transportation and Sustainability Development Manager Facilities and Campus Operations |
Does the institution have an ongoing program to encourage students in multiple disciplines or academic programs to conduct sustainability research?:
A brief description of the student sustainability research program:
At Stevens, research and entrepreneurship are bound closely together, with support at all levels of the university for opportunities to turn ideas into new businesses and products that can benefit society. The annual Stevens Innovation Expo is an annual showcase for student design, innovation and entrepreneurship. The main exhibition displays the breadth of ideas and the wealth of innovation that students pour into Senior Design Projects, the capstone of the Stevens undergraduate experience and the culmination of an education focused on problem-solving, multi-disciplinary thinking and teamwork. Students work at meeting a practical, industrial need, gain experience with cross-disciplinary teams and interact with attending professionals and guests that develop greater professionalism and perspective.
Several projects turn into "real life" attainable products or businesses. Select projects gain support through the Ansary Entrepreneurship Competition. A signature feature of the Innovation Expo, the Ansary Entrepreneurship Competition is an exciting student pitch competition that provides select project teams the opportunity to display their entrepreneurial mindset and present their projects to industry leaders. The students deliver elevator pitches as they compete for the Ansary Prizes for Entrepreneurship, totaling $17,500.
Examples of sustainability focused senior design projects from the 2022 Innovation Expo include student teams producing bioethanol from bamboo and biodiesel from waste cooking oil, designing a recycling plant to tackle plastics pollution, and a mobile application that enables consumers and coffee businesses to understand the sustainable and ethical impact of their coffee.
Many Senior Design Projects are required to include a sustainability impact assessment, even if the project is not directly addressing a sustainability goal. This goes for many disciplines within engineering, including, but not limited to: Naval Engineering, Ocean Engineering, Civil Engineering, and Environmental Engineering. Since Stevens is primarily an engineering school and engineering students make up the bulk of the student population, this requirement spreads far and wide.
The 2023 Innovation Expo took place on April 28, 2023.
Does the institution have a program to encourage academic staff from multiple disciplines or academic programs to conduct sustainability research?:
A brief description of the faculty sustainability research program:
Stevens performs leading-edge research in a wide variety of critical disciplines. The university has chosen to exert particular research focus on six specific foundational research pillars in which Stevens currently possesses leading expertise. These research pillars are inter- and multi-disciplinary domains that engage diverse collaborators, internal and external to Stevens, in dynamic partnerships and communities in the pursuit of large-scale grant funding and the creation of centers of excellence and practice.
One of the foundational research pillars is resilience & sustainability. Stevens is an international leader in research exploring resilience and sustainability challenges. Efforts focus on developing sustainable energy sources and green technologies that advance coastal and urban resilience and environmental protection while promoting societal benefits and economic growth.
The Division of Development and Alumni Engagement actively builds external relationships, submits applications, and seeks foundation and corporate support for the valued work that faculty are conducting to advance resilience & sustainability.
Faculty are also incentivized to conduct research through the Research Incentive Awards (RIA) program. These awards are intended to stimulate research activities through a return of Facilities & Administrative (F&A) costs to the principal investigators (PIs) or co-principal investigators (co-PIs) whose proposals and resulting awards generated the F&A and to the academic units that supported the individual’s efforts.
Has the institution published written policies and procedures that give positive recognition to interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, and multidisciplinary research during faculty promotion and/or tenure decisions?:
A copy of the promotion or tenure guidelines or policies:
The promotion or tenure guidelines or policies:
The following is an excerpt from an internal file that contains instructions for the preparation of promotion and tenure dossiers to be submitted by nominating committees for subsequent evaluation at higher levels. The following is listed in Appendix A as a consideration the nominating committee should be cognizant of when evaluating promotion and tenure dossiers:
A.2.1 Research, Scholarly and Creative Activities
Research excellence is typically demonstrated by quality, quantity, impact, funding or sponsorship and continuity. The candidate is responsible for demonstrating that he/she has sufficient research achievements. Evaluation of the quality and quantity of the work (as summarized below) should be provided, including a description of the impact of the work in the field. The basis for the evaluation should be made explicit. Research funding should be considered as an additional criterion for assessing research achievements; and funding levels, should be comparable to levels of the candidate’s peer group at other top rated universities. Where the primary activities of the faculty member consist of performance or practice, the Committee should develop methods and procedures to obtain outside evaluation of the candidate. For journal publications, where appropriate, the citation rates and other quantitative factors should be included. When faculty members work in collaborative teams, ascertaining their role in those teams as well as the level of intellectual leadership the candidate has demonstrated in such projects are important. Candidates who bring forward creative inventions or are granted significant patents that evolve from their work at Stevens need to be recognized. Such accomplishments may count as evidence of scholarly activity and supporting evidence of the importance and impact of an invention or patent should be provided. The candidate’s efforts in promoting an environment of innovation and entrepreneurship should be assessed. Among the criteria for assessing inventions and patents is their contribution to the Institute’s pedagogical mission of fostering innovation and entrepreneurship.
Does the institution have ongoing library support for sustainability research and learning?:
A brief description of the institution’s library support for sustainability research:
The Samuel C. Williams Library provides access to subscription electronic resources that offer access to content related to sustainability research including but not limited to: Academic Search Premier, AccessEngineering, ACS Journals, ASCE Library, ASME Digital Collection, GreenFile, IEEE Xplore, Knovel, ProQuest Central, ScienceDirect, Scopus, SpringerLink, Web of Science and Wiley Online Library.
The Library has created and maintains several online research guides (Springshare LibGuides) that cover content related to sustainability research.
The Library also provides course-specific research instruction sessions and workshops related to sustainability research and course assignments.
Website URL where information about the institution’s support for sustainability research is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
Student research resources:
https://www.stevens.edu/research/student-reseach
https://www.stevens.edu/news/stevens-seniors-build-recycling-plant-tackle-plastics-pollution
Faculty research resources:
https://www.stevens.edu/research/faculty-research
Library resources:
Library website - https://www.stevens.edu/academics/library
Library A-Z databases - https://researchguides.stevens.edu/az.php
Library Research Guides - https://researchguides.stevens.edu/?b=g&d=a
Library instruction and Information Literacy - https://www.stevens.edu/academics/library/instruction
Student research resources:
https://www.stevens.edu/research/student-reseach
https://www.stevens.edu/news/stevens-seniors-build-recycling-plant-tackle-plastics-pollution
Faculty research resources:
https://www.stevens.edu/research/faculty-research
Library resources:
Library website - https://www.stevens.edu/academics/library
Library A-Z databases - https://researchguides.stevens.edu/az.php
Library Research Guides - https://researchguides.stevens.edu/?b=g&d=a
Library instruction and Information Literacy - https://www.stevens.edu/academics/library/instruction
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