Gale Epstein Center Strategic Plan
Mission
A regional innovation hub dedicated to advancing real-time technologies, information systems and related policy reforms for the protection of human and environmental health.
Vision
The Gale Epstein Center for Technology, Policy and the Environment (the “Center”) will operate a multi-disciplinary program of real-time technology innovation, training, research, and policymaking, dedicated to the principle that informed decision-making by the public regarding their health requires the right-to-know the environmental conditions in which they live. The new Center will succeed the former Center for Technology, Policy and the Environment and expand upon its Blue CoLab, a Seidenberg School program of innovation in real-time water monitoring and information technologies, both for which Gale Epstein has been the principal patron.
Location and Staffing
The Center will be headquartered in the Seidenberg School on the Pace University Pleasantville campus. Professor John Cronin, the founder of the original center, and its founding executive director, will continue as executive director for the new Center, with responsibilities for its management. The positions of Technical Operations Director, currently held by Professor Leanne Keeley, and the Virginia Letourneau Internship, currently held by Justin Brandon, will continue, as well as the historical graduate and undergraduate internship positions. The Center will engage in strategic planning to address future educational, technical, and leadership needs, including a plan to increase its teaching and staffing positions, and a succession plan for leadership positions.
Discussion
A universal finding in post-COVID pandemic research has been the urgent need for early detection and warning systems that alert the public to health threats. Likewise, early detection and warning systems are urgently needed to protect the hundreds of millions globally and nationally who are made ill each year due to drinking water contamination, climate change, and exposure to current and emerging pollutants. The Center’s response to these threats will be to innovate real-time monitoring and information systems, analytical and predictive capabilities, AI and machine learning applications, and future-thinking public policies. Its strategic location in the Hudson River region places it at the epicenter of technological, political, and environmental expertise and influence, including direct proximity to the NYC watershed, the Atlantic coastal complex, the Hudson River estuary, and New York Harbor.
Goals
Founded in academic rigor, experiential learning, and community engagement, the Center’s programmatic goals are to teach, train, and innovate. The Center’s overarching goal is to become a center of innovation in the real-time technologies and policies that protect human and environmental health. This requires an expansion of facilities, expertise, research, and academic offerings. The Center will provide year-round course offerings and teaching opportunities that train students, community members, pre-professionals, and professionals in the technology and science of real-time environmental information systems. It will continue to improve and expand its current array of labs and field stations that already provide unprecedented opportunities for the university community and external collaborators. Future planning will include exploring strategies for expanding onto the Pace New York City campus, and a collaboration with the Climate Exchange on Governor’s Island.
Academic Goals
The Center’s academic goals will mirror those of its institutional mission through expanded collaborations, additional course offerings, and external training programs. The Center will build upon its emerging work in machine learning and artificial intelligence, and its teaching collaborations with the NYC Design Factory, the Environmental Studies and Science Department at Dyson, and its previous work with the Haub Law School. Through a four- course Seidenberg IT concentration, and the longer-term goal of an IT minor, the Center will offer students a well-rounded academic experience in the technology, data, analytics, and policy aspects of real-time monitoring and information systems, and their application to environmental and public health management and protection. In addition to Blue CoLab 1 and Blue CoLab 2, courses currently offered in fall and spring respectively, the IT concentration options will include:
– Real-time Instrumentation – A training course in real-time monitoring technologies, sensor science, and the collection and management of remote environmental data. It will emphasize experiential, hands-on learning in the engineering, building, deployment, operation, and maintenance of real-time water monitoring systems, using Choate Pond and the Ossining Real-time Tech Hub as teaching labs.
– Technology Policy Lab – This course will provide training in the formulation, process, and practice of technology policymaking. It will teach students to analyze, translate and communicate complex technology issues, and to apply those skills through opportunities in real-world lobbying and professional- level advocacy. The Clinic will include AOK1 and Writing Enhanced attributes.
– Python for Real-time Data – This course will offer a deep dive into the wrangling of large data sets using the constant input of live streams from Blue CoLab water, weather, and eventual air monitoring stations. Students will use tools such as Panda, DataFrames, data visualization, and statistical analysis. They will learn to identify, correct, and normalize data, and to interpret and present those data for public use.
– Design Thinking and Innovation – A project-based learning experience in collaboration with the NYC Design Factory that uses Blue CoLab design needs to challenge students to develop creative problem-solving skills using a design thinking approach. Collaboratively, students will explore how to leverage design thinking tools and mindsets to develop technology-driven solutions for design challenges that tackle environmental and societal needs.
Labs and Facility Goals
As a full-time regional training hub, and hands-on program of applied research, the Center requires diverse labs and field stations for teaching and training, fabrication and assembly, data collection and management. With the benefit of Blue CoLab’s current facilities and locations upon which to build, the Center can also open opportunities beyond the university community to include pre-professionals, professionals, citizen technologists, and external collaborators.
– Blue CoLab Data Laboratory – Established in 2021, the lab provides stations that enable ready access to Blue CoLab data, and a working environment for planning, collaborating, and testing. A priority goal is the upgrading of computers and displays, and the creation of a central hub for data collection from throughout the Pace campus, remote stations on the Hudson River and Kemey’s Cove, and through interactivity with the USGS monitoring network and the Hudson River Environmental Conditions Observatory System
(HRECOS).
– Real-Time Tech Hub – The Ossining-on-Hudson lab is currently undergoing redesign as a fully equipped technology laboratory and learning center that provides the hardware, tools, and creative space for hands-on training, and the design and development of real-time environmental monitoring methods. It will be the site of tech training courses for students and external partners.
– Choate Pond Living Laboratory – The pond is a campus-based test bed and field training site for real-time sensor, instrument, deployment, and maintenance training. Ecologically, it is integral to the watershed of the Pocantico River, which drains to the Hudson River and ultimately the Atlantic. Increased instrumentation downstream of the pond, eventually extending to its receiving rivers, will allow quantification of campus contributions to the larger watershed and enable comparative analyses with the Hudson River estuary.
– Environmental Information Incubator – Blue CoLab has proven there is a dearth of environmental information products that can inform and educate the public about environmental conditions, such as drinking water quality. From idea to launch, the Incubator can develop marketable products that enable government, schools, private companies and more to provide this vital information to users, while implementing right-to-know principles that, at present, go unrealized.
– Tidal Hudson Monitoring — The Real-time Tech Hub adjoins the northern Tappan Zee reach of the lower Hudson River estuary, with the potential for generating river data for the Center’s curriculum, the larger USGS and
HRECOS monitoring networks, and future work by the Climate Exchange. Off-campus land and water-based stations can provide insights into the estuary and the regional coastal zone.
– Additional Field Instrumentation — Investment in updated technologies will allow the Center to enhance its training and research activities. In addition to Hudson estuary monitoring, immediate priorities include implementation of an air-monitoring station on the Pleasantville campus in collaboration with EPA, and acquisition of a remote-controlled, autonomous water monitoring vehicle that will enable staff to conduct monitoring activities in diverse water bodies.
– Pleasantville Campus Distributed Sensor Network – The Center offers Pace the opportunity to leap to the forefront of the international movement for sustainable campuses by using its technological resources to understand every environmental aspect of university life. A long-term goal of the Center should be the creation of a distributed sensor network and information system that monitors and reports upon Pace campus surface and drinking water, indoor and outdoor air quality, species and habitat, weather and climate, thereby serving as an example to the worldwide higher education population of 230 million.
Outreach Goals
As stated earlier, the Center’s mission is global. Building upon Seidenberg School’s multinational reach, and Blue CoLab’s collaborations with the Design Factory Global Network and the U.N. Millennium Fellowship, the Center will expand its international activities through virtual and on-site exchange programs for the sharing of knowledge and expertise, education and training, and collaborative research and development projects.
Fundraising Goals
In collaboration with Pace’s Vice-President for Development and Alumni relations, and the Pace development staff, the Executive Director will develop a strategic plan for wide spectrum financial support. The plan will address research grants, agency grants, private foundations, individual donor cultivation, alumni support, and corporate financial and in-kind support. A recognition program for corporate donations of technology should be developed and promoted. To date, the value of those full and partial in-kind donations has totaled more than $340,000 since Blue CoLab’s founding, outfitted its labs, and provided excellent hands-on opportunities for Pace students.
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