As people gathered into Mercy College”™s new STEM Research Center for its grand opening Tuesday, students were seated around a table, coding on laptops and talking to each other. One of the purposes of the lab, which was funded by a federal grant, is to foster collaboration among students.
“Students generally are more successful when they work together,” said the college”™s president, Timothy Hall, in an interview. “We understand the world they”™re going into is a world where they”™ll have to work collaboratively.
- Students show U.S. Rep. Nita Lowey their laptops in the STEM Research Lab at Mercy College. Photo by Danielle Brody
In 2011, the college in Dobbs Ferry was awarded a Department of Education Title V grant of approximately $3.7 million over five years to support the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) center. Title V STEM grants provide Hispanic-Serving Institutions, defined as having at least a 25 percent Hispanic undergraduate population, with funding to improve the academic quality of STEM programs, faculty development and research opportunities in STEM fields.
The lab has four servers as well as 20 laptops and computers, and is open to students studying computer science, computer information systems, cybersecurity and mathematics. The room itself will allow for collaboration, peer mentoring, tutoring and undergraduate, graduate and faculty research, said Narasim Banavara, head of the college”™s computer science and computer information systems programs.
Banavara said the Department of Education grant funded the hardware and software, which cost about $100,000, and the provost”™s office and the dean”™s office funded the $20,000 needed to install the equipment and renovate the room.
He said students can use the lab for realistic projects, like setting up two networks and having students attack each other to learn how to hack into and defend data. He said his goal is not just for students to pass, but for them to learn about and experience the class material.
“Students will actually learn better when they do some hands-on research,” he said.
U.S. Rep. Nita Lowey, who attended the grand opening, helped secure the federal grant in 2011. She said the lab will help prepare students for jobs that exist today and jobs in the future. She said a few years ago, there were 2,500 unfilled health care and biotech jobs in the lower Hudson Valley; now there are about 5,000.
“There are many jobs out there that students can”™t fill because they”™re not adequately prepared,” she said. She said the lab will teach and encourage tomorrow”™s innovators and inventors.
Robert Monteleone, a graduate student studying cybersecurity, is a peer mentor and tutor in the STEM lab. He said the lab fosters a strong relationship between students. He said a student he mentored was inspired to work harder to raise his grades.
“The connection with the mentees is phenomenal,” he said.
